The final word on Lifeson ES-355 Volute Issue?

[Rock2112]

I have read a bunch in the artist forum on whether the volute on the Lifeson ES-355 was a mistake, was intentional but wrong, was intended by Lifeson himself, was in line with the original ES-355 guitar it was modeled after, etc. There have been a bunch of conflicting stories, but I think the last I recall on the subject was that Gibson blamed Alex for wanting the misplaced volute where it was on that model.

 

This won't answer that question, but I think I've found evidence that Alex at least knew the volute was going to be different on his signature model BEFORE the signature guitar was issue by Gibson. The following link is to a video where Alex is interviewed about his equipment. At the 1:26 mark, while discussing that Gibson is about to release a signature ES-355 modeled after his, he says that "Gibson is putting together a signature model that hopefully will be out sometime in the early new year that is exactly this guitar ... almost." Right as he says "almost," he motions with his left hand directly to the volute and gives what seems to be to me a somewhat embarrassed smile.

 

 

It is only my speculation, but unless Alex was trying to play a mean trick on his admirers or people who just loved the ES-355, I suspect what happened was: (1) Gibson messed up the volute specs; (2) Alex became aware of the discrepancy at some point after production of some of the guitars was well under way or complete; and (3) one or both parties decided it would be too expensive to scrap it before the guitars were released. If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, the look on Alex's face when he says "almost" and motions to the volute is quite telling to me.

 

I never bought one of those guitars but it would have driven me nuts if I had to know the volute didn't match specs of the original guitar. There is a video on YouTube of a guy doing a beautiful "restoration" of one of those AL models, fixing the volute and doing a proper finish on his. If I had bought one, I would have been hard pressed to be able to resist having similar work done on mine or otherwise just to have sold the guitar. I think Gibson should have offered a solution to the volute problem no matter how expensive it would have been. That would have been the right thing to do.

[SolitaryPine]

I have read a bunch in the artist forum on whether the volute on the Lifeson ES-355 was a mistake, was intentional but wrong, was intended by Lifeson himself, was in line with the original ES-355 guitar it was modeled after, etc. There have been a bunch of conflicting stories, but I think the last I recall on the subject was that Gibson blamed Alex for wanting the misplaced volute where it was on that model.

 

This won't answer that question, but I think I've found evidence that Alex at least knew the volute was going to be different on his signature model BEFORE the signature guitar was issue by Gibson. The following link is to a video where Alex is interviewed about his equipment. At the 1:26 mark, while discussing that Gibson is about to release a signature ES-355 modeled after his, he says that "Gibson is putting together a signature model that hopefully will be out sometime in the early new year that is exactly this guitar ... almost." Right as he says "almost," he motions with his left hand directly to the volute and gives what seems to be to me a somewhat embarrassed smile.

 

It is only my speculation, but unless Alex was trying to play a mean trick on his admirers or people who just loved the ES-355, I suspect what happened was: (1) Gibson messed up the volute specs; (2) Alex became aware of the discrepancy at some point after production of some of the guitars was well under way or complete; and (3) one or both parties decided it would be too expensive to scrap it before the guitars were released. If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, the look on Alex's face when he says "almost" and motions to the volute is quite telling to me.

 

I never bought one of those guitars but it would have driven me nuts if I had to know the volute didn't match specs of the original guitar. There is a video on YouTube of a guy doing a beautiful "restoration" of one of those AL models, fixing the volute and doing a proper finish on his. If I had bought one, I would have been hard pressed to be able to resist having similar work done on mine or otherwise just to have sold the guitar. I think Gibson should have offered a solution to the volute problem no matter how expensive it would have been. That would have been the right thing to do.

 

This is a seriously dead horse. Also, I'm not sure he is referring to the volute when he makes the gesture. There are a number of small differences between the signature and the original, not just the volute but the location of the f-holes and other minor details that have been described in the past ad naseum. The volute, in my opinion, makes absolutely no difference in the playing of the guitar. And, as an owner of one, the passion that people have displayed on these forums about the volute honestly just makes me roll my eyes and shake my head.

 

The real difference, as far as playability and feel, is that the neck is much beefier in the signature guitar than the original. You hear him talk about how thin the neck of his guitar is during the video. The rumor I heard is that Gibson tried to recreate the guitar with a neck matching the dimensions of Alex's, but because it was so thin a very large percentage of the necks were coming out warped or otherwise defective, and so they beefed it up so they could manufacture them more reliably. But no signature owners ever complained about that because they've never seen or played the original, obviously.

