For me, I love the hybrid guitars that can arise through Strats with creative pickup combos. With a humbucker in the bridge and a good neck and middle pickup, DiMarzio or Duncan are great for replacements, You can
have great tone with ways to get around a Strat's limitations. For example, the Duncan
Parallel Axis Trembucker has a unique string pull to allow for more sustain than would be
typical with a Floyd Rose bridge. So for me,
with a Strat with a humbucker, Floyd Rose,
and possibly a neck hummer or the Sustainer
system you have all you need in a guitar.
You have "shredable" neck radius and action,
set up properly of course, good bending,
sustain, tone, control over that tone, comfort, and cool looks to boot! Plus with
something like a Sustainer or a toggle switch
and two humbuckers, you have onboard effects
(E-bow or stuttering tremolo) and with the
Floyd you have the radical divebombing, vibrato, and bending of harmonics or open notes that just is not possible with any other type of bridge(at least not while maintaining tuning). Of course, Neal Schon
put a sustainer and a Floyd Rose on a PRS so
I guess anything is possible on any body type
or brand as long as you got the money. But,
for me, I like the Strat with added features.

I really like them both but i like the strat better than the paul.

Speaking of hybrids, my main guitar, whick was built by a local shop, has a Tele-shaped mahogany body with a maple top, Fender scale maple Tele neck/fingerboard, and a pair of Seymour Duncan humbuckers. It has a pretty good mix of Les Paul chunkiness with some extra twang thrown in, and, to my ears, sounds particularly nice in the middle switch position.

Strats suck.
my Les Paul will destroy all strats.

My strat is comfort contuoured, + srv used them

Why not have the best of both worlds by having one of each. I know, I know, you are probably saying..."But a LP is so expensive". Well it CAN be but it doesn't HAVE to be. There are plenty of used LP's and lower priced new LP's that will accomplish the same thing as the Ri LP's. Change out the pickups for your favorite sound and you are there. You can also do the same and more with a Strat. It IS possible to have your Strat and LP too. If I could choose only one guitar between the both...it would be a Fender Jeff Beck Strat. Slap a humbucker that splits to single coil in the front, leave a single in the middle, it has another humbucker that splits to single coil in the bridge position and you are probably closer to a hybrid of both guitars then most else. The neck is beefy as a LP, Strat scale length, has a tremolo, can be modded to further get closer to either guitar as you desire, has great harmonic attributes, the weight is not bad, the guitar can take mucho punishment and keep ticking, with good pickups, you can overdrive an amp as you could with a LP, but you still have the cleaner, single coil "gliss factor" at your fingertips. Both the Strat and the LP have Rosewood fingerboards. The nut won't wear out on you as Fender Jeff Beck Strats use an LSR rollernut. You don't have to worry about breaking a headstock; if you do, simply replace the neck. Re-fretting becomes easier as there is no binding to work around, and you can design your own electronic configuration to suit your own style, or have several pickguards done up to fulfill differing duties, yet allowing you to still play on a "familiar" fretboard platform. Or, have a third pickguard done up and head more into TELE territory.
I use a RI LP occasionally, and could probably use it full time with no more trouble adapting to all styles of music then using either a Strat, or a Tele. I use a Marshall 6101 all tube 30th Anniversary amp due to having to play all styles of music. I believe the audience would not be able to tell much of a difference, judging on my own experience and having played professionally for 45 years and still going full time. However, what it all comes down to is players' preference. As simple in design as a Tele is, I find no trouble using it for any style of music. Obviously it may adapt to some styles more easily then others(that is it might play cleaner styles more easily then shred/metal) but it could still do the shred thing if needed. Overall, Fenders record more easily then LP's in most situations as tape(disc) requires less distortion to get the same sound on disc as it does to get that sound live, and the longer scale makes the notes seem more harmonically rich, with not as much fundamental as LP's. But day in, day out, a Strat in the hands of two equally talented players is the more versatile guitar, assuming the need to do several things with equal apalm. I played LP's for 20 years before trying a Strat, but I found out that although a Fender is not as "forgiving" to play as a Gibson, once you get used to it, rarely will you go back to the LP. I've learned many things in having played out for most of my life. One of those things is that if you have one nice, playable Strat, and one playable LP, you don't need to go trading over and over again just to wind up back where you started, only poorer for the experience. Get one of each and then learn how to play the hell out of them.

quote:

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Originally posted by plink:
Why not have the best of both worlds by having one of each. I know, I know, you are probably saying..."But a LP is so expensive". Well it CAN be but it doesn't HAVE to be. There are plenty of used LP's and lower priced new LP's that will accomplish the same thing as the Ri LP's. Change out the pickups for your favorite sound and you are there. You can also do the same and more with a Strat. It IS possible to have your Strat and LP too. If I could choose only one guitar between the both...it would be a Fender Jeff Beck Strat. Slap a humbucker that splits to single coil in the front, leave a single in the middle, it has another humbucker that splits to single coil in the bridge position and you are probably closer to a hybrid of both guitars then most else. The neck is beefy as a LP, Strat scale length, has a tremolo, can be modded to further get closer to either guitar as you desire, has great harmonic attributes, the weight is not bad, the guitar can take mucho punishment and keep ticking, with good pickups, you can overdrive an amp as you could with a LP, but you still have the cleaner, single coil "gliss factor" at your fingertips. Both the Strat and the LP have Rosewood fingerboards. The nut won't wear out on you as Fender Jeff Beck Strats use an LSR rollernut. You don't have to worry about breaking a headstock; if you do, simply replace the neck. Re-fretting becomes easier as there is no binding to work around, and you can design your own electronic configuration to suit your own style, or have several pickguards done up to fulfill differing duties, yet allowing you to still play on a "familiar" fretboard platform. Or, have a third pickguard done up and head more into TELE territory.
I use a RI LP occasionally, and could probably use it full time with no more trouble adapting to all styles of music then using either a Strat, or a Tele. I use a Marshall 6101 all tube 30th Anniversary amp due to having to play all styles of music. I believe the audience would not be able to tell much of a difference, judging on my own experience and having played professionally for 45 years and still going full time. However, what it all comes down to is players' preference. As simple in design as a Tele is, I find no trouble using it for any style of music. Obviously it may adapt to some styles more easily then others(that is it might play cleaner styles more easily then shred/metal) but it could still do the shred thing if needed. Overall, Fenders record more easily then LP's in most situations as tape(disc) requires less distortion to get the same sound on disc as it does to get that sound live, and the longer scale makes the notes seem more harmonically rich, with not as much fundamental as LP's. But day in, day out, a Strat in the hands of two equally talented players is the more versatile guitar, assuming the need to do several things with equal apalm. I played LP's for 20 years before trying a Strat, but I found out that although a Fender is not as "forgiving" to play as a Gibson, once you get used to it, rarely will you go back to the LP. I've learned many things in having played out for most of my life. One of those things is that if you have one nice, playable Strat, and one playable LP, you don't need to go trading over and over again just to wind up back where you started, only poorer for the experience. Get one of each and then learn how to play the hell out of them.

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I just recently purchased an Epiphone Les Paul Gibson. Is this a good guitar? What's the difference between this and the real Les Paul Gibson? For some reason, I feel like I have a cheap imitation of the real thing, and that I should be embarassed to have it. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks.