Well I couldn't get the Gibson back from the place I sent it to (had already sold it on), SO let's look at a guitar I got for the relative value instead. Let's get the obvious one out the way first, it is a les paul copy without shame, but it does have its' own improvements on the basic design - the main cutaway contines through behind the neck and onto the left side of the guitar, so lead work is really easy to play. Little extra things like the body contour adds to this, and overall feels more like a guitar of its' own right, but with a big tribute to where its' come from. Aside from that, the specs are rather more mundane - 2 'Buckers (desgined by trev wilkinson with a little help from friend seth lover), 22 fret medium jumbo rosewood fingerboard, 3-way selector, all held by your traditional Mahogany and maple cap chassis, with a master volume and tone and this fancy thing called a "Roll", which loudly proclaims it gets a lot of tones between single coil and bucker, and all point in between. In practice, it just plays like a really effective tone controller, so 1/3 of its' electronics are somewhat redundant, but there is a lot of versatility and potential for darker tones., as well as brighter ones you'd normally not expect from an LP type. The looks of it are damn nice, everything looks just Right, the only potentially off-putting thing is the fac tit says "Vintage" on the headstock, but heck, that still looks a darned sight better than the european Epiphone one does, even though I appreciate the looks of that one. One more thing - the build quality is really good, especially for a M.I.C. (made in china) effort, at least I suspect it is, anyway. Theres' only one thing that gives away this, and that's a tiny bit of lumpy dried paint on the hell of the neck right where it meets the body - you've gotta really feel for it, and you can't notice it without looking a little too hard, so it's nothing. The rest of it just feels like it should be dearer, but I can see parts like the hardware staining fast. It's not a major thing, but it's the area for niggles. The sound I haven't been really able to get to grips with, as the action was set rather Too low, so will be personally fixing that one myself, so there'll be an addition to this later on. But I remember in the store and plugging it in at home, the sounds are Really nice - On a par and possibly better than my old Faded Special (And undoubtedly better build quality, as the cracked neck got through quality control) - the frets and neck are fast & chunky enough to give you something that almost invites you to start making like T-bone Walker, if I felt a bit overly-dramatic, I'd say it would whisper to you in the same voice as the devil that gave Willie Nelson his skills. I'll give a more in depth review for the holidays, but lets' face it - £250 for a guitar that feels like it should be £500? I'm laughing already - Laughing and smiling
| My Profile
Vintage Advance AV1: First impressions blog
