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James... « Worst idea Gibson has had in a while »
Published on 01/26/12 at 17:43 Maple body
Maple neck and fretboard
Slim Taper neck profile
490R and 489T humbucking pickups
Nitrocellulose finish
Tune-o-matic bridge
Grover tuners
Hardshell case
Additionally, this is basically one of Gibson's "new revolutionary" designs that I keep hearing about. During the last few years the company has come out with a lot of new guitar ideas and most of them have tanked because players don't stick with them. The main sticking point for this one seems to be the non traditional body wood and shape and also the 6 way tone selector. None of these things are new ideas, but for Gibson it's something different.
UTILIZATION
For one thing I'm not even entirely sure what all the 6 way positions do. One is a single coil splitter. There also seems to be a bass roll off and treble roll off. To be honest this is a fairly useless feature besides the coil tap. I could do without having a massive knob on the pick guard too. I would say the guitar is pretty comfortable to play. It resembles a melody maker in how it is designed. The overall construction is surprisingly good though, even for Gibson. Tuners are good. Bridge is solid. There aren't any major flaws or anything. Finish is good.
SOUNDS
This is where it gets awful. Making this guitar all maple was a silly and terrible idea. As expected the tone is a trebley mess of bright maple awfulness. It seems like Gibson tried to pick some humbuckers that would be very warm to balance this out but the guitar itself has such a bright character that it doesn't matter. Even through my Cornford RK100 which is a super bass heavy amp, this guitar has an ice pick tone to it.
OVERALL OPINION
Unfortunately I returned this thing two days after buying. The sound is just that bad. Functionally it is a pretty good, although honestly very ugly design. I was told gibson actually made this style of guitar a while back and it never caught on then either. Apparently they had the bright idea to do it again with terrible tone woods. It's advertised as a guitar that can cut through the mix. Well that's an understatement. It cuts through your ears and does it with extreme pain. Not recommended unless you have the muddiest amp ever.
Maple neck and fretboard
Slim Taper neck profile
490R and 489T humbucking pickups
Nitrocellulose finish
Tune-o-matic bridge
Grover tuners
Hardshell case
Additionally, this is basically one of Gibson's "new revolutionary" designs that I keep hearing about. During the last few years the company has come out with a lot of new guitar ideas and most of them have tanked because players don't stick with them. The main sticking point for this one seems to be the non traditional body wood and shape and also the 6 way tone selector. None of these things are new ideas, but for Gibson it's something different.
UTILIZATION
For one thing I'm not even entirely sure what all the 6 way positions do. One is a single coil splitter. There also seems to be a bass roll off and treble roll off. To be honest this is a fairly useless feature besides the coil tap. I could do without having a massive knob on the pick guard too. I would say the guitar is pretty comfortable to play. It resembles a melody maker in how it is designed. The overall construction is surprisingly good though, even for Gibson. Tuners are good. Bridge is solid. There aren't any major flaws or anything. Finish is good.
SOUNDS
This is where it gets awful. Making this guitar all maple was a silly and terrible idea. As expected the tone is a trebley mess of bright maple awfulness. It seems like Gibson tried to pick some humbuckers that would be very warm to balance this out but the guitar itself has such a bright character that it doesn't matter. Even through my Cornford RK100 which is a super bass heavy amp, this guitar has an ice pick tone to it.
OVERALL OPINION
Unfortunately I returned this thing two days after buying. The sound is just that bad. Functionally it is a pretty good, although honestly very ugly design. I was told gibson actually made this style of guitar a while back and it never caught on then either. Apparently they had the bright idea to do it again with terrible tone woods. It's advertised as a guitar that can cut through the mix. Well that's an understatement. It cuts through your ears and does it with extreme pain. Not recommended unless you have the muddiest amp ever.