Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I play mainly bluesy rock (a little bit of jazz, no metal) and was looking to buy a second electric guitar, and went into my local guitar shop to try this out. I wasn't particularly looking for a Les Paul, but after trying out a few other guitars (some of the Joe Satriani Ibanez's) I saw this lying around and was intrigued by the natural wood look. The look is a matter of taste -- I've seen people note it as a negative or as a positive. You have to check it out and see for yourself. Personally, I think it looks very cool and classy. Both my mother and wife thought it looked great, too, but, as I said, it's a matter of taste.
Anyway, I picked it up and the first thing I noticed is that it is a lot lighter than the standard Les Pauls. I liked this, because I tend to find them a bit too heavy for my liking. I plugged it into a VOX AC 15 tube amp and proceeded to sit there for over an hour playing. The guitar has great tone and a variety of sounds, which it achieves with good quality Gibson burstbucker pickups. I really love the sound of this guitar when played through the VOX -- it can be really mellow and silky, fat and chunky, or bright, depending on how you adjust the settings. I find all three of the switch settings (rhythm, mixed, and lead) to be useful. The other nice thing is that since you have four knobs -- two volume and two tone (one for each humbucker) -- you can set them completely separately and then use the switch to go from (for example) a lower volume rhythm sound to a higher volume lead sound just by flipping the switch. This is pretty cool. My other electric only has one volume switch, so I can't do that.
After surfing the web for reviews of this guitar (which are overwhelmingly positive), the only negative comment I saw (except for people who don't like the natural wood look, which is a matter of taste) had to do with possibly shoddy quality control at Gibson. One reviewer said he tried 9 of these guitars and each was set up differently. Knowing this, I asked to try both of the 2 guitars that were at the shop. I looked at them carefully, and they both seemed set up very similarly, and both played very well right out of the box. The action was really low, which made for great playing, but a little bit of buzz. Since this didn't come out when playing through an amp, though, I decided not to adjust it to make the action higher. In short, this guitar is very playable, and felt great in my hands.
Basically, the sound is classic -- good for blues, jazz, bluesy rock, and hard rock, but probably not metal (not sure -- I don't play it so I wouldn't know). Despite being a bit lighter than the standard Les Paul models, this guitar has great sustain like all other Les Pauls. If you are interested in a Les Paul guitar, this is a great option for the under $1K category. If you can afford the more expensive models, then go for it, but this does not in any way feel like a cheapened "poor man's" Les Paul. It has solid construction and good quality components.
The only other possible place where they might have cut corners on the components is the tuners, which may not be all that great, but you can buy a better set for $60 and switch them out. I'm playing mine for a while first to see how they go, and if they're not that good, I will switch them. If so, that would be a very minor flaw in what is a really great guitar and an unbeatable price. Also, it comes with a hard case (this might be changing soon, not sure) which is worth about $150, making the price even better. If you're shopping in this category, definitely check one out. I decided to pick up the VOX 15 too and they're sounding fantastic together!
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