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Great Gibson Experience

Started by jimilee, May 21, 2022, 08:23:23 PM

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Muadzin

Gibson is just not worth the money they're charging you for it. Glenn Fricker had a video about the Dave Mustaine signature he had ordered for $2800. It wasn't even properly set up. For that kind of money you expect it to play right straight out of the box. It's made in America products with Chinese levels of quality control. You might as well save you some money and order a Chibson straight away.

pickdropper

Quote from: Muadzin on May 25, 2022, 01:07:57 AM
Gibson is just not worth the money they're charging you for it. Glenn Fricker had a video about the Dave Mustaine signature he had ordered for $2800. It wasn't even properly set up. For that kind of money you expect it to play right straight out of the box. It's made in America products with Chinese levels of quality control. You might as well save you some money and order a Chibson straight away.

Gibson definitely deserves some of the complaints they get about QC.  For example, Jimilee's tool marks are absurd.

I tend to be more understanding about setups as wood often moves during storage and/or shipping as it goes from one environment to another.  I've seen some really bad setups on new guitars that sat in a warehouse somewhere; and not just Gibsons.  My local guitar shop does setups on every guitar that comes in the store.  Some manufacturers are better than others at factory setups, but even the better ones move around a bit from the time they leave the factory and may need tweaking.
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jimilee

Quote from: pickdropper on May 25, 2022, 04:18:50 AM
Quote from: Muadzin on May 25, 2022, 01:07:57 AM
Gibson is just not worth the money they're charging you for it. Glenn Fricker had a video about the Dave Mustaine signature he had ordered for $2800. It wasn't even properly set up. For that kind of money you expect it to play right straight out of the box. It's made in America products with Chinese levels of quality control. You might as well save you some money and order a Chibson straight away.

Gibson definitely deserves some of the complaints they get about QC.  For example, Jimilee's tool marks are absurd.

I tend to be more understanding about setups as wood often moves during storage and/or shipping as it goes from one environment to another.  I've seen some really bad setups on new guitars that sat in a warehouse somewhere; and not just Gibsons.  My local guitar shop does setups on every guitar that comes in the store.  Some manufacturers are better than others at factory setups, but even the better ones move around a bit from the time they leave the factory and may need tweaking.
I've found setups to be very subjective, and wood moves with its environment. I feel like they messed up the binding but we're more than willing to fix it at no cost. I've found that people love one brand and hate another. I have probably about as many Fenders as Gibsons.


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Pedal building is like the opposite of sex.  All the fun stuff happens before you get in the box.

imjonwain

Some places have a serious QC manager/department that enforces downward with people checking along the entire MF process (and they are hated by MF).  I've also worked in a fairly major factory that's QC only did first article inspections and returns.  Beyond that MF was responsible for rejecting & doing quality on individual parts or builds in their own work cells.  Guess how often that happened?  "ship it".
"I'm not sure what "serious design flaws" you see. Does it explode or poison your dog?" - PRR

Muadzin

Quote from: pickdropper on May 25, 2022, 04:18:50 AM
Gibson definitely deserves some of the complaints they get about QC.  For example, Jimilee's tool marks are absurd.

I tend to be more understanding about setups as wood often moves during storage and/or shipping as it goes from one environment to another.  I've seen some really bad setups on new guitars that sat in a warehouse somewhere; and not just Gibsons.  My local guitar shop does setups on every guitar that comes in the store.  Some manufacturers are better than others at factory setups, but even the better ones move around a bit from the time they leave the factory and may need tweaking.

Yeah, but for a guitar that costs me €1000 I will accept that there should be some setup required. For €3000 I expect it to play well straight out of the box. Solar delivers good playability straight out of the box at around a €1000 every time. Gibson remains hit and miss. Maybe they should move away from hand built into using more CNC so their guitars become more consistent. Hand built by a luthier makes sense. Hand built by a guy working minimum wage is a different thing. A luthier worth his or her name strives for quality. You only need to see Ben's videos from Crimson Guitars the absurd attention to detail he tends to go too. A guy working minimum wage is just clocking in hours. That is why CNC has revolutionized guitar building, bringing in a consistency in quality that used to vary, depending on whoever was in charge of management.

pickdropper

Quote from: Muadzin on June 09, 2022, 03:42:44 AM
Quote from: pickdropper on May 25, 2022, 04:18:50 AM
Gibson definitely deserves some of the complaints they get about QC.  For example, Jimilee's tool marks are absurd.

I tend to be more understanding about setups as wood often moves during storage and/or shipping as it goes from one environment to another.  I've seen some really bad setups on new guitars that sat in a warehouse somewhere; and not just Gibsons.  My local guitar shop does setups on every guitar that comes in the store.  Some manufacturers are better than others at factory setups, but even the better ones move around a bit from the time they leave the factory and may need tweaking.

Yeah, but for a guitar that costs me €1000 I will accept that there should be some setup required. For €3000 I expect it to play well straight out of the box. Solar delivers good playability straight out of the box at around a €1000 every time. Gibson remains hit and miss. Maybe they should move away from hand built into using more CNC so their guitars become more consistent. Hand built by a luthier makes sense. Hand built by a guy working minimum wage is a different thing. A luthier worth his or her name strives for quality. You only need to see Ben's videos from Crimson Guitars the absurd attention to detail he tends to go too. A guy working minimum wage is just clocking in hours. That is why CNC has revolutionized guitar building, bringing in a consistency in quality that used to vary, depending on whoever was in charge of management.

Yeah, Gibson can be a bit hit or miss, which is maddening at times.

But even a great factory setup can change once the environment does.  Wood is dynamic by nature and even great QC companies have issues with necks moving in transit or once they arrive in a new environment.  The local shop that I go do (not a Gibson dealer) gives every guitar a setup when it arrives, even ones from companies with a solid rep for QC.  As long as guitars are built out of wood, that will often be required. 
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Derpinador

wood is environment responsive, IF these things were made of ONLY plastic/metal then it'd be ok to see things maybe going a 1/8 turn out of tune from shipping. A stradavarius goes wonky sitting in a damp room for more than 1 hour ffs.... I leave wood for a build sit by my furnace for 6 months before I even THINK of drawing the body lines. While it's nice to hear that the factory corrected a minor issue most people can tolerate a bit of hard to notice scratch and dent to get the discount. I look at those marks and think not that bad, ever see what an axe looks like after you've had to use it to defend yourself middle of a bar fight?