FWIW, I haven't been able to find a single Gibson acoustic with decent strings in any of a dozen stores. Martins, either.
I really wanted to like the J-185 after reading Steven Stone's review in Vintage Guitar magazine, but I could never find one that didn't have totally dead strings. I wound up buying a Taylor 810, which I love, but I still don't know whether I might have liked a Gibson as well or better.
In my opinion, the dead-string "scandal" is the biggest -- and least-often mentioned -- obstacle to making intelligent buying decisions about acoustic guitars. Most stores don't even dream about changing the strings on the guitars hanging on the walls.
As a result, the guitars -- like Taylors -- that come from the factory strung with Elixers almost always sound better. I wonder how many buyers unwittingly make their decisions on the basis of dead vs. live strings.
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