Gibson Midtown Custom

[Thundergod]

Beautiful neck.

[Tman]

I want a sunburst. badly.

 

 

 

Apparently there isn't a zebrawood model yet.

[cookieman15061]

They do have me thinking about which guitars I can sell to raise the scratch to buy one.

[truthoffiction]

I haven't tried one out but the thought of a plastic fretboard is scary haha. I guess the thought of dropping $1500 on a guitar with a plastic fretboard just sounds really stupid to me.

 

I don't really understand why Gibson would put the custom shop name on this. I mean I do.. Obviously so it sounds "fancier" or whatever.. But if you really think about the specs for a minute, this is a pretty watered down guitar (compared to custom shop Gibsons). To me the custom shop just means they don't cut corners on the guitars. This seems like they cut corners to some degree on just about everything to make it cheaper.

 

Not saying that they aren't good.. I haven't even tried one(I'm honestly sure they're great). But saying it's the cheapest custom shop Gibson ever doesn't mean much to me, as it seems like they did the regular routine that they do to the cheaper models and then slapped the custom shop name on them.

 

With all that being said, I'm really interested in trying one and feeling the fretboard. I want it to be good. I really do haha

 

It's not a plastic fingerboard. It's basically paper pulp infused with a resin. It's very hard, feels exactly like ebony and the Feds can't touch it.

[HarpBoy]

It's not a plastic fingerboard. It's basically paper pulp infused with a resin. It's very hard, feels exactly like ebony and the Feds can't touch it.

 

You're correct...Richlite is not like plastic at all. I really like the feel of it, and would say that people who are unaware of it on a guitar would be unlikely to tell it's not ebony.

 

I think it makes a fabulous fingerboard; I have a Martin J12-16GT, and I really like the feel of the fingerboard. They're also using it on their Performing Artist series, and will probably start using it on more models. Old prejudices die hard in the guitar world.

 

Cheers.

[milod]

I think it was on the Epi side, but on one of the threads on this guitar a guy from a distributor of "richlight" came on and gave an explanation of the qualities of the thing. It passes all the federal inspections for commercial kitchens, for example, so the potential of nastyness from the thing, even when being burned, is not there 'cuz it's also used in some firefighting equipment.

 

I'm not speaking for or against. I'd prefer saving up for a 335 mostly 'cuz I don't care for the smaller body. I've a hunch, though, we'll see all US guitars going away from rosewood. Again there's a thread on that, too.

 

Bottom line is the guvment is doing it to us. Not for, but to us.

 

m