Gibson's quality control...

GuitarBizarre · #1 08-24-2008, 11:27 AM

Dinosaur Rock Guitar

Thats only the beginning. The Guitar of the Month '84 Explorers they just released? Almost uniformly terrible.

For example, here are the fret markers from that guitar, courtesy of someone over on another forum:

Lopsided much? YES. Unacceptable, this guitar costs more than every guitar I own put together, with the exception of my S prestige, and has such a massive flaw in it that not a single one of those has, and that takes literally 20 mintues to do right instead of ****ing it up.

Theres also overspray on the guitars:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o.../blemish01.jpg

This porous spot of wood where Gibson haven't sealed the wood properly.
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o.../blemish02.jpg

Finish cracks on the neck joints
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o.../blemish03.jpg

And the worst of the lot, this massive unexplained hole (Which later turned out to be a problematic neck joint, when another person took apart their older explorer with the same issue, just look at that horrible crappy routing.)

Also, quoted from the same board, by proxy:

Quote:

****, something I read on the ESP board right now...I'm quoting:

About the 84 Explorer:
"Also, some corrected wiring by my tech. Silly Gibson done ****ed up. It's noticeably less noisy now."

Soneone else about another Guitar of the Week edition guitar:
"GOW New Century Explorer with the Carbon Fiber pickguard... there were many, many things wrong with that guitar, the worst being the wiring - the bridge pickup didn't even work! It wasn't wired at all!"

I'm so disappointed by hearing these stories. I'll never look the same at Gibson again

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deanleroy00 View Post
Whats with these guitars? I havent heard of anyone getting a flawless one yet.

Someone said the action was horrible but they got it playable, with the action like 8 meters off the fretboard. This is ridiculous, and I was about to buy one too, **** it. lol

Yeah, tell me about it...

And what I think is really sad is that Gibson fans are beginning to think this is 'normal' and 'acceptable.' I don't remember if it was on this board or some other, but somebody told me that this is to be expected (meaning 'OK') on a $1,000+ Gibson. Well, if that's the case, I think I'll rather stay away from those guitars...

(I'll still give this Explorer a chance, but if that doesn't work out, I'm pretty sure I won't be buying any Gibsons in the near future.)

THESE ARE HORRIBLE FLAWS ON GUITARS THAT COST OVER $1000 EACH, AND ARE HIGHLY PUBLICISED LIMITED EDITION MODELS FROM GIBSONS GUITAR OF THE WEEK INITIATIVE.

UPDATE: Megadeth boards again, some kind soul who works for a big guitar shop took the liberty of posting this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by natekelly35

:P

So this is the 2nd consecutive year we've amassed about 90-100 Gibson Custom Shop ($3000+) guitars that couldn't even pass inspection to be sold. See the Post-It notes on the ends of each box? Each one explains why the guitar did not pass inspection. (Varying from messy glue jobs, blemishes, and even bad wiring) Gibson apparently had a hard time believing their own CS would send out guitars with such problems, so they sent a few suits down to see for themselves the lack of quality control they have seemed to form. I think they made it through 1 1/2 palettes of guitars before they decided to not argue against, and just accept their rejects.

I can't totally trash Gibson, as I have an SG Standard that plays extremely fast and sounds great.. but I can say I expect a lot more from a company like them.

FYI, the amount of Fender CS rejects amounted to less than a palette. Other company rejects (ESP, PRS, Zemaidis, Tornovoz, etc) were pretty much non-existent.

brothersnowgone · #2 08-24-2008, 12:16 PM

Wow these are issues I wouldn't expect on a $300 Ibanez...

dragsternj · #3 08-24-2008, 01:14 PM

Gibon has a 24 hour helpdesk and a lifetime warranty on their instruments. If you have a problem they will take care of it.

your mr x article is from 2002 and plain stupid. Mr X. The pictures on the explorers i have seen and they are 3 pics from 3 different instruments out of 400. granted its not what we like to see but **** happens and as i said they will take care of it. I assume if you have to biuld 400 instruments in a rather short period of time by hand you will screw some up.

I bought a 61 re-issue SG 2 month ago and its one of the finest guitars i ever laid my hands on EVER both in quality and sound. I have bought a les paul last year NO issues. I own 2 explorers NO issues.

I bought a 3000 Parker and both switches are garbage and its a known problem. People bough a bunch of RG's a while back and the pots got stuck.

