Gibson Guitar in 2015

[muddyfox]

Same here. No word on Epi getting dropped, just satin finishes and such... ?

[muddyfox]

If I get a new guitar - which is going to happen - it will not be a Gibson for some reasons, but the main factor here is that for the asked price I rather get a really well made and tested guitar from a manufacturer which isn't make me doubt prior to unpacking if it's really going to be a good guitar.

I'm not sure if you're just talking in general or you have something in mind... would you happen to know any austrian luthiers (or at least guitar builders) that can make a decent LP clone for a decent price?
Most EU luthiers I've come across that have a decent reputation (and I'm only talking solidbody electrics here) are either from France, Germany, UK or Poland.

[m-Kresol]

Where are people reading that the Epiphone line is getting discontinued? I can't find any reference to it and it would seem to make no sense from a business perspective.

If that is about my post.. I didn't mean it that way. I just meant it in a "why go for Gibson, if cheaper Epiphones do the trick nicely"-way.

If I get a new guitar - which is going to happen - it will not be a Gibson for some reasons, but the main factor here is that for the asked price I rather get a really well made and tested guitar from a manufacturer which isn't make me doubt prior to unpacking if it's really going to be a good guitar.

I'm not sure if you're just talking in general or you have something in mind... would you happen to know any austrian luthiers (or at least guitar builders) that can make a decent LP clone for a decent price?
Most EU luthiers I've come across that have a decent reputation (and I'm only talking solidbody electrics here) are either from France, Germany, UK or Poland.

Actually, I don't know of any austrian manufacturers. I was mainly thinking about Düsenberg, which is German. I'm totally going into G.A.S. mode when I just see their stuff.
Man, if I'd have known my musical passion at an earlier age, I would have loved to be an instrument maker. That must be a wonderful job...

[muddyfox]

Oh, the D's... I see. Last time I checked (a while ago, admittedly), those were Korean made and assembled in Germany? Not that it matters, really...
They don't really float my boat but I never heard a bad word spoken about them.

[lars]

Along with the robot tuner, Gibson should make their guitars like this, then we could all just sit around and stare at them.

[Matt]

New gibsons just cost too much for me to even consider. But I just look at this way, ignore the price tag and just play the thing. I've found many guitars for the same price some play like a dream others a nightmare. They can even be the same model. 

Or if you know a good luthier, they can make damn near anything play like a $2500 guitar.

Just my 2 cents.

[GermanCdn]

Yeah not getting the whole 30% price increase without significant improvements.  I don't know that the minitune and zero fret really qualify as that.  Gut feel is they'll bring back the Elitist Epiphone line to fill the gap of the Studios and Juniors, which in itself isn't a bad idea.  As far as a $3300 LP Standard, I'll pass, the value just isn't there.  While I don't like taking the 40% hit on ordering a new Carvin, A fully pimped out CS6 is going to cost half as much as a 2015 Standard.

As far as a good tech being able to make any guitar play like a $2500 guitar, I'll have to respectfully disagree.  I would agree that a good setup makes the average import guitar (Schecter, LTD, Epiphone) far more playable, there's still a long way to go to get to a high end production models.  I loved my MIK LPs, but they were a long way from my DGT, my SCs, or my CS.

[Matt]

Yeah not getting the whole 30% price increase without significant improvements.  I don't know that the minitune and zero fret really qualify as that.  Gut feel is they'll bring back the Elitist Epiphone line to fill the gap of the Studios and Juniors, which in itself isn't a bad idea.  As far as a $3300 LP Standard, I'll pass, the value just isn't there.  While I don't like taking the 40% hit on ordering a new Carvin, A fully pimped out CS6 is going to cost half as much as a 2015 Standard.

As far as a good tech being able to make any guitar play like a $2500 guitar, I'll have to respectfully disagree.  I would agree that a good setup makes the average import guitar (Schecter, LTD, Epiphone) far more playable, there's still a long way to go to get to a high end production models.  I loved my MIK LPs, but they were a long way from my DGT, my SCs, or my CS.

Yeah, I miss spoke on that one. A good tech can't make any guitar play that good but they can bring it a lot closer.

[RobA]

[...]
I agree.  They have put quite an effort forth to establish the sub-$1k US Gibson market that it seems strange that they would just abandon it, although I suppose they could try to re-establish Epiphone as the cheaper alternative and keep Gibson as the premium only line.

