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is better nashville or kalamazoo?


zeppe1983

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Your guitar was made Monday May 9th, 1988 in Nashville. There are excellent guitars from both shops. I like the 1950's Les Pauls from Kalamazoo and the new ones made in Nashville Custom Shop.

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I have owned Kalamazoo, Memphis and Nashville guitars, and there's no difference in my experience. Gibson, like other manufacturers, depends heavily upon accurate jigs and fixtures to ensure consistency. It's not like a one-man luthier shop where there might be enormous variation between instruments.Checkout this video and you'll see what I mean.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4764707652331081865

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  • 2 weeks later...

Being a fossil I have to say I preferred Kalamazoo. Indulge an old man for a moment. I bought a Black Beauty around 1970. I was able to visit the factory. I got a tour and on that tour I saw the woods and techniques used. I think there is room to argue that the "old" woods used were sometimes better but not always. I bet we could have a long discussion on that alone but on to craftsmanship. Well, there again, we could argue back and forth. I think they were more meticulous overall then they are today with the exception of the top notch of the custom shops and special orders etc. What does that leave? Well... General attention to detail and CUSTOMER SERVICE. That is no way better today then back in the Kalamazoo days. The reasons? I wouldn't like to speculate but there is no question that when I contact Gibson today I get a whole lot worse experience then when I did so years ago.

 

I realize that I didn't "strictly speaking" answer the question directly. Still I think the point I'm making stands. All is not right at Gibson and it shows. Bottom line don't buy a guitar you can not hold and play first. Gibson still makes fine instruments but you can no longer accept that on Blind Faith. [sneaky]

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