KVR Audio

machinesworking · Post by **machinesworking** » Sat Feb 17, 2018 7:34 pm

ATN69 wrote:It’s always sad to see a old and well known brand being run into the ground by clueless and incompetent management.

This.

I've owned a modified black Gibsone Les Paul Pro forever. The body and style of the black Custom Les Paul is my favorite guitar design ever. Since the 90's Gibson has been run by idiots bent in first killing their reputation by killing off great companies like Opcode and Cakewalk, then by killing off the brand in general with stupid custom shop travesties and bad price points in general.

Gibson is my favorite guitar sound, style (the classic styles anyway) etc. and it's frustrating how little respect they have now, now that they've shit on everything the company built up over a hundred odd years.

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Sat Feb 17, 2018 7:50 pm

I’ve always wanted a nice Les Paul. But my friend who owns two of them from the 80s insists that they haven’t made a decent one since that time period, and that I’d be wasting my money on anything they make now.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a different brand who build something comparable today?

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Sat Feb 17, 2018 7:52 pm

deastman wrote:I’ve always wanted a nice Les Paul. But my friend who owns two of them from the 80s insists that they haven’t made a decent one since that time period, and that I’d be wasting my money on anything they make now.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a different brand who build something comparable today?

reverend make nice guitars, but don't really do the classic les paul shape. is that the important factor?

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sat Feb 17, 2018 8:08 pm

deastman wrote:I’ve always wanted a nice Les Paul. But my friend who owns two of them from the 80s insists that they haven’t made a decent one since that time period, and that I’d be wasting my money on anything they make now.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a different brand who build something comparable today?

they went out of business a few years ago and good luck finding one. On the other hand perhaps this could spark a revival of Heritage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Guitars

Bombadil · Post by **Bombadil** » Sat Feb 17, 2018 11:17 pm

LPs were never my favourite guitar. Too heavy on the neck on stage, and always rolled off my leg when playing sitting down. The one I had, I would've adapted to it if I could've gotten the action where I wanted it. Fretboard must've been warped, or something. I did a short vid of it with me playing 'Hairless Heart' by Genesis, and the sound was pure sweetness. Unfortunately, it felt like playng an egg slicer.

I seem to recall that Tokai did a great, and much sought-after copy of the LP.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sat Feb 17, 2018 11:36 pm

Bombadil wrote:LPs were never my favourite guitar. Too heavy on the neck on stage, and always rolled off my leg when playing sitting down. The one I had, I would've adapted to it if I could've gotten the action where I wanted it. Fretboard must've been warped, or something. I did a short vid of it with me playing 'Hairless Heart' by Genesis, and the sound was pure sweetness. Unfortunately, it felt like playng an egg slicer.

I seem to recall that Tokai did a great, and much sought-after copy of the LP.

one of my oldest friends thought he would try guitar in the early 80's. He bought a brand new 30th anniversary goldtop, the first time he tried to play it he put it in his lap and when he reached down to grab the cord and the neck kicked up and gave him a fat lip.

machinesworking · Post by **machinesworking** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 12:15 am

Bombadil wrote:LPs were never my favourite guitar.

Yeah, Gibson Les Pauls and Fender Strats, you either like them or dislike them, hardly any in between. I would own a Tele, but I've always hated Strats personally, could never get a tone out of them I liked. I've heard other people do it though, not saying it's anything more than my taste.

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 12:35 am

vurt wrote:
deastman wrote:I’ve always wanted a nice Les Paul. But my friend who owns two of them from the 80s insists that they haven’t made a decent one since that time period, and that I’d be wasting my money on anything they make now.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a different brand who build something comparable today?
reverend make nice guitars, but don't really do the classic les paul shape. is that the important factor?

I don’t care about form factor, or looks at all really. I care about build quality, playability, and tone.

resynthesis · Post by **resynthesis** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 12:44 am

deastman wrote:I’ve always wanted a nice Les Paul. But my friend who owns two of them from the 80s insists that they haven’t made a decent one since that time period, and that I’d be wasting my money on anything they make now.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a different brand who build something comparable today?

