Les Paul Copies: Are They Better Than Gibsons?

[Alex]

Is a Gibson Les Paul worth the investment? We dive into the world of Les Paul copies and compare quality, sound, and affordability. Find out which one comes out on top! https://www.geartalk.com/les-paul-copies/

 

[Jp3764]

Depends on the guitar.

 

[DeafDumbBlind Kid]

my only experience with Les Paul copies is with Ibanez and Epiphone. I've never had any time with an Orville, Burny, Greco, Aria et al. Mostly I'll say they can definitely be good players. But better? Better is subjective. However, I'll leave this anecdote.

In 1976, I bought an Ibanez Les Paul standard copy. I had that guitar for 13 years. In 1989, I traded it in towards a new Gibson Les Paul standard. I brought it home and plugged it in. Within 3 minutes, my mom hollered up the stairs "You bought a new guitar, didn't you?" My mom, god bless her, didn't know a hill full of beans from a guitar, yet she was able to tell the (massive) difference in how those two guitars sounded.

 

[Deftone]

Interesting read.

I have no experience with any LP copies. I do like the look of the Tokai's and some of the other Japanese copies, though. I'm also a big fan of the ESP/LTD Eclipse models. I'm definitely a believer in Japanese made instruments. I have a '91 MIJ Stratocaster, a Model Series Charvel and I owned a Aria Pro II and an Ibanez Roadstar II. All very high quality.

 

[Gtarzan81]

MIJ: some are, some are not.
Heritage: pretty 1:1 direct, Jimmy Wallace in Dallas had a couple of the new Custom Core for great prices. I should have gotten one.

 

[Gtarzan81]

Is a Gibson Les Paul worth the investment? We dive into the world of Les Paul copies and compare quality, sound, and affordability. Find out which one comes out on top! https://www.geartalk.com/les-paul-copies/

Was this article written by Chat-GPT?

 

[Roberteaux]

Well... I don't know about "better" across the board, exactly...

But I am willing to say that one of the sweetest and most "perfect" of all the Les Paul guitars I've played so far was actually a 1974 Ibanez copy, made in Japan. It's apparently a "lawsuit guitar", and I can see why Gibson might have been very upset by the model if they were all as nice as the one I got to play.

Everything about that guitar was superb. It had that authentic-sounding Les Paul humbucker sonic vibe going for it in a big way; the natural "voice" of the instrument was exactly what we'd expect from a Les Paul model. The finish was flawless, and I was very surprised to see just how well set-up the instrument was. No dead spots or funny tonality to be found anywhere on the fretboard.

It was very, very easy to play, even for a beginning guitarist. The neck was a perfect fit for my hand, though I'm not sure of its specific dimensions-- except to say that the carve profile was a "Soft C" shape.

I can also recall that the neck of that Ibanez wasn't quite so "chunky" as my 2010 Gibson LP Traditional. But by the same token, it wasn't an extremely narrow fretboard. It wasn't like a super-skinny Rickenbacker or 60's Gibson neck, or anything like that.

It's my understanding that Ibanez has manufactured guitars in Japan, Indonesia, and China. But I've never actually played anything other than that 1974 Ibanez, and am not sure what sort of quality to expect from a more recent model.

--R

 

[DeafDumbBlind Kid]

@Roberteaux do you remember if that Ibanez was a set neck or a bolt neck? My '76 was a bolt neck. Many people said it played very nice, as good as a Gibson. However, nobody ever said it sounded like one. Even putting DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups did not bring the sonic tsunami that '89 had. Talk about the hammer of the gods. If only I knew how to play better and actually use the control knobs. I was an everything on 10 and bridge pickup only tool back in those days.

 

[jimmyjames]

Cuhlickbait...

 

[Roberteaux]

@Roberteaux do you remember if that Ibanez was a set neck or a bolt neck?

It was a set-neck type, finished as Cherry Sunburst. The owner bought it new and never modded it (he said).

Many people said it played very nice, as good as a Gibson.

That was pretty much my experience as well. It played very nicely indeed!

However, nobody ever said it sounded like one. Even putting DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups did not bring the sonic tsunami that '89 had. Talk about the hammer of the gods.

That's just so strange-- and pretty much above my pay grade when it comes to speculating what the differences might have been.

But then, I'm not an especially finicky kind of tone chaser, though I do like to dial things in closely. Seems as though I tend to mess with my amp settings most of all while looking for a particular sonic quality.

This Ibanez I got to play was running through a 5-watt Fender Custom Champ, clean, so I'm not sure how it would have performed if you really turned up the juice. But at 5-watts, I could get pretty much every Les Paul tone one might expect while playing clean.

That particular combination really sounded great together, at all the usual guitar settings.

If only I knew how to play better and actually use the control knobs. I was an everything on 10 and bridge pickup only tool back in those days.

