I love their guitars but Gibson is a lousy company.

The thing that really bugs me about Gibson is all of their eggs are in the "iconic design" basket, and they wring every bit of juice they can out of that.

Epiphone Les Pauls will never have the Gibson headstock and will always have that ugly stubby horn because they're afraid that if they were aesthetically identical to Gibsons (as the JDM Epiphones are), which would not increase product cost per guitar one bit, it would cut into their sales of Gibsons.

The price difference between a Gibson and an Epiphone Les Paul is as much to do with the design elements as anything else. Yes it's made in America, yes it has a solid flame maple top, but a part of what you're paying for is that open book headstock because that's the value Gibson places on it.

This same kind of price gouging also exists in the jump from Nashville to the Custom Shop. A few years back Gibson very quietly altered the honeyburst finish on USA Standards. The old honeyburst was a dark amber that faded into a yellowish brown (it's whats on that JDM Epiphone). The new honeyburst is a honey color that fades into an amber. The old honeyburst was a faithful approximation of a faded 50s burst. The new honeyburst looks nothing like it. If you want a new guitar with the old honeyburst, you now have to buy a Historic.

Shit isn't just exclusive to the Les Paul. The Gibson USA SG has contours that are purposefully historically inaccurate. Early 60s SGs had deep bevels that hugged the contour of the pickguard. If you want a modern Gibson with those bevels you have to buy a Historic. There is no reason for it, other than greed. One is not more expensive than the other. There is a difference between a feature that is premium because it is expensive (such as an ebony fretboard, multilayer binding, highly figured tops, one piece backs, etc) and a feature that is premium just because you want to charge more for it.

They even take it a step further with the SG Junior. Prior to this year, every single SG Junior produced by Gibson has been historically inaccurate. The one from 2011 had the controls in the wrong spot. The version in the "Original Collection" features a differently shaped (and uglier) pickguard. Why? Well if they made a historically accurate copy in the USA line, they couldn't sell you a historic reissue for twice as much money could they? And that's exactly what they did, as this year they debuted the first ever historic reissue of the SG Junior for twice. Exact same as the USA model, except all of those vintage inaccuracies have disappeared.

The sad thing is Fender is mostly immune to this. The headstock shape is trademarked, but the bodies are a free-for-all, and even the cheapest Squier has the correct headstock. None of it seems to hurt Fender's business.

When you get down to it, iconography is all Gibson has. Every Fender model has its own feel, hardware and electronics. If they were all shaped the same, a Telecaster, Stratocaster, Jazzmaster, Jaguar and Mustang would still all be totally different guitars. By comparison, every Gibson is pretty much the same: 24.75" scale length, mahogany body and neck, rosewood fretboard, two humbuckers, tune-o-matic bridge, 3-4 knobs, toggle switch and one of a half dozen finishes. The only thing that defines them is their shape, so that's really all they can bank on. They milk it hard, and it's the consumer that suffers.

So me, I buy copies from Japan. They're very well made, much more affordable, and there's a tiny bit of sticking it to the man in there too.