OT - Who plays a Les Paul, and what do you use it for?

henryrobinett

henryrobinett

Fractal Fanatic
I'm doing some guitar tracking and have a few guitars. I haven't played my LP for years. I have a chunk-a-chunka part I think it'll sound great on. This is one of my best instruments I have that I just don't play any more. Other than the fact that it's way too heavy, I don't know why. I have a bunch of ensemble lead and harmony guitar parts it'd probably be good for too.

Mine is a 1975 Les Paul 25/50 Anniversary - probably one of the heaviest LPs ever made. It's gruesomely heavy.

If you play a LP what type of music do you use it for. It seems popular with metal and old style rock'n roll, but what else?
 
I have been a Strat and Tele player for 25 years until I discovered a Les Paul for me. Since then I'm playing it almost exclusively for everything (Pop, Rock, Blues, even Country).
 
I play a Les Paul for damn near everything. I have an ES-335, but it's horrible to keep in tune, so even when I'm noodling around on jazz or old bluesy stuff, I'll get out my LP Custom instead and go to the rhythm pickup, maybe roll off the tone a little. It's a '71, and it sounds fantastic for this kind of stuff. It is also appallingly heavy, so I know exactly where you're coming from there. :) I've also backed up an acoustic singer/songwriter with it. It has a great clean sound, and it sounds incredible through Fender-style amps. Got a little more spank to it than the LP Standards I've played. Maybe that's the ebony fretboard, I have no idea.

For yer basic rock and roll or heavier stuff, I'll get out the LP standard, or if I really need to thrash, it'll be the Axcess, but those are both a little less versatile. They sound godawful and congested through Fender amps, and play much nicer with Marshalls. I don't really know about how they do with really high gain stuff, because that's not my bag.

I had a great Anderson strat for a while, and I got rid of it--kind of like your LP, it just sat in a box. Great axe, but it turns out I just don't like strats.
 
Yeah, I hear you. I mainly play an ES-355 and in addition I have about 3 Strats and some mongrels. I have a Tele type a friend built for me but I need to adjust the truss and set the intonation and I'm too lazy at the moment. The damn thing won't stay in tune. I mainly play jazz and play at a bunch of other styles - any really. Studio rat.
 
I play a '59 Les paul, '69 strat, REBELRELIC Thinline Esquire and as of recent a AMerican standard Telecaster... love em all..but my les paul holds a special place for sure...I use it for almost all styles...from blues to heavy metal... :)
 
My friend had one of those - your right, heaviest guitar I have ever seen. He played a bunch of southern rock stuff and blues through a pretty well cranked '59 bassman. Sounded great but it had a twisted neck and played like crap. So did he; ...from pickup up the heaviest guitar ever made!!! My advice is it just ain't worth it, man!
 
My one and only LP is a R7 stinger blacktop. Bought it new, and gigged it a few times before my last band broke up. Man, I loved playing it at those gigs. Les Pauls are awesome gigging guitars.

But I don't play it much nowadays. As much as I hate the idea of guitars as investments, this one has turned out that way.
 
A Les Paul Custom in Silverburst here; love it but can only play it for short periods. I need to restring it, I cycle through guitars to economize on strings ... but damn if I'm not looking forward to it ... especially with two Q12s on the way ... I'm waiting until I get the shipment notice, then I'll restring her and put the GT1000FX in the rack :) I can't say that I feel the same about my BC Rich, JEM, or Strat.
 
When I started to play guitar again some years ago I wasn't shure if I should pick a ES-335 or a LP type of guitar. I have not have access to any Gibson for more than brief moments, but remembering how good my blues band friends' mid 70s Japan Greco LP clone sounded both mellow and with a bite and my Late 70s Aria Pro II LP type when I was taking my first stumbling steps into jazz I had no doubth both would sound good. (Aria Pro II LP had their moment in my town when local jazz/fusion guitar player Ulf Wakenius got one.)

I saw John Abercrombie playing in a club with a Gibson LP and it was good!

Anyhow I settled on an Tokai ES-335 type but I view a Les Paul as an equally good choice for the music I like to play which is somewhere in the contemporary jazz with a lot of diversions.
 
I have a 57' Goldtop that I use for rock and blues, but I can sometimes get a pretty decent jazz tone too :)
I use my Baritone Les paul mostly for metal, it's a killer :D
 
I have a ES335, which of course has a lot of similarities with the LP, and I use it primarily for jangle, cleans and when I want smooth. It's a hell of a rock and roll guitar too but I just tend to use a Tele with a four way switch for that. Mine has a Bigsby and it isn't a tuning stability superstar but a bit of graphite on the nut now and again makes it acceptable.

I had a LP once but I never gelled with it. Can't say why exactly. It just didn't get used much.
 
My first "proper" US guitar was my Les Paul; the wife got an engagement ring and I got the Les Paul. It's a 2002 Standard with Bareknuckle Mules pickups and some Bumblebee repro caps in it. It's not too heavy and plays like a dream, doesn't play too bad either ;)

I find myself gravitating towards the Strats for my current band as they're fairly synonymous with 80s pop. I've been playing my Les Paul non-stop since I got my Axe-FX though; can't beat that Marshall plus Les Paul sound!
 
I have a black Les Paul Custom that I absolutely love. Everything about it is just right for me. The look, feel, sound, playability. It's a tad heavy, but not overwhelmingly so. That would probably be the only thing I would change if I could. The upper neck ergonomics required some adjustment on my part, but now it feels fine. It's a different playability than my Suhr or Fender Strat, but it's part of what makes this guitar unique. The Suhr is better for EVH, but the Les Paul is perfect for most applications and it's dead on for Jimmy P, Slash, etc.

I bought a heritage cherry sunburst in 2006 that was cool to have (very Jimmyish), but I never connected with the guitar and ultimately sold it on Ebay. That was because Sweetwater began offering a Black Les Paul Custom with all chrome (no gold) hardware. I used the ebay sale to defray the cost of the custom, and I haven't looked back. Here's a sloppy rendition of RnR by Zep, featuring said Les Paul Custom.

 
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