i bought a lp style sire and for the money I was surprised at the quality! I own 5 gibsons including a rosewood j45. because of it i bought luthier tools.
Dude PRS guitars are where it’s at. I have a 2013 Gibson SG that has had the bridge, tuners and nut replaced and it still won’t stay in tune. Gibson makes a junk product. All of my PRSs stay in tune perfectly. And those range from SEs, S2s, and a couple of cores.
I own a PRS DC3, a short lived stratocaster series they made before the Silversky. They didn't make many of those because they weren't very popular, but I'm lucky to own one in a such a good condition, the quality is very good One thing I love and admire about PRS is that it doesn't matter if you buy the most expensive and premium product in their lineup or the cheapest one, you'll still have quality
This guitar reminds me of an Ibanez artist a friend of mine bought in the late 70's. Same fancy inlay and all. The big difference is HIS WAS PLAYABLE. And it was a small fraction of what that thing cost. Plus the Ibanez had the hottest pickups I had ever played at that point.
This is just a shame on the quality control part of it. It's easily fixable, but the lamest situation if you wanna record, play, or maybe do a demo with it 😆
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist For that price needing fixing already is unacceptable. Those Ibanez guitars from the '70's were, and still are I would think, amazing guitars. I would rather find one of those, and have a player I can take anywhere than an expensive wall hanger.
Ibanez is hands down a better made guitar, with MUCH better quality. An Ibanez B-Stock is equivalent to a Gibson Custom shop, not just talking 💩 here either, it's a fact.
@RetroQuest I don't agree. Gibson makes some amazing guitars, they're just inconsistent. This guitar is majorly high quality with some really stupid things wrong with it. The quality is great, the quality control over dumb shit not so much. Gibson has always made both incredible and BS instruments
When I’m comes to lawsuit era guitars, Japan built is very hard to beat. But now as well, I love my Revstar, but I did change all the electronics. SD pick ups are my fav sound, but it’s sounds like Santana’s pre PRS Yamaha now!🙂
Don’t know if it’s the case with that one, but I’ve found that 9 times out of ten, bad intonation is being caused by the nut slots not being cut low enough, so the closer you play to the nut, the more you are bending strings out of pitch just by pushing them down onto the frets. Easy way to check is put a capo at the first fret, then tune it and play up and down the neck with the capo and see if it sounds in tune that way. In that case, you are basically using the first fret as a zero fret. I don’t know why more guitars haven’t gone with a zero fret instead of a nut. Solves so many headaches.
@A Jonesy if there were unedited video you would see literally 40+ more mins of me getting frustrated, tinkering, looking at my director and questioning what we do with this video. You're looking at it lol 😆
This is exactly what I've said for years when it comes to he really nice high-end instruments. Actual real-deal musicians and guitar enthusiasts who would appreciate and make good use of the custom instruments... we can't afford them! So yeah... you just know it's all dentists and lawyers who buy them up... then they spend their days inside a case in a safe deposit box. When their grandchildren turn 18, BOOM... they skyrocket in value by then, and become part of their trust fund Andrew Mellon is a great example of a non-musician and heir of the Mallon banking corporation in Pittsburgh. Back in the early 90s, he bought Alex Van Halen's red lips design drum kit that he used for the 1983 US Festival - the only live performance that kit has ever made as far as I know. But Mellon bought it at a private AIDS auction, which Alex had donated it to for that purpose Once Mellon bought the kit, he had a friend in southern California who was storing it for him. Mellon was keeping it for his sons, that way when they were older and the drums increased in value, they would go to them. Fast forwarding to around 2006, Mellon phones his friend saying he's going to be coming to get those drums. The friend then said to him that the most unfortunate thing had just happened recently when his place was flooded, and the drums had become waterlogged and had to be thrown out... sorry about your luck What's even more interesting about this is, going back to 1992, which was my freshman year in high school when I was a percussionist in the high school band drum line, a friend showed me an ad in a Modern Drummer magazine, December 1992 issue... the ad was for "Alex Van Halen red lips design complete drum kit $6,500. Call for further details" and there was a phone number... I was a huge Alex fan in those days, especially. He was the reason I began playing drums and how I learned to play beginning when I was 11. I had never heard of or seen this "red lips design" drum kit at that time, and wanted to know what it was all about. Or if it was even real. So, I called the guy. His name was Brian and he was a cool dude. We talked about the drums for like a half hour. He said he bought them at an AIDS benefit auction and just no longer had the room for them... He sent me photos of it, which were just photocopies of color photos on a single sheet 8 × 11 paper. There were 4 photos total, all showing the kit I detail, and after finally watching the US Festival on VHS, that confirmed that the kit was authentic. The real deal for sure. Oh... back to those photos. You could see Brian in 2 of them. One of the photos he's sitting behind the kit set up, and the second standing in front of it holding a PaIsTe 2002 or 3000 series cymbal in his hand (one of the two). Of course I didn't have $6,500 dollars to send him for that drum kit. Even if I did, in those days it was easy to get ripped off by sending a check, then hoping he sends the goods. Anyways, I later learned the story of this friend of Andrew Mellon who ripped him off, basically. But I honestly believe I talked to the thief over the phone in late 1992. That had to have been him. The drums would later show up at a Hard Rock Cafe in Seoul, Korea in 2013 where they were reportedly sold fkr over $40,000 Maybe I should have snatched those up vor $6,500. Their value increased by-7 times. But yeah, that's an interesting story of the rich guy non-musician being taken by a con artist who was supposed to be his "friend". Well, he thought wrong. And I find it hilarious that I'm sort of kind of indirectly connected to that whole thing since the beginning
@@Avedis-G that's your choice. No one can make you read anything. I'm just curious as to why you needed to make it known that you weren't reading no books. You could have taken that moment... the time it took for you to make that comment... and put it towards something more meaningful, like polishing your Zildjian Avedis series cymbals... or learning that paradiddle that is a motherfucker to get down just right, and to-speed while controlling dynamics
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist thanks. And subscribe I shall do. I've had a LOT of writing practice... and I mean a LOT while I was in college. So it's only second nature for me to have the whole syntax thing down as best ad I van, although, I can see where I made some grammatical errors along the way. But it's at least easy to read and understand. I tend to get lengthy whenever describing things as part of everything as well. But only because I can crank these things out rather quickly
The nut may not be cut correctly so no matter what you do to adjust the intonation or tune it, it won't work. The high point for each nut slot needs to be right at the fretboard edge. If someone rocked the file when cutting the slots then the high point may be closer to the headstock which will mess up the intonation process. A new nut and a thorough setup may solve the problem.
It should theoretically solve the problem, though the break angle and non-straight pull at the headstock on Gibson guitars causes quite a few tuning issues. A device called a "string butler" could improve this some. While nothing (in my opinion) with improve it 100%, a few things will improve things greatly overall.
@SpaceD_0ut_Ace I'm sure. Again, not my monkeys not my circus. It's sitting in Bob's display case as wall art. I may bring it to my guy and make an episode of bringing her to life, but people keep messaging like I don't know how to fix it or even care to. I'd just assume that guitar fall off a bridge lol
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I get that. I was just commenting to the original message. Sorry if it comes off as saying you do not know what you are doing, which was not my intent. Take care.
I have a lot of Gibsons, and yep, even my Custom shop Custom needed me to fine cut the nut. I asked about this, and the fact is that their reasoning for cutting the nut a little high makes some sense: not everyone plays with really low action, and some folks play slide, which means it needs to be even higher. You can't put material back on the nut (easily), but you can file it down, so like layers on a winter's day, you can't add what you do have, but you can take them off. I have a set of nut files and I cut my own, but that's not something everyone should have to do. Honestly, when it comes to shops, they should always include a little wiggle room to give you a decent setup. Les Paul's can play in tune, but it takes a little fine tuning out of the box to customize it to the individual. Right or wrong, it is the way. When it comes to that particular guitar, it's unlikely it would be a player for anyone outside of like television appearances on New Year's Eve or something. It's best left in a glass case and as an art piece than a player.
You're not wrong jim, but they can still cut the nut with high action and ensure it's intonated! I'm sure if it's recut it'll be a dream but I still call shenanigans on it being this poorly taken care of and shipped out. Subscribe and join the madness
I’m kinda disappointed because in my eyes, every single Gibson should be a player no problem, even if it was gonna decorative, it should still play fantastic.
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I'll give you that for sure. I would give a little credit to the fact that the guy had the guitar in a case for years and it's likely the strings are original. You can't intonate some strings, and a quick change has fixed such problems for me in the past on many guitars, regardless of guitar brand. It's also possible the frets need a little attention due to the fact that it sat for a while. I found when I do everything mechanical correct, it's likely that it's the strings. Of course, that's just my history and experience, and I could be dead wrong. LOL
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist For $10k Gibson can cut the nut to the customer's specifications before delivery. It's a small service to make a $10k flagship product actually usable for it's intended purpose.
I look at custom shops all the time but I simply can't fathom pulling the trigger on the price of those things when they're not perfect. Yes I expect 100% perfection when I'm spending upwards $6,000 for a guitar.
I took a second hand Ibanez, put in custom Bartolini pups and a professional paint job on it with a detailed set-up by an expert luthier, and still have less than $2k in it, and it's perfection in playability, looks, and sound. Mainly I stay with Schecter. They always knock it out of the park and won't break the bank.
True but every Schecter that I've ever played the low e buzzed so bad the guitar was just unplayable. Overall fit and finish was great the neck was great the pickups were great the sound was great all that greatness and yet I still sold every single one because like I said even through an amp turned up the buzzing was just terrible. I own over 20 guitars trust me I know how to set one up or take one to a Master luthier and even they couldn't get it right
@@beefnacos6258 have a whole wall of them.. hellraisers and apocalypse in strat , singlecut and v models as well as custom singlecut .. no buzz , i'd put any of these against anything anyone has.. geeze look where they are made.
I had 490/498 pick ups in my SG Standard I bought last month. They immediately got switched out for a set of Bare Knuckle Silos. I also replaced the circuit board and pots with 550k pots, oil/paper caps, and had it wired 50s style. I also had locking turners put in. So...$1700 for the guitar and another $650 later that guitar rocks.
Sometimes they can be a labor of love. First off, I corrected myself later in the take but it didn't get edited in that the pickups are actually 57s. Which I love. But sometimes Paul's come sounding dead. I head a brand new lp signature w burstbucker 2 pups in it and it literally was the worst sounding thing I've ever encountered. I put emgs in it and she immediately sounded massive. The thing that's even crazier is that I've gone from the same pickup on 5 guitars and they seem inconsistent a lot to me. Some people swear by the burst buckers and meanwhile they were unusable for me. Bare knuckle stuff always kicks ass. I have some in one of my classics and they sound positively heavenly! 🙌
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I've been putting Bare Knuckle in all my guitars lately. I put a BK Riff Raff in the bridge and The Mule in the neck of my LP Standard 60s (along with their pots and caps). Put a set of Rebel Yell in my PRS Custom 24. Bare Knuckle are defintely my favorite pickups, and the guys there are cool too.
@KetoSoldier I used to customize all of my guitars and realized I took the value right out of them. I bought a lot of them already customized so I've been able to mess w some of them, but I prefer to keep most guitars stock now just as a collector and to see the difference between everything. The first thing I used to think when I got a guitar was how am I gonna change this thing? Lol
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I totally get it. I was hestitant to change my guitars too for the same reasons. One day, I just thought to myself why do I care what I can sell them for? I should just make them into the guitars I wanted. Then again, I only have the guitars I play. One day, if I start up a collection like you have then I wouldn't be changing anything either. Thinking about buying a PRS private stock in the near future. That guitar won't get triffled with. Although, make no mistake it will get the hell played out it. Just not on stage.
@KetoSoldier if they're your forever guitars then you do you! I def did me, but when you have as many as I do you start asking yourself "am I really gonna play this so much I shouldn't leave it this way?" The answer is usually no nowadays, but there are exceptions. But I also already have multiple go to guitars so variety is the spice of life. It's your tone. Chase it. Just don't be mad when you sell something and people give u a hard time! That's why I never sell any of my customized guitars.
To me this has been the Gibson experience for years, I’ve tried, I’ve returned 3 Gibsons to Guitar Center. Nothing beats an American Jackson which is a precision instrument
I have over 50 gibsons and I love them all. I almost never buy new for this reason. They have always been inconsistent but the good ones are some of the best guitars. I absolutely agree jackson makes a more consistently excellent instrument
@Fatt Philosopher disagree. Love Japanese and even American ESP, but for a good one you'll pay as much if not more than a Gibson and they are MUCH more exclusive. They had a custom shop eclipse hanging at the GC in Hollywood for 9k. Not anymore of a deal, just guarantee it doesn't have a nut problem
It's funny how lucky I got because this year I finally pulled the trigger on a used les Paul standard and an explorer and they are both ridiculously good instruments. My Les Paul isn't heavy like at all which blows my mind because everyone I've ever picked up damn near breaks my back. And the whole g-string doesn't stay in tune thing it's just a myth to me at this point because I am having absolutely zero issues. Lucky? Maybe.
@@shanewalton8888 opinion man. Every Japanese ESP I've ever played simply didn't do It for me including the horizon and the lp. Hated them. My buddy bought one brand new and 6 months later he sold it.
I'm not totally surprised by the intonation issue. One of the items on my checklist when evaluating a Les Paul involves this exact issue, some of them do this while others do not. Little issues like this are part of when helps me determine what is a "Keeper". Great Content Benny. Nice guitar Bob, thank you for sharing it with us.
@@hibernative I've had guitars where correctly intonating them required the Nut being recut as well as the bridge and saddles being adjusted/worked on. For the most part I've found that 99% of all guitars can be brought into intonation without much work, however I've had some that just refused to sound right after being set up. Not sure if it was individual frets or even some strange anomaly that caused strange harmonics, I just know that I've seen it happen. That was all I was saying, when I'm checking out a guitar for purchase I do everything I can within the scope of a demo to make sure the intonation is on and the guitar rings out correctly up and down the scale. I've passed on a few guitars because those pesky little sour notes that sometimes occur in certain areas of the fingerboard. I'd like to add, Benny should have tried a new set of strings on that Ultima, many, many times a string can vary in diameter from either wear or manufacturing, and that can also cause the whole sour note thing to happen.
@@hkguitar1984 I have heard Gibson drilled the holes for their bridges in the wrong direction so you almost need to max out the saddle position to get it to play right. Can of course happen with very thick strings too. If the nut is not right you can usually check the fret position intonation and if everything rings true except the nut, it is probably not nut. And also of course nuts that are to shallow so you fret out of tune.
