Question:
I was searching on Gibson's web page, and I got interested in their Custom Shop division. I was just wondering if anyone here has had a custom guitar built by Gibson's Custom Shop. If so, are the prices as outrageous as the list prices on their other guitars? I have been thinking about having a custom Les Paul built for me, and I just thought I would check to see if everyone thought it would be worth the $$ to have it built by Gibson, or if I would be better off going to an independant luthier.
Answer:
I have two Historic Collection guitars out of the Custom Shop (not custom made for me). The workmanship, playability, sound, etc. are all stellar. Fortunately, I got them at a pretty big discount; otherwise, I couldn't have afforded them. I wouldn't worry about the quality of guitar you would get from the custom shop, but I would worry about the price. A one-off, handmade guitar will always be more than a similar, but higher quantity production guitar from the same outfit. Fender's custom shop is a good example. Having your own, unique guitar built is a fair amount more expensive than their team built guitars. Having said all that, it never hurts to get some data. You can always get an estimate for what you want done and base your decision on it.
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