Beating Out a Les Paul?

Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

Nothing beats a Les Paul. If I had the money, my first choice would be a Les Paul 50's or 60's VOS. I don't care for all the binding and extra stuff on the Les Paul supremes, but they're also very good. If you can find a VOS goldtop, grab it. They're awesome.
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

St_Genesius said:
That's a false statement, unless you're imbuing the word "basically" with some pretty magical powers.
Click to expand...

which New Gibson Les Paul is under $2000 has PLEK'd FRETS. They plek almost all the nuts.

SO there's the standard trad pro, the GC exclusive.... those are $1900.
name the other ones.

Seriously, that's the cheapest one that gets a whole plek job. Oh, and the Sam Ash exclusive one that's really similar. The trad 1960 I think.

None of the studios get it.
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

+1 Hamer USA, if Les Pauls were a tad more comfortable, and had two cutaways, and playerpriced rather than collectorpriced, you get a Hamer.

(or older ibanez Artist,... yamaha had a big dbl cutaway thing that looked like a weird scarab, the neck was in the LP Custom family but name escapes me,...)

do you want that maple cap top end? cuz if i had bigger hands i would put a 59 in one of those archtop sunburst Schecters- they get the ax of the year for their mahogany buttocks with maple teeth- "a quality product at an affordable price, thats nice, ..." I couldnt believe i tried a thru neck w coil tap for under 400 last week!
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

Sorry, I didn't realize you meant frets. I just knew there were plenty of cheaper models that mentoined being PLEK'd on their site.

FuseG4 said:
which New Gibson Les Paul is under $2000 has PLEK'd FRETS. They plek almost all the nuts.

SO there's the standard trad pro, the GC exclusive.... those are $1900.
name the other ones.

Seriously, that's the cheapest one that gets a whole plek job. Oh, and the Sam Ash exclusive one that's really similar. The trad 1960 I think.

None of the studios get it.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

The Pleking as Gibson does it is semi-useless and just to save cost.

You are supposed to put the guitar in and adjust the tension to what it would be with strings. They just put it in neck without any load.

Now, that is still better than what they did before, which often enough was a level without crowning (resulting in flat tops) but it isn't comparable to what you should do with the Plek.
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

n4m3less5 said:
ECII-VTBEMG_front.jpg


ESP ECLIPSE-II VB

Swap out the pickups to your own liking and you have a hell of a guitar. It is worth looking into and it's about $1,600.
Click to expand...

+1. Very, very awesome guitars. Especially for the price!
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

I gotta say Resevoir, you sound like someone who reads the intarwebs too much. I find it hard to believe that EVERY Les Paul you tried was either a) Poor player or b) Not good sounding.

I of all people will not defend Gibson's generally meh quality. But to walk into a shop and play ten LP's and they are all dogs? I call BS.

Yes - they could be set up better. But so could every guitar.
Yes - 490/498's are pretty generic. don't get me started on BB Pro's.

But a few turns of the screw driver and the Duncan of your choice (unless there is a 500T in there to start with, or BB1/2's) and I really find it extremely hard to believe it was THAT bad.

I agree - for the +$1500 zone, one in 100 less than perfect is weak. Still....

I LOVE the ESP EC-1000 series. (59 and JB loaded some are!)
I LOVE me some Dean Cadillac (I own one and always on the prowl for another)
The Hamer USA is a great suggestion.

Honestly, all of those will give you a guitar that performs as well as the Gibson, at 1/3 to 1/2 the price.
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

To be fair, i did like some of the pauls alot, and absolutely loved one of 'em. The only issue was that other than studios (which I
didn't care for) the rest were vintage 3000+ pauls. I love that store and it has a great selection, only problem being their good guitars are all REALLY good
guitars, and therefor REALLY expensive. I just havent liked any of the pauls in my price range.
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

I don't think we really got that from the OP.
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

Reservior Dog said:
To be fair, i did like some of the pauls alot, and absolutely loved one of 'em. The only issue was that other than studios (which I
didn't care for) the rest were vintage 3000+ pauls. I love that store and it has a great selection, only problem being their good guitars are all REALLY good
guitars, and therefor REALLY expensive. I just havent liked any of the pauls in my price range.
Click to expand...

Ok, that makes more sense. What you want to do, in my opinion, is shop the used market for a Traditional. It's not chambered, it's a solid LP, and has 57 classics in it stock. Solid guitars, specially with a good LP.
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

If you can find one, get a Yamaha Weddington Custom or Classic. Awesome guitars for the money and a strat monster switch to boot. Much BETTER than any les paul I've ever been in contact with. I own a Weddington Classic and it kicks ass.
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

So what I'm hearing is a Hamer, Prs, Esp, Heritage, or just finding a used traditional. Whats your take on those?
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

n4m3less5 said:
ECII-VTBEMG_front.jpg


ESP ECLIPSE-II VB

Swap out the pickups to your own liking and you have a hell of a guitar. It is worth looking into and it's about $1,600.
Click to expand...

Ugly!


Buy a used Les Paul and try before you buy. Chances are any issues will have been sorted by the previous owner and it will cost a lot less than a new one.
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

A Gibson Les Paul. If you want to go cheap get an Epiphone. The Epi uses a Maple neck and that does effect the sound. You will wind up changing all the pots, switch pickups and amybe a few other odds & ends but you will wind up with a really nice guitar. IMHO just keep looking until you find the "Les Paul" that is setup right. You have to realize what you said. Many had the growl but were unplayable...... well this can be cured with a good setup. I can rarely pickup a guitar off the rack and have it play well. The action is usually too low & the strings are too light for my taste, so I have to go with what it sounds like not how it plays. I can cure the playing issue with a setup!
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

Bludave said:
A Gibson Les Paul. If you want to go cheap get an Epiphone. The Epi uses a Maple neck and that does effect the sound. You will wind up changing all the pots, switch pickups and amybe a few other odds & ends but you will wind up with a really nice guitar. IMHO just keep looking until you find the "Les Paul" that is setup right. You have to realize what you said. Many had the growl but were unplayable...... well this can be cured with a good setup. I can rarely pickup a guitar off the rack and have it play well. The action is usually too low & the strings are too light for my taste, so I have to go with what it sounds like not how it plays. I can cure the playing issue with a setup!
Click to expand...

most of the decent epis use mahogany (or something kinda like mahogany actually, possibly nato) necks.
 
Re: Beating Out a Les Paul?

Nagash said:
IMO the block inlays are more lame than the flags.
Click to expand...

I like both of them. Nice to see ESP doing a 22-fret neck on an LP-type guitar. I think that's important in getting the magic out of the neck pickup.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top