Gibson Les Paul Tribute 2018 Faded Honey Burst

This is my first ‘proper Gibson’ Les Paul, having owned a copy many years ago and played my daughter’s Epi les Paul many times and I am not disappointed. I love the way it looks, the way it plays, the way it feels and the way it sounds. The padded case is great quality, even if I would have preferred a hard case and you get a basic Gibson strap and polishing cloth thrown in. Music Store added another cloth and a packet of strings. It also came with a poker chip tone switch indicator, which you have to fit yourself.

If I were being picky, the only mild negatives for me are the fit of the black plastic covers on the rear of the body, which stand recessed from the wood and are slightly smaller than their holes. The green plastic tuner heads are also to my mind of lower quality than the brand deserves, where you can see and feel the join where they have been moulded in two halves, but hey, the overall value for money is excellent. I am also very pleased not to have auto tuning and push tone controls.

A final word on service from Music Store, which was brilliant, shipping from Germany to the U.K. It arrived exactly on the day promised in perfect condition.

First things first, for the money, £749, I consider this guitar excellent value and I struggle to see why anybody would want to spend 4,5 or more times that on a Gibson Les Paul. It's just a shame that Gibson has downgraded the 2018 and is selling it as the 2019 Tribute for hundreds of pounds more and there's no way I'd buy a 2019 model,
Back to my 2018 Tribute, I was happy that it appeared that dv247 had made the effort to set the guitar up before I got it and it played great out of the box and the intonation was almost spot on. I do love the satin honeyburst finish that shows some pretty maple grain underneath, and the satin back & neck finish and could care less that it has a lack of gloss lacquer slathered all over it and I like the lack of body & neck binding as to me it gives the guitar a great vintage vibe. Not only that, I also had a beautiful Gibson embroidered soft shell case which are worth £149 on the Gibson website.
Also I wanted a guitar that didn't have any chambering or weight relief, I wanted all of the wood on a Les Paul as was traditional, I don't like modern Gibsons for the most part.

However, there are a couple of down points about it that are typical for Gibson Les Pauls in general.
Because of their headstock design and the way the strings go through the nut, it doesn't stay in tune very well. Also I don't like the stock Gibson Deluxe tuners and think they contribute to the tuning instability.
Also, I'm not a fan of the 498T bridge pickup but that's just my preference.

At the end of the day I've got some new Kluson tuners and a decent roller bridge to swap the originals for, plus I'm going to open up the nut slots a little, as well as wind myself a set of PAF spec pickups, and for a total outlay of about £100, I have no doubt that my guitar will stay in tune perfectly and will sound exactly to my liking, so for a total of £850 I will have the perfect Les Paul.
These guitars are now discontinued which is a shame so if you're looking for a Gibson Les Paul, I'd recommend trying to find one of these second hand if you can't find any new stock.