Gibson Quality

Casabg

https://youtu.be/CoIpZqPXDgE?si=fFfGykUaCFdLXr5C

hi All, I stumbled upon this earlier, deeply shocking to say the least! Worth a watch.

duotone

Spray Authentic

mankytom

Wow!

that’s outrageous. Maybe there are enough Gibsons in the world. If they are sending stuff like that out at the prices they charge it’s a real red flag

Secret_Sam

Owned by a private equity consortium these days. 

Given the way private equity works, you would expect them to try to raise prices and cut costs under the cover of lots of marketing smokescreen.  Like their new theme park shop in London.

Maybe their real target market doesn't notice the quality difference if they know that there is a secret room with real rock stars in it somewhere in the shop. 

stickyfiddle

How many times will we go around this loop?

People who buy Gibsons need to accept that tops are hand sanded, binding is hand-scraped, finishes are hand-sprayed. 

People who want absolute cosmetic perfection should buy a PRS. 

Gibson has never been the company that puts out literal micron-level perfection and it never will be. 

OilCityPickups

That's very sad. Some of the guitars I desired most when growing up were Gibsons, and I still sit and look at my Les Paul and feel lucky to own it. The more brands we have in the world the more choice we have, and Gibson has been responsible for a huge chunk of rock and roll history and been a big part of all us boomers cultural experience so they are important and deserve our attention. The big however here is: while you wouldn't mind spending out to get the odd fault cured on a £400 guitar - when that guitar commands a premium price tag it should be as close to perfect as possible. 

When you can go out and buy a sub £400 guitar that plays perfectly and has no faults ... I know this I did it with my Jackson V - then I think serious questions need to be asked of Gibson about where the lion's share of their profit's are going - as it's clearly not being ploughed back to fix QC issues. 

I couldn't justify spending the money to buy a new Gibson with their price tag now, and besides I gave a great Les Paul already, but it's sad that trust has been damaged with a company that has so much history. 

Seems like a invitation to buy Epiphone in future really ... the Chinese are really getting to grips with producing good guitars these days so I see less and less draw in buying American ... as I say, sad. 

kossofffan

Don't understand why we are happy to accept or make excuses for Gibson QC any more.

That's a poor guitar (reviewed in the above video) by any standards, however at that price range it's unacceptable in my book.

 Fender’s Mexican factory produce better quality finished guitars!

euan

stickyfiddle said:

How many times will we go around this loop?

People who buy Gibsons need to accept that tops are hand sanded, binding is hand-scraped, finishes are hand-sprayed. 

People who want absolute cosmetic perfection should buy a PRS. 

Gibson has never been the company that puts out literal micron-level perfection and it never will be. 

That would be fine if Gibson themselves weren’t presenting themselves as having loads of QC and making sure every guitar is perfect. 

Norlin4life

stickyfiddle said:

How many times will we go around this loop?

People who buy Gibsons need to accept that tops are hand sanded, binding is hand-scraped, finishes are hand-sprayed. 

People who want absolute cosmetic perfection should buy a PRS. 

Gibson has never been the company that puts out literal micron-level perfection and it never will be. 

stickyfiddle said:

How many times will we go around this loop?

People who buy Gibsons need to accept that tops are hand sanded, binding is hand-scraped, finishes are hand-sprayed. 

People who want absolute cosmetic perfection should buy a PRS. 

Gibson has never been the company that puts out literal micron-level perfection and it never will be. 

Did you actually watch the video?? I've owned probably 30-40 Gibsons and none of them had issues as bad as his gold top. QC should have stopped the guitar from ever getting out of the factory (even as a second imo) as they now have a video with nearly 10k views showing how poorly the factory operates a times. They may well have some new staff that aren't yet up to speed, but again, QC should have halted that abomination.

The hacksaw edge on the binding, un-seated frets and bumps on the top-carve are bewildering and things you won't find on a 150 quid copy. The clear coat is robot sprayed and obviously wasn't cleaned off correctly. The top carve is CNC'd and then LIGHTLY belt sanded smooth, but I'm pretty sure Gibson is now using a higher res CNC cut which requires even less hand work (if you can even call that hand sanding), so I suspect their CNC was in need of some calibration or a new tool head.

There's 'micron-level perfection' and then there's Stevie Wonder doing the QC. 

guitars4you

Norlin4life said:

There's 'micron-level perfection' and then there's Stevie Wonder doing the QC. 

I wish 

Don't worry 'bout a thing would be his policy if he was in charge of QC

armitaan

Looks like paying around £2400 new for one of these nowadays, lot of money for pretty basic issues.  Having found issues with every guitar the guy inspected in his local store expecting one sent to him direct to be any better I think was wishful thinking!  Life's too short , so many great guitars out there for that kinda money, buy something else, focus on being a better player and forget about what's on the headstock: that certainly isnt going to improve your playing:)

mrkb

stickyfiddle said:

How many times will we go around this loop?

People who buy Gibsons need to accept that tops are hand sanded, binding is hand-scraped, finishes are hand-sprayed. 

People who want absolute cosmetic perfection should buy a PRS. 

Gibson has never been the company that puts out literal micron-level perfection and it never will be. 

Hand finished shouldn’t mean lack of care and attention. 

stickyfiddle

Norlin4life said:

stickyfiddle said:

How many times will we go around this loop?

People who buy Gibsons need to accept that tops are hand sanded, binding is hand-scraped, finishes are hand-sprayed. 

People who want absolute cosmetic perfection should buy a PRS. 

Gibson has never been the company that puts out literal micron-level perfection and it never will be. 

Did you actually watch the video?? I've owned probably 30-40 Gibsons and none of them had issues as bad as his gold top. QC should have stopped the guitar from ever getting out of the factory (even as a second imo) as they now have a video with nearly 10k views showing how poorly the factory operates a times. They may well have some new staff that aren't yet up to speed, but again, QC should have halted that abomination.

I didn't watch it all but skimmed through. I didn't see anything we haven't discussed before. And frankly the Murphy Firebird I tried in Japan in Feb was at least as bad - I'm by no means minimising the issues. Just reminding people that Gibson has always been like this (yes including in the 50s) and they ain't changing. And most of their guitars are fine. 

I just don't have the energy for whining I guess. 

Tannin

Is this another Gibson (poor) quality thread?

Gosh! And here I was thinking it was still Wednesday. 

Tannin

I just watched the video. FFS, that would be appalling on a $500 made-in-Indonesia cheapie. On a guitar selling for close to $5000, it's an effin' disgrace. 

Be ashamed, Gibson. Be very ashamed.

SlopeSoarer

You get what you pay for! 

rhinofeet

I was in one of the box shifters this week to look at Les paul stds and classics. The first one I looked at had white residue in the fingerboard grain around the binding - I would class this as b stock. While I'm sure most gibsons are fine, there are a few lemons and it seriously damages the brand.

Philly_Q

The finishing flaws I expect - although I think we cut them too much slack in that respect - but the poorly fitted, poorly finished frets are more of a worry. They really should be getting that right.

digitalkettle

I don't usually watch these but I zipped through on 1.5 speed: that was proper shocking...way beyond the usual crap which I've stupidly been through three or four times.

That guy will be in the same spot in six months on guitar return #37 ;-/

OilCityPickups

Philly_Q said:

The finishing flaws I expect - although I think we cut them too much slack in that respect - but the poorly fitted, poorly finished frets are more of a worry. They really should be getting that right.

Totally this ... my own Les Paul has a bucket full of finish issues, but I was willing to ignore them because the fretwork was pretty good and the action was capable of going very low ... but proud/improperly seated frets are another matter entirely - and there is something badly wrong if a fret job in not level after a plek.  

SteveRobinson

Can't be bothered watching/listening to all that guff. Wouldn't it be more accessible to post a dozen pictures, each with a paragraph of text?

This goes for the vast majority of YouTube videos.