Guitar Gear Forum

So I'm wanting to buy a new guitar in the near future. I prefer the look of Les Pauls, but the 2 I've owned in the past were kind of disappointing. Neither of them were standards though - I had a studio and a classic, so maybe they just weren't as nice. I'm left handed, so used isn't much of an option. I don't see a lot of used lefty LPs, and they are usually priced at nearly brand-new prices when they pop up.

Musicians Friend has an ebony standard for $1699, which is a pretty good price for one. But there are so many less expensive options out there. I don't get a chance to play many guitars before buying, so I need some opinions. There's Agile at the low end, Edwards and LTD around $1000, and ESP around the price of the black Les Paul. Then there is Carvin, but they are a little further from looking like a LP and have 25" scale. I've owned a few Carvins, and they have all been really nice, but the pickups have always been lacking. So, anyone have opinions to give?

I want something that:

looks close to a Les Paul
is available left handed
if expensive (lets say above $1200), then it needs to really be worth the extra cost

Do you care about neck thickness?

If you like a thin/fast neck then LTD/ESP for sure.

If you want a more traditional LP then Agile/Edwards.

You may want to look into Hagstroms too.

The LTD EC's are nice. I have an EC 1000 at my house that belongs to a friend. I like it alot. My local shop has several of the LP styled LTD's (not sure of the model numbers). The 4 or 5 Ive played all feel great & sound great as well.

Alot of guys dog LTD's, but as long as its the old 301's & above, you're golden. i've got one of the 1st runs of the 400 series vipers, & it slays. My only gripe is the finishes are a bit thick. I shave my necks down to alieviate that.

What about some of the Japanese guitars? Edwards, Burny, Tokai, Greco. I'm sure you can find a left-handed one in the bunch, and many of them look almost identical to a les paul. I've heard good things about all of them too.

phrophus wrote:What about some of the Japanese guitars? Edwards, Burny, Tokai, Greco. I'm sure you can find a left-handed one in the bunch, and many of them look almost identical to a les paul. I've heard good things about all of them too.

Word. I hate the "lawsuit" buzz word, but LOTS of those guitars are killer toan machines that are well crafted.

About a minute of browsing on fleabay, and I foundz dese for less than a grand.

WINNAR

This one's a grand, and isn't stock pics.



In the goldtop variety...phucking sexy.

I actually used to own a goldtop Edwards and it was great. Better than either of my Gibsons. I'm just wondering if other options are as nice for less money or around the same price. With shipping, I think the Edwards is $1150. I'm not opposed to getting another Edwards, I was just broke when I sold the other one.

My old one:

I'd say Agile and then upgrade the pickups.

I'm a fellow lefty and very familiar with your troubles. If I didn't have a (fairly) high end Gibson, and you handed me $1000 to spend on a LP-style guitar, I'd be looking at:

- LTD Eclipse
- Epiphone Elitist
- Agile
- Jay Turser (I had a Jay Turser ES-335 copy, and it was fantastic - came stock with SD 59s.)

Larrivee RS guitars, made in Oxnard CA.















The RS-2 with P-90s sells for less than $1k new, quite a bit less actually. I have a gen 3 model with gloss finish, separate bridge and tailpiece and twin volume / tone controls. The latest version has satin finish, wraparound tailpiece and single volume and tone control.

Bought mine used for about $600 - $700

Single piece mahogany body and neck. Scale length is 25 1/2", same as a strat / tele. The necks are similar to the Larrivee acoustic profile, and they're satin finish. They don't charge extra for left handed guitars, and make all their range in lefty.

Then there's the RS-4 ....

















Same as the RS-2 with a maple cap, fingerboard has combination mother of pearl / abalone inlays. Also got this one used, maybe $1200 or so about two years ago. Stock they come with Larrivee pickups, mine had Tom Short Tombuckers fitted by the previous owner.

You do get used Left handed LP's on ebay, although it is rare to find a second hand Gibson Les Paul. There are some great suggestions in this thread, if you like something slightly different look into the Hagstrom take on the Les Paul.

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. So Agile are pretty decent, then? I think I might go with one of them, at least to try one out. I have some Dragonfire EMG copies I can put in it if the pickups aren't good.

As far as the Larrivee goes, how are the necks on them? I don't care for the 50's style necks, but anything thinner is cool. Jerry's Lefty Guitars has a few of them in stock.

Killa J wrote:I actually used to own a goldtop Edwards and it was great. Better than either of my Gibsons. I'm just wondering if other options are as nice for less money or around the same price. With shipping, I think the Edwards is $1150. I'm not opposed to getting another Edwards, I was just broke when I sold the other one.

My old one:

Nice goldtop. The Edwards typically are about 1000, but the other japanese LP copies, Burny, Tokai and Greco are usually a bit cheaper. Not Agile cheap, but prolly in the 600 - 900 range.

Killa J wrote:
As far as the Larrivee goes, how are the necks on them? I don't care for the 50's style necks, but anything thinner is cool. Jerry's Lefty Guitars has a few of them in stock.

The necks are not fat, if you can get your hands on a Larrivee acoustic they're very similar. They also have a fairly flat radius, the RS-4 is compound, RS-2 is conventional.

I'd also go for a used Guild Bluesbird in a heartbeat.

Shadesofcraig wrote:

benjamin801 wrote:I'd also go for a used Guild Bluesbird in a heartbeat.

That is what I was going to say. While my 1980 Les Paul Deluxe is an awesome guitar, the Guild Bluesbird is really great, sounds, feels, plays and looks great...

Gibson Les Paul Deluxe


Guild Bluesbird

A lefty Bluesbird is a little on the rare side, as in rocking horse shit rare.

My tiger eye agile "dauntless" was like $200, and a STEAL. Honestly it is one of the fastest necks I have and I never got around to pulling out the EMG HZ in there because, well, they actually weren't bad sounding with the guitar.

All 3 of my guitars from Agile are actually great values for the $ spent.

Derek

http://www.adirondackguitar.com/lefty/m ... c_menu.htm

Here are some Michael Kelly's. I really like mine.

benjamin801 wrote:I'd also go for a used Guild Bluesbird in a heartbeat.

I found a really nice natural color Bluesbird years ago, just played and sounded great. I really wish I had bought it then.

I forgot about Hagstrom and Michael Kelly. Has anyone had one of them and been able to compare them to Agile? As far as I'm concerned, the fretwork is what makes or breaks a guitar. I've tried too many cheap guitars where the frets just felt like garbage. Like with bending or vibrato, it feels like the string is dragging across the fret instead of sliding smoothly. As long as the frets are nice and the neck isn't f'd up, I can work with it.

Local shop here had a used Hagstrom for about a week. Good solid guitar, it was just heavy as hell. Great tone and went fast at around 4-450 I think? Anyway the fretwork on my MK is great. If I get the chance later this week, I can shoot a couple of quick photos of the fretboard and frets. After around 10 years playing time, they still look pretty good.

I can vouch for Hagstrom, because I have had a Swede for almost 5 years now. It's an excellent guitar, and it outplays many of the Gibsons and PRS's that I've played in my day. The stock pickups are very good (although I swapped mine out for a set of Bareknuckle Black Dogs). The only caveat I have with it is the goofy looking pickguard on the Swede (the Super Swede has a more traditional LP-style pickguard though) and I didn't have much use for the tone filter switch, so I put a killswitch in its place (not a bad feature, just not for me. The Super Swede has a mini coil tap switch instead though).

Long story short, you can't really go wrong with a Hagstrom. Excellent guitars with excellent price tags.