I need help

[renips]

Hello. This is my first post. I have been playing guitar for many years. I own many guitars. Mostly imports which I feel no need to name. I always stayed away from Les Pauls in the 1980's because of very poor quality. I worked in a music store as a kid and believe me the binding was was always very rough and many other issues were noticeable. Forward 20 years later and I thought man, I want to add one of these to my collection. I went to a GC store and tried 6 different Les Paul Traditional models. These have a price tag of $1,999. Reasonable compared to the $2,499 for the standards. I sat down and started to play. The aesthetics have improved. I noticed that the intonation was way off. I could play a first position g chord and then play the same chord barred and no luck. The salesman with me agreed after playing. I am not here to *****. I want to buy this guitar in the gold top. I like to bend strings. Is there something I am missing? I love the sound of the guitar especially the 57 in the neck position of this guitar. I have read many reviews on GC and I know people have posted videos on YT and claim they are very happy. Some are not. Is this a matter of the strings being new on the guitars I tried? Do I need to purchase the guitar and bring it to my luthier and have him set it up? Please let me know from those of you who have this guitar your experience. The salesman even brought me a floyd Rose Les Paul. I almost threw up. That defeats the whole issue of owning this guitar. I own several Kahler/ Floyd Rose style bridge guitars. I do not wish to go that route. Besides it looked horrible and felt like ****. Does the guitar need to be set up by my guitar guy after I purchase it? Do those of you who own the guitar enjoy the tuning stability? By the way GC has a 30 day money back satisfaction guarantee. Help please. Would I be better off buying a studio Les Paul and saving money and dealing with the tuning issues?

 

Thanks

[Fixr1984]

Hello. This is my first post. I have been playing guitar for many years. I own many guitars. Mostly imports which I feel no need to name. I always stayed away from Les Pauls in the 1980's because of very poor quality. I worked in a music store as a kid and believe me the binding was was always very rough and many other issues were noticeable. Forward 20 years later and I thought man, I want to add one of these to my collection. I went to a GC store and tried 6 different Les Paul Traditional models. These have a price tag of $1,999. Reasonable compared to the $2,499 for the standards. I sat down and started to play. The aesthetics have improved. I noticed that the intonation was way off. I could play a first position g chord and then play the same chord barred and no luck. The salesman with me agreed after playing. I am not here to *****. I want to buy this guitar in the gold top. I like to bend strings. Is there something I am missing? I love the sound of the guitar especially the 57 in the neck position of this guitar. I have read many reviews on GC and I know people have posted videos on YT and claim they are very happy. Some are not. Is this a matter of the strings being new on the guitars I tried? Do I need to purchase the guitar and bring it to my luthier and have him set it up? Please let me know from those of you who have this guitar your experience. The salesman even brought me a floyd Rose Les Paul. I almost threw up. That defeats the whole issue of owning this guitar. I own several Kahler/ Floyd Rose style bridge guitars. I do not wish to go that route. Besides it looked horrible and felt like ****. Does the guitar need to be set up by my guitar guy after I purchase it? Do those of you who own the guitar enjoy the tuning stability? By the way GC has a 30 day money back satisfaction guarantee. Help please. Would I be better off buying a studio Les Paul and saving money and dealing with the tuning issues?

 

Thanks

 

 

Biggest issue we always hear about is the was Guitar Center is operated. It has been said that they will just take the guitar out of the

box and toss it up on the wall without checking set up, tuning, ect. They will let anyone pull a guitar off the wall and

mess around with it. All these things added up I would say that the main issue is just that it was most likely neglected in having

a proper set up. If you are serious about buying the guitar tell them that you would like it properly set up for you to try out before you will

drop that kind of money in the store. If they wont help you out go somewhere else. Just my opinion.

[pippy]

What Fixr1984 said.

 

Alternatively, just buy it and have your luthier set it up; but I'd be mightily P'd off if the dealership from whom I made my purchase wouldn't set it up properly for me.

 

That should be clearly understood to be a standard part of the deal.

 

P.

[btoth76]

Hello! Ask the shop to set it up for You, before You try it out. Otherwise You might get an instrument that may have more serious issues than the lack of proper setup. If it's set up properly and You don't feel anything that's unproper, take it. If they refuse setting it up for You, be suspicious... As Pippy said that should be the standard part of the deal! Good luck!

[Flight959]

I wouldn't buy a guitar if it didn't sound right! Most tuning issues can be sorted. I am lucky I guess, as I have never had a guitar with tuning issues.... Tech's can do great setup's and rubbish ones too!!

 

Good luck!

[BigKahune]

Welcome.

 

You've gotten some good advice.

 

Ask GC to setup it up so you can tell if there might be other issues. If you decide to give it a go, ask about the return policy.

[Eracer_Team]

the only thing I've seen on the forums over the years is the G-string goes out of tune quickly.

 

that's easy fix with the nut slot.

[renips]

OK. After speaking with my guitar tech who said he could make the guitar sound incredible and stay in tune I went out and bought this

He let me stay and watch as he set the intonation which as soon as he looked at the guitar new it was not right. He slightly filed the g string slot on the nut and made some other adjustments and measurements and this guitar now is a monster. It stays in tune and sounds amazing. GC does not do anything to the guitars except take them out of the box and hang them up at least at the store I went to in Miami. I am very happy now

 

 

[BigKahune]

Good to hear you got it goin.

 

Beautiful GT. And killer music room.

[jamman]

You went to the Hallendale store? It's like a toys-r-us. I would buy there and have,(they do get some very nice guitars in) but I will not let GC work on any of my guitars. Glad it worked out for you. play the hell out of it. Congrads. nice GT you got.

