• Guys, we've spent considerable money converting the Les Paul Forum to this new XenForo platform, and we have ongoing monthly operating expenses. THE "DONATIONS" TAB IS NOW WORKING, AND WE WOULD APPRECIATE ANY DONATIONS YOU CAN MAKE TO KEEP THE LES PAUL FORUM GOING! Thank you!

Hey it's Mat from Gibson Product Development - AMA

El Gringo

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
5,666
I guess you wouldn't know about who were inspectors at the Custom Shop in the 1990s, which I asked about earlier. You would need access to long term Gibson employee records, which I guess not many people have. The reason I asked was I thought a certain pre-pack checklist sheet might have been faked.

Anyway, while I'm talking to you, on another subject, since you're in product development, do you think it might be a good idea to inlay guitar necks with a material called ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethylene? It's properties seem well suited for it, due to high abrasion resistance and low friction, which would make it good for string bending with least effort. If Gibson were the first guitar company to do that, they would have a jump on the competition, which would have to imitate. Regular wood or mother of pearl would be vastly inferior in comparison. This material actually feels slick to human skin even though it's dry. Read the properties for yourself, this is from Wikipedia, it says "fiber surface" but you can also get it as solid sheets just like normal polyethylene.
Look at what I just found on Reverb.com https://reverb.com/item/49687813-gibson-check-list-1997-les-paul I hope this helps a little bit and if I see another I will gladly post it ! I just found another one https://reverb.com/item/49687286-gibson-warranty-papers-checklist-2006-61-sg ( I would sure love to see the photos of the Les Paul please )
 

El Gringo

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
5,666
"To fully complete your Gibson forgery, these inspection documents from the factory"- what else is the purpose?
Ick...
I tried to gently coax him to post photos which has not happened . I mean the paper is nice with the case candy and such but it's all about the goods , not apiece of paper , which is valuable in a time of selling . Myself , after I have purchased all of my Custom Shop beauty's I check it out once I unpack and then it goes directly into the case pocket and not seen again as the cases are in one room and the herd is in the big room all on there stands . Anyway and a big and is that during that time period such a document was used at least part of it was used for the mail in warranty , which now you just go on Gibson .com to register your new instrument and make sure you have your factory protection / warranty . What the heck else is that document for anyway ? Also as I am on a roll now anyway , when was the last time anyone on our wonderful Forum ( Thanks Mike S) asked a question in regards to this document ? ( I hope I am being PC correct and not offending )
 
Last edited:

Myles_076

New member
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
24
I guess you wouldn't know about who were inspectors at the Custom Shop in the 1990s, which I asked about earlier. You would need access to long term Gibson employee records, which I guess not many people have. The reason I asked was I thought a certain pre-pack checklist sheet might have been faked.

Anyway, while I'm talking to you, on another subject, since you're in product development, do you think it might be a good idea to inlay guitar necks with a material called ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethylene? It's properties seem well suited for it, due to high abrasion resistance and low friction, which would make it good for string bending with least effort. If Gibson were the first guitar company to do that, they would have a jump on the competition, which would have to imitate. Regular wood or mother of pearl would be vastly inferior in comparison. This material actually feels slick to human skin even though it's dry. Read the properties for yourself, this is from Wikipedia, it says "fiber surface" but you can also get it as solid sheets just like normal polyethylene. The only down-side might be difficulty in gluing it to wood. It says it's difficult to bond to other polymers but maybe it can be bonded to wood, I don't know. The idea would be to inlay the whole neck between every fret with rectangular pieces.

I tried to gently coax him to post photos which has not happened . I mean the paper is nice with the case candy and such but it's all about the goods , not apiece of paper , which is valuable in a time of selling . Myself , after I have purchased all of my Custom Shop beauty's I check it out once I unpack and then it goes directly into the case pocket and not seen again as the cases are in one room and the herd is in the big room all on there stands . Anyway and a big and is that during that time period such a document was used at least part of it was used for the mail in warranty , which now you just go on Gibson .com to register your new instrument and make sure you have your factory protection / warranty . What the heck else is that document for anyway ? Also as I am on a roll now anyway , when was the last time anyone on our wonderful Forum ( Thanks Mike S) asked a question in regards to this document ? ( I hope I am being PC correct and not offending )
Thanks for posting those links. I'm actually looking for Historic Art Custom Shop Ones but those ones do show that they're usually filled out with black ink. The one I/m talking about was done with blue ink and the initials were SM. I haven't seen one other with those characteristics. It's probably real but it does seem odd that I can't find one other like it. About the pics, it's somebody else's guitar and they emailed me pics. They might not want to me to post them in forums. Nothing special about it to see anyway, just looks like any other Snakepit. There is one thing weird though, it has a Slash signature on it and the top part of the S is missing. I can't find any other example of his sig that's like that. I'll show you that at least. Looks very different from the known real one below it huh?

