NGD -- Bonamassa Black Beauty

[GcS]

Returned home from the hardware store around lunch to discover that FedEx delivers... on Sundays?! I placed my order at Zzounds the day after they dropped by which time they were already backordered. Yard work dominated my day so not a lot of time to play but here are my observations...

This guitar feels light -- as light as my chambered 2011 60s Tribute GT and far less "substantial" than my other Les Pauls to include my only other Epi ( a '55 Inspired LPC ). Fit and finish is very good with the only real disappointment being that the fretboard between the nut and second fret shows a white/light gray-ish hue suggesting that either buffing compound was allowed to get onto the fretboard during final polish or someone missed staining that area.

The setup was good right out of the box though ever so slightly higher than my preference -- but likely not enough to bother adjusting. The frets are a little scratchy as one would expect but no buzzes or fret outs to be found. Sustain is very good and the Probuckers sound just fine to my ear.

Bottom line... a really nice guitar. It's not a Gibson and while I do miss the NGD day fragrance of vanilla associated with the arrival of a Gibson USA product, it's hard to find issue with this guitar given the price point.

 

[CB91710]

The setup was good right out of the box though ever so slightly higher than my preference -- but likely not enough to bother adjusting. The frets are a little scratchy as one would expect but no buzzes or fret outs to be found. Sustain is very good and the Probuckers sound just fine to my ear.

I noticed that at well.
Never bothered to check it until I changed strings tonight. I knew I'd be dropping from the factory 10s to DR 9-46, so didn't worry much about the factory setup.

After restringing, I checked relief and found it to be very straight... around .004, which I can deal with, but will probably end up loosening it just a tad.
But even with the relief that shallow, my action at the 12th was a heavy 6/64 on the bass side. Treble side was just shy of 5/64.
I dropped it down to 3/64 across the board, and got a little buzz on the bass side, so came back up to a high 4/64, and it's perfect.

We'll see what happens to the relief over the next week with these strings on it.

 

[DADGAD]

Happy NGD, but we need pics!

 

[musicmaniac]

Happy NGD, but we need pics!

Ditto!

 

[GcS]

OK guys -- here's the family portrait...

 

[rjwilson37]

Very Sweet, congrats on your new purchase!

 

[JMP]

You clearly have a “thing” for black customs! Excellent taste.

 

[GcS]

You clearly have a “thing” for black customs! Excellent taste.

I do have a thing for black Customs -- was my dream guitar as a teen but I ended up with a really nice Strat for my first electric since it cost about half as much. Picked up the '82 Gibson pictured above around 1990. It had been heavily played for the 8 or 9 years before being traded in to a local guitar store. And reeked of cigarette smoke for a good 15-20 years after I bought it.

I'm also partial to Gold Tops too. All of which are Gibsons but none of which are anything special.

 

[musicmaniac]

Very nice!