i dont know anything about banjos or mandolins and i would accept gibson to be a great brand for them but as far as guitars, no other brand is worse aside from fender. their high end guitars are nice but only their high end, which are also over priced. fender is also as uncreative as gibson. for the quality of my $500 dollar schecter damien elite, fender and gibson would charge well over 10 grand.

gibson became an outdated brand the second they made they kept letting out new versions of the less paul, along with the rising of other main brands like ibanez, jackson, Schecter, esp/ltd, dean, parker, caparison, and (for some reason) B.C. Rich

http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Gibson-Guitar-Reviews-E6869.htm

Gibson is the ‘Bud Light” of the guitar world;A cheap as dirt product advertised as if it was “solid gold”. it’s a culteral icon that is heavily marketed and has it’s design protected by a legal department who probably recieve more money than the Gibson manufacturing facilities do.

That Gibson goes after PRS for making a LP copy while the prs singlecut is visably and specwise only “marginally similiar” shows that gibson is more interested in quashing the competition than it is interested in building guitars of acceptable quality.

I have a friend who is in quality control at a large internet-based music shop. Of course practicality dictates the store carry gibsons, however only 1 in 5 of these Gibsons is found to be “salable” and the rest need be returned. Faults include; fretboards in a trapazodal shape, off-kilter necks, fretboards not aligned with the neck, gaps in bodys which have been concealed with wood fill and so many flaws which even manufacturers of $250 guitars would not let pass.

My theory is that when you buy a Gibson you get $1.00 in value for every $10.00 you spend. A $300 Godin will get you as much quality as $3000 worth of Gibson. That Gibson manages to market practically every guitar as either custom/limited/reissue/artist’s model; tells me they are “has been” company. They just need to go out of business like other has-beens.

The only reason they survive is because newcomers to guitar and yuppie-posers keep buying gibsons for their cultural status and these people are not learned enough to realize how bad the quality of Gibsons is nor are they aware how good the new brands are. I guess these people only want a “conversation piece” and could carfe less about sound quality.

I wanted two keeper guitars a Fender and Gibson.

It didn’t take me long to find a great modern Custom Shop Telecaster. Amazing woods, great finishing and pickups to die for. I never actually found a modern Gibson that warranted the price tag. Their new nitro formulars seem pretty dam close to poly with all the plastisisers they put in them. Not totally Gibson’s fault, but you’d think they could source more authentic nitro for their reissues.

In the end I just plumped for a 1956 Gibson Les Paul Junior. That guitar is out of the world, but you can’t run a company on a reputation you built 50 years ago with a couple of thousand godly guitars. What they build now is totally put to shame by what they used to produce. I wouldn’t suggest anyone buy and expensive Custom Shop Gibson when you can still get 1950s Juniors and Specials for the same price.

There are much better quality brand Les Paul style guitars being crafted today. Many guitar luthiers at some time or another have found Japan crafted guitars to be far superior in quality than the Gibson USA made guitars. For example the Fujigen Gakki guitar factory in Japan uses very high grade “old growth” Mahogany & Maple in the production of their guitars that is naturally seasoned & dried for a period of 5 years or longer. The older growth wood such as old-stock African mahogany or hard Maple produces a lighter weight finished product that is far more musically resonant than “speed dried” wood. Gibson uses cheaper new wood kiln cured in a matter of hours, that is why a Solid body Gibson weighs around 10Lbs compared to a Solid Body Japan Les Paul that may only weigh between 8.5Lbs to 9 Lbs, and also sounds tonally dead. Also Gibson has very poor fit tolerances when assembling the neck of the guitar in the body, and most Gibson Les Paul guitars under $5,000 have a poorly fitted “short Neck tenon”. Remove the neck humbucker of a Gibson Les Paul, and you will find no visible “tenon” in the neck cavity. The poorly fitted neck to body fit of the Gibson greatly reduces tonal resonance & diminishes sustain! (This is NOT how Gibson made Les Paul guitars in the 1950’s!! The Japan crafted Les Paul style guitars are most all made with a “LONG neck tenon” that is clearly visible in the neck cavity of the body. Also, the Japanese carefully fit the neck to the body of the guitar using the tightest tolerances possible producing far superior tonal resonance & sustain all for about $700-$1200. Fuji Gen Gakki in Japan currently crafts Les Paul guitars under the Brand Name “History” & “FGN” or “Fujigen. There are many used “lawsuit” or vintage Japan Brand name Les Paul guitars far superior than anything Gibson has made in the last 40 years. You can find some super high-quality vintage Japanese brand Les Paul style guitars on Ebay such as Greco, Orville, Yamaha, Burny, and even some Epiphone Les Paul guitar that were “Made in Japan” all for a fraction of the price of a junk Gibson. This is why Gibson continues to file lawsuits against Paul Reed Smith, and the many others, because Gibson can’t handle their competition making a FAR Superior guitar for a much more reasonable price tag! P.S if you find an Epiphone Les Paul with a “open-book” shaped headstock, it was likely made in Japan using the same quality as described above. The Epiphone Les Pauls with the Open-book shaped headstock were all crafted in Japan by Fujigen Gakkii, however these are very rare as most Epiphones are made in Korea.

Beware the Chinese & Korean manufactured guitars don’t come close those made in Japan. However, even the Chinese & Korean made guitars are beginning to surpass Gibson in quality, and give more bang for the buck. Although the Chinese & Korean guitars are not the greatest yet, the quality control & craftsmanship is becoming very advanced, and in some cases you may find your $500 Korean Epiphone playing better than a $3,500 Gibson Les Paul Custom!
Yes Gibons Sucks in a very bad way!