Played a 2019 Gibson today

[Aceman]

So, I am a noted "opponent" of Gibson, yet am a lover of their guitars, and harsh critic of their business. I stopped into my Sam Ash to pick up a couple of things....

And played this:

Gibson High Performance Blueberry Fade

First - the good:

#1 Blueberry fade with flame was beautiful! Gorgeous finish in Nitrocel. Bright white binding, clear top knobs, just beautiful. That pic isn't even close to the awesome I saw.

#2 Neck felt great - Richlite finger board was awesome, cutaway on lower side for access was perfect, compound radius, low frets. Played smooth and fast.

#3 Locking tuners, aluminum bridge. Fantastic! Titanium adjustable nut?!?!?! Cool....

#4 Slight belly cut (could have been larger, or my belly could be smaller perhaps) - still a very nice touch

#5 And oh yeah....that new Gibson smell!

Can't speaker to the pickups (Burstbucker Pro/PRo Lead +). But....the guitar just felt resonant and sounded sweet acoustically.

Now the bad.....

This guitar is a Les Paul Standard that they should have been making since the 80's.....They should keep the classic standard too, but always have some of these on hand for the modern feature player.
$3.5k is a touch steep. 2k, or maybe 2500....not bad. Would seriously consider!

 

[justFred]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

thanks for the review...

 

[formula73]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

The new LP Jr DC looks pretty badass...

 

[Aceman]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

I saw one of today too. Pretty tough. I liked it. If it were ~ $500 they would be flying off the shelves faster than they could cut down trees to make them.

"Psss - hey kid....Try this P-90 goodness. It'll hold you over until you want to step up to something better..."

 

[devastone]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

That finish is awesome, glad to hear it plays as good as it looks. But, yeah, $3.5k, out of my range.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

Well, it is pretty, but my musician budget still can't afford it.

 

[YeRedHouseOverYonder]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

The price is outrageous and I'm a Gibson "fanboy". * I was recently browsing for LP cases for my '69 Les Paul and run into some of the 2019 guitars. Couldn't believe the price tags.

For 3.5k, you can pick up a real nice R8 or R9. A R7 can be had for 2.5-2.8k if you're patient. I would wait until these get blown out due to the pricing. They sure as hell look nice and bet a couple of them could be killer players. 3.5k is too much for an "upgraded standard".

Sent from my LG-H931 using Tapatalk

 

[formula73]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

New Gibson pricing has been absurd since before I knew what one was.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

Could they put the controls further away from the pickups? Maybe put them on the back .

 

[allbutromeo]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

I remember back in high school when LP Standards were $1800, and wishing for the day I could afford one. Now I can, but not $3500 they want now.

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

Could they put the controls further away from the pickups? Maybe put them on the back .

Are they not where they have always been?
Doesn’t look like they have been moved...

Personally I’ll take the Gibson layout any day over a Fender (Strat) layout. The Strat volume knob placement sucks. (For me, anyway)

 

[Darg1911]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

Talking about the double cut Tribute Jr. $799 if I recall. I like the lightning bar wrap tailpiece (which most people hate). I could even, almost, give them credit for the $799 pricing seeing how I think the Juniors are usually their most overpriced guitars for what they are and they'd been asking north of 1.2K for them in recent years. But still, when you can go back to last year or the year before models and can get a new LP faded or Tribute for 100 or 200 bucks more, then even at $799 the 2019 DC jr. isn't a good value for what went into it. But ignoring all that, the pickguard is atrocious. I suspect the labor is less to just top route the control cavity, design a new, ugly arse pickguard and mount the pots to the pickguard. But when you change the design, what is it a "Tribute" to? It's more like a compromise between the 2017 M series and a "real" LP Jr. DC.

Done with the rant.

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

Could they put the controls further away from the pickups? Maybe put them on the back .

Are they not where they have always been?
Doesn’t look like they have been moved...

Personally I’ll take the Gibson layout any day over a Fender (Strat) layout. The Strat volume knob placement sucks. (For me, anyway)

Yes, the modern control position is much different than the historical control position. I don't know why the new position is so far away. Here is a 59' RI to compare.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

Ace, thanks for the review-
As others have said, the price is way off, but...

If they've got the right feature functionality and quality is where it needs to be, this could be a big step in the right direction.
Gibson's price to value point has been off for a long time, and as we know, the price tag is a total of cost and margins-

So if, and this is a big if, Henry was just looking for too much margin, new management should be dropping these down to optimize that good old demand curve that we learned in high school-

On the other hand, if their processes are as messed up as we've been discussing, it's possible they simply can't make a good guitar at a good value point- so we gotta hope they are willing to do the change management we've been discussing.

If not, (insert your boutique here) will be happy to keep taking our money- I really want a nice LP style in the next year or so and I'll be personally voting with the pocket book

Thanks again- I gotta play one.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

Don’t forget to smell it.

We all agree price is an issue...but quality haters got no room to talk about that one.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

Sounds like a good guitar and maybe Gibson is starting to head back in the right direction. One thing though, get rid of those metallic pickup rings. Gibson either needs to switch them back to black or cream or they need to make their HP guitars wood mount like they did with the HP-2 like everyone forgot about last year.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

They are toppers on plastic I think.

Hated the wood mount.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

I dont care as much for the fade, but I absolutely LOVED the Blueberry burst they had last year. And it would have been better with the clear top knobs.

 

[Open lane]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

The color of that guitar is nice but it doesn’t look way expensive imo

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Played a 2019 Gibson today

The color of that guitar is nice but it doesn’t look way expensive imo

You're in the minority if you can see a Gibson logo attached to a guitar and don't think it looks expensive.