Ibanez JEM Forum banner

Which one would you rather buy?

  • Strat

    Votes: 74 64.3%
  • Les Paul

    Votes: 41 35.7%

Strat vs Les Paul.

59K views 89 replies 64 participants last post by  Terror Facility 
#1 ·
Two legendary guitars. Which one would you rather buy?
 
#35 ·
Between the two?

Les Paul all day.

Though these new ones that Gibson's pumping out are pissing me off.

Chambered bodies? F**k you! I want that 12 pound Les Paul tone that only comes from 12 pound Les Pauls!!!!
My Ibanez LP lawsuit had a chambered body and several LP owners wanted it for much more than it was worth. That was likely the single best playing guitar I ever had.

Ibanez should have sued Gibson back for sucking at Les Pauls.:lol:
 
#32 ·
Fender or Les paul ,2 legendary guitars with many great players playing both ,
if I had to choose between them it would be the Strat for me.I think standard the gibson for rock .
but I like the strat feel better if we are talking fender strat I would need to hot it up some what ,but the gibson plug it in and play no messing around great rock tone .
sorry still the strat hotted up .
BUT if this poll was standard only I would go the gibson and put up with a heavy uncomfortable guitar just for its tone ,.I think jono has the right idea with giby pups in the strat

Cheers T
 
#42 ·
Les Paul feels un balanced and weird to play I have one but rarely play it. Strat feels perfectly balanced and the scale length is much more to my liking but the pickups = weak so this is why the Chravel Super Strat was born and led to my beloved RG so while I have all these if I could only have one I would take Strat and route it out for a humbucker and install a Floyd
 
#46 ·
Years ago, I owned a US Strat and LP custom at the same time. The strat never got played, I just loved the tone and feel of the LP, so I sold the strat eventually. Then I went and bought a RG450 while drunk and never played the LP again, it just sat there gathering dust, eventually sold it to a lover of LPs and bought a prestige. Now I love Ibbys, but with just a choice of one or the other I would choose LP. The LP was a heavy bastard though.
 
#47 ·
I have had a lot of both (Les Paul Custom, L6-S x 2, Sonex 180, and Gibson's short lived The Paul). On the other end I had Squier black strat with maple board, Standard strat with rosewood fretboard, American Standard strat with maple fretboard, and Fender Custom Shop strat with ebony fretboard. One guitar can't do it all and one can't even do the other.

If forced to choose one electric for all time and all styles, it would have to be the strat, but with a five position switch. On the Ibanez front I would think it would be Artist versus RG and I would actually choose an Artist but with coil tap switch to give it a single coil tone, too. I choose this knowing that the RG in all forms being by far the most popular Ibanez and one of the most popular single guitar models of all time being eclipsed in popularity by only the strat, tele, Les Paul, and SG in terms of sales or definitely what's on the floor at GC. If I had to own two Ibanezes for life then Artist and RG, or at least Scofield with Artist-like dual Super 58s and RG.
 
#48 ·
Les Paul... hands down. Quality, playability, tone... but my opinion may be skewed a little. I grew up watching my dad play a '71 Les Paul "Recording"... plus two brothers in the band with him both had Les Pauls... one a gold top and the other was a custom made 3/4 size one piece Les Paul copy made from a walnut beam taken out of an old schoolhouse. As a kid watching my dad and the Stock bros all on lead guitar ripping up classics like Freebird and Ramblin Man... a Les Paul was all I wanted.

Then a miracle happened when I was about 20... a friend of my dad's gave me a '76 Les Paul... yes, gave. It played so well I put down my old Ibanez Roadstar II and never played it again. Then I went through a "blues phase" in my mid-20's (who doesn't) and decided I needed a strat so I could be like all the blues guys. Bought a low end strat and just never could get used to playing it. Wouldn't stay in tune... volume knob was in the way of my pick hand... sounded terrible... action was super-high compared to the Les Paul. So my strat experience was terrible... I traded it for a 1969 Triumph 500cc twin engine case w/crankshaft.

Got back in to Ibanez guitars because I wanted a tremolo... 8) Took a little while to adjust to the longer scale, but I love my RG520QS!

Is there anyone that played a Les Paul for a length of time and switched to a Strat and preferred it? Just wondering.
 
