chibson les paul....chinese copy gibsons

Re: chibson les paul....chinese copy gibsons

"Screw Chibson and screw Gibson as far as I'm concerned. If Gibson wasn't trying to put the screws to the very people they're "making their product for", there wouldn't be a crop of knockoffs trying to profit off of vanity and excess. There's NOTHING worth $3k in a Gibson except the name."

Amen John the Art Guy!! My wife let me take $2,000 to Guitar Center last year to grab my first "new" guitar purchase. Been playing 20+ years and NEVER had a new guitar. Well, I played all the Gibsons they had. Even the ones in the "good stuff" room. Needless to say, I did NOT walk out of there with a Gibson. I bought a Schecter Solo 6 that looks, plays and sounds WAY better than ALL of the Gibson guitars I touched there. There were a few old ones there as well. They were just so so.
 
Re: chibson les paul....chinese copy gibsons

jon the art guy said:
I don't use Gibsons for the same reason I don't use Lexus, bottled water, Grey Goose or sea salt. The perceived actual bonuses are not anywhere near the markup in price, except for name recognition.
Click to expand...

Come on man Lexus too! I love my Lexus, I use it to haul my Les Paul around while sipping on bottled water.

BCTRZFOCMAA9Gfn.jpg:large
 
Re: chibson les paul....chinese copy gibsons

I have purchased two new gibsons recently.

The ES-335 I had to RMA to Gibson and was sent a replacement - a small blemish turned out to be a crack near the volute that affected the truss rod. Got a new one from Gibson a few weeks later. This new one still had some intonation issues even after the tech did what he could, and required a bridge swap to fix.

The Midtown Standard I got is perfect. Ironically it was less than half the price of the 335. The fingerboard is made of that composite stuff (can't recall what it is) but it works well. Has 57 classics and a Bigsby, and simplified volume & tone controls.

I bought it when shopping for a 335 style with a bigsby and tried several Epiphones in the shop, hoping to save a little dough. But none of them even came close to the Midtown in terms of playability, tone and overall quality.

My point here is that Gibson still makes many reasonably priced, high quality guitars -if you find the right one.

The impression that I get is that the custom shop makes cosmetically lovely guitars with high quality materials that are "vintage spec". Gibson USA on the other hand, makes more practical players' guitars with more modern features.

I've never (to my knowledge) played a Chibson but I imagine some of them are perfectly playable and would do well enough with electronics & hardware upgrades.
 
Re: chibson les paul....chinese copy gibsons

Danglin' Fury said:
"Screw Chibson and screw Gibson as far as I'm concerned. If Gibson wasn't trying to put the screws to the very people they're "making their product for", there wouldn't be a crop of knockoffs trying to profit off of vanity and excess. There's NOTHING worth $3k in a Gibson except the name."

Amen John the Art Guy!! My wife let me take $2,000 to Guitar Center last year to grab my first "new" guitar purchase. Been playing 20+ years and NEVER had a new guitar. Well, I played all the Gibsons they had. Even the ones in the "good stuff" room. Needless to say, I did NOT walk out of there with a Gibson. I bought a Schecter Solo 6 that looks, plays and sounds WAY better than ALL of the Gibson guitars I touched there. There were a few old ones there as well. They were just so so.
Click to expand...

Certainly buying a Gibson isn't for everybody.....glad you found something you really liked - thats the key to happy guitar playing.

Having just made myself a clone of a 59 Les Paul from absolute scratch using all the authentic materials I'll say this - its a helluva task! MUCH more work than you could possibly imagine from just looking at one.
 
Re: chibson les paul....chinese copy gibsons

I don't think Gibson make a bad product by any means, but the quality and the price don't match up at all sometimes. Especially when you compare to other brands at the same price point.
 
Re: chibson les paul....chinese copy gibsons

Nacho8807 said:
I don't think Gibson make a bad product by any means, but the quality and the price don't match up at all sometimes. Especially when you compare to other brands at the same price point.
Click to expand...

And this is the REAL issue.

Yes - Gibson makes a SUPERIOR product period. However, love it for what it is - a 60+ year old design. So it is going to be, shall we say, not the sleekest thing on the road.

However - at the PRICE point they operate, I expect EVERY guitar to be SUPERIOR. I actually applied for a job at Gibson North America one time recently. The nature of the job descriptioned just screamed "Major Corporate Hierarchy with sole (soulless) purpose of eeking out maximum profit"

I have seen guitars hanging on walls with simply $h!tty tops. No human being who gave a rat's @$$ would have
a) Used that wood for a burst/see thru top
b) Let it out the door
c) Charged the full price for it if you did.

[See also the Ultimate Guitar Pawn Prize of a STUNNING flame top that was painted Alpine White!]

I have SEEN a guy at Dean pull a crappy Vendetta off distribution because the high E string didn't really "ring" like it should. Once upon a time Gibson would mark guitars as 2nds, and sell them at discount. Now - if it gets completed, it gets sold at the standard price.

Hamer, Dean, ESP, Schecter and a bunch of other companies can make a Les Paul style guitar at half the price and CONSISTENTLY better quality. For $2.5K EVERY guitar should be great, and a number of them true gems. They are not even close to that. Yes - almost ALL of them are solid well made guitars, but like I said - that should be the bare freaking minimum you would expect. And notice how I said "almost"

Meanwhile at Dean a guy is scrapping a $99 Chinese import for meh highs.

Elliott spends money on getting good guitars in the hands of everyone, and Henry spends money on Lawyers instead of craftsmen and QA/QC. I have not purchased a NEW Gibson since 1979 and don't plan on it. Chibson, however - I might.
 
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Re: chibson les paul....chinese copy gibsons

Is there significant counterfeiting of other guitar brands? How 'bout amps, pedals, others?
 
Re: chibson les paul....chinese copy gibsons

Ive seen Chinese Gibson Clones that said Gibson Les Paul. Wouldn't be hard to change the stickers
 
Re: chibson les paul....chinese copy gibsons

This Gibson is interesting in a few ways. Especially the serial number which reads Nashville Plant, TN, USA, August 2000, Production Number: 258 so I would guess this is NOS? A 14 year old guitar? The Bigsby looks horrible and I am pretty sure there should be a poker chip on the toggle. Those pickups also look very suspect.

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/pro...ue-Color-China-producer/905262_389322980.html

Capture.JPG

Capture2.JPG
 
Re: chibson les paul....chinese copy gibsons

Just to be clear, I would rather French-kiss Ed Roman's corpse than buy from one of these places.
 
Re: chibson les paul....chinese copy gibsons

The one thing I've heard say over and over again when spotting fakes is that the pots are not aligned in a rhombus on the fakes usually. I assume that, since I heard that news like 10 years ago, things are different now and they've figured how to tool in accordance with the carved top or whatever their malfunction was. As LPs tend to break at the headstock easily, people buy up broken models and do a neck graft too so checking the stamps on back are no clear evidence.
And of course I've read a bunch about people reshaping Agile headstocks. That would be an easier fake to spot in person, but not online.

This sneaky sh!t is the reason I started not liking standard body shapes anyway; way less chance of a fake when nobody likes them. It wasn't until way after when I found out about all the bad business stuff.
 
Re: chibson les paul....chinese copy gibsons

Yes, EMGs and ultra high gain is the perfect partner for these guitars
 
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