Quality of Les Paul Stand 50's

Quality of Les Paul Standard 50's

After years of being without a Les Paul I started giving thought to getting another. I was hesitant though because my last Les Paul, a Classic Custom was loaded with quality control issues and I was hearing this had been the norm for awhile. Anyway, last week I decided to take a chance and order a Standard 50's. I'm really impressed with the quality, it's almost to the level of Custom Shop. There is no fret or binding issues, truss rod cover is even straight. The fingerboard is nice and smooth with none of the scraping marks I would typically see. The head stock wings are also even on both sides. Very pleased to see I didn't have to spend Custom Shop money to get a guitar this nice from Gibson.

I too am really impressed with the new Standards. I think they’ve improved some of the QC issues in the past and I think some of the minor tweaks they’ve made bridges the gap between Gibson USA and Custom. For instance, I think the thinner fretboard binding gives the guitar a more refined feel akin to the Reissues. I believe there’s still an improvement going Gibson Custom, but the performance/utilitarian differences have diminished a bit.

I had a Standard 50s in heritage cherry that I loved, but traded in to get my R0 back. I had originally traded in earlier this year to get my R9, but when the store offer to sell me back my R0 for the same price they bought it from me, I couldn’t pass on the offer. The Standard 50s was an amazing guitar tho.

Good to hear and I am glad you are enjoying yours! I especially like the back wood and finish, frankly. :yah

To be clear, I don't have any new Originals -- I just want to add more color to your quality comments.

One thing I'd say is, apart from naysaying in some quarters, is that I've had USA guitars from 2012-2018 and they are all of high quality, fit and finish, including recent V, Explorer, and 2 Standards which were really, really good out of the box.

I know there have been Gibson QC misses, and they get lots of feedback and are called out on them, but I think 2 things are at work.

(1) There are legitimate QC issues, and let's hope new management address these. We already know JC made note of some, and announced his "lighting fix" and pledged to do better. Consolidation of production lines and looking a production processes in Nashville will help, too. Simplification of product models will also help focus on quality versus the kind of slippage when you are rushing, and trying for too much variety.

(2) I have to consider how "lucky" I've been and think about it. Why? I am a lefty, maybe they have to focus more on the oddballs, to get them right? Perhaps... But also I think it's sourcing. I have to buy online, since dealers tend not to stock options for me. Therefore, that decreases the chance for things to happen. Assuming Gibson QC is good, mine generally get packed, shipped, arrive at some warehouse, and at most photographed for a website. Most Dealers do their checklist, probably sends back obvious issue guitars if they have any care. Better Dealers have more rigor, and perform an extensive checklist, want to make the customer happy, some have tone report, or other value-added information....

But the single most distinguishing attribute is -- they don't hang on a wall with lord knows who banging them about, with little supervision or attentiveness.

Everyone says go around and play them, find a good one, etc. I can't fault this, but also consider what may have happened to those poor guitars that are treated like crap. I think at this point walking into a big store and expecting things not to have degraded is a bit foolish and ignorant of the retail situation.

Work with dealer(s) that care, and if you can't play a lot, my lesson has been ORDER ONLINE, with good return policies. You'll be able to return issue guitars, have good dealers work to correct issues, and be able to choose. OK, so you need a good credit line and float to do this, but there are ways to manage this.

And my metrics point to Gibson as not the main issue [even thought their QC still has some misses - some are obvious and bad]. I'd guess 98% of things leaving the factory are decent, and issues crop up somewhere downstream. And of those, many are down to a good setup by a knowledgable tech.

Finally, I will reiterate. There was really high quality apparent in the teen years prior to bankruptcy / reorganization / new management... Just because they tweaked model specs, the QC glide path was well established and probably is getting incrementally better.

Just one player's perspective...

Congrats on yours :salude