The Les Paul: Is it worth the dough?

This is a tough question. One that I've pondered for a long, long time. Not exclusively about the Les Paul, but about about expensive guitars in general. I've been playing guitar since I was five and, well, that was 35 years ago (eek!), and I've had a lot of guitars over the years. Some good. Some kind of expensive, some bad. Right now I have 9 guitars and all of them are good for something. My Martin D-15 was the first really nice guitar I ever bought for myslef. I did used to have a 1976 Telecaster Deluxe, but it was never a great player for me even after a refret, so I sold it to a dude in Australia on eBay. I hope he's happy with it, because I never was. I also had an American Tele for a while, but didn't love it. When I sold the Tele Deluxe, I bought an Epiphone Dot to replace it. I went to every guitar shop in NYC and player every Dot they had until I found the one that played well. I never even plugged it into an amp. I took it off the wall, strummed a few chords, and just by the way it was ringing out and the neck was fretting I knew that it was a solid guitar and if needed could be improved. I still have that  guitar and still think it's a fine player. It has a plastic nut and the Gibson pickups that are in it aren't the greatest, but they get the job done.

The Guitar Wall

And this kind of leads me to my first point about whether or not it's worth it to buy a Les Paul: I'm a firm believer in the idea that it's not the tools that build the house, it's the craftsman wields the tools. Like I said, I have a lot of guitars, the Les Paul is by far the nicest and most expensive, and yes, it is my best playing guitar, but it's not a panacea for everything. Yes, when you plug it in and you strum a chord or play a lick, it has a sound that is a very familiar sound. One that we've been hearing on records for over 60 years. And yes, it is easy to get that sound out of the guitar. Really easy. And the Les Paul is an easy guitar to play. Really easy. Like I've said, I've been playing for 35 years. And I make no claims to being a shredder of any kind. I play to back myself up. I'm a good rhythm player. But after a week or so of playing the Les Paul, I was most definitely a better player than I had been before, there's no doubt about it.

So is it worth it? Well, as you can guess, my short answer is: Yes. These guitars are hand crafted, they use the best materials out there and they have premium pickups. All of those elements make it easier for you to do your job as a player. But the cost is steep. I bought a used 2008 Les Paul Traditional. The Les Paul Standard was changed pretty significantly in 2008 to compete more with makers like PRS and to appeal to players looking for a more modern sound. The have what are called Burstbucker pickups in them and I found that I didn't care for the, The Standards are still the priciest non-custom shop guitars. They run about $2700 and up. The Traditional line is more like the Standard from the early 80s. these are heavy ass guitars too. Mine weighs upwards of 9 or 10 lbs. They are loaded with the '57 Classic pickups, which have more of a vintage sound. That's what appeals to me, so that's what I was looking for. But I didn't know that at first.

That brings me to my second point about these guitars: You absolutely cannot order one off the rack, sight unseen. When I went out shopping I had 6 guitars in a semi-circle around me and I went from one to the other for the better part of two hours and every single one of them was different. Not just different feeling, but different sounding. Drastically so. Yes, they were all made of the same kinds of wood. Yes, they all had basically the same hardware, but these are handmade instruments. Each one has taken a slightly different journey to your hands and you need to factor that into your decision. A hard thing to wrap your head around in this world where everything seems to be interchangeable.

The Les Paul Studio

The first Les Paul that I bought was a Les Paul Studio. These are the less frilly step brothers to the Trads and Standards. There are several differences that I won't go into here. Suffice it to say if the Les Paul Studio were the only guitar I had to play for the rest of my life I'd be pretty happy. But I was spending over $1000 for the guitar ($1300 to be exact). I got it home and noticed some of the lacquer was popping out on the neck where the frets were. I thought that wasn't right. So I took the thing back. I looked at the other Studios in the shop and none of them were that great. Some of them were terrible. I just couldn't see myself taking one home. And then the shop guy took me to the used wall and asked me to check out the Traditional that had just come in. When you shop for a Les Paul, you'll start to read phrases like "Chambered" and "weight-relieved." The former means that big sections of the mahogany body have been routed out to take off some of the weight. The latter is similar, but insetead of routing the guitar out, Gibson drills out 9 strategically placed holes in the body. Now, these aren't visible because the Les Paul body is two layers: maple on top and mahogany on the under side.

Well, this Traditional was freaking heavy. It must have was a full two or three lbs more than the Studio. I sat down and before I plugged it in I finger-strummed a G chord. I could feel it the whole way through the guitar. The thing just felt right. I knew I was going to buy it before the cable went into the jack. Since it was used, they were asking $1800 for it, but I got a great Labor Day deal and walked out with the guitar for $1500.

2008 Les Paul Traditional Plus (Desert Burst finish)

And do I regret the purchase? Not at all. That guitar has made me a better player. The better materials make a difference...a big difference. But like I said, not every Les Paul is equal and not every player will feel the same way about every guitar. I actually don't recommend that someone who's just started playing go out and buy a Les Paul (or any other top shelf guitar for that matter). It's important to have a good guitar that plays well, doesn't fight you, stays in tune and makes you hum with pride, but an investment of $1000-$2000 was something I felt I needed to earn for myself and I didn't feel like I got there until I'd been playing for a long time. Maybe I'm still not, but I'm glad I made the purchase. This guitar is the perfect complement to the rest of my collection. It fills in a sound in my pallet that my other guitars were and it's versatile enough that I can get a lot of surprising sounds out of it. And it looks effing cool as hell.

What are your experiences with expensive guitars Les Pauls or otherwise? If anyone's interested, I could try to do a little shootout with the LP and my other electrics to give you a flavor. Might be a couple weeks before I can do it, but let me know if that's interesting to you.

The Les Paul gets 5 Wallet Moths!

So is the Les Paul worth the $$? I say yes, but be sure you're getting the guitar of your dreams when you buy one. And that will require you spend some time and give everything a lot of thought.