[renips]

You went to the Hallendale store? It's like a toys-r-us. I would buy there and have,(they do get some very nice guitars in) but I will not let GC work on any of my guitars. Glad it worked out for you. play the hell out of it. Congrads. nice GT you got.

 

I went to the Kendall store. I bought it there and took it to Sam Ash in the Dolphin Mall and had Kurt the luthier in the back work on it. He does great work.He works on all of my guitars. I was not impressed with Guitar Center and how they present the instruments. They could do a better job. The Gibson factory churns them out and they do not take the time to completely set the intonation on the guitars. When you think about it most people change the strings right away and will use different gauges so they probably figure why bother. In the end though a good set up guy who knows the guitar can bring it to life. I have the easy part of playing it now. Are you from down here?

[renips]

Now a proper review

It is time for a product review. I have been playing my 2010 Les Paul Traditional Pro Gold Top practically non stop since purchasing it a couple of days ago. I have been playing it through my JCM 800 as well as playing it unplugged just to let the natural sonic qualities of the wood give an impression. When I first played the guitar at the store before buying it I was not impressed with the playability. In particular the intonation and the guitar staying in tune were major concerns. I played about 10 different guitars and they all had the same issues in varying degrees. These 10 guitars were played at 3 different stores. After speaking with several people on the different forums and finally speaking with my trusted guitar tech who I bring my guitars into for set up I decided to take the plunge. It turns out that the major music retailer I purchased the guitar from had a very liberal return policy within the first 30 days if I was not happy as long as the guitar came back in the same condition. Risk was minimal as far as contentment was concerned.

 

After purchasing the guitar I immediately brought it in to my guitar tech who upon first glance said "yes this is the typical intonation from the factory that I always encounter" It was out. I watched as he made some measurements and then began to make his adjustments which included filing down the G string at the nut very slightly. He set up the intonation,made some string height adjustments tuned it up and handed me the guitar. This took about 25 minutes and he explained everything he was doing and how this was the norm for the Gibson Les Paul guitars that he comes in contact with. He also said that he believes that because most players will change strings and also the gauges of those strings that he feels Gibson does an acceptable amount of tweaking but in the end knows that the buyer will make the changes and adjustments anyway. I now tend to agree with that opinion. I will not bore anyone with the tech specs because those are available on the Gibson site. My goal here is to give my impressions of the guitar's playability, aesthetics and sonic impressions I have gotten to this point.

 

 

First of all as a kid I worked in a music store that sold Gibson guitars. This was back in the late 80's and early 90's. The overall workmanship left much to be desired back then. The binding around the body and along the neck was always so poorly done and uneven. The finishes were very inconsistent as to their quality back then. When the overall fit and finish was compared to the other brands like Hamer, Ibanez, Charvel Jackson and even Fender there was some seriously noticeable disparities for the Les Paul. Move forward to my guitar a couple of decades later and the improvement in the workmanship of the guitar is very impressive. The binding is spot on and the finish is gorgeous. I also examined the others very closely that I was considering and they were the same. Now for the good stuff. When I first got the guitar home I played it without amplification. Why? I wanted to hear the guitar itself and how it naturally sounded. I also did this in the store and I think some people thought I was nuts. The sound jumped from the instrument and was full and bright. I think Gibson is on to something with the mahogany body and maple top :D The tuning was spot on and the intonation was correct. After a few minutes of playing with a pick and finger picking all while unplugged I put the guitar down and took a little break.

 

 

My impressions were that of a very well balanced instrument and I was beginning to get excited about playing my first Les Paul through my JCM 800. I fired up the amp and let the tubes get really warm for about 5 minutes. I plugged the guitar in and began to play in the bridge position pick up. The chords were crisp and the tone was very well balanced. The burst bucker pro in the bridge really delivers a good punch. All of the metal and hard rock guys out there would be very happy. I ran through some different chord progressions and played through some scales and I was very happy. The sound has some bite and is very crunchy when riffing chords. I then switched to the neck position pick up and began to play some melodic notes and I almost could not contain myself. The 57 in the neck is so sweet and full sounding that it really is not fair. Now, playing through an original JCM 800 with a couple of 1960 cabs does not hurt but I would venture to say that this guitar would sound great on just about any amp. When engaging both neck and bridge pick up the guitar gave a very unique tonal impression. The really great and useful thing that Gibson did with this guitar was to give the ability to the player to split the coils on both pick ups. This is achieved by pulling up on the volume knob for each pick up. The toggle switch can engage both pick ups and both coils can be split. I was getting some very interesting tones when playing in this mode and it occurred to me that Gibson created a guitar that would really be useful as a studio guitar, not to mention the live playing.

 

 

The Les Paul has been heard on countless recordings throughout music history so I need to clarify what I mean. The fact that I can use this amazing guitar in coil split mode is for me something that I really can appreciate. It is not the sound of a Strat but it does give a kind of twang when the notes and chords are played in a certain way. I have much more experimenting with this feature to do. I really like the versatility. The grover locking tuners are so convenient. Like the sperzel on the Strat it makes changing strings a snap and helps I am sure in the tuning being more consistent by removing uneven wrapping around the string post. So I am about 2 days into this guitar and I am very satisfied with it. I have not yet recorded with it but I am looking forward to what it will yield in the session. The action is how I like it and the tuning and intonation again is really good. Now it is time to get acquainted with my new guitar. Later

[ChanMan]

Ya oughta hit the lounge section and post that pic in the Man Cave thread!!

 

 

[badbluesplayer]

Watch out for any rubber on those wall hangers. Rubber eats nitro finishes.

[BigKahune]

Watch out for any rubber on those wall hangers. Rubber eats nitro finishes.

 

+1

 

 

Good call - - use cotton (undyed white is best) to wrap the rubber/foam with.

[renips]

I cut a cotton wash cloth and wrapped the hanger with the LP