Gibson Les Paul Studio - Smokehouse Burst Reviews

I ordered this guitar mainly because of the beautiful finish on the body. The Smokehouse looks just as good if not better in person than the pictures. It truly is such a beautiful wood grain. Playability is about as perfect as you can get. The strings and fretboard are like a hot knife thru butter. It came perfectly set up thanks to Sweetwater! I love this guitar and play it daily.

Straight out of the box this guitar was set up perfectly. Gibson has a winner with this one. I wish Gibson offered locking Grover Tuners as an upgrade. (I bought a set and did it myself) The playablity and tone are excellent. I'm with most when it comes to the pull knobs for the pick ups. (So far I have found them to be useless) I like the reduced weight also. Just to sum it up, for a bare bones LP this guy is a winner.

Beautiful guitar. Plays great. Nice sound. Sweetwater was great. Fast shipping.

This guitar plays and sounds great. All the feel and sound of a LP but not nearly as expensive, it basically is only stripped down on aesthetics. Everything else about the guitar is awesome.

Phenomenal Guitar. But more importantly The service is off the charts. Nate is the reason I keep coming back to this company. If all of the sales representatives are like him then this is the only place to go!!

This is a stunning sounding guitar and the feel and intonation is the best. I'm more a Strat guy and the neck on this is thicker than I expected, but I find it very comfortable and the Plek setup really seems to make a difference and not just hype. It looks better in person than the pictures too.
I've bought two guitars from Sweetwater now. This and a 12 string and they both play great out of the box with no setup required, which makes you want to play them more. Highly recommended.

Gorgeous guitar, I love the fact that you can select the one you want. The red color of the rosewood fretboard really stands out on this particular one. My sales engineer Max Rice was extremely professional, helpful, and a pleasure to deal with! Sweetwater makes the buying experience fun. Shipping is extremely fast and secure. Don't hesitate to contact Max, he'll hook you up!

..I'm a relative beginner guitar player so I cannot speak as others do on Les Paul playability compared with others.
..I can make these comments. First a shout out to Mike DeAngelo my sales engineer for a superb buying experience..again.
My Gibson Les Paul arrived quickly, with all 55 point inspection documents. It was packaged securely and through. No damage.
.. the guitar is simply beautiful and with my existing cheaper amp still sounds marvelous. The guitar arrived missing a toggle switch cover. A quick call to sweetwater and that was taken care of promptly. My experience with sweetwater is you cannot go wrong. I'm a lifelong customer.

First saw the finish and loved it
Tried one at the store and liked it even more
Bought it
Played it at church the following Sunday and the tone through the house system was great, being able to split coils provided more options
The action was a little higher than what I'm used to, went back to Sweet Water to have touched up expecting to leave it to pick up later, was told to come back after lunch
I did, it was already done and felt awesome
Thanks Greg, thanks Sweet Water
Awesome service!!!!

This is one of my dream guitars and I love it. There is a minor blemish under the pick guard but I like the pick guard on so it's not an issue and I doubt SW ever saw it. After having it set up by the legendary Ron Pace here in Houston it plays wonderfully!

Best guitar I have ever played. All the things that have been discussed on this post is 100% correct. I removed the plastic pick guard as well as the poker chip. I also replaced the plastic knobs with custom chrome knobs. No more plastic for me. This is a killer guitar that will make your playing a lot more enjoyable. Enjoy..I am. Love Sweetwater & the boys.

A beautiful instrument. Sweet rich tones as well as hot lead. This is the best guitar I have purchased since my Strat Deluxe Plus in 1990. A joy to play. Can't wait to play it on stage.

I have played it and checked it out thoroughly and there is not one thing this guitar has that bothers me in any way. This guitar sounds so good without plugging in that I noodle exactly that way. I'm very happy with this Gibson Les Paul Studio Smokehouse Burst.

The guitar is beautiful, delivery was fast and the personalized customer service was superb.

I had a '71 Custom and stupidly sold it, so I could buy an axle for my Jeep. I'm a little bit smarter, 25 years later. Ever since then, I've wanted another Les Paul (though, my back didn't).

I wasn't even shopping. I already have more guitars than I need or play. But, I saw the photo of this in my feed and was like, OMG! It's gorgeous!

