What DON'T You Like About Les Pauls in General??

[Riffster]

The upper fret access s the only thing that is a minus but only when standing up. I do not have that problem with my Explorer so if I want get up there I use the Explorer.

 

I am not going to complain about the price because I should have bought a Standard when they were around $1,600 4 years ago. I went with the VM and although I love it I should have gone for the Standard.

 

I do think all Les Pauls should have long tenons.

[Boston004681]

Price = WORTH IT

 

BUT... i hate how its impossible to sit down and play them.

 

The guitar itself' date=' I think is perfect. Yes, even the price. I don't mind paying top dollar for one I feel is worth it.

LPs in general, I can't stand the constant comparison between modern and vintage LPs or how some people think old LPs are automatically better...they're not. It's not just the reissue to original burst comparison that gets on my nerves, it's also the ones that can't get over chambering without even playing one first.[/quote']

 

cuz you work for the government!!! hrrmmmmphhh.. rich dude.

 

[chongo]

Your brother has a fairly unusual Ibanez Artist, in that it's one of the few 24-fret versions. It's possible that may account for some of the neck-heaviness. As a pre-79 model, it's also one of those with a slightly thinner body (and slightly wider). After '79, the Artists changed to an "AR-" numbering system, the bodies got thicker, slightly narrower, and heavier. No neck heaviness at all on my '82. When he's ready to get rid of it, let me know.

[tulsaslim]

It's ok for an American to wave the flag & declare that he will not buy any guitar not made in the U.S. but why would any non-American give a rats *** whether his guitar is made here or not? By that logic you've given him every reason NOT to buy a U.S.-made guitar if there are guitar makers in his own country.

[marius]

 

Not all Les Pauls are chambered. Get one without chambering if you don't like it. Personnally' date=' I like the chambering. JMHO.[/quote']

 

yeah aside from the historics and the lp traditional,they are chambered.

[Loco]

Too expensive, dry fingerboard, detritus rattling around in body chambers - I Don't expect a Gibson electric guitar to double up as a maraca. Did I mention they're too expensive...?

[pohatu771]

It's ok for an American to wave the flag & declare that he will not buy any guitar not made in the U.S. but why would any non-American give a rats *** whether his guitar is made here or not? By that logic you've given him every reason NOT to buy a U.S.-made guitar if there are guitar makers in his own country.

I've thought the same thing... patriotism is good and all, in most cases, but why limit yourself?

 

Do Germans only buy Hofner and Hohner instruments? Do Spaniards only play classical guitars?

 

That brings in the big question - can both Japanese and Spaniards play Ibanez?

[charlie brown]

1) PRICE

2) Upper Fret access

3) Weight

4) Too many models

5) Having to pay Custom Shop prices, to have one built the way it should be, in the first place!

 

Otherwise, they're great! ;>)

 

CB

[crossroadsnyc]

It's ok for an American to wave the flag & declare that he will not buy any guitar not made in the U.S. but why would any non-American give a rats *** whether his guitar is made here or not? By that logic you've given him every reason NOT to buy a U.S.-made guitar if there are guitar makers in his own country.

 

A reason to not buy a U.S. made guitar? Glad to see you think so highly of the country in which you reside. Perhaps you'd like it better elsewhere. May I suggest China? After all, that's where I voiced my displeasure with the origin of manufacture. If you think helping to support slave labor rather than Americans (which judging by your comment and apparently sour views of the United States you very well may) is cool, then we just disagree. There is nothing wrong with purchasing a foreign made guitar...I just draw the line at sweat shops.

[dred31]

personally i love the LP, only reason i didnt buy one was the price, and i couldnt find one that sounded the way i liked.

i am hoping to save up for one soon though and although the original weight is another thing that id have to get used to i have to say the difference between the new versions and the solid body ones is to great to ignore!

[djroge1]

As many have mentioned

 

1. Price

2. Weight

 

Also, I really like my '78 but recently I played a 2000 deluxe (I love the old 70's delux with the mini's) and the frets were way higher than my old '78. I've been playing that guitar since 1979, but I really like a 335 better these days.

[kingbeeinflorida]

PRICE baby, PRICE!!!!

