David Collins
New member
Re: Gibson factory setup ... sucks?
As to setups not being good right out of the box, yeah, I have no problem blaming the factory. :1: To a point anyway, though the dealer should certainly bear some responsibility as well.
They're new instruments. They haven't settled in, and have never been set up for a particular player's style. Still, from large production factories like Gibson, Martin, Fender, etc, they are never really set up that well before they are shipped out. Gibson certainly isn't particularly bad - I'd put them probably on par with many other mid-high level makers. Still, nut slots are never cut properly, and adjustments of truss rod, action, intonation, are generally held only to modestly loose tolerances.
I wouldn't blame much on shipping and handling, as guitars from makers like Collings, PRS, even Yamaha will come out of the box with a better setup after going through the same transit or climate shifts. Still, even a Collings that was set up perfectly at the factory can need a little tweaking by the time they reach their final destination. Gibsons aren't unusually bad, they just generally need a bit more final tweaking than some others.
And yes, ideally a dealer should have competent techs to inspect and set up every instrument that comes though, or tweak them a bit for the final owner upon purchase. There are a few good shops that do this, though most don't. The guitars just come off the truck, out of the box, and on the wall. Heck, when I was working with Elderly's, I'd say about 5-10% of the instruments we received we rejected and sent back to the factory or distributor. That number was already disproportionately low to reflect the market as a whole, because our buyers went to great lengths to weed out the makers that proved to show higher rates of defects. This means that I'd guess somewhere at least in the 10% range of guitars hanging in most stores should be written off as defective before they are even sold. Of the other 90-95% that stayed, it was very, very rare to find any that didn't need at least a bit of final adjustment to bring them up to our specs. As I said though, stores that pay attention to this level of detail are rather few and far between.
Most should come with "Some final assembly and adjustments required" stickers in my opinion, but I suppose that wouldn't help sales too much.
As to setups not being good right out of the box, yeah, I have no problem blaming the factory. :1: To a point anyway, though the dealer should certainly bear some responsibility as well.
They're new instruments. They haven't settled in, and have never been set up for a particular player's style. Still, from large production factories like Gibson, Martin, Fender, etc, they are never really set up that well before they are shipped out. Gibson certainly isn't particularly bad - I'd put them probably on par with many other mid-high level makers. Still, nut slots are never cut properly, and adjustments of truss rod, action, intonation, are generally held only to modestly loose tolerances.
I wouldn't blame much on shipping and handling, as guitars from makers like Collings, PRS, even Yamaha will come out of the box with a better setup after going through the same transit or climate shifts. Still, even a Collings that was set up perfectly at the factory can need a little tweaking by the time they reach their final destination. Gibsons aren't unusually bad, they just generally need a bit more final tweaking than some others.
And yes, ideally a dealer should have competent techs to inspect and set up every instrument that comes though, or tweak them a bit for the final owner upon purchase. There are a few good shops that do this, though most don't. The guitars just come off the truck, out of the box, and on the wall. Heck, when I was working with Elderly's, I'd say about 5-10% of the instruments we received we rejected and sent back to the factory or distributor. That number was already disproportionately low to reflect the market as a whole, because our buyers went to great lengths to weed out the makers that proved to show higher rates of defects. This means that I'd guess somewhere at least in the 10% range of guitars hanging in most stores should be written off as defective before they are even sold. Of the other 90-95% that stayed, it was very, very rare to find any that didn't need at least a bit of final adjustment to bring them up to our specs. As I said though, stores that pay attention to this level of detail are rather few and far between.
Most should come with "Some final assembly and adjustments required" stickers in my opinion, but I suppose that wouldn't help sales too much.
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