#51 ·
snip

Got back in to Ibanez guitars because I wanted a tremolo... 8) Took a little while to adjust to the longer scale, but I love my RG520QS!

Is there anyone that played a Les Paul for a length of time and switched to a Strat and preferred it? Just wondering.
I went back and forth for decades but then found I played and sounded best on a strat. While I prefer teles, I can get more tones on a strat. I can play a Gibson scaled guitar with set in neck forever and randomly pick up any bolt on Fender scale guitar and play and sound better on it.

Gibson used the tried and true set in neck on their electrics which was found on just about all classic guitars made in the centuries before it. Leo Fender came up with something altogether different bucking the trend of everybody before him and when he hit that strat design with longer scale, bolt-on neck, trem, and body contours, he hit on something easier to play than anything before it. I don't know of any primarily Fender players who switched to the Gibson side but mostly the opposite.
 
#49 ·
Yes, for one, me.

I have 2 LPs, but can't remember the last time I played them. I have been playing either my strats, or super-strat guitars (Kramer, Yamaha RGX) for a while now. It's probably because I'm going through a tremolo phase, but I really don't miss not playing my LPs at all.

With that said, there is no "Strat vs LP" issue. The answer, as stated many times before, is "both!!!!"
 
#50 ·
Yes, for one, me.

I have 2 LPs, but can't remember the last time I played them. I have been playing either my strats, or super-strat guitars (Kramer, Yamaha RGX) for a while now. It's probably because I'm going through a tremolo phase, but I really don't miss not playing my LPs at all.

With that said, there is no "Strat vs LP" issue. The answer, as stated many times before, is "both!!!!"
Super-strats... yes. It was just an actual Fender "Stratocaster" that I didn't like, I like my 2 RG's, old Roadstar II, and Charvel Predator. I know a lot more about guitar setup now and could probably make the strat more playable if I still had it. I've got my tremolo fix taken care of with the RG520... first tremolo guitar I ever had that actually stays in tune for long time. :p

I would like to play a high quality strat that was nicely set up someday... one with a bridge humbucker... but than I would proabably want one...:roll:
 
#55 ·
LP for me, personally.

I've never had a desire to play anything Fender (though I have), just because as a lefty that's usually the only option starting out that most chain stores have.

More than that though, I don't agree with non-locking trem systems (would rather not have one at all if it's not) or single coils in the bridge. Just never gelled with my style.
 
#61 · (Edited)
Tough question... I much prefer 2 humbuckers (especially with a coil-split option) to single coils, but I simply cannot stress how much I HATE Gibson necks. Always feels like I'm trying to play a baseball bat! Too bad, because I was always kind of partial to the look and sound of a Les Paul, but I like the playability of the Strat!

My solid body guitars are Strat copies: RG3WXFM1 (H-H) and a Westone Spectrum LX (H-S-H) and I love them both.

If I had to be marooned on a desert island with just a Strat and a Les Paul, I'd learn to play the harmonica! :mrgreen:

Actually, let me amend that... on a desert island I wouldn't have an amp, or if I did there'd be no electricity to run it, so pickups wouldn't matter. I'll take a Strat, please! :wink:
 
#74 ·
When you are thinking big Gibson neck it's a 50s neck you refer to which has been more popular of late.

But give a slim taper 1960 neck a try. And for even more speed a Gibson model in matte finish with this neck is a totally different animal than 59 burst and big neck.
 
#63 · (Edited)
This is a very tough decision! And honestly, it resolves into Ibanez RG or most superstrats, really... I mean, you get everything - humbuckers, single-coil, whammy bar, neck accesibility.
If I have to choose an "iconic rock'n'roll guitar" - I'd go with Les Paul. Look - definetely Les Paul (well, with maple arch-top, to be precise). I have 2 LP's and barely use them, but they're just lovely to look at. Sound... well, LP too. edit: also, fixed bridge. Cool to play bends and other notes along with it, without going flat on other strings... not everybody needs tremolo, right?
Strat gets a whammy bar (at least some version of it... probably out-of-tune'y) and better accesibility from me. Also, it has a different, not worse by any stretch of the imagination, but sound for some other applications, definetely. So I'd vote for LP, but it's not really fair for the Strat side. :)
Now, the question is about which one "to buy", so I would recommend to buy a Strat, kind of illogically. :) If a person will be able to put a bridge humbucker in there at some point, he'll get most of it...
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top