[ProfChaos]

Overall, the Les Paul is a fine guitar with no issues serious enough to discredit it as a worthy purchase--provided you get "one of the good ones." (This holds true for many other guitars as well, since quality of wood and minute details of assembly tend to vary significantly from one guitar to the next, even within the same assembly run.) That said, I'll list a few issues that are not particular to the individual guitar, but are a matter of aesthetic tastes on my part:

 

1.) I prefer the new "LP Traditional" to the new "LP Standard," mostly because the sound of the chambered Les Pauls does not really do it for me. This is not due to the '57 Classic pickups in the LP Traditional, because they do not do it for me either. I prefer the "hotter" sound of the Burstbucker Pro, as it is arguably the finest passive humbucker ever made. That said, with respect to all who actually prefer either the more vintage sound of the '57 Classic pickups or the more "hollow" tone of the new chambered LP Standards, I wish there were an option where you could get a Les Paul Traditional with Burstbucker Pro pickups.

 

Since I unfortunately had to sell my Burstbucker-Pro-equipped LP double-cut, Guitar Center issue (2006-2007 production run), my solution to replacing this awesome-sounding guitar is as follows: When I am soon-to-be-blessed, I will have to buy a choice Les Paul Traditional and then buy a matched pair of Burstbucker Pro pickups so that I can install the pickups myself.

 

2.) It would be nice if Gibson would install a low-mass locking tuner like the Kluson TonePros locking tuners that are manufactured by the same factory that makes the TonePros Kluson-style tuners that come standard on the Les Paul Traditional. The Grover locking tuners that come on the new Les Paul Standard are an upgrade from the TonePros Kluson-style tuners of the new Les Paul Traditional, but the Grover locking tuners change the character of the higher register of tones produced by the guitar; the Kluson TonePros locking tuners contain less tone-reducing mass and would thus offer the best of both worlds, especially if they were also available on a non-chambered Les Paul such as the Les Paul Traditional.

 

cheers,

--Professor Chaos

[MarkL]

Price and strap buttons too small.

[gdw3]

After playing my new Standard for a couple weeks now, I'm going to add to my previous reply. And I'm surprised that there aren't others who said this, but I don't care for the 1-volume-per-pickup design. I've had quite a few guitars, but this is the first with this config. I don't like not knowing what the volume is when I switch pickups (without looking down). Has anybody else re-wired for a master control, and making the other vol pot a blend between the 2 pups? Is that going to be a pain with the new Standard's electronics?

[chongo]

After playing my new Standard for a couple weeks now' date=' I'm going to add to my previous reply. And I'm surprised that there aren't others who said this, but I don't care for the 1-volume-per-pickup design. I've had quite a few guitars, but this is the first with this config. I don't like not knowing what the volume is when I switch pickups (without looking down). Has anybody else re-wired for a master control, and making the other vol pot a blend between the 2 pups? Is that going to be a pain with the new Standard's electronics?[/quote']

 

My CK (Cheap Knockoff) came with traditional wiring but will be re-wired with, among other things, a Master Volume. There'll still be two tones, and that last volume control will be doing something else entirely.

[crossroadsnyc]

After playing my new Standard for a couple weeks now' date=' I'm going to add to my previous reply. And I'm surprised that there aren't others who said this, but I don't care for the 1-volume-per-pickup design. I've had quite a few guitars, but this is the first with this config. I don't like not knowing what the volume is when I switch pickups (without looking down). Has anybody else re-wired for a master control, and making the other vol pot a blend between the 2 pups? Is that going to be a pain with the new Standard's electronics?[/quote']

 

That's one of my favorite features. Having the ability to blend not only tone, but volume, when playing with both pups at the same time is wonderful...I get some of my best tone that way.

[gdw3]

I understand your response, but I think I can pretty much do the same thing with a master control and a blender control. Anybody try this?

[chongo]

I understand your response' date=' but I think I can pretty much do the same thing with a master control and a blender control. Anybody try this?[/quote']

 

Yeah, I have a couple of Carvins set up this way. I think their old active preamp setup did that by default. It's especially useful if you have a switch that tosses the two pickups out of phase and/or if you have coil tap switches for the 'buckers and can coil tap each individually.

[pippy]

Yeah' date=' I have a couple of Carvins set up this way. I think their old active preamp setup did that by default. It's especially useful if you have a switch that tosses the two pickups out of phase and/or if you have coil tap switches for the 'buckers and can coil tap each individually. [/quote']

 

I realise I'm getting on in years when I read the above and all I can think of is the Gary Larson cartoon where a dog is sitting on a bicycle on a high wire with a set of juggling balls and a balance pole with the caption : "All Rex could think about was : He was an Old Dog and this was a New Trick"....

