Topic: Les Pauls Everywhere

Was browsing through UK eBay in the £800-£700 price range, saw alot of Les Pauls and quality LP copies, but few Strats or Teles. Is this because;

a) Les Pauls are out of fashion.
b) Fenders are selling way high
c) There are more LP copies out there than anything else
d) When you're having to sell a collection the LP is the first to go...

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'

Re: Les Pauls Everywhere

Hello Cytania
I looked on www.ebay.com, and got those results: only Gibson LP & Fender Stratocaster. Results:
- 1443 items found for: gibson les paul.
- 2101 items found for: fender stratocaster

My humble opinion is that the fender stratocaster is indeed more prominent on this sites. But HOW MANY DIFFERENT GUITARS HAVE THE NAME "FENDER STRATOCASTER", these results includes also Mexican Fenders, and I am surfing a lot on the web, due to my disablity after a car crash. So I am always looking on ebay sites, on zzounds, 123music, musician friends and many more: About the fender stratocaster: it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to find a guitar, just look at "all the relics", all "the reissues", all the "specials, like Beck, Clapton, Rory Gallagher" and I didn't talk about the Mexican Fenders. In a music store it is getting so bad, that even the people who work there, talking about a big store, have difficulties to tell more about "a fender strat". I have an original Fender Strat US made 1964, all original. Selling this guitar will allow me to have an exagerated amount of money. I can even buy 3 expensive fenders (4000$) and will still have 8000$ left. If you live in Europe, they designed a serie, named "California Beach"and only in a limited edition for only the European market. 1 Telecaster (a 1952 reissue I think, in a colour they used to paint cars, a light, dirty green colour, but I think they are sold out, there were also 2-3 stratocasters, California Beach, and today, 2 years later, my green (and fantastic sounding tele, is already 30% more expensive.
On the other hand, Gibson Les Paul model has 3 categories: LP Standard, LP custom, LP studio, but you can add the SG, and they have reissues too, like ther Jimmy Page LP, but with prices far to high.The cheapest REAL gibson is the melody maker, real good comments and critics, price
349,95 $, if you live in Europe, I live there, don't know that price. But fender is (my opinion) really exagerating. A model 2000$, you don't see any difference can cost 300$ more because of a little different wood, or coil.
I hope I could help you

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

Re: Les Pauls Everywhere

Thanks for that Phil, my impression was partly that the Les Pauls I was seeing appeared to be better than the eBay stratocasters which were often badly worn. Alot of the LP copies were quality instruments just not by Gibson.

I've tried a MelodyMaker (my very first post here was afterwards) and found the tuners don't hold long at all and the P-90 pickup really grates.

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'

Re: Les Pauls Everywhere

I have 2 Strats and 3Lps and 1SG, my personal opinion is as follows, Nowadays it seems to me as long as the feel of the neck and the guitar is good for you, then it's more about what you are playing through! Not what you are playing! I have an inexpensive strat ( Aerodyne Strat) but it's my cheap, Epiphone Lp cust. that I play the most. And why because it feels better than my Gibson! With all the amps and electronics that are inexpensive these days it's not so much what you're playing than how you play and what you play through!

Re: Les Pauls Everywhere

I have too many guitars.
- acoustic: GIBSON, SJ 200 Montana Gold, DOVE, HUMMINGBIRD (2), MARTIN , from D-1 up to D-45, 7 or 8 I think.
- Electric: as I am a PRS man: PRS CUSTOM 93, full option, when I bought this guitar, only a few people had heard about this brand. The 3 PRS EG USA series (only made from 1990-1992, except for one -1994) Fender Strat 1964 US all original, EPIPHONE SHERATON (real good guitar) variax 700 Gibson LP Supreme, Gibson LP ORIGINAL CUSTOM 1968 (first year of producing again), Gibson LP Custom 1978, Gibson "faded"SG Menace, and Gibson Flying V, BURNS 2x6 (12 string) and Telecaster California Beach= killer.

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

Re: Les Pauls Everywhere

cytania, the Melody Maker of today is not the Melody Maker of the 1960's like the one Leslie West used! It's cheap crap! But some of the cheap Lp's you can't find a better deal for the money, such as the mahogany that's currently selling for about $800.00 has great pickups and a good neck that just needs the edge of the frets filled down! It's no frills! But if you're looking for something with a great blues and or rock sound at an affordable price then you can't beat it! I plan on getting one myself.

Re: Les Pauls Everywhere

gitaardophil, saying you have too many guitars sounds like your wife talking! My wife used to say I have too many guitars, until I asked her if she had too many pieces of jewelry? Since then she never tells me I have too many guitars!

Re: Les Pauls Everywhere

My opinion on strats as opposed to lps is very simple different guitars for different styles of music! Some people like the fast feel of strat with a maple neck and some like the warmth and softer feel of rosewood! The shape of the tapered slim neck of an lp as opposed to the flatter wider strat! Which is better? It's all about what an individual likes!

Re: Les Pauls Everywhere

I love your answer, Joey E, this is really without discussion, the best way to "block" someone's answer. My collection, as I wrote already 1000 times started by coincidence. A very good example was, in 1995, I had a Gibson Les Paul Studio, very beautiful black guitar, with gold hardware.
I had the occasion to buy this guitar, thanks to a friend, working at the border as Custom. The Studio, brandnew, had a little scratch, and was not for sale any longer. I paid 300$ for it.
ONLY, I needed to tune this guitar so often that I started to hate this Gibson. I went to a music store and had the luck that they took over my guitar (paying me 700$) if I bought another. That other is still the best guitar I ever had, and it was called a "PRS Custom, full option. Since thgat day I am a PRS guy. Even the series made in Korea, PRS SE, are better followed and they end up in the PRS factory, before going to the store. There is a difference between US made and Korean made, and for me these are the best guitars price/quality.
When I bought that PRS, I, and almost all the artists in this (sometimes lousy) country, didn't know that brand. Indirectly I sold at least 5 PRS guitars, who were back in 1997, more expensive than now, by giving my guitar to a (professional) musicians who were really amazed.
Now, most of guitar players know that brand, but it looks still "fancier" to play a gig with a GIBSON or a FENDER, because the "so popular" shape.
I was in my music store 2 weeks ago (15% discount, on all their products), sorry, I was there too one week before with a friend who wanted an Epiphone, I tried the SG model, and the cheapest Epiphone SG, was really the best (for me): price: 260$, but my friend was in love with another
Epiphone G400 Vintage Electric Guitar, while my choice was an Epiphone Special SG.
For us Europeans, it is so interesting now to buy a guitar on ebay: 1000$ =723€. Even with import taxes and VAT, it will be 900€. The same guitar, here in a "monster store", will cost you 1300€, so the choice is easy. I have got just 1 problem: I won an auction for a Gibson Humminbird, and she arrived with the "typical Gibson fracture: the neck, just because they forgot to remove, or send it with all strings without diminishing the tension. The electrics: NO PROBLEM.
I am convinced that I will buy an Epiphone on a rainy day, did you see the white Epiphone custom les paul with gold hardware: love at first sight. I ALWAYS TRY A GUITAR OUT IN A STORE, BEFORE ORDERING IT.

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]