[AJ B.]

I was watching Joe Bonamassa's video about his 3 signature Les Paul guitars. i noticed that the USA model and the Gibson custom Model didn't sound very different(huge difference from the epiphone, of course, but it was good, too). Are there really any sound quality differences between USA and custom shop?

Here's the video:

[RunningDownTheR]

No two guitars can theoretically be setup exactly the same even if they have identical components in them, so there will be some difference in sound in identical guitars. Throw in all the other variables like different wood, solid/hollow, amp settings, strings, pickups between different models and the sound and quality can vary dramatically.

 AJ B., on 09 January 2012 - 10:37 PM, said:

I was watching Joe Bonamassa's video about his 3 signature Les Paul guitars. i noticed that the USA model and the Gibson custom Model didn't sound very different(huge difference from the epiphone, of course, but it was good, too). Are there really any sound quality differences between USA and custom shop?

Here's the video:

[JazzGtr]

The age of the materials used in the guitars will make a big difference too. I found out the hard way that Gibson doesn't dry out all of their woods before, during and after making their guitars. Also I had experience with stronge smell of lacquer, stain and clear coat on brand new guitars. This is quite typical of Gibson manufacturing not allowing things to dry out before shipping out their guitars out.

Jazz,

[mattcran]

I'm not sure about slight nuances in sound difference, but I usually go for the custom shop equivalent of certain models becuase they have a higher degree of "hand-crafting" vs. being machine made. I may be wrong on that, but I always picture the USA models being cranked out on an assembly line.