UGLIEST GEAR

[dubkitty]

scrolling past that photo, i almost fell asleep. i don't know if that counts as "ugly," but it's sure boring af.

[dubkitty]

get a load of this. apparently some brain genius at Gibson World Headquarters thought that what the world needs now is sadly not love, sweet love, but instead a guitar cobbled together from DNA strands of the Les Paul, Explorer, and...Teisco "tulip" guitars? what an absolute abomination. ugly and dumb. they could at least have put some interesting pickups in rather than bog-standard PAFs. or an interesting tailpiece. design really is a dead craft, isn't it?

Gibson horror.jpg (24.78 KiB) Viewed 1099 times

apparently they're blaming this on old drawings by Ted McCarty, whose family wants Gibson to quit using his name (here, the "Theodore Standard") but don't have the scratch to fight in court for years. so it's bad and dumb all over. possibly the only full-sized guitar ever to look like a student/child's model while costing two thousand smackeroos. yep. 2k for a mahogany slab guitar. at least my White Falcon looks like it's worth $3000. the thing that really offends me most is that it's so low-effort. take the most basic pickup/bridge/tail arrangement they make, stick it in a funny-shaped slab with a 70s Gretsch pickguard (yeah, i know it's barely re-profiled from a LP Special, but i swear it could be from the Booneville Baldwin plant) and the same transparent cherry finish they use on everything (there are also other equally uncreative color schemes), and use what they're amusingly now calling the "Scimitar headstock" and standard dish inlays that don't relate to anything about the rest of the guitar at all. why not the kind of side dots/stripes they're doing on the Futura series and some of the less trad acoustics? after the landlords and lawyers, can this sort of cheeseball creatives be next to the wall? literally no two visual elements of that guitar even go together.

[dubkitty]

contrast to what FMIC has been doing the last decade with their Paranormal/Parallel Universe/etc. guitars. some of them have been both well thought-out and downright pretty. i really liked the Jazz Telecaster and the one with the gold-foil pickups, and the P-90 Strat with the stop tail in TV Yellow is witty.

[dubkitty]

it's kind of sad what Gibson is doing nowadays. they're essentially doing what FMIC has done with the Gretsch lineup since Joe Carducci retired: slight variations on the same old themes in what can only be described as Fender colors, and hyper-expensive slight stylistic revamps of the old reliables...335s with quilted tops and rather nifty fret markers. there's an Epiphone Firebird in Sonic Blue now. which actually is quite cool, but that's another story. their ads keep popping up on Facebook with Les Pauls in Candy Apple Red, purple sparkle, and other decidedly wack finishes for a LP. and as we've seen their new ideas are even more awful than their late 70s/early 80s "innovations."

[Kacey Y]

get a load of this. apparently some brain genius at Gibson World Headquarters thought that what the world needs now is sadly not love, sweet love, but instead a guitar cobbled together from DNA strands of the Les Paul, Explorer, and...Teisco "tulip" guitars? what an absolute abomination. ugly and dumb. they could at least have put some interesting pickups in rather than bog-standard PAFs. or an interesting tailpiece. design really is a dead craft, isn't it?

Gibson horror.jpg

I could see this basic shape being cool, if executed totally differently. Like leaning way more into something quirky, flashy, 60's Teisco style, but the headstock is just a hard nope.

[echorec]

I could see this basic shape being cool, if executed totally differently. Like leaning way more into something quirky, flashy, 60's Teisco style, but the headstock is just a hard nope.

You may, inadvertently, be describing Wandre guitars.

[dubkitty]

if you gave that shape as an idea to Schecter or Eastwood they'd come up with something interesting, but the Gibson is like a clown wearing a suit and tie.

[coldbrightsunlight]

get a load of this. apparently some brain genius at Gibson World Headquarters thought that what the world needs now is sadly not love, sweet love, but instead a guitar cobbled together from DNA strands of the Les Paul, Explorer, and...Teisco "tulip" guitars? what an absolute abomination. ugly and dumb. they could at least have put some interesting pickups in rather than bog-standard PAFs. or an interesting tailpiece. design really is a dead craft, isn't it?

Gibson horror.jpg

apparently they're blaming this on old drawings by Ted McCarty, whose family wants Gibson to quit using his name (here, the "Theodore Standard") but don't have the scratch to fight in court for years. so it's bad and dumb all over. possibly the only full-sized guitar ever to look like a student/child's model while costing two thousand smackeroos. yep. 2k for a mahogany slab guitar. at least my White Falcon looks like it's worth $3000. the thing that really offends me most is that it's so low-effort. take the most basic pickup/bridge/tail arrangement they make, stick it in a funny-shaped slab with a 70s Gretsch pickguard (yeah, i know it's barely re-profiled from a LP Special, but i swear it could be from the Booneville Baldwin plant) and the same transparent cherry finish they use on everything (there are also other equally uncreative color schemes), and use what they're amusingly now calling the "Scimitar headstock" and standard dish inlays that don't relate to anything about the rest of the guitar at all. why not the kind of side dots/stripes they're doing on the Futura series and some of the less trad acoustics? after the landlords and lawyers, can this sort of cheeseball creatives be next to the wall? literally no two visual elements of that guitar even go together.

Late to the party but daaamn that's bad. The shape is great, then the headstock magically ruins it. You're so right it looks like a student model somehow. Looks like a tiny baby joke guitar despite being normal size... I like experiments but the smooth long headstock with the angles on the body, is one of the worst guitars I can think of in combination.

[dubkitty]

it would work a lot better with a smaller body size and headstock relative to the scale length, and a 24-fret neck or a 25.5" scale like most Teiscos seem to have used (or both!) would also help. a shorter headstock alone would go a long way.

[PanicProne]

Whenever I'm feeling down, I come to this thread for a good laugh!

[dubkitty]

i saw someone on the Let's Talk Guild forum, which i joined recently, bragging on the Ted he'd just acquired. not wanting to harsh his happiness, i held my tongue, but i'm boggled that people out there other than suits at GibCo actually like it.

[John]

https://reverb.com/item/64728508-bluebe ... ne-pickups

[dubkitty]

that seems like it was beamed in straight from 1977.

[01010111]

That's hideous, but I would rock that any time

[sutarappa]

Such a doom 5 string