It’s no mystery that the Gibson brand has been resting on its laurels for some time now. Talk to any knowledgeable guitar geek who isn’t a Gibby fanboy, and you’ll likely hear something about how quality control is hit-or-miss, and how even the custom shop stuff upwards of $5000 has no business being so outrageously expensive. In a nutshell, if you gotta go Gibson, buy oldish secondhand.
Well, right after a hilarious marketing blunder in which they showcased a chipped/damaged version of a new $4799 Les Paul finish, they’re back at it again with an equally laughable misstep. Priced at $5699 is the 2017 Les Paul Burstdriver: a custom shop guitar with a built-in overdrive circuit. Da fuck?
The gaping hole in this massively pricey guitar would be better stuffed with an old sock.
Forget the recessed Level, Tone, and Gain controls that require a tiny screwdriver to access anytime you wanna make an adjustment. Who the hell spending 5 racks on a guitar doesn’t have a quality amp and/or dedicated overdrive pedal? Has anyone ever felt like the one thing that would take their bitchin’ axe over the top is a drilled-in OD circuit? I’m already anti-battery compartment as is, so this thing is just a monstrosity. I have so many questions, but the best I can do right now is shake my head in humored disbelief.
And no, sadly this is not a drill. If you’d like to laugh more at “A Premium Les Paul with a Powerful Secret” (gag), you’ll wanna check out the Burstdriver here.
[via Gear News]
Roberto Delgadillo / August 1, 2017 1:30 pm
God, I want one of these. Stupid mortgage.
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Michael Wiznuk / August 1, 2017 1:51 pm
I’ve heard of basses with a built in preamp, but this seems a bit much.
I think Alexi Laiho’s signature guitar has a preamp built in, with EMG pickups. If that dude’s guitars don’t need an overdrive circuit built-in, I can’t think of anyone wanky enough to justify it.
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Donald Ellis Silman III / August 1, 2017 3:26 pm
My bass has a built in preamp but it costs less than half the price of this and all the controls are accessible without a screwdriver. A built in preamp in a Les Paul doesn’t sound completely bad, but the execution here along with the price tag is just awful. And like the article says, who spending $5000+ on a guitar wouldn’t already have a quality amp setup?
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Michael Wiznuk / August 1, 2017 4:09 pm
The place I could imagine it being most relevant is in situations where you’re constantly plugging into different rigs that don’t offer much tone control.
This makes a ton of sense for bass, because most sound techs are going to want to DI the bass, and you’ll have to control as much of your control as possible without using a rig.
Playing local gigs across a variety of genres I have not seen a single situation in which a tech has tried to DI an electric guitar. Maybe this is my narrow perspective as a local-level musician.
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Derek Rice / August 2, 2017 5:26 am
Well Maxy I guess that’s you off the Gibson greener list for a while ! I can just see all the new sets with a workbench at back for when you want a change of tone !!
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Andy Eirich / August 2, 2017 7:57 pm
Gibson is clearly smoking the cheap crack…..I picked a LP off the wall at the local dealer saw flaws in the finish, jagged fret work and the bridge was slightly offset to the fretboard and when I tried it out it couldn’t hold a tuning to save my life. I’ll stick too ESP
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PhilipStevenHader / August 7, 2017 5:35 pm
More people want that guitar than the number of people that go to this website.
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