What turned you on to Bare Knuckles?

[juansolo]

Bought a PRS SE for peanuts online that happened to come with a pair of BKP-91s fitted. It sounded outrageously good considering, so I thought I'd try some more...

[littleredguitars2]

Actually I just remembered the les Paul custom lite has a tummy cut and it is thinner in general.  Not sure if it is chambered though

Yeah, it has the thinner body and "traditional weight relief".

Almost a very, very desirable guitar..... unfortunately Gibson dropped the ball (again) by making it with a rosewood board - Customs with rosewood boards just look wrong.  :x

you're a maple man? i love me the rosewood. but i'm also very curious about the baked maple

[_tom_]

I wasn't completely happy with the stock pickups im my Epiphone LP Custom, wanted more clarity. Was gonna go for some Gibsons or SDs but saw I could get some Mules for pretty much the same price so I went with those! Made sense to have something handwound and made in the UK rather than some random overpriced factory made pickups!

[Philly Q]

Actually I just remembered the les Paul custom lite has a tummy cut and it is thinner in general.  Not sure if it is chambered though

Yeah, it has the thinner body and "traditional weight relief".

Almost a very, very desirable guitar..... unfortunately Gibson dropped the ball (again) by making it with a rosewood board - Customs with rosewood boards just look wrong.  :x

you're a maple man? i love me the rosewood. but i'm also very curious about the baked maple

 :lol:  No, ebony!!  A Les Paul Custom should have an ebony board!  Rosewood is for Standards.  :D

If they couldn't get ebony, they could have used richlite, at least it's the right colour.

[Dave Sloven]

you're a maple man? i love me the rosewood. but i'm also very curious about the baked maple

A maple fretboard is a Gibson purist's nightmare ... pretty sure he was referring to ebony ;)

Besides the '70s and '80s basses, the only Gibson with (non-baked) maple that comes to mind is the SG Raw Power of a couple of years ago.



I would seriously love to have that guitar - but I'd replace the pickups with a C-Pig set ;)

[Philly Q]

Don't get me wrong, I do like maple boards - on Fenders.

Yes, there have been a few other Gibsons with maple boards - these sprang to mind.

[littleredguitars2]

oh okay ebony makes more sense. i'm not a big fan of the maple look at all

[Telerocker]

I'm with Philly. Maple doesn't look right on most Gibsons. On Fender it does, or on Music Mans etc.

[GuitarIv]

There's nothing that catches my eye more than a Gibson LP Custom with a nice binding and a deep black ebony fretboard. But a maple board? Just no. I love maple boards, but they have their place on Strats, Teles and 80's Superstrats. On the MIII I think it's ok, but everything else is not my cup of tea :P

Btw, after reading into the whole Richlite subject I found some Gibsons in the 3000€ department with said fretboards. Since when is it an excuse to use composite materials on such an expensive axe? Is Gibson running out of Ebony after the Government Raid?

[Philly Q]

Is Gibson running out of Ebony after the Government Raid?

In a word, yes.

[GuitarIv]

Is Gibson running out of Ebony after the Government Raid?

In a word, yes.

Wow. I think it's pathetic to punish an instrument maker for the use of exotic woods when every year there are whole forests burnt down to make place for genetically manipulated soy and corn fields to please Monsanto and other reckless corporations...

[Dave Sloven]

Yeah well I wouldn't expect the US government to do anything about Monsanto and their petro-chemical multinational mates any time soon, as they basically own the US government.  It's much easier to pick on an instrument manufacturer to look like you are doing something about the environment.

[GuitarIv]

Yeah well I wouldn't expect the US government to do anything about Monsanto and their petro-chemical multinational mates any time soon, as they basically own the US government.  It's much easier to pick on an instrument manufacturer to look like you are doing something about the environment.

+1

[Alex]

Yeah well I wouldn't expect the US government to do anything about Monsanto and their petro-chemical multinational mates any time soon, as they basically own the US government.  It's much easier to pick on an instrument manufacturer to look like you are doing something about the environment.

I wouldn't put it down to being the US governments fault. It's probably a quantity problem, because I bet Gibson churns out hundreds of guitars every month. They probably simply cannot get enough of the same quality anymore for the large production amounts they have to cover.

PRS produces a fraction of guitars every month. Smaller companies can cope better, because they require much smaller quantities. It is only a matter of time till they run out of ebony as well. I also think a lot of ebony on "cheaper" guitars (under £1.5K) is something dyed or baked.

[Philly Q]

I mentioned in another thread that Taylor Guitars have now bought an ebony mill in Africa to try to use the wood as sustainably as possible. 

They also want to educate customers to understand that the wood doesn't have to be perfectly jet black to be "good" (although a Les Paul custom would look weird with a more colourful, figured ebony board - mainly due to the big block inlays, I guess)