Gibson, how does thou suck, let me count the stripes....

Aceman

I am your doctor of love!
So I was in a GC. As I have said - it isn't really the QC on functionality. Its the sloppy @$$ work they do for the price you pay. I glanced at a wall of Les Pauls and let's take a look how easy this was....

I would really like that leather jacket wearing Daughtry Wannabe Dooshrocket Mark whatever his name is to explain THESE beauties to me. Someone PLEASE tell him I said so.

Exhibit A: An otherwise beautiful Amber Les Paul flame. Except that the lower bout on the left is devoid of flame. Because, for $3000 they couldn't find a better piece of wood, you know...or paint that as a Gold Top, Black or something cool.

T7hZIS9.jpg


Exhibit B: A Cherry Sunburt Les Paul Standard. Now this is a bargain at $2500. I guess it would have been $5000 if the right half of the guitar had ANY flame on it. Because you know - we all go0 around going "I want a really sweet standard half flame, half plain top!"

PmYZENW.jpg


And finally, Exhibit C: This is a truly outrageous piece of crap. WTF did they do here??? For a mere $5300 you can get this custom El Tigre burst or something stupid like that. Note the exquisite two shades of red. Observe the completely asymmetrical dark striping. And that dark blob opposite the control knobs and what may be a water spot? on the wood (perhaps from the Nashville Flood!). This one belongs in that Customer Experience shop. Surely they let it get away! Can't believe this unique *cough cough* beauty is a penny less than $10k!!!

tHkfO9E.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Kac
In all honesty, Ace - sometimes the flame figure shows up when looking at the guitar from the 180 degree perspective. It's called chatoyance - The three dimensional effect of figure in wood grain. As you move the guitar, the figure moves too.
 
The middle example for $2500 is indeed really bad IMO.

Looks like half is a flame and the other half a plain top. I like the plain half better actually.
 
Last edited:
In all honesty, Ace - sometimes the flame figure shows up when looking at the guitar from the 180 degree perspective. It's called chatoyance - The three dimensional effect of figure in wood grain. As you move the guitar, the figure moves too.

In all honesty Goob, I am aware of that and moved around before accusing them of suckage.

Mark paying you to make excuses for them? ;)
 

I think a lot of bursts are actually like this. You just don't see it because the darkest part of the burst covers the lack of flame on the edges. But even this one as is, kind of has it's own character. It's not my idea of a flame top, but I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand as the right player could make it the next most desirable sig model.
 
Hey guys he's a 2.5 sigma white belt in bunk fool QA. that 3rd one looked great from your vantage point btw. Did you actually play one?
 
I don't really follow this line of thinking on some of the flames critiques,

if I wanted perfect symmetry and uniformity -I'd get a guitar with a paint job, synthetic materials, or one of those ridiculous stickers....

the imperfections of a natural piece of wood are what make the guitar original to you.

I'm not looking for a perfect mirror image

disclaimer: also not looking for a 3-4k LP either...ever
 
Honestly I see some better flame-matches on imported super strats like ltd and schecters.

Because they are book matched laminates. However I’ve had the same reaction as Ace checking out Gibsons on Sweetwater. Those $2500 Standards and $3000 Slash models (both specs I like) just came up short in the flame top
department. The plain tops actually look better.

That second one seems to have gotten two different halves.
 
These are bad for an under $1k guitar. There really is no excuse here. For that money you can pretty much have anything you want. It is a good topic, though...'Ridiculous Guitars the Store Wants Too Much Money For'.
 
Back
Top