@@hibernative Yes, 100% agree with you. Surprisingly (or not), many times it can be a worn string. The whole intonation equation depends on the length and diameter of the individual strings. I've found that even a slightly flattened area from fret wear on a unwound strings can play havoc with intonation. And to be clear, not all players can actually hear the small differences. I've a wrap tail R4 Goldtop that intonates almost perfectly, but only with new strings. On that R4 I find myself changing the un-wound/plain strings at least once before needing to change the entire set for new strings. I love my wrap tail Les Paul, the bridge/stopbar string spacing is just a touch wider as compared to the ABR-1. These days I find myself preferring the wrap tail and Telecasters due to the wider string spacing at the bridge. Sorry for my digression, I've been practicing my hybrid picking and have rediscovered my love for the Telecaster as well as the wraptail LP! LOL
That's definitely a factor for me. How much can you dig in and how much it just stays in tune, but particularly in how the overtones sound. This one passed the first test in flying colors, which is to sound really nice acoustically. It also played really well, but the biggest one is whether it can stay in tune, be thrashed on and still stay in tune, and how finicky it is when it is in tune not to go sharp or flat pending how hard I dig in. Thanks for watching 🙌🙏🙏🙏🎸🔥
It was just a perfect example of what I always talk about that cheaper and less opulent guitars try harder for tone. It blows my mind what gibson considers the best tops, I have seen 40k Bella voce les Paul's with tops like this. Cmon now.
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I have sold US strats and kept Classic Vibe strats that played better and intonated way better. My current number one is the Silver Sky SE. I am blown away by the way it plays and sounds. Best strat I have ever owned, not just for the money either. It's just that good.
@Micah Meazell have you seen my silver sky se unboxing video? If you haven't you need to go check that out immediately because you're essentially quoting me.
@The Neurotic Guitarist yes I have. Great video. I saw it after I bought mine and agree 100% with you. Love your channel, such a departure from all of the monotone gear demos out there.
Ok, first I want you to know I am not in anyway biased. I have 3 Gibsons and I own 17 electric guitars. But here is the deal, my Les Paul was bought for considerably less than it was worth because it didn't play or stay in tune. But really it had 3 issues. 1: The top nut was to high. 2: The top nut was pinching the strings while tuning and letting them slide through while playing. 3: The intonation had not been set at the lower bridge. Took me 2 tries to get a new bone top nut right. Then set the intonation. Then lubed the nut with graphite. Sounds great , plays like a dream. Now I would expect the guys and gals making a $10,000 Gibson to do that work before you get the darn thing. But I also would have expected them to do it on my retail $5000 custom that I bought for a thousand bucks before the owner threw it in a wood chipper.
The fact that you'd pay half(or maybe even less than half) of the price for a Schecter Custom Shop Solo-II(their LP model) and get a guitar with better specs that is actually playable.
The good gibsons are as good as anything out there. But this sorta thing baffles me. Schecter makes some great guitars. I had a California custom elite that originally went for 4100 and it was a great super strat, just not my thing.
You can pay 500 bucks and get a Yamaha Revstar RSE20, awesome playability and great sound (perhaps slightly "fluffy" pickups), if you want you can make a pickup change. Still will cost you WELL under 1000 bucks. There are many other options for under 1000 bucks which are really playable and good guitars. Gibson is just a corporate cash grab company.
@Tom Whittaker gibson makes the best guitars in the world. Unfortunately they have the worst quality control on the planet with some of the most inconsistent guitars.
@@tomwhittaker9461 there is a reason why so many influential guitar players played a Gibson and it's NOT because it's a "corporate cash grab" thing. Like he said, they have horrible quality control now. Otherwise they can be some of the very finest guitars. I prefer a good Strat myself but I miss my Gibson.
I have had a few guitars in my 30+ yrs of playing that acted the same way. Have a PRS McCarty currently that has same issue. When all else fails, use your ears. You will guage how meny cents flat or sharp to tune the individual strings. It's usually the dreaded B string! I have a strat that prefers the B string to be perfectly in tune. The rest of my guitars prefer the B string to be a few cents flat. I also noticed that it's important for the intonation to be adjusted in the playing position. Some guitars, especially neck heavy (SG) need to be adjusted in the playing position. Anyone who says it doesn't matter, just hasn't experienced this type of problem. Wood grading is weird, and depends on the opinion and wood available at the time for manufacturers. I have a Alvarez OM acoustic, that has "standard" grade mahogany, according to Alverez. In actuality, it has an incredibly figured tropical mahogany back, that rivals the best and most expensive figured mahogany I have seen on any instrument, regardless of price. The whole intonation thing can be mind numbing and frustrating to the max!
Absolutely, I suspect it could be fixed w a new nut or saddles, but it's a testament to the bs you might contend with getting a 10k guitar from Gibson! Wild stuff
Excellent point. EVERY guitar should be intonated in the playing position. And 99% of the time tuning issues are improperly cut nut slots. Also, on a hard tail guitar, if a string is sharp you'll see people roll the tuning key BACK to tune down to the correct pitch. ALWAYS tune UP to the note. If there's any binding at all in the nut slots it will go flat the minute you strum if you didn't tune it UP to pitch. A properly cut bone nut will not bind and will not require lubrication.
Since every guitarist reviewing guitars on RUclips is being very neurotic, trying to find cosmetic imperfections and hardly talking about general playing experience, I really appreciate the fact that you’re honest and upfront about it! 👍🏻
I wasn't sure where that was going aart!!! Thanks for watching dude. Subscribe and join the madness, I don't have any agenda other than telling it how it is 🙌
They still have the strings it came with. Less than 4 hours of play. I suspect a wonky fret but what started off as guitar porn turned into a studio nightmare video lpl
Not true, I have plenty plenty of gibsons that keep perfect tune without grap tech, although I have them on one of my gibson elegants. The g string is always the culprit!
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist while I accept that not all Gibson's suffer from lack of tuning stability, most do. I've lost count of how may Gibsons I've owned...loved everyone, but they don't stay in tune well. The slightest change in temperature puts all strings out, and the G string is just the Achilles heal...Les Paul Standards, Customs, SG's, (which are just hopeless because of the whole body to neck weight ratio), V's, Explorers, Howard Roberts Fusions, 335's owned and played both at home and live in both England and Canada, have all failed to stay in tune. I have two guitars that are awesome tuners, a 2019 355, and a 2016 Martin D45. With regard the Graph Tech nuts, I've put them on 4 of my Customs, and, funnily enough, no tuning issues. The issue is, as you say, mainly with the nuts, which catch the strings. My usual "fix" was to tune past pitch then bend the bejesus out of the string then take it back up. The Graph Techs lubrication doesn't need this move. Sorry to go on, but while your experience may be that way, I've had 35 years worth of experience with 98% of my Gibsons being awful at staying in tune.
My 1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop reissue that I bought in 2000 arrived to me with a host of set up issues and yes, a badly cut nylon nut. I had a bone nut fitted immediately and paid for a proper set up. This solved the issues.
@@fretboardmaster70 I’m a total convert to replacing the nut. On the Customs I’ve replaced them on there have been no issues, catching strings, any of that stuff.
I love flashy guitars, but that thing is too over the top. Give me a standard burst or a black beauty anyday over this and I’d be much happier. Or maybe I’m just hating bc I’m too broke to afford it. Yea that’s probably it… don’t mind me 😅
I tried and tried to enjoy a Gibson, but was wonky too. So, after a few returns, I ended up with a PRS SE, and it plays perfect. It wasn't about the price, it was about what played well. Surprised me.
The problem is that after gibson went bankrupt in 2015 they let most of their tenured people go. They have so so many quality control issues because they can't keep up with production. Their good guitars are some of the best but there are so many stupid mistakes coming out of their factory because of lack of experience at this point. PRS makes hands down the most consistent instruments on the market. Subscribe and join the madness Ben 🙌
1) It doesn't sound tuned. Absolutely right. 2) At 10 000 dollars, It should play in tune, and do your taxes! 3) I am so disappointed in Gibson, I am grateful to own two great Gibsons from 20 years ago.
I have a bunch of LPs. Nothing that fancy though. But anyway I have this Traditional with a wicked flame top. Acts JUST like that. Or it did rather. I put Graph Tech tuners( not locking I hate locking) and that helped a lot but it still pisses me off. I finally found a luthier that has become my new favourite person. The Traditional is maybe the next project I have for him. I bet the nut will fix it. But yeah that’s a piss off for sure.
Thanks for sharing with us, Bob the Pilot. I'd never be able to even breathe on one. Maybe it's a blessing I have to make anyhing this fancy for myself if I want one. It's wall art without a new WELL CUT nut :)
As others have pointed out, it's very likely the nut. You might also get issues exaggerated if you say change strings from 10s to 9's. It could be things like the high point is somewhere in the middle of the nut, the slot is cut too high or low, the string is binding in the nut, the string is actually moving in the nut rather than holding it at the precise point and so on.
You're completely right just like everyone else that has written that. I'm doing a separate episode on addressing the problems with this axe. Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
Yeah man... I played a Custom Shop Fender that was listed at $4,200. It had the same janky tuning issues, sadly. My buddy who works at that shop is the shop's luthier and he said they had intonated it, done a full setup (and it felt great) and did literally everything they could do to it, and it never sounded right. We swapped the neck out for a used, old beat up MIM Strat neck, and it played great, no tuning issues. The frets were worn on the MIM, meaning there was less pitch modulation when fretted. For that Gibson, I might recommend re-crowning the frets and go up a gauge on the strings. Might make a big difference. I know, you shouldn't have to do that on a 10,000 guitar, but if I were the tech in charge of making that guitar playable, those are the first two things I would do.
I'm not a big fan of the Ultimas TBH. It's just like they loaded it with whatever they could, without the finished product in mind. Some cool inlays in the standard spots would have looked much cleaner than the full fretboard inlay, in my opinion. I'd prefer to just get a nice M2M for the money.
I'd prefer to get an amazing vintage les paul or 3 awesome guitars for the money and just buy one used. This was a dream guitar for me, but it's gotta be able to stay in tune and get thrashed and still sound good. You can tell that even if this were setup perfect that you'd have to play with more finesse than I choose to. Beautiful guitar and it sounds amazing acoustic, so if someone spent the time, she could be a lifer. Just not the way she came from Gibson
LOL PRS does that for half the money AND it's a playable instrument! Meanwhile my $149 Squier FSR Bullet Tele stays in tune and has been so since releasing it from the box!
Where's the live chat comments? I mentioned after you broke it it's now worth 2000.00! And I know where you can find a Gibson les paul custom pearl white plays in tune!! Lol 😆
WTF is wrong with Gibson? They used to be one of the market leaders when it comes to guitars. But these past years gibson released so much sh*t, it's not even funny anymore. Here's a little back story: I went to a local guitarstore here in germany and said: Listen, here's 3k. Blindfold me, hand me 5 different guitars. I'm gonna walk out with the guitar that i feel the most comfortable with. They handed me 2 gibson les pauls(1.3k-ish + 2.9k-ish), 1 paul reed smith (1k-ish) an ibanez (~500ish) and a fender. Guess what i felt most comfortable with? It was the ibanez. It stayed perfectly in tune, felt great, sounded great and looks great. So i was curious: "What guitars did you hand me?" and one of the les pauls was my absolute dream guitar that i ALWAYS wanted to own and now guess what: It was my least favourite guitar of them all. I had to retune it after each bend, there was no punch to the sound, the neck felt kinda awkward.. I was so sad. But on the other hand i got an ibanez that i'm still lucky to own now.. Gibson just isn't what it used to be anymore...
I'll tell u. And realize I just interviewed one of the plant managers who worked at gibson for over 25 years the same question. Many of their tenured workers were laid off when gibson went bankrupt. They have a super high output of guitars. Over covid they sold 60k guitars, 10k of which were returned damaged. They didn't have close to the team to rectify that amount of problems. They lost hundreds of years of experience. There are still great people at gibson, but so so many of the people that gave their years to that company no longer work there and you can see it in the abhorrent quality control. Subscribe and join the madness tino 🙌
It would be interesting to have a channel like Crimson guitars inspect it and do a proper setup on it to see if they can identify the issue and fix it.
I have a guitar like that. Not that exact brand. But one that has tuning issues. What I do is tune it from fret 12. Then find as close as I can the tuning for open strings.
But why let that fly on a 10k guitar. It's a testament to ridiculous quality control. All it needs is a new nut melanie!!! Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
I love the tone of lp when its got one. I have my custom lp honey burst on the wall. I cant compare it with my 3 ESP eclipse that are out of this world when im playing them. I dont get whats the problem with Gibson 😭. Great video dude, u rock 🤘🤘🤘
My 1979 Guild S-65-D was $330 new with tax and hard case. Pure mahogany solid body with a DiMarzio humbucker and a coil split switch, volume and tone. It was the first and only guitar I have ever owned that was in tune and tuneable... I apologize for telling that story ...
Don't. There's no reason why any guitar should come from the factory like this Garth, especially a 9800 one. That said, it's an easy fix. Thanks for watching and please subscribe and join the madness 🙌
Thank you Bob for sharing the beautiful guitar. I had the same fear when I bought my PRS Private Stock. It would look absolutely breathtaking, but wouldn’t sound or play as well. Thankfully that wasn’t the case this time. Scary to buy a guitar before actually playing one.
I always buy guitars from the internet, so that's one of the downfalls. That said, if you get it at the right price it doesn't matter. You can always dump it. This guitar would go fast for the right price
I so much agree. I got my Les Paul off Ebay. A 97 ebony studio with ebony fretboard. $800. Was so scared I got a lemon. Well that was 12 yrs ago and it worked out great. My guitar was and is everything I've liked about a Gibson and none of the trouble I've heard about Les Paul's. But I've changed a lot on this 1. It came with 496/500 pups and Schaller straplocks and best of all a chainsaw case. Now it has Kluson locking tuners, Tusc XL nut, Tonespro locking bridge, alum tailpiece, CTS 500k pots, 50's wiring and Switchcraft switch and jack. Everything in gold like was stock and I had to rub some wear into the proper places. Now with the cream colored plastic it just looks like a old classic Paul.
