As a former faded SG owner, these are MY OPINIONS please do not take offense. I think the faded series is a black mark on the companies catalog. I understand making some guitars in the 500-900 range with fewer bells and whistles/ornamentation and features but lets be real.
I ordered the guitar through a local dealer. It came in with a piss poor setup(per usual from Gibson) and a gig bag. The owner agreed to shave and slot the nut correctly because it was un-playable the way it was. Then I noticed that all of the frets from the 9th to the 22nd had horrible fret work on the under side and stuck out to the point were it was tearing my hand up! The dealer refused to do anymore work because he said that the weather may play a factor in the fretboard shrinking... Well after setting it up and intonation the instrument sounded either very bright or way too muddy. The pickups are supposed to be 490T so I can only guess it had sub-par volume and tone pots and perhaps some messed up wiring. I trudged along with her for a year or so before the feedback issue and tone fiasco made my decision clear. I was luck because it was won of the rare ones with moon inlays and a couple guys had a bidding war on ebay. I lost $200 but it was better than keeping it.
Gibson should not charge $700 for a guitar with no finish(the most expensive part), shitty tin tuners, squealing electronics, and worthless workmanship just because it was made in the USA. A Korean Epiphone Les Paul Custom for 500 would have been a superior choice BAR NONE. Good riddens. Every other guitar manufacturer has found a way to sell a "decent" guitar in that range. Why Gibson?
