A Little Horse Trading

Ahh… the old Fender vs. Gibson debate. Ask either camp which is better and there are usually a handful of folks ready to go to blows defending their beloved brand of choice. At the risk of offending die-hard Fender fans I recently sought to trade my '81 Strat for a Les Paul. Here's why…

a. While I loved the idea of owning a "vintage" Fender let's be honest… it's perhaps the least desirable era of Strat to own, some might even argue that it's not vintage at all being an '81. As far as it being a real investment, it's unlikely it would have appreciated in value to any significant extent. 

b. I hardly ever played the thing… it was in great shape and so I was always afraid of putting the first ding in it. Knowing that if I did, it would further lessen the value of it. I also never warmed up to the neck shape… it was quite narrow down by the nut and it really just didn't feel right to me. Despite looking like a 70's Strat, which featured pretty beefy necks, by '81 they were using, well, a pretty wimpy neck shape.

c. I wanted a "real" Les Paul. I love my Les Paul Special but it's not exactly what I think of when I think "Les Paul". I wanted the classic maple topped mahogany body, trapezoid inlays, rosewood board, dual humbucker, back breaking Les Paul.

And so, I sent a handful of emails out to dealers and private sellers on Reverb.com and Gbase and waited to see what would happen. I was shooting to trade the Strat for a Les Paul in the $1400-$1700 range which seemed fair to me. I received a few responses suggesting I was crazy before I had any serious offers. I had also managed to rile up the folks on the Fender Forums by sharing my intentions to make such a trade. As you might imagine, it was not a popular there. However, the folks over at the Gibson Forums were all for it, though many said they would never trade a Les Paul for a Strat… no surprise there. 

After getting a few serious offers, I decided to follow through on one of them. A 2010 wine red (I guess Gibson calls it Merlot) Les Paul Tradional Pro II. It has push/pull pots for coil tapping, locking Grovers, and a matte finish on the back (while the top is still high gloss). It was all systems go… I made arrangements to drive to this guys house, which was great as we needn't ship the guitars to make the trade. It was nice to be able to see what I was actually getting and I'm sure he felt the same. In any event here she is…

Not being able to leave well enough alone I changed the knobs to the gold/silver reflector knobs used on the Les Paul Standards of the 1970's. The previous owner had already changed the truss rod cover. I also added some Russian paper in oil caps… yeah, yeah, yeah… I know may consider them to be a waste of money but I disagree. I can hear a subtle difference (or at least I've convinced myself I can). The only other mods in the works are adding some pickup covers… I just like the way they look better that the open coils. 

As far as how she sounds, she's a BEAST. The pickups sound great both split and running full steam. I know some don't like the BurstBucker 3s but I have no beef with it. It's a great sounding bridge pickup, especially when coil-tapped. All in all, it's a sweet guitar and one I'm not planning to get rid of any time soon. 

Here's a fresh shot with the pup covers...