[Murph]

While I don't own a Les Paul now, I gigged a '72 Recording from Mesa/Phoenix, to Lake Charles Louisiana, to Illinois for 14 years. After doing some Country Bands to make a living with Strats and Teles, my favorite guitars NOW are the ES-339 and the SG's. I'm a big fan of double cuts.

 

My daughters '08 Les Paul (Fireburst) Studio is a very fine guitar. I've gigged it, and I'd buy one in a heartbeat if I wanted one.

 

While I'm a huge fan of Carvin bass amps (see my sig) and their pa gear, and the Bel Air/Nomad amps, and the AG100D acoustic/all purpose amp/mini pa, I'm sticking with Gibson guitars.

 

No offense there Chongo.

 

Murph.

[chongo]

While I'm a huge fan of Carvin bass amps (see my sig) and their pa gear' date=' and the Bel Air/Nomad amps, and the AG100D acoustic/all purpose amp/mini pa, I'm sticking with Gibson guitars.

 

No offense there Chongo.

 

Murph.[/quote']

 

None taken. I've got a girlfriend who got her guitar the same day my Cheap Knockoff arrived. She was looking for a singlecut guitar and sailed through the Carvin store on Hollywood, said hello to Moshe and Mark, picked up one of Carvin's CS guitars and then we were out the door to Guitar Center. On the way, she said two things about the CS that sealed its fate in her eyes. One was that it was too heavy and the other was that it didn't have Gibson on the headstock. She ended up with a gorgeous all-black Axcess from the Custom Shop, with MOP inlays, ebony fretboard and a Floyd.

 

There are just people in the world who think that Guitar equals Gibson, no matter what.

[Apathesis0]

Chongo, I'm glad someone else out there thinks like I do. Seriously, the cream binding has this bizarre pink hue which does not match the pickup mounting rings or the pickguard, or the toggle switch plate. Why are there several different hues of cream? If anything other than color of this space I am typing in, it should be a pale off white or oak color.

 

The best looking Gibson Les Paul I've ever seen? The 2003 Manhattan Midnight I should have bought (stupid guitar pedals got in the way). White binding, white pickguard, white moungting rings... everything matched. There was no sloppy variation in color. And the finish was brilliant. It's really to sad that there aren't more Les Pauls made like this regularly. All the guitar needed was nickel locking tuners,a matching nickel bridge and tailpiece, and of course some Nickel covered Peter Green pickups... Nickel is so much more classy.

 

Other suggestions:

1)Fix the scale length. We all know our beloved Gibsons Les Pauls don't intonate properly do to the incorrect scale length, which is somehow absent from my Epiphone, which BTW, does intonate perfectly.

2)I love the stomach cut on the Epiphone with the awfully coarse satin finish neck and the weird pickup thing at the end of the fretboard. So much more comfortable. This should be standard on Gibsons. That 1/2 pound of removed wood is not going to noticeably alter the tone of the instrument, but you will notice the lack of rib bumping.

3)Shave down the heel, seriously shave it. Almost ever guitar out there has a huge heel, even Rickenbackers, which are neck through so they don't need it and shouldn't have it. I got little hands as it is. No need to have a wood sandwich getting in the way of the last 4 frets.

4)Make sure the color of the binding, the pickguard, and the mounting rings match. It looks tacky otherwise.

I don't want to pay upwards of 2K for something I'm not satisfied with, and will have to spend over another 2k just to get it to look, play, and sound the way I want.

5)Locking tuners. No more of these ugly green things.

6)Binding width on the neck should match that on the body.

7)Cinnamon burst. That color of brown bursted would be ultra sexy. Like a lighter shade of Bourbon burst.

8)Ebony fretboards.

9)Block inlays on more guitars.

 

That's all for now I guess.

[brundaddy]

AapthesisO, I couldn't agree with you more - Gibson needs to take a cue from Schecter and shave those heels down bigtime!!

 

Also I'd like to see more Les Paul Juniors, but above all: WHY NOT MAKE A HOLLOWBODY LP? It wouldn't have to have f-holes, it could have a top like Lucille or the 50s Gretsch Jet...

[LPguitarman]

 

yeah aside from the historics and the lp traditional' date='they are chambered. [/quote']

 

Like I said, Not ALL Les Pauls are chambered.

 

And even though I said it before, I'll say it again. "What don't you like about Les Pauls"? NOTHING.