http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/historics-reissues/118027-historic-gibson-faux-bumblebee-caps.html
How fucked up is that company?
How fucked up is that company?
Gibson's fake bumblebees
- Thread starter Lasse Lammert
- Start date
C-Martin
Member
Jarkko Mattheiszen
The FU guy.
Cyanide_Anima
yooveesevenbeekay
Yeah. They are shady douches. Every time I see a "NGD! Gibson XXXXXXXX" I facepalm. Why support overpriced garbage? Just because it's an "american company" doesn't mean they are great. Anymore, at least.
"It's a capacitor and that is about it. Nothing special. Nothing magical.
You cannot buy being a decent musician in an electronic component.
But luckily Gibson know that lots of men think you can and it keeps their business alive.
The real 'magic' is the marketing."
Post # 20 on that thread. Pretty much sums it up for me.
You cannot buy being a decent musician in an electronic component.
But luckily Gibson know that lots of men think you can and it keeps their business alive.
The real 'magic' is the marketing."
Post # 20 on that thread. Pretty much sums it up for me.
Wohma
Hearing sounds and voices
Harry Hughes
âââ¬â¬
- Apr 25, 2009
- 4,353
- 0
- 36
EXACTLY.
People buy Les Paul Standards, which cost $5000 here in Australia (probably costs even more now, this was prices that I remembered from a few years ago), and yet many of them need to be taken to a luthier to get the frets sorted out because they were shit from factory.
Why you should be getting anything less than a perfectly made instrument for 5 grand boggles my mind. There's absolutely no excuse for that. NONE.
For half the price, you can get a locally made custom guitar that WILL come perfectly built with superior specifications/specs of your choice, but nope people would rather spend twice as much on a Gibson that will possibly have shoddy fretwork for this reason : "Gibson..BECAUSE GIBSON, BRO!".
Danny Drama
Member
- Jun 30, 2010
- 192
- 0
- 16
Very shady indeed. In saying that, I've got 7 Les Paul's a couple of SG's and a 335 and I've never kept the stock electrics in any of them, fake or real they've always been gash. I spend a few bucks on decent pots, wire and caps and re do that shit myself.
Prior to 2007 I'd have totally agreed on the fret issue Harry mentioned, Since then though, I've bought three Les Paul's that have all had immaculate frets and tried hundreds more (literally hundreds) with very few construction issues coming up. One had a neck with more twists and turns than a fucking roller coaster though.
I wouldn't touch anything out of Gibson with a baked maple or obeche board either.
Prior to 2007 I'd have totally agreed on the fret issue Harry mentioned, Since then though, I've bought three Les Paul's that have all had immaculate frets and tried hundreds more (literally hundreds) with very few construction issues coming up. One had a neck with more twists and turns than a fucking roller coaster though.
I wouldn't touch anything out of Gibson with a baked maple or obeche board either.
madbutcher
Member
I have 2 LP Studios and a Gibson V. I understand the overprice but for some reason the LPs are just the most comfortable guitar for me to play. I've tried most of the similar styles from other companies and none felt the same. But I'm only getting the $1000ish stuidios. No way I'm dropping the money for a standard or custom 
decoy205
STUCK IN HELL
- Sep 4, 2008
- 336
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- 16
Yeah this was brought out some time ago. I've been on that forum for years so I'm aware of all these things. They definitely are shady when it comes to a lot of things. There are custom shop guys that work there and actually try and make their instruments better. But the parts are retardedly overpriced and the QC on the parts is terrible. I changed out all the parts on my R8 and its a fucking great guitar.
Shinozoku
Senior Memory
LeSedna
Mat or Mateo
So some people are okay to pay $100 a capacitor cause it's supposed to be the original one ? Do they even have any notion of electronics ? The only interest (if you except fancy very specific stuff) in good brands of parts is that the statistics and % of difference between the supposed value, and actual value for each particular part, is lower, cause of quality control. That's all. It's not in guitar electronics that there will be any difference, a gibson is not a satellite component.
If Gibson as a whole company knew that they were doing that, that's fucked up.
If Gibson as a whole company knew that they were doing that, that's fucked up.
Loren Littlejohn
Lover of all boobage.
No man, I highly doubt someone with that much money to blow on a fucking cap knows or gives a shit about electronics.
TheWinterSnow
Den Mørke Natt
Hold up there a second, this is simply not true. The various construction material not only exuberates noise, but distortions in the signal. There are some components where the distortions and noise is unmusical, some components that are more linear and can be known as sterile, while other components have distortions and low noise that is deemed musical. Its is fairly known that an older manufacture process even with modern technology produces better musical tonality. Some sacrifices had to be made back in the days when the more musical sounding components where newer and more expensive, however, they are mostly now cheaper.
Regardless of the noise and musicality of the bumblebee caps, Gibson claimed that they where original spec, so people are expecting those cap to provide very similar if not identical distortion and noise that the original bumblebees had. As to whether the Wesco cap has similar characteristics is another debate. If they do operate within tight spec of the original bumblebee caps then I see no problem with their business decision. However, knowing Gibson's quality control and general corruption that is probably not the case.
LeSedna
Mat or Mateo
That's true but to a certain extend, I have hard time believing there's a real improvement in a guitar tone to get from a capacitor that would be single and most of the time have the same value (I'm assuming it's on the volume pot ?). oh well i'll have to research on that, after all there are different sounds for different brands of EQ while the basic circuitry of a filter is nothing else than a cap and a resistor.
B36arin
Member
- Dec 1, 2008
- 896
- 2
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If you're good enough at playing and dialing in a tone(let alone setting up your instrument, having new strings/tubes etc.) to the extent where a fucking capacitor in the guitar makes a real difference then congratulations, you're a genius. I'm not that skilled, and to be fair most people aren't, even the people who claim that it makes a significant difference. People sell(and buy!) amp power cords for thousands of bucks, there are lots of snake oil merchants in the industry...
kaomao
Member
the only affordable ones right now are the classics, the classic custom's are just great guitar ...
oh well they look great and cost not so much, don't ask me about quality anyway, I don't know really if the suck or not
oh well they look great and cost not so much, don't ask me about quality anyway, I don't know really if the suck or not
decoy205
STUCK IN HELL
- Sep 4, 2008
- 336
- 0
- 16
The problem is they are 100 bucks for a cap that is supposed to be paper in oil like "vintage spec" they are not. You are paying 100 bucks for something that only looks similar. It's misleading. For 100 you can get a nice vintage spec harness with cts pots and nos paper in oil caps or real bee replicas.
They use their name to sell inferior products.
They use their name to sell inferior products.
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