@sparkyguitar 00 I always say that the Less fancy guitars fight for tone. I have met many a studio that destroys customs. You get the opulence here but it's missing the magic you have in your 800 studio 🙌
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist Right ,you can see the maple 2 piece cap cause of wear. I couldn't take that guitar out of the house cause of value and worry. Mine is a work horse tool whatever you want to call it. I quit worrying about scratches and such but do worry about breaking the neck just cause it's the only Les Paul I've ever gotten along with. I'm a Strat guy 1st and my current Strat I've owned since 96. It's my 3rd Strat in life and I'm still trying to tell if it's a keeper.
@sparkyguitar 00 100% I buy guitars to play them. Not to just oogle at them. That's why these are always the same price, they're for people that want to flex or hang on a wall. Let's see a relicd Ultima
I the string height to the pickups correct. If the height is to close it will sound out of tune. It may just be one or two pole screws are out to far. Or it could be in the nut not being cut deep enough
There's a bunch of reasons (including those) why it could be doing that, but this became a testament to quality control at gibson considering it has less than 4 hours play time on it. It's also not my guitar, and I have enough of my own to setup!
I am sure if I spent another hour digging into why it's messed id discover the neck has a weird bend or a fret needs leveling or something, but for 10k I shouldn't be doing that. It has less than 4 hours playtime and sits in a humidified display case so no excuse
I'm not saying this is what you're doing here, but a guy I used to know could not seem to be able to get his guitar in tune. He would use his tuner, then mine, just to make sure. Then he'd play it, and again, it was out. Eventually, I said to give me a go. I played some chords, and it was perfectly fine and in tune. I gave it back, and he'd play the same chords, and again it was out. I told him that he was the issue, not the guitar. He would bend one or more of the strings while playing chords. He got mighty upset about that, but the evidence was clear. Some players unknowingly do this, so their guitar always sounds out of tune.
Accurate. But even worse, it sounded sorta in tune and as the overtones set in it begins to make your skin crawl if you have even close to perfect pitch.
Hi bud, I'm from Argentina and I´m looking for some help. I bought a 96 Gibson Nighthawk, and the previous owner, installed a preamp circuit on it, so I'm looking for pictures of the wiring or schematics info that help me turning back to the original settings! Thank´s a lot!
I hope the schematics I sent helped! Rock on brother, thats a rad one with the floyd. I have never seen the binding on a headstock of just a standard. Super cool and wild. Please subscribe and join the madness!!!
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist thank's a lot buddy, yeah its rad and it rocks, in my country I'd never seen another Nighthawk in my hole life, except for the epiphone and gibson 2010 reissues
@Lucas Punk Rocker not only is that an awesome guitar but that is the rarest version of that guitar. They only made a very very small amount of them w Floyd's from 96-97 and the custom is the hardest to find. I've seen one other one for sale ever. Rock on bro
I'd say so but he put less than 4 hours on the guitar and the strings felt nice. I would have changed them if they were even remotely old or crappy feeling.
I inherited my late uncles 1974 Gibson Les Paul standard in a gold top finish. I only play her at home but my gig guitar I paid $200 and some change for on Ebay. It's a Davidson LP style guitar with beautiful transparent blue finish and I was blown away how great this cheap LP knockoff sounded right out of the box. The Davidson actually has a true Floyd Rose tremolo which is surprising as hell on a cheap shredder. The tuners I've had zero slippage issues in the gears, stays in tune and the push/pull pots work as they should with no issues. Don't have to spend a ton of money to get a great sounding guitar.
The thing is, this is truly a testament to the terrible quality control at gibson. The fact is, their best guitars are STILL the best guitars, but when stuff like this happens it makes people lose faith in a company, despite it just being the nut and an easy fix had someone gave a f. It's always a guitar by guitar basis, I've play guitars for 200 that rule like yours (which sounds rad) and 2000 guitars that sound like crap. There's always a human factor and you're dealing oftentimes w a handmade instrument which may not always be as good as a machine made instrument if the builder doesn't care to check their work. Subscribe and join the madness if you haven't already and thanks for watching 🙌
My guitar guy literally pulls the hell out of each string whenever he changes a set to FULLY stretch them out. Those strings could be causing the problem- not the hardware. Just discovered your channel and subscribed.
I def spent about 30 mins messing with and intonanmting this guitar Robert. It's totally the nut. Not a hard problem to solve but an incredibly lame one on a guitar this expensive with less than 4 hours on it. Thanks for subscribing and joining the madness
B string by any chance..I've had a few Les Pauls that keep slipping out of tune on the B..I filed the nut, Bridge work etc... Nothing, soon as you give it some work it gives up.. My current Les Paul is ok, but I've heard it's hit and miss on certain Les Pauls..
I just love when I strum an E, and it sounds great, then I switch to a G and there's something 'off'. So I retune it to make the G sound right, and then the E sounds off....but I've never owned and electric that cost more than like $300...so I had to deal with it, or learn to intonate it myself, which I eventually did. Its got to be disappointing to own a guitar that costly and that beautiful only to hear those noises coming out of it when it's plugged in
Every other manufacturer has dialed in their Les Paul models expect for Gibson. Most guitars will give you diminishing return, but Gibson can’t even nail the basic set up. I understand wanting to keep things traditional, but at what point is a company gonna keep producing an antiquated design for a premium price and expect to remain competitive.
They have incredible quality control issues. Their good guitars are still the best guitars but its stupid what gets out. Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
I'm sure it can be taken to someone the next pay grade up from me and maybe she can be fixed to some extent, but that was enough red flags for me. I spent 40 mins adjusting and tuning her.
@BattousaiMLT that's what I'm saying. If I brought it to my guy Steve he'd figure out if the neck had a bend or a wonky fret, or slightly out if line saddles, etc etc. But considering it has less than 4 hours of playtime...BOGUS
Gibson has ridiculous qc issues. Ibanez is pretty damn consistent. I've heard horror stories about HB but they also cost the price of a pack of gum so it's amazing they even.work
My $800 Les Paul studio has the same tuning issues. Love the way that guitar looks and feels but I honestly don't want to take it out to a gig. I have a Yamaha SG that stays in tune dead on ALL the time. What's the deal with Gibson anyway? Agree if you pay that much money for an instrument it should be PERFECT.
Even though I gig regularly my high end guitars including a couple Private Stock PRS, and Custom shop Gibsons, I've also bought and sold over 120 guitars in the last 6 years trying stuff out from most every brand imaginable....I've learned that an expensive guitar doesn't always equal a good guitar. Also I've learned that with Gibson...it can be a hit and miss. I've also learned you can't mod yourself out of a bad guitar. My Gibson LP tribute is one of my favorite guitars...it was good from the factory...but only thing I did to it was throw in a set of Suhr Thornbuckers....the thing rocks even harder! Hard to beat for the money for me. Still my private stock single cut is my un-disputed best guitar BUT it cost WAAAYY more...If I couldn't afford anything but the tribute...I'd be a happy camper though.
I feel like I wrote this comment. I agree 10000000% I have a prs hollowbody ce and it destroys 90% of my prs' (I have 40). I just got a Gibson dark fire robot guitar for a review and despite the abhorrent ridiculousness of the electronics, the guitar is better than 90% of my les Paul's. It's a guitar by guitar basis for me. I reviewed a Mexican buckethead tribute strat not too long that destroyed both of the 8k+ gibsons I just reviewed. Thanks watching ernie and please subscribe and join the madness 🙌 I'd love to hear more from u
The best Gibson Les Paul will beat anything, but PRS won't let you down, when you buy one, you'll be happy with it. Better quality for the money, better craftsmanship, better ergonomics. They sound great.
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I have 3, an SE. an S2, and custom core anniversary, I love them, I didn't buy them to replace my Les Paul. But my Les Paul is one of the good ones. You don't have to worry about that with PRS. They are so much more comfortable to. I used to to think the whole PRS thing was a Lotta hype. Then I played one, I can't remember the last time I was so excited and happy to be wrong LOL.
@My account I remember the first time I saw one and knew it was the guitar I needed. When I first got signed I got a custom 22 and literally slept with it in my college dorm room. Santana always says prs makes the most consistent guitar. Hands down the truth and I feel most home on a custom 24. That said, the best les Paul's are some of my favorite guitars but I have yet to find a prs I truly didn't like...except for the silver sky nebula. That thing was stupid. But in over 100 prs' that I've owned, only 2 or 3 have sounded dead and they still played perfect. One of them was my second custom 22 and when I changed the pups it came right to life. Paul is here to stay
The Ultima is suffering from lack of use. Sometimes, my case Queens aren't ready to go after a year. Guitar strings do weird things when they are put into storage. The Ultima, in thirty years, will still be worth more than my guitar collection.
You're not wrong Mike. In this case it's not the strings but the nut. But you're on the money. Would love to see one of these in played condition. They probably don't exist. Just ones w headstock injuries from falling off boardroom desk. Subscribe and join the madness Mike 🤘🤪🤘
Another hilarious yet informative vid! We are soo blessed to have you preach guitar stuff at us which gives us MUCH needed respite from otherwise zoning out to political BS on YT or the “subjects” as you mentioned. Could the wonked-out tuning be a result of old or bad batch strings? Maybe Bob would be more forgiving about your jewelry if a new set of D’adarrio XS’s get installed? (Great strings btw) Mahaloz & Aloha Bro!🤙🏾😎🏝️ (I think a restring of Bob’s axe to see if it will tune would make a great follow up vid👍🏽)
The strings were new. I also have another review after it was professionally setup and restrung again. Also a fail. Check it out. This guitar baffles me keoki! Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
If I'm not mistaken, things like the nut on ultra high end guitars like this are cut by hand, including the slot on the neck. I could be wrong about this. But, if I'm right, there's a chance there's a defect in the nut or how its seated that may be causing the problem with the tuning. Believe it or not, a nut that's even just a fraction out can cause issues with tuning stability. So, as long as there are no defects in the measurements or the bridge etc, chances are pretty good the problem is with the nut. It could also be some frets have raised up a bit. Not likely, but worth checking anyway. But, for my money, the weird tuning issues tells me there's a problem with the nut.
You're totally right. It's the nut. Everyone keeps acting like I'm missing something. The point of this video went from demoing a guitar I've wanted to exemplifying the poor quality control of gibson and that price doesn't dictate good. It's an easy fix, one that should have been noticed before it left the factory. Thanks for watching and please subscribe and join the madness 🙌
@@TheNeuroticGuitaristCan't rule out crappy QC, that's for sure. But, take a look at the nut itself to see if there's any signs of damage and/or repairs or replacement. If so, the problem likely happened after it left the factory, which is the case more often than its not, IME. If there's no sign of damage/repair, maybe the nut itself is just cut like crap. Happens. Even good craftsmen have crappy days every know and then. Either way, that's too pretty of a guitar to have that ugly of a tuning issue regardless of how it got there. Cheers! 🙂
That's disgusting. It's sad that Gibson sell junk like this at such a rip off price to devoted people like us. Even paying 1500 for a junior, it took years before it could hold its tune
My 2023 Les Paul Limited Edition/Chicago Blue was an open box purchase and I can say without hesitation it doesn't Stay in the Case! They Did themselves proud with this modern addition
Lol. Been a Strat style guy all my life. In 1984 I Had a chance to buy a 76 black beauty custom from a friend that thought it was too heavy weight wise. $650 with the case. Had the same issue as the Ultima. Would not hold tune on the G and the high E. As far as investment wise, I kick my self in the ass every few years when I see the prices for mid 70s Les Paul customs but I still have and love love love my Strats and Teles.
Did you try to intonate it? Saddles look zigzag staggered but hard to see. What's annoying me with the high end Les Pauls is that the knobs are floating so high over the top on mile high pot stems. WHY? Can we call Mark Agnesi and ask why? Look as a PRS CU24; knobs are flush and even sunk into the top! So classy.
When in doubt, and nothing else seems to work, try brand new strings. Then if the problem remains it may require additional troubleshooting by a good Luthier. (IMHO)
I spent about 10 mins with a strobe tuner. It looked wonky but they were giving me octaves right on the mark. I'm not an expert but I do have 170+ guitars, most of which I setup myself. If there's some weird bend in the neck or a fret is doing something crazy, it's outta my pay grade. If this were my guitar I would have stopped the video and spent 2-3 hours getting to the bottom of it. Instead, it turned into an exemplification of what makes a guitar a nightmare.
With all the commenta here on gibson, just wondering if epiphone has the same issues? I really want a les paul but don't want to spend that much money on a gibson especially if these issues exist.
Epiphones are made in different factories. They have issues like gibson but not even close to the level or as aggregious. Gibson is falling apart. Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
Collectors of guitars do the same thing collectors of British motorcycles did, put them out of reach for working class musicians. Quality control with Gibson is still a crap shoot based on my personal ownership and what I've seen hanging on the walls in quite a few stores over the years. I seriously doubt I will ever buy another Gibby there are other guitars with higher quality build for less. If you pay 10k in todays money, that brick you feel hit the back of your head, is your change. Like the old saying goes, there's a sucker born every minute. When I listen for tone, playability, and quality control, I am reminded what an engineer once said, bling doesn't make a great recording, it's in the hands and ears.
100% randy. But it's a sad testament to the quality control at gibson and the people that don't think it should be at least a functional work of art have set the bar too low. I have 50 gibsons and they're all awesome. I also bought 48 of them used. Cheers randy and please subscribe and join the madness 🙌
I can hear it, it does sounds rotten. I have a 19 Traditional and it also sounded funky, just fuzzy and muddy, I changed the pups to pearly gates and it did the trick for me.
Paid big money for a new high end Gibson LP in 2014. Boy did this guitar play and sound like crap. Replaced the electronics after they failed miserably. Finally had it thoroughly set up at 3rd coast guitars in Chicago. Plays like a dream now.
I've been fortunate that the 2 new guitars I bought from Gibson were amazing. But I almost never buy new and never without getting it a price where even if something like this happened I could still dump it at a profit. I have over 50 gibsons and every single one of them is excellent. But I got a 2019 mint signature from someone and it came w BB2 pickups and sounded absolutely dead. Hands down the worst sounding guitar I owned. Put emgs in it and it came alive
I definitely set it up. It needs either a new nut, a fret crowning or new saddles. It's not a a hard problem, just an example of BS quality control. If you have a good guitar and set it up right you shouldn't have do any fudging to make it play and sound right
It sounds like they misaligned the fretboard when they glued it on. I have a super cheap acoustic (more like a toy guitar) that sounds like that, I have to tune it to play individual chords. All it takes is a fraction of a millimeter sharp or flat and the guitar is totally unplayable.
