Excellent video!!! I bought my Maestro by Gibson on Black Friday in 2018. Sure, I changed the bridge, the pickup and the tuners and now it sounds really good. It is my warrior guitar to play in the street
It had 45 degree mounting tangs on the stock tuners like an Ibanez gotoh style and instead of drilling new holes for the Grovers that have the tabs 180 degrees from the top they spun the tuners back and used the holes from the cheap die cast. Hey at least those tuners are worth 30 dollars at least all day long, but like you said at the start of the video as long as the woods good you can mod it. As a friend of mine would say putting those nice Grovers on that guitar is like hanging a chandelier in a haunted house. The headstock is cool and the rosewood board does epiphone still make the bolt on LP specials ? It might be cool to put the maestro neck on one of those bolt on epiphone LP. I’d put a Gotoh wrap around bridge that can has intonation adjustment, If I were nodding that thing, or a PRS style bridge maybe. The neck on it or fretboard is nice by today’s budget guitar standards. In fact the older Squier necks with rosewood slabs are probably way better than the Mexican fenders with rosewood substitutes. Wow it actually sounds decent you might have a keeper beater there mod it and message it for playability but the first thing I’d do is fix the tuners straighten them out and drill holes in the right place and might as well throw a Tusq nut on it while you’re fixing the tuners and it’d probably have pretty solid tuning stability . Most 60 dollars guitar needs a set of 60 dollar tuners to stay in tune. Anyway that’s a pretty nice score pawnshops around here suck they look on reverb and see what like new guitars of the model they have go for and so they want 600 dollars for an ephiphone with 4 and a half strings rusted hardware and looks like it’s been drug through a ditch.
There is something very, very satisfying in taking a dirt cheap guitar and turning it into something as playable as a $2000 guitar... It's like you're beating the system.
Love the video and found myself nodding in agreement with the discoveries you made. Now it’s story time: I was in a thrift store on July 4th of this year and everything was 1/2 off. The place was mobbed and for some reason I was somehow jealous of the guy I saw with a $25 First Act two pickup guitar that he was going to get for $12.50….until I found it. It gave your single cutaway a run for its money- My soon to be baby was brush-painted with gray house paint and had black paint covering the name headstock and truss cover. The nut was not original and overhung the fretboard by a ton. The only things holding it in were the rusty strings and a piece of cardboard wedged underneath. But it was complete-had a single humbucker (in better shape than yours), wrap around saddle that wobbled all over the place, original volume and tone knobs and all 6 stock tuners. But the neck was the best part-beautiful maple with rosewood fretboard, both in great shape-especially considering the mess that surrounded them. It was tiny and looked like a guitar a kid had just destroyed to piss off his parents. Still I bought for $6.50 (1/2 of $12.99) , brought it home, took it apart, stripped the paint off, and found a Maestro mini Flying V in yellow. When I researched it online, many called it a ‘Roadie’ but the truss cover said ‘By Gibson’, not Roadie like the red and blue versions I saw online. The stripper (or maybe the kid) ruined the finish but o think the scratches and thin areas give it character-sort of like the dents and chips you have on yours. Still messing with the set up because, like yours, the action on the higher frets is way too high…and I have no idea how to shim it…but after you rescued yours, I’m inspired! To be continued…
That’s an amazing story!!!!! I love these Pawn Shop Finds. They are my favorites. And I love hearing similar stories from others! I’m glad you found one. The Maestros need to be rescued and upgraded! 😂
Hi Jake... good video!! Nice jams on that Maestro! I have 5 electric Maestros... all have gnarly heavy tone humbuckers One is a fairly rare Les Paul standard with 2 humbuckers with neck and single body binding!! I do believe these were asia only versions, they sell for $250-600 on ebay/reverb!!! I got mine $150 Bolt on neck...the body is 1 3/4 inch thick heavy and carved arch, nicely made for a "cheap guitar" no sharp frets etc.. Maestros are hidden gem of a deal in my opinion!!
Aloha Braddah….. You’re surprised? I’m surprised, shocked actually hahaha! It sounded quite good with what it has now (your great guitar playing helps)and I can see how it will be even better when each part gets an upgrade to a better quality. Mahalo nui for sharing!
I’m sure it was the result of someone who didn’t quite know what they were doing after they bought it! Thank you for your kind words and thanks for watching!
I'm considering buying one from a local guy who has it for sale for $35 bucks. It needs strings and the knobs. It has a couple of chips in the paint, it's just that I can probably get it for $25 but it's a mess. Still thinking about it. Looks like the action might be a little high. We'll see.
