"the stain looked like it had been applied with a shoe polish brush by a baboon on his first day on the job"
Dave really should have joined the diplomatic corps. He has a way making things sound not too painful. 
It really was awful. Apologies to baboons.
I've seen Gibsons in stores that look fine to me, including some of the faded series, but there seem to be too many that should never have left the factory.
I recently saw a review of Gibson's Music City Junior, which is a limited edition ash-bodied maple-necked Junior with a B-Bender and Tele-style pickguard. If it were well done, it could be a Gibson fan's real alternative to a B-Bender Tele. Here are some excerpts from a pro's review posted on Gibson's own website:
"The neck shoulders, fret ends and nut arrived razor-sharp. One player Cut himself on a corner of the nut on mine - no kidding. And that's after the Plek job these have been through... the intonation was apparently set by Dr. Random. It made NO sense even visually (And I took it straight out of the shipping box in the store). That (and the neck/nut issues) should have been caught during final inspection....The fretboard. It has NO finish on it. None. After 4 sets it looks 10 years old, with clean hands, just from natural oils and string abrasion. ..The body construction. This is weird, a cheap way to build the thing, and makes the price seem even more odd considering the lack of workmanship involved."
That's on a guitar with a $1400 street price. Go figure. Is it any surprise that cheaper Gibsons and Epis are even worse?
