have you been thinking about buying no have you been dreaming about buying a Gibson Les Paul before you do I think there's a few things you should know from a longtime Gibson owner andless Paul Fanboy in today's video your boy is going to give you five reasons why you should not buy LS Paul let's [Applause] go reason number one they're expensive there I said it obviously if you've been looking at these guitars for any the time you know exactly what I'm talking about having a quick look on Sweetwater a Gibson Les ball Studio which is Gibson's entry-level L paa is $2,000 and a Les Paul Standard is $3,200 and Les Paul customs and Custom Shop guitars are 5,000 plus not to mention Gibson makes higher end replica guitars of Slash Kirk Hammet and Jimmy pige that run from $10,000 all the way to $50,000 I have a video on Jimmy Page's EDS 1275 right here now I've been a working musician AKA a broke musician most of my musical career I know the pain of wanting a guitar that's out of our reach financially now if you're really wanting the Les Paul look and the Les Paul sound there's definitely cheaper options such as the epone I have a video shooting up my Les Paul Standard with an epone standard right here epone Les Pauls are a great choice to get that sound but there's an upside to buying a Gibbs and Les Paul should you choose to spend a $2,000 plus dollars besides getting a sick guitar and the upside is this if by chance you don't like the guitar or you decide that you need to sell that guitar or want to sell that guitar as we all know the prices of high-end guitars has skyrocketed the last few years you could probably resell this guitar for practically the same amount that you paid for it brand new reason number two that pesky g string does not stay in tune I have three L Paws the standard the studio and the Melody Maker and they all have one thing in common besides being a badass guitar the G string does not stay in tune especially if you're playing hard and you're doing a lot of string bending [Music] obviously there's many reasons why this could be Happ happening like the strings are too tight or tooo loose to the nut or your guitar is just not set up properly if that's the case take it to your local guitar shop have a pro work at it these are easy fixes but the most common reason why the G string on a Gibson Les Paul does not stay in tune is because of this brake angle from the nut to the tuning peg I love the shape of the headstock and I love the three tuning pegs at the top three tuning pegs at the bottom but let's face it it's actually a design flaw from Gibson obviously there's a couple things you could try to improve the tuning stability you can change the nut from the plastic to a graphtech you can change to locking tuners and like I mentioned previously you can set up and intonate your guitar properly but unfortunately there's not much else we could do and trust me I've tried so Gibson whenever you come up with a solution to fix that pesky gstring problem please let me know I'll be the first guy in line to purchase it and put on my guitars and no the robot tuners are not the solution reason number three Les Pauls are very susceptible to headstock breaks ever noticed that we rarely hear about a fender headstock break and no I'm not talking about smashing your guitar after a six set at the club I'm talking about an accidental headstock break we just never hear about him from Fender now I have personally suffered a devastating headstock break on my Les Paul Studio and it was crushing and devastating at the time I had my Les Paul on a guitar stand with a patch cord plugged into it someone walked by and tripped on that patch cord and the guitar did a face plant and I didn't think anything of it at the time this guitar is my Workhorse guitar and I definitely do not baby it but on this particular day when I picked it up and I looked at the headstock I had the dreaded headstock break luckily for me most of it was still intact and I was able to take it to a local guitar shop here in Vancouver and they repaired it flawlessly and since that repair I've not had any issues with it in terms of playability or tuning besides the pesky g string and maybe it's just me but I think it's actually playing and feeling better than before it's got more Mojo because it's gone through hell and was able to come back there's also one really shitty thing about having a headstock break besides the headstock break itself the guitar will lose a significant amount of its resale value on the used market for me it's not a big deal because this guitar is not leaving my collection anytime soon but take this as a warning that the headstock is a very vulnerable joint in the Les Paul reason number four Les Pauls are not very customizable and I know what you're going to write in the comment Bob 1982 with no profile picture but AJ you don't get a Les Paul to modify it and yes that is true for the most most part because when you buy LS Paul you're buying LS Paul but what I'm saying is unlike other brands Gibsons are harder to modify fenders have bolt-on necks Gibsons have set necks that means if I wanted to change or had to change the neck on my Gibson I can't do that well without having major surgery to the guitar whereas a fender if I wanted a new neck I could definitely get one from Fender or from third party retailers less Pauls are routed for Huck so you can't really put any other pickups in Les Pauls besides huers so if I wanted a single coil pickup in here you can't really do that and yes you can do the split coil which I've done to this guitar but it doesn't really give you a single coil sound it still sounds like a less Paul but a little quieter and a little thinner this Strat on the other hand is awesome it came with the three single coil pickups but inside the body cavity it was routed for a hucker so I was able to get a new pick guard and was able to drop the Seymour Duncan Huer in the bridge making it a fat Strat and making it a more versatile guitar but I'm not saying that you can't mod a less Paul I'm just saying you have less options I've actually modded this last Paul I put a new wiring harness in it I added a push pull so I can split the humbuckers into single coil and I put the Jimmy Page treble bed circuit mod where you can roll off the volume and not lose continue the top end and with this last Paul Studio I replaced the original pickups and I added the/ Alo 2 Pro pickups in here this guitar sounds badass so there's definitely mods you can do to a Les Paul and reason number five the weight and the body shape of a Les Paul generally speaking Les Pauls are heavy guitars this Les paaul standard came in at 9.6 lb this Les Paul Studio came in at 9.7 lb lb this Strat was 8.6 lb this Jazz master was 8.7 lb and this Telly was 8.9 lb now I know what you're thinking AJ that's a difference of 1 to half a pound and believe me in a 2hour set you will feel every ounce of that pound I personally like the weight and don't mind them at all I actually like having a beefy guitar in my hands so if you do have any low back or left shoulder problems this guitar might not be the fit for you when you're playing live and the last point I want to make is the body shape Les paws are basically one big chunk of wood whereas strats are also a solid slab of wood but they have Contour cuts on them specifically the belly Contour in the back and the forearm Contour in the front which makes the Strat a little bit more comfortable to play live and more ergonomic to your body keep that in mind when you're choosing the less Paul now as I mentioned earlier I'm a Gibson fan and a Les Paul Fanboy I love these guitars but I wanted to make this video for you if you're thinking about buying a l Paul to give you a head to up on the flaws of this guitar in my opinion I think these guitars look super sexy they play great and they sound amazing are they perfect no they're not but if you can look past the five things we talked about in this video and I think getting a Gibson Les Paul is a no brainer and I recommend it to everybody if you made it to the end of the video I appreciate you so much please consider liking and subscribing hit that Bell for notifications I will see you guys in the next video pick up that Les Paul and let's go [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause]
