Gibson's quality control: has the mojo gone?

[socialleper]

Hey talkbassers,
after many years just reading, this is my first post.

All because I'm somewhat desolate: I just bought a 2013 ES-335 (semihollow) announced as "mint, floor model" from Reverb.com. The bass looks really mint and unplayed, but arrived with action VERY high (bridge was almost popping out) and the intonation was terrible. For an instrument promised to be "inspected and setup before it leaves our facilities", I became very impressed (negatively, of course).

Ok, this is not my first Gibson, so lets pick up new strings and make a good setup, but... I realized the scale wasn't good, very poor fret dressing, after 3 days working patiently I'm just unable to get a reasonable setup on this bass. I can't believe I'll have to put a NEW GIBSON in my luthier's hands to work the fretboard.

Do you have something to share about it? I've played vintage Gibsons, I also own a 2012 G3 reissue, bought from a player, with impeccable action. I never thought I would get a poor instrument accompanied by a fancy certificate of authenticity, "gold warranty" checklisted and so on.

If it were not for the problem of living far from the United States (I live in Brazil), I would be considering a return.

Ok, bad vibe outflow completed. Thanks for your time and keep on rocking.

Based on what I've heard from guitar players, Gibson has been a crap shoot for decades. They are one of those companies where you have to play a few to find "the one." Personally, I don't think Gibson has ever had a good grasp on making basses. They tend to be oversized versions of their guitars, ergonomics and neck dive be damned. A few years ago I tried out one of their EB basses. The fit and finish were very shoddy.

 

[gwangi]

Hey talkbassers,
after many years just reading, this is my first post.

All because I'm somewhat desolate: I just bought a 2013 ES-335 (semihollow) announced as "mint, floor model" from Reverb.com. The bass looks really mint and unplayed, but arrived with action VERY high (bridge was almost popping out) and the intonation was terrible. For an instrument promised to be "inspected and setup before it leaves our facilities", I became very impressed (negatively, of course).

Ok, this is not my first Gibson, so lets pick up new strings and make a good setup, but... I realized the scale wasn't good, very poor fret dressing, after 3 days working patiently I'm just unable to get a reasonable setup on this bass. I can't believe I'll have to put a NEW GIBSON in my luthier's hands to work the fretboard.

Do you have something to share about it? I've played vintage Gibsons, I also own a 2012 G3 reissue, bought from a player, with impeccable action. I never thought I would get a poor instrument accompanied by a fancy certificate of authenticity, "gold warranty" checklisted and so on.

If it were not for the problem of living far from the United States (I live in Brazil), I would be considering a return.

Ok, bad vibe outflow completed. Thanks for your time and keep on rocking.

Honestly I would have sent it back and got your money back instead of paying even more money to have a luthier attempt to fix the problem.

 

[mesaplayer83]

I can't speak for the bass operation, but Gibson guitars are known to have extremely poor QC.

I wouldn't say their QC is consistently poor, but certainly can be hit or miss - and they're not a very customer friendly business IME/IMO... I will say that when you get a "good" Gibson - guitar or bass - it's a really good instrument that can be a lifetime keeper...

 

[mesaplayer83]

That's why some people buy Epiphone basses...quality.

I'd say it's because they're too poor and/or too cheap to buy a Gibson - but to each their own, I suppose...

 

[pudge]

I bought a Gibson bass once.................once

 

[Fender_Bender]

They have gained the reputation of being a really terrible workplace with unhappy workers. If you’re not happy, you’re not going to be obsessing over all of the details. One of those “undercover boss” tv shows showed a similar culture at Peavey, with frustrated employees trying their best but being saddled with unrealistic production quotas. So I’m not terribly surprised if quality is all over the map.

 

[Tbone76]

My Gibson experiences have all been pretty good. I've previously owned a 2012 SG bass, 2013 and 2014 EB basses, and currently own both a 2007 GOTW Money Bass and a 2007 SG Faded, and I only had very minor issues with a couple of the aforementioned models. My 2012 SG's neck pup had a volume dip on the E-string, and the 2013 EB Bass pups had the chorusing effect that some complained about on the 2013 model (and I believe Gibson offered replacement pups under warranty, but I may be mistaken on that). Some of the 2013's had it, and some didn't. My 2014 didn't have this issue. The Money Bass and the 2007 SG have been great, and the 2014 EB was good, too. Just my experience, of course.

 

[ajkula66]

The only QC issues that I've noticed on newer Gibsons were finish-related, and those were found on their entry level guitar models, not basses. In the old days, those would have been enough to get the instrument labeled with a "2" and sold at a (minor) discount but I guess these designations don't exist in the world of Henry J.

My presumption is that the OP's instrument was held in inappropriate conditions for the better part of its life and ended up with issues described.

