SFW":2lifpbq1 said:
While I will agree that the price of a new Les Paul is steep- compared to an Edwards or Agile- to compare them on par is simply absurd. I have been hearing the “Gibson QC isn’t what it used to be” since the late 80s when I started playing. The funny thing to me is that I haven’t played a bad US production Les Paul in the past 10 years. The new Standards sound and play better than ever before. Yes, $2,500 sounds like a lot- but how much does a new PRS cost? Or a Suhr? The new Traditional series can be had for under $2k. If you want a Les Paul…. Buy a damn Gibson and be done with it.
have you ever played an edwards back to back to your golden gibsons to even say this?
come up here where the dew higher than in texas and the moisture level picks the duds from the batches - not your eyes, and i feel you would be singing a different tune. the saying holds true with both marshalls and les pauls - you have to play them all to find the good ones and once and a while you find the model that was made as it was intended, solid as a rock, and sounds/plays great where everything aligns like it should.
that my friend is called QC issues straight from the factory. had there never been QC problems at all at any point in time you would not hear such claims from other musicians would you?
ive never heard a QC problem from ESP custom shop or suhr guitars, thats for sure.
saying you have never played a bad one is a minority opinion or you have got damn good luck - because there are countless others that highly disagree and have not had the same experiences. far more than those who have claimed never to play a deffective model - especially from gibson QC.
im not talking shitty store setups either, actual wood quality fretboard-feeling-differences, neck straightness, and resonating sustain without a guitar cable plugged in.
guitar for guitar i would take an edwards first, epiphone second, and gibson third for a les paul style guitar. and to be honest im not partial to les pauls and can still tell the difference.