Originally Posted by: earthman buckWhat are they? I only ask because I don't much like Gibsons either.[/QUOTE]
It mostly comes down to value for money. Quality control is undeniably sloppy. Some people get lucky first time out, but anyone who spends some time in a guitar shop will acknowledge that you have to pick through a pile of them to find a 'good one'. At the prices they charge, they should all be 'good ones'! My '62 SG sounded good, but it was a piece of crap in terms of design and build quality. The neck/body joint was so weak that it was scary! Tuning was impossible because a slight change in the tension of one string would throw the rest of them out. I had a '70 LP Recording guitar for a couple of weeks. That's all I wanted it for. The wimpiest pickups ever! Both guitars had poor fret dress, sloppy masking along the fret board, and needed a setup before they were properly playable. No excuses - that's just wrong.
There's some interesting discussion >here<; be sure to follow the link in post #10.
Then take a look at >this thread<.
A highlight:
[QUOTE=Lordathestrings]I did a one-on-one comparison between a Gibson Les Paul Custom and a Yamaha SBG 1000 in 1984. The Yamaha won. I still have it. As I remember, it went like this:
[u]Gibson:[/u]
- seriously heavy
- mahogany neck, mahogany body with carved maple top
- single cutaway
- no strengthening at neck-headstock transition
- sloppy masking - paint smears on the binding
- mother-of-pearl inlays on head & fretboard
- rough ends on some of the frets
- three-position pickup selector
- 2 Tone & 2 Volume controls
- 2 humbucker pickups
- tunomatic bridge with stop tailpiece
- action set 'medium' - a bit high for my liking
- playability: good - string spacing about the same as an acoustic
- sound: very good - smooth, dark, almost muddy on neck pickup
- $1300 - case extra
[u]Yamaha:[/u]
- seriously heavy
- mahogany neck, mahogany body with carved maple top
- double cutaway
- 'volute' strengthening at neck-headstock transition
- excellent masking - no paint smears anywhere
- mother-of-pearl inlays on head & fretboard
- all frets smoothly crowned, no rough ends
- three-position pickup selector
- 2 Tone & 2 Volume controls with push-push (like a ball-point pen!) coil-tap switches
- 2 humbucker pickups
- tunomatic bridge with stop tailpiece
- action set 'low' - no fret buzz anywhere
- playability: very good - string spacing a bit narrower than the LP
- sound: excellent - smooth, sweet, better clarity than the LP, still very ballsy when cranked
- $640 - plush lined hardshell case included
A note about the neck-headstock transition: The part of the neck, where the nut is located, is a critical weak spot in many guitars. The layback angle of the head means that most of this part is cross-grain. The pocket cut into the head, above the nut, for the truss rod adjuster, further weakens this area. Gibsons seem to be particularly vulnerable in this regard. Ask any guitar tech about this, and you are likely to hear a lot of horror stories about Gibsons that 'lost their heads'. The Yamaha has a 'volute' (sp?); the neck 'flares' thicker on the back, adding a lot of strength to this area. It doesn't interfere with the playability at all. Its like the 'shoulders' of the head simply continue around to the back of the neck.
I went out that day to get the Les Paul Custom I had been dreaming of for years. I had no idea Yamaha made a similar guitar, but that's the one that came home with me.
That was in 1984. I wrote this review in Harmony Central on 21 September of 2001. After 22 years, its still my Brand X - the standard by which all others are judged, and none have been better for me.
In October 2002, I saw an eBay listing for a black 1984 Yamaha SBG1000 just like mine. I bought it for US$610 + $49 for shipping, + $20 for insurance.
It was every bit as good as the first one. I would not have enough confidence in the build quality to buy a Gibson online. There's way too much chance of buying someone else's problems. If I wanted a fancier guitar than my my SBG1000's I would look for a mid-70's to mid-80's SBG2000 or 3000. Gibson has nothing I want, for a price I'm willing to pay.
