Hatsubai « Custom shop quality »
Published on 10/12/11 at 14:24This is a Custom Shop Les Paul Standard. It's pretty much a normal standard, but they took the extra time and care to select a special figured top for this model. The rest of the guitar is pretty much what you'd epext from a normal Les Paul. The guitar features a mahogany body with a figured maple top, mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, trapezoid inlays, pickguard, binding, hard tail bridge, two humbuckers, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar was one of the few Gibsons that really didn't have any issues with it at all. The nut was cut correctly, and this was probably one of the things that really surprised me. Gibson isn't generally great at cutting nuts, and they're known to bind a bit. This was perfect with 9s. The frets on this were perfectly level, and they were also crowned nicely. Sometimes the frets on Gibsons can be a bit flat and dull, but these were perfectly shiny. It still had the binding over the frets, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I can overlook that when I consider how much better put together this guitar was vs some of the other Gibsons I have here in the shop.
SOUNDS
The guitar had a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates in both the neck and the bridge. The Pearly Gates in the bridge is great for that hard rock tone, and it was really ripping. It's not the highest output pickup there is, but it allowed it to be open when compared to some of the other pickups in the Duncan lineup. The Pearly Gates in the neck was a bit too bright for my liking, but I was able to get a pretty cool tone out of it once I turned down the tone knob. The tone pots were also push/pull pots to allow for splitting, and that added another dimension of tone to this guitar. I was able to get those almost single coil-esque sounds without any issues at all.
OVERALL OPINION
This is one of the few Gibsons that was just about perfect in every way. Most people know that GIbson's QC is slipping day by day, but this must have been one of the lucky few that made it out without any real flaws at all. The weight, fretwork, nut, everything about this was spot in for what I was looking for. The pickups in it were aftermarket, as were the pots, and I think that aided in helping me choose this over some of the other Gibsons out there.
UTILIZATION
The guitar was one of the few Gibsons that really didn't have any issues with it at all. The nut was cut correctly, and this was probably one of the things that really surprised me. Gibson isn't generally great at cutting nuts, and they're known to bind a bit. This was perfect with 9s. The frets on this were perfectly level, and they were also crowned nicely. Sometimes the frets on Gibsons can be a bit flat and dull, but these were perfectly shiny. It still had the binding over the frets, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I can overlook that when I consider how much better put together this guitar was vs some of the other Gibsons I have here in the shop.
SOUNDS
The guitar had a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates in both the neck and the bridge. The Pearly Gates in the bridge is great for that hard rock tone, and it was really ripping. It's not the highest output pickup there is, but it allowed it to be open when compared to some of the other pickups in the Duncan lineup. The Pearly Gates in the neck was a bit too bright for my liking, but I was able to get a pretty cool tone out of it once I turned down the tone knob. The tone pots were also push/pull pots to allow for splitting, and that added another dimension of tone to this guitar. I was able to get those almost single coil-esque sounds without any issues at all.
OVERALL OPINION
This is one of the few Gibsons that was just about perfect in every way. Most people know that GIbson's QC is slipping day by day, but this must have been one of the lucky few that made it out without any real flaws at all. The weight, fretwork, nut, everything about this was spot in for what I was looking for. The pickups in it were aftermarket, as were the pots, and I think that aided in helping me choose this over some of the other Gibsons out there.