Freeman Keller
Poster Extraordinaire
This is kind of repetitious but it sounds like at least three problems.
You did say (or I didn't see if you did) exactly what your "tuning problems" are. Does it go sharp, flat, over time or immediately after being tuned? Each string? New fresh strings? Are the nut slots sized to the strings? Backlash in the tuners? Tuner bushings tight? Is the guitar subject to variations in humidity? Temperature? This time of the year most of my guitars are going sharp when they sit in a cold closet. Each of the above have solutions, you just have to figure out what is happening
The cracks in the lacquer (I'm assuming it is lacquer, do you know for sure) do look like expansion from temperature or humidity swings. The cracking around stress risers look a bit like bonding problems with the prime coats - I had this happen one time on maple when I did not use vinyl sealer. I agree that it should not be happening with a new guitar.
Frankly the pictures of all your lovely guitars hanging on the wall scares the heck out of me. Particularly the acoustics. Unless you have really good humidity control you are asking for problems. My little mom and pop music store has a closed loop humidity system that during the winter dumps two galleons of water per day into the showroom air. My little room humidifier in my music room goes thru a half galleon. I still keep all my guitars in their cases with individual sponge/baggie humidifiers.
The last problem seems to be your relationship with the dealer. Whatever the cause he/she should be working with you to resolve it. Gibson has had a recent reputation of very poor quality control and shoddy customer relationships, but your dealer should be working to satisfy you.
You did say (or I didn't see if you did) exactly what your "tuning problems" are. Does it go sharp, flat, over time or immediately after being tuned? Each string? New fresh strings? Are the nut slots sized to the strings? Backlash in the tuners? Tuner bushings tight? Is the guitar subject to variations in humidity? Temperature? This time of the year most of my guitars are going sharp when they sit in a cold closet. Each of the above have solutions, you just have to figure out what is happening
The cracks in the lacquer (I'm assuming it is lacquer, do you know for sure) do look like expansion from temperature or humidity swings. The cracking around stress risers look a bit like bonding problems with the prime coats - I had this happen one time on maple when I did not use vinyl sealer. I agree that it should not be happening with a new guitar.
Frankly the pictures of all your lovely guitars hanging on the wall scares the heck out of me. Particularly the acoustics. Unless you have really good humidity control you are asking for problems. My little mom and pop music store has a closed loop humidity system that during the winter dumps two galleons of water per day into the showroom air. My little room humidifier in my music room goes thru a half galleon. I still keep all my guitars in their cases with individual sponge/baggie humidifiers.
The last problem seems to be your relationship with the dealer. Whatever the cause he/she should be working with you to resolve it. Gibson has had a recent reputation of very poor quality control and shoddy customer relationships, but your dealer should be working to satisfy you.