A Beautiful Musical Instrument

I love this guitar. I also own an SG, a strat and a tele and so I decided to get an LP. I didn't think that I would like a Les Paul this much but I am truly in love with this guitar and now I see what the rage is about these instruments. After looking at a lot of Les Pauls, at first I couldn't see why I needed a guitar that was heavy with a thck neck when I have an SG that is light, has a thin neck and has humbuckers . After a lot of shopping I decided on this guitar. This version of the LP is chambered and is not heavy at all, and after playing it, I found that actually like the 50s style neck. I didn't take anything to get used to like some reviewers said it would. There is a big difference between an LP and an SG.

I bought this guitar seeking the Zeppelin tone, but the unexpected surprise is how truly nice it sounds clean. Some people have remarked that the 490/498 pickups were Gibson "cheaping up" on the guitar, but I think these pickups were actually selected by Gibson to give the guitar its optimum tone. It sounds good played through a Fender Deluxe Reverb and a Fender Pro Junior.

The guitar that I got has a nice birds eye figuring in the maple with a pattern that moves when you move the guitar at different angles to the light. The fireburst finish is really pretty and classy looking. The actiion was set up just right - low with no string buzz.. The neck, I don't think is quite as fast as my strat, but it just has a really nice feel to it that makes for confident playing.

I'm sure that I will enjoy this instrument for many years to come.

Pretty Decent Guitar with Modern Classic Sound

This is my first Gibson Les Paul. I currently have a PRS Custom 24 and have previously owned Epiphone Les Paul Standard, PRS SE Custom Semi-hollow body and PRS Mira. I play at Church every Sunday, so my guitars get regular live use and must be great clean and with some distortion.

This guitar is loud acoustically with played unplugged due to the chambering and it carries over when plugged in to an amplifier. The 490R can produce some great tones clean and some classic tones in overdrive. The 498T has a real modern classic sound and does great with solos higher on the neck. Harder playing pushes a mid-range which is nice and singing, not sharp or biting. Both pickup together produce some interesting and pleasant tones, especially clean.

The quality of the guitar is no PRS but it is intended to be a stripped down version of the Les Paul. The knobs and switches do not move as smoothly PRS guitars but they are better than Epiphone. I have ordered Kluson locking tuners to improve tuning stability and make string changing easier but the tuners it came with seem to do an adequate job (better than the Grovers on my prior Epiphone). The finish was better in person than the pictures show. Definitely a working musicians type of guitar, no frills but by no means bad. I kind of like the basic barebones look. The hardshell case was of good quality.

Overall, I like the guitar. I heard stories about hit or miss quality with Gibsons but I got a good one, I feel was in part to Sweetwater's 55 point inspection. I like the short scale and it plays well, not as well as the PRS guitars in my opinion, but it will hold its own. I thought it had a better overall and fatter tone than the PRS Mira which was a little bright and treble-ly for my taste. The PRS Custom 24 has more clarity but this guitar has a distinctly modern Gibson sound that I like (and it is half the price of the PRS Custom 24). The sustain is impressive, too. It blows away the Epihone Les Paul and PRS SE Custom semi-hollow body. Great back up guitar for my PRS CU 24 and I plan on playing it at Church regularly.