Possible Fake Sig.png

Known real one below

Slash Sig Real Snakepit.png
 

Myles_076

New member
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
24
Stuff like that should give a buyer pause
Yeah, seems unlikely Slash would forget to put the top half of the S on. How could a faker make such an obvious error though? Maybe Slash was drunk, he did drink a lot in those days, might have forget how to write his own name.
 

jlarnett77

New member
Joined
Aug 18, 2021
Messages
6
Hey Mat is there any plans to have a double cut les paul jr and special in the original collection
 

wmachine

Active member
Joined
Mar 17, 2016
Messages
304
...............Anyway, while I'm talking to you, on another subject, since you're in product development, do you think it might be a good idea to inlay guitar necks with a material called ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethylene? It's properties seem well suited for it, due to high abrasion resistance and low friction, which would make it good for string bending with least effort. If Gibson were the first guitar company to do that, they would have a jump on the competition, which would have to imitate. Regular wood or mother of pearl would be vastly inferior in comparison. This material actually feels slick to human skin even though it's dry. Read the properties for yourself, this is from Wikipedia, it says "fiber surface" but you can also get it as solid sheets just like normal polyethylene.
I think the problem you would have with UHMW would be that "it only comes in one color: ugly". Yes it can be made in colors, but not something that would be attractive for inlays and that is one of the "properties" needed for inlays. UHMW has been available commercially for over 25 years and I've never seen a decorative application for it.
 

djcmusician

Active member
Joined
Apr 29, 2015
Messages
263
I think the problem you would have with UHMW would be that "it only comes in one color: ugly". Yes it can be made in colors, but not something that would be attractive for inlays and that is one of the "properties" needed for inlays. UHMW has been available commercially for over 25 years and I've never seen a decorative application for it.
Been around longer than that. Also much heavier by volume than most wood used for guitar building.
 

Myles_076

New member
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
24
I think the problem you would have with UHMW would be that "it only comes in one color: ugly". Yes it can be made in colors, but not something that would be attractive for inlays and that is one of the "properties" needed for inlays. UHMW has been available commercially for over 25 years and I've never seen a decorative application for it.
What's wrong with white, or brown like the wood? Is a guitar neck supposed to be attractive to look at or functional? Why would you not want the lowest abrasion and friction material available? I Googled it and found lots of colors. I'm not talking about decorative inlays anyway, I mean the entire neck except for about 1/4" of wood on each side and where the fret wires get installed, basically a bunch of rectangles between every fret. Anyway, just a thought, maybe people don't like low abrasion and low friction necks, maybe they like them to wear down and tire their fingers out.
 
Last edited:

Gibsonsg

Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2021
Messages
40
Hey Mat, Gibson is my nr 1 brand and i own 5 Gibson atm (61 SG 60 anniv, 2003 SG special, 2016 Historic R9, 1997 Black R4 with staple, 1959 DC LP junior)
I like my reissue's but still they are not a "clone" of a reall vintage guitar. Like the headstock curve, headstock corners, Top carve... the reissue's they made in 68-69 are better at it.
Why can u guys even if u know it not, make this right? is it because of the coste to make it and change the whole proces OR is it that the reissue's will be to good and some ppl can be scammed???

I still buy Gibson guitars even if it won't change, the new customshop guitars are just so so good!
 

deytookerjaabs

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Messages
1,594
I just want to say after seeing a few recently that the sourcing of the proper binding & inlay materials makes all the difference in how any reissue looks. At least, now they look like something that could have come from Kalamazoo, ABS + milky inlays you could spot from far away. Good job!
 

TM1

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Messages
8,356
Yes, the Royalite body binding and the Celluloid neck binding really make a nice improvement. They go along way in getting the guitars to be "vintage correct". I know back in 2002 when I got my 1st "Historic" all Gibson was using was that ABS crap. I got an R-0 made in September of 2002. It was in the batch of the first five R-0's in what would become the the "G-0" series. Mine was #2 and was flown out here to L.A. by Gibson along with the 1st one as "Presentation" guitars. They were suppose to be "Plain Tops". The 1st one is pretty nice and mine has alot of Birdseye and had a Brazilian F/B. It's hard to realize that it will be 20 years old in the Fall. It went to Historic Makeovers when Kim started in 2007. It's a pretty special guitar. Prices were alot less vs. the Murphy Labs... it was about a 1/4 of what the ML's run.
 

Wizard1183

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 20, 2018
Messages
787
Hey Mat, Gibson is my nr 1 brand and i own 5 Gibson atm (61 SG 60 anniv, 2003 SG special, 2016 Historic R9, 1997 Black R4 with staple, 1959 DC LP junior)
I like my reissue's but still they are not a "clone" of a reall vintage guitar. Like the headstock curve, headstock corners, Top carve... the reissue's they made in 68-69 are better at it.
Why can u guys even if u know it not, make this right? is it because of the coste to make it and change the whole proces OR is it that the reissue's will be to good and some ppl can be scammed???

I still buy Gibson guitars even if it won't change, the new customshop guitars are just so so good!
I want to know about this top carve thing. What IS a 59 top carve? Cause as far as I know? Gibson used a 59 to scan and use that during the CNC process. So which 59 are we talking about here for top carve?
 

