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Gibson les Paul Studio 70's Tribute vs Future Tribute


SurfingWithTheAlien

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I'm planning to get a gibson les paul soon,to add to my armory consisting of a godin and an old greg bennett.

I cant decide between the two guitars and I'm kinda leaning towards the mini humbucker 70's studio.

i dont mind getting used/second hand guitars and if someone could link a site with good 'used' deals,it would be great!

Another thing I'm concerned about is the finish. Does it wear of soon and will it be able to take slight dings and bumps ?

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Hello and welcome to the Forums!

 

To provide You with links for used gear shops, You should inform us about Your location. Hopefully, someone in Your area can suggest a shop with a good reputation.

 

As far as these models are concerned: I own a first-run 50s Tribute Studio, and the finish is still like brand-new - after 3 years. Of course, I take good care of Her. Resistance to dings and bumps has not much to do with the Tributes' thin finish. The gloss versions aren't stronger either. Nitro-cellulose is quite a soft finish.

 

The 70s Tribute comes with voluted maple neck (Original version) - which is stronger than the regular mahogany (Second version of 70s Tribute) construction. Maple holds tuning better. Although, the mini-humbuckers are not the same ones as used on the 70s Deluxes this guitar is roughly based on. These ones are new rail-type pickups. Generally, minis give more brightness, than regular PAF-type humbuckers. But this is only true for the original run of 70s Tributes. The new variation comes with the extra-hot "Dirty Fingers" full-size humbuckers. The 70s neck is thin at the nut and very thick at the joint.

 

Probably, the Future Tribute, - with it's '57 Classic humbuckers - is a more versatile guitar, if You don't mind the strange appearance the Steinberger machine heads. Also, the assymetrical neck profile is closer to those of modern guitars. Similiar to those used on Ibanez RG series.

 

Finally, no opinion saves You the time of trying out these instruments for Yourself.

 

Cheers... Bence

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... Maple holds tuning better. ...

This depends more on the hardware environment of the strings than on woods to my experience. My mahogany neck/rosewood fingerboard Floyd Rose-equipped Gibson Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess has the same fantastic tuning stability as my Fender Floyd Rose Stratocasters, three with maple neck/rosewood fretboard, one with a one piece maple neck, all four with an alder body, and my basswood-bodied, Floyd Rose-equipped Ibanez RG 430 with maple neck/rosewood fretboard. In contrary, all of my three Gibson L6S, an all-maple resp. maple/baked maple construction, go out of tune after heavy bendings like the four Gibson Les Paul, the one Epiphone Les Paul, all with mahogany body, maple top, mahogany neck and rosewood fretboard, and the four SGs of mine of which three have mahogany body and neck with a rosewood fretboard, and one has a maple body, mahogany neck and Richlite fretboard.

 

The TP-6 finetunig tailpieces on all my chrome hardware Gibson hardtail guitars allow for a much better control of stick-slip of the blank strings in the nut, and so provide a better tuning stability than the regular stopbar an my Custom Shop Les Paul and my Epiphone (there are no compatible TP-6 available for these two), but it is by far below that of Floyd Rose systems, regardless of woods.

 

Finally I have to say that the tuning of my nine hardtail Gibson sixstrings as well as my five hardtail Fender sixstrings (which all are Telecasters, made of woods from alder over maple, rosewood and ash to mahogany) depends on climate changes in first order, and that detuning due to temperature and humidity is much worse than that of my six Floyd Rose guitars - entirely regardless of woods or wood combinations. The "Roxy" SG's Lyre vibrato is a dud as such, and I definitely don't use it.

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(This or that wood) holds tuning better...Really??? That's not my personal experience.

They seem to all have their "days," when they don't budge a bit, and other days, when

you can't keep them in tune, no matter what! [tongue] At an outdoor gig, last Spring,

when it was supposed to be 75, and sunny, it was 52, and damp! All my gutiars had

tuning issues, regardless of what they were made of. Ironically, the lightest, guitar

I own, and with the thinnest wood laminates, in the body, stayed in tune, far better

than any of my "solid" body guitars. That was my old '66 Epiphone Casino! Why?? WTH

knows? But, it's always been pretty stable, tuning wise. Even though, it feels more

"fragile" than my Telecaster's, Strat's, Les Paul's and/or SG's.

 

I can't tell you which guitar you should get, over another. But, just pick the one that

plays the best, and sounds the way you want. Try a bunch, too...of the same models.

They are never exactly the same!

 

Cheers, and good hunting!

 

CB

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