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tjon901 « Les Paul Studio but double the price »
Published on 12/07/11 at 13:52Continuing on with Gibsons wacky 2011 model line up. This is the Les Paul Studio Swirl. This silly paintjob essentially doubles the price of the guitar since the normal Les Paul Studio is only about 800 dollars new and this is 1600 dollars. I guess dipping a guitar in a bucket of swirl paint is 800 dollars worth of labor. To continue with the 2011 wackyness this guitar according to Gibson has a "Black Obeche" fretboard. Another side effect of Gibsons recent trouble over fretboard woods. The puzzling thing is Obeche is white, so I guess being "Black" Obeche means they dyed the wood. If they were going to dye the wood they could have just used any wood. I guess finding some obscure wood and painting it and making it sound exotic is better business sense than saying dyed maple or something. I wish they would stop this mystery wood nonsense and just use some sort of composite or something if they want a dark fretboard. The rest of the guitar is regular Gibson Les Paul Studio. You get a mahogany body with a maple top. The set neck is maple as well with the mystery wood fretboard. The fretboard has 22 frets and the trapezoid inlays. Up top on the plain headstock you get 6 non locking tuners and a non locking bridge. The pickups are generic Gibson 490 and 498 in the neck and bridge. The controls are typical Les Paul with a volume and tone for each pickup and a 3 way toggle on the upper bout.
UTILIZATION
Gibson says this guitar has a vintage inspired neck profile which is a nice way of saying the neck is fat. It has the 50s feel to it like most every Les Paul Studio. This might be uncomfortable for some people. Because there is no binding the guitar will be more likely to have sharp fret edges when you first get it. The fretwork on these lower end Gibsons can be a bit iffy even though they are USA made. This is still a lower end Gibson even if it is priced like a mid level one.
SOUNDS
All the 2011 Gibson wackyness put aside none of that stuff really effects the base tone of the guitar. A silly paintjob does not do anything and a mystery wood fretboard has very little effect on the amplified tone of the guitar. This guitar sounds like a modern low to mid level Gibson. These pickups are decent all around pickups. They are not specialized for any specific type of tone so they are jack of all traits master of none. This is what some people want in a guitar. The bridge is nice and crunchy with a classic rock voicing to it. The neck pickup has the smooth neck pickup tone that can get a bit muddy. It isnt super sharp but for leads you can get a very pleasing tone.
OVERALL OPINION
This guitar shouldnt cost this much. This model is getting up there with the Classic plus's which are way better guitars overall. This is still a Les Paul Studio. This guitar should be 800 dollars at the most and the standard Studio should be like 650. Gibson is pretty much taking advantage of people who dont know any better. The special bits on this guitar are not enough to double the price. Throw a little flash on the guitar and double the price. That is not a good way to treat the customer. Other companies have proven how good a guitar you can make for less than 1000 dollars. You are just paying for the name on the headstock at this point.
UTILIZATION
Gibson says this guitar has a vintage inspired neck profile which is a nice way of saying the neck is fat. It has the 50s feel to it like most every Les Paul Studio. This might be uncomfortable for some people. Because there is no binding the guitar will be more likely to have sharp fret edges when you first get it. The fretwork on these lower end Gibsons can be a bit iffy even though they are USA made. This is still a lower end Gibson even if it is priced like a mid level one.
SOUNDS
All the 2011 Gibson wackyness put aside none of that stuff really effects the base tone of the guitar. A silly paintjob does not do anything and a mystery wood fretboard has very little effect on the amplified tone of the guitar. This guitar sounds like a modern low to mid level Gibson. These pickups are decent all around pickups. They are not specialized for any specific type of tone so they are jack of all traits master of none. This is what some people want in a guitar. The bridge is nice and crunchy with a classic rock voicing to it. The neck pickup has the smooth neck pickup tone that can get a bit muddy. It isnt super sharp but for leads you can get a very pleasing tone.
OVERALL OPINION
This guitar shouldnt cost this much. This model is getting up there with the Classic plus's which are way better guitars overall. This is still a Les Paul Studio. This guitar should be 800 dollars at the most and the standard Studio should be like 650. Gibson is pretty much taking advantage of people who dont know any better. The special bits on this guitar are not enough to double the price. Throw a little flash on the guitar and double the price. That is not a good way to treat the customer. Other companies have proven how good a guitar you can make for less than 1000 dollars. You are just paying for the name on the headstock at this point.