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist Yeah, I saw that in the earlier comments it's probably the nut and I've got no reason to disagree with them. The reason I said something is because it looked like you were getting the same off key sound playing further up the fretboard as you did playing near to the nut. I've had a bunch of guitars with undercut nut slots and what would happen is the further away you went from the nut, the better it sounded as the pitch-up effect becomes less severe. You know what you were playing so I can't say for sure what I'm seeing but if you were getting that sound everywhere and adjusting the bridge saddles didn't work, either the neck is twisted or the frets are out of alignment (it's like sticking a 24.75" scale neck on a 25.5" guitar.
The nut slots are too high, which means you have to apply too much pressure when fretting, especially near the lower frets, so all fretted notes end up being too sharp.
Did the same mistake. Went from ibanez to a gibson lp standard, got really disappointed and spent a lot of money. Ergonomics and playability > looks and history
The thing is Marcelo is that you have to find the good ones and those ones blow away pretty much everything for me. I have over 50 gibsons and have literally only kept guitars that people go nuts over. I have had tons of duds and have traded them all. So the consistency on ibanez is insane. Japanese wizards. But the coolest ibanez will never have more butter, which is where I live for leads, than a great les paul! Subscribe and join the madness, my friend
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist Yeah, thanks for the feedback! But now I'm breaking my bank account with prestige/JC Custom Ibanez; Music man and Suhr. So far haven't been disappointed with these brands.
I saw 2 Gary Moore Les Pauls back around 1990. The first one was in the catalogue, it had a totally unbelieveable book matched bird's eye top. Its price had been the price of 5 or 6 Standards at that time. The 2nd one was ordered for a collector. It had a three-piece top, the pieces were not matched at all, only the center piece had a few bird's eyes. It looked like a cheap copy, and it sounded dull. Tell me something new about Gibson...
And for 1600 bucks my fsr American deluxe strat stays in tune and sounds like the voice of angels. I wish Gobson could do better. Edit; bought new in like 2010
I'd literally rather have a schecter c1 classic. I like fancy looking guitars sometimes too but to me, the c1 classics with the abalone vine of life is beautiful. That or a high end Jem. When it comes to Les Pauls, I'm a flame top or tuxedo guy.
The c1 is one of the most consistently beautiful and great playing overseas guitars that there is. It's so lame gibson has these QC issues and you have millions of C1s and I've never heard a single one not play and sound ridiculous. But the best gibsons still beat all. That's the thing. Which is why I always always buy used.
Schecter always seem to knock it out of the park when it comes to quality control and making a good playing guitar right out of the box for a price that won't break the bank. I've always wondered why they aren't more popular.
@@tjsogmc definitely. Schecter makes great guitars. I think they're not as popular because, when they first started making a name for themselves, they were promoting their less expensive models most. Guitar players are snobs in a way. Lol but you're right, they have awesome quality control, and I'm always impressed when I get my hands on one. I think they're starting to gain traction because asian guitars are finally being recognized for what they are. I've got over 20 guitars, and my Korean stuff is some of my favorites. Schecter, Ltd, dean, I've ever got a Korean Epiphone Les Paul. That guitar is amazing. It was made where the schecter and Ltds are made. Anyway, I'm rambling, but I absolutely agree with your comment.
It wasn't designed to be played! No one, not Townsend, Page, Clapton, etc. Would ever actually play this guitar on a gig. It's DECORATION. By the way your kid needs braces and a back brace. We take M/C and Visa. Put it back in the wooden case on the wall.
Haha, but thay decoration should STILL BE SETUP RIGHT FROM THE FACTORY. The irony is that 3/4 dentists won't play it long enough to notice. I wanna see one of these that's beat up from actually getting played, not a headstock injury from a lawyer who knocked it off his lounge chair at his summer home. Subscribe and join the madness Craig
It might be the nut. I had a custom guitar built for me made of all sorts of exotic wood and the nut was the problem. I could not get this thing to stay in tune. I brought it to my local luthier here in Salem mass and right away, he knew it was the nut.  It was not cut deep enough. It was a five minute fix, and there after it is almost always in tune especially if it’s picked up and played a lot.  I know you are very familiar with guitars, but I would bring this to a luthier and see if they can do something with it. I wouldn’t just cast it aside especially if you think it sounds good acoustically.
It's not my guitar. I know exactly what could be wrong with it and Bob has asked me to do a video on it where I bring it to my guy. I have never said I didn't know what's wrong or how to fix it, the point is that this came from Gibson at a cost of 10k and has less than 4 hours play time on it. Let that sink in
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I agree a $10,000 Guitar should be flawless. Playable and cosmetically flawless. I just got a new LP STD 60’s slim taper neck…$3000 and it has cosmetic issues…Gibson butchered the hole where the pick guard is horribly. I take mine off because it just looks better as I know you agree. I guess my point was that unless it can’t be fixed I wouldn’t say it’s unplayable. The guitar is very unique.
@@michaeldemarco899 I don't understand why there's so many quality control issues with them. I always buy everything used. I think I have purchased one new gibson in my life.
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I don’t know either but it wasn’t bad enough to send back because she sounds brilliant. Sweetwater also took a chunk of money off for it so I took it! If I could upload a pic here I would.
Well… You see… It’s like this… You appear to be under the impression that this is a players guitar. In fact, that there is a displayer’s guitar. She’s smoking hot but she don’t like the hanky-panky. Know what I mean? One of those.
You're not wrong. Except I spent a bunch of time fixing her into a players guitar today as much as she's meant to sit In a display case. Stay tuned for round two Phil! Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist that would make an interesting video. Should also have Bob raise hell with Gibson and make a video out of that. It would be really entertaining. He should raise hell, you know. He paid way too much money for that damn thing not to be absolutely perfect when it reaches his hands.
Totally. It's amateur and that's def because of gibsons increased output but no increase in xperienced people and quality control. Subscribe and join the madness mark!
I’ve bought a number and Gibsons over the years. Les Pauls and SGs. The all had tuning issues and I tried all the fixes and although I made them better they still never played in tune with thier price tags. I sold all of them and play teles. Even my cheap CV tele stays in tune. I know the headstock angle is a big part of the problem with tuning stability. But common Gibson. This video just brought back the nightmare.
Haha Joe, I know! You'd think they'd compensate the nut. That's all it needed. That said, I have 50+ gibsons that all stay in tune! Subscribe and join the madness
I had a similar issue with an Ibanez bass I had; it turns out that the neck was constantly changing (warping one way and then the other) because of environmental issues - heat, cold, humidity, barometric pressure, etc. I could never get it in tune, and finally sold it back to Guitar Center (where I bought it) for 1/4 of what I paid for it. I just feel bad for anyone else who might have bought it...
Thank God you were able to get that lemon outta your life. This thing just needs a new nut, but that's ridiculous quality control issues on a guitar worth as much as a used car
That's crazy. I have a Mexican fender from 1998 and I quit playing guitar there for a while and that Mexican fender sat in the garage in a case of course for three whole years. A non climate controlled garage in Indiana. Then it clicked in my head that that guitar was in my dad's garage and I was like yeah that thing's destroyed. I opened up the case it looked just like the day that I left it I picked it up and strummed it and it was still in tune and it was still set up exactly the way it was 3 years ago and the neck needed no adjustment. Absolutely blew my mind. A good guitar is a good guitar oh and mind you it has a maple neck not roasted maple which is known to be better for humidity and climate changes but my maple neck had absolutely no problems. I do not recommend you putting a guitar in a garage for 3 years absolutely under no circumstances do I recommend that I'm just saying that I did it and the guitar had zero issues. If you buy a guitar and it's already having problems like that it's a piece of crap
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist is it a standard Gibson nut? I was a guitar tech for “that one box store” for two years and countless Gibson’s needed new nuts from the factory. They are the worst nuts on mass production guitars in my opinion. Even worse than their Epiphone cousins…
I've spent big bucks on amps, and I don't even wanna do the math on my history with pedals. I've never paid more than 600 for a guitar though. Out of more than I can remember owning, I've only bought 2 or 3 new. They've all needed a lil tweaking. Most the used ones were usually already dialed in and just needed some tlc
That's never been a problem for me. To play it, at least. I've had guitars stolen and damaged at gigs, so I don't have a desire to bring super rare stuff out, but I'm not scared to play anything. I wished this guitar was better. Happy new years and please subscribe and join the madness 🙌
There's function and mechanics . Then there's furniture and wall art . And they have a CNC engraved fingerboard . Great if you can justify flushing money down the toilet . There's NO excuse for the nut being out . The set up should be spot on . I would take a PRS or an average guitar with a great set up over a museum piece . There is a point that it ADDS nothing to your playing .
Gibsons always sound out of tune to me. Especially chords on the first three frets. I think it's the 24.75" scale length. Something about the temperament?
I have over 50 gibsons with none of those problems. It seems that a lot of them are not setup properly from the jump or have stupid little issues like this. This one has a nut that was cut incorrectly. A very simple fix but a very stupid problem for a guitar of this magnitude. The 24.75 has nothing to do with it. Poor QC does. When you get a good gibson they're literally the best guitars. Thanks for watching Hans, please subscribe and join the madness 🙌
Hahaha it's totally a nut problem, I suspect. I'm gonna do an episode where myself and my guy Steve go through it and make her play right, then give her a proper review.
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist Subscribed. You know, it's funny that my $750.00 60's tribute Studio had better Q.C. and plays better than some of the way more expensive Standards that I've played.
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Of course there are playing issues. It wasn't designed to be played, it was designed for lawyers and dentists to hang up on their wall.
Hahaha, the irony is that this guitar sits in a multi thousand dollar display case made of exotic wood. So ACCURATE 🤪
@Bob Cavanaugh and yes, pilots. I just watched the next video, I must have said your name 30x. It's hilarious, Bob.
I resemble that remark!!!
haha I was gone say that in my comment above haha.
@@ctcards2636 you're not wrong 😆
Every time I put my hands on a high end Gibson USA product it makes me want to buy a Paul Reed Smith even more.
I love PRS and the thing I'll give them is that they make the most consistent high end instrument on the market by far. That's why I have 40
i bought a lp style sire and for the money I was surprised at the quality! I own 5 gibsons including a rosewood j45. because of it i bought luthier tools.
Dude PRS guitars are where it’s at. I have a 2013 Gibson SG that has had the bridge, tuners and nut replaced and it still won’t stay in tune. Gibson makes a junk product. All of my PRSs stay in tune perfectly. And those range from SEs, S2s, and a couple of cores.
I own a PRS DC3, a short lived stratocaster series they made before the Silversky. They didn't make many of those because they weren't very popular, but I'm lucky to own one in a such a good condition, the quality is very good
One thing I love and admire about PRS is that it doesn't matter if you buy the most expensive and premium product in their lineup or the cheapest one, you'll still have quality
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist 40?! I've yet to acquire my 1st...😬
Maybe one of those shiny new McCarty's to start with? Enjoyed the vid...
This guitar reminds me of an Ibanez artist a friend of mine bought in the late 70's. Same fancy inlay and all. The big difference is HIS WAS PLAYABLE. And it was a small fraction of what that thing cost.
Plus the Ibanez had the hottest pickups I had ever played at that point.
This is just a shame on the quality control part of it. It's easily fixable, but the lamest situation if you wanna record, play, or maybe do a demo with it 😆
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist For that price needing fixing already is unacceptable. Those Ibanez guitars from the '70's were, and still are I would think, amazing guitars. I would rather find one of those, and have a player I can take anywhere than an expensive wall hanger.
Ibanez is hands down a better made guitar, with MUCH better quality. An Ibanez B-Stock is equivalent to a Gibson Custom shop, not just talking 💩 here either, it's a fact.
@RetroQuest I don't agree. Gibson makes some amazing guitars, they're just inconsistent. This guitar is majorly high quality with some really stupid things wrong with it. The quality is great, the quality control over dumb shit not so much. Gibson has always made both incredible and BS instruments
When I’m comes to lawsuit era guitars, Japan built is very hard to beat. But now as well, I love my Revstar, but I did change all the electronics. SD pick ups are my fav sound, but it’s sounds like Santana’s pre PRS Yamaha now!🙂
Don’t know if it’s the case with that one, but I’ve found that 9 times out of ten, bad intonation is being caused by the nut slots not being cut low enough, so the closer you play to the nut, the more you are bending strings out of pitch just by pushing them down onto the frets. Easy way to check is put a capo at the first fret, then tune it and play up and down the neck with the capo and see if it sounds in tune that way. In that case, you are basically using the first fret as a zero fret. I don’t know why more guitars haven’t gone with a zero fret instead of a nut. Solves so many headaches.
Totally a good reason or a wonky fret.but you'd expect more directly from Gibson. I gave it back and said have at it! Passss
It sounded crappy up at the upper register as well
@A Jonesy if there were unedited video you would see literally 40+ more mins of me getting frustrated, tinkering, looking at my director and questioning what we do with this video. You're looking at it lol 😆
Them damn nut sluts 😂😂😂
My ex was a nut slut
This is exactly what I've said for years when it comes to he really nice high-end instruments. Actual real-deal musicians and guitar enthusiasts who would appreciate and make good use of the custom instruments... we can't afford them! So yeah... you just know it's all dentists and lawyers who buy them up... then they spend their days inside a case in a safe deposit box. When their grandchildren turn 18, BOOM... they skyrocket in value by then, and become part of their trust fund
Andrew Mellon is a great example of a non-musician and heir of the Mallon banking corporation in Pittsburgh. Back in the early 90s, he bought Alex Van Halen's red lips design drum kit that he used for the 1983 US Festival - the only live performance that kit has ever made as far as I know. But Mellon bought it at a private AIDS auction, which Alex had donated it to for that purpose
Once Mellon bought the kit, he had a friend in southern California who was storing it for him. Mellon was keeping it for his sons, that way when they were older and the drums increased in value, they would go to them. Fast forwarding to around 2006, Mellon phones his friend saying he's going to be coming to get those drums. The friend then said to him that the most unfortunate thing had just happened recently when his place was flooded, and the drums had become waterlogged and had to be thrown out... sorry about your luck
What's even more interesting about this is, going back to 1992, which was my freshman year in high school when I was a percussionist in the high school band drum line, a friend showed me an ad in a Modern Drummer magazine, December 1992 issue... the ad was for "Alex Van Halen red lips design complete drum kit $6,500. Call for further details" and there was a phone number...