I completely agree about their quality; it's been all over the place for years.  Interesting that you had much better experiences with the 2014 line.  I'll have  to check them out (although I loath that 12th fret anniversary inlay).  The 2015 changes seem pretty funky.  My guess is that they will just revert back if sales flatten.  If nothing else, I'll wait a year for that awful 100th anniversary Les Paul script font to fade out.

After having the guitar for a bit, the 12th fret inlay on the 2014's isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'd prefer it not being there, but you do get used to it. That "Les Paul 100" thing though -- I hadn't seen it before -- it's horrible!

It seems that at least some of the changes are happening. I used "Gibson 2015" as a search term at Musicians Friend and the results are interesting. At least at this point, I didn't see any "J" models, everything is gloss, prices do look higher. Pricing wise, it's a bit of a question though, I can't remember the price of the 2014 LPM when it came out and the new guitars are supposed to come with hard shell cases. It does look like everything they've got has the robot -- er umm G-Force -- tuners. To clarify what I said earlier, the robot tuners are actually fine and do their job well. If I played with various tunings, they'd be a real selling point to me. As it is, they just aren't worth the added cost to me.

Too bad, I was hoping for a 2015 Firebird J model -- doesn't look like that's going to happen.

[culturejam]

A gibson employee weighed in at a thread on TGP. The one thing that stuck out to me over the serious of posts was  his comment that "at Gibson, nothing is ever really discontinued." He said, in a nutshell, that just because they don't release a certain model in a given year doesn't mean they won't offer it again in the future. For example, they have no current plans to make an Explorer in 2015, but he hinted that the model would be back in the future.

So here's to hoping they bring back the J and other cheaper lines in 2016 or later.

[GermanCdn]

I just got the 2015 sneak peak from Gibson on FB.  There are plenty of lower end models still available, though it looks like they're trying to push the Trad/Classic/Standard pricing up by introducing the "Less" Les Paul model.  MAP on the Standards is $3800, Trads is $2800.

[culturejam]

There are plenty of lower end models still available,

Yeah, they kept the LPM, which was the same as the LPJ but with the auto tuners. And there is still a couple Juniors.

though it looks like they're trying to push the Trad/Classic/Standard pricing up by introducing the "Less" Les Paul model. 

The Less looks neat at first glance.

What's annoying to me is that Traditional and Classic are words that I think of to mean the same thing (sort of). And the Classic is anything but. They should call it "Modernized Classic" to differentiate.

I half expect them to launch a product called the Les Paul Vintage NOS that features an LCD screen to show you which chord to play next and with a body made of space-age plastic. 

[blearyeyes]

I noticed that Epiphones are getting pricier and probably where the money is for Gibson.
There Gibson line has been over priced forever IMHO.

I bought a Gibson Songwriter deluxe a few years ago... Beautiful to look at but not inspiring to play, my buddy picked up a low end Taylor... WOWZ.. that thing was a joy to play.
It really depends on the Tree.

Plus it doesn't help that the head of Gibson stated that their guitars were an investment, not something you would want to play all the time, or some such rot....

[GermanCdn]

Talked to my favourite dealers last night.  2015 is going to be a weird year for Gibsons.  As previously mentioned, Standards are going to be $3800, Trads $2800.  No Explorers in 2015.  Also, Gibson is forcing major lines to commit to a fixed percentage of their production for 2015.  Long and McQuade (the Canadian equivalent of Guitar Center, only in much better financial situation) is forced to take 9% of Gibsons entire 2015 production, or else Gibson will pull the line from them.  Now, to put it in context by population, Canada has 35M people while the States has 320M people, and to take 9% of the total production run isn't even close to proportional.  Figure Thomann (Germany) probably has to commit to at least double that, imagine other countries have to do similar agreements, that would seem to indicate that Gibson doesn't expect to sell much domestically next year (either that, or they're expecting Guitar Center to shut down, and are trying to push their units onto other suppliers early).

I think Henry's officially fallen off the deep end on this one.

[gjcamann]

That's it. I'm so done with Gibson, this is totally unfair  . I'm not buying any more of their guitars... well unless I find a nice deal on a 175... but after that, I'M DONE.