Are Gibson Custom Shop Guitars Worth the Price?

Transcription Summary:

In the video, Nathaniel and David discuss Chicago Music Exchange's (CME) expertise in Gibson Custom Shop guitars, highlighting their history with vintage instruments. They explain why customers choose Custom Shop models, emphasizing better materials, craftsmanship, and unique features like custom pickups and handpicked woods. CME has been consistently visiting the Custom Shop for a decade to hone their building skills, resulting in cool historic builds and tweaked classic designs, all exclusive to CME. They discuss their special "CME Spec" SGs, which feature a unique antique finish and underwound, potted custom buckers. The speaker also details the "Carmelita" neck profile, a scanned recreation of a vintage '59 Les Paul neck, which is a common feature in CME spec guitars due to its comfortable, "worn-in" feel. The video also announces a new "Chicago Music Exchange by Gibson Custom Shop" badge on their CME spec Les Pauls, signifying their unique builds. David believes that current Gibson Custom Shop guitars are the closest to vintage models for a fraction of the cost. They also mention opening up the building process to customer feedback and discuss the availability of lightweight mahogany backs versus chambered options, asserting that chambering does not negatively impact a Les Paul's sound..

Full Transcription:
We are absolutely an authority when it comes to Gibson Custom Shop and should 100% be your destination when you want one of these. Let's get into it.

CME started as a vintage guitar business, right? So we have been surrounded by bursts our entire life: Explorers, the real ones, Vs, Specials, 335s, 355s, SGs, all of it. So we know what the old ones sound like, we know what they look like, which is why we spec these pickups out the way we did, because we wanted to get them as close as we could to the old stuff. Is it ever going to be the old stuff? No, and I'm not going to tell you it is, because materials were different.

But we have a history of understanding what these guitars are supposed to be. So when we go to create them, we're coming to it from a lens that most other people don't have, because they don't have our experience. Right?

Why, why would the average customer go for a Gibson Custom Shop over just regular, non-Custom Shop, so to speak? It's a great question, so, and I get asked that quite a bit. I mean, there there are a couple things. Maybe it's somebody who's had a Gibson USA, which are great guitars, but they want to step up to a Custom Shop, which is at the end of the day, what you're getting is better materials, more craftsmanship, more unique, kind of bespoke things, especially when it comes to us. So pickups, neck profiles, handpicked woods, and that sort of thing. So that's one way to look at it, you're just kind of graduating from USA to Custom Shop. The other thing is, I don't care if you've never played guitar and you just want to get something great. For example, there are people that just love really nice things. Some people just, they even if they can't drive that really nice car, they just want really nice cars, or they want a really nice watch, or they just like really nice whatever it is. Or they just want something that's going to be very inspiring.

We have been going down to Custom Shop in Nashville for about 10 years now, actually, I think 2015 is when we properly started to do it on a consistent basis, which is about three to four times a year. And we have been slowly over this decade just honing our skills and the craft of building these guitars as best as we possibly can, which involves handpicking tops. Okay, it involves specking out very cool historic builds like this. That's unreal. Yeah, it involves taking a classic, you know, uh, 355 but tweaking it a little bit in a way that has most likely not been seen before. Reason we wanted to do this video is, yes, we have incredible Custom Shops, incredible Les Pauls, Explorers, 330, all that, all of it from uh, from Gibson, but we are taking it a little step further and we're going hard in the paint when it comes to giving you something that most, well, that nobody else has, to be totally honest. [Music]

We've also been having a lot of fun with these SGs. That's so good. That's one of the best SGs. It's really good, man. So this is CME Spec Heavy Age Murphy Lab Antique. And so antique is a toner, it's like a yellow toner. It gets added to it, gives it like a yellowish kind of thing going on, which you can see, you know, here in the ply of the pickguard, the binding, but also in the black. It's a very subtle thing, but it makes it look like it's been at a smoky bar most of its life.

Um, we should talk about CME spec, because we get asked that all the time. It's multifold. One, it's picking the woods, that's the biggest thing. Are the pickups are ours, which are underwound, potted custom buckers. And man, dude, I'm not just saying that because I work here, like, honestly, I've done shootouts with multiple builders and ours just always win. I just love how these sound. They still do the Telly on steroids thing in the bridge, you know, that we all love in Les Pauls, but there's just less of an ice pick thing happening, there's just more headroom and bloom. They just, they sound real to me. Right. You know, I can you can use all the words you want, but at the end of the day, they sound real. You know, they sound dynamic.

