Gibson or Feline that is the question!

FelineGuitars

You need to channel your inner Steve Jones and steal a Gibson Custom maybe?

It's part of the Sex Pistols folklore.....

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/steve-jones-the-sex-pistols-stole-from-david-bowie/

FelineGuitars

CHRISB50 said:

Jonathangus said:

Don't think Jon does custom orders any more.

He does according to the website

https://felineguitars.com/pages/custom-guitar-easy-payment-plan

Sadly @Jonathangus is correct.

We broke the news in our end of year summary blog on our website here:

https://felineguitars.com/blogs/news/2023-where-did-the-year-disappear-to

For those that don't want to follow the link:

The end of an era for our guitar making?  
We are going through something of transition as we stop taking on or building any new guitars other than what we have on the shelves already and in the wood store.
Bringing to a close something that has been a very passionate and recognised part of your business does feel strange, but we were very pleased that we got to 30+years of building and building 500-600 guitars over all those years.
We do still have a good 20-30 guitars to complete and maybe get through a finishing or painting process , so you may still see a few new arrivals over the next year or so.
However if you have kept promising yourself that you would own one of our guitars then now would be a good time to snap one up from the webshop.

Refrets I've had a few

Thankfully there are plenty of guitars already out there in the world that can benefit from some careful TLC  from a good repair shop like ours.
We have continued to keep busy with all the lovely repairs ranging from restrings to refrets and a few rebuilds too.

rlw

This won't help but...

I wanted a CS Gibson, R8 or R9, but wasn't too impressed by the silly prices or the prospect of the finish falling off.

I spotted a Feline in the ads here and just bought it without playing it, thinking it would be just like a dead fancy Les Paul.  Well it kind of is and it kind of isn't.  Soundwise, it's a bit lighter, veering towards a really good SG rather than a hefty LP.  Playing wise, it blows any other guitar I have out of the water.  It is perfect.

So I bought another one.  Same thing.  Not the hefty LP sound I love but very much it's own thing and very very good.   Clearly an LP style single cut but a bit different.  Playing wise again, I think the second is even better than the first.

So.  

Cons.. I don't have a vintage looking LP that sounds like 6 string heaven and hell combined

Pros.. I have two fabulous looking, individual and unique instruments that play sooooooo well and sound fantastic

          No-one else is going to turn up with one the same at any time, ever

          I bought used - one at a total fluke price - and saved around £3k over an R9 new, or about £1500+ used.

I'm glad that I didn't buy an CS Gibson as, in comparison to the Felines, they feel a bit old fashioned and, well, redundant.

         

CHRISB50

FelineGuitars said:

CHRISB50 said:

Jonathangus said:

Don't think Jon does custom orders any more.

He does according to the website

https://felineguitars.com/pages/custom-guitar-easy-payment-plan

Sadly @Jonathangus is correct.

We broke the news in our end of year summary blog on our website here:

https://felineguitars.com/blogs/news/2023-where-did-the-year-disappear-to

For those that don't want to follow the link:

The end of an era for our guitar making?  
We are going through something of transition as we stop taking on or building any new guitars other than what we have on the shelves already and in the wood store.
Bringing to a close something that has been a very passionate and recognised part of your business does feel strange, but we were very pleased that we got to 30+years of building and building 500-600 guitars over all those years.
We do still have a good 20-30 guitars to complete and maybe get through a finishing or painting process , so you may still see a few new arrivals over the next year or so.
However if you have kept promising yourself that you would own one of our guitars then now would be a good time to snap one up from the webshop.

Refrets I've had a few

Thankfully there are plenty of guitars already out there in the world that can benefit from some careful TLC  from a good repair shop like ours.
We have continued to keep busy with all the lovely repairs ranging from restrings to refrets and a few rebuilds too.

Sorry to hear that Jon. 

Nerine

Simply, if you found a Les Paul you liked, you’d like it more than the Feline because it would have more gravitas and weight in your convictions. That’s not to speak any ill of Feline guitars. 