 

So, I'm guessing that he is referring to the thinness of the neck when he made his gesture and said "almost," since he had just spent some time talking about how that was a unique feature of the guitar. The volute is clearly a mistake by Gibson, and they have passed it off on Alex by saying that he "approved" the design, which he probably did because, like me, he probably felt it didn't make a real difference. Also, in other interviews that came out during the period after the guitar came out Alex is shown having both the original and one of the signatures along with him on tour, so he obviously didn't mind the numerous differences.

[zGrooveMeister]

During my months-long ordeal with the Lifeson Axcess, While speaking with someone who was involved in resolving my issue who is a former Gibson Custom Shop employee, he mentioned he was a member of the AL-355 design team and worked directly with Alex on it. So I asked him for the skinny on what happened with the volute. He said that the guitar was designed in Nashville, but production was to be in Memphis. When the design prototype, which was what Alex signed off on, was transferred from Nashville to the Memphis production facility, they (Memphis) created a production template for the neck off of that prototype. This is done using an automated machine, and it was during this step that the error was made, which was due to machine operator error. For whatever reason, this was not caught before production began on the necks, and so they made 300 necks using an incorrect template, which were in turn used to create 300 guitars that did not match the prototype approved by Alex. Unfortunately, this was not something Gibson's money goons were willing to correct, so they instead adopted a policy of denial, finger-pointing and damage control, and the rest is history.

 

At least that was what I was told, but I'm pretty confident of my source.

[zGrooveMeister]

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[PaulR]

This story about the prototype being correct but the template created from it was incorrect is not likely to be true. I own the 355 prototype and it has the same volute design as the production model. (Actually, I believe there were a total of three prototypes made - I'm told that Alex has one and Gibson retained one.)

 

I don't find the volute to be an issue, and I feel blessed to own the guitar. I must say it has been inspiring to see the passion displayed by folks about both the 355 and the Axcess. I chalk it up to a love of Alex Lifeson, beautiful guitars, and a desire that the Alex models reflect the incredible quality of playing that Alex has delivered for decades. Of course, maybe that is just my own fantasy - ha!

 

 

During my months-long ordeal with the Lifeson Axcess, While speaking with someone who was involved in resolving my issue who is a former Gibson Custom Shop employee, he mentioned he was a member of the AL-355 design team and worked directly with Alex on it. So I asked him for the skinny on what happened with the volute. He said that the guitar was designed in Nashville, but production was to be in Memphis. When the design prototype, which was what Alex signed off on, was transferred from Nashville to the Memphis production facility, they (Memphis) created a production template for the neck off of that prototype. This is done using an automated machine, and it was during this step that the error was made, which was due to machine operator error. For whatever reason, this was not caught before production began on the necks, and so they made 300 necks using an incorrect template, which were in turn used to create 300 guitars that did not match the prototype approved by Alex. Unfortunately, this was not something Gibson's money goons were willing to correct, so they instead adopted a policy of denial, finger-pointing and damage control, and the rest is history.

 

At least that was what I was told, but I'm pretty confident of my source.

[zGrooveMeister]

This story about the prototype being correct but the template created from it was incorrect is not likely to be true. I own the 355 prototype and it has the same volute design as the production model. (Actually, I believe there were a total of three prototypes made - I'm told that Alex has one and Gibson retained one.)

 

I don't find the volute to be an issue, and I feel blessed to own the guitar. I must say it has been inspiring to see the passion displayed by folks about both the 355 and the Axcess. I chalk it up to a love of Alex Lifeson, beautiful guitars, and a desire that the Alex models reflect the incredible quality of playing that Alex has delivered for decades. Of course, maybe that is just my own fantasy - ha!

 

Somebody has the very first prototype, and I doubt that it is you - but what do I know? Whatever happened, I'm confident that there was a mistake made regarding the volute position, and they decided to just go with it.

 

So much for the final word - the mystery/controversy continues!

[e.grijp]

One of the Prototypes was sold too a Canadian guy, August 2011. it was a guitar sold by a Dutch Gibson Dealer.I don,t know if Paul is Canadian but he can be right . btw I have played the guitar and it,s not the same as the Production one!!!