Picked up a Heritage Cherry Sunburst Studio Deluxe II with 60's neck profile today! After months of debating getting a Telecaster I decided to pick up another LP. Can never have enough of a good thing, right? Post whoring it because I'm exited and the wife isn't interested other than saying the color is "pretty".
Well, compared to the custom, I can already tell with only a few short hours of playing the Burstbucker Pro bridge pickup in the Studio versus the 498T in the Custom has a lot more clarity at higher gain, without losing any of the nice midrange. A bit less "chunky" when pickhand muting, but thats to be expected. Sounds a bit more lively in a mix. I thought I would get annoyed with the "modern weight savings" crap they do to their guitars now but its still almost as heavy as my custom, which isn't weight relieved. Downsides: Although it has a fantastic neck fit, the action is a tad high from the factory and could use a good setup. Going to have to do that soon. Also the fretwork its good for the price point, but definitely not 100% as there are a few frets that need to be worked over along the sides of the neck, although I already broke out a straight edge and made sure the playing surface was good. I miss the neck binding on the custom a bit, but not enough to really piss me off that much. Its a real rosewood fretboard, not any baked maple bullshit they try to pass off on some of the new models, but it does lose a bit of attack versus the ebony on the Custom. THen again I was going for a slightly different sound than my main guitar, so... maybe thats a good thing. The push-push coil tapping rocks!! I thought it was a stupid gimmick, but it really does sound fantastic!! I can get ALMOST a Telecaster sound if I fiddle with it a little bit, and with the 10db gain boost o another push-push toggle i dont have to change my amp volume at all when switching up pickups/coil tapping. Will be great for fast changeovers playing live. The finish is fantastic, and the maple cap is gorgeous! Way, way better than some of the other more expensive Gibsons I played today. Id actually take this model over the new Les Paul Traditional Standards (at about $1000 more for the Standard). I do miss the body, neck binding most of all, but whatever.
Very nice looking... here's a pic of mine (not actual, but same guitar from internet with same colors). Fender lonestar, got it for my 16th b-day from parents. If i ever scrounge enough to get a nother one, gibsons top of my list.
That sounds like a helluva purchase - what's the deal with the 60's neck profile? I'm not enough of a music historian to know those details.
