Gibson Robot Les Paul Studio

Been in various garage bands over the past 30 years. I play everything from classic rock to country and ocassionally dabble with classical, which I think sounds incredible on an electric guitar with some overdrive. I also do some home recording, although my basic rig is just a PC with Cakewalk and USB guitar inputs.

I paid almost $3000 online for this guitar. I've always wanted a Les Paul, and the thought of a guitar that was perfectly balanced and would never go out of tune really appealed to me. Personally, I think that's an amazing accomplishment for the engineers at Gibson.

This guitar is so amazing I'm going to have a hard time describing it. First of all, it auto tunes itself - can you believe it? Second, the Neutrik connector assures a perfect cable connection every time, no buzzing or other annoying artifacts due to your cable bouncing around or losing connection. Third, the tonal characteristics of this axe are amazing. Apparently there are chambers inside that tuned specifically for this guitar. Sweet, sweet tone. The finish is gorgeous and the neck feels like butter. Also, the 490R and 498T pickups will melt your ears. Capable of smooth warm tones and amazing bite, they really cover the spectrum of sound.

About the only thing I don't like about the unit is it's price. If this is the way guitars are going to be be in the future, I'm sure all this technology will come down in price, but it's definitely not cheap. You get what you pay for though.

The guitar feels solid and the quality has been impeccable. I've only owned it for a few months though so no long term reports to make on it.

This is really an amazing guitar. The price is high, but no so high it's out of the affordable range. If you're not stuck on the classics and appreciate technology, you will love this guitar. Just the fact that it keeps itself in tune was worth the money to me.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com