Les paul Tribute T info...

ellwood

I've reserved a Gold Top from Guitar Guitar for a 10% deposit. See if I get one from the next delivery batch...

Lev

I'm very interested in the Gold Top and was looking at some of the more amateur YT reviews this morning. Nearly all were out of tune to some degree. I do hope that its just that the reviewers didn't bother tuning up before pressing record rather than any intonation/tuning problems with the guitar itself.

4114Effects

To be honest, I'm starting to question my thought process on this guitar. Am I thinking of buying one because it's a decent guitar, or just because it says Gibson on the headstock? Is a low-priced Gibson any better than a top tier Epiphone ... ?

Plus the Goldtop has humbuckers instead of P90s. Hmmm. 

Fortheloveofguitar

Lev said:

I'm very interested in the Gold Top and was looking at some of the more amateur YT reviews this morning. Nearly all were out of tune to some degree. I do hope that its just that the reviewers didn't bother tuning up before pressing record rather than any intonation/tuning problems with the guitar itself.

Im thinking it's the players 

I tend to look for the better players/reviews like the one with Greg Koch etc.  That sold it for me 

Fortheloveofguitar

Will be ripping out the pups straight away and that damn pcb rubbish they have in them now 

Fortheloveofguitar

4114Effects said:

To be honest, I'm starting to question my thought process on this guitar. Am I thinking of buying one because it's a decent guitar, or just because it says Gibson on the headstock? Is a low-priced Gibson any better than a top tier Epiphone ... ?

Plus the Goldtop has humbuckers instead of P90s. Hmmm. 

I've been anal about researching this guitar and I've come to the conclusion that this should be exceptional value for money

I own 3 Gibsons all in the mid to higher end price bracket so I'll be able to give an honest evaluation. And if it doesn't cut it then it will be going back. I'll be very surprised if it comes up short. 

Plus the honeyburst mod l has already received rave reviews in this thread already 

tony99

I do like the look of the faded cherry in Thomann, that's a few quid extra too, like £633 or something

4114Effects

Fortheloveofguitar said:

4114Effects said:

To be honest, I'm starting to question my thought process on this guitar. Am I thinking of buying one because it's a decent guitar, or just because it says Gibson on the headstock? Is a low-priced Gibson any better than a top tier Epiphone ... ?

Plus the Goldtop has humbuckers instead of P90s. Hmmm. 

I've been anal about researching this guitar and I've come to the conclusion that this should be exceptional value for money

I own 3 Gibsons all in the mid to higher end price bracket so I'll be able to give an honest evaluation. And if it doesn't cut it then it will be going back. I'll be very surprised if it comes up short. 

Plus the honeyburst mod l has already received rave reviews in this thread already 

Yeah, I guess what I'm thinking is I can buy a very good used Epiphone for £250-300, upgrade the pickups to Bare Knuckle, shove in CTS pots and decent wiring, maybe even upgrade the nut and tuners and still come out cheaper than a Gibson Tribute ... would that be a better route. Hmm.

Not knocking your choice by the way, you're obviously very happy with your Gibson's, I'm just thinking out loud

underdog

4114Effects said:

Fortheloveofguitar said:

4114Effects said:

To be honest, I'm starting to question my thought process on this guitar. Am I thinking of buying one because it's a decent guitar, or just because it says Gibson on the headstock? Is a low-priced Gibson any better than a top tier Epiphone ... ?

Plus the Goldtop has humbuckers instead of P90s. Hmmm. 

I've been anal about researching this guitar and I've come to the conclusion that this should be exceptional value for money

I own 3 Gibsons all in the mid to higher end price bracket so I'll be able to give an honest evaluation. And if it doesn't cut it then it will be going back. I'll be very surprised if it comes up short. 

Plus the honeyburst mod l has already received rave reviews in this thread already 

Yeah, I guess what I'm thinking is I can buy a very good used Epiphone for £250-300, upgrade the pickups to Bare Knuckle, shove in CTS pots and decent wiring, maybe even upgrade the nut and tuners and still come out cheaper than a Gibson Tribute ... would that be a better route. Hmm.

Not knocking your choice by the way, you're obviously very happy with your Gibson's, I'm just thinking out loud

A pair of BKs in an Epiphone will sound great, but it won't feel like a Gibson tribute, and it wouldn't sound as good as a tribute with a set of BKs (or even irongear) pickups in it.

The Epi would still have thick plastic feel, the neck would feel rather generic, the wood choice will be inferior etc.

There's little to fault with these cheap Gibson guitars, decent woods with a cheap finish and middle of the range pickups. They feel and sound like a Les Paul should. A pot change and a bit of wood wax (if you must have a shiny finish) pretty much gives you a Les Paul standard without binding and a case.

I'm qualifying this post as a person who owned an excellent Epi Les Paul tribute plus and owns a Gibson LPJ (essentially today's tribute) and an LP vermilion.

stimpsonslostson

4114Effects said:

Fortheloveofguitar said:

4114Effects said:

To be honest, I'm starting to question my thought process on this guitar. Am I thinking of buying one because it's a decent guitar, or just because it says Gibson on the headstock? Is a low-priced Gibson any better than a top tier Epiphone ... ?

Plus the Goldtop has humbuckers instead of P90s. Hmmm. 

I've been anal about researching this guitar and I've come to the conclusion that this should be exceptional value for money

I own 3 Gibsons all in the mid to higher end price bracket so I'll be able to give an honest evaluation. And if it doesn't cut it then it will be going back. I'll be very surprised if it comes up short. 

