Les Pauls you’ve SOLD? And why?

[sonar1]

I was a dedicated Tele guy forever.
After Carpal Tunnel Release Surgery, I had to NOT PLAY for a while, then come back real slow and easy.
I bought a used ‘93 LP Junior, and put 8’s on it, then 9’s, and finally 10’s.
Then I offed the Junior and went back to Tele’s for a couple more decades.
Never missed it, UNTIL I got hearing aids!
NOW, I have NO Tele’s!

 

[freak]

Mid 2000's studio. Wine red. Had switched out the pick ups to Seymour Duncan hot-rodded humbuckers.

 

[LesPaul60sTribute]

I have sold many many Les Pauls for various reasons. Mostly due to loosing work during the 2009 recession. I since have bought everything back - then had to sell again after another job loss due to the company being sold and a personal cancer diagnosis.

I have since re-purchased every model I loved back again. I hoping this is my last time revolving my collection. The one Les Paul I regret selling was my first - a brand new 1992 Les Paul Studio in wine red with gold hardware & ebony board. I was forced to sell or pay rent in 2011. I will post a pic. It was mint when I sold it.

Every other Les Paul I sold were great guitars but always replaceable I'm sure I have sold 15-20 USA Les Pauls over the last 10 years. I am very happy with the few I have now.

photo below of my first

 

[MBP84]

R7. Because I’m dumb

 

[budg]

Bought my first LP , a 2010 Studio Deluxe. Really good guitar. Sold to buy a proper LP, a 2012 Traditional. Sold it to finance a Martin D18. Bought a 2013 at blowout prices. Sold it because the neck was ball bat big. Bought a 2017 Classic in Silverburst. Great guitar , but was a boat anchor and was aggravating my sciatica. Bought a 20 Tribute that weighs 8 lbs which I have a love hate with. Really I’m not a LP guy , but like having one around to reach for. My preference is an SG and 335 that I have.

 

[Leee]

My preference is an SG and 335...

I’ve had my 2002 ES-335 for 20 years now.
It’s my “Cold Dead Hands” guitar.
Even says so on the truss rod cover.

 

[pedecamp]

I sold a Studio Deluxe II after owning it for about two years. Of the 4 LPs I've owned it's the one I bonded with the least. It had some minor QC stuff which bugged me more and more over time, and it also had an active 10db boost built into it that sounded cheesy to me. The nice thing was that it had coil splitting, rather than coil tap, which I really liked. The single coil modes were pretty useful when recording.

I returned a 2006 Classic a couple days after buying it because it had too much fret wear and the clean sound wasn't that good. This was one of the old "1960" ones with the 496R and 500T pickups. Amazing distortion sound from that guitar - seriously incredible - but I need those jangly cleans too and this one just didn't have them.

My 2000 had the same pickups.
Yuck.
THIS is what schooled me into “vintage” lower output pickups.
57 Classics are probably still my favorite.

If you need more output, there’s a gazillion ways to boost the signal.
But if you have thin, shrill, ass-sounding pickups?
No tone means NO TONE.
No matter what you do.

I tell people that those ceramic pickups are great for Pantera riffs.
But I don’t play Pantera.

I love the 500T/496R combo! Not at first though, they are hot pickups and need to be adjusted properly in the guitar, and they require I dial my amp totally different than any other guitar I own because theyre so hot. I got them from a friend 15 years ago he pulled them out of a brand new Explorer and gave them to me, I fooled around with them in a few guitars but never liked them for the same reason you guys didnt until about a year ago I pulled them out and put them in an ebony LP knockoff I acquired, figured out how to dial them in and really like them! I can get great cleans and gain without even using OD pedals with the bridge pickup, and the neck pickup is very bluesy sounding how I have it dialed in. I have low gain vintage style pickups in all my guitars and love them but its cool to have one hot guitar like this one.

 

[uncajoey]

Besides my early '69 Custom, in the mid 2000s when the credit crunch hit, I sold damn near everything I had trying to keep the business alive, It was for naught, and these three went bye-bye, as it turned out, for nothing... The amber USA I know where it is, and it's being loved. The Cherryburst I have no idea.

The trans rootbeer CS Classic? I have tried to find it ever since then in the hopes of getting back, no luck so far. Best LP next to Patty Lou I have ever heard.
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Oh my, the heart breaks just looking at those pics. Beauties! Get that amber flamey one back!!!!!

