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Gibson Les Paul Studio vs. PRS S2


swatts987

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well i will be honest with you i play 25 years guitar and i played BC RICH guitar (American handmade),Epiphone,Ibanez,Ltd and Gibson but never tried a PRS .

However from all the guitars i purchased a Gibson Les Paul is priceless and Always a classic cool rock n roll guitar and i recently bought a Gibson LP Studio 2014 and believe me its a great guitar.

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My vote is for the Les Paul Studio, but I love Paul Reed Smith, too. I have yet to play a Paul Reed Smith S2, but my local Paul Reed Smith dealer is supposed to be getting a couple of S2's - he's thinking about getting the Custom 24 S2 and Custom 22 S2 - so I'll checking one out whenever he gets them in.

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The PRS S2s are nice guitars, but, there are some things to note:

 

1. The Headstock is scarf jointed on the neck, it is not one piece.

 

2. The pickups and electronics are Korean. As is the bridge and hardware.

 

So it is a US built neck and body with Korean electronics and hardware. The guitars are made in Stevensville, MD.

 

With that being said, they are fantastic guitars with impeccable QC. I have played a few, and they are all flawless. If a PRS has flaws in QC, and can't be repaired quickly, the guitar is cut in half and thrown in the junk pile.

 

Whereas with the LP Studios, you have to play a few to find one that is "right" without flaws.

 

It really is an apples to oranges comparison.

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  • 1 year later...

Still Apples and Oranges

 

I have an 2015 Paul Reed Smith S2 Singlecut and a 2014 Gibson Les Paul Traditional.

Love them both, love the necks on both , tone wise still quite different.

 

quality on both, I would say is excellent , the off shore pickups are quite good , the S2 is a better guitar than a studio, studios are a level down in my books\

not the traditional though :-)

the traditional is still my holy grail guitar

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The PRS S2s are nice guitars, but, there are some things to note:

 

1. The Headstock is scarf jointed on the neck, it is not one piece.

 

 

 

But that is a good thing. It makes the headstock less likely to break.

 

The single piece LP neck/head is fragile. Because the wood grain follows the neck direction, when it gets to the 17 degree angled head, it means that the grain is at 17 degrees to the headstock direction. This amounts to an inherent weakness at the join. Hence the well known propensity for breakage.

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I think the pick-ups blow Imho as they do on their Custom 22 and 24's. They are uncomfortable and basically all show and no go. Buy the Gibson. Your also talking 25" scale length which is different than both the Gibson and the Starla [also junk]. Further its a polyester basecoat and acrylic urethane topcoat. The bridge set-ups are the same used on the SE series.

 

 

What you should do is look for the Studio on sale they just had a really nice model for Presidents day for $899. at GC.

 

 

No brainer to me.

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The OP hasn't been active since Mar '14 so unfortunately, unless he's just taking an inordinately long time to make up his mind, I think all this good advice will go unheard by him (or her)...

 

Might the lack of a NGD thread later on suggest the PRS won out?................:-k

 

Pip.

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Never met a Paul Reed guitar that I didn't didn't like.

 

rct

 

 

I have, but rarely. Even then its only because the set up has been poorly done.

PRS guitars seem more consistent in quality than pretty much any other major name. I've never found a manufacturing flaw in any of them.

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I have, but rarely. Even then its only because the set up has been poorly done.

PRS guitars seem more consistent in quality than pretty much any other major name. I've never found a manufacturing flaw in any of them.

 

Quality, to me, is a guitar I want to take out and make the girls blush. Them guitars just don't have the necks for it for me. More to a guitar than how nicely seamed it is, but I do appreciate how well they are built, every one I've ever tried has been superb.

 

rct

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