Gibson Les Paul

[ecca]

"That always annoyed the hell out of me in my early playing years. Struggling to afford a half decent guitar and amp and that idiot was smashing them to pieces at gigs."

Bang on, me too.
Never liked him.

[BrianD]

Over the years I have owned a number of Gibsons and, in particular, several Les Pauls. Today I am fortunate enough to own one of the limited number of "Pearly Gates" examples. For those who don't know, Pearly Gates is the name Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top gave to his original flame top '59 Standard. I am not particularly a Billy Gibbons fan although I did love those videos that they used to make and show on Top of the Pops! However, I am a sucker for a really great flame-top and Gibson's Custom Shop did a fantastic job of replicating BG's original PG. I have to say it is a fantastic guitar, the best sounding and playing Les Paul I have ever owned and is the instrument I am pictured with here. I also have a great Strat but the Les Paul is the dog's doo dahs as far as I am concerned and is the one guitar I will not part with.

Brian

[David Martin]

If you're looking for a Les Paul, keep your eye open for a used Custom Shop VOS at the right price - they ARE about at less than the cost of the so called Standard and are just wonderful... best value is the R8 plaintop... £1000 cheaper than the figured top R9 and otherwise identical...

Fabulous guitars...

[Tigerdaisy]

message deleted

[cockroach]

Funny you mentioned out of tune Les Paul guitars.

My dear old friend, now retired, was a top class repairer and luthier, as well as a player (professional since about 1946 by the way!) and a guitar teacher who had a guitar shop for years.

He told me that he encountered this problem with 'modern' (i.e from about 1968 onwards) Les Paul guitars many times- the bridges (with those fixed mounting studs set into the body) were often installed in the wrong place- it didn't matter how much you adjusted the Tune-o-matic bridge saddles themselves, they would be impossible to tune. He showed me a late '70's Les Paul De Luxe he was working on once- the bridge location was visibly out by nearly half an inch!

I think that back in the early days when most guitars were largely hand shaped, assembled etc even when mass produced, the Gibson Les Paul set neck design would obviously have been harder and more expensive to build and assemble and set up, compared with the relatively simple Fender type bolt-on neck design.

These days? When everyone uses CNC machines etc? When a Chinese factory can turn out a good copy of a Les Paul? Obviously Gibson timber quality, other materials, hardware and pickups would be superior I suppose.

As the Everley Brothers said, just as you get Ford families and Chevrolet families, similarly you get Gibson fans and Fender fans (the Everleys were a Gibson family!)

[dave robinson]

I like both Gibson and Fender as they each bring something different to the texture of rock and roll. I own several of each as well as my beloved Gretsch, Burns , Epiphone and of course my old Yamaha, Washburn and Hoyer acoustic guitars. Each has an appeal and offers tonal input to all genres of music that I enjoy playing - it isn't a contest and it's a case of 'horses for courses'. Generally speaking my Gibson instruments are better built than the Fenders, simply because of the binding and fixed neck joints which are standard on most Gibson models, which also applies to the Gretschs' . That isn't to say that the Fenders' are poor, but they are assembled rather than built in the sense of the word 'craftsmanship'.

[ecca]

I've never read so much nonsense about Gibsons in my life.

[JimN]

Well said, Ecca!

Hmmmm....

I like Fender, but then, I also like Gibsons.

But which is better?

There's only one way to fi.......

[Tigerdaisy]

I've never read so much nonsense about Gibsons in my life.

Mr Moustache, you're obviously pretty well uninformed and quite cocky about it to boot.
The problem with the Gibson Les Paul is that it relies very much more on the human factor during construction than the Fender Stratocaster. Leo Fender designed a guitar that could easily be assembled by a relatively unskilled workforce- the human element being taken out of the process as much as possible. This is where Gibson have the problem, especially nowadays compared to the past. These two guitar companies are there to make money and Gibson, being owned by a group of Harvard business men are there to make money... Because of the nature of the necessary construction processes the Les Paul demands much more attention than the almost modular constructed Strat. In other words, it demands more human input, which as we all know is where things can potentially go wrong especially if you have an indifferent work force... Now as someone has previously pointed out the les Paul is more a job of work requiring a craftsman than the Stratocaster which learns very heavily on machined components. Therein lies the problem. This is the reason you are more likely to get a good playable Strat off the shelf than a Les Paul.
Forget the past- today is different. I would hesitatingly suggest, and I'm not naming any names, that some work forces care more about the final quality of their product than others...
I own a Les Paul and a Strat currently. I've owned about four Les Pauls in the past so I'm not really partial. I don't know why you, Mr Moustache, think I would post something about which I have no past experience- perhaps I made it up?
To assert that I'm talking nonsence is little short of being offensive and at best dismissive because of what I said didn't meet with your idea of how things are.
I'm quite reluctant to post on this forum when its got people like you lurking about- it spoils what is otherwise a friendly and extremely informative place to visit.
One thing I can add here is: dont believe everything you read in Guitar magazines- the reality is horrifyingly different- sadly.
Martin Kay

http://www.martinkay-3d.com

[ecca]

To assert that I'm talking nonsence is little short of being offensive and at best dismissive because of what I said didn't meet with your idea of how things are.
I'm quite reluctant to post on this forum when its got people like you lurking about.

Go somewhere else then.