 

[uncajoey]

R7. Because I’m dumb

I sold my R7 after owning it for many years, but I find I don’t miss it that much. Replaced it with a Classic Premium Plus because, flame.

 

[Platte City Paul]

I've only sold one, but I have no regrets. It was an ebony 2008 Traditional, and I sold it to my friend for $600. He had just gone through a scorching divorce, and I had two other Les Pauls. He was also finishing 30 years in the Army. I had done 27 and a 1/2 myself. I tried to give it to him, but he refused, so I took $600 and converted that into a Fender Blues Junior. His son, Christian, is becoming quite the player too, so it has a good home.

 

[Robert Davies]

Les Pauls you've sold?

Nope. Sorry, don't understand the question

 

[Bluesman1956]

I bought my first Gibson Les Paul in 1992.
It was a 1986 black Standard.
Had “SECOND” stamped below the serial number on the headstock.

I’ve heard many stories and theories about why Gibson was doing this for a few years.
Including even marketing strategy.
I never found anything wrong with the guitar to warrant this less than ideal ranking.

Anyway, I bought it from a coworker who got it new. He wanted to be a rock ‘n’ roll star, and quickly became frustrated. It wound up in a closet.

I was just getting serious about playing.
I was more of a Strat guy.
Always liked the sounds out of a Les Paul, and I decided I wanted to do it myself.

I stripped the parts off the guitar, gave it a thorough cleaning, restrung it, and got it set up with the help of a couple of knowledgeable friends.

Once it was as good as it was going to get, I started exploring what sounds I can get out of it. That’s where the disappointment began.
The guitar was very different from everything else I had owned or played and I was having trouble getting used to the differences.
The volume and tone control layout is stupid.
(I maintain that to this day.)

Everyone kept telling me I needed to get a tube amp. I was never going to be happy trying to get Les Paul tones out of a little solid-state amp.
So I started looking at amplifiers.
I got sticker shock.
I remember at the time thinking that $600 was a stupid amount of money to pay for a good tube amp. That’s more than I paid for the guitar!

I found an eager buyer for the guitar, and let it go. I think I made a few bucks on it in the process, so I was happy to see it leave.

Fast forward a year or two, I found another black Les Paul.
Almost identical to the first.
A 93 standard.
Beautiful condition.
The price was right so I grabbed it.
I wasn’t going to give up on finding the “right” Les Paul.
I had enough people telling me that it was very possible that I needed to find the “right” Les Paul. The one that I connected with.
Once that happened, I would be a believer.

It turns out, that guitar had bad pots in it. The bridge volume would never shut all the way off. Both tone pots were almost useless.
It had never been touched.
They were all original parts.
Disappointment again.
I kept it for a few years, rarely played it, and then a big blowout divorce at the end of the 90s had me selling off all kinds of stuff.
Including that Les Paul.

So every time I was at a gig, or met anyone who played Les Pauls, I always got the same testimonials. They loved their Les Pauls. They would never part with them. I was having trouble seeing the vision.

After the divorce, I got serious about guitars and amplifiers. Being a single man, I could spend my money wherever the hell I wanted!
I bought my first tube amp.
I rolled the dice on a Fender Hot Rod Deville.
DAMN!!!

That was it.
I bought a 2000 Les Paul Classic Sunburst with a killer top. I put a set of Burstbucker Pros in it.
Never looked back.

Those first guitars needed some work, but there was really nothing serious wrong with them.
It was true. A single-coil guitar is one thing, but a humbucker has to have tubes.

Since then, I have bought countless amplifiers and Les Pauls.
That second Les Paul, the 93 Standard, I bought back from a friend of mine after it suffered some abuse. It received some paint and graphics work, a control kit from RS, locking Grovers, and is now my avatar guitar.
I had a 94’ Les Paul Custom the weight was excessive at nearly 12 lbs and I couldn’t stay the pickups. I traded it for a PRS due to the weight and the ability to get a range of sounds to meet the bands needs. I finally found a R8 that is a great guitar at a lighter weight and extreme resonance and playability. It took a while.

 

[BluesDudeAK]

I hot rodded a new Goddess and a buddy wanted it real bad and traded his Eric Johnson strat for it. I also modded one of the hot color Gibsons they made a few years back, an orange one I recall, and traded it for a super nice Bluesman Vintage strat worth twice the price. I still have my '90 Classics.

