orvilles vs gibson LP standard

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japanstrat said:
The other difference between Gibson and Japanese guitars is that Gibson mostly use Honduras Mahogany (but that might have changed a bit recently) and the Japanese makers mostly use African Mahogany.

i thought gibson changed to south american mahogany? isn't honduran pretty rare/protected/expensive now (bit like brazilian rosewood)? could be wrong, though. :)
 
The problem with pine (trust me, I'm Swedish :wink: ) is quality. Pine is available from low quality which you can easily dent with your fingernail to incredibly hard core wood. Pine has to grow a long time to get this hard however, and it's almost impossible to find top grade pine lumber nowadays. The low grade pine would be about as resonant as a wet sponge... Maybe the situation in Canada is better?

/Magnus
 
I've got an orville by gibson 89 terada with a neck heel piece and a 3 pce body and it is absolutely phenomenal. Beautiful 60's slim profile neck Resonates like crazy, and is very round sounding with balanced lows mid and highs....soooo smooth. I've played old gibson's and some new ones that don't sound anywhere near as good. So multi piece guitars can get it done...

Having said that, I think it's probably true that you would increase your chances of getting a good guitar by limiting the number of pieces of the body; finish, type of wood etc...

I would say the best ObG's are probably equal too most standard USA models but a cut below the Historics.

And even comparing them to Factory USA Les Pauls us Orville owners need to be honest....New gibsons are using long neck tennons again; they use 1 piece Honduran mahogany bodies...something the japanese builders choose for only their high end models as well; like Navigator. All of these features make them more desirable than an even the best ObG's (just going by specs). The one big flaw they have is the chamber though....if you want a historically accurate LP. So again I'd say the ObG's are probably even with the USA gibsons,..some better features..some worse.

But as mentioned above..it seems with LP's the only way to know is to play them. [/list]
 
I think you'll find all the gibbo standards are African Mahogany and the Honduras is used on Historics and Custom shop guitars. African mahogany is usually heavier than Honduras mahogany, thats why they chamber them to weight relieve them. I have both Honduras and African mahogany and the Honduras is lighter hands down.

Mick
 
mrsuspend said:
The problem with pine (trust me, I'm Swedish :wink: ) is quality. Pine is available from low quality which you can easily dent with your fingernail to incredibly hard core wood. Pine has to grow a long time to get this hard however, and it's almost impossible to find top grade pine lumber nowadays. The low grade pine would be about as resonant as a wet sponge... Maybe the situation in Canada is better?

/Magnus

Are you trying to say that the old Hagstrom guitars aren't great in the sustain???
 
MIJvintage said:
then OF COURSE there are the Orvilles, which are a better value than the OBGs :p ............................

Not the K-series. They are good for the money but not really on the same level as the rest. I hold the ObG's with Nitro the highest though.

My personal favourite is one of my EGF1200. It beats all LP's I ever had or tried. Of course it is like a girlfriend, even if there are hotter girls it is not a reason to leave her.
 
soundcreation said:
I've got an orville by gibson 89 terada with a neck heel piece and a 3 pce body and it is absolutely phenomenal. Beautiful 60's slim profile neck Resonates like crazy, and is very round sounding with balanced lows mid and highs....soooo smooth. I've played old gibson's and some new ones that don't sound anywhere near as good. So multi piece guitars can get it done...

Having said that, I think it's probably true that you would increase your chances of getting a good guitar by limiting the number of pieces of the body; finish, type of wood etc...

I would say the best ObG's are probably equal too most standard USA models but a cut below the Historics.

And even comparing them to Factory USA Les Pauls us Orville owners need to be honest....New gibsons are using long neck tennons again; they use 1 piece Honduran mahogany bodies...something the japanese builders choose for only their high end models as well; like Navigator. All of these features make them more desirable than an even the best ObG's (just going by specs). The one big flaw they have is the chamber though....if you want a historically accurate LP. So again I'd say the ObG's are probably even with the USA gibsons,..some better features..some worse.