I love the fact that Sweetwater takes photos of every guitar, so you know exactly which one you're getting. With a sunburst, it's especially helpful.

I love this guitar so much. So easy to play. Gorgeous. Sounds awesome. About half the weight of my old one. Yasssssss.

I can't even begin to describe the beauty of this instrument. I am afraid to touch it without white gloves on...LOL I have to mention Rob, my sales engineer for unbelievable care and dedication to this entire purchase. i put together an entire package from the guitar to the case, to the Amp and he never missed a beat!!

I will never go anywhere else than to Sweetwater!!!

A very nice Les Paul with a beautiful, rich finish.

The guitar arrived on time, well packed and in perfect condition. The setup was pretty darn good right out of the box. I am picky, and I live in an arid climate (my studio is humidified, but the rest of desert isn't), so after it was here a week getting acclimated, I did a string change and setup so I could put some fretboard oil on the fretboard and, well, just because I wanted to. I've been playing it for a month now, and really love it. It has become one of my favorites. Sweetwater always aims to please.

The LP Studio Smokehouse is a smooth player as one would expect and the tone through my Marshall dsl is amazing. Gibson has gotten back to both its roots and quality. "Goldie" as I named her was ready and very playable out of the box with minimal adjustments and as always my Sales Engineer Clint made the process seamless. My eye is now looking toward an LP Standard 50's.

Bought an Epiphone les paul studio in tobacco burst. It worked kinda... it looked great.. but the neck and fretwork absolutely sucked. The frets were all over the place. Too low, too high. It fretted out, it buzzed like a bee and it just didn't have a real depth and variety of sound I thought it should have.. so I sent it back and bought a Gibson Les Paul studio in tobacco burst. Same style as the Epiphone, but a GIBSON ! The real deal. The fret work and the neck are impeccable! I set it up to how I like playing.. new strings and slight tweak to the action and it plays perfectly on every fret and every string. The pickups are so much better on the Gibson. All I expected and more. Especially more! The coil splits are a whole new dimension to learn to play and enjoy.
A special thanks to Corey and Sweetwater for taking back the Epiphone and trading up to the Gibson. IM HAPPY as a clam with this guitar.
If you want a great quality instrument, buy Gibson! Worth every penny!

I'm not a guitar snob, but truth be told, I favor a Strat style gig. That said, if Barney Fire can play the field - we can, too!

"LES PAUL" SAYS IT ALL.

And it's true...
... EVERY FENDER HOME NEEDS A GIBSON (from SWEETWATER)!

Peace and Shred to your your house.

This is by far the nicest guitar I have purchased from Sweetwater. This guitar has such a beautiful tone and works great with the Marshall amp and pedals I purchased through Sweetwater. It is so smooth and comfortable in my hands, and although I am not a great guitarist, it does seem to make my playing sound better. I love this guitar already and will enjoy it for years to come, I'm sure. Thank you Sweetwater for helping to make my music endeavors come true.

Tim Magnuson

After playing this guitar for a few weeks now, I am really loving it. The only thing I don't like about it is the split coil feature, which will never get used. Why would they incorporate a feature which gives you the nasty single coil 60 hz hum, and a crappy sound to boot. I purchased the LP because of the superior noise free sound of the humbuckers.

I gave my grandson my old 2002 Les Paul Studio, so I bought this new one to replace it with. As expected, it sounds fantastic, looks beautiful, and plays like a dream. The action was set up by Sweetwater, and it's perfect. I ordered it with the Grover 406C Mini Locking Rotomatic Tuners (I'm a big fan of locking tuners). As usual, Rob Kramer helped me through the whole sales process, making sure I got everything I wanted. The Shipment came "intact" a few days later, thanks to the awesome job their shipping people do to protect the instrument. This new LP Studio comes with a Coil Tap function, which I'll probably never use. I didn't care for the sound of the coil tap mode. Everything else is exactly what I expect from a Les Paul.

An awesome guitar...this versatile guitar is for any genre of music the tone and clarity on the clean channel is brilliant and the dirty channel brings out the nasty side of this axe... I've owned Les Paula in the the past and was hesitant buying one that was chambered... Hats off to Gibson on matching the right pick ups so you can't tell tone wise or sustain wise that it doesn't weigh 11# I'm very satisfied

I just wanted to leave a review for anyone trying to decide between a Studio LP or one of the more expensive models. I really love the way this guitar plays and sounds. Most of the items stripped off the guitar are purely aesthetic. Its a great price point for anyone looking for just the feel and sound of a Les Paul.

