Gibson is not a good company.

There was a video some time back where they fellow started with a full body (strat, I think) and progressively sawed off pieces to see what effect it had on the "tone". Eventually, it was all the way down to a slab that just held the pickups and bridge. The sound really didn't change between the start and end.

I sometimes think that it's like professional race drivers. They can tell a 1/2 degree change in the wing angle or a 1/4lb change in tire pressure. Of course they also have a very reliable gauge... the stopwatch. I'm guessing that 99% of the everyday drivers can't tell a 2 lb difference in tire pressure. I know some that can't tell until the tire pressure light comes on (about 5 to 7 lbs on many cars).

Yet you read about hobby guitar players that can tell the difference in sound between a rosewood fretboard and an ebony fretboard. And they can tell the difference between a Paper in Oil vs a Oil filled PP film and a simple PE capacitor and a ceramic capacitor even if they all measure the exact same. The language is always the same, (like they read it somewhere) and the more expensive (or older) part is ALWAYS better.

I prefer Frank Zappa's approach... Shut up and play your guitar!
 
There was a video some time back where they fellow started with a full body (strat, I think) and progressively sawed off pieces to see what effect it had on the "tone". Eventually, it was all the way down to a slab that just held the pickups and bridge. The sound really didn't change between the start and end.

I sometimes think that it's like professional race drivers. They can tell a 1/2 degree change in the wing angle or a 1/4lb change in tire pressure. Of course they also have a very reliable gauge... the stopwatch. I'm guessing that 99% of the everyday drivers can't tell a 2 lb difference in tire pressure. I know some that can't tell until the tire pressure light comes on (about 5 to 7 lbs on many cars).

Yet you read about hobby guitar players that can tell the difference in sound between a rosewood fretboard and an ebony fretboard. And they can tell the difference between a Paper in Oil vs a Oil filled PP film and a simple PE capacitor and a ceramic capacitor even if they all measure the exact same. The language is always the same, (like they read it somewhere) and the more expensive (or older) part is ALWAYS better.

I prefer Frank Zappa's approach... Shut up and play your guitar!
But don’t you know that Eric Johnson can hear the difference between a Duracell and a Everyready battery in his pedals?


This video tells you a lot more about reality than that guy who makes these dumbest clickbait guitar videos.

 
But don’t you know that Eric Johnson can hear the difference between a Duracell and a Everyready battery in his pedals?


This video tells you a lot more about reality than that guy who makes these dumbest clickbait guitar videos.


It sounds just like the Carvin Bolt Guitar I assembled a few years ago. If it feels good in your hands and sounds good......use it.
 
The 4 most important components of tone...
Your left and right hands and your two ears.
Dickey Betts sounded like dickey Betts on strats, les pauls, SG's, hollow bodies, you name it.
Same with Stevie Ray he sounded almost the same on any guitar he played.
A lot of tone is in the touch. Listening and adjusting tone controls too.
 
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The 4 most important components of tone...
Your left and right hands and your two ears.
Dickey Betts sounded like dickey Betts on strats, les pauls, SG's, hollow bodies, you name it.
Same with Stevie Ray he sounded almost the same on any guitar he played.
A lot of tone is in the touch. Listening and adjusting tone controls too.
There’s the old story. Page and Clapton tried each other’s rigs to experience how the other sounded. To their dismay, they discovered they still sounded like themselves.
True story? Urban legend? It don’t matter, there’s truth in that tale.
 
No because they are not a good company. I was a Gibson warranty center for years and the ended up ripping me off for thousands by pitting me between their customers and their incredibly shitty QC. I had a shop in a store that was a Gibson dealer and they would send the worst problematic acoustic guitars with the necks set back too far that had bridges and saddles too tall and tops that would instantly sink in making them unplayable. These guitars would sell and two weeks later be in my shop for warranty work with the tops collapsing. Then they wouldn’t pay the repair bill or honor the warranty, and the customer left the shop pissed off at me.

