Gibson Les Paul Special Tribute Raven Limited-Edition Electric Guitar Satin Ebony

When I received the guitar from Guitar center the guitar looked like everybody played. It was dirty fingerprints everywhere the action was way too high and there were several other problems. Instead of sending it back I spent some time resetting the guitar up and I love it. All i can say is be patient with it.

This is not a custom, standard, or any other middle to high-end Les Paul, this is an entry level guitar. First of all, please shop around, do your homework, and try multiples of the same model you are looking at. Every single guitar is not built the same and you WILL find flaws in most guitars if you look hard enough. The LP Special Raven is a guitar that is made to attack. Most of the hardware is your run-of-the-mill parts. if you want to improve this guitar with better hardware, go ahead. The body and neck are solid Mahogany. Many people don't like Richlite fingerboards, but who cares. This guitar is meant to play through an amp, not as an acoustic. Remember, the final sound comes from your amp, not the guitar. The pickups are the treasure. The ceramic (496 and 500) pickups are some of the hottest to come from Gibson. I had them in my '05 Explorer and they shred in both guitars. If you get this (or any product, for that matter) and it has flaws, return it or get it fixed. It's worth the money.

I play mostly hard rock and metal. I find that this guitar does it extremely well! I've had this guitar for months now. The neck feels great (not too thin, not too fat), the finish on the back of the neck feels amazing (not overly finished/not cheap), the pickups are hot, and it stays in tune! The neck, bridge, and pickups make this guitar unique & awesome to the lineup. I don't feel the need to upgrade anything! I've owned many Gibson's and other brands. I've been playing guitar for over 30 years (started young). This guitar isn't really made for someone looking to strum the oldies (but you could). I never normally leave reviews, but I honestly felt like this guitar deserved justice!

If I could give 0 stars, I would. I received this guitar new and it is, without a doubt, the worst $1100+ guitar available anywhere on the market. There is NO WAY this should have ever left the factory and ended up as my problem, but I'm not surprised considering Gibson's so called QC and "customer service". And don't expect them to care about your "cheap" guitar (quote from Gibson "customer service".) Just look at the pics- paint missing so you can see the bare wood underneath (not red underneath like the other reviewer said, just brown), scratches and scuffs and grey paint all over the neck and headstock, a bunch of the greying out over the dots was sanded off down to white, scuffs and what looks like grey paint all over the tuners, bridge pickup was a mess (the edge looked all chewed up and the tape was higher than the top edge of the pickup, it was also as low as it could possibly go), even the "baby pic" of the guitar that was included was a joke (washed out, borders on 2 sides, a dirty rag prominently displayed). I could go on, but you get the point. Gibson and Guitar Center should be ashamed of selling garbage like this, but of course, they are not.

Ok I felt the need to jump in here after reading some just off reviews about this guitar after purchasing mine. 1. Go to literally any guitar shop and play 5 of the same guitar and each one will play and sound slightly different with various levels of quality control which comes with any manufacturing environment. If you purchased one of these blind and did not play and examine it in store and got a lemon that's on you. Also the one dude that said these are repainted are simply false. Check out Trogly's show you Youtube where he does a full review of both Raven's. 2. Since it's release I'm lucky to have a few GC in my geographic area that I check out when I can. I played LP Studio's, Tribute's, SGs, and tone wise this one won all. These ceramic pickups are a step up from anything in the 1-2k price range in the Gibson line if you like to play overdriven and loud. Cleaned up they sound good but make no mistake this thing is built to roar. 3. STOP hating on Richlite. I simply don't get it. If you apply this same principle on materials guitar nerds are saying man that plane in 1930 flew beautiful so the materials used then are the ONLY materials we can use to build planes today. Pretty silly huh? Technology should advance to build better, more sustainable instruments. The fretboard feels great and the fret word is very good. But read I played many many over the past few months before I finally pulled the trigger. 4. One thing that gets an at mention but I think deserves some additional props is the fact that it's a mahogany body AND neck and it's a true solid body with no weight relief. It definitely adds extra ompf. 5. To wrap up, it's an awesome guitar and mine is well finished, set up, and assembled (including wiring). Do your homework, play a lot of rigs, and know what to look for in quality control and finish.

Simple and effective. Bared bones Les Paul. All you need for your rock/metal needs.