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Hatsubai « Chambered but still decent »
Published on 06/23/11 at 17:58Gibson has recently revamped their Standards in the past few years. The new ones come complete with a chambered body that was first experiment with during the Supreme series. The guitar features a chambered mahogany body, maple top, set mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, tune-o-matic bridge, two 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
These sound a little different from the normal Les Paul since they're chambered. There is some "air" in the bass that makes it kinda soft sounding. The bridge has some nice bite, but it's pretty fat sounding overall. This gives a great classic hard rock and metal tone. However, I wish it would have more output and be a bit more clear. The neck pickup is fairly warm sounding, but it has some treble that I'm not entirely crazy about. My favorite pickup combo for these guitars is a JB/59 combo, so I'll probably swap that in when I get the time.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitars are pretty resonant, and I attribute that to Gibson stepping up their QC a bit from the past few years. That said, I highly recommend you play these first as they're extremely love or hate with the chambering that's going on in the newer Standards. Pay attention to the fretwork and nut as well as those are the most common issues with these guitars.
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
These sound a little different from the normal Les Paul since they're chambered. There is some "air" in the bass that makes it kinda soft sounding. The bridge has some nice bite, but it's pretty fat sounding overall. This gives a great classic hard rock and metal tone. However, I wish it would have more output and be a bit more clear. The neck pickup is fairly warm sounding, but it has some treble that I'm not entirely crazy about. My favorite pickup combo for these guitars is a JB/59 combo, so I'll probably swap that in when I get the time.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitars are pretty resonant, and I attribute that to Gibson stepping up their QC a bit from the past few years. That said, I highly recommend you play these first as they're extremely love or hate with the chambering that's going on in the newer Standards. Pay attention to the fretwork and nut as well as those are the most common issues with these guitars.