The Trouble with Gibson

There was a time in my life when I disliked Gibson guitars, I found them clunky, unattractive and generally old hat. Mind you when I was 17 all I wanted was an ESP that I could tune to drop C but now my go to guitar is my '62 reissue Telecaster. So as you can see times change and as I've recently discovered, so have Gibson...

A couple of years back I worked at the Oxford Street branch of the now sadly defunct Sound Control and I remember finding the wall of Les Paul's and SG's distinctly unappealing and spent most of my time lusting in the direction of our Fender Custom Shop stock. Eventually I remember deciding to try out a couple of Gibson's just for the hell of it first plumping for a White Les Paul Custom that we'd had in stock seemingly forever. It was horrible, the intonation was so bad nothing above the 12th fret was in tune, and the sound coming through my go to test amp (an Orange Rocker 30 which I would later go on to purchase for myself) was dull and lifeless. Dissapointed I went for an Ebony Les Paul Standard which advertised itself has having a '60's neck but with it found no satisfaction and decided that maybe Gibson guitars were just not for me. Later investigation on a few Guitar forums soon led to the discovery that there were many dissapointed Gibson fans out there and talk of poor quality control in recent years that seemed evident in the instruments I had tried.

In the last 12 months there have been many changes, apart from entering a global recession which robbed me of my previous job it seems that Gibson have managed to completely restructure their entire European dealership as well as some of the key parts of their business. Choosing to go direct to a few select dealers that can make the most of their product rather than sell as much as they can to a UK based supplier whose telesales staff didn't seem to know their arse from their 335. A new spangly website has also appeared which has to be one of the most exciting guitar websites on the 'net. Pristine photos and audio demos of all their guitars are all present and correct as well as extensive, accurate write-ups for all of their instruments but that's not all, oh no! You can barely keep up with all the interesting, educational and amusing articles, posts and blogs that appear on the site daily that all seem totally relevant, a recent highlight for me being the well photographed tours of their Nashville and Memphis guitar building facilties. Plus their product line-up continues to expand and impress, the Dark Fire looks to be the most forward thinking instrument since someone first decided to strap a magnet to a piece of wood and I find myself waiting with baited breath for the next 'Limited Run' instrument to be announced, exciting stuff indeed.

I'm now fortunate enough to bask in the glory of working for one of these fabled UK Gibson dealers and stock is arriving thick and fast. True sometimes we have to wait a few months to get what we want but who cares when every single guitar you remove from that white fur lined case, as you are hit with the smell of nitrocellulose and vanilla is set up beautifully and screams at you to strum the living daylights out of it. It seems that Gibson have rediscovered their pride, oh and the PLEK machine which electronically simulates string tension whilst setting up the frets to perfection. The Les Pauls have been given new life in the form of the classic 'Traditional' and the forward thinking '2008 Standard' the latter being my favourite of mine for the record. The Archtops are as beautiful and versatile as ever, the specials and the studios scream like rock-pigs and a special mention must go out to the historically accurate 'VOS' (Vintage Original Spec) series as these truely special instruments sing like nothing else.

So I lay my hat down, I take back every bad thing I ever said about these guitars but just answer me one thing; How the hell am I going to afford that 1961 SG VOS in Faded Cherry?