I was a huge Alex fan in those days, especially. He was the reason I began playing drums and how I learned to play beginning when I was 11. I had never heard of or seen this "red lips design" drum kit at that time, and wanted to know what it was all about. Or if it was even real. So, I called the guy. His name was Brian and he was a cool dude. We talked about the drums for like a half hour. He said he bought them at an AIDS benefit auction and just no longer had the room for them...
He sent me photos of it, which were just photocopies of color photos on a single sheet 8 × 11 paper. There were 4 photos total, all showing the kit I detail, and after finally watching the US Festival on VHS, that confirmed that the kit was authentic. The real deal for sure.
Oh... back to those photos. You could see Brian in 2 of them. One of the photos he's sitting behind the kit set up, and the second standing in front of it holding a PaIsTe 2002 or 3000 series cymbal in his hand (one of the two).
Of course I didn't have $6,500 dollars to send him for that drum kit. Even if I did, in those days it was easy to get ripped off by sending a check, then hoping he sends the goods. Anyways, I later learned the story of this friend of Andrew Mellon who ripped him off, basically. But I honestly believe I talked to the thief over the phone in late 1992. That had to have been him. The drums would later show up at a Hard Rock Cafe in Seoul, Korea in 2013 where they were reportedly sold fkr over $40,000
Maybe I should have snatched those up vor $6,500. Their value increased by-7 times. But yeah, that's an interesting story of the rich guy non-musician being taken by a con artist who was supposed to be his "friend". Well, he thought wrong. And I find it hilarious that I'm sort of kind of indirectly connected to that whole thing since the beginning
I know that feeling. All of the ones we missed out on. You used proper syntax for that whole thing. You win the comments game. Subscribe
I’m not reading a book. Sorry
@@Avedis-G that's your choice. No one can make you read anything. I'm just curious as to why you needed to make it known that you weren't reading no books. You could have taken that moment... the time it took for you to make that comment... and put it towards something more meaningful, like polishing your Zildjian Avedis series cymbals... or learning that paradiddle that is a motherfucker to get down just right, and to-speed while controlling dynamics
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist thanks. And subscribe I shall do. I've had a LOT of writing practice... and I mean a LOT while I was in college. So it's only second nature for me to have the whole syntax thing down as best ad I van, although, I can see where I made some grammatical errors along the way. But it's at least easy to read and understand. I tend to get lengthy whenever describing things as part of everything as well. But only because I can crank these things out rather quickly
@@chuckshartz2722 I can tell. I've been a writer all of my life. Good syntax is next to godliness for me
The nut may not be cut correctly so no matter what you do to adjust the intonation or tune it, it won't work. The high point for each nut slot needs to be right at the fretboard edge. If someone rocked the file when cutting the slots then the high point may be closer to the headstock which will mess up the intonation process. A new nut and a thorough setup may solve the problem.
Oh, for sure, I just think it's ridiculous. IT has 4 hours of play. Not my guitar, not my problem. But you're 100% right.
It should theoretically solve the problem, though the break angle and non-straight pull at the headstock on Gibson guitars causes quite a few tuning issues. A device called a "string butler" could improve this some. While nothing (in my opinion) with improve it 100%, a few things will improve things greatly overall.
@SpaceD_0ut_Ace I'm sure. Again, not my monkeys not my circus. It's sitting in Bob's display case as wall art. I may bring it to my guy and make an episode of bringing her to life, but people keep messaging like I don't know how to fix it or even care to. I'd just assume that guitar fall off a bridge lol
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I get that. I was just commenting to the original message. Sorry if it comes off as saying you do not know what you are doing, which was not my intent. Take care.
@@austinfailz no no, it's all good, this video is just blowing up and I'm getting ptsd over Bob's guitar hahahah!
I have a lot of Gibsons, and yep, even my Custom shop Custom needed me to fine cut the nut. I asked about this, and the fact is that their reasoning for cutting the nut a little high makes some sense: not everyone plays with really low action, and some folks play slide, which means it needs to be even higher. You can't put material back on the nut (easily), but you can file it down, so like layers on a winter's day, you can't add what you do have, but you can take them off. I have a set of nut files and I cut my own, but that's not something everyone should have to do. Honestly, when it comes to shops, they should always include a little wiggle room to give you a decent setup. Les Paul's can play in tune, but it takes a little fine tuning out of the box to customize it to the individual. Right or wrong, it is the way.
When it comes to that particular guitar, it's unlikely it would be a player for anyone outside of like television appearances on New Year's Eve or something. It's best left in a glass case and as an art piece than a player.
You're not wrong jim, but they can still cut the nut with high action and ensure it's intonated! I'm sure if it's recut it'll be a dream but I still call shenanigans on it being this poorly taken care of and shipped out. Subscribe and join the madness
I’m kinda disappointed because in my eyes, every single Gibson should be a player no problem, even if it was gonna decorative, it should still play fantastic.
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I'll give you that for sure. I would give a little credit to the fact that the guy had the guitar in a case for years and it's likely the strings are original. You can't intonate some strings, and a quick change has fixed such problems for me in the past on many guitars, regardless of guitar brand. It's also possible the frets need a little attention due to the fact that it sat for a while. I found when I do everything mechanical correct, it's likely that it's the strings. Of course, that's just my history and experience, and I could be dead wrong. LOL
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist For $10k Gibson can cut the nut to the customer's specifications before delivery. It's a small service to make a $10k flagship product actually usable for it's intended purpose.
I look at custom shops all the time but I simply can't fathom pulling the trigger on the price of those things when they're not perfect. Yes I expect 100% perfection when I'm spending upwards $6,000 for a guitar.
I took a second hand Ibanez, put in custom Bartolini pups and a professional paint job on it with a detailed set-up by an expert luthier, and still have less than $2k in it, and it's perfection in playability, looks, and sound.
Mainly I stay with Schecter. They always knock it out of the park and won't break the bank.
Rock on man! That axe sounds rad! Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
True but every Schecter that I've ever played the low e buzzed so bad the guitar was just unplayable. Overall fit and finish was great the neck was great the pickups were great the sound was great all that greatness and yet I still sold every single one because like I said even through an amp turned up the buzzing was just terrible. I own over 20 guitars trust me I know how to set one up or take one to a Master luthier and even they couldn't get it right
@@beefnacos6258 have a whole wall of them.. hellraisers and apocalypse in strat , singlecut and v models as well as custom singlecut .. no buzz , i'd put any of these against anything anyone has.. geeze look where they are made.
I had 490/498 pick ups in my SG Standard I bought last month. They immediately got switched out for a set of Bare Knuckle Silos. I also replaced the circuit board and pots with 550k pots, oil/paper caps, and had it wired 50s style. I also had locking turners put in. So...$1700 for the guitar and another $650 later that guitar rocks.
Sometimes they can be a labor of love. First off, I corrected myself later in the take but it didn't get edited in that the pickups are actually 57s. Which I love. But sometimes Paul's come sounding dead. I head a brand new lp signature w burstbucker 2 pups in it and it literally was the worst sounding thing I've ever encountered. I put emgs in it and she immediately sounded massive. The thing that's even crazier is that I've gone from the same pickup on 5 guitars and they seem inconsistent a lot to me. Some people swear by the burst buckers and meanwhile they were unusable for me. Bare knuckle stuff always kicks ass. I have some in one of my classics and they sound positively heavenly! 🙌
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I've been putting Bare Knuckle in all my guitars lately. I put a BK Riff Raff in the bridge and The Mule in the neck of my LP Standard 60s (along with their pots and caps). Put a set of Rebel Yell in my PRS Custom 24. Bare Knuckle are defintely my favorite pickups, and the guys there are cool too.
@KetoSoldier I used to customize all of my guitars and realized I took the value right out of them. I bought a lot of them already customized so I've been able to mess w some of them, but I prefer to keep most guitars stock now just as a collector and to see the difference between everything. The first thing I used to think when I got a guitar was how am I gonna change this thing? Lol
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I totally get it. I was hestitant to change my guitars too for the same reasons. One day, I just thought to myself why do I care what I can sell them for? I should just make them into the guitars I wanted. Then again, I only have the guitars I play. One day, if I start up a collection like you have then I wouldn't be changing anything either. Thinking about buying a PRS private stock in the near future. That guitar won't get triffled with. Although, make no mistake it will get the hell played out it. Just not on stage.
@KetoSoldier if they're your forever guitars then you do you! I def did me, but when you have as many as I do you start asking yourself "am I really gonna play this so much I shouldn't leave it this way?" The answer is usually no nowadays, but there are exceptions. But I also already have multiple go to guitars so variety is the spice of life. It's your tone. Chase it. Just don't be mad when you sell something and people give u a hard time! That's why I never sell any of my customized guitars.
To me this has been the Gibson experience for years, I’ve tried, I’ve returned 3 Gibsons to Guitar Center. Nothing beats an American Jackson which is a precision instrument
I have over 50 gibsons and I love them all. I almost never buy new for this reason. They have always been inconsistent but the good ones are some of the best guitars. I absolutely agree jackson makes a more consistently excellent instrument
Japanese ESP are also vastly better.
@Fatt Philosopher disagree. Love Japanese and even American ESP, but for a good one you'll pay as much if not more than a Gibson and they are MUCH more exclusive. They had a custom shop eclipse hanging at the GC in Hollywood for 9k. Not anymore of a deal, just guarantee it doesn't have a nut problem
It's funny how lucky I got because this year I finally pulled the trigger on a used les Paul standard and an explorer and they are both ridiculously good instruments. My Les Paul isn't heavy like at all which blows my mind because everyone I've ever picked up damn near breaks my back. And the whole g-string doesn't stay in tune thing it's just a myth to me at this point because I am having absolutely zero issues. Lucky? Maybe.
@@shanewalton8888 opinion man. Every Japanese ESP I've ever played simply didn't do It for me including the horizon and the lp. Hated them. My buddy bought one brand new and 6 months later he sold it.
I'm not totally surprised by the intonation issue.
One of the items on my checklist when evaluating a Les Paul involves this exact issue, some of them do this while others do not.
Little issues like this are part of when helps me determine what is a "Keeper".
Great Content Benny. Nice guitar Bob, thank you for sharing it with us.
What makes you think an intonation issue won't be solved by doing an intonation?
@@hibernative I've had guitars where correctly intonating them required the Nut being recut as well as the bridge and saddles being adjusted/worked on.
For the most part I've found that 99% of all guitars can be brought into intonation without much work, however I've had some that just refused to sound right after being set up.
Not sure if it was individual frets or even some strange anomaly that caused strange harmonics, I just know that I've seen it happen. That was all I was saying, when I'm checking out a guitar for purchase I do everything I can within the scope of a demo to make sure the intonation is on and the guitar rings out correctly up and down the scale. I've passed on a few guitars because those pesky little sour notes that sometimes occur in certain areas of the fingerboard.
I'd like to add, Benny should have tried a new set of strings on that Ultima, many, many times a string can vary in diameter from either wear or manufacturing, and that can also cause the whole sour note thing to happen.
@@hkguitar1984 I have heard Gibson drilled the holes for their bridges in the wrong direction so you almost need to max out the saddle position to get it to play right. Can of course happen with very thick strings too.
If the nut is not right you can usually check the fret position intonation and if everything rings true except the nut, it is probably not nut.
And also of course nuts that are to shallow so you fret out of tune.
@@hibernative Yes, 100% agree with you.
Surprisingly (or not), many times it can be a worn string. The whole intonation equation depends on the length and diameter of the individual strings. I've found that even a slightly flattened area from fret wear on a unwound strings can play havoc with intonation. And to be clear, not all players can actually hear the small differences.
I've a wrap tail R4 Goldtop that intonates almost perfectly, but only with new strings.
On that R4 I find myself changing the un-wound/plain strings at least once before needing to change the entire set for new strings. I love my wrap tail Les Paul, the bridge/stopbar string spacing is just a touch wider as compared to the ABR-1.
These days I find myself preferring the wrap tail and Telecasters due to the wider string spacing at the bridge. Sorry for my digression, I've been practicing my hybrid picking and have rediscovered my love for the Telecaster as well as the wraptail LP! LOL
That's definitely a factor for me. How much can you dig in and how much it just stays in tune, but particularly in how the overtones sound. This one passed the first test in flying colors, which is to sound really nice acoustically. It also played really well, but the biggest one is whether it can stay in tune, be thrashed on and still stay in tune, and how finicky it is when it is in tune not to go sharp or flat pending how hard I dig in. Thanks for watching 🙌🙏🙏🙏🎸🔥
I have a beaultiful les paul R68 custom . And she have the same issue. How I’ve fixed the tuning problem? Powered Graphite on the nut .
That's it alexandre...this needs a new nut, which is a testament to the quality control of gibson! Please subscribe and join the madness 🙌
Yeah, that sounds terrible. I've had $300-$400 guitars that intonate better than that. You are right about that top too, underwhelming for the cost.
It was just a perfect example of what I always talk about that cheaper and less opulent guitars try harder for tone. It blows my mind what gibson considers the best tops, I have seen 40k Bella voce les Paul's with tops like this. Cmon now.
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I have sold US strats and kept Classic Vibe strats that played better and intonated way better. My current number one is the Silver Sky SE. I am blown away by the way it plays and sounds. Best strat I have ever owned, not just for the money either. It's just that good.
@Micah Meazell have you seen my silver sky se unboxing video? If you haven't you need to go check that out immediately because you're essentially quoting me.
@The Neurotic Guitarist yes I have. Great video. I saw it after I bought mine and agree 100% with you. Love your channel, such a departure from all of the monotone gear demos out there.
Honestly, my Epiphone Les Pauls play WAAAY better than this guitar.
Ok, first I want you to know I am not in anyway biased. I have 3 Gibsons and I own 17 electric guitars. But here is the deal, my Les Paul was bought for considerably less than it was worth because it didn't play or stay in tune. But really it had 3 issues. 1: The top nut was to high. 2: The top nut was pinching the strings while tuning and letting them slide through while playing. 3: The intonation had not been set at the lower bridge. Took me 2 tries to get a new bone top nut right. Then set the intonation. Then lubed the nut with graphite. Sounds great , plays like a dream. Now I would expect the guys and gals making a $10,000 Gibson to do that work before you get the darn thing. But I also would have expected them to do it on my retail $5000 custom that I bought for a thousand bucks before the owner threw it in a wood chipper.
You 10000% encapsulate my feelings on Bob's guitar and that's actually 100000% what's wrong with it. 🙌
The fact that you'd pay half(or maybe even less than half) of the price for a Schecter Custom Shop Solo-II(their LP model) and get a guitar with better specs that is actually playable.
