Gibson Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC Acoustic-Electric Guitar Review

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(More customer reviews)I love my guitar, but I want to tell you I hated it the day I brought it home. The action was terrible and it did not sound very good- quite harsh. I bought it having faith in my luthier. I took it from the store to the luthier. He adjusted the action, lowered it, and did some miscellaneous things I don't recall now, to correct it. I want to say that given Gibsons reputation and boasting how they are so great, you would expect it to come from their master craftsman already sounding good and set up better than it did especially at the price of $2400. Next I have found that the nut on this guitar is a chincy plastic piece. I had the nut replaced with a real bone nut (altered the extra wide spacing -reduced by 2mm from E to e). It baffles me why Gibson didn't just put a bone nut on in the factory. The guitar doesn't have nearly that much eye candy, as others do but it is okay. In the end its a great quality instrument and if you take the time to get it properly set up by a good luthier, and in my opinion reduce the nut with the bone and reduce the string spacing, lower the action, you can't be wrong. It plays easily, as much like an electric as is possible for an acoustic. Bar chords are quite a bit easier now, as opposed to the day I tried it in the store. I never have issues keeping it in tune. The tuning machines work very nicely. Now that I am breaking it in, it is sounding better and I anticipate that this is a guitar I will never want to part with.
***UPDATE 7 MONTHS LATER***
The guitar broke in with the bone nut- it has tone so sweet I decided to install a bone saddle also. I have not had the saddle installed because I had to get the neck adjusted and ran in to a problem today. The center seam below the saddle has become unglued and allowed a tiny split in the wood between the halves. Regardless of how Gibson handles this (I have almost zero hope they will fix it at no cost to me) I am seriously disappointed. Not because of this repair which should cost about $100. It is because I love the guitar and had such high hopes of how amazing it will be in 40 years from now- and I feel that the dream is gone and the value of a blemished or repaired guitar of this caliber is seriously reduced just like a car that has been wrecked and had the frame pulled back out with new fenders and a hood -we avoid those. I paid $2400 and for this to happen in 7 months (yes I use a sound hold humidifier and keep it stored in the case always when not in use- in addition, I own a 15 year old Charvel Jackson Acoustic guitar that lives in the same room and it is in pristine shape...in case anyone questioned if it was an issue of abuse)really disappoints me. The Guitar Center feels that I should have paid them for the insurance plan and said they can not help me really. I feel that I deserve to have a flawless instrument because I paid their premium price tag for a premium product. I am not asking for anything for free- I gave them my cash in good faith. In manufacturing, they have product which never makes it to retail due to quality issues, and it surely would not *hurt* Gibson to swap this out with new, but who is to say if they should. I am not asking for more than I paid for, or deserve. There really is no perfect solution in my eyes, as I have paid to have it set up, and broken in and already have strong attachment to the guitar. That said, a new replacement would be ideal from a consumer standpoint, but I lose the money invested... so, it feels like a broken arm... you get over it but you are never compensated. I understand that things happen in life, and while I do not know exactly what Gibson will do for me just yet, I assume I am having my well reputed local luthier fix it. He said it will sound just fine, and the repair is internal mostly; only a small blemish on the outside. The reason I think this way is that I was told Gibson would make me pay to ship it back and forth- which would cost more than the $100 repair if I did it locally. (It frightens me to think of having it shipped any place, how much abuse it would receive) I will update this review again soon and let everyone know how it works out. I really love this guitar and its tone. The cutaway is the way to go. I still think the hummingbird is miles ahead cosmetically, but besides the very ordinary plain cosmetics, my guitar is something I am sure I will cherish for a long time, provided that it does not fall apart and this un-glueing problem does not persist.
UPDATE July 2011--
The Guitar Center stepped up and offered to ship the guitar for me, and got Gibson to agree to fix it. They said it would take over 3 months however as warranty work gets less attention than the guitars being sold because a new guitar will bring them $$$$ and mine will bring them ... nothing but a job to do. With the promise of a 3 plus month wait, I decided that I would have the local luthier fix it so that I could have it back within two weeks. I did not get around to updating this review for a while so what happened next was I got the guitar back and then say 3 months afterwards, my action on the high frets has risen and I will need it adjusted. Not being a luthier I can not tell you if the neck bent or what caused this. I have 3 hygrometers now, 2 where I store the guitar and 1 where I play it. NO HUMIDITY ISSUES HERE. It is still very very much playable. I was told by the luthier that the more expensive instruments tend to be "finicky" and move a bit. Well, I sure hope I can get this thing set and stop making trips to the luthier at some point in the future and just enjoy playing the guitar. All the trouble is worth it though, because the sound makes it worth it. I can not say I would do a thing differently if I could have done it over again, other than maybe having the strings removed and looking inside with a flash light and mirror to inspect the guitar internals before buying it. What else could you do? Things happen... I didn't get a t-shirt from Gibson saying "my seriously expensive guitar was a lemon and all I got was this shirt"... LOL I am hoping for the best and still recommend the guitar, but I can give one piece of advice to take away from my experience: Buy the Guitar Center Unconditional warranty, but be careful because when they offer it, they throw you a high price like $350.00 and when you say no, they say how about $250.00. I thought this was less than 100% ethical and this is exactly why I declined the warranty. To each his own, I am sure some people would enjoy the negotiation of the warranty price. It's just not my thing.