While not my cup of tea, 335 basses are nice instruments, at least the couple of ones that I got to play. Hopefully OP's gets sorted out and he gets to finally enjoy it.

My $0.02 only...

 

[Border]

I recently purchased a virtually unplayable 2014 Gibson thunderbird. I had it shipped across the country (NJ to Wa.) and spent 4 days unpacking it. So far I have been very pleased with fit, finish, and especially the tone. I have heard about QC issues, and perhaps was just lucky. I hope the OP or his luthier is able to address the issues he has encountered.

 

[jd56hawk]

I'd say it's because they're too poor and/or too cheap to buy a Gibson - but to each their own, I suppose...

I guess that's why I own $3,000 worth of G&L basses and a used Epiphone Classic IV.

 

[Border]

Big fingers or auto complete, I intended to say unplayed not unplayable. Though I have only had it a short while, I am very happy with my new bass.

 

[mesaplayer83]

I guess that's why I own $3,000 worth of G&L basses and a used Epiphone Classic IV.

Unless there's more than listed on your profile page, I'm not seeing $3k worth of instruments - to be honest... Again, to each their own...

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Based on what I've heard from guitar players, Gibson has been a crap shoot for decades. They are one of those companies where you have to play a few to find "the one." Personally, I don't think Gibson has ever had a good grasp on making basses. They tend to be oversized versions of their guitars, ergonomics and neck dive be damned. A few years ago I tried out one of their EB basses. The fit and finish were very shoddy.

I’m with you on you need to put the time in to find “the one”. When you buy online, you never know what is going to show up. As for neck dive on Gibson instrumentments, I’ve had a couple of EB3s and a Les Paul decades ago, but never noticed neck dive, but I have heard this complaint before. Ive observed variance in quality across most brands ever since I’ve been playing, and prefer to set up my own gear. My strat was set up by a Fender Rep/Open House offering a free set up and new strings... couldn’t pass that up.

 

[Plectrum72]

I'd say it's because they're too poor and/or too cheap to buy a Gibson - but to each their own, I suppose...

I'd say it's because the quality to dollar ratio is very disproportionate between the higher end Epis and the mid to high end Gibbys. But, as you say, to each their own.

 

[GretschWretch]

Can you send pics? If the high action and poor scale intonation are caused by the bridge almost popping out, then there's your answer. String tension can pull the large posts and their sockets forward. I've had to re-seat them on more than one bass. Once I did, no more problems.

Fret sprout can be caused by climate changes.

 

[ajkula66]

As for neck dive on Gibson instrumentments, I’ve had a couple of EB3s and a Les Paul decades ago, but never noticed neck dive, but I have heard this complaint before.

Because there's really no neck dive on the short-scale Gibson basses to speak thereof. Long scale EBs from the early 70s...that's a very different story. The latest generation of their long-scale basses (EB 2017) sports no neck dive and is surprisingly light to boot.

Ive observed variance in quality across most brands ever since I’ve been playing,

QFT.

 

[GIBrat51]

My T-Bird is also 4 years old. Except for 5 fret ends that needed a slight dressing after being here in the desert for a month ( very common, and far fewer than any instrument I've bought so far), it is flawless. I'll grant Gibson's QC is probably no better than anybody else's - and maybe worse than some - but, I think that the operative words here are "FLOOR MODEL". Sitting out every day for that long, and being handled (and mis-handled) by any goober that comes along, isn't good for any instrument. In any case, I hope your luthier can make it right, and you'll enjoy it. Oh, and a belated welcome to TB!

 

[jd56hawk]

Unless there's more than listed on your profile page, I'm not seeing $3k worth of instruments - to be honest... Again, to each their own...

Sorry for not updating it.
Not sorry that so many others agree with me about Epiphone.

 

[BAG]

When I was looking for a better quality short scale bass than my Squier Jag Shorty I tried a 2014 SG 120th Anniversary bass. To say I was underwhelmed is a huge understatement. For a $1400 bass the fret ends were sharp all over the place and nowhere near as good as my cheap $275 Squier. Fit and finish was average and considering it was built as a celebration of their 120th anniversary it was obvious that not much love had gone into building it. I know people have gotten very good examples but this thing was not worth anywhere near what they were asking for it.

 

[dxb]

A brand used to mean a product made by a company with their own employees in their own factory, of their own design. Today, marketers have turned “brand” into some amorphous, meaningless business school concept completely removed from production or the people who make it.

Marketers are the kind of people who use words and phrases like “synergy” and “value proposition” and “lifestyle company.” They’ve never made anything, had to meet a payroll, look a customer in the eye or make good on a promise.

They're also the ones who can make completely pointless, utterly useless objects look desirable in carefully staged photos and put a bunch of them together under a banner that says "Great Gift Ideas!". Its a valuable skill in today's world, unfortunately.