Members TIKILOCKEDOUT Posted June 1, 2006 Members Share Posted June 1, 2006 Was in the big city trying guitars and amps etc ... one major store in town had all Behringer pedals and nothing else! they don't look too sturdy either and come is see-through plastic boxes with cardboard backing like action figures, yewwwww. Any case ... I was visiting an old family friend who works at this big guitar shop and pulled a 3K Gibson SG off the wall to try it out - went into the amp room and plugged into one of the brand new AC30's with reverb and trem etc - the amp was actually quite nice, and I would have liked a bit more time with it to really see what I get out of it - looked fairly well made and well presented and the tones were VERY rock. The guitar was great sounding and had a beautiful sweet chimey rock sound - when it would actually stay in tune! I spent most of my time having to re-set the tuning and the {censored}er would not stay in tune or intonate properly. This is a 3k guitar from Gibson ... I was also surprised at how fat the neck was higher up the octave - quite clubby ( like an acoustic ) though I could get used to one given a bit more time and my gauge of strings on it. I am used to a slimmer and faster neck but I quite liked the feel of the guitar overall. Interestingly enough I found I couldn't get into the middle or neck PU sounds ... they were way too wooly for me to be useful so I spent all my time on the bridge. I don't know a hell of allot about SG's but I immediately thought I'd just have the bridge PU on an SG if I had my choice - kind of like a LP special. Any case I may end up working weekends for these guys to make a bit of cash and be able to get cheap deals on new amps and guitars so I may add one of those AC30's to my clutch of eggs sooner rather than later - anyone else got one? I also saw the AC30 head in there but didn't get a shot at playing it ... one thing that was a bit naff was the plastic grille vents on the top. Ah well - that was my fun day at the guitar shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mumford Posted June 1, 2006 Members Share Posted June 1, 2006 Is naff good or bad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIKILOCKEDOUT Posted June 1, 2006 Author Members Share Posted June 1, 2006 Oh yeah, I think the SG was an SG Special - it was the open humbucker style. This? --- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIKILOCKEDOUT Posted June 1, 2006 Author Members Share Posted June 1, 2006 Originally posted by mumford Is naff good or bad? Sorry, Naff is bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kestral Posted June 1, 2006 Members Share Posted June 1, 2006 That's the funny thing, while modern Fenders are top quality in terms of quality control, the modern Gibsons are just brutal. I owned a 61 Gibson SG reissue, a pretty expensive guitar, it was built like crap, would never stay in tune, wouldn't intonate properly. In short, a piece of sh-t. My modern 52 reissue Telecaster destroys it in terms of build quality in every way possible. I love the light weight of an SG but I can't afford a vintage one (a 67 is worth like $5-6K at least?) but the reissues completely suck. Too bad for me and too bad for Gibson. My only hope is one day Fender buys them out and instills some quality control. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIKILOCKEDOUT Posted June 1, 2006 Author Members Share Posted June 1, 2006 Originally posted by Kestral That's the funny thing, while modern Fenders are top quality in terms of quality control, the modern Gibsons are just brutal.I owned a 61 Gibson SG reissue, a pretty expensive guitar, it was built like crap, would never stay in tune, wouldn't intonate properly. In short, a piece of sh-t. My modern 52 reissue Telecaster destroys it in terms of build quality in every way possible.I love the light weight of an SG but I can't afford a vintage one (a 67 is worth like $5-6K at least?) but the reissues completely suck. Too bad for me and too bad for Gibson.My only hope is one day Fender buys them out and instills some quality control. Totally .... another store I went said they weren't stocking them anymore because of the poor quality control so I went to another store to test that theory out for myself and whaddya know?! The other store that stopped stocking the Gibby's were now stocking all the new Gretsch guitars like the Duojets etc and the guy there reckoned the Gretches were twice the guitar and hand made as opposed to the Gibson machine made jobs - that are like 3K. I really have to ask with the 61 reissue where the hell do they justify 3k?!!!! On a guitar that won't even intonate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pboudreau Posted June 1, 2006 Members Share Posted June 1, 2006 Some months ago I found a website of some guy who used to own a instrument shop and sold and interfaced a lot with Gibson guitars and representatives. He had an in depth article about how even the top of the line "jimmy Page" signature type models have all kinds of problems and quality control issues. It was eye opening and tied in with other modern day Gibson horror stories I;ve read. It appears that Gibson cares most about the "appearance" of a guitar and counts on the Gibson reputation to sell their guitars. I wish I could remember that link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sonaboy Posted June 1, 2006 Members Share Posted June 1, 2006 . It really is a sad thing