(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

Made just like the original. Hand wired, bound neck, P-90's, wraparound bridge, and no PCB's anywhere. It's what I've wanted for MANY years...now available in the Gibson "Original series". They finally get what the Gibson lovers have been clamoring about all these years!

Musical Background:

Musical Style:

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

Gibson has done it again. What a great guitar! Great feel, great tone, great quality and gorgeous finish. This guitar, to me, is custom shop worthy and is sitting right next to my R7. The P90s go from beautiful cleans to sizzle with just a twist of the volume knob. And thank you zZounds for the All Access Pass! You guys rock!

Musical Background:

Musical Style:

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

First p-90 Les Paul. Awesome sound. Setup out of box only required small adjustments to my taste. Finish is beautiful on this one. Hardshell case very nice as well. Plays like a dream. No disappointment here. Would definitely purchase again. zZounds made it easy with pay as u play. Used it many time. Great company to do business with.

(see rating details)

This is my 6th Gibson, including an SG Classic w/P90s (more on that later), an SG Standard and an R7 Les Paul Goldtop. The first one zZounds sent had some lacquer cracks along the back of the neck. They offered to allow me to keep the guitar at a discount or return it. I opted to return it and they sent me another one right away. The second one was a keeper, only a minor pink-ish lacquer buildup in the cutway, but otherwise looked and played perfectly. Perfect weight and neck feel, acoustically the guitar has a great tonal balance and zing. The controls work great for rolling off a bit of high end. I play mostly edge-of-breakup/low gain through a Marshall Silver Jubilee 2555x head and it just sounds wonderful on every pickup setting. I expected it to sound pretty similar to the SG Classic, but the Special is a little brighter and fuller on the bridge and snarlier on the neck, with better sustain. The middle setting is where the Special shines, the SG doesn't have the same spank and clarity. My SG Standard w/coil splits had been my primary gigging guitar, but this one is starting to take over. The P90 hum can be problematic at some venues, so I always bring a backup. The TV yellow translucent finish is beautiful, it really brings out the grain and it smells divine. Can't go wrong with it.

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

All the tone all the vibe, the neck is wonderful the tone is phenomenal, I have a special tribute and this special in TV yellow, comparing the two... Spend the extra for this if you can, it is SO worth it!It’s a true no fuss no frills LP. Only update I may do is the wrap tail piece, might upgrade to a graph tech for precise intonation. Or at the leas5 a compensated bridge. This is just a smooth round flat Chrome tail piece. Plays and sounds great doesn’t need upgraded but I probably will. One thing that bugs me, but is a non issue is.. The toggle switch tip is aged.. But the neck binding (the neck feels great and doesn’t need rolling) is not aged neither are the tuning pegs, or the pick guard or the knobs. So why age the toggle and nothing else? Kind of sticks out but I really don’t care. This is a rock and blues machine. I might sell my tribute and buy another standard special. I found MY guitar it’s been a lifelong journey and I think I found what I’ve been looking for all these years. I love slabs, and I loved my Jr. and this. Is just, raw blues and rock machine, but through the right amp and it will scream and shred if you are into that. This is THE one for me. I have to get a back up to this one, in case I break a string or something. I might want to drop some mini h7mbuckers in one too. When you find your thing, you find your thing. I have a collection, and this is my number 1 now. I can’t say anything else. It’s not complicated, it’s just does what I want feels what I wan5bto feel, and shocks me and makes me very happy. Excellent value. Excellent value. If it were stolen I would replace it, in fact I want duplicates.

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

Wanted the least expensive Gibson I could find. Was considering the Tribute version, but ultimately decided to spend a little more and get the real deal. Very happy I did. I've had a few Gibbies in years gone by and I've always moved them on. Not Red Betty. Red Betty's a keeper. Action so low, I thought the bridge must be broken. Nope, it's just that low. Actually, I think they got it as low as they could at the factory, and then gave it another twist so the screw slots lined up nicely on the posts. I appreciate the aesthetic detail.Tones - clear as a bell, dark and thick or bright as lightning. Has a lot of tones.Color - honestly, vintage cherry is not a great color IMHO. I mean, I look at a real Cherry finish like the Custom Shop double cut - those look way better. BUT the Vintage Cherry looks good enough. It will look better as the years go by and the nitro gloss dulls down. The nitro had a little thin spot by fingerboard on the upper bout side. Don't care. It's made by humans. American humans. And a nitro finish is just so great. Rosewood board is real nice. Electronics sound great. I like the 50s wiring. Case is solid.Thanks zZounds for the Pay as You Go. On the downside, the single coils hum if the power is dirty at your venue. Beware. I always have a humbucker guitar on standby if it's unbearable.Having this guitar has lifted my baseline happiness. No matter what else is going down, I can look over at Red Betty laying there in her little brown case and I can say 'that is the coolest guitar in the world' and have a little smile. Now in truth I think a Junior may be just a little cooler, but the great thing about guitars is: there's always room for another one.

