It's a Gibson
Written: Oct 06 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A good sounding USA made guitar priced under $600 brand new.
Cons: Goes out of tune too easy. Gets easily dinged due to its light finish.
The Bottom Line: Brand new ones are running about $700 nowadays. I'd recommend it to the budget-minded beginner, intermediate guitarists looking for a good USA made guitar. After all, it's a Gibson.
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| glenndaz's Full Review: Gibson Les Paul Special Electric Guitar with Humbu... |
About two years ago, I had my 1996 Fender American Standard Stratocaster guitar stolen from the trunk of my car. I needed to find a replacement for it as soon as possible because I play for our church worship team every week. I had this preference of buying an American made guitar but I didn't want to spend more than $700. The USA Fender guitars started at $700. After checking out some new and used guitars, I settled for the Gibson LP Special Faded for two reasons, (1) Price - $599 (w/out case) and (2) It's a Gibson. I've owned a Gibson LP Standard before. This guitar is a stripped-down version of the LP Standard. The body is solid mahogany as well as the glued-on, set-in neck. It has a rosewood fretboard with 22 frets on a 24 3/4" scale, pearl dot inlays on the neck, and nickel colored Grover tuners. The pickups are the same ones used on the LP standard. A 490R at the neck and a 498T at the bridge. A tune-o-matic bridge and two volume & tone knobs complete the guitar. The finish is what they call a faded finish. Mine is a cherry color with a light lacquer coat. So light, you can feel the wood grain. No body and neck binding. No carved maple top. No trapezoid pearl inlays. Not even a pickguard. Again, just a stripped down version of the Standard, thus the much, much lower price.
Playability:
It was ready to play right off the shelf. The action was low but hardly a buzz anywhere. The strings on the guitar when I purchased it were .009 gauge strings. I replaced them later with .010 gauge strings. I play mostly rhythm guitar and I had no complaints there. The open and bar chords were all clean and easy thanks to the lower action. Very little to no buzz when playing up higher on the neck.
Weight:
This guitar is a good 2 lbs lighter than the LP Standard. Partly because there is no maple top and not that thick a finish. Therefore your shoulder won't give out on you while you're playing a 30-45 minute set.
Sound:
The Gibson sound is there. Nice fat clean tone in the neck and middle position. Very full sounding and not too bright. Roll the tone knob off completely on the neck pickup (at the neck position)to get that nice jazz tone. With the same setting on a distorted channel, you get the infamous Eric Clapton "woman" tone with its "horn" like sound qualities. There's enough growl and scream on the bridge pickup to please everyone from the classic rockers to the metal heads and punks. Just a tad bit harsh on the high end but that can be adjusted by rolling off the bridge's tone knob a bit, if you want (I don't need to). To someone else, it may be completely fine. Everyone's different. I use a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe 40 watt tube amp and a Digitech GNX-1 effects processor. It's a little more tricky for me to dial in that nice southern bluesy tone (that's where I miss my Strat).
What I Don't Care For:
I don't know if it's just me or what, but I have to re-tune my guitar almost every song. It's really the g-string that needs to be re-tuned almost every time. Usually right after I do any type of string bending. I don't ever remember having to do that to my Fender. It's not just this guitar. My $2000 Gibson LP Standard had the same issue. (Mental note: Please be careful when telling your band mates or other people that your g-string keeps coming loose. It has a totally different meaning to some people nowadays) ;-)
I love the light lacquer finish on the guitar. It has a totally organic, raw feel to the guitar, however, because of the light finish, it's also prone to surface scratches and dings very easily. You can easily make a permanent mark simply by pressing the edge of your fingernail on the body. I've had my guitar for two years and pick mark indentations along with a nice shiny oily spot have developed below my high E string (where a pickguard is normally placed). I've tried using different guitar cleaners and I'm unable to remove the spot.
If you want to do volume swells using your guitar's volume knob, it's better to just use a volume foot pedal. Between 0 and about 2 or 3 there's no sound. Then there's a sudden jump (or boost) in volume. On the LP Standard I had, there was a nice gradual signal from 0 to 10.
Overall, I'm happy with the guitar. It's not my main instrument of choice now that I've purchased another American Fender Strat. However, on gigs where I need more "meat", the Gibson gets the nod.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
glenndaz
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Reviews written: 2
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