First Gibson Les Paul Purchase, help deciding!

[Esteban's Hat]

Re: First Gibson Les Paul Purchase, help deciding!

Also, you really need a grownup (tube) amplifier.

Grown-up amplifiers are very important. I've seen people use underage amplifiers and it's very inappropriate.

If you have a grown up amplifier the notes all sound more mature.

 

[Darg1911]

Re: First Gibson Les Paul Purchase, help deciding!

Tributes are practically unfinished.

Looks and feels like 2 coats of matte rattle can paint, sans wetsand, sans clearcoat.

Utterly "Made In USSR"-level quality

Personally, I'll take the admittedly too thin, "Made in USSR level quality" finish of a Gibson Tribute or Faded over the plastic dip job that many Asian imports are blessed with.

But you have made it abundantly clear, ad naseum, post after post, that if you wouldn't own it, it's garbage and if you cant afford it, it's an over priced rip off or a counterfeit. I get it.

 

[Wattage]

Re: First Gibson Les Paul Purchase, help deciding!

I'm actually looking for a $20 USSR acoustic if it's as good as my Trib

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: First Gibson Les Paul Purchase, help deciding!

forget specs. Go to as many shops as you can and play as many as you can. One of them will be the one to get.

 

[Ronnieduncan]

Re: First Gibson Les Paul Purchase, help deciding!



On the left is my Norlin Black Beauty 1976, which I bought 39 years ago. It's by far the best humbucker guitar I've ever played. Even better than an original '59 my local dealer got a hold off.
On the right is my Chinese '59 replica. €225.
I brought it to my luthier who swapped the pickups for a JB &Jazz and did a fine set up.it sounds heavenly. Plays like butter. built like a tank. Sounds a little sweeter than the original,but that depends on the pickups you put in.
Total cost : €445.
Lot of new LP's with price tags €5500 sounded like crap.
I'll never buy a new Gibson ever again.

 

[plasticscouse]

Re: First Gibson Les Paul Purchase, help deciding!

I have the 16 sjtudio Faded I'm very happy with it, the main plus with it is that it has the same pickups as the Standard. I tried and SG while buying it and really wasn't impressed with the sound of it, they have some sort of 490 pickups in it, the LP Faded sounded a lot more dynamic.

Out of the ones you mentioned I would certainly go for the faded again.

 

[Davii]

Re: First Gibson Les Paul Purchase, help deciding!

I have the 16 sjtudio Faded I'm very happy with it, the main plus with it is that it has the same pickups as the Standard. I tried and SG while buying it and really wasn't impressed with the sound of it, they have some sort of 490 pickups in it, the LP Faded sounded a lot more dynamic.

Out of the ones you mentioned I would certainly go for the faded again.

I thought Standards have the usual 490R/498T combo?

 

[Adieu]

Re: First Gibson Les Paul Purchase, help deciding!

Personally, I'll take the admittedly too thin, "Made in USSR level quality" finish of a Gibson Tribute or Faded over the plastic dip job that many Asian imports are blessed with.

But you have made it abundantly clear, ad naseum, post after post, that if you wouldn't own it, it's garbage and if you cant afford it, it's an over priced rip off or a counterfeit. I get it.

I made good money off flipping a Gibson Tribute. I dont miss it one bit.

 

[Adieu]

Re: First Gibson Les Paul Purchase, help deciding!

View attachment 81283

On the left is my Norlin Black Beauty 1976, which I bought 39 years ago. It's by far the best humbucker guitar I've ever played. Even better than an original '59 my local dealer got a hold off.
On the right is my Chinese '59 replica. €225.
I brought it to my luthier who swapped the pickups for a JB &Jazz and did a fine set up.it sounds heavenly. Plays like butter. built like a tank. Sounds a little sweeter than the original,but that depends on the pickups you put in.
Total cost : €445.
Lot of new LP's with price tags €5500 sounded like crap.
I'll never buy a new Gibson ever again.

Original '59 was never supposed to sound better in proportion to its current price tag.

It's a collectible, a piece of history not a player.

 

[waltschwarzkopf]

Re: First Gibson Les Paul Purchase, help deciding!

Hi guys,

New options for the final decision in the new post

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/sho...es-Paul-Traditional-Pro&p=4113983#post4113983

 

[waltschwarzkopf]

Re: First Gibson Les Paul Purchase, help deciding!

Hi guys,

I am looking into my first Les Paul guitar and from all the options locally and online I have narrowed it down to two options:
• Gibson Les Paul 50’s Tribute 2016 – 795CHF online or 900CHF locally
Link http://www.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/2016/USA/Les-Paul-50s-Tribute.aspx#LPST5HTSECH3
• Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro – 375CHF online or 580CHF locally
Link http://www.epiphone.com/Products/Les-Paul/Ltd-Ed-2014-Les-Paul-Traditional-PRO.aspx

A few months ago, I went to a shop, tried a Gibson Les Paul Classic 2016 just out of curiosity, and really liked the sound, looks (ebony with zebra pickups and metal machine heads) and the feel of a “shorter” scale length guitar (I own a Strat and an Ibanez, both on 25.5in); however, 2190CHF is out of my budget. I play classic rock and hard rock at home through a 15W Marshall Combo just for fun, I play 1-2 hours a days and maybe more on the weekends. I do not gig nor go to a studio for band practice. The Epiphone above looks exactly like the Classic I tried back then.