Also, I’ve seen a lot of guff spouted about Gibsons recently. Probably more than usual. I’ve had three and even though I didn’t quite bond with my Murphy Lab (it was an excellent guitar, but I felt like a prick owning it) my R8 is sublime and My LPC was sublime (that went to partially fund the ML). 

tone1

FelineGuitars said:

You need to channel your inner Steve Jones and steal a Gibson Custom maybe?

It's part of the Sex Pistols folklore.....

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/steve-jones-the-sex-pistols-stole-from-david-bowie/

He stole his Fender amp too (according to his book) 

drphibes

It's definitely an head scratcher this! I know there are way more Gibsons on the market than Felines so it stands to reason you are going to get more issues with the Gibsons. However I don't think I have ever read a negative comment on a Feline, the comments always seem to be glowing praise for the guitar full stop.

Decisions decisions! 

FelineGuitars

Rambling post......

There are certainly lots of great Gibsons out there, and also many that are improved with a little TLC or some set-up work or fretwork but have the potential in them.

By design our guitars tend to be a bit lighter than them, have better all access neck joins and have that attention to fretwork and set-up built in.

We all love guitars that have been wielded by our heroes but it turns out if you get to play your heroes actual guitar you sound like you and not them (and if they were to play any guitar you already own they will sound like them by and large) . Nuno said it was a shock playing EVH's rig as he sounded like Nuno and not EVH.

It is always some sort of homage to your hero to own the same looking axe and it is totally understandable, but it is always cool to own a guitar that lets you express the best version of you as well.

I guess for myself (and yes I am a guitar fan too) I was in the lucky position to make guitars that felt great to me.

I've owned plenty of brands I loved too ....Charvel, Jackson, BC Rich, Hamer, and Ibanez and a few Gibsons too.

I've had a few signature axes too inspired by the fanboy in me, ranging from Kiss related guitars, to EVH, Lynch & Schenker (somehow avoided having a Red Special which is odd considering how much I loved Brian May as a teen), but in the end drifted away from those to ones I tailor made for what I really liked in a guitar.

I get to handle and pay a LOT of guitars in my line of work and get to see them brought to life or the best brought out in them. Also I am inspired by things that are great on these other guitars, or aspire to improve upon things that could be better.

I think when making guitars I found myself always trying to make a guitar that will be hard to part with.

It is possibly why I never wanted to upscale the number of builds I was doing where it became like a production run - I aways wanted to feel that each guitar was cared about by myself and my co-workers alike.

I would hope that people who have owned some of them have felt like some love and attention went into making and shaping them.

DavusPG

Surely the ultimate criteria is finding a guitar that you bond with and want to pick up more than any other, regardless of what's written on the headstock?

I've had quite a few Gibson Les Pauls over the years and my GAS for them stopped when I picked up a custom shop Axcess hardtail. It's a brilliant guitar, sounds superb, is lightweight and easy to play right up the neck. I gigged that guitar almost exclusively for about 4 years and still have it today. 

A few years ago a Lion came up on here and having heard so much about them I was curious to try one, so arranged to meet the seller. When I tried the guitar, the shape of the neck instantly felt right. I don't know exactly how different the neck specs are between the Axcess and the Feline, but it was enough for me to feel more comfortable playing it. The build quality was flawless and it sounded amazing. I bought it and have barely played the Gibson since. I was so certain that the Feline was "my" Les Paul, that I had it refinished about 6 months later and still play it today. 

The Axcess is still a great guitar, but to my hands the Feline is a better fit, which in turn for me at least, makes it the better guitar as I get more enjoyment playing it, and so it's the only Les Paul I pick up. 

If I hadn't owned a number of Gibsons (including a Trini, SG & Firebird) and/or Fenders over the years maybe I'd feel differently, but I couldn't give 2 shits what it says on the headstock. I also gig a Suhr and I bet nobody at the Dog & Duck are aware of that brand either!

My advice would be to try some more Gibsons and if you can some Feline Lions and take it from there - you'll know soon enough when you find the right one.

imalrightjack

I’ve never played a Gibson that matched a Feline. Or PJE Macon. Or PRS 594. 

BigPaulie

FelineGuitars

and when "good enough" isn't enough?

Original quote from 1940s in response to Gibson was 

“Epiphone…when ‘good enough’ just isn’t good enough.

https://kevinstephany.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/when-good-enough-isnt-good-enough/

Snags

The obvious answer is you want a Gibson. The majority of guitar purchases are not rational, they're emotional. And of the minority that are rational, the majority of those are also emotional and we're lying to ourselves. So there's only a small opportunity for actual rational process

So the thing to do is to keep your eye out for a good deal on a suitable, pre-loved, white LP custom (rather than custom shop) whilst also getting something else that floats your boat in the meantime. Be it Feline, Daniel's Guitars, PRS or whatever.

OilCityPickups

Personally I'm enough of an old punk (I was 17 in 1976) to not want what everyone else has ... so that gives a Feline the edge in my book :-)  My grandad was fond of saying: Don't copy other people, make others copy you. 

Musical_Mystery_Tour

We all know there are plenty of guitars which play and sound better than Gibsons, but it's not really the point; you're never going to scratch that 'guitar hero of your youth' itch if you don't get yourself a '74 Gibson Custom, or at least something of a lookalike with a Gibson logo on the end of it. 

Bear in mind that in spite of appearances, the guitar in question wasn't originally cream, it was arctic white, but years of cig smoke had made it more cream in colour. Jones got it off Malcolm McClaren, who got it off Sylvain Sylvain when he was managing the NY Dolls as they imploded whilst making the Red Patent Leather album, whereupon he came to London with the intention to use the Dolls as the protoype for the Pistols. The stickers on the  Gibson were put on by Sylvain, but Jones left them there.

You can get repros of those stickers if you really wanted to go that far, as you can of the Our Lady of Sorrows sticker on fellow Doll Thunders' LP Junior.

OilCityPickups

Musical_Mystery_Tour said:

We all know there are plenty of guitars which play and sound better than Gibsons, but it's not really the point; you're never going to scratch that 'guitar hero of your youth' itch if you don't get yourself a '74 Gibson Custom, or at least something of a lookalike with a Gibson logo on the end of it. 

Bear in mind that in spite of appearances, the guitar in question wasn't originally cream, it was arctic white, but years of cig smoke had made it more cream in colour. Jones got it off Malcolm McClaren, who got it off Sylvain Sylvain when he was managing the NY Dolls as they imploded whilst making the Red Patent Leather album, whereupon he came to London with the intention to use the Dolls as the protoype for the Pistols. The stickers on the  Gibson were put on by Sylvain, but Jones left them there.

You can get repros of those stickers if you really wanted to go that far, as you can of the Our Lady of Sorrows sticker on fellow Doll Thunders' LP Junior.

But it won't be Steve Jones Les Paul  and you won't be a teenage Steve Jones. I have to say I really don't understand the "guitar hero of your youth' itch. To me that would be like giving up trying to be 'me' and settling for being a poor and aging impersonation of a famous teenager from my own teenage. 
Nope, the concept passes me by ... 

Musical_Mystery_Tour

OilCityPickups said:

Musical_Mystery_Tour said:

We all know there are plenty of guitars which play and sound better than Gibsons, but it's not really the point; you're never going to scratch that 'guitar hero of your youth' itch if you don't get yourself a '74 Gibson Custom, or at least something of a lookalike with a Gibson logo on the end of it. 

Bear in mind that in spite of appearances, the guitar in question wasn't originally cream, it was arctic white, but years of cig smoke had made it more cream in colour. Jones got it off Malcolm McClaren, who got it off Sylvain Sylvain when he was managing the NY Dolls as they imploded whilst making the Red Patent Leather album, whereupon he came to London with the intention to use the Dolls as the protoype for the Pistols. The stickers on the  Gibson were put on by Sylvain, but Jones left them there.

