NGD: 2014 Gibson Les Paul Melody Maker

[culturejam]

Bummer.

It's like that craigslist ad for a R9 priced at $900...but it's listed in 10 of the biggest markets (and regularly). Definitely a scam.

[GermanCdn]

Would have liked to have grabbed it, and truthfully, if I hadn't seen his other ads and the micro window he had for selling it, I would have jumped on it, but too much of it sounded like "I just broke into someone's car and have to unload it before he figures out it's gone.", especially since every picture was an internet stock shot.

[RobA]

Here's an up-skirt of the control cavity. I rather like the tidyness of the PCB.

I like the PCB on my SG too. I did have to pull the whole thing when I had the actives in there, but now that I put the stock pickups back, reinstalling the PCB was nice and simple.

Did you change out the tone caps or did it come with the film caps? Mine was stock with some really crap ceramic caps, but they were easy enough to change out.

[GermanCdn]

Actually, the only thing I don't like about the PCB mounts is the quick connects on the pickup leads when I swap them out (I realize that it does Gibson no favours if they include a couple of spares with the guitar, but if you scrap the pickups and keep the harness, you're doing a clip transplant anyway).  I totally get why they do it (same reason they're going to the zero fret - makes it an unskilled labour job).

[culturejam]

Did you change out the tone caps or did it come with the film caps?

Film caps are stock.

I totally get why they do it (same reason they're going to the zero fret - makes it an unskilled labour job).

Even if you have highly skilled labor, it's just faster to use the connectors. But the electronics is one part where I think being a master luthier doesn't really help. It's very much paint by numbers.

[GermanCdn]

I didn't realize Gibson employed any luthiers.  Probably the same two guys from PRS who grade tops between bong hits (see, now I can't be accused of being a Gibson hater).

[pickdropper]

I didn't realize Gibson employed any luthiers.  Probably the same two guys from PRS who grade tops between bong hits (see, now I can't be accused of being a Gibson hater).

Agreed.  PRS makes nice guitars but I've never understood their grading.  If I ever figure it out, I'm switching my career over to cyptography.

[GermanCdn]

I had a long discussion with one of their former reps about how they grade tops, because I have some non 10 tops that are much better than some of my 10 tops.

Long version - tightness and symmetry of grain, minimal washout (all grading is done pre-staining)

Short version - two guys with rags and a bottle of rubbing alcohol.  And I wasn't kidding about the bong hits, those were his words, not mine.

[pickdropper]

Short version - two guys with rags and a bottle of rubbing alcohol.  And I wasn't kidding about the bong hits, those were his words, not mine.

That explains all the Cheetos stains under the finish.  ;-P

[gordo]

Cheetos stains under the finish.  Good call.  I really have nothing to add to this except that I'll never be able to afford anything that PRS or Gibson makes (short of the Epiphone and off-shore stuff) which is kind of depressing.  All said though, I have a fleet of po-folk stuff that I've spent a ton of time tweaking and rebuilding to be some stellar stock.

Upside - really cool stuff at a fraction of the price.  From a distance appear to be a stallion.

Downside - virtually no resale value (at least yet) so assume that even breaking even is a long shot.  Total love of the game.  No bragging rights.

Even a pig with a diamond necklace is a pig with a diamond necklace.  Sometimes you need a pig with a diamond necklace.

It's lots of fun watching you guys buy and sell though and am STILL envious...

Rock on....

[GermanCdn]

Resale value (as much as I flog it sometimes, and is the reason I almost never buy new) is only applicable to poseurs like me whose collection is in constant flux because we can't seem to settle on a stable of instruments for more than a seaon, and truthfully are more likely not to burn through a set of strings before selling it to go on to the next one.  If you're happy with what you've got, you are set. 

Only advice I have in that regard is if you do upgrade, don't sell the old parts, reinstall if/when you ever decide to sell the guitar. 

My experience - $70 tuner upgrade, $80 bridge upgrade, and $180 pickup upgrade = $40 increase in value of an Epi LP at the time you decide to part ways with it.  Better to take it back to stock and sell the upgrade parts separately if you want to.

[pickdropper]

Resale value (as much as I flog it sometimes, and is the reason I almost never buy new) is only applicable to poseurs like me whose collection is in constant flux because we can't seem to settle on a stable of instruments for more than a seaon, and truthfully are more likely not to burn through a set of strings before selling it to go on to the next one.  If you're happy with what you've got, you are set. 

Only advice I have in that regard is if you do upgrade, don't sell the old parts, reinstall if/when you ever decide to sell the guitar. 

My experience - $70 tuner upgrade, $80 bridge upgrade, and $180 pickup upgrade = $40 increase in value of an Epi LP at the time you decide to part ways with it.  Better to take it back to stock and sell the upgrade parts separately if you want to.

Good advice.

The other thing is that you can sometimes sell off multiple inexpensive guitars and consolidate that into a fancier used guitar if that is something you dream of.  Most of us accumulate gear over a number of years and there is somewhat of a cumulative value to them.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with rocking inexpensive guitars if they do what you need them to.  I have expensive and cheap guitars and some of the cheap ones are actually quite nice.

[culturejam]

Decided to put some new knobs on it. I think reflectors look a lot better.

The direct sunlight shows off the blue color and wood grain a bit better.

[culturejam]

More alterations!

I put in one of the new GFS "goldfoil" P90s in the bridge. I have never played an actual goldfoil pickup, so I can't comment on the tonal similarities or differences. I mainly bought this because it looks cool. 

It definitely does not sound like the stock pickup. This one is more punchy and trebly. The stock pickup is more humbuckery. I'll leave this in for a while and see what I think, but my initial impression is very positive. Sure, the gold coloring doesn't really match the rest of the guitar, but I don't think it looks all that gawdy. The stock pickups have wiring headers to go to the control PCB (see previous pics), and rather than pull the header socket, I simply mantually wired/soldered the new leads to the volume pot. Forgot to take a pic of that, but I can grab one if anybody cares.

The GFS pickup is, as far as I can tell, just a P90 with more holes drilled in the cover and some kind of foil sicker applied to the top of the bobbin. Still, it looks cool.

The other change is that I put in some Gotoh locking tuners. The stock tuners are actually quite nice, but I loves me some locking action. The bushing that came with the Gotohs were way too small, as the peg holes are 10mm. But I ordered a set of the larger bushings with the pickup from GFS, and with minimal rasping, they fit exceptionally snug. The Gotohs are exactly the same size as standard Kluson/Gibson Deluxe tuners, which means they have to get tricky with how the locking works. I find this sort of odd to use, but they definitely work and you can't easily tell by looking they aren't totally standard tuners (which is a good thing, for me). The tuner buttons are quite different looking, and I sort of miss the cool old-fashioned look of the originals, but I also dig the look of the typical Les Paul-style tuners.

Overall, I still really like this guitar and feel like it is an excellent value.

[pickdropper]

I like the look of the new tuners.

I don't have a lot of experience with "goldfoil" style P90s.  I'm a bit curious.