Gibson Les Paul Special Tribute Humbucker Review

Amateur Hour is a Little More Raucous

This guitar is nice, comparable in quality to my American made G&L ASAT Classic, and American Fender Stratocasters. I needed a guitar with humbuckers. I used to own a USA PRS Santana Signature with 10 top, a $4000 dollar guitar that was lost due to a freak electrical accident in a house with old wiring. In my opinion, the Les Paul Special Tribute smokes the PRS. It's the easiest… read more playing guitar, I have ever played. The Gibson scale length makes more difference than I imagined. I have played guitar since I was a teenager as a hobby, and mainly played an acoustic guitar for the majority of my playing days. For electrics, I mainly have focused on clean sounds as I own Strats and Teles. After going from the 25.5" scale length to the 24.75," I imagine it might not be amateur hour around here if I would have started on this size guitar. In terms of playability, I would highly recommend this for a beginner. Way better than any cheaper imports I have ever played. So far, I have coaxed a clean sound that is mellower and less hi-fi as my strats and tele, but the sound is just as valid. Also, I think the bridge pickup also produces a nice clean sound, which I don't really feel with my Stratocasters. That said, I bought this guitar to focus on learning to play with more gain, and so far I have only been able to coax a legit high gain sound out of this. I play it through pedals with a Fender Deluxe Reverb and Mesa Transatlantic 30. So far I've dialed in a gratifying sound with this guitar, those amps, and a MXR 5150 Overdrive. My Fenders were much noisier with that pedal and I really couldn't use them in combination. This guitar is perfectly matched for that pedal. It makes me think of Tony Iommi's Dio era tone. My lower gain pedals will probably work well with this too, but I found the hi-gain sound to be so appealing that I haven't really plugged many others in. A Keeley Super Phat Mod and this didn't click very well, though. If I took the time, I probably could have dialed something in that worked for that combo, but if you have a sound like Ronnie Montrose available, it's hard to move in a different direction. I am surprised how well the guitar is intonated with the stoptail bridge. I feel like modern metal players might not be satisfied, and I might try a intonatable stoptail somewhere down the road, along with some locking tuners. That said, it is perfectly fine without any tweaks, and I imagine it might not make a significant difference compared to the stock setup. It holds tune fine, but it's probably not acceptable for djent levels of tightness. I bought a demo model. They had pictures of some scratches and a tiny paint bubble. In person, you would never notice. That said, every demo model would be different, but mine was brand new from my perspective. I feel this Guitar will age very well, not only in looks, but long-term value. This is 2022, and with Brandon and crew running the show, it might take $100k and a goat calf to buy a guitar like this next year. To wrap things up, I'm super happy with this guitar. I'm giving it a 5 star rating. I uploaded a video to YouTube to give a little demo to link here on Sweetwater. Check it out.

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Sounds like a Les Paul should.

I have been looking for a solid block of wood with no frills and a set of hum buckers on it, with a rosewood fret board. This fit the bill perfectly. Service was goo as always. For this price you can beat the hell out off it and it will still be a great guitar. It came set up pretty good but I did feel a couple of fret spurs so I removed them rolled the edges slightly and put a… read more set of 9.5 Ernie Balls on it. Plays like butter with no fret rattle of unwanted buzzing.I n fact after re stringing, I had the action so low with no fret rattle or buzzing, I could not get my fingers under it enough to bend the strings. So I raised it to the height of a Quarter at the 12th fret just so I could bend the strings. That is the first time I ever had to raise my action on a guitar. If you want a Gibson Les Paul and you do not want to spend $3,000 this is a great guitar to capture that famous Les Paul Tone and playability. Best wishes to all and have a safe Holiday season.

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Gibson LP sound and feel without the high price.

this is my 4th gibson LP. i had 2 standards and still have a studio. i have a couple other guitars but to me, nothing feels and sounds like a gibson LP. when i first unpacked it, i was alittle disappointed. i was used to the look of the higher priced ones. but i bought it for the sound not for the look. when i plugged it in, i heard that LP tone immediately. its not a standard or… read more custom, but for the price, it still has that LP feel and sound. i'm not a guitar expert by any means. i just like what i hear and what i feel. definitely worth the price to me. thank you sweetwater and nick.

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Professional Quality

I've owned this model for a year and everything about it makes me want to keep playing. I am a former tele fanatic playing blues and 70s/80s rock. The slab body with flat back and chunky neck is so nice! My hand sits on the bridge and easily mutes strings or lets me dig in with a pick - not having a stop tail is really part of the "feel" players love from these jr style guitars.… read more Pickups are incredible. I will never sell this guitar and can't recommend it enough!

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High Quality

I'm a casual living room player who has only played Telecasters over the years. A month ago I purchased the Les Paul Special. So, in comparison with a Tele, the Les Paul feels as a whole incredibly rock solid in my hands. Every single part of the guitar looks and feels of the highest quality. Its tone is beautiful. The Les Paul Special is not fancy guitar but it is worth its… read more $ price tag and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to play an electric guitar.

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