This weekend, Guitar Center put the 2014 Gibson LPJ on sale for $500. That puts it in budget guitar range (at the top of the range, actually,) so hence the review.
What do I think of the Gibson LPJ for $500? I like it a lot for that price. I think it’s a very good deal. What did I think of it for the previous price of $762? I thought it was overpriced and not as good as the LTD “version” of the Les Paul, in the same price range. But value matters a TON. Especially to me. If you just scored one of these babies for $500, well done.
Sound
The LPJ sounds like a Les Paul. The one I’ve been playing has a Gibson 498T in the bridge and a 490R in the neck, and they sound great. If you take a standard Les Paul with those same pickups and put it through a distorted Orange or Marshall amp, would there be a huge difference in sound? No. Clean, you hear a very subtle difference, but I’d say they sound very similar. This is a Gibson Les Paul with a mahogany body and a maple cap. The difference is the neck, which is maple, whereas a stock Les Paul has a mahogany neck. That makes this guitar a teeny bit brighter.
SIDE NOTE – I said “very subtle difference.” You can’t attribute all of it to the maple neck. The Les Paul I compared it to had different tuners, different finish, was an older guitar so the wood was older, probably had different strings, and the strings might have been older… there are too many factors to simplify the situation and say “maple neck makes the guitar brighter.” It does, but by a very small amount.
In terms of sound, this guitar for $500 is a winner. It’s a Les Paul. They did it an injustice by calling it an “LPJ,” which people will naturally call “Les Paul Junior,” but the Les Paul Junior is an actual guitar and it’s different than this one. Not as good, actually. If you want a Les Paul sound and you have $500, it’s either the LPJ on sale or an Epiphone. This guitar sounds better than a similarly-priced Epiphone. Actually, a third option is to buy a used Gibson. I did. But that’s a different column.
Playability
Good but not great. The LPJ neck feels sort of like my 50’s Tribute, but not quite as nice. The fretwork is OK, and the shape is the 50’s shape, which feels a little big to some. The body feels heavy, but not too heavy. It feels like a weight-relieved Les Paul. If you like a slightly thinner 60’s style neck, this neck might feel a little big. I like it for AC/DC style power chords, but not so much for trying to play fluidly up and down the neck. Same as my Les Paul. But YMMV. I didn’t see any big issues. But let’s be blunt – this is a lower end Gibson. A 50’s style neck on Gibson Les Paul feels… better. Hard to put it into any other terms. This neck feels good, but an actual Les Paul neck feels great. It should, for over two grand. It’s not voodoo or imagination – it’s attention to detail. A craftsman can spend far more time working on the neck of a $2,500 guitar. So whether it’s rolling the edges or binding the neck or just slaving over the tiniest little detail, you get what you pay for. I’m not dissing this neck – for a $500 guitar, this is a good neck. But it’s not the same as a guitar 5 times it’s price, nor would I expect it to be.
Looks
Here’s where we get down to the gripes. There are one or two version of this guitar that look decent, but the red one I’ve been playing? Um… not to my liking. And here’s the thing – my insider sources tell me that looks are the number one reason people have opted not to buy the LPJ. The sunburst and the fireburst have consistently sold better than the red (cherry) and brown (chocolate and shade.) So customers agree with me. I often wonder what Gibson is smoking. The guitar I’ve been playing (red) looks to me like a failed high school shop project. Strip the finish away, paint this thing black, and you’d have a far better looking guitar. Better yet, Gibson should have done it out of the factory. But I’ll grant that people seem to love or hate the red (I mean cherry) LPJ. Don’t feel insulted if you bought one for $500, because you got a great deal. If you paid the full $762 and think it looks great, we disagree. But it’s OK that you have bad taste. And Gibson opted to not write “Les Paul” on the headstock, and instead give you a cheesy plastic “LPJ” plate over the truss rod. Someone at Gibson didn’t want people to know how close to an actual Les Paul this guitar really is. Make it ugly ass red and don’t write “Les Paul” on the headstock, that way it won’t eat the Les Paul Studio’s sales? Mission accomplished, but it was a stupid decision.
Value
It’s a good value at $500. Especially if you don’t get the red or brown model. I considered buying one even though I don’t really need it. The thing that stopped me was that it’s very similar to my Gibson Les Paul 50’s Tribute. The neck isn’t as nice as mine, and it certainly doesn’t look as nice. But ultimately it doesn’t give me something different enough for my arsenal. But if I didn’t have the 50’s Tribute, I might have purchased the sunburst version. At it’s normal $762 price, no way. I can get a used Les Paul Studio for that amount, and the Studio is a better guitar. Feels better, plays better, looks better, and has better attention to detail. But importantly, it’s being discontinued, and at $500 Guitar Center should have no problem selling off their inventory. If you want one for that price, you should grab one before they’re gone.
