Three Les Pauls

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Les Paul 1952 AdI’ve been playing an Epiphone 1960 Les Paul Tribute Plus for the last couple years, and loving it.  On a whim, I recently tried a couple of these unbelievably inexpensive Monoprice Route 66 guitars.

A couple weeks ago, my birthday rolled around, and I ended up purchasing a new Gibson 2013 Les Paul Studio.  The Gibson is twice the price of my Epiphone and nearly ten times the price of the Monoprice.  What are the differences?  How do they stack up? 

There was a brief window of time before I returned the Route 66, where I had all three guitars on hand- my trusted Epiphone, the low cost Route 66, and my brand new Les Paul Studio.   So being the obsessive guitar nut that I am, it seemed like a good opportunity to film a comparison.

Ted McCarty and Les PaulThe Les Paul is an iconic guitar- first introduced in 1952 as Gibson guitar’s response to Fenders solid body telecaster.   It was Gibson’s first solid body, and was designed by then Gibson president Ted McCarty in collaboration with the man himself, Lester William Polsfuss.

As with most things, this guitar is available at all different price points and quality levels.  Today I’m taking a look at three Les Pauls, at three different price points.  First up is  this beautiful 2013 Gibson Les Paul Studio, at around $1100.  Next is this gorgeous Epiphone Les Paul 1960 Tribute Plus, at around $600.    And last is this Monoprice Route 66 imitation Les Paul, which can be had for a mere $100.

Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up.

Monoprice Route 66

I’ve been buying inexpensive cables at Monoprice for years, and when I saw that they now also carry guitars, I picked one up on sale for $99- total impulse buy!  It’s their Route 66 model, in the vintage sunburst finish.    It’s quite an attractive guitar and fairly well put together, but at around $100, they’ve obviously had to cut some corners.  If I were building a parts guitar, I wouldn’t even be able to buy a reasonable neck for this price, let alone a full guitar.

This is clearly a Les Paul clone, but there are significant differences from a typical Les Paul.  First, the woods-  traditionally, the Les Paul has a mahogany body with maple cap, and a mahogany neck. This guitar has a solid basswood body with a maple neck and rosewood fretboard. The back and sides are painted black, so the only visible wood grain is on top- and it’s a nicely matched if somewhat uninteresting grain pattern. There’s no weight-relief in the body, and this guitar weighs in at 9.1 pounds.

Monoprice Route 66 Body ShapeThe top is nicely carved and the glossy sunburst finish is fairly well done.  The body is only slightly modified from the classic Les Paul shape – with a sharper horn, and this odd little angle at the neck joint.   The body and neck are fully bound, and the quality of the inlay work is remarkably good, very finely cut, and certainly better than the Epiphone.

The neck is bolt on, which is typical for a cheap guitar, but the les Paul is known for its glued in set neck, which is one of the things that contributes to its famous long sustain.   It’s a standard 24 3/4” scale length and 12” radius – 1.73” wide at the nut, and just under an inch thick.  These dimensions are a close match with the USA Gibson 60s slim taper.

The truss rod works ok, but it’s not very smooth to adjust.   The frets are rather rough and could use a polish, and there are a few high spots.  Still, I think this would be a reasonable neck after a level crown and polish.

The components are serviceable but unsurprisingly at this price, not very high quality.  The tuners are a bit inconsistent- some stiffer than others- but they appear to hold their tuning ok.  The nut is plastic and not quite perfect – it’s a little too narrow for the neck, leaving some rough edges, and the strings are sitting too deep in the slots.

Monoprice Route 66 BridgeThe bridge is a cheap Asian tune-o-matic and stop piece.  It’s got the traditional buzzing screw-retainer wire, and the adjustment screws and saddles are stiff and a bit fidgety to intonate.

The humbuckers seem reasonable and definitely have a traditional Les Paul sound.

The knobs are laid out differently from a standard Les Paul, with the group rotated a bit.   And the two volumes are on top and two tones on bottom, instead of neck volume and tone on top, and bridge volume and tone on bottom.

Monoprice Route 66 ElectronicsInside the control cavity, the pots are cheap mini-sized 500k audio taper pots.  And there are a pair of 47 microfarad green polyester tone caps.  The wiring is inexpertly done, with several obvious cold solder joints that will be prone to fail.  The 3-way switch is plastic, and this one is already bit glitchy – the bridge pickup sometimes cuts out and buzzes.

