Off the peg .... or not...

I was doing my usual wandering around sites related to guitars on the web today.

Now let me be honest - Gibson, Fender, PRS, Ibanez and many other names will make people think that these are the pinnacle of guitar building skills etc.  And let us be honest they are great but they are pretty much all churned out by the dozen, hundred, thousand from factories with much of the work computerised etc. and you're buying the same as the next guy into the shop.

Let us take a Gibson Les Paul - the iconic Standard.  Today they are often more than £2000 a pop for essentially a bulk standard Standard - good guitars but £2000 a pop.  I came across this on Feline Guitars site.





Yes a custom hand made LP a like from a custom builder here in the UK.  Look at the neck joint - terrific. Crimson Guitars in Somerset recently featured them working on a LP standard where they were dropping in a tremolo and doing a neck mod like this - the picture below shows a hole they found you could lose more than one plectrum in!
 

So hang on... yes the guy had a £2000 guitar (maybe second hand etc. I'll accept) and then had all this done to it. But Crimson or another could have built from scratch - up to him but...

Seriously - looking at that Feline Lion I'm half tempted to sell my LP Custom and buy something like this - this one being already built not a custom order is only £1995.  Yes I know a lot of money but really compare that to Gibson and others prices for factory fodder...   hmm...

Crimson has this tasty custom Sigil on their site for £1975...  Different original UNIQUE! etc.



Comments

  1. Exile on Pain Street1 March 2014 at 18:35

    The Sigil looks like some pieces fell off. What I'm accustom to has clouded my judgment. .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Furtheron1 March 2014 at 19:46

    I followed the build on Ben's blog and you are right at a point he took a saw to it and made it less conventional but I think it really works.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SoberMomWrites3 March 2014 at 18:07

    I gave my husband an Anniversary Edition Les Paul about 25 years ago. Judging by the look on his face everytime either he or my son, plays it...I did good.

    Sherry

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Furtheron4 March 2014 at 11:31

      You did but it is just now I look at these kind of things and they are unique and just as good, if not better in ways.

      My LP is at the menders - I'll post on it soon... I lesson is stupidity and humility

      Delete
  4. Richard Brewer4 March 2014 at 22:59

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Richard Brewer4 March 2014 at 23:10

    "Off the peg" guitars suit almost all players. Although I have a custom built guitar I find that it is no better or worse than any of the other factory built instruments I own. After all, it's what you do once you have plugged the thing in that makes the difference. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Cherie Seldon10 March 2014 at 19:27

    Wow! That’s some sweet guitar, right there. Of course it really does pay to have a branded guitar although on the pricey side. Their branded nature gives us the sense that we possess something rare or unique. Yet the reality is that these guitars are not really custom made or unique, as they’re mass produced. I do agree with you that it is really better to invest on a good and unique guitar.

    Cherie Seldon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Furtheron10 March 2014 at 21:47

      I sort of have both thinking about it... A PRS, a Gibson, so typical stuff in high quality factory produced but also Gordon Smith (see top) which is rarer and more individual it isn't £2,000 less than the Les Paul in reality - and also a very rare Peter Cook Custom which is old and a little cranky at times but unique indeed. I'm very lucky

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tom Edwards' Poem "Why I don't drink anymore"

Thanks to my friend DeeJay for pointing this out to me - it was on a BBC2 show. An excellent summary of alcoholism I changed because I have the sickness of alcoholism, alcoholism doesn't come in bottles it comes in people. You should have seen me. I drank for happiness and became unhappy; I drank for joy and became miserable. I drank to be out-going and became self-centred; I drank for sociability and became argumentative and lonely; I drank for sophistication and became crude and obnoxious. I drank for friendship and made enemies, I drank to soften sorrow and wallowed in self-pity; I drank for sleep and awakened without rest. I drank for strength and felt weak. I drank for masculinity and it sapped my potency; I drank medicinally and got sick. I drank because I thought my job called for it and lost my job. I drank to stimulate thought and blacked out. I drank to make conversation and got to where I couldn't talk at all; I drank to forget and became haunted. I drank for freedom...
Read more

Guitar Review - Vintage VE2000GG Gordon Giltrap Signature 12 string

Image
Folks will remember my purchase a few weeks back of the Vintage Gordon Giltrap VE2000GG 12 string to replace my old Yamaha which sadly has seen better days... My requirement was for a nice playable 12 string electro-acoustic.  Most of my stuff is as you know acoustic rock orientated in the David Gray, John Mayer genre.  I'd had my eye on a Gordon Giltrap for a couple of years now anyway since a) I'm a big Giltrap fan b) I'd heard said Mr Giltrap use the 6 string version live a couple of times and was impressed c) it seems incredible value for money. Now then my life was made a touch my complicated by the appearance of the Paul Brett signature 12string.  This is a slight oddity in that this is a parlour sized guitar which to be honest wasn't my initial desire but has received rave reviews and also has been designed as a 12string from the ground up - unlike the Gordon Giltrap which is an adaptation of a 6 string design.  Not unusual to be fair most 12 strings ar...
Read more