Gibson Sonex 180 Deluxe

** Made in 1983 ** "resinwood" body ** unknown neck that is very thin and easy to get your hands around. ** It's got 2 zebra humbuckers, 2 volume pots, 2 tone pots and a 3-way switch. ** Bolt-on neck, gives a decent bend if you want it. ** Dead weight when strapped on. **Shaped like a les paul but with a rounded-edge body similar to strat-style guitars. ** Bridge hardware is just like a les paul. ** Tuners are solid gibsons, although one appears to have been replaced. ** Fretboard is smooth, with low frets.
What really makes this different looking than a les paul is the pickguard/faceplate/whatever the hell it is, which like strats contains all the electronics, but unlike strats also contains the jack and covers 70% of the guitar's face. The 3-way is down below with the volume pots. What this design tells me is money was saved by having all the guts in one assembly process, the rest of the guitar in another. On mine, the guitar is black and the plastic face plate is black with white trim.

I'm a rock guy, used to love this for its crunch. Not as much crunch as a les paul, but the action helps make up for that. Plus the sustain is pretty sweet. It sounds and feels different than a les paul or an SG, I got sounds on this thing I couldn't reproduce elsewhere.
Negatives: The intonation is bad on this guitar. I've tried various things to get it right, and if I spend an inordinate amount of time when I tune, I can fake it, but as you go up the neck you'll start to get out of tune in some unexpected ways. The pots are prone to static when they get a chance to accumulate some moisture from the air, have to twist around to work it out.

Got it used, no idea about the factory action. The finish is very porous, almost like somebody painted it with housepaint and waxed that. I blame the resinwood material. Has worn off paint at conact points.

This guitar itself will withstand anything. The finish on the other hand... This is less of a problem considering most of the front side is covered with the plastic face-plate. If you manage to break that thing, however, I'd say you're screwed, because the shape is unique.
Only played it live a few times, the bridge equipment is hell on strings; it will break any of the strings at any point, so be prepared.

Went to the website to get more info on this guitar, all I found was their serial number thing, which tells you what year it was made. Really dumb, because they have an app doing this when all they need to do is tell you that the year is the the 1st and 5th digits.

Been playing guitar for about 12 years. I've got mixed feelings about this guitar. I really like the thin neck and smooth fretboard. I'm not a big fan of the faceplate. Having the jack in there was a bad idea, it's always coming unscrewed from the plastic. The sound is decent, and it has some unique sounds. I'm glad to have it, but I could live without it. Honestly, one of the best things about this guitar is the custom artwork I applied to the body using a Pancho's restaurant bumper sticker. Judging from the other reviews, I'd say this thing is overrated because of its rare & bizarre nature.

This is an American made gibson guitar made between 1980 and 1983. It's your standard les paul style guitar with a couple of twists. Typical double humbucker, three way select, 4 knob setup. Bridge, saddle and other hardware are all typical les paul equipment. The twist is that the neck is bolt on, and the body is made out of some wierd synthetic wood. Mine in particular has a silverburst finish, the only one i've ever seen with this paintjob. Not too many bells and whistles, just all the stuff you need.

My musical style mixes mid nineties indie/art rock with some 70's classic rock. Anything from polvo, shellac, the who, T-Rex, or television is fair game for me. I run it through either an orange amp, or a 70s sunn model-T. Naturally, the heavy body and double humbucker combination just begs for apocalyptic distortion. If that's what you dig, no sweat. Crystalline clarity however is not this guitars strong suit. The stock pickups are HOT HOT HOT. They get washy with gain a little too early unless you back off the volume, and the clarity and definition is not quite there. However, I found a solution to this problem. I bought a used pair of humbuckers that came out of an epiphone les paul. Oh my god and jeebus as well, this thing turned into a tone MONSTER! The neck pickup gives clean clear muscular tones that have more "thwunk" and attack than you could beleive. The bridge used to be raspy, but now the highs sound like crystall being showered with mardi gras beads. This thing sings clean. Give it a little more gain and you get that good slinky 70's anthem rock breakup ala ac/dc or T-rex. As far as the sound rating, if you keep the original pickups it gets a solid 8 for distortion and 6 for clean. Stick a set of decent pickups in there and i don't hesitate to give it a resounding 10.

I bought this thing used, so i couldn't say how the factory set it up. All I can say is that I used to have extremely low action when I was a beginner, and fret buzz was not an issue. Since then i've raised it and fret buzz is still not an issue. This thing is 20 years old now and the only non-original parts are the nut, and the pickups. The finish is really cool silver middle fade to black on the edges and the same on the back of the neck and headstock. The finish has proved pretty scratch resistant as well.

I gig alot, and I wind up beating this guitar quite a bit. It has never ever crapped out on me. I didn't use a spare for a long time, I do now just in case of a broken string. No corrosion on any of the chrome parts, and almost no fretware. I've played this guitar as my primary guitar for 6 years, and there is no sign of wear except for a chip on the front from when I dropped a padlock on it.

i dunno

I've been playing for 6 years and this has always been my primary guitar. I've gone through a couple guitars including a danelectro u2, and a japanese knock off of a trini lopez custom 335. Currently I use a 1978 fender musicmaster with a dimarzio hotrails humbucker as a back up. If it were stolen I would freak out. I would definitely buy another if I could find one in good condition. For the price of this guitar plus some decent humbuckers I could end up with four guitars that sound indistinguishable from a les paul standard.