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Or... keep an eye on the forum classified section here. There are some great deals to be had and often the guitar has had common upgrades or whatever creases it may have had ironed out for you. It won't take long for something you like the look of to come up. If it's just the murky world of Gumtree and eBay that puts you off then I'd recommend having a look as your money goes a lot further if you get something used.
It does seem like the builds are inconsistent. So if you get a good one, you're sorted.
With PRS you're getting totally consistent quality, albeit with a different brand on the headstock. Something like an S2 Vela (or Starla for that matter) is stonkingly cool and can be picked up for £600 used. That's what I would recommend over a budget Gibson.
Even if you get a great guitar without the Gibson name on and it plays brilliant, feels great etc, will you still think, 'I still wish I'd have brought the Gibson'
Or
If you get a Gibson and you don't like it, would you wish you'd have brought something else or would you still be thinking, 'Yeah, I don't like it, but I've still got a Gibson
I think in all likelihood your new Gibson would be really good and you'll love picking it up to play. You'll see that name on the headstock and it'll invite you in. With 10 years more experience, you may well see it differently i.e come across a lesser brand that plays better and suits you better and you may regret the expense (how much did I spend on that shitty Gibson!) but this is about how you feel now and the chances are that you'll love it.
Nowhere locally sells them new so I'd be looking at some sort of 'day out' to go see them in the flesh.
Now if I don't like the look or feel then that will probably 'cure' me of the Gibson idea as I don't have the money to go top of the line and I can live with that. I'll never have a Nissan Skyline or a Harley Davidson either. I can also grab some other guitars off the walls to make a comparison which will be useful.
If I do like everything about it then I'll know that not going down the Gibson route will be a mistake because I'll probably always look at anything else as 'Not Gibson' which is unfair and illogical but what can I do?
Over time, as I get better and have more experience, there is a chance that I'll find other guitars that either suit me more or have something that I personally consider superior to the Gibson. I can't possibly know that yet as I'm way too early on the journey. Heck I might end up thinking a tricked out glossy Ibanez shred machine is what I really want instead who knows. If that happens I have two choices. I feel that because it's a Gibson it would have some resale value if it had been looked after or I might decide that it represent the fulfilment of a life goal and it looks good on the living room wall. I mean if it takes me 6 years to decide that then that's less than a tenner a month for the use of it over that time!
First I need to get my hands on one to turn this whole thing from a theoretical exercise into something real and to be able to personally decide if reality matches expectations.
From there I can decide if new or second hand is the way forward along the Gibson path or maybe I should be just trying out whatever grabs my attention as I look along the wall in the store.
Thanks everyone for the help.
Do play it first, because quality, feel, sound, etc, is variable - IF you have your heart set in a Gibson (or any brand, for that matter) you're not going to be satisfied until you've got one.
OR - if you want, say, a 335 - buy an Epi Sheraton, and then go and try a few used 335's - you might find that they're still what you want, or you might think 'you know what, these are great'. I did something like that when I was considering my first 335, and the Epi's were great. Badge snobbery won the day for me, and although I've found the Gibsons to be great instruments (with a few exceptions - mainly because they didn't suit me) the Sheratons and Dots were 90% of the way there for 20% of the cost.
I say that as a bit of a fan (and collector, in a small way) of Gibsons.
I also bought a new DG 335 which i had to send back to Gibson as the fretboard was badly scratched. They repaired it and now its lovely but it does seem to be a Gibson thing as i have never had any issues when buying Fender or PRS guitars
My 2013 50’s Tribute:
https://imgur.com/gallery/ImL0S
My LPJ has quite a chunky neck.Very comfortable,and that coming from someone with pretty small hands.
As much as people are saying the low end Gibsons are fine in their own right, if you look at the same priced PRS or even a higher end Epiphone, you'll see immediately that you're giving up a lot to get the Gibson logo at that price.
It might take you buying a Gibson to avoid that "what if" feeling. If I didn't I'd probably have a paranoia that it would be better. As it happens, when I replaced the pickups in both, I put paf style humbuckers in the PRS because it feels more like a classic LP with the chunky neck and it definitely gets me the classic tones I wanted.