So I went to a local store here on the East Side of Portland with hopes to bring home a Eastwood Airline or Supro reissue, not really set on any model. This store has a really great oddball used selection too... from cool Japanese Fenders to weird Univoxs, Teiscos and Strat copies galore. I spotted three guitars that interested me: the Airline Jack White-style guitar in Sunburst, a Highway 1 Strat that was beat up and a 90's Gibson Les Paul Special with the P-100's. The Airline felt great, sounded stale, but I've heard you need to replace the pickups with the custom shop ones Eastwood makes. The Strat was amazing. It had what I call pop... where when you hit it with a pick it kinda barks or skronks... I love that personally. But the Les Paul Special immediately crushed both in tone, feel and everything honestly. The pickups are much, much louder. I spent the first two days just playing on the neck pickup and loving how bassy it sounds. I just recently started playing with the bridge and was suprised how much bass came through but of course more treble but NOT clarity... both sound very clear and I'm pleased the neck pick up has low end oomph to it too.
I looked at the headstock and there was indeed a repaired crack. This almost scared me away but 1. I trust the shop and they kept it around and gigged with it and it stayed in tune, properly intonated, etc. and 2. I've never really been bothered by that sort of thing and have played/owned a few guitars with repaired head stocks that just ruled.
And the pride was under 500 bucks... so I snagged it. Pictures tonight. Here is the model...
...except mine is a more solid flat red.