You may want to try shimming the neck to get the action down on the high end of the fingerboard. I had a similar problem with my Black Label Jazz Bass, the G string saddle was down to the plate, and I put a shim in there, was able to raise the saddles about an 8th of an inch, and it's been perfect ever since.
This video was very entertaining and informative. Great subject matter and you made it fun and not cheesy like many others. Always wondered about these Maestro by Gibson guitars. Thanks Big Jake!
Thanks!! I’m very busy with everything, and I’m usually playing at least once a week somewhere. But I try to make the time to make videos or at least record those performances :)
Did you get rid of Mr. Bug! lol. Today my next door neighbor gifted me a Maestro just like this one. Thats why i found your video . I cleaned it up and replaced the strings.I did not adjust the action at all. No fret buzz that I can hear. The fret edges are a little sharp but not so sharp that they will damage your hands. If the bridge is tilted it is hardly noticeable to me. They found it in a storage locker and had no use for it. It plays smoothly, action is low. I thing the previous owner took good care of it. It has no dings that I can see and the paint job is flawless. I think I got lucky. In my opinion the string bridge holes were hard for me to see and i struggled to restring it, otherwise not bad for a guitar that sells for between $100.00 to $200.00. The bridge is something I might consider replacing. Any sugesstion? I am not a guitar tech so I would need a simple fix bridge. lol Thanks for posting. I really enjoyed your video. It was very educational.
I’d recommend a one piece bridge with adjustable saddles. Musiclilly sells one on Amazon. I got one for my Gibson Firebird Zero(it also has a one piece bridge) and it’s better than the stock Gibson bridge on that guitar!
I bought one from musicians friend for about $90, came with a new looking hard case worth probably $80. So I guess I paid $10 for it?. This one seems to have no issues except the leaning bridge and no good way to adjust intonation. The intonation is close enough for my 65 year old ears. What is really cool about is that unplugged it is the loudest/clearest sounding of all my guitars. I swear it sounds like an acoustic when strummed unplugged. Go figure! It also sounds great plugged in. I think i'll look for a couple more at the right price.
These definitely sound amazing acoustically, and that’s a great thing to check/test with any electric guitar. Unless the pickups are absolute garbage, an electric that sounds good acoustically will likely sound awesome plugged in. I love mine and want to get the SG variant of the Maestro!
I wanted a banjo so I found a person selling a Pyle for $50, as well as a white Maestro, also for $50. Wasn't interested but for the money I got it. Both were brand new condition so it was a no-brainer. Wasn't interested in actually playing it but it's nice to have a Jr style in the collection. Now I plan on a fret edge dress and a tune-o-matic set up on it, as the edges are bleeding sharp and the intonation is off 4 frets up! But the neck is straight and the finish is perfect. Hell, a hot pickup and some quick pots and tuner replacement (I have drawer-fulls of both) and I'll have a sweet little guitar!
Just paid $50 for one of these completely gutted. No hardware, electronics or tuners, just wood and bridge. Bought it for a future project. Looking at what you did, I'm pretty excited.
Thank you for sharing this story. I have a Gibson Maestro that somehow was left at my house and no one has claimed it in 4 years, even after calling everyone that might have dropped it off. So, I was wondering if getting a new bridge would work, seeing as the saddles aren’t adjustable. Thank you again!!
Bought mine from Best Buy in 2014 for $120. Since upgraded the humbucker to a Seymour Duncan SH8 Invader and to complete the black on black scheme, added some really nice black Musiclily locking tuners. I love my Maestro!!!!
The strings are supposed to wrap around that bridge, that was the first thing I noticed no actually it was the second thing the pickup was the first thing, it stuck out like a sore thumb lol.
I have one myself. This is the thing. It feels so comfortable in my hands. I’m able to move my fingers across the fretboard easier and feels more natural. 🤷🏻♂️.
Jake, do you remember the signal chain at the 30 minute mark? Amp model, pedal and such? I see you're using the headphone out, did you do anything down stream to help with the fizz and treble excess? Thx.
I'm sorry I didn't say it in the video, but I'm pretty sure it was the Fender Twin Reverb setting on my Fender Mustang I v2 with everything dimed; it also has a little reverb applied and a tubescreamer patch with everything set at 5. This is all through a preset I built with Fender Fuse. It's an older software, but somehow it still works! This amp is amazing for recording despite its bad reputation. If you wanted to replicate it yourself, you could set an amp on a clean setting with the following general settings: Bass 7-8, Mid 3-4, Treble 6-7, Reverb 3-5, Tubescreamer with everything set from 5-7. If you don't have a Tubescreamer, you can use the same settings above on the overdrive channel. Set the gain/distortion to your liking, but generally it would probably need to be around 5 or less. Obviously adjust this to your liking, but that's a general way to get in the ballpark of what I got out of this!
