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Hatsubai « Ugly inlays »
Published on 09/19/11 at 18:07The Classic was a guitar that was made to help give the higher gain players something to play. The pickups in this are higher output than the normal Gibson pickups (same ones found in the Explorer), and the neck is also thinner to help for those shred lines. The guitar features a mahogany body with a maple top, a mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, block inlays, binding, tune-o-matic bridge, two humbuckers, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar was pretty good overall. The fretwork on this was pretty solid. The ends were nicely round, and the binding nibs were in great shape. The frets could have been leveled a bit more, but it wasn't anything too bad. The guitar was just the right weight. These guitars are weight relived, but they're not chambered (assuming you get one at the correct point in time). People confuse the two all the time, and they're not the same. Gibson has been weight relieving guitars since the 80s, so it's hardly anything new. I find that it doesn't really affect tone that much, either.
SOUNDS
The pickups in this are pretty good. The bridge pickup is a 500T, and it works great for metal. It's a high output ceramic magnet pickup, and it really crushes with a metal amp like a boosted 5150 or Recto. You can get some of the best rhythm tones ever heard with this pickup. Normally, I'd complain about dynamics, but the 500T is pretty good when you turn it down, too. It's not the best, but it's better than, say, EMGs. The neck pickup was a bit too bright for me, and I had to keep the tone knob turned down all the time. One thing I would recommend is replacing the pots with high quality 500k pots to make sure the pickups are seeing the correct load. I believe these come stock with 300k pots, but I'm not entirely sure.
OVERALL OPINION
These are probably some of my favorite "bang for your buck" Gibsons. You can get these at a great price used, and they're generally pretty good. The inlays look hideous, but aside from that, the guitars are some very solid players. I recommend looking into them if you're searching for your first real Gibson, although some will disagree with me.
UTILIZATION
The guitar was pretty good overall. The fretwork on this was pretty solid. The ends were nicely round, and the binding nibs were in great shape. The frets could have been leveled a bit more, but it wasn't anything too bad. The guitar was just the right weight. These guitars are weight relived, but they're not chambered (assuming you get one at the correct point in time). People confuse the two all the time, and they're not the same. Gibson has been weight relieving guitars since the 80s, so it's hardly anything new. I find that it doesn't really affect tone that much, either.
SOUNDS
The pickups in this are pretty good. The bridge pickup is a 500T, and it works great for metal. It's a high output ceramic magnet pickup, and it really crushes with a metal amp like a boosted 5150 or Recto. You can get some of the best rhythm tones ever heard with this pickup. Normally, I'd complain about dynamics, but the 500T is pretty good when you turn it down, too. It's not the best, but it's better than, say, EMGs. The neck pickup was a bit too bright for me, and I had to keep the tone knob turned down all the time. One thing I would recommend is replacing the pots with high quality 500k pots to make sure the pickups are seeing the correct load. I believe these come stock with 300k pots, but I'm not entirely sure.
OVERALL OPINION
These are probably some of my favorite "bang for your buck" Gibsons. You can get these at a great price used, and they're generally pretty good. The inlays look hideous, but aside from that, the guitars are some very solid players. I recommend looking into them if you're searching for your first real Gibson, although some will disagree with me.