Ok!
Yesterday was Natalie's 13th birthday, so we were kind of busy with that, but Natalie was kind enough to give me the time to make the 47 mile (one way) trip to the Gibson Showroom in Beverly Hills to pick up the new Gold Top.
The Beverly Hills Showroom is not a repair facility, it was just a meet-up location with my Artist Relations Rep, so I just grabbed the Gold Top and ran so to speak. I did stop long enough to take a photo of the "Gibson Throne," but other than that, it was hustle back to officiate at Natalie's birthday bash, which ran well past midnight.
If you ever have a chance to visit this place, do it. There is always something going on, live performances, clinics, photo shoots, you name it. They also have an incredible collection of guitars there. While some are on display only, many are for sale. The staff there are really welcoming and the folks in Gibson Artist Relations are simply awesome. Thanks to all at Gibson Beverly Hills for a great experience.
No visit would be complete with a photo of the "Gibson Throne" made from Gibson Guitars:
So, first impressions....
(Pic of the Goldtop on the builder's bench included with the guitar's paperwork)
The finish is very, very good and very evenly applied. The basic construction is really good. The fretboard's union with the neck is seamless. The grain on the back of the neck is pretty heavy. It kind of looks like a very old and weathered piece of wood was used for the neck, but it's well covered by the "dark back" finish, which is not at all sticky and is actually very slick feeling, but definitely not a urethane, so we will have to see how it wears.
The guitar comes with a very plush Gibson bag. I prefer Gator cases and already had one in stock for Mom's LPC replica, so I took this along to ensure safe transport.
Ok....setup and playability...
The action was super high as received with excessive relief. To me, it seems as though the truss rod was backed off for shipment. My AR guy found this guitar at a Gibson retailer in NYC and had it shipped out to me, so it spent some time "on the road" so to speak.
I took measurements of the action, unfretted at the 12th fret as I received it:
Treble side was around .070" @ the 12th unfretted and tuned to pitch.
Bass side was around .090" at the 12th unfretted and tuned to pitch.
The tailpiece was fairly high as received. Here is a pic:
I did not attempt an intonation check because the high action would obviously result in all fretted notes being pulled sharp. However, The saddles on the Nashville bridge were in fairly good alignment and way more even than the $4,799 LPC I recently tested at Guitar Sinner.
I started by applying orange oil (on hand) to the very dry fretboard and adjusting the truss rod to achieve around .008" to .010" relief:
Once I had the correct relief, I started addressing the still very high action. My method is simple. I adjust action down to .050" on both sides, and then drop from there by playing open chards and then fretting every string, 4 notes at a time, all the way up the neck. I stop when all notes ring true with no buzz.
Here is what I ended up with after all adjustments were completed:
e
Bass side after adjustment - Note the rough appearance of the fretboard:
Treble side after adjustment:
Here is a side shot of the bridge/tailpiece after the action was set - almost on the deck, I like the string feel here, so I opted to use the Faber washers to lock the tailpiece studs down against the bushings (not yet installed):
Next I made adjustments to the pickup height. Gibson specs (for modern humbuckers) are 1.6mm bridge and 2.4mm neck. I just round these numbers off to make the measurement easy to read on my inch scale Luthier tool - I set the bridge to .075" and the neck pole pieces to .100", even on both sides.
Next, I checked intonation and was surprised to find it was almost dead-on. Only the low E and B strings needed a slight compensation, less than a full turn:
I tend to clamp down really hard when playing - Its a habit I guess - so I set my intonation ever-so-slightly flat so I pull notes into pitch when playing. I guess you could call it "Hillbilly" temperament...
So, that wraps up setup and critique for now.
More to follow!!!!
Yesterday was Natalie's 13th birthday, so we were kind of busy with that, but Natalie was kind enough to give me the time to make the 47 mile (one way) trip to the Gibson Showroom in Beverly Hills to pick up the new Gold Top.
The Beverly Hills Showroom is not a repair facility, it was just a meet-up location with my Artist Relations Rep, so I just grabbed the Gold Top and ran so to speak. I did stop long enough to take a photo of the "Gibson Throne," but other than that, it was hustle back to officiate at Natalie's birthday bash, which ran well past midnight.
If you ever have a chance to visit this place, do it. There is always something going on, live performances, clinics, photo shoots, you name it. They also have an incredible collection of guitars there. While some are on display only, many are for sale. The staff there are really welcoming and the folks in Gibson Artist Relations are simply awesome. Thanks to all at Gibson Beverly Hills for a great experience.
No visit would be complete with a photo of the "Gibson Throne" made from Gibson Guitars:
So, first impressions....
(Pic of the Goldtop on the builder's bench included with the guitar's paperwork)
The finish is very, very good and very evenly applied. The basic construction is really good. The fretboard's union with the neck is seamless. The grain on the back of the neck is pretty heavy. It kind of looks like a very old and weathered piece of wood was used for the neck, but it's well covered by the "dark back" finish, which is not at all sticky and is actually very slick feeling, but definitely not a urethane, so we will have to see how it wears.
The guitar comes with a very plush Gibson bag. I prefer Gator cases and already had one in stock for Mom's LPC replica, so I took this along to ensure safe transport.
Ok....setup and playability...
The action was super high as received with excessive relief. To me, it seems as though the truss rod was backed off for shipment. My AR guy found this guitar at a Gibson retailer in NYC and had it shipped out to me, so it spent some time "on the road" so to speak.
I took measurements of the action, unfretted at the 12th fret as I received it:
Treble side was around .070" @ the 12th unfretted and tuned to pitch.
Bass side was around .090" at the 12th unfretted and tuned to pitch.
The tailpiece was fairly high as received. Here is a pic:
I did not attempt an intonation check because the high action would obviously result in all fretted notes being pulled sharp. However, The saddles on the Nashville bridge were in fairly good alignment and way more even than the $4,799 LPC I recently tested at Guitar Sinner.
I started by applying orange oil (on hand) to the very dry fretboard and adjusting the truss rod to achieve around .008" to .010" relief:
Once I had the correct relief, I started addressing the still very high action. My method is simple. I adjust action down to .050" on both sides, and then drop from there by playing open chards and then fretting every string, 4 notes at a time, all the way up the neck. I stop when all notes ring true with no buzz.
Here is what I ended up with after all adjustments were completed:
e
Bass side after adjustment - Note the rough appearance of the fretboard:
Treble side after adjustment:
Here is a side shot of the bridge/tailpiece after the action was set - almost on the deck, I like the string feel here, so I opted to use the Faber washers to lock the tailpiece studs down against the bushings (not yet installed):
Next I made adjustments to the pickup height. Gibson specs (for modern humbuckers) are 1.6mm bridge and 2.4mm neck. I just round these numbers off to make the measurement easy to read on my inch scale Luthier tool - I set the bridge to .075" and the neck pole pieces to .100", even on both sides.
Next, I checked intonation and was surprised to find it was almost dead-on. Only the low E and B strings needed a slight compensation, less than a full turn:
I tend to clamp down really hard when playing - Its a habit I guess - so I set my intonation ever-so-slightly flat so I pull notes into pitch when playing. I guess you could call it "Hillbilly" temperament...
So, that wraps up setup and critique for now.
More to follow!!!!
