Les Paul Custom going rate/buying advice

guitars4you

Also check it out before you buy it
I recently was offered 2 late 70’s LP Customs
Both white
One was an absolute dog - Played and felt crap - Huge Ledge between binding and wood that just felt nasty- But still had a stiff price tag 

The other was clean but barely acceptable with regards to how it played 

Mike58

Re 1990 LPC , I have one, it is wonderful, I believe pickups are originals , they sound magnificent, such a good guitar… like a high performance car…. Sounds great from vol 3-8, then go to 10.. Wow

DefaultM

If I ever sell my 2005 it will be consignment in a shop and they can find someone who wants to buy it after playing it.
I'd feel guilty selling this to someone and imagining their smile when they saw it and then their eventual disappointment when they played it.

Loobs

Ta, all. @gusman2x would definitely hit up that shop, but I'm only here briefly for xmas (in Norfolk at that). I live in Germany. 

Loobs

kennyabis said:

Will have a 1983 white custom coming up for sale soon if that may be of interest 

It is! 

Loobs

DefaultM said:

If I ever sell my 2005 it will be consignment in a shop and they can find someone who wants to buy it after playing it.
I'd feel guilty selling this to someone and imagining their smile when they saw it and then their eventual disappointment when they played it.

Why? is it shit? 

DefaultM

It’s alright but it didn’t live up to my dream of having one.

Loobs

Hmm...tell me more?

TeleMaster

I've had many of these. Super cool, super heavy, poor tuning stability. 

Expect to pay anything from £2.7k-£3.5k depending on year and condition.

Loobs

Poor tuning stability? Haven’t heard that one before. 

Boromedic

It's a by product of three a side headstocks tbh not just Gibson either, with an appropriately cut and lubricated nut, it's not an issue really. 

Loobs

Didn't have this problem with any Gibson or Gibson-esque guitars in the past...

Boromedic

I always have a few D and G string tuning issues with them, without fail. That's on PRS, Feline, Gibson, Tokai, Rickenbacker blah blah blah. It's not a big issue and worse with newer strings, consistently they're the ones that go out whilst playing though. 

Edit: when I say issues, it's minor, can get through a number of songs before it's a problem usually.

Loobs

How aggressively do you play? 

TeleMaster

Loobs said:

Poor tuning stability? Haven’t heard that one before. 

Really? It's the number one complaint that people have with Gibsons, or those with a 3x3 headstock design because of the way the strings go through the nut and angle out. Compared to a Fender it's night and day and I believe many guitarists went from Gibson to Fender and others because of the increased stability. The Custom can exaggerate the issue even more because of the even wider break angle. The PRS design was made to combat this issue, and they hold tuning much better. 

Addressed here.

Also the String Butler was created for this issue. 

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/tune-voodoo-skull
https://www.string-butler.com/

To be honest, I think that a big issue for me because I generally use a lot of gain and use very transparent amps (Friedman, Carol Ann). If you play cleaner you may not notice it a lot. I know lots of people think it's a simple set up issue, file the nut a certain way but I still have the issue on them. I am quite sensitive to tuning issues so it is a bit of a curse.

I went to my mates house the other day who loves Gibson and I explained the issue I have with them, that I love the way they look, the way they sound, the people who played them but the tuning issues are just too noticeable for me. He said, I don't have that issue, he tuned his 90's Standard, played it and I was like mate that's out of tune, he said yea but only by a bit.  

Boromedic

Loobs said:

How aggressively do you play? 

Pretty aggressively

TBF, I can pull a Fender out of tune as well, they aren't immune to it either. I notice also a lot of pro bands with 3 a side headstocks guitars will change guitars quite a bit during a gig.

fretfinder

Loobs said: wine red isn't really my cup of tea.

Me neither, for LPCs I’m not a fan of wine red, transparent colours, sunburst, obvious 3-piece tops etc…

There’s only two proper colours for a Les Paul Custom, as any fule kno, and that’s black or white! 

TeleMaster

Boromedic said:

Loobs said:

How aggressively do you play? 

Pretty aggressively

TBF, I can pull a Fender out of tune as well, they aren't immune to it either. I notice also a lot of pro bands with 3 a side headstocks guitars will change guitars quite a bit during a gig.

Not nearly the same amount or frequency at all. Fenders are almost infinitely more reliable. 

tony99

TeleMaster said:

Boromedic said:

Loobs said:

How aggressively do you play? 

Pretty aggressively

TBF, I can pull a Fender out of tune as well, they aren't immune to it either. I notice also a lot of pro bands with 3 a side headstocks guitars will change guitars quite a bit during a gig.

Not nearly the same amount or frequency at all. Fenders are almost infinitely more reliable. 

My irrelevant anecdotal experience is: my LP standard has the issue (G-string, but easily remedied), my LP traditional had the issue (same string), my LP special didn't have an issue, my flying V doesn't either.

Any fender I've had (currently have MIM strat and tele) has never had the issue.

DefaultM

Loobs said:

Hmm...tell me more?

Pretty much what people then went on to say. I bend a lot and the G string in particular is not stable. I expected it to be the guitar I could play anything I wanted on, but you can't really concentrate on that when it's always going out of tune.
I've had a new nut and tried different ways of wrapping the strings round the tuner. When the old nut came out it was glued in very heavily and took a load of paint off the side of the neck with it, so when it continued to go out of tune with the new nut I wasn't thrilled.