thedangle1

Instead of responding individually to recent comments, I didn't contact Gibson cause I wanted to put Duncans in my guitar anyway. If they sent me a new set of pups I wouldn't have any need for them. Once I heard the tone of the Duncans, my guitar was finished and I wasn't about to reinstall and uninstall pups just to see which set sounded better and risk ruining something, like the satin finish or something else (I already have a couple of light scratches on the back from putting in the new pots). Plus, I think by taking out the original pups voids the warranty anyway and I only did it recently after two years of having the guitar, so I don't think Gibson would have done anything anyway. It took two years for me to decide to pull the pups due to money issues and research. I wanted to be sure of which set of pups I wanted to buy. Plus, I don't play that often due to my health issues and being on disability. I respect all comments and appreciate them. Reason for the post wasn't to show any dislike for Gibson. I've always wanted a Les Paul all my life and was finally able to afford one two years ago. I am very happy with my guitar and love everything about it (just got the wrong pups LOL). It plays great, feels great and sounds great...three key ingredients to knowing a guitar is awesome. If I had the money, I'd get another one (and make sure the right pups are installed LOL).

Guess a lot of people are missing the point of the heading of the post. When I bought this guitar in Nov' of 2017, Gibson's website said the guitar came with 498T/490R. Here's the original webpage... http://espanol.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/2018/USA/Les-Paul-Tribute-2018.aspx If you scroll down to the bottom, you'll see where it says what pickups they are. Imagine my surprise when I pulled them and found both were 490's. Someone at Gibson screwed up with either the marketing dept' or creating the page for the website with wrong info.

Well, I meant "clearly see" from the photo of the back of the headstock cause some were questioning if it was a 2017 or 2018, and the '17 model is weight relieved, which I don't believe in when it comes to a real Les Paul. Was one of the main features that made me buy it, but pretty funny sarcasm.

Does leave a bad taste. Makes you wonder if this was a marketing error with wrong info or deliberate to get sales for a low end Gibson, which is a nice guitar.

This is my guitar today. As you can clearly see, it's a 2018 model, no weight relief (which 2017 has) honey burst. I removed the pick guard as an experiment and found I liked it better without it, brings out the burst color more. I also removed the PCB board and put in 50's wiring with Bourns 500k pots and orange drop capacitors. I'm going for the EVH brown sound, reason why I removed the pickups and installed the Duncans. As one person pointed out on here with the link, Gibson's website (at the time), said the pickups were 490R/498T, and I was told 498T has a much brighter sound to them than the 490T. I've been making adjustments for two years on my sound with no results until I researched the pickups and PCB board. The changes I made were night to day. I even had a bone nut put on by the luthiers I go to. Everything else I did myself. It took two years cause of money constraints and time, but it was worth it. This guitar is now perfect and love it. My setup is a Blackstar HT 40 with a new WGS Retro 30 speaker I put in using a Friedman BD-OE distortion pedal as my main sound, with MXR EVH flanger, MXR phase 90 (not EVH) and an Ibanez tube screamer. Lexicon MX200 into FX loop for other sounds.

I bought it in late 2017, when the 2018 models just came out. Check out my new pics...

Hey everyone, Writing this cause I'm usually not one to complain about my instruments, but bought a 2018 Les Paul Tribute model two years ago and I simply love it...until I swapped out the pickups. On their website (and everywhere else you look), they say 490R/498T pickups. Well, boy was I duped!! Check the photo out...490R and 490T! I wanted a little more high end out of my sound, so I went with Duncan hot rodded JB series. Not the point here...thought I was buying 498T when in fact I got 490T. Not sure if I want to send this in to Gibson or wait for some opinions on here.