Close-up pics of my Gibson USA LP Studio guitar.

[wokkaboy]

Pest have you played a LP with robot tuners and do they actually keep in tune ?

[pablopepper]

They work just fine; quite well from all reports. I'm not put off by them, I just don't think they should be forced on to the standard model (along with the resulting price). If they were an optional extra, I think they would have been received a LOT better.

[wokkaboy]

sounds fair Pabs, but if they didn't offer them as an option then they will lose sales. As you say sounds like they returned the standard tuners on current models

[pablopepper]

From my understanding, they made them standard to try to recoup the development costs. Unfortunately Gibson customers are a somewhat traditional bunch and their plans backfired rather monumentally.

[DrNomis_44]

Looks genuine to me Doc. You managed to score an LP Studio built before the rather controversial robot tuners were introduced. Have you ever used the robot tuning mechanism? Seems most new Gibbos have them unless you pay the extra for 'heritage' edition axes.

I haven't tried those Robot Tuners to be honest, I have read alot about them and the general consensus is that they are not well liked, I've also read alot about how Gibson are experimenting with new nut materials, like the adjustable Brass Zero-Fret Nut, that they have been installing on their recently manufactured guitars.

[DrNomis_44]

There should be no doubt that this is a genuine article.

Ponch, Gibson started using robot tuners in 2007, it's just on the 2015 line they were introduced as standard (along with a 23% price hike and a few other smaller changes), which everybody hated. Not surprisingly, the 2016 line has reverted back to 'classic' specs and the 2015 range are currently being sold off for bargain prices.

Maybe I should post some pics of my Gibbo when I get home, considering I'm about to sell it...

Please do, would love to check it out.

[Fretworn]

Ok Doc, the most important question for any Gibbo LP. How long does it stay in tune? Everyone I know who has modern LPs have to keep retuning every couple of songs.

[DrNomis_44]

Ok Doc, the most important question for any Gibbo LP. How long does it stay in tune? Everyone I know who has modern LPs have to keep retuning every couple of songs.

Well, I don't know what other modern Gibbo LP owner's experience has been, but, my experience has been a bit varied, some days the guitar seems like it hardly ever goes out of tune but then I've had some days where the guitar will do anything but stay in tune, I've found that there are a few things you can do to maximise the tuning-stability, firstly, make sure all the tuning machines have as little backlash as possible and if not, replace the whole set of tuning machines with a set of good quality ones, make sure the guitar is set up well, lubricate each of the string slots in the nut to minimize string-binding, make sure the bridge doesn't move around alot and that the bridge posts aren't loose in their sockets, use good quality strings and attach/wind them correctly on the tuner capstans, I've found that stretching the strings doesn't really help much in fact it only wears out the string quicker and wears out the gears in the tuning machine.


Note that I am going to be replacing the original Corian nut on my LP Studio with a Graphtech Tusq XL nut soon, the Graphtech Tusq XL nut has a material called PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) impregnated into it, PTFE is 500 times slipperier than Graphite is and is the same material that coats non-stick frying pans, the whole point of that is to get rid of any string-binding in the nut slots so that the Tuning is more stable.

[andrewdosborne]

Ok Doc, the most important question for any Gibbo LP. How long does it stay in tune? Everyone I know who has modern LPs have to keep retuning every couple of songs.

The oldest Gibbo I have is 10 years old. Never goes out of tune, even if stored for a bit.

[pablopepper]

My 2008 LP DC is hands down the most stable guitar I have ever owned.



Gibson QC might have gone down hill in the past decade or so, but the only thing I can find wrong with this thing is the serial number is improperly stamped.