Boudoir Guitar
Rock Star
- Messages
- 5,816
I don't love all the IBG stuff mostly based on looks, but the gold top is a winner - the satin finish makes a lot of sense on the painted color to me. Neck is chunky, but not cartoonishly so. Frets are perfect vintage size for me (I've really grown to love the feel of the smaller frets o my ES-225). Woods are all really high quality. Fit/finish are really good, but not perfect (pickup route is like 0.01" too wide such that it looks fine front on, even up close, but up close, looking at an angle, you can see that the ear-mount portion of the route comes riiiiiight up to the edge of the pickup ring). On the road with no rig to plug into, so can't reeeeally comment on that, but acoustically rings with the same sound I'd expect from a good LP. Case is actually worth noting - or maybe it's more common than I realize, but don't have loads of experience with LP cases. Its got a wedge of foam I the body area so that the body is fully supported even as the neck angle goes up enough so that the headstock is fully clear of the bottom of the case.
I've played a number of the IBG guitars. An SG with Vibrola that was GREAT - played great, looked great, sounded great, etc. - just a really great guitar that I almost bought. A couple of 355s that played/sounded/felt great but looked...meh. Watermelon finish was a little heavy handed towards pink and the matte finish just looked like -- a weird matte finish that didn't make sense on a guitar that otherwise was so authentic. A number of the 59 Les Pauls that were all similar to the 355 -- played/sounded/felt great but looked kinda wonky because they were so authentic but-for the satin finish that just looks like an oddball satin finish on an otherwise authentic reissue style LP. What was consistent on all of these, though, is that the woods are good -- good rosewood fingerboard, good 2-piece mahogany body without any back veneer. Honestly, I've played similar number of IBG and actual Gibson USA stuff over the last year and would say the wood selection is if anything a little better on the IBG stuff on average. Veneer-over-maple-cap for the sunburst finishes is really the only spot I see any corners being cut. Given the veneers they are using are actually pretty plain I'm assuming the maple underneath is proooobably serious paint-grade stuff.
I've played a LOT of Eastmans, and this holds up to everything in their sub-$2000 price range in terms of build quality, which makes the price tag make sense (I did a trade for this so was only a few hundred out of pocket easing the pain a bit). In the $14-1600 Eastman LP stuff, you get a gloss finish that IMO looks better than the satin on most of the IBG stuff, but the body shape is the body shape and no pick guard is no pick guard (i.e., great LP-style guitars that will never quite look/feel like an LP) and the pickups are...pretty crap up to not bad if you get one with the SD '59s, where the IBG is full on Custombucker loaded. The Eastmans tend to be a little lighter (haven't weighed this one - its well I the acceptable range for an LP, but probably leans slightly above the average for that range).
I've played a fair number of PRS SE 594s and this beats those all day long. They are $300 cheaper, and to me, they feel cheaper. Great guitars, but the finish feels cheaper/thicker, the binding/inlays feel a lot more plasticky, and the pickups always sound like a "I'd definitely wanna replace these" to me. Haven't had my hands on too may S2 level. At the end of the day, though, I feel like if you're in the market for an LP, a PRS just isn't going to cut it anyway.
I've played a number of the IBG guitars. An SG with Vibrola that was GREAT - played great, looked great, sounded great, etc. - just a really great guitar that I almost bought. A couple of 355s that played/sounded/felt great but looked...meh. Watermelon finish was a little heavy handed towards pink and the matte finish just looked like -- a weird matte finish that didn't make sense on a guitar that otherwise was so authentic. A number of the 59 Les Pauls that were all similar to the 355 -- played/sounded/felt great but looked kinda wonky because they were so authentic but-for the satin finish that just looks like an oddball satin finish on an otherwise authentic reissue style LP. What was consistent on all of these, though, is that the woods are good -- good rosewood fingerboard, good 2-piece mahogany body without any back veneer. Honestly, I've played similar number of IBG and actual Gibson USA stuff over the last year and would say the wood selection is if anything a little better on the IBG stuff on average. Veneer-over-maple-cap for the sunburst finishes is really the only spot I see any corners being cut. Given the veneers they are using are actually pretty plain I'm assuming the maple underneath is proooobably serious paint-grade stuff.
I've played a LOT of Eastmans, and this holds up to everything in their sub-$2000 price range in terms of build quality, which makes the price tag make sense (I did a trade for this so was only a few hundred out of pocket easing the pain a bit). In the $14-1600 Eastman LP stuff, you get a gloss finish that IMO looks better than the satin on most of the IBG stuff, but the body shape is the body shape and no pick guard is no pick guard (i.e., great LP-style guitars that will never quite look/feel like an LP) and the pickups are...pretty crap up to not bad if you get one with the SD '59s, where the IBG is full on Custombucker loaded. The Eastmans tend to be a little lighter (haven't weighed this one - its well I the acceptable range for an LP, but probably leans slightly above the average for that range).
I've played a fair number of PRS SE 594s and this beats those all day long. They are $300 cheaper, and to me, they feel cheaper. Great guitars, but the finish feels cheaper/thicker, the binding/inlays feel a lot more plasticky, and the pickups always sound like a "I'd definitely wanna replace these" to me. Haven't had my hands on too may S2 level. At the end of the day, though, I feel like if you're in the market for an LP, a PRS just isn't going to cut it anyway.
