See now thats exactly the finish I want.


Thats not a faded though is it. I could get over the potentialy crippling neck joint, glued on headstock (not just the wings) and the fact that I'd have to flatten the neck binding then re-fret over the binding (instead of butting up to it) for that colour at a half decent price.

Jay your point is valid if gibson put the same attention to detail into their guitars that everyone else does. That would justify the price of a good guitar made in a overly convoluted manner, £1700.
The fact is that they dont. I've searched since november for a lespaul that doesnt have a gap between the fret edge and the binding nipple. Even the one £5K Ultima I tried has the problem.
http://images.lilypix.com/albums/userpics/10010/1996_Gibson_Les_Paul_Ultima.JPG

ESP, and just about every other Japanese guitar manufacturer can put binding and frets on a neck in a decent manner. Why cant Gibson? So much attention to detail on their fretwork is let down by that one sloppy as hell mistake. It renders a guitar unplayable to me, I wrench strings in all directions. When they get trapped between binding and fret something is very very wrong.

_________________
No no and no

save some money , get a std and do some electronic upgrades , i'll let you know how mines work out

_________________

thankyou everyone for your input.

im thinking excatly what youve all said really.

think im defenatly gonna go epiphone. it is simply to much money me thinks.

gonna go and try some epi and gibsons friday.

its funny ive only ever played 1 gibson lp and 1 epi custom lp.

the epi simply blew me away for only £375 second hand (if i had cash i would of brought it straight out) played like a strat. lol

the gibson was big and clunky and played awful. think it just needed a set up though. they wanted £1600 second hand!!! because it was from the eightys. crazy town me thinks.

so i will see friday.

funny someone mentioned the epi ultra. its the ultra 2 i would buy. they are gooood looking things. and very versitile. gonna play one friday.

thanks evreyone.

hey nikininja.

glad you pointed that problem out. thats absurd really isnt it.

be intresting to put that to gibson, and see what they say.

Gibsons are definitely overpriced. For the price of a new Les Paul Standard I bought a 57 AVRI Strat and a 52 AVRI Hot Rod Tele (Granted, one was used and the other was a very nice deal, but I digress). I know there is more labor and materials involved in a LP, but you cannot tell me a standard production MIA LP is worth 2 or more MIA Fenders >_>

_________________
I traded my car in for a microphone.

As I mentioned before in this thread it has happened on my friends many times. The string has got caught mid set!

CC

_________________
Fender Stratocaster (parts build)
Fender Telecaster 72 Custom RI
Fender Telecoustic Deluxe
Gretsch Electromatic Pro-Jet
Gibson Les Paul Standard Plus
Gibson ES-135
Zenith Type-17
Marshall 70's JMP Superbass 100w
Blackstar HT-5

You wont get anywhere. Should they grace you with a reply it will be along the lines of "well thats the way they have always been made". What they fail to realise is that the guitars of yesteryear were well made and the problem rarely occured. After the first refret it was a moot point because the nipple was usualy flattened and the fret taken onto the binding.

_________________
No no and no

For better or for worse the reason Gibson do it (on some, not all Les Pauls) is "vintage" accuracy. In fact, when they do the fret-over-binding method there are torrents of complaints about "cost cutting" modern production methods.

I remember one of the 1959 VOS models coming out a few years ago and Neville Marten devoting about a page of a guitar magazine review just to discussing how they hadn't done the binding nib at the end of the fret and how that robbed the guitar of all authenticity. He was disgusted.

I suspect Gibson feel they will be slammed if they do, slammed if they don't. There's lots of discussion of this issue on their forum, I notice.

Anyhow. I'm not up to date enough on their models to name which ones, but some current Les Pauls do indeed have the fret over the binding, instead of the nib/nipple thing. The option is out there if you look for it...

Cheers - C

That's what I should start with. Looks good and the wife won't yell too much about the price. She figures that when I start talking new guitars that I'm about to spend a thousand or so!!

I really want guitslingers 65 John Lennon Epi Casino!!

we (musicians,) aren't the only ones unhappy with how Gibson is being run:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cad42764-3924 ... 10621.html

Yet another chapter in their ongoing saga.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Very interesting 12Bar!!

Cool!! Thanks for the links BigJay!!

"Thats not a faded though is it. I could get over the potentialy crippling neck joint, glued on headstock (not just the wings) and the fact that I'd have to flatten the neck binding then re-fret over the binding (instead of butting up to it) for that colour at a half decent price."

The one on the left IS a faded; that is what 3 coats of Virtuoso cleaner and 6 coats of Virtuoso Polish do. The one one the right is a Vintage Sunburst CS-336

_________________
Current Gear: Ron Kirn Barnbuster Tele,
Marshall: 1971 SuperLead 100>1997 1960-TV, bunch of pedals
and a 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera coupe named Veronica