The good gibsons are as good as anything out there. But this sorta thing baffles me. Schecter makes some great guitars. I had a California custom elite that originally went for 4100 and it was a great super strat, just not my thing.
You can pay 500 bucks and get a Yamaha Revstar RSE20, awesome playability and great sound (perhaps slightly "fluffy" pickups), if you want you can make a pickup change. Still will cost you WELL under 1000 bucks. There are many other options for under 1000 bucks which are really playable and good guitars. Gibson is just a corporate cash grab company.
@Tom Whittaker gibson makes the best guitars in the world. Unfortunately they have the worst quality control on the planet with some of the most inconsistent guitars.
@@tomwhittaker9461 there is a reason why so many influential guitar players played a Gibson and it's NOT because it's a "corporate cash grab" thing. Like he said, they have horrible quality control now. Otherwise they can be some of the very finest guitars. I prefer a good Strat myself but I miss my Gibson.
The finish looks "wobbly" or "wavy". The reflections of light on the finish doesn't look smooth.
Agreed. The quality control is ridiculous. Subscribe to join the madness
I have had a few guitars in my 30+ yrs of playing that acted the same way. Have a PRS McCarty currently that has same issue. When all else fails, use your ears. You will guage how meny cents flat or sharp to tune the individual strings. It's usually the dreaded B string! I have a strat that prefers the B string to be perfectly in tune. The rest of my guitars prefer the B string to be a few cents flat. I also noticed that it's important for the intonation to be adjusted in the playing position. Some guitars, especially neck heavy (SG) need to be adjusted in the playing position. Anyone who says it doesn't matter, just hasn't experienced this type of problem. Wood grading is weird, and depends on the opinion and wood available at the time for manufacturers. I have a Alvarez OM acoustic, that has "standard" grade mahogany, according to Alverez. In actuality, it has an incredibly figured tropical mahogany back, that rivals the best and most expensive figured mahogany I have seen on any instrument, regardless of price. The whole intonation thing can be mind numbing and frustrating to the max!
Absolutely, I suspect it could be fixed w a new nut or saddles, but it's a testament to the bs you might contend with getting a 10k guitar from Gibson! Wild stuff
Excellent point. EVERY guitar should be intonated in the playing position. And 99% of the time tuning issues are improperly cut nut slots. Also, on a hard tail guitar, if a string is sharp you'll see people roll the tuning key BACK to tune down to the correct pitch. ALWAYS tune UP to the note. If there's any binding at all in the nut slots it will go flat the minute you strum if you didn't tune it UP to pitch. A properly cut bone nut will not bind and will not require lubrication.
@@maxpeck4154 listen to max ladies and gentlemen. He speaks the truth 🙌
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I accept that lol.
@@maxpeck4154 🤘🤪🤘
Since every guitarist reviewing guitars on RUclips is being very neurotic, trying to find cosmetic imperfections and hardly talking about general playing experience, I really appreciate the fact that you’re honest and upfront about it! 👍🏻
I wasn't sure where that was going aart!!! Thanks for watching dude. Subscribe and join the madness, I don't have any agenda other than telling it how it is 🙌
I had this issue with a guitar I haven't payed in years. Did you change the strings? That fixed my problem
They still have the strings it came with. Less than 4 hours of play. I suspect a wonky fret but what started off as guitar porn turned into a studio nightmare video lpl
A high price does not always guarantee high quality.
1000% accurate Gary! Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
All Gibson's suffer from the G string tuning problem. I've started putting Graph Tech XL nuts in my Customs...and they work!
Not true, I have plenty plenty of gibsons that keep perfect tune without grap tech, although I have them on one of my gibson elegants. The g string is always the culprit!
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist while I accept that not all Gibson's suffer from lack of tuning stability, most do. I've lost count of how may Gibsons I've owned...loved everyone, but they don't stay in tune well. The slightest change in temperature puts all strings out, and the G string is just the Achilles heal...Les Paul Standards, Customs, SG's, (which are just hopeless because of the whole body to neck weight ratio), V's, Explorers, Howard Roberts Fusions, 335's owned and played both at home and live in both England and Canada, have all failed to stay in tune. I have two guitars that are awesome tuners, a 2019 355, and a 2016 Martin D45. With regard the Graph Tech nuts, I've put them on 4 of my Customs, and, funnily enough, no tuning issues. The issue is, as you say, mainly with the nuts, which catch the strings. My usual "fix" was to tune past pitch then bend the bejesus out of the string then take it back up. The Graph Techs lubrication doesn't need this move. Sorry to go on, but while your experience may be that way, I've had 35 years worth of experience with 98% of my Gibsons being awful at staying in tune.
My 1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop reissue that I bought in 2000 arrived to me with a host of set up issues and yes, a badly cut nylon nut. I had a bone nut fitted immediately and paid for a proper set up. This solved the issues.
@@fretboardmaster70 I’m a total convert to replacing the nut. On the Customs I’ve replaced them on there have been no issues, catching strings, any of that stuff.
I love flashy guitars, but that thing is too over the top. Give me a standard burst or a black beauty anyday over this and I’d be much happier. Or maybe I’m just hating bc I’m too broke to afford it. Yea that’s probably it… don’t mind me 😅
I didn't disagree with anything you said Ricky. None of it. Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
I tried and tried to enjoy a Gibson, but was wonky too. So, after a few returns, I ended up with a PRS SE, and it plays perfect. It wasn't about the price, it was about what played well. Surprised me.
The problem is that after gibson went bankrupt in 2015 they let most of their tenured people go. They have so so many quality control issues because they can't keep up with production. Their good guitars are some of the best but there are so many stupid mistakes coming out of their factory because of lack of experience at this point. PRS makes hands down the most consistent instruments on the market. Subscribe and join the madness Ben 🙌
I've always eyed prs as the guitar I'd buy if i bought a nice guitar
That was brutal. Sorry Bob. Did you post this up on the GSOC?
Oh I did. This video started as something very different. I do his M2M this Saturday! Check it out brother
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I'm reading it now. Interesting comments. Can't wait to see the M2M. He earned that one.
@@TheJeffcurran it def faired better than the Ultima! Comments are priceless.
1) It doesn't sound tuned. Absolutely right.
2) At 10 000 dollars, It should play in tune, and do your taxes!
3) I am so disappointed in Gibson, I am grateful to own two great Gibsons from 20 years ago.
100000% gibsons quality control should be ashamed! Thanks for watching man subscribe and join the madness 🙌
$10k and struggles (at best) to stay in tune... wow
Def needs a new nut. Super lame!!!
I have a bunch of LPs. Nothing that fancy though. But anyway I have this Traditional with a wicked flame top. Acts JUST like that. Or it did rather. I put Graph Tech tuners( not locking I hate locking) and that helped a lot but it still pisses me off. I finally found a luthier that has become my new favourite person. The Traditional is maybe the next project I have for him. I bet the nut will fix it. But yeah that’s a piss off for sure.
100% and I also love the traditional
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist Love your $&@&ing channel man.
Every guitar can be made better by taking it to the luthier for a setup. Really the problem is with the owner.
@@American-Dragon Agree
Thanks for sharing with us, Bob the Pilot. I'd never be able to even breathe on one. Maybe it's a blessing I have to make anyhing this fancy for myself if I want one. It's wall art without a new WELL CUT nut :)
Save yourself the money and buy someone else's mistake for 50% less!
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I didn't mention that I'd probably die or move on to the next project guitar b4 I'd finish a task like that fretboard inlay!
As others have pointed out, it's very likely the nut. You might also get issues exaggerated if you say change strings from 10s to 9's. It could be things like the high point is somewhere in the middle of the nut, the slot is cut too high or low, the string is binding in the nut, the string is actually moving in the nut rather than holding it at the precise point and so on.
You're completely right just like everyone else that has written that. I'm doing a separate episode on addressing the problems with this axe. Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
Now we know why it was on sale! By the way, Ultima in Spanish means " the last one " And I hope it is the "ultima" they make..🤭
I see what u did there. 🙌🤪
Yeah man... I played a Custom Shop Fender that was listed at $4,200. It had the same janky tuning issues, sadly. My buddy who works at that shop is the shop's luthier and he said they had intonated it, done a full setup (and it felt great) and did literally everything they could do to it, and it never sounded right. We swapped the neck out for a used, old beat up MIM Strat neck, and it played great, no tuning issues.
The frets were worn on the MIM, meaning there was less pitch modulation when fretted. For that Gibson, I might recommend re-crowning the frets and go up a gauge on the strings. Might make a big difference. I know, you shouldn't have to do that on a 10,000 guitar, but if I were the tech in charge of making that guitar playable, those are the first two things I would do.
It's the nut, an even stupider, easier fix! Making a video about it! Subscribe and stay tuned 😉
I'm not a big fan of the Ultimas TBH. It's just like they loaded it with whatever they could, without the finished product in mind. Some cool inlays in the standard spots would have looked much cleaner than the full fretboard inlay, in my opinion. I'd prefer to just get a nice M2M for the money.
I'd prefer to get an amazing vintage les paul or 3 awesome guitars for the money and just buy one used. This was a dream guitar for me, but it's gotta be able to stay in tune and get thrashed and still sound good. You can tell that even if this were setup perfect that you'd have to play with more finesse than I choose to. Beautiful guitar and it sounds amazing acoustic, so if someone spent the time, she could be a lifer. Just not the way she came from Gibson
LOL PRS does that for half the money AND it's a playable instrument! Meanwhile my $149 Squier FSR Bullet Tele stays in tune and has been so since releasing it from the box!
You're not wrong. Prs makes the most consistent instrument on the market. Subscribe and join the madness Devin
Where's the live chat comments? I mentioned after you broke it it's now worth 2000.00! And I know where you can find a Gibson les paul custom pearl white plays in tune!! Lol 😆
Haha maybe you didn't watch the premier? Not sure. I bet you yours blows this one away
WTF is wrong with Gibson? They used to be one of the market leaders when it comes to guitars. But these past years gibson released so much sh*t, it's not even funny anymore.
Here's a little back story:
I went to a local guitarstore here in germany and said: Listen, here's 3k. Blindfold me, hand me 5 different guitars. I'm gonna walk out with the guitar that i feel the most comfortable with.
They handed me 2 gibson les pauls(1.3k-ish + 2.9k-ish), 1 paul reed smith (1k-ish) an ibanez (~500ish) and a fender.
Guess what i felt most comfortable with? It was the ibanez. It stayed perfectly in tune, felt great, sounded great and looks great.
So i was curious: "What guitars did you hand me?" and one of the les pauls was my absolute dream guitar that i ALWAYS wanted to own and now guess what: It was my least favourite guitar of them all. I had to retune it after each bend, there was no punch to the sound, the neck felt kinda awkward.. I was so sad. But on the other hand i got an ibanez that i'm still lucky to own now..
Gibson just isn't what it used to be anymore...
I'll tell u. And realize I just interviewed one of the plant managers who worked at gibson for over 25 years the same question. Many of their tenured workers were laid off when gibson went bankrupt. They have a super high output of guitars. Over covid they sold 60k guitars, 10k of which were returned damaged. They didn't have close to the team to rectify that amount of problems. They lost hundreds of years of experience. There are still great people at gibson, but so so many of the people that gave their years to that company no longer work there and you can see it in the abhorrent quality control. Subscribe and join the madness tino 🙌
For that price should come with life time warranty!
It should mow my lawn, too!!! 🙌
I have a 2004 melody maker with a single dog eared p90 and it sounds awesome. Don’t need no pearl inlays
Sometimes nothing beats mahogany and a p90 🙌 subscribe and join the madness Sean
It would be interesting to have a channel like Crimson guitars inspect it and do a proper setup on it to see if they can identify the issue and fix it.
I'm gonna do a video where it gets fixed. It's def the nut. Subscribe and join the madness tom! 🙌
A $10.000 should have to be fixed
@@Stemma3 preaching the choir, my friend. Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I had to check your comment because of those spam messages in youtube.
My Epiphone Special from 1997 stays in tune better.
@@Stemma3 that doesn't surprise me.
I have a guitar like that. Not that exact brand. But one that has tuning issues. What I do is tune it from fret 12. Then find as close as I can the tuning for open strings.
But why let that fly on a 10k guitar. It's a testament to ridiculous quality control. All it needs is a new nut melanie!!! Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
I love the tone of lp when its got one. I have my custom lp honey burst on the wall. I cant compare it with my 3 ESP eclipse that are out of this world when im playing them. I dont get whats the problem with Gibson 😭. Great video dude, u rock 🤘🤘🤘
Thank you for watching, happy holidays!
My 1979 Guild S-65-D was $330 new with tax and hard case. Pure mahogany solid body with a DiMarzio humbucker and a coil split switch, volume and tone. It was the first and only guitar I have ever owned that was in tune and tuneable... I apologize for telling that story ...
Don't. There's no reason why any guitar should come from the factory like this Garth, especially a 9800 one. That said, it's an easy fix. Thanks for watching and please subscribe and join the madness 🙌
Thank you Bob for sharing the beautiful guitar.
I had the same fear when I bought my PRS Private Stock.
It would look absolutely breathtaking, but wouldn’t sound or play as well.
Thankfully that wasn’t the case this time.
Scary to buy a guitar before actually playing one.
I always buy guitars from the internet, so that's one of the downfalls. That said, if you get it at the right price it doesn't matter. You can always dump it. This guitar would go fast for the right price
I so much agree. I got my Les Paul off Ebay. A 97 ebony studio with ebony fretboard. $800. Was so scared I got a lemon. Well that was 12 yrs ago and it worked out great. My guitar was and is everything I've liked about a Gibson and none of the trouble I've heard about Les Paul's. But I've changed a lot on this 1. It came with 496/500 pups and Schaller straplocks and best of all a chainsaw case. Now it has Kluson locking tuners, Tusc XL nut, Tonespro locking bridge, alum tailpiece, CTS 500k pots, 50's wiring and Switchcraft switch and jack. Everything in gold like was stock and I had to rub some wear into the proper places. Now with the cream colored plastic it just looks like a old classic Paul.
