Ugly Guitar Truth: Gibson S-Series

My relationship with Gibson guitars has always been one of admiration from afar. Back in old days, I would look of catalogs with pictures of pretty arch top electric guitars and just pine away. The prices of the Gibson guitars led me to believe that they were something beyond what I've experienced. As grew as a player, I've since played many Gibson guitars and found them to, be for the most part... a guitar. I even own a Les Paul and a 335. But that name on the headstock has always carried a weight to it, and I attributed that weight mostly to the high cost of admission into the 'club'. I was able to buy my first Fender for $300, but a Gibson (a proper Gibson) would be $1000+. But that looks to change with addition of Gibson's new S-Series guitar. Let's see what we know about them..

There are 5 models.

There is the M2: a flat top dual humbucker look-a-like to the Epiphone Les Paul Special II, The Firebird Zero: which looks to be a firebird's little brother, The SG: an SG, LP Special: very similar to the special but a little curvier, and the LP Studio: This one hasn't changed much, haven't the Les Paul Studios always started around $799? Anyways, They are all stripped down to just one volume and one tone knob. They have wrap around tail pieces, that is except the studio, which has a proper stop tail bridge. They look nice, and you can see the attention to detail in the released photos.

Are They proper Gibson Guitars?


Well, that's actually a tough question. take a look at the head stock and say, 'Yes, you idiot! It's right there!" and to that I'd reply, "Geez, name calling is really unnecessary." But back to the subject, those who likes their Gibsons know what feature are traditionally uses. This is mahogany with a maple cap for the body, and a mahogany neck and rosewood fretboard. However, Gibson went a little off-brand with some models giving them poplar bodies (except for the SG, it's still mahogany) and maple neck. It's clear that they were interested in keeping costs down. And to be honest, these aren't going to really appeal to the Gibson faithful anyways. Those who are looking at these are going to be first time Gibson buyers, maybe upgrading from their Epiphones.

Conclusion


I like the new line. Can't wait till I can get my hands on one and see how it feels. The poplar bodies and maple necks don't really bother me (I'm really a Fender guy so...). All these guitar are made in the USA and have a nitro finish, so it's a quality instrument. The Special reminds me a lot of the PRS Mira for some reason. This kind of blew my mind when I heard that Gibson was going to offer guitar starting at $399. We will see in the near future how these do.

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