Re: Everyone can Gibson flame over here if you'd like. Full 2015 lineup
The adjustable metal nut contraption is hideous. It's not about the demand for a zero fret. It's about making more money. It's their way to respond to the criticism their nut work, while avoiding having to pay a worker to actually spend the time it takes to craft a good nut. Now all a worker has to do is slap on a piece of metal and turn a few set screws. The metal nut probably saves them the equivalent of at least an hour in labor on each guitar versus making a proper nut. Not that I mind the concept of a metal nut, mind you. It's just that their only "concept" here is being cheap asses.
Same with Plek (though it isn't new to them). Just another excuse to minimize the time spent on fretwork (as if they were spending much anyhow), while at the same time using it as a selling point. Of course any good production guitar maker would be glad to have a Plek to do a lot of the coarse work, but, having pride and wanting to do their best, would do the fine work by hand just like they always did. The Plek has never been about improving quality, but about reducing labor costs in a mass production environment. There's nothing wrong with that, as long as you don't use it as a crutch, to avoid doing proper fret work. However, from what I have played from Gibson since they got the Plek, my guess is that they don't do much at all after Pleking the guitar.
And they set them up now! Ooooh! I wonder if they realize that that's actually really embarrassing statement to make, as it does nothing but admit that they didn't do it before (which was obvious).
The headstock logo...is anyone actually gonna want a guitar with that gaudy thing on it?
The robo tuners.....I dunno. As long as they work, they don't prevent you from tuning normally, and they are reliable, whatever. But I bet that to Gibson's benefit, they help shave off production time too. And I really wonder about the reliability of any over engineered and unnecessary product, especially one from a company known for making relatively crummy products over the past decade plus.
And ah, yes. I forgot that "P90's" now have slugs in them. LOL. I was hoping that was just the cheesy Melody Makers from last year that were using those pickups, but I guess not. Cheaper to press a few slugs in than to take the time to screw them into a keeper bar I guess? Man, that is really scraping the barrel for cost cutting opportunities.
All gloss finishes now? Fine by me. This is part of their purging of any interest in keeping budget conscious customers, which I am pretty okay with in theory. I just wish their quality would actually move up to be worthy of the high end prices they want.
And everything is still just "mahogany," by the way...whatever that means.
With all of these classless, blatantly-corporate-cost-cutting changes in conjunction with the price increases, I really can't fathom who with much experience or brains is gonna actually buy these things.
