Gibson Les Paul Custom

[Catalyst77]

Was seriously considering buying a Les Paul custom; anyone got any tips hints - years to avoid?

There are some really nice silverburst 2007 re-issues, but I kind of had my heart set on someting from the late seventies.

[indysmith]

tip: don't get a gibson one, lol. Unless yu got money to waste.

My Greco LP custom cost £180, has mahognay body, maple top, mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard, long neck tennon, stock SD '59s, a big fat 50s style neck.
It's a cracker.

[jt]

:D Yamaha pre lawsuit LP rip offs are said to be amongst the best LP`s ever made. Greco are said to be great to. Gibson were so worried at how good these guitars were they took the factorys in Japan to court to have them prevented from being able to make such good & acurate replicas. Check out Ebay & second hand sections of guitar shops.

 :D  8)

[Woogie]

If you got that money to spend, check out Legra or Feline guitars. Will make you something way better with better hardware for the same or less.

Tokai, Edwards, Burny and Greco (to name a few) are also good if you get a good one.

[Mr Ed]

tip: don't get a gibson one, lol. Unless yu got money to waste.

My Greco LP custom cost £180, has mahognay body, maple top, mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard, long neck tennon, stock SD '59s, a big fat 50s style neck.
It's a cracker.

Too the words right squaa out of my mouth. To reiterate:

FORGET GIBSON!!

The build quality on a lot (note: not all) of them, even the Customs, is appalling. Take this for example, it's been around for a few years:



The shoddy one at the top is an actual example - provided by Gibson themselves - of the neck joint on current Les Pauls. The one at the bottom is on historic models and custom shop (ie, specially made) ones. Note the difference in how much wood is in contact and to think, that's supposed to aid that "legendary" Les Paul sustain.

If you want a Les Paul, I suggest as already said - lawsuit models:

Greco
Burny
Orville
Edwards ESP
Fernandes
Yamaha

You'll pay 3-4 times less and get an all-round better instrument. As long as you don't care about what's on the headstock, you'll scoop a bargain and a half.

In fact, do what I just did as I was typing this (by pure coincidence) - go to eBay and just simply search for "japan" under musical instruments and filter it to show guitars. Behold the bargains!!

[jt]

:D Thanks for that tip Mr Ed i`ll check it out

 :D  8)

[Dreichlift]

I agree, go for the lawsuit models, I got a beauty for £230. I had a 2002 Gibson les paul custom before, and the lawsuit model blows it out of the water.

Also with the change you can buy two and still equip them with pickups for less than it'd cost to buy a secondhand custom!

[Transcend]

also look into the lawsuit ibanez les pauls


those things are sexual

same with the explorers

[HTH AMPS]

the early Jap Tokais are really good value too.  

if I had money to spend on a (non Gibson) LP these days I'd be looking very closely at the ESP Edwards line.

 :twisted:

[Mr Ed]

£180? £230? These are awesome bargains!!

[Catalyst77]

Hmm

Any arguments for?

Trying to take a level view point here; as it appears from above that all gibsons are shite always - which I'm sure isnt the case.

I know there have been bad years and dodgy quality issues, but this cant always have been the case; otherwise the whole "kudos" of having a les paul in general would never have come about.

Are we saying that the likes of jimmy page/ john sykes/ zakk wilde would be better off with a jap copy from the 70's?

[indysmith]

If you want a REALLY good Gibson; to match the quality of the Lawsuit models, nowadays you're going to be having to pay upwards of £2000, which is totally extortionate. The quality of Gibson's guitars hasn't always been in the state it is today; all we're saying there is a lot of far more economical options than spewing the £28,999 for the the 1959 les paul custom on ebay right now. The big famous people you've mentioned are all endorsed by gibson - so will get quality instruments hand made for them for free, to make gibson look good, and people will buy the cheap (£1500) factory replicas...

[Mr Ed]

^^^

Zactly.

Of course it's in Gibsons best interests to provide the best quality guitars to the big guys, they're hardly going to give the same treatment to Zakk Wylde, someone who's now synonymous with Les Pauls, as you or I.

It's shitee but that's what happens with the massive companies like that.

[Dazza1004]

Not wanting to be funny here but how many of you guys saying not to get a Gibson actually have one.

I wanted one for ages and was put off by all the internet doom merchants. I bought a new standard before xmas and couldn't be happier, no issues with the build quality, I cannot say anything negative about it, it's amazing. I tried a couple of others at the same time and they seemed fine too. I’m sure there are issues with some, the same way there are with any mass produced item. I had one of my Apaches cr@p out on me earlier this year and I think we all know how good BKP are in every department as a company, s**t happens sometimes.

Ultimately it's a separate argument how much more you are getting for your money with a genuine Gibson vs one of the copies, an argument that exists for pretty much every high end guitar manufactures like Fender, PRS etc.

For me the name was a big draw, I am not embarrassed to admit it. I could have probably got an instrument that was 95% the same for about 1/4 of the price but it wouldn't be a Gibson and I would have not been totally happy and still wanted the genuine thing.

If you want a Gibson, for me, there is no reason not to get one.

[jt]

:D Its fair to say that not all LP`s are cr@p. There are good ones out there. I allways pull a LP off of the shelf in 2 of my local guitar shops for a play & to see how they sound. To be honest when setup correctly they play OK but to my ears at least the sound varies. The suggestion of trying to track down a pre lawsuit Jap copy is they by & large again to my ears sound better & the build quality of the 70`s is renowned for being very high as the Gibbo`s were noterious for being very badly made.

Page played early LP`s 58, 59, 60 & 61`s very good build quality & great sounding. Sykes hunted high & low for a decsent sounding LP & your right to point out he found one & yes i think i`m right in saying it`s a 70`s model as well, so there are some good LP`s out there you`ve just got to track`em down.

The suggestion of trying to track down a Jap pre lawsuit is that if as has been admitted your not interested in having the name Gibson on the headstock then there are better, cheaper & better sounding guitars with the single cut shape.

 :D  8)