WTF Gibson!

[Eagle]

LP:
View attachment 37071

S2 594:
View attachment 37072

CE24:

View attachment 37073

No discernible (to me) intonation issues with any of the 3

They are in between the two and probably slightly out but not the ridiculous exaggerated guess and leave it I was complaining about.

 

[BahamaDada]

@Eagle

Which brand/manufacturer DOES get your approval on stock guitars?

 

[Eagle]

@Eagle

Which brand/manufacturer DOES get your approval on stock guitars?

I think it’s expected that some issues will get through unless the price is high.
Fender USA are mostly good.
In cheaper guitars;
Cherry picking MIM fender brands is probably the best value out there.
The only brand that I have never seen an issue on is;
Collings.
Japan Ibanez are good.
Japan built in general is very consistent but it depends on the spec as to what level they take it too.
PRS core are very good as long as you finish the fret work yourself.
It’s not about QC usually from most manufacturers these days it’s about the production process time allowance. I would prefer a company to stop at a lesser level than rush everything and do things badly that you can’t reverse.
Doing the fret ends and cleaning up a half crowned fret is far preferable to one that is over bevelled and a clumsy fingerboard edge roll.
Remember a £2K guitar will have a £500 total build cost. Bring down the SRP and the build cost gets very tight.

 

[BahamaDada]

I think it’s expected that some issues will get through unless the price is high.
Fender USA are mostly good.
In cheaper guitars;
Cherry picking MIM fender brands is probably the best value out there.
The only brand that I have never seen an issue on is;
Collings.
Japan Ibanez are good.
Japan built in general is very consistent but it depends on the spec as to what level they take it too.
PRS core are very good as long as you finish the fret work yourself.
It’s not about QC usually from most manufacturers these days it’s about the production process time allowance. I would prefer a company to stop at a lesser level than rush everything and do things badly that you can’t reverse.
Doing the fret ends and cleaning up a half crowned fret is far preferable to one that is over bevelled and a clumsy fingerboard edge roll.
Remember a £2K guitar will have a £500 total build cost. Bring down the SRP and the build cost gets very tight.

What's the stance on guitars like Harley Benton, where they "save money" (think about it how you like) by cutting out the middleman and distribution. Direct from the asian factory to Treppendorf (with hopefully a QC in Franconia)

 

[Eagle]

What's the stance on guitars like Harley Benton, where they "save money" (think about it how you like) by cutting out the middleman and distribution. Direct from the asian factory to Treppendorf (with hopefully a QC in Franconia)

Harley Benton are better value because of this but most are still pretty mediocre. It depends what you are looking for. If you want a instrument to keep for life with little or no compromise or something useable . Modern budget guitars are better than they have ever been but they can't compete with things that aren't built to such a strict low price point except by luck. Budget electrics and hardware are almost always garbage unless the design lends itself to cheap production (P bass bridge for example). The question you need to ask is how much do you care about the difference between a Squire vintage modified and a Custom shop? how different are they too you. Any great player could gig a modern budget guitar. Sire Larry Carlton sounds fine with Larry playing it but my issue with it in particular is too much emphasis (and budget) is wasted on cosmetic details leaving a fundamentally poor instrument under the (very thick) gloss. Play and buy what inspires you and cherry pick instruments by playing as many as you get a chance to whatever the price.

 

[Jarick]

All my guitars have the dual slant intonation pattern except my 335. Last week I was tweaking string height and intonation and thought it looked wrong but when I moved the A string in line it sounded really flat. Double checked this morning and it looks just like these ones more or less:

I got curious, went to the andertons page and took a few screenshots of the first gibson LPs I found. Surely the D string can't be intonated properly on any of these?

View attachment 37012

View attachment 37013


View attachment 37014


View attachment 37015

 

[Jarick]

All my other guitars including my PRS McCarty 594 have the dual angle pattern. I had a Mira with the one piece wraparound with preset intonation and it sounded great to me.

 

[Eagle]

All sets of three plain three wound strings should basically be pattern 2 with slight variation. If you get something else then you have a problem somewhere. The point that people are missing is Gibsons not bothering to intonate beyond picture 1 which I guarantee is wrong on any guitar.

 

[Jarick]

All sets of three plain three wound strings should basically be pattern 2 with slight variation. If you get something else then you have a problem somewhere. The point that people are missing is Gibsons not bothering to intonate beyond picture 1 which I guarantee is wrong on any guitar.

Yep, just double checked my 335. The three plain strings follow that pattern and are well intonated. The wound strings, the A is definitely more forward than E and D. D is intonated, A and E are a little flat and need to be moved forward more.

 

[stcornish]

Every new Gibson with this bridge ships like this;
View attachment 36951
I could guess it better because it always ends up like this;
View attachment 36952
Also people having tuning issues with Gibson should string like this;
View attachment 36953
One under two over and your tuning problems go away because now the angle over the nut isn’t the stupid 17 degrees. So you don’t need a new nut or locking tuners to keep it in tune.

Mine is strung with two under and I have significant tuning issues. Will have to restring. I don't know if the shop or the factory strung it. Thanks for the help.

 

[maguchi]

The tech who does my guitars told me that Gibson does pretty much the same intonation on all their new guitars they ship and that my saddles had the typical Gibson setup. But supposedly Gibson sets them up incorrectly when they ship at least per the tech.

I know before setup mine were kind of wonky as far as intonation and the string heights din't feel too good neither. Anyways this is how it looks after setup, din't take no pics before setup. Intonation is perfect at the 12th and 24th fret now! Looks a little diffrent than the other pics here, but it's a 25 1/2" scale.

 

[Eagle]

The tech who does my guitars told me that Gibson does pretty much the same intonation on all their new guitars they ship and that my saddles had the typical Gibson setup. But supposedly Gibson sets them up incorrectly when they ship at least per the tech.

I know before setup mine were kind of wonky as far as intonation and the string heights din't feel too good neither. Anyways this is how it looks after setup, din't take no pics before setup. Intonation is perfect at the 12th and 24th fret now! Looks a little diffrent than the other pics here, but it's a 25 1/2" scale.

View attachment 42694

As the strings settle the bass E will go flat on there. Test it in a week or two.

 

[JiveTurkey]

We're visiting the Gibson Garage this weekend. I'll tell them to do better!