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At the heart of Gibson's square-shoulder dreadnought line of acoustic guitars is the Songwriter Series, and the Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC is its most fundamental offering. First introduced in 2003, the Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC combines Gibson's time-honored bracing patterns of the 1930s with Gibson's classic square-shoulder shape, which gained world-wide recognition in the early 1960s.

Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC.
Gold Grover Rotomatic Tuners Grover's original Rotomatic tuners are an engineering marvel, with abundant style and performance exactly suited for the Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC. With a gear ratio of 14:1, the Rotomatics deliver precision tuning in a durable housing that provides maximum protection for the gear and string post. All moving parts are cut for exact meshing, eliminating the possibility of slippage. A countersunk tension screw lets players regulate the tuning tension to any degree. A special lubricant inside the gear box provides smooth and accurate tuning stability.
Crown Peghead Logo Gibson put the first crown peghead logo on an ES-300 back in 1940, and it has graced the headstocks of many legendary Gibson guitars ever since, including today's Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC. Over the years, it has also been called a "thistle" because of the group of flowering plants with the sharp prickles, though Gibson has preferred to call it a "crown."
Pickguard The pickguard on the Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC is a custom line design made from Tortec. As with all of Gibson's pickguards, the coloring, inlay, and binding are all done by hand.
Rosette A rosette is the beautiful, hand-crafted circle around the soundhole, and can be one of the most ornamental elements of any acoustic guitar. It is also one of the most subtle and complicated woodworking decorations on any acoustic guitar. The rosette on the Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC is one of Gibson's finest. It is a double-ring rosette with an abalone-filled middle, with both outer rings consisting of six-ply binding, adding a stylish, understated elegance to the Songwriter line.
Ebony Fingerboard with Rolled Edges and Split Parallelogram Inlays The fingerboard of Gibson's Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC is constructed from the highest grade ebony on earth, which is personally inspected and qualified by Gibson's team of skilled experts before it enters the Gibson factories. The resilience of this durable wood makes the fingerboard extremely balanced and stable, and gives each chord and note unparalleled clarity and bite. The Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC's split parallelogram inlays are made of genuine mother of pearl, and are inserted into the fingerboard using a process that eliminates gaps and doesn't require the use of fillers. The fingerboard also sports a rolled edge--instead of the usual right angle where the fingerboard surface meets the neck, Gibson Acoustic's rolled edges are slightly beveled for an extremely smooth and comfortable feel, enhancing the playability of the Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC.
Body Tonewoods The body design of the Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC is known as a small dreadnought. The top is made from AA-grade Sitka spruce, while the back and sides are constructed from rosewood, giving the Songwriter a balanced, warm tone with clear lows and solid treble registers. Selecting the right wood, and the formula to dry it out, are two of the most central procedures to Gibson's guitar-building process. Beginning with its first catalog in 1903, Gibson has assured its customers that every guitar would be built using woods with "the most durable, elastic, and sonorous qualities," and today's guitars from Gibson Acoustic are no different.
Fishman Prefix Plus-T Acoustic Pickup System The Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC from Gibson Acoustic comes equipped with the popular Prefix Plus-T acoustic pickup system from Fishman. Like the rest of Fishman's Prefix onboard preamp family, the Prefix Plus-T features ultra-quiet electronics and individual controls for volume, bass, treble and semi-parametric contour. It also features a built-in chromatic tuner, along with a separate control for brilliance and a phase switch and notch filter to help fight against unwanted feedback. The Plus-T's unique controls let you adjust the sound for any number of playing styles, including fingerstyle and straight strumming. It can also be adjusted to emphasize extreme bass and treble for a "scooped" mids effect, or for cutting through the mix when you need to be heard. The Prefix Plus-T works with a standard 9V battery.
Bracing Every acoustic guitar made by Gibson features hand-scalloped, radiused top bracing inside the body, a feature normally found only in limited run, hand-made guitars. By scalloping each brace by hand, the natural sound of the acoustic is focused more toward the center of the body, enhancing the instrument's sound projection. The bracing pattern inside the Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC is based on the design used for Gibson's celebrated Advanced Jumbo models of the 1930s, consisting of a wider "X" pattern that allows the top to vibrate more freely and push the sound toward the soundhole. The result is an instrument that delivers incredible response, and a superior dynamic range with balanced, warm tones, clear lows, and solid treble registers.
Nitrocellulose Finish Applying a nitrocellulose finish to any Gibson acoustic guitar--including the Songmaker Deluxe Studio--is one of the most labor-intensive elements of the guitar-making process. Unlike the polyurethane finishes used by many guitar manufacturers, a nitrocellulose lacquer finish is porous when cured, allowing the wood to naturally "breathe" and mature. Microscopically thin, the finish on a Gibson acoustic guitar first requires seven main coats of nitrocellulose lacquer. After drying overnight, the initial seven coats are then level sanded and given two additional coats. Left to dry for five additional days, the finish is then wet sanded and buffed to its final glass-like sheen. The time-consuming nature of applying a nitro finish has been employed ever since the first Gibson guitar was swathed with lacquer back in 1894. Why? For starters, a nitro finish means there is less interference with the natural vibration of the instrument, allowing for a purer tone. It's also a softer finish, making it easily repairable. You can touch up a scratch or ding on a nitro finish, but you can't do the same on a poly finish.

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