Gibson [Guitar of the Month - June 2008] Shred X - Ebony

The Gibson Shred V is part of Gibsons guitar of the week series. Every week they make a new limited run guitar with special features or a unique finish. This guitar is the Shred X. It is an Explorer for shredders supposedly. It has its good points and its bad points. The guitar is mostly good. The guitar has some cool features that you do not find often on guitars. The guitar has a mahogany body and neck. The neck is a set neck with an ebony fretboard. The fretboard has 22 frets and black dot fret markers which are hard to see. Up top you get locking tuners which are rare for a Gibson but they do not really help you stay in tune since there is a Kahler tremolo and no locking nut. Unless there is a lock on the nut a tremolo will make you go out of tune even with locking tuners. The pickups are a cool set of dual EMG's. EMG 85s in the neck and bridge my personally favorite combination. The controls are two volumes and a master tone with the 3 way toggle right next to them instead of a mile away on the lower horn.

UTILIZATION

A floating tremolo with no locking nut is a big problem. Locking tuners will not help this. If you have a tremolo and the string can move anywhere around the nut its going to go out of tune. You would think for a shred guitar they would give it a shred neck. This guy comes with the 50 baseball bat neck which does not lend itself to fast playing unless you have huge hands. Gibson did get one thing right when they added the battery compartment on the control cavity plate. You can change the battery for the EMG's without having to open up the whole plate. Some other EMG equipped Gibsons do not have this. The ebony fretboard is nice but ebony with black inlays is very hard to see. You might as well not put any inlays on it.

SOUNDS

If this guitar didnt sound so good it would have hardly anything going for it. The huge mahogany Explorer body and neck provide a great base for tone. The EMG 85s front and rear provide crushing tone everywhere. Everyone loves the 81 in the bridge but I prefer the 85. Its tone is a lot thicker and brings more low end and gives you a fatter tone overall. This 85 combination gives you a Gibson-y active tone. In the neck position you get fat and smooth leads and it cleans up pretty decently. The bridge is a sledge hammer. You get crushing tone with the 85 in the bridge. The only big name guys I can think of who use dual 85s are Jon Donais of Shadows Fall and the guys from In Flames and with those bands you can hear the thick tone.

OVERALL OPINION

If this guitar was just a hardtail I would love every part of it. The afterthought tremolo really ruins it for me. If it had a locking nut it would be better. Gibson should make another guitar like this with the dual 85 EMG's. If you are looking for a shreddy Explorer and dont mind the lack of a locking nut this guitar is really good.