Absolutely one of the best playing guitars I've ever owned. Incredible sustain and intonation, I am sincerely blown away.

This guitar I must say is well worth the money. A great sounding Les Paul without the aesthetic tailoring that usually makes these guitars ridiculously expensive for what you get. I have large collection of guitars and I would say that I am pleased with this purchase. Usually go the Fender route for the price range but I must say I always wanted a classic humbucker guitar and this axe is one of the best sounding and playing LP models I have ever played.

I received mine yesterday. I am not a musician by any stretch of the imagination. I already had an Epiphone Les Paul, MIM Strat and Squier Tele that I had ordered from Sweetwater. I would take them to the school I taught at and let students come in and play them on their lunch. I love them all, but the Holy Grail has always been a real Gibson Les Paul.

I finally discovered the "Studio" version. No clue how I had overlooked it in the past (I guess my focus was always on a Standard). It looks beautiful, has the pickups that I wanted and sounds good to my "not so good" hearing. What it doesn't have is, the expensive stuff that I don't need. I'll never be in a band and I'll never be in a band, so that stuff doesn't mean anything to me. I would have liked locking tuners, but again... I have no need to make a quick change of strings.

For all of the fancy stuff that it doesn't have... it is still a Gibson Les Paul, it looks great, sounds great, and I have my Holy Grail.

An absolutely beautiful, world class instrument for any genre of music. Coil taps make it more versatile especially for brining clarity and detail to cleans. It's much lighter than expected, but tone-wise it's 100 percent Les Paul and has the most iconic and unmistakable humbucker tone of all time.

Let me see . I can say I had a good collection of Gibson Guitars , to be precise 5 of them ...
Didn't have a LP Studio . When I saw this Smoke House burst felt my heartbeat .
So I ordered it and patiently waited for it to arrive ... Meanwhile Brian kept me up for it ....
Thank God that he did and I ended up with this gorgeous specimen of Art ...
Plays and sounds like a higher end LP. Great tone and playability and very good recording guitar.
Thanks Brian Sheehan you are the best salesman engineer and a human . Sweetwater has to be proud and grateful
having you represent them and their gear ....
MarHak The Love Artist

I'm not going to go on and on about the reliability, playability, the specs (read them), or the amazing sounds that a Gibson Les Paul is famous for, you can take that as gospel. Look at the professional artists that choose Gibson, they play a Les Paul for a reason. And this 2021 Studio version was perfect for simple me. It exceeds everything that I read and studied about Les Paul's.

What amazes me is the overall physical presence. Fit and finish is 100% flawless. Weight is balanced. The chromed pups, bridge hardware, tuning keys, etc., contrasted against the Smokehouse Burst finish on the guitar is incredible. Depending on the viewing angle, the glossy black transforms into a rich, dark mahogany look. It's absolutely beautiful. And knowing that Sweetwater actually inspects the guitar in detail, instead of just re-boxing and shipping, is very reassuring. The In-house Inspection video adds to that assurance. (Well done, folks!)

Awesome Sweetwater customer service from Anthony (and Shannon!). They kept me informed on a regular basis on the status of this purchase, I can't thank them enough. You've got a forever customer now.

If you're even considering purchasing a LP Studio, stop arguing with yourself and buy it!

Thanks again, Anthony (and Shannon)!

I have several guitars from Gibson,but the Studio to me is just the ****...Love this guitar! Thanks to Kevin for hooking me up and the setup guys who put a bone nut on for me.Cant say enough about them...If you've played a Paul,you know how the make you just want to play...if you dont...GET ONE!

This guitar is so easy to play the design and its glossy finish are so beautiful and is not so heavy so I can be playing for hours!! This is my first Les Paul Gibson and I'm so happy and thank full with Sweetwater team for your great customer service!

