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King Loudness « Interesting old Gibby... »
Published on 01/23/12 at 18:29The Gibson Marauder was part of the attempt to capture a bit of a different market in the ever changing seventies. This guitar owes more to the school of Fullerton than anything in Kalamazoo and that really shows in its construction. It's made of alder and has a BOLT ON maple neck with rosewood fretboard and 22 frets. The body shape is single cutaway a-la a Les Paul, and the headstock is reminiscent of a Flying V. The bridge is a typical tune-o-matic and stopbar setup. The pickups are interesting and one of the cool points about this guitar. They're designed by famed pickup guru Bill Lawrence and consist of a humbucker in the neck and a rail single coil in the bridge (a-la a Fender Telecaster Custom). The controls are a volume and tone, and the pickup switching is controlled by a blend knob that allows you to have as much or as little of each pickup as you'd like. Very cool! Built in the good ol' US of A...
UTILIZATION
Ergonomics and this instrument do not mix. Firstly, this instrument is HEAVY. It even puts the CBS era Fenders to shame or some of the really heavy Les Pauls. It is an easy 11-12 pounds and is not fun to hold for long periods of time, especially standing up. The shape of the guitar is nice enough - the body has subtle contouring here and there to add arm relief to the user and the upper fret access isn't bad either for being a bolt on single cut guitar.
Getting a good sound out of this guitar is reasonable enough. Unfortunately it's not the most resonant guitar so the tones unplugged really don't do much for my ears. The pickups offer a nice range of tones though and you can use this ax for a fair few styles with clean or drive pretty easily.
SOUNDS
The guitar is most similar to a Tele Custom electronically and thus when I plugged it in I was expecting that sort of vibe. The neck humbucker has a nice bassy quality that is a cross between a Tele and an SG - very wooly and thick, but with a certain power to it that works especially well on overdriven sounds for chord work. The bridge pickup is a nice medium output rail style single coil and sounds a lot like a Fender would. It's a little bit bright on the clean sounds for my liking, but the drive tones cut through quite well for rock styles. It's a nice change of pace from the thicker Les Paul and SG tones that you hear from Gibbys. What's really cool about this guitar is blending the pickups to get some tones that fall outside the normal spectrum which is great for funk or blues - tones that are nice and spanky yet clear.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think this is an interesting guitar from Gibson. Sure, it's a boat anchor, but it looks and sounds pretty unique and offers something different in a world of more of the same. They run about $700 used which is a decent enough deal for a vintage USA made Gibson and if you see one, it's definitely worth trying just for the fun of it. It works well for what it is and offers a nice Gibson meets Fender approach.
UTILIZATION
Ergonomics and this instrument do not mix. Firstly, this instrument is HEAVY. It even puts the CBS era Fenders to shame or some of the really heavy Les Pauls. It is an easy 11-12 pounds and is not fun to hold for long periods of time, especially standing up. The shape of the guitar is nice enough - the body has subtle contouring here and there to add arm relief to the user and the upper fret access isn't bad either for being a bolt on single cut guitar.
Getting a good sound out of this guitar is reasonable enough. Unfortunately it's not the most resonant guitar so the tones unplugged really don't do much for my ears. The pickups offer a nice range of tones though and you can use this ax for a fair few styles with clean or drive pretty easily.
SOUNDS
The guitar is most similar to a Tele Custom electronically and thus when I plugged it in I was expecting that sort of vibe. The neck humbucker has a nice bassy quality that is a cross between a Tele and an SG - very wooly and thick, but with a certain power to it that works especially well on overdriven sounds for chord work. The bridge pickup is a nice medium output rail style single coil and sounds a lot like a Fender would. It's a little bit bright on the clean sounds for my liking, but the drive tones cut through quite well for rock styles. It's a nice change of pace from the thicker Les Paul and SG tones that you hear from Gibbys. What's really cool about this guitar is blending the pickups to get some tones that fall outside the normal spectrum which is great for funk or blues - tones that are nice and spanky yet clear.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think this is an interesting guitar from Gibson. Sure, it's a boat anchor, but it looks and sounds pretty unique and offers something different in a world of more of the same. They run about $700 used which is a decent enough deal for a vintage USA made Gibson and if you see one, it's definitely worth trying just for the fun of it. It works well for what it is and offers a nice Gibson meets Fender approach.