**** happens.

ltdviper400 · #4 08-24-2008, 01:34 PM

Yes, this happens from time to time. I bought a Gibson Flying V last summer and the fretboard was lopsided like yours, and the headstock was off tilt. I took it to the Gibson Dealer in Cleveland, since it's closest to me, and I got a new one while I was there. I didn't even have to go, but I thought I would just to ask 'em about it. But these are fine instruments, hand-crafted, so there's bound to be a few bad ones out of every hundred or so. Plus, you have a lifetime warranty, use it.

**elcid** · #5 08-24-2008, 02:00 PM

Havent you guys learned by now that everytime a bad Gibson slides past QC people have to run to the internets and start threads on every guitar message board they can find.

GuitarBizarre · #6 08-24-2008, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elcid

Havent you guys learned by now that everytime a bad Gibson slides past QC people have to run to the internets and start threads on every guitar message board they can find.

"FYI, the amount of Fender CS rejects amounted to less than a palette. Other company rejects (ESP, PRS, Zemaidis, Tornovoz, etc) were pretty much non-existent."

Thanks guys, downplay the problem. Gibson all but force the words perfect guitar down everyones throats. This shouldn't be happening so often. I'll accept that lemons happen, but I don't see other manufacturers making half or even a third as many lemons as gibson are. The fact that the issues are so varied is another bad point. The parker and ibanez issues just mentioned were isolated, probably a bad batch of x part. These gibsons are just ****ed over a lot of different ways.

----------------
Now playing: Yoko Kanno - Go Go Cactus
via FoxyTunes

**elcid** · #7 08-24-2008, 02:24 PM

If some guy on the Megadeth board posted it, it must be true, right? First hand information is overrated.

GuitarBizarre · #8 08-24-2008, 03:10 PM

I have a whole bunch of pics, articles, and outside opinions to back me up that gibsons QC is terrible. If you look through reviews on harmony central and ultimate guitar, even the good reviews will note things wrong with the guitar half the time, things that I've very very rarely seen outside of gibson.

You on the other hand have exactly...what? Besides your own opinion that the amount of lemons coming from gibson is 'acceptable'

**elcid** · #9 08-24-2008, 03:16 PM

Well, I have personally owned over 20 new Gibsons most of which were special ordered so they never saw a sales floor. I'd take personal experience over what some stranger says on the internet, call me crazy.

Maybe everyone that finds a Gibson without a flaw needs to run home and start threads about it, but then they probably have better things to do.

There are tons of slanted reviews and outright lies on the internet. The biggest lie being that Gibson has all of their guitars made in Korea and branded Made in USA when they get here. If you cant understand that I dont know what to tell you. Maybe since you have done the research to be able to slam Gibson you should take some time to find out the percentage of "lemons" to in relation to the total number of guitars they sell, then compare that to other companies. Or you can just continue to quote what strangers say as fact. Whatever works for you.

dragsternj · #10 08-24-2008, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

I have a whole bunch of pics, articles, and outside opinions to back me up that gibsons QC is terrible.

why don't you write a book about and leave us alone. nobody forces noone to buy anything.

**elcid** · #11 08-24-2008, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragsternj

why don't you write a book about and leave us alone. nobody forces noone to buy anything.

Come on dsj, what more proof do you need than a picture of a pallet of guitar boxes with post it notes on them and the word of some guy on the Megadeth boards.

CosmicDebris · #12 08-24-2008, 03:38 PM

**elcid** · #13 08-24-2008, 03:45 PM

Awesome

Clonetool · #14 08-24-2008, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elcid

Havent you guys learned by now that everytime a bad Gibson slides past QC people have to run to the internets and start threads on every guitar message board they can find.

Ha ha run to the internets. I knew Cid was George Bush who else would stand behind a botched job. Snap.

ltdviper400 · #15 08-24-2008, 05:02 PM

I've owned a few Gibson's, and have played many of them, and they really don't get as many defects as you think. Take it from personal experience like elcid said rather than a random person on a Forum Thread. I own a Flying V, an Explorer, and 2 LP Studio's and the only one I've had a problem with is the one that I got over the internet(The Flying V). Which I got replaced in less than an hour upon arriving at the Gibson Dealer. So, if you got yours over the internet, it probably wasn't Gibson's fault. So before you go around saying they're sooooooooo bad, try an actual dealer, because I can almost guarantee you, the Gibson's at the shop will be perfect.