You claim that since these are first guitars, they are cash grabs for the companies, who really don't care once they have your money (I'm loosely paraphrasing.) have a different theory about student pack and budget guitars. I believe that companies know that the first guitar has a 50/50 chance. If the first impression is bad, that customer might never want to keep trying. If the first impression is good, it can create a lifelong obsessive guitar player, who could, and probably will change music. That's a he'll of a 50/50 shot. It's more like all or nothing. I believe that budget guitars are a good way to get good quality instruments at low prices. My bullet mustang is amazing, and 100% stock. Thanks for the great video.
My opinion is somewhere in the middle of what you suggest. As I said in the video, Gibson wants to hook you and make you a lifelong follower, eventually upgrading to an Epiphone, then a Gibson. On a certain level, these big box store guitars were made as cheaply as possible, which causes massive quality control issues, but there is truth to trying to make it “good enough.” As I found with this Maestro and with my Starcaster Strat, the lack of QC can also lead to certain items being TOO good for what they should be. I love my Bullet Mustang, and I generally like Squier as a brand. My sentiment was aimed toward the tier BELOW Squier and Epiphone, but I mostly agree with what you’ve said here. Thanks for watching, I appreciate it very much!
It’s a Hardluck Kings Bomber. I’ll do a video on it someday. I Frankenstrated that one :P I do own a First Act though. It’s….bad. I’ll review that one too 😂
Nice review!! I have my one like yours, but changed all electric parts from Gibson's, Gibson Deluxe machine heads, new bridge and p94 pickups. I really like the changes I've made. But very nice to see u using as original as well. Congrats!! Already subscribed.
Which bridge did you replace it with? Was it easier to restring with the new bridge. I find that restringing is difficult with the original bridge. Thank you.
Call it whatever you wish, but I call it exactly what its based on: a Les Paul Junior! Mine was a $70 cherry sunburst special 5yrs ago, although the pawnshop wanted more before I pointed out all that was wrong like a missing knob and two strings so they deducted it from its $100 tag. I was going to originally put in some work into it until I came across a Maestro SG Junior in the same pawnshop a month later and that was an $80 score. I decided on a P90 makeover for the Junior #1 with a few minor upgrades such as a lightning wrap properly compensated for a plain G, CTS pots with a retained green Chiclet cap and a LP Deluxe style pickup bezel I made with craft sticks and a styrene sheet. That P90 makeover was almost 3yrs ago and Lesmore's still rocks better than the entry-level it once was. The 12K S.A.R. humbucker had some good drive to it for a cheaply made pickup but it doesn't do justice for a Junior like a P90 with the pots wired to vintage specs. I love this thing so much that if I ran across another one, I'd do the same thing all over again!
Great Video Jake! I am a pawn shop picker myself and saw one of these for $35.00. I was tempted but fought the GAS. Seeing your video is given me the sinister urge to go score it. The one issue I remember is the pick guard is warped. Any replacement advice for the pickguard that may be a direct fit?
13:14 I have to agree man. This Maestro guitar have the worst setup. But if you change the setup and hardware, trust me, you can imagine yourself playing a Les Paul Junior. Change the pot, change the tuning machine, change the nut, change the bridge, you will be amazed, I promise you. If you have bigger budget, change the fret wire to stainless steel jumbo fret. The pickup itself is quite good, it has more than 10K resistance reading.
One problem... I bought a wraparound bridge with the adjustable saddles and found to my shock, that the string height was a 1/4" inch off the 12th fret! Now I have to get shims for the neck pocket but Stew mac is pricey as hell.. So back to the drawing board..I've read on the web that the original wraparound bridge wasnt stamped correctly so the G string is always out of intonation..
I've got one of these I am rebuilding. It has one of the hottest pickups I have ever seen. Over wound with a giant ceramic pickup. I'm gonna keep it. Might get a shielding cover for it. It's def made for hard and heavy rock.
Bro, I have had 2 now. The first was good bones. I tore it down and put 8s on it. It was in need of everything top to bottom and was free so I gave it away. The second I lit on fire this morning. Lol! It's got a way bad twisted and warped neck. It will make a wonderful slide. I filed half the frets so far to a flat nub. Lol. I'll put new wiring in and new delus gibson tuners. I also filed the ugly ears off and removed the logo before torching it. Nice grover tuners. FYI mine will be quite nice and the fretboard will be darkened to black. True oil headstock.
I bought mine 4 or 5 years ago for $40 I decided to put it back together today I had to change a few parts because they were missing I couldn't figure out how to wire it so there's no vol or tone so it's just full blast
I'm sorry it got away from you. I have several like that and I wish I could have them back! The blue one is definitely my favorite color of these guitars.
