Mr Grumpy
Ambassador of Comings and Goings
So, it was my birthday last Wednesday, I now have no guitars and only my Yamaha THR10 which I use as a computer speaker thus I thought I'd treat myself. Was very close to ordering a 2017 SG standard on Monday to have it arrive on Wednesday, but decided to wait til the weekend and visit the strore with a mate (who's a much better player than me, and a bit of a cheap git when it comes to paying $ for guitars).
Yesterday, spent a few hours at Buzzbee - one of the best stores I've ever been to. Prices are pretty high in Korea though.
This one was nice, but without a case and for $1400 it seemed way over-priced to me. In fact Fenders are now just crazy prices, imho...
At $1840 for a Fender standard/professional they just seem terrible value compared to $550 for a Squier Classic Vibe which to be honest I liked as much!
At current prices, even though I didn't want a tele, the guitar below is excellent:
So, moving onto the Gibsons, I was seriously considering a LP, so looked at these:
$730 seemed a decent price for this 2017, but it just didn't do it for me:
This tribute didn't do anything for me either:
They had these in all 3 colours at $1650, but to my surprise (because I thought this was a real potential purchase!), they just didn't do anything for me:
Maybe, I'm not a Les Paul guy?
BTW, they also had this at $1700 - it looks nothing like the pictures, it is a repulsive shade of mustard; I didn't even pick it up:
So, onto the SGs, and they had pretty much all the ones I wanted to look at:
I was surprised how nice the 2018 SG special looked and played (and the mini-buckers are very nice). But at $1215 with a gigbag it is not good value imho when an 2017 SG standard with a case is $1240.
The 2018 standard was $1,700, and even though I much prefer the 61 pickups to the 57s, I wouldn't consider it at that price!
So, and this is the one I was expecting to buy, the 2017 standard in cherry. Yeah, it looks nice, is 90% of what I want from an SG (I prefer a batwing pickguard and 490R/498T, but not many 2016s around and they cost $1200 without a case!), the $1240 price is ok, the case is nice, it's well made, I like the locking tuners, the finish and grain were nice, but it only felt ok in the hand and did not blow me away when held before plugging it in:
Now, I don't think the amp helped, a Marshall tuber at lowish shop volumes always sounds average at best to me, and when I've tried SGs in shops via a nice Messa or an AC30 they really come alive, but it played ok and sounded like I expected the 57 pickups to sound - tuneful, nice and ideal for folk music rather than punk/indie rock that I like to play; but to me, that's not an SG... 57s (especially the 57+ in the bridge) are better in a LP to my ears (I understand other folks will have very different opinions, so many SG owners love the 57s, and they are right for them). My mate was pretty unimpressed by the playability and sound too. We both thought it was nice, but it did not excite a visceral reaction in me.
No success. Nothing deserving of my money, but it was an interesting exercise in how important going to the shop and playing/feeling the guitar in your hand is. Frankly, I preferred my SG faded to the 2017 SG standard in all ways (excluding those nice locking tuners).
Thus, not a new guitar day (NNGD).
Yesterday, spent a few hours at Buzzbee - one of the best stores I've ever been to. Prices are pretty high in Korea though.
This one was nice, but without a case and for $1400 it seemed way over-priced to me. In fact Fenders are now just crazy prices, imho...
At $1840 for a Fender standard/professional they just seem terrible value compared to $550 for a Squier Classic Vibe which to be honest I liked as much!
At current prices, even though I didn't want a tele, the guitar below is excellent:
So, moving onto the Gibsons, I was seriously considering a LP, so looked at these:
$730 seemed a decent price for this 2017, but it just didn't do it for me:
This tribute didn't do anything for me either:
They had these in all 3 colours at $1650, but to my surprise (because I thought this was a real potential purchase!), they just didn't do anything for me:
Maybe, I'm not a Les Paul guy?
BTW, they also had this at $1700 - it looks nothing like the pictures, it is a repulsive shade of mustard; I didn't even pick it up:
So, onto the SGs, and they had pretty much all the ones I wanted to look at:
I was surprised how nice the 2018 SG special looked and played (and the mini-buckers are very nice). But at $1215 with a gigbag it is not good value imho when an 2017 SG standard with a case is $1240.
The 2018 standard was $1,700, and even though I much prefer the 61 pickups to the 57s, I wouldn't consider it at that price!
So, and this is the one I was expecting to buy, the 2017 standard in cherry. Yeah, it looks nice, is 90% of what I want from an SG (I prefer a batwing pickguard and 490R/498T, but not many 2016s around and they cost $1200 without a case!), the $1240 price is ok, the case is nice, it's well made, I like the locking tuners, the finish and grain were nice, but it only felt ok in the hand and did not blow me away when held before plugging it in:
Now, I don't think the amp helped, a Marshall tuber at lowish shop volumes always sounds average at best to me, and when I've tried SGs in shops via a nice Messa or an AC30 they really come alive, but it played ok and sounded like I expected the 57 pickups to sound - tuneful, nice and ideal for folk music rather than punk/indie rock that I like to play; but to me, that's not an SG... 57s (especially the 57+ in the bridge) are better in a LP to my ears (I understand other folks will have very different opinions, so many SG owners love the 57s, and they are right for them). My mate was pretty unimpressed by the playability and sound too. We both thought it was nice, but it did not excite a visceral reaction in me.
No success. Nothing deserving of my money, but it was an interesting exercise in how important going to the shop and playing/feeling the guitar in your hand is. Frankly, I preferred my SG faded to the 2017 SG standard in all ways (excluding those nice locking tuners).
Thus, not a new guitar day (NNGD).
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