If you read through various Gibson threads, you'll see that I've owned tons of them and am always at the forefront of defending their QC (based on my own experiences with them). That changed in the past two weeks with two new Gibsons I bought.
First I ordered an ES-333 in brown. When it arrived, the upper top horn had a black sharpie line from the binding straight down the top a couple inches long. A closer look showed that this was under the satin finish making it clear that someone was using the sharpie at the Gibson factory to mark the blanks, and they went ahead and used a marked piece for the top of this guitar. This guitar retails for $1199 without a case, and came with a @#%$ sharpie line drawn bigger than @#%$ right on the top of the guitar and nobody seemed to care that is shipped that way (I returned it to MF, they were cool about it).
So then I decide that I'm not going to @#%$ around with the cheap stuff anymore. I contacted a boutique dealer whom I have bought several Gibsons from in the past, and he gives me a killer deal on a new ES-335, about $500 off MF's listed price. Problem is, I want the translucent brown and he doesn't have any in stock, he has to order it from Gibson. I said go ahead and order it, but to shorten the wait and save some shipping costs, I requested that he have Gibson drop-ship it directly to me.
Well it arrived today from Gibson. First I open the case to find a handful of sawdust scattered all over the guitar and inside the lining of the case, I had to carefully dust it all off, and vacuum the case out and hoped there were no significant scratches from the small wood chips. Then there's no case candy, no case paper, no warranty, no shipping papers, no truss rod tool, nothing, just an empty case (save for the guitar and sawdust). Then I notice the guitar itself, while beautiful, has no flame. Gibson's site says they're flamed, Gibson's stock photo that they are forcing dealers to use (no real photos of actual items allowed anymore) shows a killer flamed top, but mine has none. Pretty much a plain top; looks like a shiny 333 rather than a 335. I inspect the guitar more, and I find the strap lock at the neck heal is screwed in crooked and is not flush with the guitar; it's cocked, leaning like the tower of Pisa. Now I'm getting a bit anal and looking closer, and I see that the left middle Grover tuner is screwed in slightly crooked and out-of-line with the other tuners, again this is hardly noticeable, but given everything so far before it, it pissed me off. I'm not a very picky person and usually don't notice, and am not bothered by little imperfections, so I can imagine that if someone else who's more pickey than I am were to look this guitar over, would likely find even more wrong (I'm afraid to check more!!)
This guitar retails for $2400!!! And they can't screw a couple @#%$ screws in correctly? As for the flame, or lack of flame, I think they are using cheaper woods but still charging as if they were using the good stuff.
So, I haven't had time to call my dealer, but I'll have to let him know what's up tomorrow and see about shipping this bitch back. I don't think I want Gibson to send me another one blindly, and this combined with my distaste for Gibson's business policies recently have me very reluctant to buy another new Gibson anytime soon.
This is the 333 with the sharpie line: