My friend just bought one of these for a good price as the 2018 line is coming in. It's the one with the robot tuners, push/pull everything and sculpted heel.
I liked it a lot! The quality is definitely there. The fret work and factory set up were better than most I have seen. The flame top was pretty sweet.
I especially liked the heel. It's the same as on the Axcess. I did not notice any difference in tone or sustain compared to other Les Pauls I've played, but the upper fret access sure was much easier.
I even liked the robot tuners. The main benefit that I can see is being able to switch between alternate tunings quickly. The novelty of being able to tune up to E standard wears off quickly of course. They work like normal tuners too, which means the guitar goes out of tune now and then... I think if I were to want non-traditional tuners then I'd probably got with locking tuners for stability. Nonetheless, it was good fun to switch between drop D, DADGAD, open E, etc. Lots of tunes that are in these tunings I didn't bother with on my own guitars because it's too much hassle... I can see robot tuners really opening up my practice repertoire.
This particular model has push/pull pots all round, and internally there are switches you can move to change their function. A lot of it is stuff I wasn't interested in to be honest... I never did like the sound of split humbuckers or out of phase Peter Green tones. There's some treble bleeds on there which are useful I guess. I didn't look inside the guitar but I assume it's a circuit board... in the box there were pickup connectors, a bit like the liberator system, for changing pickups. Looks like doing so should be nice and easy.
The pickups were pretty good. Nothing much to say about them, but no complaints.
Overall I thought it was a pretty sweet axe. Modern Gibson's get a lot of criticism, especially the robot tuning sculpted heel stuff... but this guitar was really good.
I liked it a lot! The quality is definitely there. The fret work and factory set up were better than most I have seen. The flame top was pretty sweet.
I especially liked the heel. It's the same as on the Axcess. I did not notice any difference in tone or sustain compared to other Les Pauls I've played, but the upper fret access sure was much easier.
I even liked the robot tuners. The main benefit that I can see is being able to switch between alternate tunings quickly. The novelty of being able to tune up to E standard wears off quickly of course. They work like normal tuners too, which means the guitar goes out of tune now and then... I think if I were to want non-traditional tuners then I'd probably got with locking tuners for stability. Nonetheless, it was good fun to switch between drop D, DADGAD, open E, etc. Lots of tunes that are in these tunings I didn't bother with on my own guitars because it's too much hassle... I can see robot tuners really opening up my practice repertoire.
This particular model has push/pull pots all round, and internally there are switches you can move to change their function. A lot of it is stuff I wasn't interested in to be honest... I never did like the sound of split humbuckers or out of phase Peter Green tones. There's some treble bleeds on there which are useful I guess. I didn't look inside the guitar but I assume it's a circuit board... in the box there were pickup connectors, a bit like the liberator system, for changing pickups. Looks like doing so should be nice and easy.
The pickups were pretty good. Nothing much to say about them, but no complaints.
Overall I thought it was a pretty sweet axe. Modern Gibson's get a lot of criticism, especially the robot tuning sculpted heel stuff... but this guitar was really good.
