No more Gibsons?!?

If you've been paying attention (and even if you haven't), I've been slowly downsizing the guitar collection over the past couple of weeks, starting with the most recent acquisitions. (For you accountants out there, apparently guitar buying & selling is a LIFO thang--probably because the newer guitars are the ones I have the least sentimental attachment to.) It started with unloading the G&L ASAT Special, Gibson Firebird, and Les Paul Standard through online forums; proceeded with clearing out the Explorer Pro, SG Standard, and G&L Legacy on ebay; and wrapped up with selling the Les Paul Classic Antique locally today. So now, almost as quickly as I accumulated all those Gibsons, they're all gone...

The Gibson purchases were near the end of the "great guitar diversification of 2007" in which I sold half of my PRS collection and picked up a dozen other guitars to branch out a bit, mostly for recording purposes. It started with the G&L's (ASATs & Legacys), moved to hollowbodies (Heritage & Gretsch), even snuck in a Carvin 12-string electric before I started checking out the Gibsons. The allure of the Gibsons was two-fold... first, they've got classic tones that would bring a more tonal diversity to the studio; second, with the Guitar of the Week program, Gibson was cranking out some really eye-catching instruments.

So what happened? Overall, I reached a few realizations: 1) The G&L's, Heritage, & Gretsch bring enough diversity to the table compared to the remaining PRSi to be worth holding on to. 2) The Gibsons do not bring enough diversity to the table compared to the PRSi to be worth holding on to. 3) Gibsons always look better to me than they feel or sound. It's personal preference, I know, but (for the money) most PRSi have better tone, playability, and attention to detail than most Gibsons. Once I reached those realizations, I knew it was time to start unloading the Gibsons...

So what next? Well, I'm obviously going to hold on to the G&L's, Heritage, Gretsch, & Carvin that were part of the "great guitar diversification of 2007". But with the money from the Gibsons, I'm planning on picking up 2-3 different PRSi. Not sure exactly what at this point... could be a Singlecut Trem, Mira, McCarty Korina, or 513 Mahogany. Who knows? Kinda depends on what sort of deals I can score on ebay over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned...

--B