The Guitar Player Thread.

I'm gonna say that I still don't understand Les Pauls. Every time I pick one up it feels like a 2x4 with Cement Block at the end. What am I missing besides the whole dad rock poser aspect?
 
jimvreeland said:
I'm gonna say that I still don't understand Les Pauls. Every time I pick one up it feels like a 2x4 with Cement Block at the end. What am I missing besides the whole dad rock poser aspect?
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Jimmy Page.... is LZ dad rock?
I think LP looks damn good. Other than that, my preference is an Ibanez RG
 
Soundguy said:
That’s a sweet collection dude. I’ve bought and sold so many nice guitars and the only one I can’t part ways with is a black Les Paul Studio that I got in high school like 2003. It just fucking works.
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Thanks!
Lol my collection is a revolving door of different guitars.

But I prefer LPs because I can play anything on them
 
jimvreeland said:
I'm gonna say that I still don't understand Les Pauls. Every time I pick one up it feels like a 2x4 with Cement Block at the end. What am I missing besides the whole dad rock poser aspect?
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I’m a metal guy, cut me and I bleed metal, but some amazing players play/played Les Pauls aside from Page, Clapton, etc.. Randy, Zakk, Doug Aldrich, Joel Hoekstra, maybe all not metal guys, but great players. I went through a Les Paul phase and the problem is unless you want to pay $4k plus, I couldn’t find one that played well, felt good, or sounded good. Total crap shoot. Pull the one that costs $5k off the wall and it plays like a $5k guitar. Pull the one that costs $2k off the wall and it sounds like shit and feels cheap. Every Ibanez blows it away, even the ones that cost $350. Pretty shitty. Enter ESP. Their Eclipse models, especially the Japanese E-II’s sound amazing, necks are like butter, big frets, ebony boards, modern pickups, great sound, half the price. Everything the Les Paul should have become. Willy Adler, Skolnick, Hetfield play them.
 
Captain Brainstorm said:
I’m a metal guy, cut me and I bleed metal, but some amazing players play/played Les Pauls aside from Page, Clapton, etc.. Randy, Zakk, Doug Aldrich, Joel Hoekstra, maybe all not metal guys, but great players. I went through a Les Paul phase and the problem is unless you want to pay $4k plus, I couldn’t find one that played well, felt good, or sounded good. Total crap shoot. Pull the one that costs $5k off the wall and it plays like a $5k guitar. Pull the one that costs $2k off the wall and it sounds like shit and feels cheap. Every Ibanez blows it away, even the ones that cost $350. Pretty shitty. Enter ESP. Their Eclipse models, especially the Japanese E-II’s sound amazing, necks are like butter, big frets, ebony boards, modern pickups, great sound, half the price. Everything the Les Paul should have become. Willy Adler, Skolnick, Hetfield play them.
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For the price of a horribly built Les Paul, you can have an Abasi. It's the equivalent of buying a Richard Sachs over an S-Works. 50 years ago a Sachs had the name and was the pinnacle of tech, but times have changed. Same with everything in life. Hit the brakes in a 67 Camaro vs a 2022 Camaro. 1 looks good, 1 is good.
 
jimvreeland said:
For the price of a horribly built Les Paul, you can have an Abasi. It's the equivalent of buying a Richard Sachs over an S-Works. 50 years ago a Sachs had the name and was the pinnacle of tech, but times have changed. Same with everything in life. Hit the brakes in a 67 Camaro vs a 2022 Camaro. 1 looks good, 1 is good.
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Thing with the Les Paul is it has a very specific tone, and if you’re a fan of that tone, or have a favorite guitarist that plays it, it’s hard to replicate it without a Les Paul, or a very expensive copy of one. I really wanted a Les Paul because I played a friends Les Paul a long time ago that just felt and played phenomenally. It was just a regular black Les Paul from the early 80’s but man it was like butter. It’s a shame that their build quality now just sucks for price of almost $3k for a standard. I went to buy picks at my local guitar center a couple of weeks ago, and since it was empty I went into “the room” and tried a few Les Pauls since no one was around to hear my shitty playing. I tried a standard and a traditional, and both were garbage, even through an EVH tube amp. One of the sales guys handed me a used E-II that they were about to ship out to an internet customer and holy shit thing growled and screamed. It had an ebony board, extra jumbo frets, all gotoh hardware, and perfect action. Didn’t sound exactly like a Les Paul, but it sounded realllly good. It it wasn’t already sold I would have definitely thrown down the $1200 they sold it for.
 
Captain Brainstorm said:
Thing with the Les Paul is it has a very specific tone, and if you’re a fan of that tone, or have a favorite guitarist that plays it, it’s hard to replicate it without a Les Paul, or a very expensive copy of one. I really wanted a Les Paul because I played a friends Les Paul a long time ago that just felt and played phenomenally. It was just a regular black Les Paul from the early 80’s but man it was like butter. It’s a shame that their build quality now just sucks for price of almost $3k for a standard. I went to buy picks at my local guitar center a couple of weeks ago, and since it was empty I went into “the room” and tried a few Les Pauls since no one was around to hear my shitty playing. I tried a standard and a traditional, and both were garbage, even through an EVH tube amp. One of the sales guys handed me a used E-II that they were about to ship out to an internet customer and holy shit thing growled and screamed. It had an ebony board, extra jumbo frets, all gotoh hardware, and perfect action. Didn’t sound exactly like a Les Paul, but it sounded realllly good. It it wasn’t already sold I would have definitely thrown down the $1200 they sold it for.
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I have never played one that sounded or felt good. I also won't drop more than $1,500 on a guitar so that knocks me out of Les Paul territory anyway. And my cheesy $1,300 Charvel let's me do what I need...They recently raised the price of this to $1,700 so my $1,500 limit might need to go up if I buy the new one.

 
jimvreeland said:
I have never played one that sounded or felt good. I also won't drop more than $1,500 on a guitar so that knocks me out of Les Paul territory anyway. And my cheesy $1,300 Charvel let's me do what I need...They recently raised the price of this to $1,700 so my $1,500 limit might need to go up if I buy the new one.

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I like the new Charvel San Dimas line, hard to find one to play around here though.

I’ve been playing Master again because my kids love it, because Stranger Things. I could always play the solo somewhat correct, I get the opening riff and the ascending riff, but could never really get the harmonics and connecting sections in between, but lately, it’s been even more difficult. I played a lot when I was younger, but after college slowed down and stopped when I got married, had kids, etc. During the pandemic I decided to get back into it full bore. Practice every day, relearn how to play, but relearn different, which is the issue. When I was younger, I was Mr. Legato and hammer on/pull off. When I started again in 2020 I decided to try to become Mr. Alternate pick because I like the dynamics and that Yngwie/Nuno/Petrucci/Gilbert staccato sound. Learning to alternate pick properly is like going to fucking gym and learning martial arts at the same time. It’s a bitch for me go back to playing the opening riff of the Master solo properly, or any song where you need to switch between techniques.
 
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