Crayon Sky Music

What is the point of getting a Gibson Les Paul Standard?

The 2008 Gibson Les Paul Standard Plus which is $2,600 has the exact same pickups as the $800 Gibson Les Paul Studio Vintage Mahogany. They can’t sound much different, can they? What is the difference?

Okay, so if the pickups are the exact same, what is different?

C’mon, you should know that pickups don’t *make* sounds, the “pick it up” from the vibrations of the strings. When strings are vibrating, what else is vibrating? The guitar, which is made up of many things that aren’t strings or pickups.

In terms of the quality of a guitar’s tone, the most important things to consider – the type and quality of the guitar’s wood, how the neck and body are joined, the quality of the hardware, the level of precision in how the fingerboard and frets are installed and levelled, and lastly how it is finished. The last is a cosmetic issue, surely, but the coating will affect the tone – take that thick poly coating off of your guitar and put a few layers of lacquer on it, and see how different your guitar sounds!

I submit to you that the pickups are one of the least important factors to take into account when buying a guitar. You can always buy different pickups, but you can’t change a bolt-on to a neck-through, and while you *can* swap that basswood or agathis body out for a nice mahogany body, you’ll be paying one sweet premium to do so, and that’s if you know how to do it, what body to select, etc.

As an aside, it’s best to think of a pickup as a filter – they selectively let more of this frequency through than that one. They are complex filters, with time-dependent characteristics, but they are filters nonetheless.

Many of the Gibson bodies are made from very decent wood… that means they had to scrounge to find a good source, and had to pay a decent amount to get wood that was structurally sound, had good tone potential, etc. That is one reason why some Gibson guitars are more expensive than others. A lot of extra work went into getting the little things, the little details, just right.

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Okay, with all that said, if you can’t *hear* the difference or the difference isn’t worth the extra money, get the cheaper one. Me, while I can appreciate the sound of many of the more expensive guitars (and appreciate their higher level of construction), I simply don’t have the funds available to buy a 1000$+ guitar. To me, an Epiphone that has been set up properly, with the right pickups, is a perfectly adequate replacement for a Gibson.

Is an Epiphone as good as a Gibson? In general, no. Are they close enough that I don’t care? Yes. Sometimes that’s what matters.

Saul

2008 Gibson Les Paul 1959 Historic VOS plus 1969 Fender Vibrolux Reverb