I'm sick of being told I don't own a true les paul and I should sell it to get an older one!!!

FelineGuitars

People do get their panties in a bunch over such things......

Slash is often referred to as one of the coolest Les Paul toting players and yet a lot of his playing that we see as definitive has been done with (wait for it ) a copy . A very good copy made by Chris Derrig out of the Music Works workshops in Redondo Beach.

I have seen awesomely good Gibson Les Pauls and awful ones - not all governed by the year or the model.

Some have just had a great feel and mojo about them whilst others have felt too weighty and stodgy by comparison.

However I have also seen some replicas , and cheap copies that have absolutely smoked the majority of Gibsons playing wise.

This is for no other reason than these guitars got lucky and were made with a couple of bits of wood that just work superbly well together.

Some needed a bit of fret dressing or set-up work to get the best from them, and maybe a pickup upgrade to transform them to being all that they could be. 

It is the alchemy of select pieces of wood and metal that go together well to give a guitar that responds well and inspires you to play  that underlies what we all look for (surely). 

The name on the headstock is a secondary thing - unless we are all "label lickers" in need of a status symbol.

Then it comes down to a player feeling at one with a guitar and playing from the heart and finding themselves playing notes they "didn't know existed". 

Sadly some players never spend enough time with one guitar to get that bond.

Gru

Out of curiosity, how many people are we talking? Seriously.

No one I know even cares what brand of guitar I have let alone whether they classify my Martin as a 'real one'.

Gru

Doubly bubbly.

Pyroman

johnonguitar said:

Sassafras;637439" said:

Who gives a toss what some anally retentive cork sniffers think?If you like a guitar, you'll be the one playing it, not some nit picking obsessive anorak.

That's some sort of communist attitude that can get you barred from many guitar forums

  Only the ones Worth getting banned from.

Iamnobody

Has anyone 'actually' said this to you or is it things you keep reading on the Internet?

If someone says it to you in person twat them round the head with it and then ask them if it 'feels' like a LP...

richardhomer

^ Though if it's weight-relieved, they may well say 'no'....

crunchman

And if it's a late seventies one you probably wouldn't be able to lift it as far as their head.

Sassafras

And then it would probably snap at the headstock.

XWulfhere

I've had my Les Paul Deluxe for 17 years. Aside from the mini-humbuckers I was always happy that it was all Les Paul, and until recently I'd never done any research online about different versions over the years. It was simply my Les Paul and was my only frame of reference. Then I found out:

• It was made during the Norlin period!
• The headstock is larger than a 'classic' LP!
• The neck is 3 piece maple and NOT mahogany!
• It's quite heavy!
  

At one point I'd almost convinced myself that my faithful axe of all these years wasn't the 'real deal' and I was beginning to consider getting an R8. But I think the turning point for me came last year, I was plugging into my amp and messing about and got a sound that to my ears sounded just like clapton on Bluesbreakers. It sounded bloody ace. Now I'm sure there's many purists out there who could instantly tell the difference between what I heard and what's on that record, but you know what? I couldn't. SO it's good enough for me and I won't be buting another Gibson Les Paul.

Since I started building guitars as a hobby, I've realised that guitars are a combination of wood and electronics. They don't sprinkle fairy dust on them at the factory. It's all about the choices of wood (from both aesthetic and maybe tonal perspectives), electonics and the craft... how they feel and play.

FelineGuitars

Wulfhere said:

Since I started building guitars as a hobby, I've realised that guitars are a combination of wood and electronics. They don't sprinkle fairy dust on them at the factory. It's all about the choices of wood (from both aesthetic and maybe tonal perspectives), electonics and the craft... how they feel and play.

Wisdom awarded!

ESBlonde

I think it's important to point out that the 'proper' Les Pauls with Humbuckers were made as gold tops in 1957 and sunbursts in 1958-1960. They were then withdrawn from production because of poor sales! So who would want one of them anyway, they had trouble selling them as new? Indeed there are a couple of known original examples of sunbursts with shadow faded colours where they sat for a couple of years in the dealers window untouched!

You have a real one for sure.

xmrchi

Wulfhere;639883" said:

I've had my Les Paul Deluxe for 17 years. Aside from the mini-humbuckers I was always happy that it was all Les Paul, and until recently I'd never done any research online about different versions over the years. It was simply my Les Paul and was my only frame of reference. Then I found out:



It was made during the Norlin period!The headstock is larger than a 'classic' LP!The neck is 3 piece maple and NOT mahogany!It's quite heavy!

At one point I'd almost convinced myself that my faithful axe of all these years wasn't the 'real deal' and I was beginning to consider getting an R8. But I think the turning point for me came last year, I was plugging into my amp and messing about and got a sound that to my ears sounded just like clapton on Bluesbreakers. It sounded bloody ace. Now I'm sure there's many purists out there who could instantly tell the difference between what I heard and what's on that record, but you know what? I couldn't. SO it's good enough for me and I won't be buting another Gibson Les Paul.

Since I started building guitars as a hobby, I've realised that guitars are a combination of wood and electronics. They don't sprinkle fairy dust on them at the factory. It's all about the choices of wood (from both aesthetic and maybe tonal perspectives), electonics and the craft... how they feel and play.

I totally agree with this, since I started making my own pickups, the "magic" brands marketing teams invent is just rubbish to sell you an ideal.
Pickups are very basic and whilst it's easy to make a cheap poor sounding pickup, it's not rocket science to make a good sounding one, use quality materials and learn how to wind and you will get a decent pickup. I have had some great feedback about the 3 I have made and that in its self speaks volumes for putting to bed this mojo rubbish.

If page, green, kossoff etc picked up a different guitar for those seminal albums where would the les paul be now? Probably with the other failed gibson solid bodies, just another curiosity:-)