User manual AEG-ELECTROLUX GIBSON HOW TO BUY AN ELECTRIC GUITAR

[. . . ] ® PURE HOW TO BUY AN ELECTRIC GUITAR. Common sense rules to an informed purchase. ® PURE © 2001 Gibson Guitar Corp. We congratulate you for being a conscientious consumer. By requesting the Electric Guitar Buyer's Guide, you've shown that you carefully research important purchase decisions. The 15 easy rules you'll find in the following pages were formulated from interviews with professional players and Gibson luthiers who are recognized authorities on guitarmaking. We covered the subjects of playability and dependability with players, and materials and manufacturing with the luthiers. [. . . ] Mahogany and maple are also the most popular choices for a strong neck. Fingerboard woods affect the strength and stability of the neck, which in turn affect tone. An ebony fingerboard, for example, makes the neck more rigid than the softer rosewood fingerboard and results in a sharper, brighter attack. 12 Rule 6: Insist on Quiet Electronics It's the old saying about a chain being only as strong as its weakest length. Cheap electronics will sound cheap, no matter how good the rest of the guitar is. The pickups on guitars and basses should be shielded from extraneous electronic sources that can cause humming and buzzing. And they should be encapsulated in wax or epoxy to prevent microphonic feedback. The quietest pickups are humbuckers, invented at Gibson by Seth Lover in the 1950s. Humbuckers are double-coil pickups, wired so that they cancel out extraneous noise. They were named because they literally "buck the hum" caused by rheostats (dimmers), fluorescent lights and other sources of electronic interference. In the process, they also put out a more powerful signal for a "fatter" tone. Single-coil pickups have a brighter sound than humbuckers but can be more prone to hum and feedback. All Gibson humbuckers and single-coil pickups (except for the BurstBucker, an exact replica of a '50s-style humbucker) are shielded and dipped in wax. Rule 7: Balance Craftsmanship with Production Some jobs are more accurately done by a machine, and some can only be done by hand. I'd put our semi-production guitars up against anybody's handmade guitars for lack of flaws. We don't allow flaws. 13 Manufacturing processes requiring repeatable precision, such as sawing and routing, are more cost-efficient when performed by automated machinery. However, the elements that set a high quality instrument apart from the run-of-the-mill can only be performed by skilled craftsmen. The final sanding and shaping of the carved top of a Les Paul or the artistic blending of colors in a sunburst finish are examples of craftsmanship that machines can't perform. A "semi-production" guitar ­ combining automated production and hand craftsmanship ­ offers the best value. Rule 8: Evaluate the Neck Joint. I like a glued-in neck because it keeps the angle accurate. I've seen other players wedge a guitar pick or a matchbook cover in a bolt-on neck joint to try to get the neck angle right. The neck joint should be tight and rigid so that none of the string vibration is transferred to the neck. If the neck joint is loose, the strings lose vibrational energy to the neck and the guitar loses sustain and tone. Many electric guitars and basses are built with bolt-on necks because the process is easier and faster, but a traditional, fitted, glued-in neck is more solid. A Gibson neck is fitted for "pitch" or angle and then centered side-to-side with the use of gauges. [. . . ] That will bring out hum, buzz and shrieking feedback if the pickups are prone to unwanted noise. Turn the control knobs and listen for pops that come from dusty potentiometers. Jiggle the cord in the jack to check for a tight fit. Rule 15: Inspect the Finish If a guitarmaker can't pay attention to the finish, chances are he hasn't paid attention to anything else in the manufacturing process. Look for sanding scratches and "orange peel" roughness to the finish ­ signs that neither the finishers nor the final inspectors were meticulous in their work. [. . . ]