gibson dark fire (Page 1 of 2)

I'll stick to tradition.

I like the fact that they are going to printed circuit boards for the wiring in these guitar and also in the 2008 Les Paul Standard.  People say why?  Because they are thinking about guitarist now.  Before when you had to replace something you had to know how to solder.  Now they are talking like everything will be drop in replacement parts so you wont have to solder a thing.  Also they said that if you want to customize your sound with the electronics you can do so with their replacment pickups that drop in place and it wont lower the value of the guitar because it would be original parts that you could mix and match.  Very cool.

I like the concept of the VG Strat and the Robot Les Paul in the fact that you don't need to take an arsenal of guitars on the road.  You can change tunings with a flip of a switch and so on.  I look at them as a tool.  Not a musical instrument.
 
But as far a a guitar players guitar-a musical instrument-one you wipe off each night before putting her to bed, the one one that gives you a hard on each nigt on stage...give me an old Les Paul, Strat, beat to hell tele,  or or pre '98 PRS any day.

Agreed Gibsons taking an easy way out to make more money, I wouldnt pay for a Gibson anyhow not at the moment the price doesnt justify the worth to me... However I do have a Epiphone Standard which when I opened it up to my shock was connected using 4 pin plugs instead of being soldered together.... I had never seen it before anyhow its been stripped and redone soldering isnt a hard thing to do and its worth learning.

They are not forcing you to do anything.  You can remove all of that circuit and wire the guitar up traditionally with their stuff or anybody else's stuff.  But then you've distroyed the resale value and your easily looking at losing out a $100 or more because its not original any longer.  What I was saying was at least with the new printed circuit boards you could change and swap things out without lossing its resale value.  Its simple and you won't have to pay someone to do it for you if you can't solder.  Its smart bussiness.

Again I agree.  Nothing beats some good aged wood and some wires with solder. 
I can't imagine these things bringing in big bucks in twenty or thirty years on the collectors market like a '58 or '59 sunburst or goldtop.

I also want to add that I am not a fan of circuit boards and I'm not saying thats the way to go.  I'm just saying its smart of gibson to give you options to change up your guitars sound without screwing with the resale value.  If your that worried about it they still make the Traditonal that does have the Pots and Pickups soldered together.  You could also look at it as try different things before you decide on something and then you'll know what works before you solder it in.

What I was trying to say is that technology is not a bad thing.  A guitar that tunes itself, set's it's own intonation etc is fine.  But I look at guitar like that as a tool...mind you, I would love a VG strat to take on the road just for the conveience of it.  Ijust don't think in the long haul that a robot guitar is going to hold it's value or be sought after like a tradition instrument will.  It's a fad (kinda)

This may be a bad analogy but it's like a '58 chevy today or a 2006 Malibu thirty years from now.  Is anybody gonna want it?