Les Paul Special

westtexasred · Post by **westtexasred** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 4:06 am

I got this last week. It's a 2012 Les Paul Special with P-90s.It has a satin finish with a few little chips on the treble horn and one on the neck but other that that it is in good shape. It plays great and sounds awesome. I like the binding on the neck.

sunshiner · Post by **sunshiner** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 5:44 am

Oh yeah, that's cool. I remember your Epi, guess on this neck is fat, I like fat necks.

gusman2x · Post by **gusman2x** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 6:20 am

Damn man, this is exactly what i've got a hankering for at the moment!

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 7:25 am

Westy - Something like this is definitely on the cards for me in my future, I'd be interested to know you opinion on how the limited edition Epi compares with the 'real thing' Aside form the binding is there any major playability differences?

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 7:29 am

The limited edition Epis I tried were dogshit playbility wise.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 7:43 am

paul_ wrote:The limited edition Epis I tried were dogshit playbility wise.

Was it dogshit as in a decent set-up, maybe a nut change would make them good, or something fundamentally wrong?

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 8:29 am

I'm sure they could've been made to play better than when I got to the floor models, but against a Gibson version I think there would always be hugely apparent quality/feel differences. There were 3 of them and I desperately wanted to like at least one of them (as a big fan of singlecut LPs AND P90 DC Juniors and a proud owner of a couple great Epis over the years, they seemed like the missing link), but against the equally priced G400s next to them it was no contest, it utterly smoked them for playability and unplugged liveliness with a seemingly just-as-average setup. The action on the Specials was very spongey and the necks felt cheapo compared to the SG, and I remember putting the identical sticker prices down to the LP being a limited model. Something about the neck angle even seemed a bit off, I remember thinking that even truss rod and action tweaks may not be enough to have it playing far less clunky. I think your Edwards would certainly be miles ahead and therefore show it up quite a bit when you begin to make the inevitable comparisons... it's not one of the better Epi LPs by miles. All I really needed it to be better than were the Chinese kit DC Jrs I'd just built at the time, but no dice.

I think Westy found his pretty good, but I'd definitely want to try one before ever committing to buy it, even for An Totally Modds.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 8:34 am

Thanks Paul, I've no doubt the Eddy would be leagues ahead (I can't stress how impressed I am for what the used price got me, it feels such quality and all the hardware is great spec) but a TV yellow special is just "something I wish to own one day".

I'm thinking there might be better options out there for the money. Maybe Edwards or a similar company do a high spec/cheap cost version.

gusman2x · Post by **gusman2x** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 8:59 am

Dave, I think this would be ideal Must refrain from buying

There was one on the new fretboard forum for sale recently, but I don't see it there anymore, plus it was more expensive than this one.

An Edwards, or a MIJ Tokai would also be luverly.

westtexasred · Post by **westtexasred** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 9:25 am

Thanks! The Gibsons definitely feels better and sounds better than the Epis. The Epiphone looks the part and they are fun guitars but there really is no comparison with the real thing.The Les Paul Special with P-90s is the best guitar that Gibson makes.Even they cheaper versions like mine sound great,as good as the Custom Shop versions(I think).They both use the same pickups. I like this one is better that the other Junior Special I had because this one has binding on the neck. That is actually the reason that I sold the other Special,I wanted one with a bound neck.

gusman2x · Post by **gusman2x** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 9:27 am

Westy, are these the ones that you can still buy, but are called Gloss Yellow, as opposed to TV yellow?

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:14 am

Thanks for that Westy - I really wish I had a way to host an archive of all your photos from over the years - be such an awesome eye candy thing - a website or even an oversized coffee table book! Seriously, That would be auch an awesome thing for folks to enjoy (sowing seeds, sowing seeds

)

Looks like there is an edwards, pretty spendy new price (about 750 GBP):

http://www.espguitars.co.jp/edwards/ls/E-LS-90LT.html

gusman2x · Post by **gusman2x** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:41 am

That looks really nice, and has the wrap around bridge too. Think only VOS reissues have them now.

westtexasred · Post by **westtexasred** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 9:40 pm

gusman2x wrote:Westy, are these the ones that you can still buy, but are called Gloss Yellow, as opposed to TV yellow?

Yes, well actually,thse guitars are out of production now. (link)
but Gibson did make "Gloss Yellow" and "Satin Yellow" versions of these.

Mine is the Satin which is a very thin finish.You can see from the way the paint is chipped.

I sold my Les Paul Standard so that I could buy the Rickenbacker but I still needed a Les Paul of some kind so that is why I got the Special.The Standard was really nice but I like the Special better.
It fits in better with the music I like.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 9:59 pm

Where's that lovely pink strat gone?

westtexasred · Post by **westtexasred** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:06 pm

benecol wrote:Where's that lovely pink strat gone?

Yeah,I took it back to GC. I really couldn't afford to own it even with the $1000. my mom gave me for my birthday. I still had to come up with $1700 of my own money.

$2900 if I wanted to keep both pink strats so the both went back.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:08 pm

Oh. That's a shame. Although I do question how much Custom Shop care and attention is sunk into a run of guitars when they make one in each of the custom colours.

westtexasred · Post by **westtexasred** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:25 pm

benecol wrote:Oh. That's a shame. Although I do question how much Custom Shop care and attention is sunk into a run of guitars when they make one in each of the custom colours.

Well,that guitar was really a Masterbuilt made by Dale Wilson when he was still an apprentice at the Custom Shop so it was a superb piece...But...the pickups are same as the ones in the new American Standard Stratocaster so the difference in sound wasn't that great(to my ears).

westtexasred · Post by **westtexasred** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 11:45 pm

Dave wrote:Thanks for that Westy - I really wish I had a way to host an archive of all your photos from over the years - be such an awesome eye candy thing - a website or even an oversized coffee table book! Seriously, That would be auch an awesome thing for folks to enjoy (sowing seeds, sowing seeds )

I have an album here (link)

robert(original) · Post by **robert(original)** » Fri Oct 11, 2013 2:27 am

if i could get along with the nut spacing on gibbys then i would already have a tv yellow or gold top LP with p-90s