This review is from: Gibson Reverse Flying V Limited Edition Electric GuitarUPDATED[UPDATED AGAIN 3/14/10: Whoa! The price just went up a *lot* - a week ago, I bought this for quite a bit less; the guitar was not $1,499 when I purchased it...keep that in mind when considering this review]Ok, I got a replacement and have given it a good workout. On that score, Amazon gets high marks. All I did was describe the issues with the first one I received and ask whether or not these were "blems". In less than 24 hours I had a reply in my inbox that didn't even bother with my questions - a new one was already on its way out, to be delivered the next day, and a return authorization provided for the first one, giving me 30 days to get it back. The only less-than-perfect bit is I have to front the cost of return shipping, but I can see their position on this. Once it's received and they see the problems, return shipping costs will be refunded. 5 stars to Amazon.The new guitar also came new in an unopened factory box, and is a vast improvement over the first one, though it too was atrociously set-up and I was a little disappointed again. I knew it would improve with some tweaking, but you're never sure by how much. Right out of the box, there was way too much relief in the neck, the action was very high, and the guitar just felt and sounded kind of dead. The case was pristine and awesome though. 2-for-2 on the cases. But I was worried that I'd be left with that horrible feeling of falsely trying to focus on a few good points to make myself feel o.k. about what turned out to be a mediocre purchase. I couldn't have been more wrong. Dove in and changed the strings to make truss-rod, intonation and action adjustments. Right away, it seemed like a different guitar, just having string that weren't lame and dead. It's amazing how dead strings can actually *get* just sitting on a guitar in a box for a while. And the factory strings they use are *so* bad. You'd think they'd spring for some better ones at the factory. Smart store owners must re-string their Gibsons right away before putting them on display - the strings they ship with do not show off the guitar to its advantage (though in my case I'm sure it was worse from a long time languishing in storage).I tightened the truss rod down a bit more than a 1/4 turn and straightened the neck out to leave just a *hair* of relief at the 8th fret with the strings depressed at either end. The truss nut is a *bugger* to get at - a little finish got gummed up under it making a very tight squeeze, and the rout is just barely big enough to accommodate the thinnest nut driver you can find - but it's actually probably good that a rout in the headstock is so minimal. Got it to work. Then I dropped the action a good bit, and lowered the pickups some. Re-tuned it, made some rough intonation adjustments, and bang-o - the guitar just came to life. I was ear to ear right away, not only relieved of my disappointment, but my highest and best hopes were exceeded one by one. I'm just plumb tickled (we say that down here sometimes).None of the nut and nut-slot issues like the first one they sent me, hardware is all great, the electronics all working beautifully (though the volume knob is currently quite stiff), and the neck laid back nicely with the truss-rod adjustment. The fretboard could use a little cleaning and a touch of oil, but the frets are aces and nicely dressed; no dings, scratches or gouges anywhere on the guitar this time. However, I did notice the fretboard is just the smallest fraction of an inch too narrow for the neck-bed; true of both of the Reverse V's I've received. Not of any real consequence - you can just barely feel a tiny 'lip' on either side of the board where it's centered on the ever-so-slightly larger neck. Doesn't interfere with playing and easily ignored, but the only word for that is "shoddy".Unlike the previous one, the tailpiece is perfectly centered and not offset over the string holes, so the strings actually rest against the wood and not the metal tailpiece where they exit. As I stated previously, the ferules on the back are fine (if a bit 'relic'-looking, which I'm sure is not the intention), but it would be nice to have them extend to the top, or at least have some sort of insert on the top side of the string-throughs so they're not digging into the wood. Still, it's better than having that hard break angle over the metal tailpiece. The volume knob is in the *perfect* spot for grabbing it with your pinkie/3rd finger with your hand resting on the bridge. And like most Gibson-style wiring, the volume does not actually decrease very much in that first half of pot-travel (from 10 to 5), but the highs start to roll off right away. A lot of people mod their controls to avoid this, but in this case it's actually great - roll the volume back to 6 or so (a good place to leave it anyway), and you've still got 90% of your gain and sustain (giving you some roo...
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