You can get repros of those stickers if you really wanted to go that far, as you can of the Our Lady of Sorrows sticker on fellow Doll Thunders' LP Junior.

But it won't be Steve Jones Les Paul  and you won't be a teenage Steve Jones. I have to say I really don't understand the "guitar hero of your youth' itch. To me that would be like giving up trying to be 'me' and settling for being a poor and aging impersonation of a famous teenager from my own teenage. 
Nope, the concept passes me by ... 

Me too, but I'm not the OP, who appears to be hankering after a guitar like that one. That being the case, one presumes it would be the only thing able to satisfy that desire, even if it is just to hang on the wall. After all, it ain't 1977, but having said that, it would presumably be the one to have if you were in a Pistols tribute band, and if you were, then it would certainly be easy to find a bass player if you were going for the post Glen Matlock iteration. :-)

SlopeSoarer

OilCityPickups said:

Musical_Mystery_Tour said:

We all know there are plenty of guitars which play and sound better than Gibsons, but it's not really the point; you're never going to scratch that 'guitar hero of your youth' itch if you don't get yourself a '74 Gibson Custom, or at least something of a lookalike with a Gibson logo on the end of it. 

Bear in mind that in spite of appearances, the guitar in question wasn't originally cream, it was arctic white, but years of cig smoke had made it more cream in colour. Jones got it off Malcolm McClaren, who got it off Sylvain Sylvain when he was managing the NY Dolls as they imploded whilst making the Red Patent Leather album, whereupon he came to London with the intention to use the Dolls as the protoype for the Pistols. The stickers on the  Gibson were put on by Sylvain, but Jones left them there.

You can get repros of those stickers if you really wanted to go that far, as you can of the Our Lady of Sorrows sticker on fellow Doll Thunders' LP Junior.

But it won't be Steve Jones Les Paul  and you won't be a teenage Steve Jones. I have to say I really don't understand the "guitar hero of your youth' itch. To me that would be like giving up trying to be 'me' and settling for being a poor and aging impersonation of a famous teenager from my own teenage. 
Nope, the concept passes me by ... 

There's nothing like pissing on people's chips!

TDubs

SlopeSoarer said:

OilCityPickups said:

Musical_Mystery_Tour said:

We all know there are plenty of guitars which play and sound better than Gibsons, but it's not really the point; you're never going to scratch that 'guitar hero of your youth' itch if you don't get yourself a '74 Gibson Custom, or at least something of a lookalike with a Gibson logo on the end of it. 

Bear in mind that in spite of appearances, the guitar in question wasn't originally cream, it was arctic white, but years of cig smoke had made it more cream in colour. Jones got it off Malcolm McClaren, who got it off Sylvain Sylvain when he was managing the NY Dolls as they imploded whilst making the Red Patent Leather album, whereupon he came to London with the intention to use the Dolls as the protoype for the Pistols. The stickers on the  Gibson were put on by Sylvain, but Jones left them there.

You can get repros of those stickers if you really wanted to go that far, as you can of the Our Lady of Sorrows sticker on fellow Doll Thunders' LP Junior.

But it won't be Steve Jones Les Paul  and you won't be a teenage Steve Jones. I have to say I really don't understand the "guitar hero of your youth' itch. To me that would be like giving up trying to be 'me' and settling for being a poor and aging impersonation of a famous teenager from my own teenage. 
Nope, the concept passes me by ... 

There's nothing like pissing on people's chips!

Piss 'n' chips

JayGee

[Shrug] Why choose one or the other.

Have both.

Buy the Gibson to hang on the wall, noodle with on your own time, and enjoy the connection with all the other artists who’ve made great music with one.

Buy the Feline (or Ivison, or Daniels, or that luthier down the road who you’ve seen great work from but nobody else has heard of) to get the instrument made with love and passion to your own requirements which none of the “from stock” production options from bigger brands quite hit and take it out and about to make your own music with.

And then enjoy them both! :-)