old mark

My favorite new - to me- band, The Dollyrots...Let's Be In Love... They have a new CD and vinyl album out in September. mark

The Studio IS a Gibson Les Paul guitar, minus the hand labor intensive binding and in some cases the high polish on the surface. I have previously owned several old ('60's and '70's) Les Paul Customs, and I now own a 2010 Studio '50's Tribute P90. I found that the Studio is every bit as great as the old Customs and I find I prefer the simple style of the Studio...Mine is a Honeyburst andI have lightly hand polished the top. It looks to me very much like the late 1950's LP Model that the guitarist in my band from the mid 1960's played, and it has a fine feel to it...it is a beautiful sounding and playing guitar, and to me it looks absolutely fantastic. People say the wood is not as good on the Studio's as on the high end models, but my information states that it is exactly the same. All that is missing is some of the fancy looking touches. mark

I recently bought a used 2010 LP Studio '50's Tribute in Honeyburst, with P90's. It took me a few tries to really fine tune the set up, but it is a really great player and a beautiful guitar. I hand polished the top and I love the look and feel of it, especially the '50's neck. The sounds it makes are just what I wanted.

There is a chemical stripper that smells like oranges...the name has the word ORANGE in it, but I can't recall it completely. I used it to strip my Les Paul Special Faded very easily and successfully, finished the mahogany with boiled linseed oil. 2 points- 1. Do NOT use power tools to remove the finish AT ALL. I guarantee you will screw it up- it is way to easy to do so with a power sander of any kind. 2. I have used a heat gun to remove factory poly from a Strat. The result was terrible...I ended up buying a used body and just using the neck, easy with a Strat, not with a Gibson. Take care, take time, proceed slowly. Good luck. mark

Well, it is going to get tossed aroubnd again. The guitar is an '80's Samick SG-style of the Artist series, 2 chrome HB's, ebony board with MOP inlays, and built like the SG/Les Pauls of the 1960's. The pickups are great, and the guitar-although well-played- plays and sounds fine. Possibly the best $180 I ever spent. mark

I own a MIK Samick Lawsuit era Artist SG. I don't know who made the humbuckers on it, but they are very hot and have a beautiful tonal range...this is a beat up and well used SG, based on the old Les Paul SG and it is one of my favorite guitars-sounds and plays much better than it has a right to-I can see why Epiphone got upset! mark

Great thread, one correction - the Danelectro bodys were made of pine sides with masonite tops and backs. I played one for many years, an original Longhorn bass, (with factory case). It had a wierd type of soft plastic tape over the sides, and was copper and white "sunburst". I think I got it for around $120, and had it for over 20 years. mark

As far as the Gibson dealer's story goes, I have a story of my own: I used to own 2 Gibson Les Paul Custom guitars, one made in 1968, one from 1971 or 72 - never quite got that one straight. I own a Gibson Les Paul Special and an Epiphone G400 Custom/Les Paul SG today. The quality of the hardware, construction and materials on my Chinese Epiphone is as good as the '68 - except for teh cheap looking plastic inlays on the fingerboard of the Epi. The Gibsons were real MOP. The actual construction and design of the '71 Custom was not as good as my 2007 Epiphone and not as good as my '02 Special, either. So far as I can tell,the actual wood - mahogany - used in my SG-style Epiphone is first rate .It sings and rings, and I can hear my wife finger-picking it unplugged from across our living room, and I love to feel the vibrations through the entire instrument whenever I play it. It is one of my favorite guitars of my 50 some years of playing. The gold plated hardware, Grover tuners and pickups are as good as the Gibson versions I remember from years ago-I think the pup's tone may be slightly different, but Epiphones have always sounded different from Gibsons, even models from back in the old days. There is almost no difference in quality that I can tell at all. Plywood tops: The old Gibson jazz hollow body guitars were first made using a carved solid spruce top, later - in the '60's, IIRC, some -such as the Barney Kessel Model-were made with the laminate top. They were several hundred dollars less, and supposedly "inferior" because they did not change tone or "mellow" over time. Turns out they do anyway, more slowly, and they don't split or crack. I used to work in a guitar shop, and have played maybe 40 differeng electric guitars, and I don't believe the story about the "cost of the wood" - the difference per guitar would be about $75, maybe. Play a few Epiphones and I have little doubt you will be very happy with them mark