I get asked this a lot about Carmelita neck profile. Do you know what Carmelita is? And I've heard of it a million times, I don't, I must confess, I don't actually know the full story behind it though. You're fired. So Carmelita is a is a burst that uh, Joe Bonamassa owned or owns. I don't know who who has it right now, but it's an actual '59 Les Paul um, that existed. And the cool thing that that Custom Shop does is they've taken all of the classic bursts that have, that they've been able to get at the shop, like Pearly Gates or Jimmy Page or uh, Joe Perry, Carmelita, and what they did is they scanned all of the, I mean, they scanned all those guitars, they specifically scanned the necks and they created a die, which is this kind of tool that shows whoever's doing the neck how that carve should be. Oh wow. So they, so basically they're recreating the carve, they're recreating the neck profile of those vintage bursts.

So the reason we use Carmelita so much is because that neck is awesome. It's a '59 neck profile. It measures, and this is going to sound, measures about .89 at the first fret and .97 at the 12th fret for all you caliper, caliper guys and gals out there. And that sounds big, that sounds like it's a '58 neck profile, but it's not. And the reason is, is because the shoulder of that neck, and the shoulder is right here, it's from this point here to right here, right? So imagine like you have a brand new neck and it's a C-shape brand new right off the line, you know, it's not worn in. Right. It's like a baseball glove. A brand new baseball glove is going to be tight, it's not worn in. Right. But a 1959 Les Paul that's been played for decades is worn in. So the thing with Carmelita is, yes, the neck depth from this point to the back of the neck is about .89, but the shoulders are worn. Right. Like a worn in baseball glove. Okay. And so it feels comfy as hell. And so we we use that profile all the time. So for CME spec, it's almost always going to be Carmelita neck profile, our pickups, which are underwound potted custom bucker pickups, and if it's a Les Paul, the wood was picked by us. Yeah, that's cool though. All this is to say that, you know, we we have a very special relationship with Gibson. We have uh, been doing it for a long time, and I feel like we are at an incredible point in in our building process. I feel like what we're doing right now is like golden era CME.

So this is a very big video for us because, that's brilliant. Dude, how cool is that? So we have been working forever on a way to uh, I guess capture or a way to uh, signify or notate, whatever it is, that these Les Pauls are ours. Not just by the fact that we're putting our pickups in them, choosing the woods and, you know, neck profiles, that sort of thing, but we also wanted to put a badge. Yeah, so we have this new awesome Gibson or Chicago Music Exchange by Gibson Custom Shop badge sewer cap that will go on all of our CME spec Les Pauls. So you will always know that it's ours. It's so cool. It's black, it just, it doesn't, it looks good, I like that. Look at that. Look at that, like that. Put that in your hands there, will you? There you go. That is cool though, that's a nice touch. It is really cool. We also have this little insert here that explains, you know, our history with Gibson. We've taken a lot of time to to just at the end of the day make something extremely special, but we just want, we want that Les Paul wall to look like nothing you have ever seen in your life. You know, and just make it undeniable. It is, it's unbelievable. Thank you to Gibson and to our reps and to Dustin and to Travis, uh, to Tom and everyone there who builds, who I have come to meet, you know, throughout the years. I don't think that people fully appreciate or understand the amount of work that goes into building a Les Paul. Like it's one of the last truly like analog, handbuilt things in this world, in a world where everything is, you know, push a button and it does this and, I mean, the binding

the way if you watch, if you saw how they apply binding, it's still the old school way. They, they'll apply it and basically mummy wrap it to keep it in place, glue it and then mummy wrap it. And then they will scrape the binding with… I've seen it, it's crazy! A razor blade. These tops are hand-carved. I, I, I think that because they're guitars and it's rock and roll, we just expect them to be, I don't know, cheap. Yeah, on the cheaper side of things, yeah. But I mean, it can't possibly with, like you said, the level of detail that goes into that. Then, like you said, I'm glad you mentioned the buying it, because I, I was lucky enough to see it only a few months ago in the Gibson factory and it was, I couldn't believe it. It's crazy! It's, it's remarkable. So there, there is a tremendous amount of work. What they are doing right now, as far as I'm concerned, is the best they have ever done. It is the closest thing you will ever get to a burst. It's the closest thing, um, for substantially less money.