This is one of many examples of how they are a bad company.
The thing I dislike about Gibson is the piss poor QC, and that they sue anyone that improves on any guitar that share one of theirs body shape. Most Vees and SGs are usually decent off of the shelf and given a proper set up. LPs are a different thing all together. I have owned around 25 of them over the years, including Custom shop. The break angle from nut to tuner = D&G strings constantly going out of tune. Have yet to see a single one that didn't have binding proud of the body. That may not effect playing, but if I am shelling out 3500-4500 for a guitar I expect to be able to hold it up for a look and marvel at the fine craftsmanship, and it isn't there with Gibson.They have been riding on their name alone for far to long. I will buy them if the price is right to flip, but their are way better builders doing the LP thing leaps and bounds above Gibson build quality, tone, versatility , that don't have tuning issues. All that to say, I agree with you, and they need to stop suing folks over body shapes. Only so many that are actually practical . They need to focus their efforts on turning out a high quality, well crafted instrument, instead of gluing some wood together and $lapping a Gib$on logo on it. I know a lot of folks love them. Who doesn't remember seeing their fave guitarist playing one and thinking "I want one of those when I grow up".Thats the part that bothers me the most about them. They are an American Icon, and there is nothing preventing them from building a quality product, besides the fact that they just wont. Many of those that they have threatened with, or filed suit against have turned out LP style guitars that don't have any of those QC issues. If they can do it, then Gibson can too.
 
I have to say, the used 2011 les paul traditional i recently bought is about as fine a guitar as I've ever owned. I can't find any fit and finish flaws. The fret work is awesome...I tightened the truss and lowered the action so low it was unbelievable. Not a dead note anywhere. It was actually too low and I raised it back up a little. I've never had a guitar, even a brand new one, that you could do that on without a fret level and crown. It sounds incredible, but the pickups and pots were changed to Dubabo PAF clones and the pots and caps were changed out for cts pots and oil filled caps.
To be fair, it's a used guitar and could have had the frets leveled and crowned so.ewhere along the line but I don't think so.
I've owned several gibson les pauls and a couple of late 70's Japanese Les paul copies.

I don't see how someone could ask for a better Les Paul than this Traditional
 
I have to say, the used 2011 les paul traditional i recently bought is about as fine a guitar as I've ever owned. I can't find any fit and finish flaws. The fret work is awesome...I tightened the truss and lowered the action so low it was unbelievable. Not a dead note anywhere. It was actually too low and I raised it back up a little. I've never had a guitar, even a brand new one, that you could do that on without a fret level and crown. It sounds incredible, but the pickups and pots were changed to Dubabo PAF clones and the pots and caps were changed out for cts pots and oil filled caps.
To be fair, it's a used guitar and could have had the frets leveled and crowned so.ewhere along the line but I don't think so.
I've owned several gibson les pauls and a couple of late 70's Japanese Les paul copies.

I don't see how someone could ask for a better Les Paul than this Traditional
Their inconsistency is their biggest flaw. They do make some guitars that are nice.

When I was a warranty center the sales rep would show up with samples of their new models and those guitars would be dialed in. They had perfect frets and playability, looked good, etc. However, when the guitars that were ordered showed up at the store their quality was all over the place with weird fir and finish, bad frets and sunken tops on acoustics.
 
conservation of energy. It has to go somewhere. Look at pedal steels - massive, heavy and dead in the guitar range - so it sustains longer. anything between the ends of the strings, if it resonates anywhere is a sink for string energy. the strings trying to excite the workbench just cannot. If you tap a stringless tele or strat, there is a sort of 'note' and it rings. If your finger tape does it, so do the strings. Magic eared individuals may hear the difference. Most of us just can't. Why do people accept that acoustic guitars sound different because of the body, yet deny it in an electric?
 
I said "Dubabo" pickups in my les paul.
It's Durbano not Dubabo. They were made by the pickup winder from Australlia "Mr Fabulous".
He sells pickups on reverb.com.
I probably wouldn't have rolled the dice on a set myself, but the Les Paul was loaded with them when I bought it.
I'm REALLY impressed with them.
 
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