Satins

Having owned a few Gibsons, I must say they don't quite supplement my playing quirks - fat necks, blocky heels & no elbow / belly reliefs. This is one of the reasons why I held back from buying one early on. Early here refers to the 90s when prices were not as crazy but that was the prime time for shred & Ibanez was the order of the day. At least for the guitar scene here. This is namely due to the fact that the other formidable names in shred - Jackson / Charvel / Kramer / ESP - had no strong distribution here. I was going to give up on Gibson till I tried the faded SG.

Faded here means there was no gloss coating, satin by another reference. It's basically a stained neck plus a layer of sealant to hold everything in place. That was the turning point. Despite the non-preferred neck profile, the finish made the difference for me. Till today, I still keep a good lookout for satin finished Gibsons. Two of which are seen above: LP 60s tribute / LPJ. Keep this in mind- if a guitar neck profile is not your preferred profile, that's a hindrance to your playing proficiency. If the gloss neck finish gets in the way then you are dealing with two hindrances. Know what helps you play better. In my case, the gloss finish impedes my personal playing progress so if it's subtracted from the equation, I'm actually removing 50% of what gets in the way. That was what exactly happened. A gloss-free Gibson neck is something I find acceptable & I managed to adapt better. In fact, the Gibson neck profile grew on me to such an extent that it now doesn't matter if it's glossed over or satin finished. So folks, some things are indeed make or break for us, we just need to know what it is after taking time to reflect. We also need to give some things a second chance 😁

My Gibsons with gloss-free finish:

• LP 60s Tribute
• LPJ
• SGJ
• Firebird Tribute
• LP Special humbucker edition
• SG Melody Maker
• Flying V Melody Maker
• Explorer Melody Maker
• LP CM