Gibson Les Paul Modern Figured Electric Guitar - Seafoam Green Reviews

Can't say enough good things about this guitar! I know there's a lot of complaining floating around about Gibson quality control. I haven't bought multiple Gibson guitars so I can't really speak on the variance in QC, but this one doesn't have any issues that I have found. The Binding looks great both on the guitar body and on the neck. The ebony fretboard looks to be very well made, there may one or two very small imperfections but they are not perceptible when playing the guitar and are practically imperceptible either by eye or feel. I did the setup myself on this guitar and it seems to hold intonation well and the locking tuners definitely increase tuning stability. I can pick this guitar up and play for 5 or 6 hours and may have to tune up the high E or maybe the B or G string once, at some point, just because I do a lot of bends and vibratos on the higher strings. Overall, I love the modern touches that Gibson has added to the Les Paul Modern. The weight reduction does make me a bit nervous, I'm a bit worried that I'll accidentally poke a hole right through the maple top, but other than that I think this is a fantastic and well built guitar! I've only made two modifications to it. I added locking strap buttons for obvious reasons (99% of the time I play with a strap/standing) and I added an aftermarket clear acrylic pickguard. The pickguard is just a personal preference because I like to have somewhere to rest my fingers while I'm playing and, due to the arched top of a Les Paul, my fingers rested further below the strings than on more common flat top electric guitars such as Stratocasters or Telecasters, hence my decision to install a pickguard. I also noticed that my fingernails were leaving very fine marks in the finish without the pickguard as well. These small marks were easily polished out however, and could only be seen if you held the guitar up in good lighting and examined it very carefully. So it is not like the Finish is overly fragile.

All that said I absolutely love this guitar. The burstbucker pickups that come installed on this model sound fantastic. I set mine to the specified height and then ended up adjusting them down 1/16" lower on each side just so I wouldn't have to adjust so many volume knobs when I wanted to switch over to my Stratocaster which, having single coils, isnt quite as "hot" as the Gibson/Burstbuckers.

If you're in the market for a new Gibson right now and a Les Paul is what you're looking for I don't think you can go wrong with this model. It's a little pricey, but that goes for most Gibson's. But you do get a lot for your money. You get a well-made instrument with some very nice accoutrement such as Mother of Pearl trapezoid inlays, Ebony fingerboard, locking Grover tuners, true coil splitting, a modern graphite nut (TUSQ) and the other modern touches that Gibson has added like a Plek'd fretboard for perfectly set frets, a compound radius fretboard (10" radius at the nut, 16" radius above the 12 fret), and the the push/pull pots for "out of phase" sound and going straight to the Bridge/lead tone. The only thing I would have liked to seen, especially at this price point, that Gibson did not do, is add Stainless Frets for less fret wear.

Just got this 2 days ago, so still in the Honeymoon period but this is more or less the Flagship Gibson Les Paul right now. I know they've recently released the Modern Supreme, but, having looked at the specs, its just the same guitar with some gold hardware and blocks on the neck instead of the trapezoids as far as I can tell. Anyway, the color on these guitars is amazing (at least on mine). When I first opened the case I was stunned by how dark the green is when you see it in person. For some reason a camera cannot properly capture the color of these guitars. I was expecting a Sea Foam Green Les Paul, what I got was closer to an Emerald Green Les Paul - which I think looks amazing. I'm dying to see one of the Cobalt Blue versions now just to see if its as much more stunning in person as the Sea Foam Green.

Playing wise, I picked it up the first night at like 7pm and didn't set it down until like 2am. This thing plays amazingly well in my opinion and can get all kinds of great tones that you've heard on your favorite songs and albums. I did swap the strings after the playing it the first evening (switched to D'addario NYXL 9.5s) and I cleaned and conditioned the fretboard while I had the strings off. It definitely needed it! I was shocked at how much crud came of the fretboard. I knew when I sat it down after the first night that the fretboard need to be cleaned or something, as it started to feel almost tacky and unsmooth. Felt great again after the clean/conditioning. So, if you get one, you'll probably need to do the same within the first day or two. Also, when you put your favorite strings on your, check the intonation. I had to make some adjustments switching down to 9.5s from 10s. Otherwise, strap this guitar on and brace yourself - you're gonna love it!