GuitarBizarre

Both have some SERIOUS downsides regarding their design, quality control, and pricing.

Pricing is the common issue betwee the two companies. Both charge way over the odds for what you're getting. Theres no way around that I'm afraid, its the truth. Cheaper guitars from elsewhere perform much, much better than most fenders or gibbies.

Quality control is gibsons bugbear. Its absolutely shocking how PLEK'd guitars that are supposed to be perfect from the factory can often be utterly, utterly screwed up, both in cosmetic ways and even in the hardware. People have recieved gibsons before with holes drilled in the wrong places, frets off from the scale, binding falling off, all sorts, and thats just recently, the last few years at most. It IS supposedly getting better, but lets just say that gibsons have always totally underwhelmed me for the price. The best LP i've ever played was an epiphone, that speaks volumes for me.

Fenders bugbear is design. THe jazzmaster is a great guitar, the jaguar too, but things like the microtilt neck (3 bolts) and the jaguar bridge NEEDING heavy guage strings to be stable, in addition to the utterly terrible 6 point strat tremolos, the fact that TO THIS DAY Telecasters can't be intonated correctly without replacement saddles, coupled with a general lack of care in the voicing and design of the guitars, means that unfortunately with fenders, already expensive guitars tend to need modifications direct from the factory in order to make them perform as well as they should.

This isn't to say gibson dont have their share of bad design ideas of course, the new historical Les Paul guitar for example, has a bridge that cannot possibly be intonated correctly, and their neck joints tend to be surprisingly weak particularly on SGs and so on. SGs also dont balance on the strap at all and never have.


Between the two, I have soft spots for both companies guitars in one way or another. The jaguar for example, is a glorious guitar when done right and strung with heavy strings. The strat has a charm to it that most copies dont have (Though of course for me, that benefit is outweighed by the terrible hardware. For me, strats are fun for blues, if I'm only BORROWING the guitar.

Gibson too, have their good points. I hate the TOM bridge, but they have a nice neck profile, and the sustain on some of their models is epic.

Ultimately though, neither company offers what I want. Ibanez come much closer, so as a mass builder they're my go to choice. Custom would be my ideal though.

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