But as mentioned above..it seems with LP's the only way to know is to play them. [/list]

The long tenon has no impact on the sound in my experience. It just makes the neck a bit more stable and is vintage correct. Obviously Gibson had to notch up their Std models a bit cause they were so crappy between 1993-present. The thing that makes me dislike modern Gibson is the tone chambers. Makes them sound Jazzy. Well, I have to admit that it can sound nice sometimes as well but I prefer solid bodies.

In general a ObG is better than a LP Std and if you concider the price they are much better.

One great weakness among the American guitar builders is their shifting quality. If I try 10 LP's then 1 is a good one and the rest in general suck. The Japanese are more consistent in the quality. If I buy a ObG on the net I get just what I expect in 9/10 guitars. If I buy a Greco EG800 I know what I get and so on. I would never buy an American Fender or Gibson without try them out first. But not said that there aren't great Gibson and Fender standard models.
 
Koubayashi said:
mrsuspend said:
it's almost impossible to find top grade pine lumber nowadays. The low grade pine would be about as resonant as a wet sponge...

/Magnus

Are you trying to say that the old Hagstrom guitars aren't great in the sustain???

Well, it depends on the model, Hagstr?m used a lot of different woods (and in some cases pearloid!), but in the 60's wood quality in general was considerably better than today.
Just for the record we should note that all present day Hagstr?ms are manufactured in China.

/M
 
mrsuspend said:
The problem with pine (trust me, I'm Swedish :wink: ) is quality. Pine is available from low quality which you can easily dent with your fingernail to incredibly hard core wood. Pine has to grow a long time to get this hard however, and it's almost impossible to find top grade pine lumber nowadays. The low grade pine would be about as resonant as a wet sponge... Maybe the situation in Canada is better?

/Magnus

Pitch pine is the good stuff, isn't it? My house was built around 1900. About 100 years later, I had new windows put in, so the original pitch pine sash windows were removed. That was some beautiful wood that was thrown away. :cry: It's heavy with resin, & closer to hardwood than anything else. Can anyone imagine modern pine windows lasting 100 years in UK weather?

As a carpenter said to me once, about some pine he had just bought:

"trouble is, that door was in a forest in Finland two weeks ago"

So why can't we get decent pitch pine anymore? Does it just take too long to grow?

Mike
 
I think the problem is pine grows quick and straight so making decent plank wood in a very short time. But for quality you have to wait at least 50 years for the wood to "set" and there's just no money in it. :(

This is starting to feel more than a little bit OT... sorry... :oops:

EDIT: Also nowadays wood is force dried which leaves it much brittler that letting it dry naturally (which takes a few years).
/Magnus
 
With Gibson and Japanese comparisons you can only compare the higher priced Japanese guitars.

A regular Gibson Standard pre chambering had a short tenon and nitro and was say around 300,000 Yen in Japan. Compare that with these top of the line OBG's and notice the price.

LPS-QM 228000 Les Paul Standard Quilted Maple '57 Classic (USA) CS,VS,LD (no pickguard)
LPS-FM 198000 Les Paul Standard Flame Maple Top '57 Classic (USA) CS,VS,LD (no pickguard)

http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=11488


Guitars are like cars or whatever. A no frills K Orville is not as cosmetically pleasing as a G serial OBG but they are made from the same wood basically. The number of wood pieces don't matter that much in terms of sound. What about a 3 piece guitar made from 3 great sounding pieces of wood then a 3 piece guitar made from 2 pieces of great sounding wood and one piece that's not that great sounding then a one piece guitar made from not that great sounding wood. It's all a bit random. Terada can't test every piece of wood for sonic greatness so it's a mixed bag for the high end and the low end. Some K Orvilles with changed pickups would sound great and some G serial OBG's might not sound as great as you would expect. If someone pays a higher price for something than they might be tempted to imagine a better tone because they want something for their money.
 
All very true. I know people stress the quality of wood and craftsmanship on Japanese guitars, but I reckon it's more to do with quality control than anything else - they are just too fussy to let the sub-standard stuff onto the market. There's good evidence to suggest it's the same with cars too.
 

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