 

[dnabbet2]

I sold Les Pauls that had features that just didn't work for me: I really wanted to like mini-humbuckers so I went through three Deluxe's before giving up; I really wanted to like P90s so I went through a Pro or two before giving up.

I sold a couple of Les Pauls 'cause they were objectively less good than what I replaced them with: a factory second; a pancake-body made up of about nine pieces of wood; a Custom reissue that weighed eleven pounds.

And I sold several Les Pauls to trade up to better examples of the same models: three Heritage 80 Elites, one of which was stolen from me; three '55-'56 Customs ... the last of which I had to sell to pay for a new roof!

So ... objective reasons. But there was no way I could have kept all the Les Pauls I ever owned. There would've been too many dupes for one thing.

 

[zombywoof]

Pawned my 1990 LP Studio in '95 along with an '89 Am Std Strat for $100 each. Last I saw either one.
Alpine Whitte - Ebony FB - Gold hardware - Trapezoid markers. Whenever I see one similar the regret returns.

 

[blouie]

Bought this brand new 81 LP Custom from Cintioli Music (Philadelphia) in 1986. I was in a haggle fight with Benny Cintioli for a used 70s black Les Paul custom and he was about ready to kick me out of his store when he abruptly walked away and went down the stairs (basement). A few minutes later he came up with a box. In it was this 81 Silverburst. There was yellow box glue on the fretboard (thus why it had been down in the basement for so many years). He seemed eager to get rid of it so he said, if you want to pay that price ($550 is all I had), take this one. I talked him into including a Chainsaw case and I went out the door. When I got home, I spent an hour or two carefully picking at the glue from the ebony fretboard. I thought for sure the fretboard would have been stained/marked but it came out perfectly, not even a mark!

Now to the question of Les Pauls I've sold and why - I had this guitar until 1990. I never bought an amp and used to play at church direct. It sounded horrible (because of no amp). My dad even made me a couple custom distortion pedals but plugging in direct, again, it sounded horrible. I ended up selling it in 1990 for $750 thinking I had made a ton of money!!! I was the fool and been regretting it ever since!!!!!!!!

What gives me most regret is that I took it to Zapfs music (also in Philly) for a set up at one point and on my way out a guy that was surrounded by a croud and playing a Marshall half stack asked me if he could play the LP. I could not believe how good it sounded and he said that was the best Gibson he had ever played. None-the-less my mind was already made up that it didn't sound good for my purposes and so I sold it!

 

[eliju]

I sold an 81 silver burst in 2010 cause I really needed the money. In hindsight the money didn’t make much difference to my financial situation and now they’re way too expensive to buy another.

 

[HomerThompson]

I bought my first Gibson Les Paul in 1992.
It was a 1986 black Standard.
Had “SECOND” stamped below the serial number on the headstock.

I’ve heard many stories and theories about why Gibson was doing this for a few years.
Including even marketing strategy.
I never found anything wrong with the guitar to warrant this less than ideal ranking.

Anyway, I bought it from a coworker who got it new. He wanted to be a rock ‘n’ roll star, and quickly became frustrated. It wound up in a closet.

I was just getting serious about playing.
I was more of a Strat guy.
Always liked the sounds out of a Les Paul, and I decided I wanted to do it myself.

I stripped the parts off the guitar, gave it a thorough cleaning, restrung it, and got it set up with the help of a couple of knowledgeable friends.

Once it was as good as it was going to get, I started exploring what sounds I can get out of it. That’s where the disappointment began.
The guitar was very different from everything else I had owned or played and I was having trouble getting used to the differences.
The volume and tone control layout is stupid.
(I maintain that to this day.)

Everyone kept telling me I needed to get a tube amp. I was never going to be happy trying to get Les Paul tones out of a little solid-state amp.
So I started looking at amplifiers.
I got sticker shock.
I remember at the time thinking that $600 was a stupid amount of money to pay for a good tube amp. That’s more than I paid for the guitar!

I found an eager buyer for the guitar, and let it go. I think I made a few bucks on it in the process, so I was happy to see it leave.