This guitar comes with a very lightweight gig bag.  It’s only really sufficient to protect the guitar from scratches- I certainly wouldn’t trust it to protect the guitar on the way to a gig.

The overall quality on these guitars is a bit hit or miss.  I’ve tried a few Route 66’s, and each has had its issues.  This one has an extremely stiff tuner on the high E, and the bad 3-way switch.   Monoprice has a generous return policy, so you can exchange as necessary.    Of course, if you’re willing to invest some time and money,  it shouldn’t be too difficult to change out and upgrade the components.

Overall, at this price, it seems like a reasonable starting point for a project guitar.

Epiphone Les Paul 1960 Tribute Plus

Les Paul's LogIn the 1940’s, before Les Paul was associated with Gibson, he actually worked in the Epiphone factory.  It was there that he designed ‘The Log’ – one of the first solid body electric guitars.  In fact, when Les Paul approached Gibson in the mid-40’s, they rejected his solid-body prototype, and only became interested years later, after Fender introduced its solid-body Telecaster.

These days the Epiphone brand is owned by Gibson, and the guitars are manufactured in a Gibson-owned factory in Qingdao, China.

Epiphone Les Paul 1960 Tribute PlusThis here is a 2012 Epiphone Les Paul – 1960 Tribute Plus in the Cherryburst finish.   In my opinion, this is a standout in the Epiphone line of Les Pauls.   Unlike other Epi Les Pauls, this one has upgraded electronics, including a pair of USA 57 Classic pickups, Switchcraft 3-way switch, push-pull serial/parallel switching and Mallory tone caps.

The body is made of three pieces of edge-glued mahogany, with a carved maple cap, and a vibrant AAA flamed maple veneer on top of that.  The finish is a glossy polyurethane which is tough and durable.  There’s no weight-relief here, and this guitar weighs in at around 9.2 pounds.

The neck is mahogany with a rosewood fretboard, and is attached to the body with a deep-set mortise and tenon joint. The nut is imitation bone- as in plastic- but it’s reasonably well-cut.  The truss rod works quite well and the neck is easy to adjust.  The neck shape is Epiphone’s 60’s slim taper, 1.7” wide at the nut, and just under an inch thick- with a 12” radius.  Surprisingly, the frets arrived polished.  I had previously played another 1960 Tribute Plus which had rather rough frets, so I guess I got lucky.  There were however a couple high frets that needed some leveling.

Epiphone Les Paul 1960 Tribute Plus NeckIn addition to the flamed maple veneer, there are some other cosmetic upgrades here – the body and neck are fully bound, and there are mother-of-pearl trapezoid inlays, and an inlaid headstock logo.  You generally don’t get the binding and inlaid headstock in the Gibson line until you’re up above $2000.

Unfortunately, the inlay work in the fretboard is a bit sloppy, with oversized slots for the trapezoids and some black filler around the edges.  This doesn’t affect playability of course, but it doesn’t look so nice.

The tuners are the outstanding Grover locking rotomatics.  They are smooth, and solid as a rock.

Epiphone Les Paul 1960 Tribute Plus BridgeThe stock bridge is Epiphone’s LockTone Tune-o-matic and stop tailpiece.  I replaced the bridge with the Gotoh 1511, which is a drop-in replacement, and does away with the rattling retainer wire and has a longer throw for easier intonation.   The only other change I made was to replace the Epiphone output jack, which stripped after a few months of use.   I replaced it with a heavy duty Switchcraft jack, and at the same time I changed the cream plastic jack plate to a metal plate.

The knobs are the standard Les Paul configuration- neck volume and tone on top and bridge volume and tone on bottom.  Additionally, the tone knobs are push-pull, and switch between series and parallel on the hum buckers.  There’s a 57 Classic neck pickup and 57 classic plus in the bridge position- these sound very rich and dynamic.  They’re worth a few hundred dollars on their own- so they add fantastic value to this guitar.

Epiphone Les Paul 1960 Tribute Plus ElectronicsInside the control cavity, the wiring is very clean- no issues at all.  The volume pots are Alpha 500k linear taper, while the push/pull tone pots are 500k audio taper.  The tone caps are Mallory 150 series .022uF metalized polyester.  The 3-way switch is a massive heavy duty Switchcraft.