Another thing too about this process is that we're very close to it, obviously, because we're there often every year. But something that we've been doing that I really like is we've been opening it up, opening it up more to, um, our clients and customers. Like, Les Paul forum, if you could build a Les Paul, what would you want to build? Alright, that's nice. Because we have these tops that are just waiting for us in Nashville. We're specking out probably 20 of them, but we could spec out more. There are no guarantees, of course, but the feedback I got from you all was really great. A lot of people want gloss, which, and, and I really would love in the comments your opinion on gloss versus VOS versus aging. I know that's going to cause a crazy controversy. I mean, that's gorgeous. That would be my kind of dream Les Paul. Yeah, yeah. Right there. And I wouldn't mind a bit of aging. Maybe take off, you know, one of the, uh… Yeah. The home that, that's gorgeous. It is. It's, it is tricky. I, I'd probably go with that. Or, and my second would be an Explorer, 'cause I love offsets, I love Explorers. Um, if you like Explorers, we have a lot of Explorers right now, uh, that we specced out. I think it was like a year and a half or two years ago that have all now arrived, and they look so great. Like the one you're holding right there. That looks, that looks pretty cool. That looks gorgeous. You got the one over my shoulder. We got this, uh, sparkle guy, right? Is that purple sparkle? Those two silver ones upstairs? Silver ones upstairs as well. Silver ones upstairs. I was spoiled for choice. [Music]

So made to measure is very simple. It's, it's a, think of it as a tailor-made suit. So I do a lot of those builds throughout the year, and, and sky is kind of the limit. If engineering can pull it off, then, then they will do it. So if you have an idea for a build or a Les Paul that you want to create, just let me know, or let us know here at the shop. Pink sparkle junior. Why not? With an ebony board. That sounds all right. Parallelogram inlays, maybe a diamond headstock, maybe one tuner to rule all the strings. I don't know. But whatever it is, yeah, yeah, we could. We could, if engineering can pull it off, we can. I mean, that's a great thing to be able to do though, to literally dream up your guitar and potentially make it or likely make it, I mean, more to the point.

So one thing we should talk about is weight relief versus lightweight backs. So we can get you a lightweight, uh, piece of mahogany, but it's based upon availability. It's very hard to come by. So with almost all of our CME spec less these days, we've been requesting lightweight. They're not chambered, they're just lightweight pieces of wood, but they're very, very hard to find. I've had people ask me, "Can I get one under seven pounds?" No. Well, let me caveat. I can't guarantee you the weight, but a lightweight back will be a very light Les Paul. Now, you can do chambered. You can. Right, which we were talking about. Yeah, yeah, you saw them. I'd, yeah, 'cause um, I'd be interested in that. Chambered is sweet, dude. Yeah. Honestly, they sound the same. Right. I mean, you play. Well, I mean, that's the thing. People are going to say, "Oh, it's not going to sound the same or sustain or this." No, I don't know. I haven't delved into it long enough. I do not. Listen, I, I, I'll take the, I'll take the the arrow for this one. I, you are not changing the sonic integrity or changing the sound of a Les Paul when you chamber it. You're not destroying what that guitar is. It's still a Les Paul, it's just a chambered Les Paul and it's lighter. I mean, we've had them at like, like high six pounds, like low sevens, which is ridiculous if you're playing long sets and it's still less pull.

So we clearly do CME spec. That's our, that's our thing. But we also get everything else from Gibson's catalog. If you want just regular custom buckers, which are unpotted, we have plenty of those to choose from as well. We're one of Gibson's biggest dealers, and, and we, like I said, we want to go deep in the paint, man. Like these guitars are cool, they're amazing. Guitars are hella cool. Amazing. And I mean, it's like the sound of rock and roll, so we want to, we want to make them as great as we can. Quality little touch. So proud of this. I do like that. Yeah, it's more than just like a little, like a more than a sewer cap. Like there's so much that goes into this. This has been, the, the many meetings, the many trips, the, the, the years of, of building, making great guitars, you know, this signifies quite a bit for us. I mean, that, that to look on the back of some of these Les Pauls here and see that, that makes me proud. And I had nothing to do with it, but it makes me. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? That's. Yeah, man, it's cool. It's super cool. And thank you, Gibson Custom Shop, for being our partner for all these years. I can't stress that enough. Like, we, we could not do this without them and the great people that work there. And I, I know how great you all are, 'cause every time I go down there, I see the amazing work you do. You guys killing it. Yes, cheers, Gibson. Right, well, we'll see you next time. Here's a little, oh, wait.

As long as I make that face, everything's fine.

Something else is I started a YouTube channel. Yes, you did. It's called Make Something Say Something. And, uh, it's, it's very guitar-centered. It's kind of a behind-the-scenes of Chicago Music Exchange. Um, and, you know, I don't play as great as you do, but I do love the shoe gaze, as some of, as you who watch the channel know. You got, you've got some great videos. Thanks, dude. Honestly, yeah, man. So I mean, so if you guys are interested in learning, you know, some more behind-the-scenes stuff or deep dives on some of these guitars or other guitars we have, uh, go check out that, that channel. [Music]