It's the final day of 2015. Many of us are heading home after a half day at work, some of us aren't even at work. Hopefully all of us are in the mood to celebrate. I'm spending time with 2 singlecut guitars, the first of which is the above Gibson Les Paul BFG. I didn't immediately buy the BFG when it debuted in 2007. The first batch of them were all snapped up at Swee Lee & I didn't even bat an eyelid for a simple reason- I'm not a Les Paul fan. However, a year or so later, the guitar was listing for a promotional price, rightfully so because almost everyone who bought the guitar deemed it a let down of sorts due to severe corner cutting, the finish in particular. There was a chunk of top wood missing at the treble side just above the neck pickup. Many traditionalists find the finish appalling as they were used to the finished feel of the other models.
I bought it for its finish; I'm more at home with a lacquerless feel & the lighter weight means the instrument would give a little bit more manifestation in the upper frequencies. I'm not looking for a bottom end boom with this guitar, definitely not. As I wasn't a fan of Gibson pickups in general (still not), the bridge position now features a Seymour Duncan C5.
The other singlecut on my play list today is this PRS SE 245. It's the opposite of what the BFG offers; a rather heavy guitar which was finished from one end to the other. It's also the first generation of SEs to be manufactured in Indonesia. I thought since it was an SE version, it should be in the same league as the Squiers & Epiphones out there but I had a hard time treating it as a lesser brand name because it was above expectations in many aspects; playability, tone & QC in particular. The manufacturer had made it a point to differentiate the SEs from its American siblings so I'm here to tell you that it's never in the shadows of the upper tier counterparts. Awesome value for money!
