As much as I would like to agree that Gibson's are completely overpriced, I just can't totally agree. If you look at the value of book matched AAAA maple of 3/4" thickness you will soon see what makes them so damn expensive. So I will meet you in the middle, Les Pauls with a solid color, and the mega expensive Custom Shop stuff is definitely over priced. However, the Les Paul Standards with Plus tops are actually priced just about right for the material costs and logistics of distribution. That being said, a custom builder can make you one completely by hand (little or no CNC), with some design improvements (less severe headstock angle, more comfortable neck joint, weight and contour relief) for the same price as well as supply it with a completely custom color scheme and the pickups of your choice (many even use better quality hardware all around on their builds). These custom builders can make them for about the same price or slightly less than the Standard Plus from Gibson, but they also don't have an army of employees to pay or shareholders to please.
There are people talking about the head stock angle which they think contributes to loosing or not holding tune. Listen folks I have a Pakistani made "Oud" (look it up it's just a little like a guitar more like a Lute) with a head stock angle of almost 90 Deg. It holds tune very, very well. So I doubt that you people actually know what you are even talking about.
I already tried it & Henry had me thrown out of the factory on my ass by two huge security guys & broke my camera into scrap.. BTW Their dumpster is full of several nice LOOKING guitars that didn't make being 2nds, that's where they tossed me after kicking my ass & stomp kicked the shit out of me.. I'm not going back there EVER..
I love Fender and Gibson can't see much rivalry between the two companies they both deliver great guitars at the lowest and biggest prices and to be honest I'm very much thankful for both of the companies and the work they do.
Epiphone are excellent guitars, without a doubt. I used to have a Epi Les Paul Custom (it's in my videos), but in ALL honesty, i've played the gibson variant of the same guitar, and the quality is like night and day.. And the sound is much better aswell. I COULD Live with either if i had the choice, but i'd have to get the gibson.
The were called Les Pauls at first, but Les hated them ( I guess that's why he gave on to his ex-wife, see Pawn Stars) and had his name taken off them.
They failed to mention that Les Paul was experimenting with guitar making with Epiphone before Gibson bought them out. The first Les Paul guitar was an Epi. He made his LOG there. And Les Pauls are not better than Strats, they are just different styles. Strats and LP's both come in different sounds and features. There are many great Grandchildren of the LOG.
Funny how many professional guitarists have used the Les Paul and other Gibson guitars for decades in the studio & taken them on tours around the world. I surely have not heard any of these artists make any complaints about that.
@Me you and the Animal BS they get the guitars for free, maybe the really big guys but I'm a huge Sex Pistols fan, Steve Jones played mostly Gibsons and his white LP Custom has sold god knows how many guitars over the years for Gibson. Steve Jones is why I play mostly Gibsons. But there was a time when Steve Jones switched to Burny because Gibson never gave him anything. That's been about 10 years ago and he's playing Gibsons again (although he plays Fenders and other guitars now too) and Gibson made a tribute model of his guitar so maybe they finally gave him something......but if a guy like Steve Jones doesn't get free gear who do you think is?
If you drop them they can break. I've owned 6 Gibson LP over the years and I've dropped most of them at one time or another. Knock on wood I've never had a neck break. I have a 95 Classic that has the thinnest neck I've ever seen on a LP and I've dropped it many times over the years and like I said, no break. People seem to think if you look at a LP wrong it's neck will break and in my experience that's just not true.
Les paul was associated with Epiphone long befor Gibson and some of his inventions he was associated with Epiphone..and lets not forget Les paul was not thrilled with Gibson at the time of death in 2009 but was very happy with Epiphone..he always said i may be with Gibson but I'll always be a Epiphone Man..R.I.P Les Paul
Wow, what a lucky bastard to have a free custom LP just for walking around that factory! I'll take the tour, but I'd probably be lucky to get a bag of saw dust from sweeping the floor!
I love how every step of the way, they repeatedly cut back to comparing to how Fender guitars are made and sound and frame Fenders as being way better -- constantly giving the impression that Fenders are brighter and warmer.
Yeah, actually maple tops sound different, tried them both at guitar center, [epiphone standard, and epiphone standard plus top A.K.A. "maple top"] to my ears, the maple top had a little brighter sound, pretty sweet, but i lean more to the "dark" sound of plain top, [pure "mahogany" body, with no maple top] just better to my ears, i was looking for a darker sound, i mean it sounds awesome, just a little less bright than the plus top version, [yeah: it ACTUALLY makes a difference]
Les Pauls' specs called for all maple . . . but it was heavy. I always thought Gibson should make one of these, even if it was only a lap-playable model. BTW - Lloyd Loar working at Gibson began electric instrument experiments in 1922, but was ignored because of the banjo craze of that era.
