I love Gibson, I love to slag Gibson, or more accurately, I have a love-hate relationship with Gibson and Gibson guitars.
Since the Elder Days, even back in the mists of time when Gibson archtops were carved by the hands of actual elves, Gibson has had inconsistent QC. That includes pre-war models, classic '50's Lesters, you name it. At times, the problem has been less pronounced, but it has always been there.
At the same time, Gibson has made some ethereal instruments at all times in its history. Even during the worst of the bad old Norlin days, you could play some Gibson guitars and immediately hear the old elven magic. Others required a little work to bring out the music that was in them, and others plain stunk.
In general, Gibson today reflects the character of its management. Greedy, grasping, poor dealer relations, outrageous prices, cr@ptastic service, and guitars marketed to yuppies rather than musicians.
Gibson still has QC problems, all the way from the lowliest budget range up through the most expensive one-off super limited edition we really mean it this time custom shop heritage commemorative models. The largely hand made Custom Shop models are even more inconsistent, in my experience, probably because they are hand made. The same goes double for limited editions.
A good Gibson, however, is still a joy to play and to hear, and those guitars are still being made, in spite of management's best efforts to bar the Noldor from the factory. Because Gibsons keep their value so well, I would not worry about buying a sought-after model from a reliable source on the internet. If you don't like the guitar, you can always sell it for about what you paid for it.
