Oh, when they get it right they get it *right*. A good Gibson will always be great. A nice Les Paul is twice the guitar my Epiphone version is. Twice the guitar at five times the price.... which comes right back to where you want to jump off the scale of diminishing returns against rising prices!
As an aside, oddly enough being left handed turns out to be a plus when it comes to QA - it seems that there being so many fewer of them, from pretty much any company, they get that bit more individual attention...