I guess that was due to the style of the music you were interested in playing? Lots of guys I've talked to started out pretty much just like that.

But yeah: fiddling with the control settings can get you some really good stuff. Weird, though, that sometimes the "amp gremlins" get in there and you have to fiddle with controls to get the same sound that you got yesterday.

I never figured out how that worked!

--R

 

[motowntom]

I have 10 guitars, some Korean, some Japan, and one China. I have owned a few vintage guitars (1966 Casino, 1971 Rickenbacker 4001, 1968 Strat), and really would like and can afford a Les Paul. But every time I get a whim and go into my local dealers that handle Gibson, I can never find one that plays or sounds better than my current electrics, at least under $3K. I do all my own setups inc. fretwork, so maybe that's the issue. I just haven't found one that's better than what I have.

Cheers

 

[Village Idiot]

Not mine‍

 

[ThePanda]

My Greco is better than most Gibsons/Epiphones.

Exception being one LP Studio and an R9 I tried.

With the appropriate price, I think they are a good contender.

But honestly, who cares. It is whatever feels good to you when you play it.

 

[OldBenKenobi]

I've got a 90s Gibson Standard, a Bacchus Classic series and an Edwards.

The Bacchus is more accurate to the Gibson than the Edwards is. The body shape on the Edwards is slightly off, there is some Eclipse DNA in there. The Bacchus is basically identical to the Gibson.

Comparing my Bacchus and my Gibson, the differences are interesting. The Bacchus came stock with an aluminum tailpiece, an ABR-1 bridge and Gotoh bushing-style tuners. The fit and finish on the Bacchus is cleaner, the fretboard is a very gorgeous piece of dark rosewood and the plastic used is a much lighter shade of cream.

The Gibson is lighter, brighter and more resonant - whether that's inherent to construction or a factor of being over 30 years old, I cannot say. The Gibson has a nitro finish and fret-end nibs.

I don't prefer one over the other, but the Bacchus was half the price.

 

[frehley76]

My 1980 Tokai LS80 is very close sound wise in my opinion as my 2003 R7 Braz. I have a Tokai LC225 that the build quality is right there with my 68RI. Luckily I have some good examples of Gibson and Tokais. I got my Gibsons cheap, the braz was $1600 and the 68 was 2k but in today's money the Tokais are much cheaper.

 

[ArchEtech]

I terms of pure build perfection, sometimes even the cheaper models seem to have fewer “flaws”.

I tend to appreciate some of what Gibson has, and a direct result of being truly handmade. Because they are not using robots and CNC machines for the bulk of the building process, there are bound to be some human imperfections at times. Because of this, even the nine aged model tend to have a vintage feel, look, and smell.

ESP guitars are perfection but don’t have that.

PRS have their own thing going and it’s not like an old furniture shop.

 

[Grenville]

"Do you like my guitar? It's as good as a Gibson!" seems to me to be said more by people with low cost instruments who probably don't have a lot of experience with actual Gibson guitars.

I don't know that a lot of the people here who follow or collect Tokai, Bacchus, Burny, Navigator, Crews or the like would use that phrase.

YMMV, play what you like, etc. If you want something as good as a Gibson, get a Gibson. If you like inexpensive instruments that seem to punch above their weight, enjoy those for what they are, by all means.

PS I like Japanese guitars.

 

[lpfan1980]

Ive heard nothing but good things about Grecos and Tokais I should check em out! Some look superb with loths of character!

 

[efstop]

I have an Epi Junior, but aside from that, I have no guitars that "look like", "sound like", "play like" a Gibson or are "better than a Gibson."
I have Gibsons. Nine of them One is a Les Paul and one is a Les Paul Melody Maker (thin body, carved maple top.)

 

[currypowder]

"Do you like my guitar? It's as good as a Gibson!" seems to me to be said more by people with low cost instruments who probably don't have a lot of experience with actual Gibson guitars.

I don't know that a lot of the people here who follow or collect Tokai, Bacchus, Burny, Navigator, Crews or the like would use that phrase.

I've been collecting some pretty amazing Japanese copies, clones, tributes, forgeries, or whatever you want to call them for the past 20-ish years. I don't limit myself to pure copies, I also like the funky MIJ stuff. I'm drawn to them because I find them to be fantastic guitars in their own right, regardless of how they compare to a Gibson. FWIW, I've owned many Gibsons throughout the years, but they never seem to stick with me.

My OPINION, based on my experience only, is that at the upper end of the spectrum, the MIJ copies (Crews, Tokai, Momose, g7 and others) are absolutely on par with the best that Gibson offers. I might be able to argue that one has some feature that is considered "better" over the other. And personally I prefer the MIJ stuff for a variety of reasons, some rational, some not. But you will never hear me say one is absolutely better than the other. Only that I have a strong preference.