I have a pancake LP from the 70s when weight meant sustain. I get so sick of guys complaining about the weight. First, I am a 62-year-old heavy construction Laborer (LIUNA Local 703) with three bad vertebrae from car wrecks compounded by hard work and I can stand and play that guitar for hours. I have a buddy whose 13-year-old daughter who used to practice and play gigs with it. I hate picking up newer LPs that are lighter than my Strat.
@@gregoryplunkett9147: In the early 70s, but he only played them live (touring) as a backup for 1978, and a ‘58 Quilt Paul live in 1980 throughout the whole tour and some tracks on that album. (WACF)
Funny that the music just before the end and the handing over the les paul gift is actually obviously played on a strat... SRV ? anyway, somewhat magic that the tone manages to be there often even through a rather industrialized process... next film most wanted : haw is a True Historic Les Paul made ?
I think the best price of a Les Paul must be cheaper than a Ibanez like the fender stratocaster price is the only way for really be the number 1 on sales , my opinion! ✌️
I have a les Paul standard (2001), and borrowed a USA strat for a few months, the strat is nice but the les is in my opinion far superior, nicer sound better sustain and looks sexy it weighs a bit but still a better guitar:)
The maple top also offers a structurally sound place to mount things like bridges and audio jack inputs surprised they didnt mention that maple is harder then mahogany hence why mahogany is easier to mill then maple 👍
Gibson or Fender? If i had the opportunity to get one i would choose neither and go for a PRS.. but they're both amazing companies and sound great and I'd get them both if i had the chance..i find PRS more comfortable and i like the warm sound but all three rock! so why choose just one?
Yea also, idk if they were really going that far into it but Eddie Van Halen’s “Kramer neck on a strat body” was using a Gibson PAF pickup. Doubt that was taken into consideration when they chose that pic but interesting info nonetheless
@RIPRR1982 I have played both too! I own an american strat, don't own a les paul though.. so expensive nad hard to find here in the PI.. I prefer the strat man :))
The wood of the Stratocaster gives it its Clear bell-like Tone? Who wrote this stuff? LOL Maybe it's the single coil pickups that gave it a Clear bell-like Tone.
I noticed 2 things. The guitar Henry gave him looked like it had some funky routing on the top. Looked like a line route with two round holes. Anyone else notice that? What am I seeing on that top? Second, I noticed one of the workers using a shim when fitting a neck. Surely they can CNC machine necks and pockets to where a shim is not necessary. Kind of shitty for a $3K guitar. Come on Gibson! I still like Les Paul's.
Amazing guitars! It's like a few comments down said it though; you could get an Epi (I have one), a Fender, or just about any brand name that is good, but you will see and most especially hear a quality in Gibson that will feel so rich and clear and beautiful once you play one. My Epiphone Les Paul special ii gets the job done but it will never hold up to a Gibson. Like the comment below says "Night and Day Difference".
Agree. The woods used and the pickups in the Asian made Epiphones do not compare tone wise to the real Gibson version, even if they look alike (except for the headstock logo).
u absolutely don't know what u are saying, get an epi les paul standard, spend 50 bucks on a good setup, another 200 bucks at the humbuckers YOU want and you got yourself a quality guitar that sounds even better [due to pickups] than a twice as expensive gibson. i own an epi les paul standard UN-modified, and i can assure you, quality is awesome, sound is awesome, factory setup is bad, but u can spend 2 hours fixing that, its a damn fine instrument made by gibson stanndards
i admit ive never seen or played a classic les paul, ive heard thy're really REALLY good guitars, it has to be true, and probably there actually is no comparison, but when i went GC to buy a new guitar, i tryed epi les pauls and gibson les pauls, i mean, the only REAL difference was the pickups, and the gibson with a slightly brigther sound thats all, i assure you, i was and still am surprised by the quality i received for the price, 3 times less than "The real deal" and VERY VERY like it
Pretty sad they credit Les with the creation of this guitar. The ONLY reason les has his name on the les paul was because it was gibsons way of saying sorry for not taking his original idea seriously. But he really had nothing to do with the design of what we know as the les paul guitar. Ted Mcarty (Gibson CEO at the time) is the person who designed it.
@@TheTrollMastah Soo not really. He designed the "LOG" prototype under contract with gibson but it was rejected. And it had about as much in common with a Les Paul as it does a ford pickup. It was only after Les Paul was out of the picture that Ted Mcarty and a design team came up with what would become the gibson les paul model. Les paul the man was offered the opportunity to put his name on the guitar. Subsequent models would come out with tweaks based on his preferences but many of those ideas were particular to him. When it comes to what 99.99% of us think of as a les paul? He had virtually nothing to do with it.
They forgot the part when les Paul asked Gibson to make a solid body, and he said : lol nope, then Leo fender made the telecaster, then les Paul came back, and Gibson said k, then.
