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Gibson Les Paul Studio


PickyPick

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Hi, I have a Gibson Les Paul Custom at the moment and i'm going to start gigging soon and knowing how rough of a player I am and the fact with a tight stage my custom just wont last and pretty much self destruct on stage with my assistance... i also tend to Baby my Custom alot i do play with but rarely i tend to use Epiphone when i'm gigging. Anyway although i'm a very avid Epiphone Collector its not giving me that full fill and i'm on the prowl of a new guitar... so far the studio got my attention and i wonder how good these Les Paul's are, i have nothing against them but nor do i have nothing for them I've never played a Studio i do like the way a few of them look, and i know the 2000 somewhat price difference means theres a drastic difference (or not maybe Customs are just over priced i don't know) anyway how Drastic are those differences? I plan on Reversing what Gibson Intended to do with the Studio... use my Custom in the Studio a safe none damaging environment... and have my Studio go on stage and be the star (and be the star i mean take the abuse the custom is supposed to be taking) :) anyway as soon as i get the guitar i plan on immediately sticking the 57 Classic Plus in the bridge and 57 Classic in the neck (my theory in this is get the pickups the Custom has and it will sound close). Anyway any Studio owners throw in your 2 cents, whats it like to live with on a daily basis, how does the tuning hold up, any problems or annoyances that occurs? anyway thats pretty much it :)

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To me having played both. If you have a studio with 57's in it and a custom with 57's in it then by the fact the body is the same then in theory they should sound the same. Your Bridge would be different??? But I couldnt imagine that much of a difference. Swapping Amps is going to give you more of a difference. I am not up on the neck profile differences of your model compared with the Studio there may be some differences there. Cheaper Tuners might mean more string movement on stage maybe??

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To me having played both. If you have a studio with 57's in it and a custom with 57's in it then by the fact the body is the same then in theory they should sound the same. Your Bridge would be different??? But I couldnt imagine that much of a difference. Swapping Amps is going to give you more of a difference. I am not up on the neck profile differences of your model compared with the Studio there may be some differences there. Cheaper Tuners might mean more string movement on stage maybe??

 

well tuners and stuff like that don't really matter to me seeing a couple of bucks could replace those but the one thing thats not replaceable is the neck profile and body, so far all i know is that studios are all mahogany (maybe not all) and a Les Paul has a maple cap with a mahogany body... a thin maple cap shouldn't make too much of a difference in sound? as for the neck profile ill look around music stores and find one that fits my hand... if Gibson's necks are still hand made that means they all differ ill find one that feels good to me

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a thin maple cap shouldn't make too much of a difference in sound?

 

I would have to disagree with that, in my experience the maple top gives a LP's sound its distinctive "sparkle". Not to say that a different wood will make it sound "bad", but if you want the classic LP sound, you gotta have the maple top. I got a new maple-topped Studio around '98 for about $900 and it was a great instrument which was my main stage guitar for a while, until I traded it in on a vintage Fender bass. Now I wish I'd held onto it and just paid cash for the bass. But Picky is correct, you should really just go around to the music shops and try them out, and if you find a good one, grab it. Finding one that YOU like is the most important thing.

 

Also, I might be wrong, but I thought I had read that Studios are once again being made with maple tops?

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I have a Les Paul Studio with the 490r/498t pickups, and a Les Paul Traditional Plus with the 57 Classic pickups. The 490's are way hotter pickups, and can really overdrive an amp! In spite of this, and the fact that the studio has a chambered body, both guitars sound almost identical on clean amp settings, and the only real difference I can hear between the two is on the higher-gain settings, where the 57 Classics have a warm crunch, and the 490's will catch your face on fire! Other than on the really high gain settings, both LP's sound about the same, and sound like Les Pauls.........I also agree that the maple cap gives the Les Paul a little something in the tone department. Maybe it keeps the LP from sounding as dark as the all mahogany SG?

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I have a 2007 red wine studio with 490 and 498...and yes there is a maple top over the mahogany ( You can see the contour line ) and yes I have played many Gibson and the Studio can do the job very well...as well than any other Gibson LP. For the same reasons than Pickypick, not that I'm rough with my guitars, but there'll be no way I will leave a $3000 guitar on stage on floor stand, specially in night clubs or small areas I had and still have to gig ! A drunk guy once came to me for a special request... and his feet pull the wire plugged into my strat. You can figure out what happened to my Strat. a nice dive directly on the floor... No damage (Thanks God) but my heart failed for a second... Another time a girl was singing over my shoulder while drinking her glass of wine...yes...you guessed right... she dropped her glass on my Strat ( the same one ) again...no damage on the guitar...but you should have seen my shirt !!!!

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It sounds like a GREAT idea. The studio WAS concieved as a full blown LP without the extra trim and bling, and was MEANT to be able to provide the same performance at a cheaper cost.

 

Of corse, there have been different models with different specs, including different neck shapes, chambering, and even some with ebony fretbaords (like a custom). But even still, even if you could get the exact same build, no 2 guitars sound alike. But get something that is only worth maybe 600 bucks that performs the same, sure, if you look hard enough.

 

Of corse, you could very possibly find a studio that you think actually plays BETTER than your beloved Custom, so of corse, get on out and shop. I did the same thing, found a Mexican replacement strat for gigging, but now I am as attached to it even more than my others, so there's that.

 

On the other end of the argument, you might consider that guitars are meant to be played. If you are compromising time with your favorite axe so nothing can happen to it, that is time you won't get back. Just like better to have loved and lost than not loved at all, the same is true that better to have played, broke and repaired then not played much.

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On the other end of the argument, you might consider that guitars are meant to be played. If you are compromising time with your favorite axe so nothing can happen to it, that is time you won't get back. Just like better to have loved and lost than not loved at all, the same is true that better to have played, broke and repaired then not played much.

 

Yeah, i get that alot from alot of my band mates that say the same thing... fact of the matter is i'm not a rich person, i got this custom through alot of work I've always desired owning a custom... but if i break the custom cause of some drunken accident, such as strat-o-steve's examples... then ill never be able to play her again... of course i'm going to play this guitar alot in the studio but i just don't think its worth risking... its a once in a life time thing for me right now... and i rather not let go of that "One"... perhaps something good happens to my wealth in the future then ill probably be more open about playing my Primary guitars on stage... but until that point i just want to keep it safe :)...

 

back to the matter at hand... so the Studio is a good replacement its not expensive compared to the Trads and Standards (which i also thought about but too damn expensive and ill end up babying that too, which is utterly useless) and with the right pickups and the right model it Should sound like a Custom... so now i have to hunt for a Maple Capped, Mahogany Bodied, ebony fretboard studio with pickup mods to 57 plus and 57 classic (pickups i can do myself)... the hunt begins!

 

Oh! and about the Studio Faded... for some reason i really have an itch for Faded guitars... i like my guitars to be sparkling new and watch it age its also why i hate those Fender Road Worn guitars... i don't know just something about it watching a guitar go from brand shiny new and maybe 20 years from now it would get duller have marks each one with a story behind it etc... guess its just who i am :)

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I did go to my Local Guitar Center seeing its the closest music store... and not to mention they have the largest selection of gibsons ive ever seen... and im not partial to the studio the no binding really makes a difference feeling the fret edges, but im sure ill get used to that... as for the neck itself a few of them did have a good feel and a few of them were far to thin and far to thick... so now to budget out my money and go out and get one of these (Gibson SG is undergoing a repair thats quite costly, under the SG thread)so now i have to carefully split my money... joy

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