@sparkyguitar 00 I always say that the Less fancy guitars fight for tone. I have met many a studio that destroys customs. You get the opulence here but it's missing the magic you have in your 800 studio 🙌
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist Right ,you can see the maple 2 piece cap cause of wear. I couldn't take that guitar out of the house cause of value and worry. Mine is a work horse tool whatever you want to call it. I quit worrying about scratches and such but do worry about breaking the neck just cause it's the only Les Paul I've ever gotten along with. I'm a Strat guy 1st and my current Strat I've owned since 96. It's my 3rd Strat in life and I'm still trying to tell if it's a keeper.
@sparkyguitar 00 100% I buy guitars to play them. Not to just oogle at them. That's why these are always the same price, they're for people that want to flex or hang on a wall. Let's see a relicd Ultima
I the string height to the pickups correct. If the height is to close it will sound out of tune. It may just be one or two pole screws are out to far. Or it could be in the nut not being cut deep enough
There's a bunch of reasons (including those) why it could be doing that, but this became a testament to quality control at gibson considering it has less than 4 hours play time on it. It's also not my guitar, and I have enough of my own to setup!
Ooof. Failure to maintain intonation is a no go for me. Instant return.
I am sure if I spent another hour digging into why it's messed id discover the neck has a weird bend or a fret needs leveling or something, but for 10k I shouldn't be doing that. It has less than 4 hours playtime and sits in a humidified display case so no excuse
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist lol no refunds
@Charles Wagner he could have when he got it but he stuck it in a display case, which many people on this thread seem to think is where it belongs.
I'm not saying this is what you're doing here, but a guy I used to know could not seem to be able to get his guitar in tune. He would use his tuner, then mine, just to make sure. Then he'd play it, and again, it was out. Eventually, I said to give me a go. I played some chords, and it was perfectly fine and in tune. I gave it back, and he'd play the same chords, and again it was out. I told him that he was the issue, not the guitar. He would bend one or more of the strings while playing chords. He got mighty upset about that, but the evidence was clear. Some players unknowingly do this, so their guitar always sounds out of tune.
Oh yeah man, some people literally have no relative pitch. My snark isn't as accurate as my ears are at this point. Subscribe to join the madness 🙌
Subscribed ! He strummed a G chord and instead of a glorious ring of sustain and intonation it went (thud) 🤨🤔
Accurate. But even worse, it sounded sorta in tune and as the overtones set in it begins to make your skin crawl if you have even close to perfect pitch.
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist Totally great playing Btw Happy Holidays from Newport Beach, CA. 🌊🤙🏿
My AXL USA SRO cost 199. I upgraded the pickups-120 for 68 spec single coils. It kicks that Gibson’s ass. Hard.
Not surprised Kevin. Gibsons quality control is pretty damn terrible subscribe and join the madness 🙌
Nah, this guitar is trying too hard. Not surprised she's not a player.
Its like the girl who shows up to the best buy interview in a ballroom gown 🤪
Hi bud, I'm from Argentina and I´m looking for some help. I bought a 96 Gibson Nighthawk, and the previous owner, installed a preamp circuit on it, so I'm looking for pictures of the wiring or schematics info that help me turning back to the original settings! Thank´s a lot!
I hope the schematics I sent helped! Rock on brother, thats a rad one with the floyd. I have never seen the binding on a headstock of just a standard. Super cool and wild. Please subscribe and join the madness!!!
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist thank's a lot buddy, yeah its rad and it rocks, in my country I'd never seen another Nighthawk in my hole life, except for the epiphone and gibson 2010 reissues
@Lucas Punk Rocker not only is that an awesome guitar but that is the rarest version of that guitar. They only made a very very small amount of them w Floyd's from 96-97 and the custom is the hardest to find. I've seen one other one for sale ever. Rock on bro
Maybe a string change is in order 🤔
I'd say so but he put less than 4 hours on the guitar and the strings felt nice. I would have changed them if they were even remotely old or crappy feeling.
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist ive had new packs in the past with bad strings but it's rare mostly the g string
@@rcjoe406 it's always the g string 🤪
I inherited my late uncles 1974 Gibson Les Paul standard in a gold top finish. I only play her at home but my gig guitar I paid $200 and some change for on Ebay. It's a Davidson LP style guitar with beautiful transparent blue finish and I was blown away how great this cheap LP knockoff sounded right out of the box. The Davidson actually has a true Floyd Rose tremolo which is surprising as hell on a cheap shredder. The tuners I've had zero slippage issues in the gears, stays in tune and the push/pull pots work as they should with no issues. Don't have to spend a ton of money to get a great sounding guitar.
The thing is, this is truly a testament to the terrible quality control at gibson. The fact is, their best guitars are STILL the best guitars, but when stuff like this happens it makes people lose faith in a company, despite it just being the nut and an easy fix had someone gave a f. It's always a guitar by guitar basis, I've play guitars for 200 that rule like yours (which sounds rad) and 2000 guitars that sound like crap. There's always a human factor and you're dealing oftentimes w a handmade instrument which may not always be as good as a machine made instrument if the builder doesn't care to check their work. Subscribe and join the madness if you haven't already and thanks for watching 🙌
My guitar guy literally pulls the hell out of each string whenever he changes a set to FULLY stretch them out.
Those strings could be causing the problem- not the hardware.
Just discovered your channel and subscribed.
I def spent about 30 mins messing with and intonanmting this guitar Robert. It's totally the nut. Not a hard problem to solve but an incredibly lame one on a guitar this expensive with less than 4 hours on it. Thanks for subscribing and joining the madness
That is not the fault of the strings. Anybody could see that.
Haha damn! I have a feeling Bob will be just fine though, Im sure he's got a bunch of other actual player guitars.
He's got all super nice instruments. The video on sat is another one of his axes
B string by any chance..I've had a few Les Pauls that keep slipping out of tune on the B..I filed the nut, Bridge work etc... Nothing, soon as you give it some work it gives up..
My current Les Paul is ok, but I've heard it's hit and miss on certain Les Pauls..
It's definitely a nut issue. I'm going to do a video where I address the problems with it. Stay tuned and please subscribe and join the madness 🙌
Your first mistake was expecting a Les Paul to play in tune.
I hear you, but at the same time I've have 20+ les Paul's that all play in tune. But that's also because I buy used. Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
I just love when I strum an E, and it sounds great, then I switch to a G and there's something 'off'. So I retune it to make the G sound right, and then the E sounds off....but I've never owned and electric that cost more than like $300...so I had to deal with it, or learn to intonate it myself, which I eventually did. Its got to be disappointing to own a guitar that costly and that beautiful only to hear those noises coming out of it when it's plugged in
That's def a nut or fret issue. Easy fixes and def worth getting a guitar that's does both solidly. Subscribe and join the madness adam!!!
you got it!
Flashy AF but what a waste. You’d figure if you’re going to lay out 10k you’d get more than that. I’d send it back to Gibson and tell em to fix it. 🤔
If it were my guitar I would have returned it in the first place
Every other manufacturer has dialed in their Les Paul models expect for Gibson. Most guitars will give you diminishing return, but Gibson can’t even nail the basic set up. I understand wanting to keep things traditional, but at what point is a company gonna keep producing an antiquated design for a premium price and expect to remain competitive.
They have incredible quality control issues. Their good guitars are still the best guitars but its stupid what gets out. Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
ouffff bro its a dud
I'm sure it can be taken to someone the next pay grade up from me and maybe she can be fixed to some extent, but that was enough red flags for me. I spent 40 mins adjusting and tuning her.
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist im sure a luthier worth their salt can fix it but at 9 grand should it need to be?
@BattousaiMLT that's what I'm saying. If I brought it to my guy Steve he'd figure out if the neck had a bend or a wonky fret, or slightly out if line saddles, etc etc. But considering it has less than 4 hours of playtime...BOGUS
Gibson still has quality control issues, ibanez or Harley Benton less so.
Gibson has ridiculous qc issues. Ibanez is pretty damn consistent. I've heard horror stories about HB but they also cost the price of a pack of gum so it's amazing they even.work
Keep tokin' bro !
🔥🔥🔥🔥
My $800 Les Paul studio has the same tuning issues. Love the way that guitar looks and feels but I honestly don't want to take it out to a gig. I have a Yamaha SG that stays in tune dead on ALL the time. What's the deal with Gibson anyway? Agree if you pay that much money for an instrument it should be PERFECT.
Check the nut on your gibson. It might need to be recut and that'll change your world! Thanks for watching Vince and subscribe and join the madness
Even though I gig regularly my high end guitars including a couple Private Stock PRS, and Custom shop Gibsons, I've also bought and sold over 120 guitars in the last 6 years trying stuff out from most every brand imaginable....I've learned that an expensive guitar doesn't always equal a good guitar. Also I've learned that with Gibson...it can be a hit and miss. I've also learned you can't mod yourself out of a bad guitar.
My Gibson LP tribute is one of my favorite guitars...it was good from the factory...but only thing I did to it was throw in a set of Suhr Thornbuckers....the thing rocks even harder! Hard to beat for the money for me. Still my private stock single cut is my un-disputed best guitar BUT it cost WAAAYY more...If I couldn't afford anything but the tribute...I'd be a happy camper though.
I feel like I wrote this comment. I agree 10000000% I have a prs hollowbody ce and it destroys 90% of my prs' (I have 40). I just got a Gibson dark fire robot guitar for a review and despite the abhorrent ridiculousness of the electronics, the guitar is better than 90% of my les Paul's. It's a guitar by guitar basis for me. I reviewed a Mexican buckethead tribute strat not too long that destroyed both of the 8k+ gibsons I just reviewed. Thanks watching ernie and please subscribe and join the madness 🙌 I'd love to hear more from u
The best Gibson Les Paul will beat anything, but PRS won't let you down, when you buy one, you'll be happy with it. Better quality for the money, better craftsmanship, better ergonomics. They sound great.
I say this all of the time. Verbatim. I have 40 prs btw. Subscribe and check it out brother! Right on
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I have 3, an SE. an S2, and custom core anniversary, I love them, I didn't buy them to replace my Les Paul. But my Les Paul is one of the good ones. You don't have to worry about that with PRS. They are so much more comfortable to. I used to to think the whole PRS thing was a Lotta hype. Then I played one, I can't remember the last time I was so excited and happy to be wrong LOL.
@My account I remember the first time I saw one and knew it was the guitar I needed. When I first got signed I got a custom 22 and literally slept with it in my college dorm room. Santana always says prs makes the most consistent guitar. Hands down the truth and I feel most home on a custom 24. That said, the best les Paul's are some of my favorite guitars but I have yet to find a prs I truly didn't like...except for the silver sky nebula. That thing was stupid. But in over 100 prs' that I've owned, only 2 or 3 have sounded dead and they still played perfect. One of them was my second custom 22 and when I changed the pups it came right to life. Paul is here to stay
The Ultima is suffering from lack of use. Sometimes, my case Queens aren't ready to go after a year. Guitar strings do weird things when they are put into storage. The Ultima, in thirty years, will still be worth more than my guitar collection.
You're not wrong Mike. In this case it's not the strings but the nut. But you're on the money. Would love to see one of these in played condition. They probably don't exist. Just ones w headstock injuries from falling off boardroom desk. Subscribe and join the madness Mike 🤘🤪🤘
Another hilarious yet informative vid! We are soo blessed to have you preach guitar stuff at us which gives us MUCH needed respite from otherwise zoning out to political BS on YT or the “subjects” as you mentioned. Could the wonked-out tuning be a result of old or bad batch strings? Maybe Bob would be more forgiving about your jewelry if a new set of D’adarrio XS’s get installed? (Great strings btw) Mahaloz & Aloha Bro!🤙🏾😎🏝️ (I think a restring of Bob’s axe to see if it will tune would make a great follow up vid👍🏽)
The strings were new. I also have another review after it was professionally setup and restrung again. Also a fail. Check it out. This guitar baffles me keoki! Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
If I'm not mistaken, things like the nut on ultra high end guitars like this are cut by hand, including the slot on the neck. I could be wrong about this. But, if I'm right, there's a chance there's a defect in the nut or how its seated that may be causing the problem with the tuning. Believe it or not, a nut that's even just a fraction out can cause issues with tuning stability.
So, as long as there are no defects in the measurements or the bridge etc, chances are pretty good the problem is with the nut. It could also be some frets have raised up a bit. Not likely, but worth checking anyway. But, for my money, the weird tuning issues tells me there's a problem with the nut.
You're totally right. It's the nut. Everyone keeps acting like I'm missing something. The point of this video went from demoing a guitar I've wanted to exemplifying the poor quality control of gibson and that price doesn't dictate good. It's an easy fix, one that should have been noticed before it left the factory. Thanks for watching and please subscribe and join the madness 🙌
@@TheNeuroticGuitaristCan't rule out crappy QC, that's for sure.
But, take a look at the nut itself to see if there's any signs of damage and/or repairs or replacement. If so, the problem likely happened after it left the factory, which is the case more often than its not, IME.
If there's no sign of damage/repair, maybe the nut itself is just cut like crap. Happens. Even good craftsmen have crappy days every know and then.
Either way, that's too pretty of a guitar to have that ugly of a tuning issue regardless of how it got there.
Cheers! 🙂
That's disgusting. It's sad that Gibson sell junk like this at such a rip off price to devoted people like us. Even paying 1500 for a junior, it took years before it could hold its tune
Their quality control is just total BS. Subscribe and join the madness Julian! 🙌 thanks for watching
My 2023 Les Paul Limited Edition/Chicago Blue was an open box purchase and I can say without hesitation it doesn't Stay in the Case! They Did themselves proud with this modern addition
Sounds rad to me Adam! Thank you for watching, please subscribe and join the madness 🙌
Lol. Been a Strat style guy all my life. In 1984 I Had a chance to buy a 76 black beauty custom from a friend that thought it was too heavy weight wise. $650 with the case. Had the same issue as the Ultima. Would not hold tune on the G and the high E. As far as investment wise, I kick my self in the ass every few years when I see the prices for mid 70s Les Paul customs but I still have and love love love my Strats and Teles.
🙌🎸🔥
Did you try to intonate it? Saddles look zigzag staggered but hard to see.
What's annoying me with the high end Les Pauls is that the knobs are floating so high over the top on mile high pot stems. WHY? Can we call Mark Agnesi and ask why? Look as a PRS CU24; knobs are flush and even sunk into the top! So classy.
When in doubt, and nothing else seems to work, try brand new strings. Then if the problem remains it may require additional troubleshooting by a good Luthier. (IMHO)
I spent about 10 mins with a strobe tuner. It looked wonky but they were giving me octaves right on the mark. I'm not an expert but I do have 170+ guitars, most of which I setup myself. If there's some weird bend in the neck or a fret is doing something crazy, it's outta my pay grade. If this were my guitar I would have stopped the video and spent 2-3 hours getting to the bottom of it. Instead, it turned into an exemplification of what makes a guitar a nightmare.
