I started not to post to this thread anymore because I think it either needs to die or change direction so everything can be fun again for everyone.
Maybe i am just too particular and maybe i hear things that perhaps others dont hear, and I am sure my ear makes it difficult to be satisfied.
Positive guitar experiences...ive actually had a few!
I bought two brand new Hamer Standard's for work in 2004. Why two? I couldnt decide between black or sunburst, so i bought both off the rack from Guitar Sinner in Fresno. Great guitars. Needed nothing. Were very quiet too...but I didn't quite find the tone I was after...but they were great guitars. i even went to the extreme of putting a pair of vintage Gibson T-tops in one of them without really finding what I was looking for.
Bought the Schecter C1 Hellraiser new in 2005. Again, it never needed anything. Played it live the night I bought it. Recorded with it for years. Super quiet too. But, yet again, there was something missing that I was looking for tonally speaking.
I expected my Gibson purchase to be similar to these.
When I bought my new 2003 Gibson SG Standard in 2004, I really didn't spend much time with it. Just too many construction issues, squealing pickups, buzzing, etc. I returned it and walked away without ever attempting to correct any of the issues with it.
I bought the two above mentioned Hamer Standard's the next day. It would be 12 years before I bought another Gibson.
As for the new 2016 Gibson SG, I guess, as Thatbastarddon has pointed out, I fixed the sonic issues and posted a ton of pics...even a few videos. it's a nice guitar now, but there's nothing Gibson left in it or on it to get it to that point. Funny....I never really play it. In fact, I've tried to sell it several times, but, as Rory Gallagher would say, its like a Bad Penny...
I do take the SG to rehearsal and let our guitarist play it. My students love playing it. I enjoy hearing all the hard work getting put to use. My Mom loves playing it and my daughter enjoys how "easy chords are to fret on it," as she says....so its not wasting away in the case.
I guess all the drama with the new SG took all the fun out of it for me. I avoid playing it. And why? It sounds great and plays great, as some of the videos I posted show. I really can't explain it.
I almost bought the 2016 Goldtop Dark Back I mentioned in the first post of this thread. Nice playing guitar...but wow, Man...that's one ugly guitar up close. The grain on the back is so deep, you could drop a BB on it and it wouldn't roll off...flat black looks like it was literally shot with a spray can and there were two bubbles in this finish on the back of the neck that you could squish.
I almost bought it for feel and tone, but I knew that I couldn't get past what I felt like was really poor finish...even in an economy priced Gibson...so I just did the smart thing, as Thatbastarddon pointed out...and walked away.
Now, I am sure that if I asked Mom really nice and maybe sweetened the pie with my 2016 Gibson SG, she might let me have the 1979 Gibson Les Paul Custom. But, while its a nice guitar and all and the Norlin-era stuff was made quite well, I know me and I would have to change a lot of things on it to be happy, which would destroy its value.
Mom has another old Les Paul too. Older. Kind of a lemony looking finish with zebras in it. Nice guitar too. I played it when I was in her band. Maybe I will get her to dig that out next time???
Then, of course, her Les Paul Recording Model...ugly as sin...and now on display in a mutual friends Gibson shrine.
So, I guess a collector's item isn't right for me either.
Ive spoke with Joe B's tech and all the old Gibson's Joe likes are troublesome beasts...as most relics are. They have to run a plexiglass shield between Joe and his guitars to keep them from squealing. Nope...I could never be happy with that.
So, for me, I think the Les Paul Replica was a smart move. Classic styling, reminiscent of that first LPC I held at Buck Owens Studio in Bakersfield around 1977, all hand picked Gotoh, Grover and Schaller hardware, chosen for their exceptional quality gold plating, beautiful ebony polyurethane finish, 14" rosewood board, no volute, small 6230 Fretwire, 12 degree headstock angle....things I like that I can't get on a relic or a production line Gibson.
No trick woods. Just a heavily relieved 3 piece Mahogany body with a maple cap. One piece Mahogany neck. Some of the wood had flaws that you will never see under the black polyurethane. Nope. No exotic tonewood here.
Ironically, I have probably had more fun with this guitar than any other one I have ever owned. I've only used it for instruction thus far. It won't be used live until the rest of the hardware arrives, but already...even with loaner Epiphone Probuckers, its got something I haven't heard yet in any other Les Paul I have played...not even Mom's Norlin-era '79.
It has a snarling tone...a dissonant, somewhat evil quality with a really stinging harmonic. Sounds good clean too, though I seldom, if ever play clean...I find clean music really boring TBTH.
Maybe the Gibson logo will upset some purists...and that is bound to happen, but I have never made any attempt to pass it off as genuine. I've always loved the controversy associated with Slash's Gibson-branded replicas, and this project has been really fun for me and my son, who got to accompany me on the visits to see it being made.
Its way too easy to get caught up in a brand loyalty debate. Like politics and religion, there is no winning. No joy and nothing productive comes out of it.
If you are weary of my tirades here, be glad you didn't follow my posts on the Porsche, BMW and Mercedes forums!
Yes. I think I post too much. Nobody needs my opinions. It doesn't offer anyone very much and I been spending way too much time posting.
I've met a lot of Kool dudes in this forum. I like it here. This is a cool place.
My opinions don't really follow any kind of accepted norms either. I am, by nature, quite controversial and that's not a popular thing.
I was joking with a fellow musician last night that announcing to your guitar forum buddies, that you have a Gibson replica, carries with it about the same level of acceptance as standing atop the table at a church banquet and announcing you are Gay....and no offense intended here to anyone, churchgoer or satanist, just an illustration.
But, nothing changes fact. Not brand loyalty, money, public opinion, scorn, ridicule, personal taste or anything else.
Fact is, this replica has something I been looking for. Even unfinished, its grabbed me in a way no other guitar has. There is something to its tone that I have never had before.
When I play it, there is some unexplainable freedom that comes from it. I play more aggressively, more fluidly, like drifting off into another zone, where you hear some of the tonal qualities you have always admired in other guitarist's suddenly coming out of your amp.
I really wish that I could post here that I bought this really amazing Gibson from Nashville that did all of these things, but I cannot. thefact is, it all comes from a Gibson replica built in Rancho Cucamonga, California.
Yeah...doesn't go over as much of a crowd pleaser, does it??? No one is going to release doves over that.
So let me offer my apologies for my brash manner of communication and my generally negative opinions based on my experiences...my OCD nature and my perfectionist manifesto.
I think its time to chill for a while....
