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[bluestraveler]

Hi folks

I'm a long time strat player looking for a Les Paul copy to have around the house.
I've been looking at the options on the market, and it seems to boil down to Epi, Tokai, Yamaha or Vintage.

Don't know much about Vintage, but am tempted by their Peter Green replica - Lemon Drop.

I'm assuming that all the Les Paul Copies are Chinese jobs with pretty much the same specs - although I see Vintage have Trevor Wilkinson on board which seems like an added bonus with the hardware on that guitar.

Anyone tried comparing these guitars or have any opinions??

[Pint_paul]

the tokai's are japanese made, and used to be one of the companies gibson used to outsource to for their japanese guitars. andy from musical vision has a tokai les paul and it is very nice indeed. id put it almost on a par with my gibson studio

i had a vintage guitar a few years back and it felt like a cheap guitar. maybe they are better now but i stil wouldnt look at them again personally, im sure others on here would tell you differently tho

[Old Gold]

Yamaha's always a safe bet, although if you're bothered by the fact that they don't look exactly like Gibsons it could be a problem. Far more playable than Vintage garbage.

[Bigsby]

You get different types of Tokai though, Andy's is no doubt one of the higher end Japanese models, the cheaper ones are Korean and made of plywood.

I haven't played one of the Vintage ones but they get good write ups in the guitar magazines since Trevor Wilkinson came on board. For around the house they are probably OK, but a Tokai will hold it's value better, mainly due to the ignorance of the various models as displayed above.

[stoney_stu]

The Tokai is amazing .. but as Bigsby and others said .. you have to get a Japanese one ... Diesel had one ... (he's had every f***ing thing) it was a stunner...

The Korean ones (Tokai) are to stay away from ... The Epiphone LP copies are ok ... but make sure you get a set neck one not a bolt on.

mind you I'd be getting the real thing !

:-)

[Original Spies]

The ESP Ecclipse is rather nice. You can get them with Seymour Dunc's in too, instead of EMG's, so it won't sound too metal!

Avoid the low end Epiphone range, especially their bolt on neck stuff.

[Fraser Mac]

Originally Posted by Original Spies

The ESP Ecclipse is rather nice. You can get them with Seymour Dunc's in too, instead of EMG's, so it won't sound too metal!

Avoid the low end Epiphone range, especially their bolt on neck stuff.

I was going to say, I have a Gibson SG, and An Epiphone Les Paul, both as good as each other,

think i only paid £250 for the les Paul,


Just avoid the bolt on neck stuff and you cant really loose,

[plumpwhiteduke]

My Tokai Loverock is a 1983. I found I got on with it better than the 2 custom shop Gibson LP's that I used at the time I acquired it. Its definitely a better guitar than all but the most tasty modern Gibson Les Paul Standards, and it took Gibson till 2001 to get their custom shop LP's as accurate in shape as the Tokai's . . the reason? Tokai sawed up a 1959 burst in the 80's and took measurements with micrometers, and then preceded to make EXACT copies, right down to the long neck tenons.

My one is a cheapo Jap one with a 3 piece body, however the more expensive ones of the time were EXACT replicas, some even had braz boards! Billy Gibbons uses a loverock on tour (as he couldn't get adequate tour insurance for Pearly Gates!)

Their pickups are excellent also.

The new Korean ones are not made to the same standards . . but there will be nice ones.
And the modern Japanese one they had in R+B music recently was spectacular.

However you cant beat the old ones for mojo....check the link out

Homepage japanguitars

[John W]

Originally Posted by Original Spies

The ESP Ecclipse is rather nice. You can get them with Seymour Dunc's in too, instead of EMG's, so it won't sound too metal!

Avoid the low end Epiphone range, especially their bolt on neck stuff.

I have a high end LTD Eclipse and i love it like a child, but the £400-£600 you could pay for one is probably out of budget considering your looking specifically for an "about the house" job.

But the Mid range £150-£300 are very good too, but at the end of the day they are nothing like Les Pauls, even the shape when you look closer isn't a close resemblance. Comes down to how picky your going to be.

I used to have an Epi Les Paul Special 2, avoid with everything you have.

[Original Spies]

Yeah, not an accurate LP copy, but LTD guitars are swish, especially for the money. Even the low end LTD stuff is totally decent. I have a Viper50. Came with fairly pants pickups, but the construction is really solid. Very nice to play.