Opinions on the cheaper Gibsons

Paul7926

@Teyeplayer ;; Well I think I have a pretty good idea.  Unless of course my thought process is off.

My little Epiphone is an SG look alike which, for the stupidly low price, is actually quite a nice little guitar.  Yeah it has issues like any cheap guitar will but for the price I can't fault it.  I bought that by simply looking at all the entry level guitars on the wall of my local shop and picking what I thought looked the coolest.  I never considered any of the Fender/Squire styles to be honest.

For musical taste I started with Sabbath, AC/DC and GnR so Angus Young and Toni Iommi both do wonderful things with SG's and Slash has his LP.

After actually trying to learn to play for the last 9 months there has been a slight shift as whilst the above influences are not diminished in any way.  It's difficult to sound like a group when you are sat on your own in your living room.  So whilst I have no idea what the musical style might be called (Blues / Rock is my best guess) I've started to really like it.  Billy F gibbons is the only guitarist I can name at the moment.  I'm still discovering it all!  Now whilst I believe he played a Fender on 'La Grange' he mostly uses a LP and I've seen videos of him with an SG too.

So yeah, there really does seem to be something about the sound of a Gibson (SG or LP) through a Marshall stack that appeals to me.

So there I think you have the root of my Gibson bias and obsession!

thegummy

Paul7926 said:

@Teyeplayer ;; Well I think I have a pretty good idea.  Unless of course my thought process is off.

My little Epiphone is an SG look alike which, for the stupidly low price, is actually quite a nice little guitar.  Yeah it has issues like any cheap guitar will but for the price I can't fault it.  I bought that by simply looking at all the entry level guitars on the wall of my local shop and picking what I thought looked the coolest.  I never considered any of the Fender/Squire styles to be honest.

For musical taste I started with Sabbath, AC/DC and GnR so Angus Young and Toni Iommi both do wonderful things with SG's and Slash has his LP.

After actually trying to learn to play for the last 9 months there has been a slight shift as whilst the above influences are not diminished in any way.  It's difficult to sound like a group when you are sat on your own in your living room.  So whilst I have no idea what the musical style might be called (Blues / Rock is my best guess) I've started to really like it.  Billy F gibbons is the only guitarist I can name at the moment.  I'm still discovering it all!  Now whilst I believe he played a Fender on 'La Grange' he mostly uses a LP and I've seen videos of him with an SG too.

So yeah, there really does seem to be something about the sound of a Gibson (SG or LP) through a Marshall stack that appeals to me.

So there I think you have the root of my Gibson bias and obsession!

A piece of info I think will be valuable - a Gibson *style* guitar through a Marshall *style* amp will sound like the ones with the logos.

Some people may claim otherwise but I personally would be surprised if they could tell the difference in a bind test.

Teyeplayer

Paul7926 said:

@Teyeplayer ;; Well I think I have a pretty good idea.  Unless of course my thought process is off.

My little Epiphone is an SG look alike which, for the stupidly low price, is actually quite a nice little guitar.  Yeah it has issues like any cheap guitar will but for the price I can't fault it.  I bought that by simply looking at all the entry level guitars on the wall of my local shop and picking what I thought looked the coolest.  I never considered any of the Fender/Squire styles to be honest.

For musical taste I started with Sabbath, AC/DC and GnR so Angus Young and Toni Iommi both do wonderful things with SG's and Slash has his LP.

After actually trying to learn to play for the last 9 months there has been a slight shift as whilst the above influences are not diminished in any way.  It's difficult to sound like a group when you are sat on your own in your living room.  So whilst I have no idea what the musical style might be called (Blues / Rock is my best guess) I've started to really like it.  Billy F gibbons is the only guitarist I can name at the moment.  I'm still discovering it all!  Now whilst I believe he played a Fender on 'La Grange' he mostly uses a LP and I've seen videos of him with an SG too.

So yeah, there really does seem to be something about the sound of a Gibson (SG or LP) through a Marshall stack that appeals to me.

So there I think you have the root of my Gibson bias and obsession!

Keep an eye on the sales in January when the big boys knock out the end of line stuff and on here. You’ll be sorted soon enough.

