Eskimo_Joe wrote:Thanks for all the responses everybody! I am sold on getting a Les Paul, it's just a matter of which one. I'm kind of scared of getting a bad one. What should I be on the lookout for (i.e. tell tale signs of a bad one)?
I can relate a story I heard recently from a seller of Gibson Custom Shop guitars (don't think he is an official dealer).
He came across two CS-336s that had the holes drilled for the ABR at an angle so the bridge was then in the wrong place which messed up the compensation, and the intonation was hard/impossible to get right. The guitars would not play sweetly all the way along the fret board. The repair involved filling and re-drilling which left no sign, so that was good, but you'd sort of wonder, and not want to pay the same price as the guitar next to it that was fine.
However, to sell a guitar that has incorrect compensation and maybe can't ever be intonated properly is not acceptable. I can put up with finish mistakes or the odd scratch/ding, nut cut badly, binding bridge saddle adjustment screws and other easy to fix/live with stuff but not this sort of problem. If a guitar wont intonate and play sweetly then it's not a guitar that's any use to anyone. Actually, I'll go further and say, it's not a guitar.
Having said that, I personally have never had a bad Gibson! Ok I've only had a 77 LP, 93 LP and vintage ES-335 so it's not many, but they were all good.
If this story should not be posted on this board for whatever reason, somebody tell me and I'll delete this post, or Big D can delete it - whoever gets there first.
Cheers
Jag
Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 6:43 pm
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