Weird thing to say for a $... guitar, but there it is. Unplugged, this is the most resonant guitar that I have ever had in my hands. You can feel the low E string vibrating in every inch of the body of this guitar, and it is the loudest unplugged electric guitar I have ever heard. Comes set up perfectly, and plays buttery smooth. Sustain for days when plugged in. Thick and meaty tone as you would expect from any Gibson USA product. Nothing sounds like a Les Paul except for a Les Paul, and this guitar delivers that in spades. The 498T humbucker is quite hot, and delivers some ridiculously hairy sizzle under some gain.

As for aesthetics, the guitar's finish is beautiful. Very subtle burst, and in low light, you would swear the guitar is black. Under some sunlight, the grain of the maple top really pops out and shows subtlety. Can't recommend this guitar highly enough. If you're on the fence, go ahead and buy it before they sell out of them. You won't regret it.

I would like to comment on ease working with Lindsey was.She was very knowledgeable of the items that sparked my interest and when I had a issue with my bank and debt card she showed great patients until I had ironed out the issues I had encountered.
In short Lindsey was a dream to work with and she had my Les Paul and wireless unit in route to me in record time.
Thank you Lindsey,
Mitchell,B.Screven Ga.

This is a great guitar and looks amazing. I went with the Smokehouse Burst and it looks and plays great! I decided to go with the LP Studio because I don’t need fancy bindings or cosmetic stuff. It plays and sounds as well as I thought it would and that’s all that matters to me. I’ll be buying from Sweetwater again. They have outstanding customer service!

I've wanted a Les Paul for probably 25 years which is also about the last time I played guitar everyday.

I couldn't justify getting the Les Paul Modern or Les Paul Standard at about the $1000.00 more than the Studio... I won't ever be making a living out of this 'hobby' and I wanted coil tapping options that the Tributes or Classics do not have...

Visually; the Smokehouse Burst is very appealing to me. It appears dressy and elegant but something you could wear to Walmart as well without drawing too much attention! A very Earthy Natural Look. It doesn't have all the fancy binding but who needs to pay for that?

Sonically, it is able to handle a ton of different tones and sounds. The guitar holds its tuning really well. The neck is nice and slim and so smooth. It is just fun to play and explore different sounds and melodys. Sometimes I swear it is Growling at me! I play a little bit everyday and its a dream to play!

Physically, it is smooth, like butter! It fits nice and feels real balanced being played upright or sitting down. It is 8 pounds even with the Ultra Modern Weight Relief.

PS Mine was missing the Switch Washer but Sweetwater took care of that. I haven't installed it yet but I will just to see if I like that look. Who am I kidding, I'll probably leave it on, its an iconic look.

I am very satisfied with the customer service I received from Will Newbill. He was outstanding! And I am happy I decided to give myself this little slice of heaven as a gift to myself. Her name is Angel #9.

I purchased my Gibson Studio from Sweetwater and I love it, plays like butter. I could not be happier with my purchase. And Sweetwater could not of been anymore helpful. My Guitar came in well packed and the set-up was perfect when I got it. I plan on making many more purchases from Sweetwater

Can't beat it for the price. This Les Paul can smoke 'em. It's a Les Paul. Great tone and sustain. Versatile with the coil taps you can get many different sounds. Nice finish. Can't say enough about the staff. You won't find better service after the sale anywhere. Thanks Taylor Perry.

In the past I have owned several Gibson guitars. Over the past few years I have gotten back into playing and have owned a couple decent guitars. I have had my eye on this model for several months and decided to pull the trigger. Excellent playability, stays in tune, sounds phenomenal, and last but not least, reasonably priced for a Gibson. I have learned that with guitars you mostly get what you pay for, this baby is worth every penny!!

I have always wanted a gibson for my collection but i am a fender guy. Well, I WAS a fender guy. Now I am a fender/les paul guy. I never realized how much infinite sustain can be so fun. I am releasing my inner Slash with this guitar. You can have your fancy bindings and cosmetics. I love the simple style. I also LOVE this Smokehouse Burst finish. No other guitar looks like it. Thank you Sweetwater.

My local guitar shop recently got their shipment of 2019 Gibson Les Pauls in. I went in wanting to test the Tribute (liked the colour scheme and look). Played that through a Fender valve amp, wasn't impressed, went out to the boxes and picked this up. Was very impressed from the get-go. Better clarity, better balance of highs mids and lows, better sustain.

Played them both to the shop assistant and he noticed the same.

