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Hatsubai « Ridiculous tone and weight »
Published on 08/13/11 at 19:07These were part of the Norlin Gibson era, and they're extremely heavy due to the fact that they used the maple necks. The guitar features a mahogany body with a maple top, a maple neck with an ebony fretboard, 22 frets, special inlays, pickguard, binding, hard tail bridge, three humbuckers, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
These guitars seem to be built fairly nice, but I experienced some fretwork issues on a few that were in the store. Gibson still has some QC issues, so you really need to play all of these before ultimately buying them. The good thing is that they were all fairly resonant sounding. That means that any fretwork issues or nut issues can usually be corrected by a competent luthier without too much of a hassle.
SOUNDS
The maple neck on this added quite a bit of snap that you don't normally hear in standard Les Pauls. It adds more clarity, I've found. The guitar sounds pretty good, but they're stock Gibson pickups. I'm not totally crazy about these. The sound average, in my opinion. The bridge is medium output, and it sounds fat. However, it doesn't overdrive the amp like I like my pickups to. The neck is a bit too bright for my tastes, but you can calm it down with the tone pot. The middle pickup was totally useless.
OVERALL OPINION
If you find one of these at a good price, grab it. They're some of my favorite Gibsons since they tend to have the maple neck and the ebony fretboard. These woods really work nice with the mahogany body, and it is great for heavy metal once you replace the pickups in them. Just check out John Sykes for an example of the tone.
UTILIZATION
These guitars seem to be built fairly nice, but I experienced some fretwork issues on a few that were in the store. Gibson still has some QC issues, so you really need to play all of these before ultimately buying them. The good thing is that they were all fairly resonant sounding. That means that any fretwork issues or nut issues can usually be corrected by a competent luthier without too much of a hassle.
SOUNDS
The maple neck on this added quite a bit of snap that you don't normally hear in standard Les Pauls. It adds more clarity, I've found. The guitar sounds pretty good, but they're stock Gibson pickups. I'm not totally crazy about these. The sound average, in my opinion. The bridge is medium output, and it sounds fat. However, it doesn't overdrive the amp like I like my pickups to. The neck is a bit too bright for my tastes, but you can calm it down with the tone pot. The middle pickup was totally useless.
OVERALL OPINION
If you find one of these at a good price, grab it. They're some of my favorite Gibsons since they tend to have the maple neck and the ebony fretboard. These woods really work nice with the mahogany body, and it is great for heavy metal once you replace the pickups in them. Just check out John Sykes for an example of the tone.