Gibson LP Do-over for Suatain

[WoodGrain67]

I recently bought a real Gibson Les Paul 2016 Standard T in heritage cherry burst, but the sustain was lacking. I wanted to share that what I found was that there was a lot of sawdust in the tune-o-matic bridge and tailbar bushings in the body. I wiped the screws off and cleared the holes out with canned air and I also used StewMac #10 superglue to wick into the frets to solidify their connection to the neck. The fret finish was dull and rough, so after leveling them using a FretRocker, I polished them as well.

The sustain is much improved. I don't know what to say about the necessity to do this to a hand-made expensive guitar, but mine needed help.
I just put together a MusiKraft build using a bolt-on neck, and it was holding notes longer than the Gibson, which was disturbing to me. Now they're at least equal.

 

[daenius]

Re: Gibson LP Do-over for Suatain

Sorry to tell you but Gibson has always had issues with consistency. It's always necessary to physically pick one out when dealing with the Gibson Standard line. Years ago I was shopping for a Les Paul and I couldn't find a single Standard that was quite up to snuff, they either lacked sustain or playability or somehow the tone was real thin for a 9lb beast, and I ended up finding a cheaper Traditional model that was way heavy but it had the tone, sustain, and playability. The salesman didn't want to lose his commission on potentially $2.6k since the Traditional was on sale for $1.5k, so he turned me on to a poor condition used R8 that was fantastic. I ended up leaving and ordering an R8 elsewhere and that worked out nicely, lol

It's honestly very sad and disturbing to know that Gibson is perfectly fine with selling you an expensive product with lackluster consistency, but hey they've got the brand name so they can easily sell thousands of guitars at that price point with a legion of fanboys and artists to back them up, so they don't give a flying **** about the average consumers. I understand that given the volume they sell, it's difficult to maintain that consistency for hand-made instruments, but come on, we're paying nearly $3k for that thing!

I'm glad your LP worked out in the end though, luckily you're a knowledgeable and handy man who was able to make the guitar the way it should be out of the factory. I lurk the Suhr forum a lot and one time John Suhr himself mentioned that he owns several Gibsons, and he had to do similar work on most of them, and it's always something relatively small but makes a huge difference, such as nut not cut properly, a few bad fret edges and crowns, or less-than-perfect installation of the bridges.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Gibson LP Do-over for Suatain

^ The consistency of tone is nothing that any maker can guarantee. Go to any guitar based forum and the scenario is the same.

 

[daenius]

Re: Gibson LP Do-over for Suatain

^ The consistency of tone is nothing that any maker can guarantee. Go to any guitar based forum and the scenario is the same.

Agreed! The best they can do is guarantee the manufacturing consistency when it comes to craftsmanship. Tone is hard because everything can be scientifically correct but you still can't account for everyone's amps and playing techniques. Hell, they might even test it in the factory with their amp and go "yup, sounds great", then the customer goes "eww, it doesn't sound right". Now while great craftsmanship does not always equal the best tone for you, at least you'll feel better about purchasing the product from a consumer perspective: I paid $X for this guitar, and while it's not my cup of tea, I at least got some of my money's worth because it's built up to snuff for the $ I paid.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Gibson LP Do-over for Suatain

LP's are worse for consistency due to the construction type. A slab of mahogany topped with a thinner slab of maple, with a glued in neck with 2 species of wood there too (3 if its a reissue with a holly veneer). Its way more involved than your typical strat guitar.

Its impossible to predict what wood is going to do once joined even if you can select each bit for tonal compatibility. Practically 60% of the typical guitar blanks used is removed to make the guitar. Grain structure is unique and non uniform. You might just remove the one area that makes that blank.

Conversely I'm sure that probability would say that there were several lacklustre slabs that magically combined to produce something amazing.