custom shop concerns

[fubb]

Hi

I'm fortunate enough to have recently come into some money and I've decided to buy a top level guitar for jazz/ bluesy jazz. I've not started the tour of guitar shops yet but I intend to look at L5's and ES175. My concern is the quality of finishing on instruments coming out of the custom shop. Many of the faults may not be that obvious during that 1-2 hour session in the shop on a guitar that needs new stings and a set up.

Have others found problems with the finish of new custom shop guitars

[charlie brown]

All you can do, is look carefully, before you buy.

I've seen "Custom Shop" finishes, that were awful,

(Orange peel, sanding marks, etc.), and other's that

were as close to "Perfect," as you're likely to find.

Same, with the regular USA version Gibson's. Some are

Great, other's not so good! For Custom Shop prices,

they "should" be perfect...but, they vary. ;>b

 

CB

[Old Jazzer]

Who knows what you'll get from a stock item from a store. I ordered my L5 CES Antique Sunburst from TGC. I received it in July. It was shipped from Gibson in Nashville to TGC Warehouse, then directly to me. I went over this guitar with a looking glass. Absolutly perfect.

 

Good luck on your purchase.

 

Randy

[fubb]

thanks guy's-- time buy a hand lens

[vincentw]

It's nice to hear from someone like "Old Jazzer" regarding his "perfect" guitar. Most Gibson consumers who are happy with their guitars never bother to post on forums, while the few who have a minor issue take to the forums immediately. I never really enjoyed my Statistics course in college, but I have come to rely on a certain occurrence called standard deviation from the mean, or something like that. The idea is that it's normal for there to be a "standard deviation" from the mean, with anything. The object, as I understood it to be in my Statistics course, is to make the standard deviation as small as possible. I believe Gibson's must be quite small, otherwise our Customer Service team would be much larger, and we are available 24/7. The Customer Service team is always available to help in the unlikely occurrence that your new guitar is not "perfect." Call us.

[endpin]

Not really a "defect" per se, but the finishes I have seen are not leveled out very good by multiple finish coat/hand sanding operations to the extent of say a PRS finish would be. You can see this by distortions in the reflected highlights. They apply it pretty thick and proceed to the buffer with minimal sanding. You can go back to older Gibsons and see the same thing, so it is nothing really new - just the way they have always done it for better or worse.

[davidl]

I have 2 custom shop guitars, An ES-339 and a 1960 VOS re-issue and their respective finishes are flawless. I even inspected them with a flashlight looking for anything wrong and found nothing.

I agree with the customer service rep. Not as many people extoll the virtues of their new purchases but if some people find a blemish or anything else, no matter how insignificant, it get plastered all over the forum and elsewhere. All of a sudden all Gibson products are deemed suspect. I have found this to be particularly true of the Robot line of guitars. Thousands have been bought (and thoroughly enjoyed) and there certainly have been some with issues (this can be true with ANY product) but it seems we only hear the bad stuff.

My Robot LP is wonderful.

If I were to buy any product that didn't meet a perceived standard level, I would just return it.

Thats my rant for the day.

 

Dave

[JazzGtr]

I too was in your shoes some time ago when I purchased my L5. But if I had to reflect on that decision again, I would first decide how I would used this new guitar. Will I gig with it or just record with it? If gig, minor scratches should not be a concern. Once you start gigging, you are going to scratch this guitar alot yourself. If recording only, demand better. Some guitars should not be gigged with simply because of their($$$)replacement costs. If you want the perfect manufactured jazz guitar, tried PRS JA-15. If you want a world renowned jazz box, that you are willing to played, scratch, dent and ok will the maintenance from time to time buy a Gibson.

 

BTW, I only record with my guitars!

 

Jazz

[AlanC]

It's never been clear to me exactly which of the guitars that I own were made in the Custom shop.

 

I own quite a few Gibsons and the ones that I think are either definites or probables as far being made by the Custom shop are my L5CES, ES175 Single pickup special order, L4CES Mahogany, L5 Lee Ritenour, '59 ES335 Reissue, L10 Chet Atkins, '59 Les Paul Standard reissue and my '57 Les Paul Standard reissue.

 

Can anyone tell me which of these guitars would have been made in the Custom shop?

 

I do know that my L5 Lee Ritenour and my single pickup ES175 were made in the Custom shop. These were special orders and I paid a deposit and waited somewhere between 5 to 8 months before they were delivered to me.

 

I can say that my two special orders were made superbly. They are really great guitars both in terms of the quality of the finish and in terms of the sound through the amp.

 

However the quality of my Gibsons that were not purchased on special order has been somewhat variable. The neck of my brand new L5 de-lacquered and there were many faults with my ES165 Herb Ellis. However nothing that couldn't be fixed relatively easily.

[bobouz]

Out of ten Gibsons stored in the same location, some have developed finish cracks while others have not. Seems to be a lot of variation from one batch of nitro to another, and how they'll age is anyone's guess. Workmanship & application of the finish is another matter, and one that at least can be observed first hand. While I've seen some pretty mediocre workmanship in Gibsons over the years, there will also be standouts. My 339 built in '09 is quite impressive in this regard.