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My best mate just picked up a Jim Deacon Les Paul copy which I’ve borrowed for a while. I’ve been circling Les Pauls like a sexy vulture for a while…..I am now 100% sure I need one because of this guitar. In fact I’m thinking of offering him the 50 quid he paid for it. I’d really like a properly decent les paul and that doesn’t totally mean a Gibson in my head. I don’t care for paying for brand, I’d rather that money equalled build quality. I’m almost think that if I gave him 50 quid for this is any les paul really going to be 100-2000 quid better than this? What options are there for really fucking well made Les Pauls that look nice? What brands to avoid? Does anyone know much about Jim Deacon guitars? Where they were made?

Anyway on to the Jim Deacon….I have to say I thought it would be a piece of absolute shit but it’s NOT. Here’s why:

PROS:
It’s heavy as fuck. It appears to have a one piece back (I certainly can’t see any evidence of a laminate) and the neck is FANTASTIC. I’m guessing this is a chunky 50’s profile and is certainly benecol-friendly in the girth-stakes. Even though I have small hands I prefer a profile that fills out my palm. It’s got big fat frets that are not normally to my taste HOWEVER it instantly got me blues-noodling and I am a BENDWHORE with that kind of stuff, very very easy bending action. The whole thing feels solid as a rock. You could easily beat a man to death with it for you looking at you a bit funny in a pub. The hardware seems perfectly good and not noticeably lesser quality than any other TOM/stop-tail.

Cons:

It’s heavy as fuck. The inlays on the neck aren’t very spesh and look more plastic than the real deal. Plastic nut. The colour is kind of gross. It’s ALMOST 70’s cool, but the fairly plain wood laminate on top doesn’t do much to help the poo/urine-burst. The back and neck is a nice deep wine red however. Boring plain headstock. It’s obviously got some Asian style electrics in it but that is not necessarily a con. Initial plug in to the amp didn’t blow me away tone wise (but then neither does my amp any way). Without distortion the bridge was a bit honky. Somewhere between my playing and hitting the amp it lost the subtleties of my blues-finger™.

Tokai Love Rock? Especially the older ones. Or maybe Vintage? Burny? There are lots of good LP copies out there.

A decent setup by a decent luthier can work wonders. Even my brand new Gibson VOS '56 reissue - by far the most expensive guitar I've ever bought - was a dog until I got the frets dressed, the nut replaced and new bridge saddles. I've never seen a brand new guitar that has come properly set up from the factory or, for that matter, the shop.

Just accept that you'll have to spend a few quid on a GOOD setup (Luthier's Corner on Denmark St. usually works out about £120 for a setup and a new nut) and a few little upgrades and you won't go far wrong.

Thanks Markee - I'm pretty spesh at set ups meself so no costs there other than parts. I'm toying with the idea of investing money up front in Pups and electrics which i can stick in this Les and then simply save up for something of even better build quality and swap over the electrics. 99% of the tone is gonna come from the electrics and hardware anyway.

I'm absolutely shocked you could get a very expensive guitar that has not had a proper set up. In fact I basically think the only reason expensive guitars are thought to 'play better' is because most players don't know shit about set up and then when they pick up an expensive guitar that's had some attention paid to the set up, they confuse the price tag for the playability. I'm pretty sure on that really. To hear that a evry expensive guitar could be purchased without the 1 or 2 hours it would take to set up pristinely is fucking shocking to me.

Vintage make nice affordable les Pauls, only reason I'm selling mine is so I can get a SG for myself.

As for Jim Deacon its a Chinese rebrand guitar, I have. A 24" strat and its well made and setup.
Those SX guitars from rondo are the same things.

Jim Deacon is a brand name used by Euromusic, a musical instrument buying group based in Hamilton, Scotland. Jim Deacon Guitar Co. Ltd. was previously registered as a UK limited company at an address in Edinburgh, but the company was dissolved some years back. The two directors of Jim Deacon Guitar Co. Ltd became directors of Euromusic but have since resigned, one now is a director of Hamilton Music Centre.

Here's a retailer of the current range - HW Music at Bolton Current branding also appears to be changing to "(squiggle) Deacon"

Matt's Jim Deacon J-bass copy was bought from Modern Music (since taken over by Dawson's) some years ago. It's made in China and is serviceable but not outstanding.

Yeah another plus one for 'Vintage' V100 series. Great value for money... and I think the Wilkinson Pickups / hardware are great.

They blow current Epiphones out of the water in my opinion.

nice to hear some good things about Vintage; I've always wondered about them but never had the cash to experiment with one. Some of the similarly priced Epiphones I've played have shocked me with their shittyness.

really enjoyed mine when i had it, great playing guitars and look the part. always thought an uncovered bridge pickup on mine would look good.

there good platform for modding too, nice set of pickups and maybe grovers and your away.

Another vote for Vintage from me. I had a go of the Lemon drop LP they did, it was very nice indeed. Tokai LPs come up on Gumtree for a decent price quite often.

For the price you can get a second hand Vintage one tho, its a hard guitar to beat.

Vintage also do a Les Paul Deluxe copy. How fucking amazing is that?

^DAT RED, SON

These cost 50 quid? Isn't that like $75?

^That's one of my local shops. They're total pirates. They sell the same things as most guitar shops, just for a couple of hundred quid extra.

I'm shocked to see something cheap on there.

Glasgow is always swimming with cheap music gear and the occasional great find. BTW If that shop's selling something for £100 it'll be the sort of thing you find on gumtree for £20.

Westy - it cost 50 quid from a charity shop here. Probably a shop-soiled donation as there is no fret wear at all. it got a big old dent in the body.

i may have just done something rather silly (egged on by benecol).

Dave wrote:i may have just done something rather silly (egged on by benecol).

Beauty.

Thom wrote:

Dave wrote:i may have just done something rather silly (egged on by benecol).

Beauty.

do staple style pickups! very nice dave

Lovely - I <3 P90s

That Mr Benecol can be very persuasive at time. It looks sweet Dave. When does it arrive?

lorez wrote:That Mr Benecol can be very persuasive at time. It looks sweet Dave. When does it arrive?

benecol is like Rohypnol in gear pimp form