Fred1972 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Hi Everyone! I am new here (...and French so sorry for the possible wiriting errors...) and wanted to tell/ask you something. I already bought myself a new LES PAUL CUSTOM in '94 (black beauty) and it was -and still is!- an excellent guitar! Now, 20 years later I went to the guitar shop and wanted to buy myself another one (I know, I'm silly but totally in love with these guitars). Despite the enormous price-difference in comparison with 20 years ago I went thru and ordered myself another black beauty. It's not a cheap guitar so I wanted my guitar to be esthetically perfect also. The guitar arrived two weeks later and after opening the case; - heavy traces of sandpaper on the black body (really terrible!) - gold paint on the small circled plat 'treble/rythm' printed totally with heavy contours - tuners were already stained?! (and it wasn't a relic version...) This discovery was really stunning...is this a general thing? I mean has the quality of GIBSON guitars in general decreased that big the last couple of years? I swear to God that my 20 year old custom is far more better looking than the new one I ordered! This is not normal is it? The sales man agreed that the guitar was not OK so I postponed my buy. Too bad because they are (or should be) beautiful guitars! Thanks for listening! Fred Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capmaster Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Hello Fred, and nice to meet you at this fine place in the web, mate! Sad to hear about the dud you refused to buy. I experienced these things, too, and I think you were right doing so. This is not typical, but it may happen, and it is the more awkward since the Les Paul Custom guitars are indeed Custom Shop products since many years. As for your problem child, I think they omitted the final polishing steps before assembly and stringing up. This is a bad case of negligence in my opinion. There are minor, easily fixable flaws on some new guitars regardless of brand, but luckily I also experienced that most intricacies are in the setup, not in craftmanship. I hope you will have a better luck when trying to get another one, and that it will be to your favour and fulfil your desire. By the way, English is not my first language, too, and so I hope you will understand my lines. As for yours, I didn't have any problem with reading and comprehending. Sincerely, capmaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmyl51 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 The reality with Gibson today is it really doesn't make much of a difference in what you might get be it from the Custom Shop or not from the Custom Shop. Totally different today versus when Mike MCGuire was running the Custom Shop. Bottom line is that if at all possible it really would be best to buy the guitar that you want when the shop first gets it in from Gibson. Yep I realize especially for you guys in Europe that may not be possible versus here in the USA however to wait a year or two for something that you very well might not be happy with is what you will be dealing with. When I ordered my ES-350 in a custom faded cherry finish with a single P-90 on it that was at a time (approximately ten years ago) when you as a customer could to that relatively easy but not today with Gibson unfortunately............jim in Maine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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