I think I'd disagree with your friend about that

I'm not the world's biggest Les Paul fan but I've played a few nice Les Pauls made in the last 30 years or so. Some of the Historics have been pretty good and I quite like my 93 '57 Gold Top (some "experts" call these pre-Historic I believe). If you really want a Les Paul find a decent dealer who only sells decent instruments.

Other manufacturers? Crikey, if you're well-heeled try a Huber or the new Suhr perhaps. Some PRS guitars do a pretty good LP (maybe try a McCarty), then there's Yamaha. Also, I believe Heritage are going at the moment.

Used - look out for older Tokai, Greco, Orville, Epiphone Elitist Les Paul clones. Maybe even things like older Ibanez Artists and Hamers.

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 1:04 am

deastman wrote:
vurt wrote:
deastman wrote:I’ve always wanted a nice Les Paul. But my friend who owns two of them from the 80s insists that they haven’t made a decent one since that time period, and that I’d be wasting my money on anything they make now.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a different brand who build something comparable today?
reverend make nice guitars, but don't really do the classic les paul shape. is that the important factor?
I don’t care about form factor, or looks at all really. I care about build quality, playability, and tone.

in that case yeah, check out reverend.
plenty of choice in pick ups and some interesting variations on the classic shapes.

i do not work for them, but if they want to send me a freeby for pushing them here, im open

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 1:05 am

and duesberg (sp?) make some sexy beasts

digitalboytn · Post by **digitalboytn** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 1:40 am

Hink wrote:On the other hand perhaps this could spark a revival of Heritage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Guitars

Heritage make great guitars and they are good people....

They made these two Sweet 16 custom guitars for me a while ago as an artist deal...

Incredible guitars....plug and play...

Acoustic archtops with tapped tuned tops and backs,fat necks,soft cutaway,suspended pickups,ultra woods and no inlays apart from on the headstock...

I took one of them into California Guitars in Sherman Oaks just after I received it and we compared it to a 1958 D'Angelico....

It blew the D'Angelico away and the guys couldn't believe it

They don't really get much use these days because I am mainly playing flat top acoustics and some mahogany Tele/Gibson hybrids that were made for me...

Back in the day I had a few nice Gibsons though,including a Black Les Paul Custom a la Mahavishnu,a sweet old Les Paul Deluxe and an ES355, along with a few others...

None of those were keepers,but the Sweet 16's are

It's a shame that Henry da Vandal has destroyed such an iconic brand

jacqueslacouth · Post by **jacqueslacouth** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 4:07 am

Maton Australia make some damn fine guitars. Not sure about what is going on with their supply of Electrics at the moment and as most models seem to be currently unavailable domestically, I wouldn't be to hopeful of getting one overseas. One thing I can say though, I've only played a few Gibsons over the years and absolutely none could hold a torch to Maton build quality, (from my perspective) tone or playability. Brilliant guitars and really quite reasonable compared to a lot of other options.

machinesworking · Post by **machinesworking** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 5:10 am

digitalboytn wrote:Oopps...double post...

But I would like to reiterate that I am not a fan of Henry's

I've met a few people who have tried to work for him at Gibson and they found the experience a little "taxing"

I could not imagine that someone who would do what he did to OpCode and Cakewalk could be anything less than a douche.

It's bizarre that one company took out two class A DAWs...

McLilith · Post by **McLilith** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 8:10 am

machinesworking wrote:I could not imagine that someone who would do what he did to OpCode and Cakewalk could be anything less than a douche.

It's bizarre that one company took out two class A DAWs...

Opcode also made some nice hardware. I have what should be a perfectly fine rack-mount, multi-port MIDI interface and MIDI patchbay, the Opcode Studio64X. Gibson killed Opcode close to the time I bought this, and when Windows evolved to its next incarnation, it would no longer work on my computer. Of course, Gibson didn't bother to update the driver software for the interface after they killed Opcode. I really wish someone would reverse engineer some software for the Studio64X, so I could still use it!

I'm also a big fan of the SFZ sampler format. I wonder what affect, if any, shutting down Cakewalk might have on SFZ format development?

Gibson guitars in big financial trouble