Edwards vs Gibson

[tubeman87]

Re: Edwards vs Gibson

Honestly its prefrence and the name on the head stock, then hardware, woods, finish...you know all the eye candy,....and then, the playability and feel IMO. Kind of bitter sounding huh? Well the reason is all music shops local and nation wide will buy you guitar and a fraction of what you payed for it or for whats its worth, then sell it for thousands of dollars (depending on brand, and granted I know they have to make money but hearing some of the offers they give for great guitars is crap.) second and most important, I've sat and played $400-$500 dollar LP knock offs and the sound great IMO (tone is Subjective) and then I've grabed Gibbos for thousands more and BAM! Crap. If the price of used guitars where judged on sound and playability instead of everything minor and petty there would be alot of Gibbos going for mere pocket change.

(Not to piss off LP owners, I have a LP myself and have played some very good ones, but in all honesty the majority that I have played would be better off as drift wood.)

 

[JeffB]

Re: Edwards vs Gibson

, but in all honesty the majority that I have played would be better off as drift wood.)

I find this statement to be a general truth about guitars period..brand names aside. Whether they are MIA or otherwise. There are just alot of crap guitars out there..in any price range...they may be built great, but the wood sucks...or vice versa. I play alot of guitars messing around in the stores, and I'd say less than 3 out of every 20 is something where I say to myself...WOW this is just a great guitar. Wood varies too much.

 

[Robert Delahunt]

Re: Edwards vs Gibson

In the vein of "some are krap, some are not", has anyone tried to figure out why? Is it wood? If so, is it like bad wood giving wolf tones or something? Is there a way to test wood, like by machine, to prevent ending up with bad wood in a guitar?

 

[fingerace]

Re: Edwards vs Gibson

I find this statement to be a general truth about guitars period..brand names aside. Whether they are MIA or otherwise. There are just alot of crap guitars out there..in any price range...they may be built great, but the wood sucks...or vice versa. I play alot of guitars messing around in the stores, and I'd say less than 3 out of every 20 is something where I say to myself...WOW this is just a great guitar. Wood varies too much.

BINGO!

People living is the USA should appreciate the veriety of guitars there is over there.

If is sounds good it sounds good...
then again, WHY does that one sound good and the other one doesn't?? :laugh2:

 

[tubeman87]

Re: Edwards vs Gibson

In the vein of "some are krap, some are not", has anyone tried to figure out why? Is it wood? If so, is it like bad wood giving wolf tones or something? Is there a way to test wood, like by machine, to prevent ending up with bad wood in a guitar?

I have to wonder the samething, can builders know if a piece of wood is going to be good or bad, is there anyway of telling?

Quote from Jeff B
"I find this statement to be a general truth about guitars period..brand names aside. Whether they are MIA or otherwise. There are just alot of crap guitars out there..in any price range...they may be built great, but the wood sucks...or vice versa. I play alot of guitars messing around in the stores, and I'd say less than 3 out of every 20 is something where I say to myself...WOW this is just a great guitar. Wood varies too much."

I also have to agree with what you're saying here, I'm just taking LP's could they're part of the comparison, but I've experienced the same with all guitars for all brands.

 

[big_black]

Re: Edwards vs Gibson

If is sounds good it sounds good...
then again, WHY does that one sound good and the other one doesn't?? :laugh2:

There are a 1,000 guys out there who have "the one"...well, you can't ALL have "the one". :laugh2:

Some of it is the subjectivity of sound and how we perceive things differently, there is pride and ego of course, and maybe some truth mixed in there at the end.

 

[MartinSixStringCustoms]

Re: Edwards vs Gibson

Some of it is the subjectivity of sound and how we perceive things differently, there is pride and ego of course, and maybe some truth mixed in there at the end.

+1

 

[fingerace]

Re: Edwards vs Gibson

There are a 1,000 guys out there who have "the one"...well, you can't ALL have "the one". :laugh2:

Some of it is the subjectivity of sound and how we perceive things differently, there is pride and ego of course, and maybe some truth mixed in there at the end.

Guess you're right... But still...

Sometimes in stores I play a cheapo that sounds close to amazing... and an expensive that sounds like crap (to everyone not just to me)

My point is that all the technical stuff is good to know, but if the damn thing sounds wonderfull just buy it... I would.. I just haven't found IT yet!

I tried and tried to distinguish why guitar A is better than B. I ve noticed out 3 things! (in general)

1. If it's a set neck, you propably will have to pay quite a lot of money for a high end guitar - to sound good

OR select THE ONE from the cheap bunch that just happened to sound amazing. (neck construction consistency problems I guess)

2. With bolt on guitars a midium range guitar with a pup change is as good as a high end.

3. and never judge a guitar when it has rusted 9s and extremely low action! :laugh2:

 

[kherman]

Re: Edwards vs Gibson

Kherman, what are these Diodatis? Never heard of 'em. Give us a little background on them.

A guy by the name of Pete Diodati was having a small number of guitars
built each year under his name and selling them through his store in New Hampshire.
Some were MIK.
Others, like the Vintage Tribute series (LP type), were MIJ.

Here's a link:
http://home.comcast.net/~arkir/diodati.html
I'm not sure if Pete's still having the guitars built.
You'd have to email him.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Edwards vs Gibson

I think it's just a combo of wood...the CNC machine/worker being "on" that day, and just plain luck.

On a Gibbo type guitar it weird..cos you can play 10 and a couple will be ..meh...the rest save one are pretty decent, and then BAM...that last one is just magic...its just everything was put together right...the neck angle is perfect, the nut is cut to the right depth, the frets are perfect, the intonation is on, the saddles are cut right.. and its got a really nice resonant peice of wood.


That said, I think a really good setup can make a TON of difference in even those "meh" guitars. I've handled a few friends guitars that played like crap, and then they got them setup by a good tech, and they were like totally different instruments. When everything is "working in harmony"..the neck..the relief..the tom heights, the pup heights, etc....the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.


Short scale Gibson type instruments are MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH...

MUCH....


MUCH...


less tolerant of a mediocre/half-ass setup...they are more finicky...but when they are "on"...its magic

 

[Robert Delahunt]

Re: Edwards vs Gibson

Well one question in my mind is the wolf-tone phoenomenon. It's a known fact of life (er, instrument ), and last I heard they were working on being able to test for it. Also, on violin-family instruments they can install certain devices to try to minimize the effect.

But anyways, I've been told that this is why on some instruments the G or B string don't like to sustain very well. Can wood be tested for resonance? Do some mysterious rich luthiers like to browse wood caches selecting "THE ONE" from a set of blanks? How would one go about making sure that the instrument they are getting is going to sound like "the one". For instance, what's Warmoth's reliability on producing "the one" versus duds and "ok" models?