Then went and got a 2019 standard, and compared that to this. There was a tiny difference in tone, but it was in character and not quality. The guitar also had a real expensive feel (the Tribute felt a bit cheap), finishing was beautiful, felt like putty in my hands in terms of playability. So I went for it.

I worked with Chuck Wallace to get this deal done. I was looking at Epiphone Les Paul's primarily from my past experience with Gibson. I have owned two in the past (a 1973 SG and a 1983 ES-347 both purchased new). The ES-347 was built with very poor quality control so I had serious doubts about purchasing another Gibson. Chuck had me look at a few other brands ESP, etc..., but Chuck also assured me that the Gibson quality has been looking pretty good this year, and when I found that the particular Les Paul Studio guitar I was looking at actually came with a hard shell case I pulled the trigger on the deal.
I received my guitar in excellent condition and I was really impressed with the Smokehouse Burst finish (my guitar had the lightest finish of those available). The fingerboard had been plek'ed and it feels incredible. I did replace the strings and oil the rosewood fingerboard as it was very dry, but I am extremely happy with my purchase... Thanks Chuck!

I am not a regular Gibson user, as this is my first Gibson guitar (and second overall guitar), but after playing it for a few months, this is an awesome guitar. The fretboard plays as smooth as butter! The guitar is a bit heavy and hurts my back, but that is to be expected from a Gibson Les Paul. There is an issue with the top pickup where it crackles at random times when I switch to it, but it usually fixes itself. Sounds great, VERY little issues, and absolute beast of a guitar! I can only imagine what a Standard Les Paul would handle like!

My axe of choice is my 70 es335,I also play a Flying V, Les Paul clasic and a custom Strat. Point being simply I have a new working guitar. I love this guitar, IM a wood guy and the wood and finish on this guitar is perfect and I love the smokehouse burst is amazing.She felt great straight out of the box and the action was sweet. The new electronics are a marvel and comand numerous tones and combos. I would also like to thank Thomas for all of his help,he has helped me many times since I discovered Sweetwater.Oh I forgot to add it is a fantastic bang for the buck!

So I swear I wasn't going to get another guitar this year. But every time Sweetwater sends me an email I found myself perusing the Gibson "unobtainable" collection of guitars. I've always wanted another Les Paul. Not an Epiphone. But a Gibson. Then this one listed and I couldn't resist getting it.

I've been playing it all day and all I can say is I'm super happy with it. Even though the one I purchased was a "DEMO" it was in pretty pristine condition. The pictures really don't do it justice. I really like the subtlety look of this finish. In terms of fit and finish I really can't find anything to complain about. No cracks/separations etc on the guitar. The finish itself is super nice and made the trip in the ice cold. Grover tuners are smooth. Even the 3 way switch is super nice and doesn't make that audible "click" noise when switching tones. And its super resonant. It plays so super nice. My only complaint is my own personal musicianship :)

The only thing that I don't like - and this is personal preference mind you. Is the coil split. I don't think either sound that great to me no matter how I fiddled with the sound. The neck sounds like you threw a wet blank over it and just kills the tone. And the bridge - I can get better sounds from my Strat.

Special thanks to Cassie my salesrep for getting this thing out to me way quicker than I was expecting (due to recent shipping issues NOT related to Sweetwater). She had rushed it out the door. Thanks for making my Christmas all that much more special because of it.

I've had this guitar to 2 years and I really do love it. Plugging it to a tube amp, Jimmy Page comes to mind with the classic 70s rock vibe. The build quality has been good - fit and finish solid. I have upgraded a couple of things - nut and locking tuners. The locking tuners were a nice upgrade because the original tuners, while perfectly serviceable, weren't "tight". The nut was a little low from the factory so I upgraded to a Tusk. From the factory, it was in tune and the neck was straight and only needed minor adjustments here and there since. It's wood, wood expands and contracts.

The color is gorgeous - so much depth and character in the finish. The neck plays like a classic LP, and the pickups can get growly very quickly and easily.

One fit and finish note - when I replaced the tuners, I discovered that Gibson had given me and extra set screw hole that is hidden under the tuner. Has no impact at all, is only visible of the tuner is removed (I don't plan to remove them again), and it's the only thing that smacks of less than perfect quality. (the nut is a preference, as were the tuners).