Fender and Gibson buy my dinner

[1031]

First a brand new just delivered 120th anniversary Gibson Explorer still had the play dough smell in the case. Now this guitar costs $1,999.00 and the Explorer is one of my favorite of all time shaped guitars. The setup and fret condition from the factory was stupid shoddy, so much I made sure that it was not a fake Gibby.

The nut cut to small for the supplied strings and bound on all. The string height was 8/64ths and relief was at .014 , basically the action was way high! Intonation didnt have a chance at that height. Now the frets blew me away, Gibson claims to pleck all there guitars now, and while none were high ... well a picture is worth a thousand words.



This shows my work against theres



Also today brand new USA FENDER TELECASTER! Setup was again terrible ...All the string guides just fall out ...


I am pretty sure these both came from Musicians friends they still should not leave the factory that way.
While I love money and love my work Dam Gibby and Fender get it together !! But thanks for grocery's ... Love Scratchy Rat Guitars

[Genebaby]

Dude, all I hear and see are horror stories from the Gibson factory from my luthier.

I always have a look at the latest brand new Gibsons he is working on for the local guitar stores, so they are able to sell them.

When I see someone with a new Gibson these days, mainly artists, I'm like, "man, I bet they looked after you and that instrument plays as good as it looks", cause a lot of the stuff they send out should have never left the factory.

[shramiac]

Please don't tell me the fingerboard is splintered under the middle of the fret in the first picture?

[doublev2]

Terrible. They will only put themselves out of business this way. Maybe they just want to sell t shirts in the future or sell mass produced children's toys

[ankh]

well,my luthier-he's excellent,btw- told me that after closer inspection he sent one of his client to change his brand new lespaul three times before they could find a decent one.

[Genebaby]

I believe that. They can make a good guitar but they let too many turds out of the shop.

[ankh]

since their name sells;)...............

Not to mention the recent ,"richlite" fingerboards ............now for the same price of rosewood, you have glued paper

[tukoztukoz]

So what about the Gibson ace Budokan 2012 with Richlite? Is it crap?

[ankh]

http://www.richlite.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richlite

i don't have any preconceived idea about the material per se,apart sopme issues with health.
But to make me pay the same price of a guitar with rosewood fingerboard...........

Same with the weight relief.In a perfect world, you should get what you pay for

It is a case of cutting down costs at the source while keeping the same profit.

[tukoztukoz]

But to make me pay the same price of a guitar with rosewood fingerboard...........

I agree with you.
Thanks for the info about richlite. I followed the link on the wiki article that said Martin guitars was doing richlite fingerboard too...

[Genebaby]

Wow, this whole issue with wood is becoming crazy. I read that Gibson got raided twice in 2011 and had a lot of their woods taken away, so they are resorting to tricks and other things to keep making the same looking guitars.

[ankh]

Gibson was foun guilty-it seems- of importing woods that were under enviromental law protection.
So rumours spread that a lot of guitars built around that period were in fact chinese made-by the factory that made epi's- under some amrican epresentatives specs and control,and then sent back to US were they were inspected and then sold under the name "made in USA".

Years ago,Ibanez made the talman model claimin they were using a revolutionary material called resoncast:
"The Resoncast on original Talmans was medium-density fiberboard (MDF), which took otherwise unusable bits of alder and mixed them with resin for a high-pressure compression. This material actually had a very "vintage" sound quality"(Vintage guitar magazine).

Same case,i don't mind new material or new solutions-i would buy a GITTLER guitar in a flash,if the price was right- but i don't like the fact that they try to make a recycled,inexpensive product as somethin new, revolutionary and therefore costly material.

[doublev2]

That baked maple is a joke. They could use coco bolo or laupacho as a rosewood replacement but obviously too expensive. Buy wait aren't they selling expensive guitars? I hope people stop blindly buying brand names and seek out real guitar makers like fred stuart and Tom Palecki etc.

[ankh]

problem is, people are buyng an icon,not a music instrument.
AND,now most guitarist have become stockbrokers.Guitars are bought on the basis of their resale value.

Great guitars from not not so famous brand have trouble being sold because of that reason-this and the massive, corporate propaganda.Luckily this could be a good thing for real players who judge with their ears.
AS much as i don't agree with some inflated prices,i can understand their point of view,tough.Relic guitars sound like a joke on paper, but it was marketing genius.

About woods,i find the whole idea of toasted neck nonsense, but to each his own.

[1031]

The guitar industry is definitely in a pickle, there are few if any guitars holding there value. The mega mass production of guitars has killed any serious investment guitars to far and few.
Even the vintage market has taken a huge hit in value resale. Sure there are few golden guitars that will always bring big cash but the bulk are way down. I have had four mid 50's and one prewar 000-18 Martins in my hands in the last month to get cleaned up for sale. You know when the last time I seen four 50's and one prewar 000-18 Martin's for sale in a month at local market level.. Never. That says that Heirloom family guitars are being cashed out because there's no one to play them, boomers are dying and there kids or grand kids don't play.
The used market is flooded with gear, and the second the stock market takes a dump every stock broker with a room full of Shur's PRS reserve,vintage Fenders and every Gibson R9 ever made will sell for pennys on the dollar. With a serious lack of guitar heroes in new popular music to inspire new players there will be no one to sell them to.
When Guitar company's bought in to the BRANDING hedge fund manager way of doing biz, it was the beginning of the end. Guitars built with decent quality will last 60 years plus if taken care of. Its like they said "hey lets build all the guitars the world will ever need for the next 300 years in the next 10 . It will be like a south park episode when a guy walks in to the CEO's office and says "Sir we are done ..every person, dog and cat has three guitars, even the internet guitar playing chimp has three.
To be honest the only guitar company in the states that has great price point insane quality and customer service and the perfect business model to survive is Carvin. There are other great builders but they are very pricey with shaky boutique biz models.

Its pretty telling when lines like "Behringer" pull there merch from Guitar Center for nonpayment.

[doublev2]

I don't know about fender but gibson are corporate idiots. I wouldn't touch a new gibson

[metatron]

I don't know about fender but gibson are corporate idiots. I wouldn't touch a new gibson

That's why I purchased my daughter a Fernandes Ravelle elite each