What Is It About The Les Paul That Makes It Special?

[bgrizz]

For me it’s the fact that Slash and Jimmy Page played them. Subconsciously burned into my brain that rock guitar equals Les Paul with a burst finish of some kind. I also like the feel of a heavy guitar.

 

[Steven]

I think that from the onset, young guitar players, or aspiring guitar players are conditioned to like then, additionally, with the HB pu's they sound good.

 

[jojo]

Sound and feel . For me .

 

[Elmore]

They look good and sound good. To me, that covers most of it.

 

[Mr Hockey]

I always thought that it was the most beautiful electric guitar that I ever seen. Bought a 60s original series Les Paul. I totally fell in love with it. The playabilty and the sound is wonderful. It truly is a classic American guitar.

 

[uncajoey]

You need to ask?

 

[musicmaniac]

It's the sound and feel for me!

 

[madh4ttr]

It's the standard. It's timeless. It's road tested. It's versatile. It's beautiful. Easy to get a good sound.

The LP has been my go to guitar since the first time I picked one up. Something about the feel of it. I have played other guitars and own other guitars but nothing feels like home like a standard Les Paul

 

[PageSide84]

I like that the strings are changeable.

 

[lwchafin]

It was the real guitar until Hendrix made the strat an acceptable recording and performance instrument. It was not a cheap guitar and Jeff Beck put it well - it played well and you could make it sound like almost any instrument . Page, Hendrix, Clapton, Harrison, Green, Beck ... Enough?

 

[Jimmy The Snake]

nuff said

 

[Six6String6]

Boat loads of sustain that a strat will never have.

 

[LeftyF2003]

They sound like no other guitar. I can get a semblance of a les Paul on other guitars, but it pales in comparison. That's it for me and why I dropped a stupid amount of $$ on one...

 

[Tweeedman]

To be honest, the original LP lasted 8 years, 1952-1960. The sales were so low that it got revamped into the SG. Les Paul thougt it was too ugly, so Gibson weren´t allowed to use his name any more. Then in 1968, when people were paying top dollars for used Standards, -58 to -60, Gibson took up production again and released the Goldtop with P90:s and Custom with HB:s. It took them almost another 10 years to realize that it was the Standard sunburst HB that people wanted.

And the look? It is just a scaled down archtop, the shape that had ruled modern music for the last 50 yearas. This one solid like the Tele, but without the f-holes. Thats why the bridge is positioned so much forward, as if it had an acoustic soundboard. Gibson tried to address this when they shorted the lower bout with an inch and a half and released the Nighthawk, but the customers were so into LP:s, that Gibson had to drop that improved design.

So, if wou want a fresh design Tele and Strat is it.

 

[Spudvader]

Sonically, there is a chunk that I've never had with any other guitar, It just fills a space.

It's also a rock icon and it makes you feel like a rocker when you strap it on, it's an event unlike a strat or a tele which feel more like old friends that you can take anywhere.

 

[Louw de Villiers]

Honestly I can also rant about "cool" and "image", but I really believe that a LP is a very versatile instrument. It sings with my moods. If i want to rock out, play blues, jazzy improvs, "thinner" middle pickup cleans, etc, etc, its all there. The output of pickups are obviously spec dependant, but PAF's can rock and go clean. I struggle to get an equivalent rock feel from my USA strat. No mistake it can rock too, but it doesn't rock with the figurative and no-offence giving description of proper "b*lls" like that of my LP.

 

[E.T.]

It took them almost another 10 years to realize that it was the Standard sunburst HB that people wanted.

.. by which time they were making most of the LP range with maple necks, volutes, headstocks the size of your face with a smaller break angle, crossbanded bodies (though that I think disappeared in '76, the year they brought the standard back to the catalog), domed tops..

 

[your idol]

name tag i reckon

 

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A picture is worth 1000 words....courtesy of the gents at Historic Makeovers. 2017 Wildwood Spec Brazilian 59, now with period correct lacquer.

 

[Classicplayer]

I discovered the Les Paul and what capabilities it had kind of late in my playing experience. What made it become my go-to and now #1 favorite is the tones that Jimmy Page got from his starting from his switch to the Les Paul right up through his last performances with it. Slash has kept the flame burning but, Page got the varied tones that I loved about the Les Paul. Strat players (IMHO) tended to sound quite similar, but Lester players, not so much.

Classicplayer