I have always wanted Les Paul Custom and now I decided pull the trigger and order one. Very fast delivery from Thomann through UPS Express delivery.
Stunning looks of guitar when I open the case first time.
Quality some what was as expected, flawless nitro lacquer finish, just only one thing that some parts of binding was scraped too deep, I know its hand made process and varies based on person who does the bind scraping.
Playability and feel is spot on, one of the best that I have ever felt from Les Pauls that I have played. Gladly the neck was not too thin, some where between 50´s and 60´s C profile, maybe a bit more shoulder would make it feel better for my taste.
Action was also very nicely setup in factory, only I would go a bit heavier string gage for my taste.
But then we come to reasons why I finally decided to send this beauty back to Thomann.
I finally came to a conclusion that it is way too over priced to what it really is and here is the reasons.
First, the pickups, why on earth Gibson uses this price range guitars the cheapest pickups (490R (neck) and 498T (bridge) ) that they have in their Les Paul line. You have to pay way too much more to get Gibson custombuckers on Les Paul Custom. So this means to buy Les Paul Custom Reissue 57 Balck Beauty to get custombuckers.
490R (neck) and 498T (bridge) pickups are very basic sounding pickups in my taste. Kinda too average sounding. I have played several custom shop Les Pauls with Custombuckers and those should be by default choice of pickup on this price range Gibson guitars.
Second thing, the case that the guitar was delivered was also surprisingly not any more made in Canada, it was made in Costa Rica! Very small detail, but still made me wonder if this guitar is actually this much value.
So eventually all these findings and feel of guitar made me decide to send it back, hard decision, but if I pay this much money on guitar I need that it fulfills all the expectations.
