Maybe a NGD, Les Paul

[Lamar Fandango]

Might have a NGD coming soon. Brought home this 2013 Les Paul Studio (or Tribute?), but I'm on the fence. I don't even know what model this is. The good: its in good condition, plays nice with a Princeton and a Shiva (clean channel only, I'm not a monster), and was $720. The bad: I thought a satin finish would be awesome, but it kinda reminds me of faded/worn series cheapness. I don't actually know what model this is despite a couple hours of Google. The ZoSo truss rod cover will be replaced with a blank, then I will write ZoSo on it with crayons.

On one hand, it's my guitar and I don't care what y'all think. On the other hand, I'd be stupid not to listen to the collective experience of people who know their stuff. I have 30 days to return it, so (1) what exactly is this guitar, and (2) cherish it or ditch it?

[Steadyriot.]

Looks like a Les Paul Studio Faded / 50's tribute with a custom trussrod cover & plastics. Maybe a pickup change or covers added.

You could email Gibson with the serial and a picture, they'll probably get back to you with details.

If you like it' and the price is right, keep it.

[Fiddy]

I like clear 🧥

[Larry Mal]

You can find gloss Les Paul Studios all day long for that price.

[Lamar Fandango]

You can find gloss Les Paul Studios all day long for that price.

Yep. This is why I can't be trusted with actual cash.

[Larry Mal]

You could probably buff the satin to a gloss if you cared, and it's probably a great sounding and playing guitar. It might be just what you are looking for out of a Les Paul.

My Les Paul is an early 90's Studio, and it's totally beat up and totally customized and I'm just not that into the model to really care to buy a more expensive one. It sounds as good as anything done in the name of Les Paul and that's good enough for me.

And frankly, if I owned the Les Paul that I see in the pictures above then that would probably be all the Les Paul I needed also.

[Lamar Fandango]

I had to return it. Just couldn't dig the satin. It had other minor problems as well, but I didn't feel the urge to spend more on this one. Today I talked to a guy about buying his 1990 Les Paul Studio (ebony, gold hardware). Not a fan of gold, but that's an easy fix. Hope to have a more sustainable fling this time around. I set out to get a Jaguar with humbuckers, and here I am, non-offsettin' again.

[Larry Mal]

Those early 90's Studios are very well regarded- I own one. Fantastic workhorses with great pickups. Gibson hadn't bothered to reduce the quality very much yet on the Studios, you really are only missing the binding of the Standards and you have very few colors to choose from (black, wine red, white).

But they have ebony fingerboards, the guitars are shielded fairly well (I still added a lot more on mine), basically the Studios of that era were every bit as good as the higher end Standards were except for cosmetically. They share the exact same body dimensions, also- later, Gibson shaved a quarter or half inch of thickness from the body depth on the Studios.

Later on, that wasn't the case, but in 1990, the Studio was every bit as good as the Standard, and those were great years for Gibson guitars. They had a lot to prove in those years and they rose to the challenge.

There is one big difference, though, the Studios at that time had pretty thick 50's style necks, the Slim-taper necks were reserved for the Standards and such. I don't actually love the neck on my Studio and I wish I did, then I'd never have to consider another Les Paul.

I am going to say that if you like the neck on that 1990 Studio, then it will be heads and shoulders above that thing you just returned.

[Lamar Fandango]

Now you got me all fired up! I'm hoping the neck is like my 1984 ES-347 which has a maple neck/ebony board. See the other guitar in the photo.

[Larry Mal]

I noticed that, I thought it was a 335- that's a great guitar! I see the fine tuner on the tailpiece there, that might have clued me in as to what era it was from.

But yeah, those first years of the Studio were great, up until about 1995 or so. Then Gibson started cutting the quality in little ways, like I mentioned they shaved a quarter inch or half inch from the body depth, and at some point they decided against any kind of shielding whatsoever other than a little bit of braided wire. Just bare wood all over the place. Rosewood instead of ebony which is not really a big deal I guess.

Hopefully you like that neck. If I had to guess I would say that the necks might be pretty similar except for the frets, I'm not sure if your ES 347 has those low and wide Norlin era frets that I like so much, but the 90's studios have the more standard Henry J era frets which are a little narrower and taller.

I could easily be wrong about that so don't make too much out of it. Let us know how you get on, but like I say I think you'll find that '90 Studio to be a much stronger instrument than the Faded Classic Tribute or whatever that was. Those are fine knockaround guitars but the early Studios are pretty classic.

[Lamar Fandango]

Well damn.