Gibsonsg

Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2021
Messages
40
I want to know about this top carve thing. What IS a 59 top carve? Cause as far as I know? Gibson used a 59 to scan and use that during the CNC process. So which 59 are we talking about here for top carve?
Same with the 61 reissue's, they say they 3D scanned them but here in the video u can see the models are not 100% the same with the taper of the horn, neck angle... i'm not mad of it but i want to know why?
 

mdubya

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 31, 2010
Messages
1,026
I will say that I prefer the "incorrect" versions of my Custom Shop Non Reverse Firebirds to the real thing.

My NR Firebirds have chunky '64 SG/335 style necks with full width 1 11/16" nuts.

The only thing they are missing is vintage Nitro. And maybe more vintage correct P-90s.

Mine are from 2002 and 2010.
 

matkoehler

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 12, 2014
Messages
496
Not to jump on the Customer Service aspect but I'm having the same no luck... Spoke to Bob 2.5 months ago about help with a historic ABR that had bent adjustment screws (new guitar). Followed up 3 times over the months and spoke to Vince who said he would get back to me but never did. There is definitely a severe disconnect between the Customer Service reps and whoever fulfills the request at the Custom Shop. Shouldn't be like that for the prices charged...
I agree, that should not be happening but with Covid I think it has been difficult getting into a rhythm. No excuse though. We did just get a new Customer Service director who is doing a great job with all that he inherited. I would suggest emailing service AT gibson.com again and for the subject line, put "THIRD REQUEST - Replacement ABR-1 Posts for New Custom Shop Purchase." And have the previous queries/exchanges pasted below the requests. I'm very sorry that you have been having so much trouble.
 

matkoehler

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 12, 2014
Messages
496
Thanks for taking our questions, Mat. I have a couple for you:

Any plans on selling the new Alnico Firebird pickups individually? I have a 2019 Firebird (the last year of the older ceramic pickups if I'm not mistaken) that I love but I'm curious if I'd like the new pickups better. I have a love-hate thing with the stock pickups.

Any plans for more solid color options on Les Pauls? I know people love flame tops and stuff, but I'd love a little more diversity on non Custom models. I've been in the market for a Les Paul for awhile but none of the traditional bursts do it for me (that said, I've missed out on a few mod shop and demo shop models that seem to have fit the bill)

And lastly, any updates on the Kramer line? Anything new coming out this year? How far out are the US models? I've got a MusicYo-era 1984 Custom that I bought new back in 05/06 that I absolutely adore and would love to bring another new USA-made Kramer home.
Yes it's on the list...we are planning to do a bit of a pickup re-launch/re-focus in Fall. I think the new pickups are killer (we developed them for the Clapton Firebird I) but we did not get complains with the Ceramic version...we made the change simply because the original was Alnico. I'm sure the Ceramics are also great.

Re: colors, as mentioned earlier anything lighter, especially whites and pastels, is especially hard for the factories. Metallics too. So that has been limiting. But if you have ideas for darker opaque colors, we are all ears. Currently developing a dark blue, dark green and dark walnut and seeing where that goes.

Finally yes Kramer has been on fire for us since relaunching in 2020...always new stuff coming out and there is a mile-long list of stuff to come. Aljon Go and Richard Akers are the product leads and they are the biggest Kramer fans you can imagine, so everything is in good hands. Kramer USA is very much in the works and the only obstacle is integrating production of a Kramer-style instrument within a Gibson factory...not as easy as we had hoped. But it will happen. You may even see some Kramer Japan runs... Thanks for asking! -Mat
 

matkoehler

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 12, 2014
Messages
496
I guess you wouldn't know about who were inspectors at the Custom Shop in the 1990s, which I asked about earlier. You would need access to long term Gibson employee records, which I guess not many people have. The reason I asked was I thought a certain pre-pack checklist sheet might have been faked.

Anyway, while I'm talking to you, on another subject, since you're in product development, do you think it might be a good idea to inlay guitar necks with a material called ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethylene? It's properties seem well suited for it, due to high abrasion resistance and low friction, which would make it good for string bending with least effort. If Gibson were the first guitar company to do that, they would have a jump on the competition, which would have to imitate. Regular wood or mother of pearl would be vastly inferior in comparison. This material actually feels slick to human skin even though it's dry. Read the properties for yourself, this is from Wikipedia, it says "fiber surface" but you can also get it as solid sheets just like normal polyethylene.
Pretty easy to fake one of those 90s pre-pack checklists as sometimes they were not filled out at all. But much harder to make a convincing fake Custom Shop guitar. When in doubt the Customer Service team can look up and verify serial numbers from that era.

I know nothing about ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethylene but I'll do some research! I did not mind Richlite personally but it did not exactly have a warm reception...so we are pretty cautious about synthetic alternatives. However we need to prepare for a future in which there may be more wood restrictions, so definitely worth exploring this and other options in the mean time. Thanks! -Mat
 
Top