Fast forward a year or two, I found another black Les Paul.
Almost identical to the first.
A 93 standard.
Beautiful condition.
The price was right so I grabbed it.
I wasn’t going to give up on finding the “right” Les Paul.
I had enough people telling me that it was very possible that I needed to find the “right” Les Paul. The one that I connected with.
Once that happened, I would be a believer.

It turns out, that guitar had bad pots in it. The bridge volume would never shut all the way off. Both tone pots were almost useless.
It had never been touched.
They were all original parts.
Disappointment again.
I kept it for a few years, rarely played it, and then a big blowout divorce at the end of the 90s had me selling off all kinds of stuff.
Including that Les Paul.

So every time I was at a gig, or met anyone who played Les Pauls, I always got the same testimonials. They loved their Les Pauls. They would never part with them. I was having trouble seeing the vision.

After the divorce, I got serious about guitars and amplifiers. Being a single man, I could spend my money wherever the hell I wanted!
I bought my first tube amp.
I rolled the dice on a Fender Hot Rod Deville.
DAMN!!!

That was it.
I bought a 2000 Les Paul Classic Sunburst with a killer top. I put a set of Burstbucker Pros in it.
Never looked back.

Those first guitars needed some work, but there was really nothing serious wrong with them.
It was true. A single-coil guitar is one thing, but a humbucker has to have tubes.

Since then, I have bought countless amplifiers and Les Pauls.
That second Les Paul, the 93 Standard, I bought back from a friend of mine after it suffered some abuse. It received some paint and graphics work, a control kit from RS, locking Grovers, and is now my avatar guitar.

Good post! I have my first epiphone les paul still because it still feels good, its got a set of 490 or 498 t and r from a cheaper sg i had once. However my first gibson les paul is now gone. I bought a 2013 signature T paul with push pots in a vintage sunburst finish, with that title i would have bought it without looking at it. After that guitar i never bought with my “eyes” again. As we all know 2013 wasnt exactly a banner year for gibson or anything. And after the honeymoon phase, it just started to get more and more frustrating, if i bent the G at the second or third fret, itd be down to F, the 57 classics were swapped out for whole lotta humbuckers, it didnt help,i swapped absolutely everything out on it ots, nut, tuners, tuneomatic. It never sat in the live mix properly at all it was either buried and dark, or 20 decibels louder than anything else. The colours were all wrong too, the browns looked purple, and the tan type tones were either orance or pink including the granadillo fretboard. I traded it for a rickenbacker a couple years back, and ended up buying an 89’ goldtop reissue, and i love it, i have an angus young high voltage humbucker under a p90 covering in the bridge and a lollar 50s wind neck p90 and its just perfect , but before any of the gigs, or any mods that one “felt” right. The signature t never felt right. Thats what it always comes down to, for me anyway

 

[DucksteinO]

First I had a wine red studio (see avatar). Then, when my dad died I took the $ leftover and spent it on a '82 Custom with Tim Shaws, and 2006 triple HB Black Beauty, figuring I'd sell the one I didn't bond with. This was in 2008. A couple years ago my wife had cancer (all better now, thanks) but when money got tight I sold the '82 and the LP studio along with most of my pedals (decent, but not crazy $ pedals). The partscaster strat wasn't worth enough to sell. Easy come easy go, I guess. Both buying the guitars and selling them when I needed are things my dad would've supported - money was to be used, and things are less important the ones you love.

When my son needed braces, I had to let the black beauty go. That is the one I still miss. The fat neck, the ebony board, the low action, amazing sustain. Even the weight. Holding it made me feel like I had to play better to earn the right to be playing it, but maybe that's just my insecurity.

Since then I put together a partstcaster tele that I love, and came into an SG w/ p90's for cheap. If I start saving, I may be able to get a Japanese copy of that black beauty, or find a 2 pickup model and add a 3rd pickup.

 

[timmytVA]

I had a Dillion Gold Top in the early 2000s. Sold it to fund a Telecaster. Next LP style was a TV White Edwards Special. Couldn’t get along with the fretboard, even with my small hands it was just too narrow in the cowboy chord positions.

For almost 10 years my LP Arsenal was a 1989/1990 Burny Black Beauty Custom and a similar vintage Orville by Gibson TV Yellow double cut junior. Sold the Orville last summer to offset the cost of a Jimmy Page Mirror Telecaster. Sold the Burny in January because I bought a 2020 Standard 60s.

Tim