Musical Background:

Musical Style:

(see rating details)

It sounds like the arch angle of Rock found it hiding here and it is from heaven!

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

First, let me just say that this is the best sounding/playing and most versatile guitar that I've ever owned. The neck is chunky but very well contoured and rounded. It accommodates the "thumb over top of the fretboard" playing style that I employ quite a bit. I'm an amateur singer/songwriter/guitarist and I needed an instrument that could cover a lot of sonic territory for my new band, and this guitar really can do it all. It's a lot like my Fender Baja tele in that respect but the P90s are quite hot for single coils and push the red channel on my Marshall DSL without the need for pedals or boosts. I keep the Baja tuned 1/2 step down and I use a ProCo Rat to goose the output so it can compete with this Special. I like that this guitar is rather unassuming to look at despite the bright canary yellow color. It's a flat top, slab style body with a top wrap tailpiece and little button style tuners. It's almost cute compared to the fancy (and heavy) carved top standards but it's lightweight, resonant and it just screams through any amp I've played it through. I love this guitar and I never plan on parting with it. However, there were a few issues I've encountered with it that I should mention if I'm going to write an honest review: First the elephant in the room is that it's very expensive for such a simple guitar. Yes, I know that it's made in the USA and that Epiphone makes an import version of this guitar and I tried it before I decided to lay down the cash for a Gibby and there was truly no contest in terms of looks, feel and sound quality. The Epi was a good guitar, and a great value, despite coming from the factory with a slight cosmetic blemish, but it couldn't hold a candle to the Gibson. I'm not a pro or a collector. To me, guitars are tools and I'm fine with upgrading cheaper guitars to my specs but there was something about this guitar in particular that spoke to me so I decided to go ahead and make the purchase thinking that it would retain its value more so that an Epiphone or other import brand if I ever decided to sell it. When I got it home, I wasn't impressed with looks of the fretboard and binding honestly. The rosewood on the fretboard was very rough looking and dry compared to cheaper guitars I've purchased in the past and there were tool marks all along the binding. It bothered me a little that Gibson is charging so much for this very basic guitar that had worse looking fretboard and binding than my MIM Fenders and Epiphones, but I forgot all about the little cosmetic issues when I plugged it in and started playing. The neck carve, the flat top, the string spacing all felt just right. I could go from an almost tele like twang to a Stonesy middle position chirp to balls out hard rock power chord riffage just by playing with picking dynamics and using the volume pots. It can do chordy rhythms passages and my guitar solos cut through a live band mix like a hot knife through butter. This guitar and my Baja tele are the only two guitars I've owned that I've never thought would benefit from upgrades or mods. They were both perfect sounding and playing guitars right out of the box. Obviously, the Fender was the better value but the P90's in the Special, the "hand wired" electronics and the rounder carve of the neck made a difference to me that I could feel and hear. I've never had a problem with intonation due to the wraptail bridge and tuning stability was fine after applying some "nut sauce" to the nut slots and playing it in for a few weeks. Now, here's the one thing about this guitar that may be a deal breaker for some: I normally keep my guitars in their cases when not in use but last year I was going through a songwriting frenzy and wanted to keep my main axes out so I could pick them up when an idea hit so I left this Special and my Baja tele out on guitar stands for a few days while I was working on new material. After a few days, work picked up, and I got too busy to play so I put my guitars back in their cases. A couple of weeks later my band got together to rehearse and I discovered a large finish crack running down from the bass side of the nut about four inches down from the neck. It wasn't too bad, and it was on the back of the neck, so I didn't freak out over it but the next week I noticed that more finish cracks running horizontally in long streaks along the body had appeared on the guitar. These were quite severe and, to me, not what I would consider normal for a guitar that is less the two years old. Yes, I know that nitro is prone to aging and cracking over time, but it was like it happened almost overnight. My Baja tele was sitting in a stand right next to this guitar and displayed no such issues as this Gibson. Okay, so there it is. Some guys might be okay with this, some might faint at a slight blemish on comparably expensive American made guitar and some might think it's cool. As for myself, I look at this guitar as primarily a tool. The finish cracks don't diminish its usefulness as a tool but I'm a little upset that the resale value has likely been adversely affected. Not that I ever plan on letting this guitar go but one of my justifications for buying a Gibson over another import brand was that Gibsons tend to hold their resale value more so than most import brands and if something came up where I HAD to sell off some of my gear, I could potentially get most of my money back. Well, I guess that theory is shot to Hell lol. I'm not going to call Gibson and demand they replace it and I'm not going to tell everybody that Gibson makes crap guitars. This is a great guitar and, being my main axe, played regularly in a rock n roll band, it's bound to show some age eventually. It is what it is. Rock on!