Schecter’s negative Gibson headstock

[NegativeEase]

There have been several manufacturers do this, and I giggle everytime -especially when you consider Gibson stole that headstock design themselves

[Inflames626]

I think you just had a rare unfortunate experience with the Epis you bought.
I've had nearly a dozen Gibsons over the past 60 years and have had no complaints AT ALL about any of them before the 80's. The newer ones' QC sucks, however. I've also had a couple dozen Epis over the same time period and never had ANY QC issues. Yes, some of their parts aren't the greatest (especially their pups before they came out with their "Probuckers"). But their lower quality parts are how they can keep their prices low, and they can all be replaced with better quality if you want to. That's not a big deal.

Correct me if I'm wrong, GuitarDoc , but didn't most U.S. manufacturing, guitars included, start to fall off in terms of quality control between 1973-1975? (For reference, I was born in 1980.) Definitely by the late 70s and stagflation nearly everything in every industry seems bad.

If it's Fender or Gibson, the moment the date hits 1970 or a little after I start becoming a little skeptical of quality.

I say this because I remember a lot of people complaining about the price of the Adam Jones (of Tool) silverburst Les Paul artist model. Several said that the guitar was originally a 1970s silverburst and, relative to the 1950s-1960s LPs, 1970s quality was not as good and the silverburst finish was not as popular.

So, essentially Gibson was taking a less well-regarded model from its past and using a popular artist from the present to boost that model's popularity.

[JMP/HBE]

Such a deep thread for a schec-turd.

[Rex_Rocker]

I think you just had a rare unfortunate experience with the Epis you bought.
I've had nearly a dozen Gibsons over the past 60 years and have had no complaints AT ALL about any of them before the 80's. The newer ones' QC sucks, however. I've also had a couple dozen Epis over the same time period and never had ANY QC issues. Yes, some of their parts aren't the greatest (especially their pups before they came out with their "Probuckers"). But their lower quality parts are how they can keep their prices low, and they can all be replaced with better quality if you want to. That's not a big deal.

Perhaps. But if you've had only bad Epis and only good LTD's, which would you go for? The bad fretwork thing is a constant I keep reading on Epi reviews, and the bad QC thing I had to take mine back for was just bad fretwork taken to the extreme.

I know it's a taste thing, but the new headstock shape that everyone raves about being so much better looks horrible in the Standard-based models. On the Customs, it looks fine. But on the Standards, it just looks like a huge boat paddle, IMO.