New gibsons painful to play

Quencho092 · Oct 28, 2004

I went to my local guitar center this Sunday just to check out some gear and get some springs for my tremolo on the strat. I felt like playing all the Gibsons to see what the fuss was all about. I plugged into the fender twin reissue(sounded spectacular), and all the LP's sounded great. But as i was playing, i felt an aching pain in my finger tips.

I noticed that the frets were like sharp rectangles! What's up with this? my buddy's epiphone sg special has better fretwork than a les paul custon i tried out.

Benjy_26 · Oct 28, 2004

Re: New gibsons painful to play

You need to play a Hamer.

papersoul · Oct 28, 2004

Re: New gibsons painful to play

That's funny. I have a 2003 LP and the fret job is quite nice and feels great. In fact, it is the best guitar I've owned in 16 years of playing.

Gearjoneser · Oct 28, 2004

Re: New gibsons painful to play

No matter what you play, your hands will get used to it within a couple weeks.
When I only used one type of guitar, my hands couldn't get used to a lot of other guitars. If you've got 5 different styles of guitars, and you play all of them often, you start to like all of them for different reasons.

martinsixstringcustoms · Oct 28, 2004

Re: New gibsons painful to play

Well said, Gearjoneser! I found that to be very much true! (Particularly when going from a Strat to a Paul)

strat_master · Oct 28, 2004

Re: New gibsons painful to play

ive played pauls before and i love them, i lie themw ay ebtetr than my strat

59paul · Oct 28, 2004

Re: New gibsons painful to play

Could be the Guitar Store doesn't pay attention to their Temperature and Humidity inside the store.

This is the 1st thing I think of when I hear of uncomfortable frets on a Les Paul. Dealer Neglect !!!!!!!!

54stratlover · Oct 28, 2004

Re: New gibsons painful to play

Bad shops run poor humidity (GC) and the fretboard wood shrinks, thus exposing the frets more. It's a shame. Seems to be worse with rosewood.

NecroPolo · Oct 28, 2004

Re: New gibsons painful to play

With such a quality control it is quite impossible that such a mistake happens in the factory. Most surely, it is the guitar store to blame. That gibby shoud have played like buttah...

Gearjoneser said:
No matter what you play, your hands will get used to it within a couple weeks.
When I only used one type of guitar, my hands couldn't get used to a lot of other guitars. If you've got 5 different styles of guitars, and you play all of them often, you start to like all of them for different reasons.

#1 turth :notworthy

However, in some cases it is impossible. For example, with my short fingers I can't get on with a 7-string axe. The neck is too wide for me. I had the Ibanez 720xx?? of a friend with me for a week or so just for test and after 5 minutes it became pretty painful to produce enough downpressure to get the low strings sound good. Then, I concluded that playing a 7-string is not my cup of T. It's true for 5+ string basses. I can play a 4-string when I have to but I can't handle even the most friendly 5-string.

Just my .02

B2D · Oct 28, 2004

Re: New gibsons painful to play

Personally I do not like Gibsons fretwork on the LP standards. The frets are just too low and too wide for me to get a good grip. LP Customs are better though. I prefer Pauls with bigger frets and shallower necks. It's the best way to go for me personally cuz If I can get a better grip and get more sting to the notes.

As far as 7-string go (as Necro mentioned) I have small hands as well and while I find the Ibanez 7-strings too much for me, I played an ESP Stephen Carpenter model that was a delight to play. Yes it was wide but something they did made it waaaaay comfy.

Quencho092 · Oct 29, 2004

Re: New gibsons painful to play

not that the frets stuck out, they were edged and shaped like rectangular blocks. Paul necks are painted so i figure thats not a factor humidity wise. I played most of the strats and found a floor model mexican strat that played better than all the LP's.

ledzepp29 · Oct 29, 2004

Re: New gibsons painful to play

i had the same problem with my faded les paul but I got used to it, apparently much of the fadeds had this problem but I have never played a regular paul with that problem must just be a bad batch

Quencho092 · Oct 29, 2004

Re: New gibsons painful to play

do you guys lean over slightly when you play your pauls? i usually lean over my strat a bit to get a nice view of the fretboard and the strat fits like a glove with the tummy cuts and forearm cut.

strat_master · Oct 29, 2004

Re: New gibsons painful to play

playing a gibson les paul for me is like eating a steak, after starving in the desert for a year. I loved almost every one i played,,,,with the exceptions of thefaded series.

Dills · Oct 29, 2004