They had the Mini V, SGs, SG Juniors, Les Pauls, Les Paul Specials and Les Paul Juniors. They were all made by Gibson and Baldwin. And named Epoch, Maestro, Signature and Talent. The store you got it from would dictate the "brand" you got. Only the V, Les Paul Junior and SG Junior had one pickup. The others had 2. There is PLENTY of information out there. Look up the Music Education Series by Gibson and Baldwin. You're welcome.
I found a Maestro double cut away and everything works on it, but needs a new paint job. I am having problems finding a new pick guard for it, can you tell me where to find one?
Nice vid! I have a single cutaway Maestro in black vintage sunburst I've had since 2005. I've replaced everything but the humbucker, what do you recommend?
That’s a very tough one. It depends on what tone you’re looking for and the type of music you’re wanting to play! I’m a big fan of the Screamin’ Demon, Dirty Fingers, and classic alnico PAF style, personally.
My head stock on my guitar looks just like yours. Mine guitar is called TALENT, it looks just like a Les Paul J same pickup same control knobs and same bridge, it also sounds awesome.
Those are acoustic tuners from old washberner. Bought one a few minutes ago...Same string job on bridge..lmao. no wonder he couldn't tune the dang thing...keep you up dated after it's put back together and polished
Holy crap the guy I bought my guitar from threw in a bridge just like that one he was going to put it on but then didn't bother so he sold the guitar to me with that bridge, I haven't put it on yet oh and the underside of the bridge says Epiphone.
I owned this model years ago and sold it cuz I was struggling. I just bought the same model from a pawn shop and I’m having some issues with it. The action at the first Fred is so low that the strings are pinging against the frets. It also has a bad buzz around the eighth fret and it also has a leaning bridge. Can you tell me what I need to do to fix this? Do I need to do loosen the truss rod, put paper under the nut or mess with the bridge?
Slowly tighten your truss rod until the first fret buzz goes away. Then, raise your bridge until the 8th fret buzz goes away. As long as you don’t have a twisted neck or the bridge leaning isn’t too severe, that should fix your problem! If the buzz doesn’t go away even after tightening the truss rod a reasonable amount, you may want to either shim the nut with something or get a new nut entirely.
I have this guitar,my father give it to me on chrismast 2015, it's been with me since that day. Do you know if the pots are 250k or 500k? I only know that they are logarith.also how can i know if the PU are ceramic or not? I want to upgrade this guitar,it's has all original ( no modification ) what do you recommend to upgrade first?
I am fairly certain it's a 500K pot, and the humbucker is ceramic. For upgrades, the very first thing I'd upgrade is probably the tuners, then the bridge, then the nut. Everything else is pretty good on it!
One of these black les paul jrs just popped up locally for $40 and caught my attention. I figured even if I have to swap the electronics, it's a great looking little guitar with a Gibson headstock.
I wouldn’t call it a Chibson, as it is actually made by Gibson. But it isn’t a Gibson either because it’s a Maestro made in China, even if it was commissioned by Gibson! It’s the same reason Kramers and Epiphones are not Gibsons; they are commissioned by Gibson, but not Gibson guitars themselves. :)
@BigJakeMusic Thank you for the educational and informative reply Jake! I have a 2011 Epiphone Les Paul Junior bolt on (the "Part of the Gibson family" edition) that is getting restomodded as a gigging guitar. The original neck is bowed and I wanted an excuse to replace it anyways due to the very undesirable headstock style and I plan to use the neck from a Maestro Les Paul as soon as I find one for parts thats cheap enough. Definitely restoring neck with Epiphone logo. Not trying to pass my guitar as something its not while still enjoying it
I totally agree with that sentiment! I don’t like putting logos on headstocks to make them look like something they are not. The Maestro necks are very good. I imagine it would fit, but I’m not 100 percent sure!
dude yo shi is fucked lmafo, i got one n bro she aint perfect but so danm worth it, lol but nahh i did have to fix the bridge tilt but wasnt that bad at all, i think the bridge is alil twisted, but n before i figured it out some of the frets woulds play out mostly the G on the 14th fret, but if you used those for bends it has a crazy unique sound to it, its definatnly not the best, but also i found out if you play it on an acoustic amp its sounds sweet asf 2001%
I have the bridge set all the way down cuz that’s the only way the cation feels comfortable on the 12th fret and up. But I still have buzzing on the lower frets. Even if I turn truss rod to get rid of it the cation still feels low on the first few frets the the fifth fret. Guitar is still having tuni mg issues as well. The ink I should ad a shim on the half of the nut that’s been having the issues?
