Les Paul buying/investment advice

Any Les Paul produced between 1974 and 1984 (The Norlin Years) are a crapshoot. Some have turned out OK but most are pieces of crap.

I would say the newest Les Pauls are probably now the best made in the company history. Especially those made in Bozeman, Montana by some of the better luthiers. Current build quality and design is excellent. I have a 50th anniversary 1959 re-issue that I bought new in 2009 and it is one of the sweetest sounding guitars I own. It has a tremendous natural resonance that sounds loud even when played without an amp. I dropped in a pair of David Allen vintage humbuckers and it sounds great. I have never heard of any tuning issue and my 2009 was plek'd. I do my own setup with a peterson strobe tuner and my intonation and tuning is spot on.
 
I manage a local music store and realistically if you want an investment guitar you are better off buying a good condition used and rare guitar. A new les paul even 25 - 30 years down the track will still be a mass produced and not so rare product but say something from the 60s or 70s even 80s 25 - 30 years down the track theoretically would be worth more. but on vintage guitars the market is so up and down.
My advice is pick out a guitar you like and just use it as a guitar. being in the industry I can say the quality started slipping big time around 2008 and I have only been impressed by the 2013 models since then. But that is probably because I am in New Zealand and we get the s**t stuff ;-)
 
If you don't already have a PRS singlecut, considering buying one of those used. PRS guitars are consistently good -- not as variable as Gibson -- and hold their value well. I was missing an LP in my collection, too, and the used PRS SC I bought fills that gap nicely.
 
addedc said:
If you don't already have a PRS singlecut, considering buying one of those used. PRS guitars are consistently good -- not as variable as Gibson -- and hold their value well. I was missing an LP in my collection, too, and the used PRS SC I bought fills that gap nicely.
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I have a PRS 1994 CE22 that I bought new in `94 and it covers my PRS needs. I have played a lot if newer and more expensive PRS guitars and they all suck compared to my `94 model ;)
 
I just got this trad pro II, also a GC special and it was a great price, might be worth a look

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addedc said:
If you don't already have a PRS singlecut, considering buying one of those used. PRS guitars are consistently good -- not as variable as Gibson -- and hold their value well. I was missing an LP in my collection, too, and the used PRS SC I bought fills that gap nicely.
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In my experience new PRS are terrible for holding their value. At least that is in the UK. I have just bought my 7th PRS this year and paid full retail like always, which is around the £2300 mark. I see Custom 24's with birds and case candy going for less than £1500 all the time, sometimes as low as £1k. I don't consider that to be "holding its value" at all.

I would invest in a rare/one of a kind guitar. That is from the 70/80's. something with some history and uniqueness. A mass produced guitars is always going to be amass produced guitar. I would avoid post 90's Gibsons like the plague. I've played some Customs that have been like planks and Classics or even the odd Epiphone that have been like silk to play. There are too many inconsistencies at Gibson for me to ever consider buying a new one. PRS however have a 1mm tolerance or it goes under the band saw and shipped to Jim Bean to smoke their bourbon. I know, I've been to the factory and watched it happen. There are around 200 QC stages before a guitar is ready to be shipped. Can't say that about many manufacturers these days.
 
I'll let others with more Les Paul expertise handle the specifics, but here are two overall thoughts:

  • I think the collectible guitar market has peaked. There was a big price surge when Japanese buyers pumped up the demand for vintage instruments. That demand has been largely met, and average prices have tapered off.


  • The LPs that will give the highest-percentage profit over the next few decades are relatively recent ones that come into higher demand as the years pass. The trick is knowing which ones those are, and there's no reliable way do that.
 
npx said:
Congrats Tohmy! I got a 2008 G0 at the beginning of this year and I love it. Now, get off the internet and go play the hell out of that thing!! :)
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Cool! Color?
Thank god being at work all day means playing guitar all day :)
 
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