Paul7926

thegummy said:

Paul7926 said:

@Teyeplayer ;; Well I think I have a pretty good idea.  Unless of course my thought process is off.

My little Epiphone is an SG look alike which, for the stupidly low price, is actually quite a nice little guitar.  Yeah it has issues like any cheap guitar will but for the price I can't fault it.  I bought that by simply looking at all the entry level guitars on the wall of my local shop and picking what I thought looked the coolest.  I never considered any of the Fender/Squire styles to be honest.

For musical taste I started with Sabbath, AC/DC and GnR so Angus Young and Toni Iommi both do wonderful things with SG's and Slash has his LP.

After actually trying to learn to play for the last 9 months there has been a slight shift as whilst the above influences are not diminished in any way.  It's difficult to sound like a group when you are sat on your own in your living room.  So whilst I have no idea what the musical style might be called (Blues / Rock is my best guess) I've started to really like it.  Billy F gibbons is the only guitarist I can name at the moment.  I'm still discovering it all!  Now whilst I believe he played a Fender on 'La Grange' he mostly uses a LP and I've seen videos of him with an SG too.

So yeah, there really does seem to be something about the sound of a Gibson (SG or LP) through a Marshall stack that appeals to me.

So there I think you have the root of my Gibson bias and obsession!

A piece of info I think will be valuable - a Gibson *style* guitar through a Marshall *style* amp will sound like the ones with the logos.

Some people may claim otherwise but I personally would be surprised if they could tell the difference in a bind test.

Oh I fully understand that.  There are so many variables that go into the final 'sound' and there are so many good instruments and amps out there that you don't actually need the 'label' to get the sound you want. 

I'm also under no illusion that even with the best equipment, with or without the label, I'm not going to suddenly start sounding like any of the above mentioned guitarists. 

I'm probably a victim of some sort of marketing 'ism' where, despite logical argument to the contrary, the need for the 'label' is real in my mind. 

Initially, when I thought that a guitar with the Gibson label was priced at £1500 and upwards I was able to ignore it because it was out of my price range and unattainable.  It was only when I started looking at possibly upgrading what I had that I found things like the SG faded which whilst still expensive (twice the price of say the Epi G-400 pro) were within the bounds of possibility for me.  Which is why this thread first started because I was unsure what you got for your money from the Faded line when the SG standard is twice the price of the Faded.

Teyeplayer

thegummy said:

Paul7926 said:

@Teyeplayer ;; Well I think I have a pretty good idea.  Unless of course my thought process is off.

My little Epiphone is an SG look alike which, for the stupidly low price, is actually quite a nice little guitar.  Yeah it has issues like any cheap guitar will but for the price I can't fault it.  I bought that by simply looking at all the entry level guitars on the wall of my local shop and picking what I thought looked the coolest.  I never considered any of the Fender/Squire styles to be honest.

For musical taste I started with Sabbath, AC/DC and GnR so Angus Young and Toni Iommi both do wonderful things with SG's and Slash has his LP.

After actually trying to learn to play for the last 9 months there has been a slight shift as whilst the above influences are not diminished in any way.  It's difficult to sound like a group when you are sat on your own in your living room.  So whilst I have no idea what the musical style might be called (Blues / Rock is my best guess) I've started to really like it.  Billy F gibbons is the only guitarist I can name at the moment.  I'm still discovering it all!  Now whilst I believe he played a Fender on 'La Grange' he mostly uses a LP and I've seen videos of him with an SG too.

So yeah, there really does seem to be something about the sound of a Gibson (SG or LP) through a Marshall stack that appeals to me.

So there I think you have the root of my Gibson bias and obsession!

A piece of info I think will be valuable - a Gibson *style* guitar through a Marshall *style* amp will sound like the ones with the logos.

Some people may claim otherwise but I personally would be surprised if they could tell the difference in a bind test.

Totally agree with you, though that’s not been the ops point in this thread as I’ve understood it. The op has wanted to know if a cheaper gibbo will be an improvement on a basic epi. I think we’d all agree that at the right price it’ll be a marked improvement and as we all know, sometimes just having what we perceive to be the ‘right brand’ and a better quality instrument can be a source of inspiration for any player -just look at the recent r8 thread.