Les Paul Studio Standard

Les Paul Studio vs Standard

does any body have a Les Paul Studio and a Standard, could you tell me how they measure up in playbility and sonically ?

Cosmetically different I.E. Binding etc... Playability & sound I can't detect anything different (Depending on the age of the guiatr & pickups obviosuly!), apart from Studios being lower priced Since the whole point of the Studios was the LP sound without the non sound changing cosmetic enhancements that exactly what you get. Have a look here http://www.sospubs.co.uk/adverts/adverts.asp and do a search for Gibson in the guitars manufacturers catagory. There's some recentish Studios going for the 550-650 mark. My Fave is my well beat up 1989 Studio which has dot inlays & an Ebony fretboard it's a beaut.. Happy buying.

Thanks for your input, I was of the same mind, but before I bought one I thought I'd check them out side by side and went to local music store, where they actually had the Studio pretty cheap at £699 and the 2002 Standard with the BurstBucker's at £1,499... looking at the 2 guitars the Standard sure looked the more pretty of the two, but the depth of the Studio was about the same, which had been worrying me as I'd heard they were slimmer, the weight was about the same as well, and I thought I was on to a winner here... I played them both acoustically and the Standard did feel slighter better, but then the set up was better, although it didn't necessary feel £800 better...

So plugged them in, Studio first and it sounded OK, then I plugged the Standard in and the difference was huge! Where the Standard was really powerful and had clarity to the sound the Studio was dull and muffled. I knew instantly that I could never be happy with a studio when the standard sounded like this... I was gutted, I'd had my mind set on buying a Studio, I felt like somebody had just moved goalpost's to infinity... my mate who is a guitar techie type person thinks the difference in sound is due to the wood and whacking a pair of BurstBucker's on there won't help much... I'm not so sure but it's going to be expensive to find out.

I thought the Studio was lighter/thinner than the Standard, but ICBW.

I looked at both a few years ago and didn't like either. Bought an Epiphone Standard instead as it played and sounded much better than both!

Sorry, that didn't really answer your question, did it?

If you had asked this question a few years ago, the sonic difference was minimal. Both Studio and Standard used the 490 and 498 (off the top of my head) pickups, consequently sounding to all intents and purposes identical.

Thesedays though as has been pointed out they put the new Burstbuckers into the LP '02 Standards and the difference is huge. I own a 2002 LP standard with the BB's and it sounds absolutely phenominal, and since it has a lovely honeyburst flame top it looks the part too. Although 1.7k is a lot of wonga, it's still better than between 3 and 5k that you'd pay for a historic reissue, which these are *easily* on a par with.

One thing though, don't buy Gibsons through any mail order place, their quality control is *not* good and there are duff ones about. Shop carefully and you can pick up a beaut. I got mine from Guitar Village and (duff neck pickup notwithstanding, which got replaced when I took the thing back after it's first outing) it's a great piece of wood. Some of the ones they had were not so good (poor fretwork / neck set wrong etc.) but they did have 2 or 3 lovely ones.

Jules

p.s.

indoors / natural light http://www.slidejules.com/pic.cfm?pic_ID=3036

outdoors / natural light http://www.slidejules.com/pic.cfm?pic_ID=3035

Cheers Jukes,

I thought is might be the case, so it's the BB's that make such a huge difference....

BTW lovely guitar.

I have a mid-90's Studio and it sounds a little more trebly than most standard LP's I have heard.

It could just be my guitar however, they are all different after all

I wouldn't say the difference is due to the wood at all they're both mahogany with maple caps, but different pickups will make a big difference but it won't cost the huge price difference to slap a lovely set of Duncans or DiMarzios into the Studio, both of which make nicer pickups than the Burstbucker (which itself is a lot nicer than the Studio standards!)

All mahogany is not created equal. It varies enormously and some will have a pleasing tone, some will not. Gibson will save the best wood for their pricier models, and use the lower-standard stuff for the Studios, which I suspect have multi-part bodies. If any evidence is needed, just look at the nasty semi-opaque finishes being applied to the current Studios - it's got to be concealing something?

Maybe, but they are just that - pickups. They pick up the sound of the guitar but they won't create tone where none exists. To my ear, the guitars with the best amplified tone sound best unplugged too.

My 2p.