Hmm... another random thing from Gibson.

[Mor Paul]

I played on a 87 Custom Shop 335 for 2 hours yesterday at my guitar teacher's house, and that thing was pretty comfortable to play at the nut. I don't know how that mistake could've gotten by...

 

[dbw]

Dunno about a lawsuit OzziePete.  But if Gibson had shipped me that defective axe you can be damn sure I'd have sent it straight back at their expense.

 

[OzziePete]

You don't think a lawsuit is warranted, dbw?

Firstly, I am glad that Crappy can see beyond the bleeding obvious disappointment he must have felt, when he realised the situation he was in with Gibson, and be able to comment favourably about the sound the guitar has etc. That takes a lot of resolve to go ahead and I am quite impressed by that, I know I could not have done that, and probably sold off the guitar at the first possible opportunity. And I bet all he wants to do now is move on, and not go over and over with people about the volute.

But secondly, looking at the situation that he arrived at, it must be a hell of a shock in this day and age that a corporation with a high profile brand name would take the view they have and basically 'called him (and other owners) outside' for a fight by insisting nothing is wrong.

No matter where you live in the developed world there are loads of trade practices and consumer laws that generally protect buyers from inferior goods. Very surprised that not 1 of the 300 owners seemingly affected,  felt it necessary to take the issue further. Mind you, I bet Gibson may have gained 300 sales without extensive warranty claims, but they've probably lost a good number of them for any future guitar sales with this attitude.

 

[Crappy]

The story for me and this guitar goes back about 20 years. I always wanted that white 355. At the time this all started I was worked for a Gibson dealer doing repairs.
At that time we could pick up the phone and custom order whatevery we wanted. EXCEPT THIS GUITAR!!!, You could get it with this but not that, you want that color well thats going to cost you.
then get a price that was so high you could get 3 stock ones.

This was tried a few times over the years with the same results. I gave up and started to look for used 1976 to 1978 355's.
I did find some in bad shape and not worth the price being asked for them or the money I would have to put into to fix them.
Some I found were mint but it would be a sin to refinish them white. I know some poeple could do that, but I would only do it if restoring it to stock setup.

And yes I did think about sending it back. But I had to look at the big picture to see how it would work with what I wanted or was trying to do.
And keeping this guitar alows me the base setup that I was looking for without having to change things.
Now as for the volute. I know a great luthier that would remove that volute and make it look like it was never there.
And it would be cheaper then finding an old 355 and working on it.

You can call me crazy, well maybe I am but I'm not crazy enough to buy a new Gibson any time soon.