If You Had to Own 5 Les Paul Guitars... which ones?

[Guitar Quackery]

Friends,

Here's the question:

If you had to own 5 Les Paul guitars, which ones would they be?

Let's just list guitars that are actually doable to own. So, let's not put any desirable historics on this list. But vintage and reissues are fair game.

So, lets do a list from 1 to 5, with the most desirable one at #1 and let's list appointments for each one that are actually important to you, to have on each one of those guitars. So, if you don't care if the guitar has Klusons or Grovers, don't mention the tuners, but if plating of the hardware (nickel, chrome, gold) is important to you, please include it.

Feel free to include photos, too.

Let's hear it.

 

[lily_taeko74]

1# Gibson LP Trad with Manlius pickups, grover tuners, tone pros locking bridge, strung with 11-54 GHS or Daddario
2# Gibson LP Standard with a 60s neck with a Dimarzio Air Classic neck and Super Distortion both with coil splits, grover tuners, strung with 11-54
3# Gibson LP Deluxe with seymour duncan mini humbuckers SM2 neck and SM3 bridge
4# Gibson LP Trad with 3 humbuckers (SNS, Screamin Demon and Alternative 8 all SD pickups), 5 way rotary switch, push/pull for each pickup, grover tuners
5# Gibson LP Special like the 55-74 model with Dimarzio Neo P90s

 

[Leee]

I’m not selling anything to get down to 5.

 

[Leee]

This much is beyond debate:
All would have nickel hardware, locking Grovers, metal jack plate, 60s Slim Taper neck, and no chambering or weight relief.
Strung with nickel 10s.
Original-type pickups, lower output.

But if I was starting over from zero?
Buying five distinct Les Pauls?

1. Something along the lines of a ‘60 burst, with a nice flame top and lotsa bright red. From tomato soup to clown burst - bring it!

2. White Custom with nickel hardware.
And I don’t mean “aged” to the color of butter - I mean WHITE.
Just because. (Simply cosmetic)
It’d be cool if it was a nice Norlin.

And then something like these three:

3. Custom with a killer natural top

4. Something 56-ish with P-90s

5. Junior with a TOM bridge

 

[Dilver]

why no Historics?

 

[BlondieMcFilthy]

The three I have currently, a custom shop reissue - I played an R9 recently that just absolutely floored me, it was a stupid good guitar. But i've wanted a proper Les Paul Custom for as long as i've played guitar. Black Beauty, Alpine White, even a sunburst one - an LP Custom at a good weight is my holy grail.

 

[DeafDumbBlind Kid]

I'd keep my R0
Les Paul Custom 2 humbuckers
Les Paul Custom '54 reissue with staple neck pickup
Les Paul Jr
And a nice flamey R0/R9/R8 something in the vein of a '03-'06 with plenty of red

 

[Leee]

why no Historics?

For me?
I wouldn’t rule out anything Historic, reissue, or vintage. But none of those are specific requirements either.

I’ll take the right guitar whether it came from the custom shop or not.

Anything but Murphy Lab.

 

[efstop]

2015 Standard "Golden Pearl"
R4
Early '70s Deluxe Cherry Sunburst
Any year '57 Custom reissue (2 pickup only, thanks)
Keep my highly modified 2013 '50s Tribute GT

 

[Daddy Deluxe]

Black Beauty Custom
Gold Standard with P90
Blueberry Standard 50s
M2M
and just a 59 Standard Cherry Sunburst

 

[shark]

 

[Guitar Quackery]

why no Historics?

Maybe I shouldn’t have excluded historics. my reasoning was to keep it in the realm of what would be more realistic for more people.

 

[Guitar Quackery]

Anything but Murphy Lab.

LOL

 

[Guitar Quackery]

Early '70s Deluxe Cherry Sunburst

That’s exactly what’s missing from my collection and one of the Les Paul models I’ve been wanting to acquire.

 

[hgrev]

I would like to have 5 modern budget Asian Les Paul copies to compare them side by side.

Lets have for example:

Epiphone LP Standard
Cort CR 250
Jet JL 500
Burny RLG 60
Harley Benton SC450

Based on my experience, Epiphone won't be the best in this list.

 

[Duane_the_tub]

Burst
Special
Junior

Deluxe?

I don't need five different LPs. I don't have enough time to play my #1 as much as I'd like. But given the OP's scenario, I'd go for pickup variations.

 

[Romano]

If I had to choose five guitars to live with forever:

1. A 1959 Les Paul Burst.
2. A second ’59 Burst, with a slightly different top figure.
3. A third ’59 Burst—ideally one that still has a touch of red in the sunburst.
4. A backup ’59 Burst, because you never know.
5. I want to say something adventurous, like a Strat or a Tele... but let’s be honest—it’s just another ’59 Burst, this time with a Bigsby.

 

[dl125]

I'm kind of thinking about a 5th!!! The responses are giving me ideas. IMO maybe:
a Standard, a Custom, a budget type (Studio) model and a "limited edition" run.

(@Aahzz I did change the standards plastics back to creme. Too much looking at the beauty of the burst book)

 

[KamZigZag]

Two bursts, 58 dark back gold top, 56 gold top, and a 61 SG LP Custom

 

[searswashere]

Had 5, going down to 3. 96 standard, 2020 50s standard, 2021 R9 x2, 2022 68ri lpc.