Bought my first ever Gibson

[Littlewyan]

Yeah I have to say I am not one of those "Gibson are the best" kind of guys. I mean don't get me wrong you can immediately tell the difference in quality between my Gibson and Epiphone but Gibson still have bad days.

[Blackburn]

If you want a cut above, go with a used Historic model, other than '59, and those prices are damn close to the new ones for other Gibson USA offerings.

My $.02

[HeeBGB]

I wouldn't touch anything from Gibson USA. Custom shop models only please. A used R7 is still a great deal on the used market!

[Reeltarded]

I was just asked to demo two new models with the tuning shit.

30 times. Not even close. Not even close. Unplayable. Nowhere near tuned. Not even close. I didn't see MAP but they were 2799 and 2899.

Unusable.

And they all have a zero fret.. that isn't a fret at all. It's a bridged nut that doesn't work.

How timely. The crash clock just jumped ahead. It's ten seconds to midnight.

[Colossal]

I wouldn't touch anything from Gibson USA. Custom shop models only please. A used R7 is still a great deal on the used market!

That is a fact. The only reason I have a Gibson is because I got a fair price on a new Custom Shop R9 LP.

Other than that, Gibson and Fender are just names without the quality to back it up anymore.

[Littlewyan]

The Historic 1958 doesn't cost much more 2nd hand but I'd have to shell out the full amount right now if I bought one. With a new Gibson I can use interest free finance to spread the cost over the year. Maybe one day I'll treat myself. Just couldn't get over how different the Gibson sounded to my Epiphone. I preferred the Epiphone for unplugged sound to be honest as it did sound louder. Although it could be said that the Gibson has more finesse than the Epiphone.

[vibratoking]

I bought a used 58 Reissue Cherry Burst a year or so ago. Really a great guitar with a BIG FAT neck. $1800

You have to evaluate each guitar on its own merits. There are bad guitars and bad deals. Those are easy to find. I would never buy a guitar that I didn't play first. Might as well go to Vegas put it all on one number.

[Littlewyan]

I dont have much choice at the moment as I'm not able to drive far enough to get to a music shop. Anyway I have 14 days to send the guitar back if I cant get on with it.

[HeeBGB]

If you can get credit for a new purchase you can get a credit card and buy a used historic on eBay for under $2500. IMO most historics can be setup by a pro to play and sound incredible. Not old wood incredible but pretty damn good. I have seen at least one R8 that I thought was beyond help but other than that....the custom shop stuff is decent.

I wouldn't buy new though. Before I got my conversion I bought an R7 off eBay local pickup for $1600. I'm going back over ten years now. But it was a great guitar. I wish I still had it. Had to sell it to finance the conversion.

Trust me. Do what you need to do to get into a used historic

[Littlewyan]

Got the new Gibson today. Looks much better and feels a lot better to play as well, which is interesting as its the same guitar as the one I just sent back. It does have fret buzz though which I can't get rid of so I'm thinking there are a few high frets. Not too bothered though as its only £40 to get that sorted and I like how the guitar plays so I think its a keeper. Just need to adjust the pickups to get it sounding right through an amp. Seems that Gibson just line the screws up to make them look nice instead of adjusting them to make the guitar sound nice.

HeeBGB - If I use my credit card to buy a guitar off ebay then I will be charged interest whilst I pay it off. I understand what you're saying about the Historics but I think I'm quite happy with this Gibson USA Guitar. I should probably not play an Historic or a Custom until I can afford one in case I change my mind

[drew]

I was just asked to demo two new models with the tuning shit.

30 times. Not even close. Not even close. Unplayable. Nowhere near tuned. Not even close.

They look like a goiter on Sophia Loren, and they don't work?

Swell.

[Littlewyan]

The guitar is getting there. I've been tinkering with the pickups and basically the issue was someone decided to raise the bass side of both pickups so its much higher than the treble side :S. As a result all chords sounded like mush and there was just no clarity. So I leveled them out, then I found that the neck pickup was a bit too high which was causing issues when it came to cleaning up the sound using the volume knobs so sorted that. Just need to balance the strings properly now and it'll be all good.

With regards to the fret buzz I took it to a local guitar store just to get a second opinion. I've checked the guitar all over and can't see anything serious like a twisted neck or even high frets but just wanted to be sure. Anyway the guy in there said he thinks it just needs a bit more curve in the neck and new strings. The strings on the guitar are brand new Gibson Brite Wires (put on by the store I bought it from) but the G string vibrates in a very weird way causing the fret buzz. If you watch the string when you pluck it you can see it starts off vibrating like normal then seems to go all over the place. Never seen that before! I'll give it a week to see if it goes away after a bit of playing, if it doesn't I'll just replace the strings.

[Reeltarded]

stale strings.. Glad you got a happy one.

Fret a string at the 1st and hold that string down above the 22nd. Do you see space at the 12th? If the answer is no, back off the truss rod. If the answer is more than a human hair, tighten it until you barely catch light under the string.

If you want it to clean up really well, make sure your volume pots are actually 500k+ instead of 375-450k like most. I like Alpha 500s. They mostly read 500+. The Gibson historic replacements are hitty/missy/just didn't try. (experience not opinion)

[Littlewyan]

Well I modified it so it has 50s wiring and whilst I was doing that I measured the pots and had some extremely weird readings. For a start the pots all feel very loose which is odd as normally when brand new they are very stiff, also the previous guitar I had that was the same model had very stiff pots. My gut feeling is the person soldering to these pots has burnt them. Anyway when measuring with my meter the tone pots measure about 500K but when measuring the taper they read like 4 ohms with the pot on 1. My meter must be messed up as I still get quite a bit of volume with the pot on 1 when playing. When I get some time I'll unsolder the pickup wires and measure the volume pots, or I'll just replace them with alphas straight away. The pickups do have a lot of low end so would make sense if the volume pots aren't actually 500K.

I also prefer Alpha pots, I have them in my Epiphone LP and I really can't complain. I like the taper, not as slow as historic pots but still good and they feel nice when turning. So I think I'll just fit Alphas into this guitar, either that or Bourns but I've heard a lot of bad stories about those.

[Structo]

Not sure where you bought it, but Sweetwater has the actual guitar pictured in the listing.

So at least you get to pick one that you like the cosmetics of.

It can be a crap shoot buying online but being able to return the item will help.

Of course it is better to play it first before purchase, but as you said you couldn't get around to the local stores.

So, if you like the one you got, that is awesome.

I bought my first LP a couple years ago at my local GC.

I think I paid $1,200 for it.

It is a model LP.

It played and sounded better than the R8, R9, Historic or other more expensive models.

It is a 2012 Standard Traditional Ice Tea burst.