when cut rate brands like Tokai and Agile are making instruments almost equal in quality and workmanship for 1/8th the price of a new Gibby - every now and again i'll run up to a shop and pick a 4K gibby off the wall and look it over very closely, and play it - and every goddamn time i'll go, "{censored} this thing." Gibby is all about the bottom line.I will never buy a new Gibson. i don't blame you one bit TIKI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Big Boss Man Posted June 1, 2006 Members Share Posted June 1, 2006 Did this SG have a vibrola or the stop bar? I have a '61 Reissue SG with a stop bar that I got back in '91. It intonates and stays in tune just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AngelofHop Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 Originally posted by sonaboy . It really is a sad thing when cut rate brands like Tokai and Agile are making instruments almost equal in quality and workmanship for 1/8th the price of a new Gibby - every now and again i'll run up to a shop and pick a 4K gibby off the wall and look it over very closely, and play it - and every goddamn time i'll go, "{censored} this thing." Gibby is all about the bottom line. I will never buy a new Gibson. i don't blame you one bit TIKI. Tokai and Agile can't touch any Gibson's I've played. All large corporations are about the bottom line. You get what you pay for. Buying a new Gibson will hold its value more than others. What's funny is people spending so much coin on effects without having a nice guitar and amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sonaboy Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 Originally posted by AngelofHop Tokai and Agile can't touch any Gibson's I've played. All large corporations are about the bottom line. You get what you pay for. Buying a new Gibson will hold its value more than others. What's funny is people spending so much coin on effects without having a nice guitar and amp. *shrugs* i just tested out an Tokai NALS48 a couple of weeks ago- and that thing was solid as a rock, and played just as nice as my buddy's LP with P90s that costs 5 times as much as a new. all he did was replace the stock pickups with some Pearly Gates, and that sucker was a tone machine. subjective opinion, i guess...but i don't agree that Gibby's are worth what they're priced at these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpectralJulian Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 Originally posted by TIKIROCKER I am used to a slimmer and faster neck *Insert penis joke here* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpectralJulian Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 My Hondos beat every Gibson/Epiphone I've heard or played except a vintage 66. I love my 2 Hondos dearly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members endo23 Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 Bottom line: If you have $3K to drop on a fricking guitar, WHY WOULD YOU BUY A MACHINE MADE GIBSON?!?!?! You can have a luthier build you one by hand, to your specs, for that price. People are so hung up on the old skool name brands, it boggles my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members iwantpedals Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 i had a 2003 '61 RI. was fun to play, but it played very poorly. maybe it was an 02. can't remember. kind of a muddy/harsh sound, and the neck got sticky quick, and it didn't tune well at all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Brian Marshall Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 Originally posted by Kestral That's the funny thing, while modern Fenders are top quality in terms of quality control, the modern Gibsons are just brutal.I owned a 61 Gibson SG reissue, a pretty expensive guitar, it was built like crap, would never stay in tune, wouldn't intonate properly. In short, a piece of sh-t. My modern 52 reissue Telecaster destroys it in terms of build quality in every way possible.I love the light weight of an SG but I can't afford a vintage one (a 67 is worth like $5-6K at least?) but the reissues completely suck. Too bad for me and too bad for Gibson.My only hope is one day Fender buys them out and instills some quality control. I totally agree. Gibson is where fender was in the late 80's, only maybe even worse, and its been that way for a long time. I met a couple guys that used to work for gibson for years. At least one of them said he basically left becuase they didnt really care about guitars anymore. Last time i was at guitar center (which was a couple years ago) i was sitting down playing a MIM nashville tele. I'm not really a single coil guy, but i liked the feel of the guitar, and the intonation was probably as good as any off the shelf new guitar i have ever tried. Then, i picked up a Les Paul Studio. Not a $3K guitar, but a $1200 or so. At a price where you expect a certain amount of quality. It felt really wierd playing it, like the lower part of the bridge was set way too high. I took a closer look, and could actually see the neck was twisted. Not something a truss adjustment would fix. Then when i went to set it back up on the hanger, and there was a burr in the strap button, and it cut my palm open. HOW did they let that out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members L6Sguy Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 Originally posted by AngelofHop ...You get what you pay