The past month or so, I've attended various guitar shops all over tokyo and I've played Gibson Les Pauls and Edwards Les Pauls. I noticed that there's something extremely "lacking" about the Gibson's. What is it? I don't feel like I'm playing a platinum-quality guitar like I'm supposed to, unlike the Edwards ones that are just fantastically amazing.
It's not bad, but I won't pay more than a thousand dollars for them.
Are Gibson's declining in quality?
I thought it was pretty interesting that when I was in Japan every band I saw seemed to be playing Fender or Gibson, even though Japanese factories churn out generally equal or superior quality instruments for less.
Based on the Gibsons I've seen, it seems USA and Japan had actually a much better selection of good ones, but that may be just because they get more of them than stores here in Finland. In any case it's still way too easy to find Gibsons with poor fretwork, too much neck angle and finish issues. Add to that the hollowed out bodies and the average modern Les Paul isn't exactly the coveted solid body guitar of the 50s/60s.