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James... « Not a fan »
Published on 02/26/12 at 07:54Mahogany body (chambered)
Maple top
Worn ebony grain textured satin nitrocellulose finish
Mahogany neck
'50s-style neck profile
Rosewood fingerboard
22 frets
Graphtech nut
Open coil P-90 neck pickup with Alnico V magnet
BurstBucker 3 bridge pickup with Alnico 2 magnet
2 volume, 1 tone controls with wooden BFG-style knobs
3-way pickup switch (in former treble tone control location)
Killswitch (in former pickups switch location on upper bout)
Locking 18:1 Grover keystone tuners
Schaller tremolo bridge
UTILIZATION
Let me say up front that I basically got this guitar for free, since it was sold to me at an extremely low price, and I'm quite sure it's going to end up being sold for more than I paid. I originally planned on buying to own it, but after having it a couple weeks I'm not sure. First off, the thing (at least to me) is ugly. Sorry but that's what I think. I can see some players liking it, but it's not my thing. It doesn't feel "aged" as Gibson would like me to think. It just feels cheap and unfinished. The fretwork is pretty bad. Action is a tragedy. I'm not a fan of whatever neck shape they went with. Wooden tuners look kind of comical to me.
The good: Well the tuners are solid. If it wasn't for the terrible nut cutting, the guitar might actually stay in tune. The bridge is pretty good. But how often can I use the trem when the guitar can't stay in tune to save its life?
SOUNDS
The BB3 sounds muddy and undefined. I am actually a big fan of the burstbucker series so this was a shock. I attribute it to the body woods, which are probably of cheap quality. The P90 sounds pretty good for cleans, not much else. I figured maybe changing the pots would help, but no. The pots Gibson used here are in fact pretty good, to their credit. No matter what amp I used, the BFG sounded bad. No lie. It's just a muddy terrible mess.
OVERALL OPINION
Here's the good news. I think with a new nut, a fret level, and some different pickups to clean up the tone, this guitar could be pretty good. But we're talking about $400 worth of stuff on top of the tag price, which is ridiculous. Personally I'm not spending that to save a guitar that I already think it really ugly. Call me crazy. My advice is to start looking for les paul studios. Don't bother with this junk. I owned another BFG before this one and it was more or less the same story, so it's not just the one I got.
Maple top
Worn ebony grain textured satin nitrocellulose finish
Mahogany neck
'50s-style neck profile
Rosewood fingerboard
22 frets
Graphtech nut
Open coil P-90 neck pickup with Alnico V magnet
BurstBucker 3 bridge pickup with Alnico 2 magnet
2 volume, 1 tone controls with wooden BFG-style knobs
3-way pickup switch (in former treble tone control location)
Killswitch (in former pickups switch location on upper bout)
Locking 18:1 Grover keystone tuners
Schaller tremolo bridge
UTILIZATION
Let me say up front that I basically got this guitar for free, since it was sold to me at an extremely low price, and I'm quite sure it's going to end up being sold for more than I paid. I originally planned on buying to own it, but after having it a couple weeks I'm not sure. First off, the thing (at least to me) is ugly. Sorry but that's what I think. I can see some players liking it, but it's not my thing. It doesn't feel "aged" as Gibson would like me to think. It just feels cheap and unfinished. The fretwork is pretty bad. Action is a tragedy. I'm not a fan of whatever neck shape they went with. Wooden tuners look kind of comical to me.
The good: Well the tuners are solid. If it wasn't for the terrible nut cutting, the guitar might actually stay in tune. The bridge is pretty good. But how often can I use the trem when the guitar can't stay in tune to save its life?
SOUNDS
The BB3 sounds muddy and undefined. I am actually a big fan of the burstbucker series so this was a shock. I attribute it to the body woods, which are probably of cheap quality. The P90 sounds pretty good for cleans, not much else. I figured maybe changing the pots would help, but no. The pots Gibson used here are in fact pretty good, to their credit. No matter what amp I used, the BFG sounded bad. No lie. It's just a muddy terrible mess.
OVERALL OPINION
Here's the good news. I think with a new nut, a fret level, and some different pickups to clean up the tone, this guitar could be pretty good. But we're talking about $400 worth of stuff on top of the tag price, which is ridiculous. Personally I'm not spending that to save a guitar that I already think it really ugly. Call me crazy. My advice is to start looking for les paul studios. Don't bother with this junk. I owned another BFG before this one and it was more or less the same story, so it's not just the one I got.