Plus the honeyburst mod l has already received rave reviews in this thread already 

Yeah, I guess what I'm thinking is I can buy a very good used Epiphone for £250-300, upgrade the pickups to Bare Knuckle, shove in CTS pots and decent wiring, maybe even upgrade the nut and tuners and still come out cheaper than a Gibson Tribute ... would that be a better route. Hmm.

Not knocking your choice by the way, you're obviously very happy with your Gibson's, I'm just thinking out loud

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I had an SG 50s Tribute until recently, it was very good. I even like the sunken finish- the guitar felt like it was made of wood (rather than plastic as is often the case with Epiphone poly finished guitars). 
I sold that as I wanted a HB'd LP & after much research I bought an Edwards (immaculate fit & finish, SD pickups & hardcase all for a great price. I think I posted a pic of it earlier in the thread). Had I not found that I wouldn't have hesitated to buy a Tribute T. 

Fortheloveofguitar

underdog said:

4114Effects said:

Fortheloveofguitar said:

4114Effects said:

To be honest, I'm starting to question my thought process on this guitar. Am I thinking of buying one because it's a decent guitar, or just because it says Gibson on the headstock? Is a low-priced Gibson any better than a top tier Epiphone ... ?

Plus the Goldtop has humbuckers instead of P90s. Hmmm. 

I've been anal about researching this guitar and I've come to the conclusion that this should be exceptional value for money

I own 3 Gibsons all in the mid to higher end price bracket so I'll be able to give an honest evaluation. And if it doesn't cut it then it will be going back. I'll be very surprised if it comes up short. 

Plus the honeyburst mod l has already received rave reviews in this thread already 

Yeah, I guess what I'm thinking is I can buy a very good used Epiphone for £250-300, upgrade the pickups to Bare Knuckle, shove in CTS pots and decent wiring, maybe even upgrade the nut and tuners and still come out cheaper than a Gibson Tribute ... would that be a better route. Hmm.

Not knocking your choice by the way, you're obviously very happy with your Gibson's, I'm just thinking out loud

A pair of BKs in an Epiphone will sound great, but it won't feel like a Gibson tribute, and it wouldn't sound as good as a tribute with a set of BKs (or even irongear) pickups in it.

The Epi would still have thick plastic feel, the neck would feel rather generic, the wood choice will be inferior etc.

There's little to fault with these cheap Gibson guitars, decent woods with a cheap finish and middle of the range pickups. They feel and sound like a Les Paul should. A pot change and a bit of wood wax (if you must have a shiny finish) pretty much gives you a Les Paul standard without binding and a case.

I'm qualifying this post as a person who owned an excellent Epi Les Paul tribute plus and owns a Gibson LPJ (essentially today's tribute) and an LP vermilion.

I agree will all of this and as nice as the high end Epiphones are they still come nowhere near to even the cheapest of the Gibson models

My BFG model was possibly the most stripped back version they've ever done and it's an unbelievable guitar and one of my favourites 

Even the pups in the tribute models are great. There the same ones that used to come in the standards back in the 90's and I actually think they're better than all the burstbuckers they've been installing on the higher priced models of late. I'm only swapping mine out as I want open coil black pups for the Slash goldtop look that I'm after 

im really impressed with the look of the faux binding effect as well. That really adds to the look and the 2016 models didn't have anything like that 

underdog

@Fortheloveofguitar surely zebra pickups for a slash alike?

Fortheloveofguitar

@underdog You mentioned that it's possible to apply some wax to the finish in order to add some shine

Have you done this yourself or can you recommend a good one to use. I may fancy having a go at that 

underdog

Fortheloveofguitar said:

@underdog You mentioned that it's possible to apply some wax to the finish in order to add some shine

Have you done this yourself or can you recommend a good one to use. I may fancy having a go at that 

I haven't done it no, but I read a how to thread on somewhere (mylespaul or something) that someone done it to a goldtop LPJ, it was just untinted furniture wax, it's on my list to do to mine but then it's been on that list for 2 years

Fortheloveofguitar

@underdog I did think about Zebra pups but I like the gold top look he had on the UYI tour which was open coil black

His original sig model gold top had black too

Fortheloveofguitar

underdog said:

Fortheloveofguitar said:

@underdog You mentioned that it's possible to apply some wax to the finish in order to add some shine

Have you done this yourself or can you recommend a good one to use. I may fancy having a go at that 

I haven't done it no, but I read a how to thread on somewhere (mylespaul or something) that someone done it to a goldtop LPJ, it was just untinted furniture wax, it's on my list to do to mine but then it's been on that list for 2 years

I think that would look great. I would be worried about a possible reaction with the satin paint finish so would need to double check first but i'm keen to do that 

underdog

If you're worried could always use guitar polish and elbow grease? My goldtop is visibly glossy these days where I rest my hand, so should be easy enough to simply buff by hand with some polish or even a good quality car buffing polish (not t cut) but briwax so should be fine.

Edit: on Google people seem to have had good results with meguires polish.

tony99

Imagine the NGD's on here when these are finally in stock

Fortheloveofguitar

underdog said:

If you're worried could always use guitar polish and elbow grease? My goldtop is visibly glossy these days where I rest my hand, so should be easy enough to simply buff by hand with some polish or even a good quality car buffing polish (not t cut) but briwax so should be fine.

Edit: on Google people seem to have had good results with meguires polish.

Many thanks I'll have a good look into that. I read to avoid anything silicone based as it will destroy it.

Fortheloveofguitar

tony99 said:

Imagine the NGD's on here when these are finally in stock

They'll be one coming tomorrow from me all being well