For this kind of money you would expect a perfect instrument. Mine arrived with horns slightly chipped. So disappointing. On the box was Thomann's QC sticker, so I wonder if it was damaged before it left the Custom Shop or during the inspection at the Thomann's store. Regardless, the damage was missed by someone clearly. This should never happen with such expensive instruments.
I ordered it in high gloss finish (I don't like aged), and you can clearly see buffing wheel marks on the back of the body. The back of the headstock was not even polished/buffed properly from what I can see, so it looks like Mr. Luthier put some attention to the front but did not care so much about the back of this guitar.
It was also setup with super low action and the neck dead straight so simply it was buzzing quite a lot from around 12th fret down, so yes, it needed a setup adjustment out of the box. Side note, the frets are very small. I think, the idea behind the neck was for shreding, thouht I am not sure there was such thing back in 1968. :-D
At back of the body and on binding you can spot some dents that are barely visible, but you can find them.
The fretboard was also super dry. Gibson probably does not know what the fretboard conditioning means or they save on the oils.
You will not get neither the strap nor multitool with this guitar. Strange, as it is included with Standard model. For this price they should include good strap and at least tools for the setup.
Again, how this came throught QC? I wonder. Maybe it was not really a brand new, but B-stock, but I do not want to speculate now, as I do not know. I would not let it through the QC myself though, not for this price.
On the positive side: overall quality of this instrument is very, very good. It sounds superb (and that's most important). The pickups are hot, super clear and aggressive. It is a rock/hard/heavy/metal beast. Real rock machine. And regardless the quality of the finish, it looks amazing.
It was my dream guitar for which I had been waiting for a long time, and finally I bought it for my 50th birthday, hence I am going to keep it, despite all the imperfections. It plays and sounds superb for me now and that is what matters really. It's new and old at the same time for me. :-)
Thanks.
