Why do people HATE these Gibsons? | Friday Fretworks

I have a late 60s/early 70s Gold top Deluxe that I bought second hand as a kid. It was the only Gibson that I could afford at the time and I bought it not knowing anything, only that it was a Gibson and my heroes played them. It weighs around 11 lbs and was difficult to play cos there was a hump in the fret board around fret 9 and the bridge was bent forward due to strings pushing on the back of it. I eventually had these issues fixed and 47 years later it plays and sounds like a dream.

I have an early 1978 LP Pro Deluxe with P90s. Very heavy. Ebony fretboard. Stunning looks. I bought the guitar in 1980 together with a Music Man 210 135W amp for around $1200 from a dude with more than a fleeting interest in recreational drugs in my home town of Malmö, Sweden. I still use both of them and for a very long time, they were my principal setup, most of the time with just a cable between the guitar and the amp. The P90s into that amp not only takes you to distortion heaven, but it also delivers the sweetest clean, jazzy tones you can think of. The neck is so easy to play, I can play faster on that guitar than on any other guitar I have ever come across. It’ll stay with me until my terminal breath… :-)

This is a tired alarm. So many videos start out with '70's this" or 'Mini-Humbuckers that' or "Norlin something other". But the fact is, these guitars, with their pancake bodies and 3 piece necks are showing up as very strong and stable and capable of lasting the years. Ever ask yourself why it's easy to find a '70's Les Paul? It may be because people have believed the stank stories about the Norlin area, but it certainly is because those guitars last incredibly long. I bought a new Deluxe Gold Top in '72, and I still play it every day - no major service of any kind. It has easily been played most of my 10,000 hours. If you're needing vintage, a '70's Les Paul is your best bang for the buck.

I have a '75 Les Paul Custom and I love it... in my years of trying out various Les Pauls (my absolute favorite guitar), I've come to believe that it's less that all of the Norlin-era guitars were crap and more that there was significantly more variance in quality control during that period. There were definitely singular bad build decisions made at that time, but there are some amazing guitars to be found from that time period (it just takes a bit more hunting around for them).

Everyone hated them 25 years ago. Then the 50s and 60s ones got too expensive for most so people reevaluated them because it’s all they could afford in terms of vintage. But, to be honest, they were probably never as bad as people said and they’re probably not as good as their prices would suggest today.

My very first good guitar was a brand new 1974 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe bought that year with all the money I had made during the summer as a 16 year old student. I eventually sold it… I should have kept it… This excellent video brought back great memories!

Sorry to hear about you losing your Poppa x

I inherited a '76 ES-335 when my grandfather passed. I know people don't like the trapeze tailpieces, but man does that guitar rip.

I played a '73 LP Deluxe gold top during my prime rock 'n roll years. I had always wanted a Custom but never could seem to afford one back then. The pickups were good and loud on the Deluxe, but I truthfully never was a fan of gold tops and ended up getting rid of it when I started playing full time in a country band. Now I have a Custom and I'm playin' it in the bedroom and also in a worship team environment...at least I finally got one. : )

The 70's was easily the best decade for American 🎥 films.

In 1976, I became the 2nd owner of a cherry sunburst custom. First owner only had it for a couple of months before he ran into money troubles and had to sell. It was my only guitar for more than 30 years. Always thought it was a '76 until a friend thought it was older. Emailed Gibson with the serial number. They said it was Kalamazoo built between '71' & '74, and that I would need to look at the numbers on the pots for a specific month and year. Unfortunately, whoever soldered the pots apparently though if some solder is good, more is better. The numbers are mostly obscured on all 4. I could make out 73 on one but I don't know if it was in the right place in the numbering sequence to be the year built. Really doesn't matter. Not sure why the volute is hated. I know it saved me a headstock repair when mine took a tumble hard enough to knock the gear cover off one of the Grover tuners. I have let others play it from time to time. Most ask if I want to sell it. (Nope!) I think it's a pretty good guitar. Those guys asking to buy it seem to agree.

My '86 Custom is an 11 pounder. I'm so used to it I can't even imagine playing a Les Paul that ISN'T heavy!

Man, I love watching this guy play🤯 especially that strumming, picking, muting, right hand , brilliant note choice and bends

Different is just different - not better or worse … and there are gems and dogs, in all eras. I think the Norlin-era guitars look 👀 the best, by far.

I don’t hate Norlin era Gibsons. I own one (got it used and modded, I modded it some myself, but the neck, frets, body, toggle switch, two of the pots, output jack, strap knobs, nut, bridge & tailpiece posts, and most if the wiring are original- it didn’t have the original pickups, knobs or machine heads when I bought it, and I changed all of those.) it’s about 10 pounds. I love it. The feel is original. I love the volute, no issues with it or the pancake body. It feels like an extension of myself. I have played many other Gibsons from this time frame. And most of them were good, some were much better. Yes there were duds, all companies have that, but never write them off without checking them out first.

Lovely solo,

I own a 77 LP Deluxe and it's one of the nicest guitars I have ever played. Very easy to play. And yes it is easily 10lbs.

This broke young kid walked into a music store in San Francisco in 1973 with just enough money to pay the rent and convinced the owner to let him play a beautiful new cherry sunburst LP Custom that was hanging high up on the wall. Put it on layaway and picked it up a month later. Took 6 months to finally afford a little fender amp! I am fortunate enough to own some excellent guitars now, but it is still the best guitar I've ever played. I did put in Schaller tuners and the Gibson TP-6 tailpiece a little later and that solved the tuning problems with that guitar. Unfortunately at 10 lbs I can't gig any more 4 hour sets with it.

I bought a 76 Sunburst Custom new, still have it!! Best playing guitar I've ever owned. I have the original case with the Lifetime Warranty card with my Name and address from 1976

I have a 1978 Les Paul Standard I've owned since 1987 and I like it, so I suppose I'm biased. It's got the three-piece maple neck with volute and three piece top. Big head stock & one piece mahogany body (no pancake). It's heavy. But it plays beautifully. It will take a low action, and it's so stable it can keep that action with little or no setup maintenance. Its tuning is astonishingly stable, too. I didn't understand what people were complaining about with Les Paul tuning until I played one with a mahogany neck. The T-top pickups also had a great chirp to them in the middle position. The bridge went badly microphonic about 2008 so I replaced it with a SD '59. Chirp gone. It didn't come back until I tried a rather expensive set of boutique pickups. It's been a great guitar and I'll never part with it.