for.... interesting. it appears that many people bought just a name, rather than any sort of decent guitar, at least according to Gibson's CEO: Most of the good employees had left. There was one guy in the entire company who actually knew anything about guitars. Product quality was terrible. Morale was really bad.....Our employees wouldn't buy our products. They thought they were bad..... The problem was that dealers were not necessarily telling their consumers that seconds were seconds...... I said we are going to increase prices. Prices were ridiculously low. And people said, the price has been decreasing 20% a year, how can you reverse that? I said I'm just going to double the prices on a lot of models.....Well, we want to be the musician lifestyle company. now me, i can certainly see investing $1K+ on a name, knowing i can get my money back on it later. but if i wanna buy a new guitar, i know that the name Gibson wont even enter my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members L6Sguy Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 Originally posted by SpectralJulian My Hondos beat every Gibson/Epiphone I've heard or played except a vintage 66. I love my 2 Hondos dearly. i've got a friend's Hondo tele here now, that plays as well as any tele i've tried (ranging from '68-'04). i've gigged with it a couple times in the past, and if it was the only guitar i ever had from this point on, i'd be pretty cool with that. side note: interesting Tokai--Hondo connection.... In Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anal Log Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 My Tokai LC80 is amazing... I love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members freeridstylee Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 I had a hondo once (before i knew a thing about guitars) was an lp copy. Was made of plywood. and the kicker........they hid single coils inside of humbuckers. Sons of bitches! I know some guitars are saught after because they did this (like airplane's) but come on that's just cheap. I must have gotten one of their lowest end guitars or something. As for Gibson; it really sucks, just go to the real gibson, and buy a Heritage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members L6Sguy Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 Originally posted by freeridstylee I had a hondo once (before i knew a thing about guitars) was an lp copy. Was made of plywood. and the kicker........they hid single coils inside of humbuckers. Sons of bitches! I know some guitars are saught after because they did this (like airplane's) but come on that's just cheap. I must have gotten one of their lowest end guitars or something..... i'd expect that it wasnt one of their top-shelf models i've got a '72-3 Ibanez LP copy with simialr fake HBs, which i quite like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members echoic_memory Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 It's a shame that Gibsons are such hit and miss products. For instance, I have an LP Studio that I bought last year, an '05 model. Only two problems, small bit of thin paint beneath the stopbar tailpiece (where the wood's natural color was visible) and at the top of the neck, between the fretboard and the headstock, there was maybe a millimeter too much space between the two, filled with off colored filler/glue. Granted, it plays really nicely and sounds great, it was still $1200. Same store I bought it from has had two LP Customs over the past 3-4 months, and I've played them both extensively, and they both played like absolute {censored}. I liked nothing about them, except the looks, and only one of 'em. One of the guitar's finishes just looked dull and of poor quality. When I decide to get another guitar, it's going to be a Gibson LP Custom, but I've gonna buy a late '70's model. I'm gonna try and avoid any future "new" Gibson products unless they get their {censored} together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kestral Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 A friend of mine who's got cash to burn was looking at those ES-335 Historic reissues. Those are huge $$$ and when he picked it up, he saw something he thought was weird, he turned it over on its side and the edge binding was bubbling off! And part of the paint was on the binding (how the hell did that happen??) Needless to say he put the guitar back and after checking out a few other ones at various stores he decided to pass on an ES-335 and ended up with a Gretsch Country Gentleman. Wow, I just realized something, this is probably the first time ever here that I trashed a "Sacred Cow" and not only did I not get flamed for it, but I'm having people agree with me. Tells you a lot about how {censored}ty modern Gibsons are when so few people are stepping up to defend them. On the other hand, a big to Fender, the guitars they're building right now are top notch, truly a second Golden Age for Leo's former company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HMCMedic Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 If you have 3-4 grand to drop on a guitar and you want a set neck, there is only one way to go: Don Grosh:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kestral Posted June 2, 2006 Members Share Posted June 2, 2006 Flamed maple is for flamers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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