I have heard/read that the difference between two “identical” Gibsons is more noticeable than among two “identical” Epiphones. To be honest, I do not know if I would notice. I say this because I was thinking about trying locally and buying online to save money, but if the aforementioned is true (and if I notice) I may not get the guitar that I played and liked. No store here has both models on stock, so I can not play them side by side and compare. I have tried the Epiphone at one shop and I really liked it, big chunky neck, matt back with porous neck, nice sound; I did not care much for the coil splitting so I may not use it at all or change it to series/parallel. Is it true that humbucker in parallel gives a sound similar to a P90? The best store here has a lot of Gibsons but not that specific model; I’ve tried many other models (Classic, Studio, Studio Custom, Special, Standard) and even models with the same pickup combo (490R & 498T) and I do like the sound. However, I cannot compare them side by side with the Epiphone. To be honest I want a Gibson because it is a “Gibson” and now I could afford one, but while I was playing the Epiphone, really enjoying the sound of it and having a great time, I could not have cared less about the “Made in XXXX” or the name on the headstock. I have heard many demos for the Epiphone, they all sound great, and more important if FELT great in my hands. Am I being carried away by “just a brand”?

The shops could order either guitar for me, but if I not buy it, I would have to pay a fee for the order anyway. In that case I could order online and if I do not like it, claim them “30-day money-back guaranteed” policy. In addition, I could order the Epiphone play it for weeks and keep it if I think it is good enough for me, if not I send it back and look for something “better”. What do you think about this?

Keeping in mind the differences between the made in USA Gibson and the made in China manufacturing. Both guitar have mahogany bodies, set mahogany necks, rosewood fretboards and a maple top. Both also have Alnico II & Alnico V pickups, which I think is a great combination; however, on the Gibson the C5 is on the bridge and the C2 on the neck, while on the Epiphone is the other way around. Which way is “better” or more versatile? I like thick bassy tones on the neck and high trebly tones on the bridge, I usually go for Clapton’s “woman tone” on the neck and Slash’s chords/riffs on the bridge. Can I swap the magnets on the pickups to try it out? I guess swapping the neck/bridge pickups would be easier, but then the sound would be very unbalanced due to the different outputs of the bridge/neck pickups. To be more accurate, the Gibson has 490R on the neck and 498T on the bridge, while the Epiphone has Alnico Classic (PRO?) on the neck and ProBucker-3 on the bridge.

I like modding my guitars, and especially on a Les Paul there are many options to try (50’s/modern wiring, no-cut middle position, series/parallel, out of phase, etc). For me it would not “feel right” doing that to a Gibson, and these models come with the PCB that allows no mods, so I would have to but a new full wiring harness. On the Epiphone I would not mind opening her guts and doing mods, and they come with normal wires that allow free simple mods.

Cheers,
Walter

 

[Darg1911]

Re: First Gibson Les Paul Purchase, help deciding!

The PCB in the Gibsons is not a problem. Pull it out, save it (or sell it) and wire up individual pots. The Pots are 5 bucks each and a couple orange drop, or whatever, capacitors are cheap. If you can do some soldering, it's not a big deal at all. Or you can keep it and either buy premade cable harnesses in which you solder one end to new pickups and then plug right in to the board. Or you can connectorize the pickups directly to plug in.

Only you are going to be able to decide whether you need the Gibson name on the headstock to be happy. I've owned several Gibson Les Pauls in the past. I currently only one and it's a 2013 70's LP Tribute. I wasn't looking to buy a guitar a couple years ago when I made the rounds and played a lot of Epiphone LP's (and Gibsons) many of them are very nice guitars. Stores are loaded with them. Plenty of Gibson Standards, Customs, Studios and Trad's to play as well. There were not so many Tributes or LPM's or other sub 1K Gibsons hanging in the stores. I don't know if it's because they cant keep them in stock or if there isn't enough profit so they just don't stock as many. I didn't ask. But the few I did play were mostly ok. There were some QC issues on a few, mostly minor. But it was hard to compare models because there was only one or two of the same model in the stores. There is a story behind finding my 70's Tribute but basically I got lucky to find it, even though I wasn't really in the market.

Point being, you are going to have to make your own decision as to whether to buy online or not. You also don't know how what you get would compare to another sample of the same model. You only can know if you get one that plays well and doesn't have QC issues that are bad enough to send it back. If you must buy online, buy from a dealer who has a no hassle exchange and don't be afraid to use it. Even when "only" paying 800 or 900 dollars for a Tribute model Gibson, you still deserve to get a guitar that does not have unacceptable issues. Other than that, I'm not sure anyone else can help you with your decision. It sounds to me that you may not be satisfied without the Gibson name on the headstock, and that's OK. But if there isn't a variety of choices locally, again, you have to decide if you are up to the potential hassle of buying online (namely, that you may have to return or exchange). And if so, then pick the dealer wisely. It's always better, or safer, to play first and buy what you know you like, but sometimes it's just not possible.