Gibson Les Paul Tribute

[mjbphotos]

Anyone here ever play one? At $1300 they are the cheapest LPs in Gibson's lineup ($400 less than a Studio), and with the usual 15% GC coupon, that's about $1100 out the door (with a soft case). VIP Black Friday sale starts tomorrow, so might even be a bigger discount, too.
I always wanted an LP, but since I stopped playing in (electric) bands 10 years ago, never could justify buying one. I don't play electric alot these days, but would like the option when recording.
Just wondering if the tone and sustain of an LP is really there on these. Haven't had the chance to play one at the store yet. I understand they are a little thinner than a standard LP, so weigh less. And no binding (like Studio models) and no nitrocellulose glossy finish either.

 

[snow lizard]

I played one a couple of years back that a friend ended up buying. Chambered body like the studio series - cuts down the weight quite a lot. The pickups were the 490 R & T combination in this one. I think some of them have a 498T bridge pickup. Can't comment on that one. I like the 490's a lot. There's nothing special about them per se, but they do a good job from clean to overdrive crunch. No coil taps even though the Tribute belongs to the Studio series. Probably not the right pickups for metal, shred or anything where you want really high gain. I own a couple of other Gibsons with the 496R/500T pickups - different animals. It has the 60's slim taper neck profile which I really like. Overall it's a good axe. The tone and sustain of this one is just fine. Low action, plays pretty smooth.

Binding and nitro laquer are both things that add substantial time and cost to making a Les Paul. Having neither, the Tribute series is a great value. I've played some where the fret dressing was on the sharp side, but that's easy enough to fix. Guitars can be a bit like snowflakes a lot of the time, so I always like to check out a few different ones. Also my buddy's guitar is a few years old now so there may have been some changes to the line.

 

[Track Rat]

I have a GoldTop Tribute with P90s. I like it.

 

[mjbphotos]

Yesterday I pulled all my instruments out of the closet for their annual start-of-winter tune up and humidifying, before going to Guitar Center for their 'VIP sale', which was just 15% off SOME items. Plugged my $25 (+ $28 to ship) Chinese HSS Strat clone into an amp, tuned it up, realized the tones for the two single coil pickups are not too bad, the humbucker is way harsh though. I don't think I've played this guitar in a few years. I've got an Epiphone Dot with humbuckers and the semi-hollow body when near the amp gets decent sustain. This is in addition to my 72 Tele which is always my main go-to electric. So I really don't NEED another electric guitar. At GC, the LP Tribute was up on the 3rd wall hanger level. In the satin honeyburst, it didn't look that attractive from a distance. There were only 2 guys working in the store, and they were busy so I resisted the urge to ask one of them to climb a ladder to get it down. Looked at the Kali 8" monitors - with the discount it would have been $322 for a pair of them, but they are big, and it would have been hard to fit them next to my current JBLs and I am used to my current set up, so what *extra* purpose would they serve? So I ended up buying a couple of percussion instruments to give to my songwriting partner as a Christmas gift instead and that *extra* thousand bucks is still in the bank.