My New 2013 Gibson LP Standard Plus

So today my new guitar arrived and it's a beauty!!! Wow!!! Never ever did I think I would own a guitar of this caliber. But, when I returned my PRS to Sweetwater, I saw they had closeout deals on these models...some of them demos. They were flying off the shelves and I missed the first one I saw. The one I got never even made it to the website - my sales guy snagged it for me...thanks Nick!! :-).

It is a honey burst with a AAA top. I thought it would be weird not having a pickguard, but it is actually easier to play without it. I feel like I have more room. Because the top is carved, I'm nowhere near hitting the top with my pick, so no worries about scratching the finish.

I got to try out the locking grover tuners already since I broke a string in the first 5 minutes of playing. Actually, it came undone at the ball end...never seen that happen. The locking tuners make it a breeze to change the strings.

The feel is incredible. The 60's profile neck is much like the strat neck profile I like. I don't feel like I'm holding a baseball bat like the 50's neck on my faded studio. The fretboard is a compound radius which is subtle but feels really cool. It gets flatter as you move toward the body.

Playing it is like a dream - the neck is so smooth and the fretboard feels great under the fingers.

Only thing I'm not happy with is the setup. First it seemed weird to me that the neck pickup was so much louder than the bridge pickup. The bass strings also seem louder than they should be. When I looked at the setup on my faded LP, I could see a HUGE difference in the pickup heights. So I'll have to tweak that. Also I have some fret buzz on the low E from the B up. Raising the bridge on the bass side a smidge should take care of that no problem.

So once I have my minor setup issues addressed, I should be good to go.

Wow!
Congrats!
That is one sweet looking ax!
enjoy

Thanks Mark. She is a looker, ain't she!! :-)

Keeping my fingers crossed that tonight I can resolve some things bugging me with it regarding the setup.

I guess I've been playing long enough now that I have a perference for a particular setup!!

So I got the setup issues ironed out. It was pretty easy. I decided to put the measuring tool aside and let my ears be my guide. As I hoped, a tiny rise in the bridge on the bass string side took care of the buzz. I had to do some major adjustments with the pickups. I may have to do some fine tuning, bit it's darn close!! I had to bring the bridge pickup quite a bit and lower the neck pickup to balance them out. As it turned out, things ended up close to factory spec, so my ears got me in the ballpark.

The pickup adjustments on the LP made much more significant difference on the LP than my strat, that's for sure!

So now that this business is all over, I can get back to learning some more guitar!!!

I'm sure glad I'm not the only one that goes crazy until everything is well with my guitars. Only then can I settle down and get playing!

I think we all have that preference, to have our guitars setup as u like..
Very nice guitar appealing too the eye.enjoy ur new guitar rich.

So I've been playing this guitar exclusively for the past month...and still love it! So it's official...it's a keeper. I've been working on Whole Lotta Love, so it's pretty inspiring to get Jimmy Page's tones out of this guitar :-).

I recently had a little "scare" because I had a nasty buzz develop on the high E string. The high E string was buzzing on the first fret. After visions of having to have the nut reworked or a new one put on, it turned out to be something a small tweak on my truss rod took care of immediately. It was quite handy that Gibson includes the truss rod wrench with this guitar. So I'm now comfortable with all of the setup adjustments on this guitar...certainly not a bad thing.

Now that I'm fully committed to the guitar, I oiled the fretboard. It feels smoother and I like the darker look.