With all the commenta here on gibson, just wondering if epiphone has the same issues? I really want a les paul but don't want to spend that much money on a gibson especially if these issues exist.
Epiphones are made in different factories. They have issues like gibson but not even close to the level or as aggregious. Gibson is falling apart. Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
Collectors of guitars do the same thing collectors of British motorcycles did, put them out of reach for working class musicians. Quality control with Gibson is still a crap shoot based on my personal ownership and what I've seen hanging on the walls in quite a few stores over the years. I seriously doubt I will ever buy another Gibby there are other guitars with higher quality build for less. If you pay 10k in todays money, that brick you feel hit the back of your head, is your change. Like the old saying goes, there's a sucker born every minute. When I listen for tone, playability, and quality control, I am reminded what an engineer once said, bling doesn't make a great recording, it's in the hands and ears.
100% randy. But it's a sad testament to the quality control at gibson and the people that don't think it should be at least a functional work of art have set the bar too low. I have 50 gibsons and they're all awesome. I also bought 48 of them used. Cheers randy and please subscribe and join the madness 🙌
I can hear it, it does sounds rotten. I have a 19 Traditional and it also sounded funky, just fuzzy and muddy, I changed the pups to pearly gates and it did the trick for me.
This one def needs a new nut. Simple but stupid. Subscribe and join the madness CT!
Paid big money for a new high end Gibson LP in 2014. Boy did this guitar play and sound like crap. Replaced the electronics after they failed miserably. Finally had it thoroughly set up at 3rd coast guitars in Chicago. Plays like a dream now.
I've been fortunate that the 2 new guitars I bought from Gibson were amazing. But I almost never buy new and never without getting it a price where even if something like this happened I could still dump it at a profit. I have over 50 gibsons and every single one of them is excellent. But I got a 2019 mint signature from someone and it came w BB2 pickups and sounded absolutely dead. Hands down the worst sounding guitar I owned. Put emgs in it and it came alive
I tune the A and G strings a semi tone flat on my Les Pauls. This guitar appears to need a setup. I wonder if that would help?
I definitely set it up. It needs either a new nut, a fret crowning or new saddles. It's not a a hard problem, just an example of BS quality control. If you have a good guitar and set it up right you shouldn't have do any fudging to make it play and sound right
It sounds like they misaligned the fretboard when they glued it on. I have a super cheap acoustic (more like a toy guitar) that sounds like that, I have to tune it to play individual chords. All it takes is a fraction of a millimeter sharp or flat and the guitar is totally unplayable.
It's totally the nut it needs to be recut. Super lame!!! Subscribe and join the madness
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist Yeah, I saw that in the earlier comments it's probably the nut and I've got no reason to disagree with them. The reason I said something is because it looked like you were getting the same off key sound playing further up the fretboard as you did playing near to the nut. I've had a bunch of guitars with undercut nut slots and what would happen is the further away you went from the nut, the better it sounded as the pitch-up effect becomes less severe. You know what you were playing so I can't say for sure what I'm seeing but if you were getting that sound everywhere and adjusting the bridge saddles didn't work, either the neck is twisted or the frets are out of alignment (it's like sticking a 24.75" scale neck on a 25.5" guitar.
The nut slots are too high, which means you have to apply too much pressure when fretting, especially near the lower frets, so all fretted notes end up being too sharp.
It was that among other things!
Did the same mistake. Went from ibanez to a gibson lp standard, got really disappointed and spent a lot of money. Ergonomics and playability > looks and history
The thing is Marcelo is that you have to find the good ones and those ones blow away pretty much everything for me. I have over 50 gibsons and have literally only kept guitars that people go nuts over. I have had tons of duds and have traded them all. So the consistency on ibanez is insane. Japanese wizards. But the coolest ibanez will never have more butter, which is where I live for leads, than a great les paul! Subscribe and join the madness, my friend
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist Yeah, thanks for the feedback! But now I'm breaking my bank account with prestige/JC Custom Ibanez; Music man and Suhr. So far haven't been disappointed with these brands.
I saw 2 Gary Moore Les Pauls back around 1990. The first one was in the catalogue, it had a totally unbelieveable book matched bird's eye top. Its price had been the price of 5 or 6 Standards at that time. The 2nd one was ordered for a collector. It had a three-piece top, the pieces were not matched at all, only the center piece had a few bird's eyes. It looked like a cheap copy, and it sounded dull.
Tell me something new about Gibson...
They have always made incredible guitars and highly inconsistent guitars. Subscribe and join the madness Martin 🙌
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist Done!
@@martin_schwarz rock on brother, I appreciate u, welcome!
And for 1600 bucks my fsr American deluxe strat stays in tune and sounds like the voice of angels. I wish Gobson could do better. Edit; bought new in like 2010
Gibsons quality control department should be fired or they need to hire 10x the people. Subscribe and join the madness Kenneth if u haven't already
At what point did you drop the guitar while making this video?
No points
I'd literally rather have a schecter c1 classic. I like fancy looking guitars sometimes too but to me, the c1 classics with the abalone vine of life is beautiful. That or a high end Jem. When it comes to Les Pauls, I'm a flame top or tuxedo guy.
The c1 is one of the most consistently beautiful and great playing overseas guitars that there is. It's so lame gibson has these QC issues and you have millions of C1s and I've never heard a single one not play and sound ridiculous. But the best gibsons still beat all. That's the thing. Which is why I always always buy used.
Schecter always seem to knock it out of the park when it comes to quality control and making a good playing guitar right out of the box for a price that won't break the bank. I've always wondered why they aren't more popular.
@@tjsogmc definitely. Schecter makes great guitars. I think they're not as popular because, when they first started making a name for themselves, they were promoting their less expensive models most. Guitar players are snobs in a way. Lol but you're right, they have awesome quality control, and I'm always impressed when I get my hands on one. I think they're starting to gain traction because asian guitars are finally being recognized for what they are. I've got over 20 guitars, and my Korean stuff is some of my favorites. Schecter, Ltd, dean, I've ever got a Korean Epiphone Les Paul. That guitar is amazing. It was made where the schecter and Ltds are made. Anyway, I'm rambling, but I absolutely agree with your comment.
It wasn't designed to be played! No one, not Townsend, Page, Clapton, etc. Would ever actually play this guitar on a gig.
It's DECORATION.
By the way your kid needs braces and a back brace. We take M/C and Visa.
Put it back in the wooden case on the wall.
Haha, but thay decoration should STILL BE SETUP RIGHT FROM THE FACTORY. The irony is that 3/4 dentists won't play it long enough to notice. I wanna see one of these that's beat up from actually getting played, not a headstock injury from a lawyer who knocked it off his lounge chair at his summer home. Subscribe and join the madness Craig
It might be the nut. I had a custom guitar built for me made of all sorts of exotic wood and the nut was the problem. I could not get this thing to stay in tune. I brought it to my local luthier here in Salem mass and right away, he knew it was the nut.  It was not cut deep enough. It was a five minute fix, and there after it is almost always in tune especially if it’s picked up and played a lot.  I know you are very familiar with guitars, but I would bring this to a luthier and see if they can do something with it. I wouldn’t just cast it aside especially if you think it sounds good acoustically.
It's not my guitar. I know exactly what could be wrong with it and Bob has asked me to do a video on it where I bring it to my guy. I have never said I didn't know what's wrong or how to fix it, the point is that this came from Gibson at a cost of 10k and has less than 4 hours play time on it. Let that sink in
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I agree a $10,000
Guitar should be flawless. Playable and cosmetically flawless. I just got a new LP STD 60’s slim taper neck…$3000 and it has cosmetic issues…Gibson butchered the hole where the pick guard is horribly. I take mine off because it just looks better as I know you agree. I guess my point was that unless it can’t be fixed I wouldn’t say it’s unplayable. The guitar is very unique.
@@michaeldemarco899 I don't understand why there's so many quality control issues with them. I always buy everything used. I think I have purchased one new gibson in my life.
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist I don’t know either but it wasn’t bad enough to send back because she sounds brilliant. Sweetwater also took a chunk of money off for it so I took it! If I could upload a pic here I would.
@Michael DeMarco that's awesome man, I always love when it works out. I have crapped on Sweetwater but they really do have great service
Well… You see… It’s like this… You appear to be under the impression that this is a players guitar. In fact, that there is a displayer’s guitar. She’s smoking hot but she don’t like the hanky-panky. Know what I mean? One of those.
You're not wrong. Except I spent a bunch of time fixing her into a players guitar today as much as she's meant to sit In a display case. Stay tuned for round two Phil! Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist that would make an interesting video. Should also have Bob raise hell with Gibson and make a video out of that. It would be really entertaining. He should raise hell, you know. He paid way too much money for that damn thing not to be absolutely perfect when it reaches his hands.
The finish on the top is wavy as hell, watch the reflections
Totally. It's amateur and that's def because of gibsons increased output but no increase in xperienced people and quality control. Subscribe and join the madness mark!
Sounds like your playing on a floyd rose that keeps going out of tune and those pick ups sound sooo muddy
The nut is totally messed on this. This guitar is a bummer. Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
I’ve bought a number and Gibsons over the years. Les Pauls and SGs. The all had tuning issues and I tried all the fixes and although I made them better they still never played in tune with thier price tags. I sold all of them and play teles. Even my cheap CV tele stays in tune. I know the headstock angle is a big part of the problem with tuning stability. But common Gibson. This video just brought back the nightmare.
Haha Joe, I know! You'd think they'd compensate the nut. That's all it needed. That said, I have 50+ gibsons that all stay in tune! Subscribe and join the madness
I had a similar issue with an Ibanez bass I had; it turns out that the neck was constantly changing (warping one way and then the other) because of environmental issues - heat, cold, humidity, barometric pressure, etc. I could never get it in tune, and finally sold it back to Guitar Center (where I bought it) for 1/4 of what I paid for it. I just feel bad for anyone else who might have bought it...
Thank God you were able to get that lemon outta your life. This thing just needs a new nut, but that's ridiculous quality control issues on a guitar worth as much as a used car
That's crazy. I have a Mexican fender from 1998 and I quit playing guitar there for a while and that Mexican fender sat in the garage in a case of course for three whole years. A non climate controlled garage in Indiana. Then it clicked in my head that that guitar was in my dad's garage and I was like yeah that thing's destroyed. I opened up the case it looked just like the day that I left it I picked it up and strummed it and it was still in tune and it was still set up exactly the way it was 3 years ago and the neck needed no adjustment. Absolutely blew my mind. A good guitar is a good guitar oh and mind you it has a maple neck not roasted maple which is known to be better for humidity and climate changes but my maple neck had absolutely no problems.
I do not recommend you putting a guitar in a garage for 3 years absolutely under no circumstances do I recommend that I'm just saying that I did it and the guitar had zero issues. If you buy a guitar and it's already having problems like that it's a piece of crap
@@beefnacos6258 thats why bc its a fender a squire strat beats any gibson
That guitar screams, “I have no idea how to play this”
Lol well, apparently it's made for lawyers 🤣
@Bob Cavanaugh 🙌🙃
tell Bob to get this thing setup by someone extremely talented
Hey bud, I set it up. It's the nut, it needs to be recut. I'm making a video about it. Subscribe and stay tuned 😉
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist is it a standard Gibson nut? I was a guitar tech for “that one box store” for two years and countless Gibson’s needed new nuts from the factory. They are the worst nuts on mass production guitars in my opinion. Even worse than their Epiphone cousins…
This is a big problem with almoust all Gibsons,,the bend of the headstock make problem to the nut,i just sold my the day after i bouth it
It seems to have triggered a bunch of gibson owners who have gone through the same thing. Basic problems on 10k guitars. Totally stupid
How's Bob doing?
He's dropping off his Ultima this weekend for me to get her properly addressed for him. 😄 stay tuned
@Bob Cavanaugh great seeing u and the doggy today bob!!!
I've spent big bucks on amps, and I don't even wanna do the math on my history with pedals. I've never paid more than 600 for a guitar though. Out of more than I can remember owning, I've only bought 2 or 3 new. They've all needed a lil tweaking. Most the used ones were usually already dialed in and just needed some tlc
For sure, and for that price range it's to be expected. Thie is a serious testament to the lack of gibson quality control
There's something wrong when a guitar costs so much that people are afraid to play it and gig with it.
That's never been a problem for me. To play it, at least. I've had guitars stolen and damaged at gigs, so I don't have a desire to bring super rare stuff out, but I'm not scared to play anything. I wished this guitar was better. Happy new years and please subscribe and join the madness 🙌
@SoylentGreen you're not wrong. Bob has enjoyed it as wall art. So it's served its purpose.
There's function and mechanics . Then there's furniture and wall art . And they have a CNC engraved fingerboard . Great if you can justify flushing money down the toilet . There's NO excuse for the nut being out . The set up should be spot on . I would take a PRS or an average guitar with a great set up over a museum piece . There is a point that it ADDS nothing to your playing .
100% I said this verbatim to bob...who has disposable income and enjoys it as wall art. So that makes sense, right? Nail meet head!
Gibsons always sound out of tune to me. Especially chords on the first three frets. I think it's the 24.75" scale length. Something about the temperament?
I have over 50 gibsons with none of those problems. It seems that a lot of them are not setup properly from the jump or have stupid little issues like this. This one has a nut that was cut incorrectly. A very simple fix but a very stupid problem for a guitar of this magnitude. The 24.75 has nothing to do with it. Poor QC does. When you get a good gibson they're literally the best guitars. Thanks for watching Hans, please subscribe and join the madness 🙌
'Some guitars are fussy' Such a good quote (bridge height?) ...'we're not looking at porn, we're looking at guitars' 💎
Hahaha it's totally a nut problem, I suspect. I'm gonna do an episode where myself and my guy Steve go through it and make her play right, then give her a proper review.
That does not surprise me when it comes to Gibson. Their quality has been hit and miss for a long time.
You're 100% right. They make incredible guitars but have incredible quality control issues, even more now. Subscribe and join the madness 🙌
@@TheNeuroticGuitarist Subscribed.
You know, it's funny that my $750.00 60's tribute Studio had better Q.C. and plays better than some of the way more expensive Standards that I've played.
@@mgpmbass3616 it's again a testament to the inconsistency. Thanks for being a part of what I do