My brand new Special will be bald by the end of the year

[mjpinla]

I tried to send this via the Gibson web site as a tech support ticket, but that page (http://www2.gibson.com/Gibson/Talk-2-Us.aspx) doesn't work, so here I am.

 

First I should say that I've owned more than a dozen Gibson electric guitars. I bough my first Les Paul (Deluxe) almost 35 years ago in 1979 and have owned half a dozen vintage 1950s Juniors and even a modern (2006) Junior. You could say I'm a lifetime Gibson player, and very loyal.

 

A few months ago I bought a Les Paul Junior Special P-90 Nashville USA 2012 Satin Vintage Sunburst (model LS90SVCH1), and after spending a couple days tweaking it, I was very impressed at the value/quality.

 

But then, after only a few months, I noticed the finish was coming off on the upper edge of the body, where my arm comes in contact with it.

 

Just my arm, not spiky wristbands or an alligator skin jacket.

 

I thought maybe it was a fluke, but the bald spot keeps getting bigger. Then I scraped at a section of the edge on the lower bout with my fingernail, and a piece of the finish flaked off there as well.

 

I'm pretty sure I could strip the entire finish off the guitar with my fingernails and maybe a medium pick. To get into the tight spots. At the rate it's losing paint I suspect it may be bald by the end of the year.

 

To be honest, that doesn't bother me much. I don't need my guitars to look like they just came out of the showroom (obviously, if I like 1950s Juniors), but what bothers me is this disappearing finish is going to kill me down the road if I ever decide trade or sell the Special.

 

Is this a fluke or just "the way it goes" with the sunburst "faded" finish? I love the acoustic openness of the "faded" finish - it was great on the 2006 Junior. But I played that guitar for almost seven years and never lost a spot of the finish. It was not sunburst, it was cherry.

 

Baffled, and a little bit disappointed, I have to say.

[mjpinla]

Ah, I see in this thread that this is a pretty common gripe with newer Les Pauls. Interesting.

[kidblast]

yea the buzz here is it's just a side effect of the faded finish. of course, Gibby wont cover any finish issues one the warranty, so you'll have to just get to a place where you can live with it.

[charlie brown]

Yeah, I think they have like 1 coat of paint (plus primer??)! The back of the neck,

on my 2003 Faded TV Yellow Double cut, Special...is down to the wood! It started

losing finish, really fast! IF I decide to "care," about that...I'll just repaint

it, with some "Nitro" from ReRanch. But, I kind of like the "relic'd" look, now...

especially, since I'm the one who relic'd it, just by playing the He11 out of it! LOL

 

CB

[L5Larry]

just "the way it goes" with the sunburst "faded" finish

[mjpinla]

The back of the neck, on my 2003 Faded TV Yellow Double cut, Special...is down to the wood!

That's funny, because I had an 06 Junior that I played the hell out of for 7 years and never lost even the tiniest bit of the faded (cherry) finish.

 

But interestingly, the Junior was an export for Japan (Nashville didn't make a Junior for the U.S. in 06), which makes me wonder if there's a, shall we say, different degree of quality for the exports. That Junior was especially wonderful.

 

But yeah, the paint loss on the new Special doesn't particularly bother me, but I think it does make it less tradeable/sellable in the future.