The 1960 Tribute Plus comes with an Epiphone hard case.  It’s solid and will protect your guitar, but the surface coating is prone to tearing and peeling.  Nothing a little black duct tape can’t solve.

This has been my go-to guitar for the last couple years – it’s versatile, roadworthy, and sounds great.

Gibson 2013 Les Paul Studio

This is a 2013 Gibson Les Paul Studio with a vintage Sunburst finish- made in the Gibson plant in Nashville Tennessee.

Gibson 2013 Les Paul StudioThe Studio is similar in quality to the higher end Standard, Classic and Traditional models, but lacks some of the cosmetic upgrades like body and neck bindings, and figured tops.  The headstock is silkscreened rather than inlaid.  Otherwise, the guitar should sound and feel just like the higher-end Gibsons costing 2 or 3 times as much.

The body is two-piece mahogany, with a carved maple cap.  The top has a nice flowing grain pattern and the book match is quite seamless.  I don’t really miss the bindings- the contrasting woods and rich coloring have a nice visual appeal.

This body is routed with Gibson’s modern weight relief pattern- which reduces the guitar’s weight and adds resonance – this one weighs in at just under 8 1/2 pounds.

The finish is a traditional glossy nitrocellulose lacquer – this is a more labor intensive finish and supposedly allows the wood to resonate more freely than a thick poly finish.  And it’ll age more gracefully, like a vintage guitar with some yellowing and possibly some cracking over the years.

The neck is a single piece of quarter sawn mahogany, carved in the the 60’s SlimTaper profile – with the standard 24 3/4″scale, 1.73” wide at the nut, and just under an inch thick, and 12″ radius.  It’s a set-neck with a mortise and tenon joint.  The nut is Corian – a type of very dense plastic that is supposed to be similar to bone, and is cut on the PLEK machine for ultimate accuracy.  The truss rod feels super smooth when adjusting, and works perfectly.

Gibson 2013 Les Paul Studio NeckThe fretboard is Granadillo – a Guatemalan hardwood related to rosewood.  It’s a bit harder than rosewood and has a lovely rich reddish brown color.

The trapezoid mother-of-pearl inlays are perfectly cut, and have nice vibrant coloring,  The frets are perfect, even and polished.

The Kluson deluxe tuners are solid and smooth, and have a vintage vibe about them.  The bridge is the Nashville Tune-o-matic – a very nice bridge with no retainer wire, and extended throw for easy intonation.
The knobs are of course in standard Les Paul configuration- neck volume and tone on top and bridge volume and tone on bottom.  Additionally, the volume knobs are push-pull, with coil-splitting in the pulled position for single-coil sounds.  They are reverse wound so the single coils are hum-cancelling in the middle position.  There’s a 490R humbucker in the neck position and a 498T humbucker in the bridge.  These have a little more presence in the mids compared to the 57 Classics.

Gibson 2013 Les Paul Studio ElectronicsInside the control cavity, the circuit is laid out cleanly and well organized on a simple PCB-  the volume pots are 500k linear taper push/pulls, and tone pots are 500k audio taper Gibson branded pots.  The tone caps are these little orange guys at .022uF.  There’s also a pair of .033uF caps inline with the coil splitting.

The heavy duty 3-way switch only takes a very light touch to switch.

The 2013 Les Paul studio comes with a Gibson hard case, made in Canada.  It’s an excellent heavy duty case, and the inside smells strangely delicious too!  I’m not kidding.

This is my brand new guitar.  I think it’s an incremental step up from the Epiphone.  It sounds very similar to the Epi Tribute Plus, but feels a bit nicer in the hands, and at nearly 1 pound less, it certainly should be easier on the shoulder and back during long rehearsals and gigs…

Recording Setup

VOX AC15 Knob Settings for Recording

Recording VOX AC15HW1 VOX Ice 9 Overdrive Settings

I’m playing through my Vox AC15 handwired, with the cabinet mic’d just off center with a Sennheiser e609.

The guitar is plugged into the high gain input of the normal channel, with the bright switch engaged, and the channel volume at about a third.   The master volume is around a quarter, with no tone cut.

I’ll start playing clean, and then kick on my Vox Ice 9 overdrive.   I’ll try to play the same riffs on each guitar, always with the pickup volume and tone up full, and I won’t touch any of the amp or pedal settings between recordings.