All user reviews of 4/5 for the Gibson S-1

The Gibson S-1 is another one of the guitars that was designed by the company in the seventies where new ideas were paramount. The S-1 was meant to capture the Strat players market by offering a bolt on, 3 single coil pickup instrument that looked and felt like a Gibson. It features an alder body, a maple neck with rosewood fretboard and 22 frets, Grover tuners, tune-o-matic bridge with stopbar tailpiece, and a trio of Bill Lawrence designed single coil pickups. The switching is a very cool 4 way pickup selector that offers some unique tones, and there is also a phase switch to further change up and alter the sound spectrum.

UTILIZATION

This guitar like its sister the Marauder is one heavy ax. It must weigh 11-12 pounds solid, and really is cumbersome to hold and play for long periods of time in my experience. Even compared to some of the Les Pauls or Strats I've had, these guitars really are weighty pieces and not the optimum choice for gigging and playing for long periods in my opinion. The upper fret access is decent considering the general design.

Getting a good sound out of this guitar is easy enough to do. The pickups have a nice Stratty vibe to them that can even be altered for some new tones with the 4 way and phase switches. It sounds like a Fender that's got a bit more of a thicker and punchier thing going on, very cool for rock or blues music.

SOUNDS

This guitar has a great range of tones to it surprisingly. The Bill Lawrence pickups have a really nice punchy tonal set that sounds particularly nice clean. It's like a Strat that sounds beefier and with a little more low end heft to my ears. Through a traditional sounding amp like a Fender or VOX it offers a nice chimey quality that's great for blues or funk tones. Using the phase switch really brings in the nasally classic tones. It's actually kind of surprising that a Gibson could sound this way, but here's the proof! Switching over to drive tones offers some very thick and biting tones that are great for rock music. I particularly liked toggling through the 4 way selector and finding new sounds that worked well for classic and hard rock tones. It wasn't as thick sounding as a typical Gibson, but in place of that was a nice Stratty brightness added to that Gibson-esque thing.

OVERALL OPINION

All in all I think the Gibson S-1 is a cool guitar for someone looking for a cool instrument that falls off the beaten path. It offers some nice Gibson meets Fender appointments in looks, feel and tone which is very cool. Sure it's quite heavy, but then again so are LPs, so if you're used to that it might not be an issue. At about $700 used these are a fairly good price for a vintage Gibson that is sure to gain some value as time goes on. Definitely worth a look.