why don't I like gibson v's, is it the pickups?

drew_half_empty

drew_half_empty

Looking for Real Life
well i like V's in theory cause they look & play awesome, but every time i plug one in it sounds terrible. The neck is only slightly warmer than the bridge, both positions are thin & weak, no bottom OR top just weird compressed dumb mids

I realized about an hour ago that they all come with the 500t's which sound bad in every guitar i've played, but i don't know specs well enough to pick out a different kind of gibson off the wall & compare the 2

So what's the deal with v's? Do they always sound like that or is it just the pickups ruining em for me? A comparison to a les paul would be nice if anyone wants to do that. My guess is if you put a 500t or whatever set in say a LP junior it'd be about the same? Or would it still be a little thinner sounding & closer to an SG?
 
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Re: why don't I like gibson v's, is it the pickups?

Some of it is the hot and compressed pickups, but there's a lot to be said for body shape effecting the tone. It lacks body mass near the neck joint, in the way of an upper bout like a LP.

It was really designed for style, rather than optimum tone, so it either has to have really nice wood or really dialed in pickups to sound great. To me, Explorers always sounded a bit bigger for that reason. It has a massive amount of body wood.
 
Re: why don't I like gibson v's, is it the pickups?

A V will never be as meaty as a LP but with pickups that are personally favor they can be great sounding guitars...My Moderne has less wood in the body than a V and sounds great, in fact it's one of the best sounding guitars I've ever played!
 
Re: why don't I like gibson v's, is it the pickups?

I'm not a fan of Gibson's ceramic pick ups. They do sound more concentrated in the mids and if you're used to warmer sounding pups, you probabably won't like the gibson ceramic pups.

I can't comment on the V's shape affecting the tone but the smaller body and less mass at the neck makes alot of sense in regards to tone. I'm not much of a fan of "V" shaped guitars.., maybe thats part of the reason why...
 
Re: why don't I like gibson v's, is it the pickups?

I think if you wrere to get a set of paf style pickups in that that you'd really like it. Or maybe somehting hotter like a Jazz/JB set.
 
Re: why don't I like gibson v's, is it the pickups?

Rid said:
Picky.....thinking too much....more into gear than playing.....spending too much time here speculating about sodding gear;)
You name it!
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trust me, I play way more than i hang out here
 
Re: why don't I like gibson v's, is it the pickups?

mb u like players that use Vs but just don't jive with V's yourself. i like some players that use an 81/85 combo, or vintage strats, but i don't get along with either.
 
Re: why don't I like gibson v's, is it the pickups?

you:
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I rest my case
 
Re: why don't I like gibson v's, is it the pickups?

In my Explorer that was natural. Not bad sounding or anything, but it was just very aggressive with driven mids, not matter what pickups you'd put in.
 
Re: why don't I like gibson v's, is it the pickups?

faded series or the higher end model V??

fwiw, everytime i've played a gibson V - its sounded HUGE!! never thin or anything like what you said. but my main axe is an SG style guitar, so maybe that's part of it??
 
Re: why don't I like gibson v's, is it the pickups?

I have an 80s era V that I've never really clicked with. Have you ever sat down with a guitar at the store and it said, "You NEED me...take me home...."? Well this one did it to me. I bought it for what I thought was an outrageous amount of money (at the time for me), took it to a gig and couldn't for the life of me figure out what I'd been thinking. It sounded anemic and had no frets. I ended up dumping a Full Shred in the back (which woke it up considerably) and put bigger frets on, both of which helped a lot, but it's never really become a guitar that I use a lot.
 
Re: why don't I like gibson v's, is it the pickups?

I can't dig the body shape, it sounds too thin to me.
 
Re: why don't I like gibson v's, is it the pickups?

While it's not the shape most of us want to play on a daily basis, I like mine & think it sounds muscular (I put an A8 in my 500T which beefed up the mids). A lot of guys have played V's and sounded pretty good. Like with any guitar, getting PU's that fit the wood is the key.
 
Re: why don't I like gibson v's, is it the pickups?

You can't judge a guitar just based on the stock setup and electronics. If you threw in a '59/JB or a PG/Custom set, it would probably sound great.
 
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