Gibson Electric Guitar is one of the most well-known and sought after brands of guitar on the market-- and for good reason. With the use of high-quality materials and a wealth of knowledge for shaping the tone of a guitar, they offer something for every kind of guitar player.

That said, this means there is a wealth of different options to choose from, and the various combinations of features can be difficult to distinguish. That is why we put together a list of the 9 best Gibson electric guitar reviews.

Guitar Body

As the bulk of the guitar, the body is one of the more relevant parts of a guitar, but its effect remains a bit more generalized than anything else. The body of the guitar impacts the resonance of the sound based on the type of wood used and its construction.

By far, the most common type of material used for a Gibson guitar body is mahogany as this provides a strong, solid profile that allows the resonance to maintain a rich, warm tone with a little bit more articulation for the bass frequencies. Gibson, in particular, tends to use mahogany for the bulk of the guitar body, adding maple for the top wood to balance out the tone a bit.
Beyond the type of wood used, the specifics of the body’s construction also play an important role in shaping the tone of the sound. In this instance, you want as little open space in the guitar as possible to remove as much acoustic reverberation as possible.

Guitar Neck
After the body, the other major part of a guitar is the neck, though the various components often impact the guitar’s sound as much as the different parts. There are a couple of different qualities that determine how the neck affects the tone with both the wood and the fastening being the most important.

Like with the body, Gibson favors mahogany and maple woods for the neck but tend to lean a bit more towards maple than mahogany. This is because maple provides a bit more strength and durability than mahogany while offering plenty of sustain to the tone.
Outside of the type of wood used, the way that the neck is fastened to the body also impacts durability and tone. The lowest level of construction is the bolt-on method which is cheap and easy but does not provide the best durability or sustain.
After the bolt-on method, the set-in method is the next step up and is noted for both increasing the durability as well as adding more sustain and a warmer tone. The neck-through attachment is the highest level and is easily the most durable and provides additional sustain above the set-in attachment.

Guitar Fretboard

The fretboard sits on the front of the neck where the guitarists hold down the strings to play a given note. It carries the same need for a solid build and type of wood used as the body and neck for pretty much the same reasons.
That said, Gibson fretboards will use other types of wood outside of maple and mahogany with Ironwood being fairly common. Ironwood is much denser than mahogany and maple making it more durable and heavier, but it adds a touch of brightness to the tone.

Guitar Pickups

Pickups are the components that register the vibration from the string and transmits it to the amp. With pickups, there are two main types used, the single-coil and humbucker, both providing slightly different tonal qualities.

Single-coils are the original type of pickup and offer an incredibly dynamic range for the guitar’s voice but can also impart a bit of noise or hum to the signal. Single-coil pickups do not handle distortion all that well which makes them good for music where the clarity of voice is important.
Humbuckers, on the other hand, remove additional noise, but they also provide a narrower tonal range. Humbuckers, because of their double-coil construction, handle distortion better than any other kind of pickup, making them great for heavier, grittier music.

There are also P90 pickups that split the difference between single-coils and humbuckers and work well for blues and lighter rock. Finally, mini-humbuckers use the double-coil design of a humbucker, but their smaller size produces a brighter tone than the standard humbucker.

Guitar Bridge

The bridge is reasonably important, but most of the differences provide ease when stringing the guitar-- assuming it is a high-quality bridge. While different metals are used, there is not that much difference in the effect of materials, though some suggest that aluminium and other metals produce a better sustain.

However, bridge materials matter more for acoustic guitars than they do electric, so you should not get too wrapped up in it. One thing that can make a bit of a difference is the ability to slightly adjust the distance between the string and the nut.
This adjustment allows you to lengthen or shorten the distance a bit so that deeper strings can produce just a little bit more resonance. Gibson guitars tend to use their Tune-o-Matic bridges which allow you to adjust the distance between the bridge and nut for every string.