Les Paul with a built in OD??

[pickdropper]

It's possible the current crop of modelers will recover some value down the road, but if be shocked if they became collectors items.  I could be wrong; it wouldn't be the first time.

If that's true, what do you think the fate of the mega delays and reverbs of today will be? Do you think Strymon, TC, Empress, and Eventide units will hold their value, or will shimmer become pasé like chorus did after the 80's?

That'll be interesting to see.  If digital effects continue to improve, then the mega delays and reverbs of delay will likely decline in value and not necessarily bounce back; especially if they are superseded by better models from the same manufacturer.

There are a couple of scenarios that could drive them towards collectibility:

1.) The newer models aren't actually better (due to cost cutting, chips no longer available, etc...)
2.) It turns out they have some weird sound quality that people really really like.

Chorus became passe after the 80's, but their is still a fairly strong market for the old analog choruses.  The older digital choruses didn't fare as well.

[Rockhorst]

That's the thing isn't it. We would accept stuff like this from Ibanez, not from Gibson...and Gibson should know that by now.

[lars]

And maybe priced to be reasonable.

Yeah, if you don't care about a traditional "Les Paul" and want onboard effects, it's much cheaper to just get a Line 6 JTV-59 Variax, which has a ton more options and looks to be a very nice guitar to boot. I would definitely buy it instead of a real Les Paul that has a cheap overdrive shoehorned in. If Gibson is trying to compete in that market, they've completely missed the mark in price ($4,000 difference ) and features. I doubt the build quality is a wide a gap as they would like you to believe as well.

[devilsnight]

Wait, Gibson completely missed the mark again? Hard to believe! I guess that would really suck if you paid 5 grand for that hog and didn't care for the tone from the overdrive.