Les Paul Traditional
 

As far as electrics go I have been a Fender guy for a long time. Recently though I been looking into picking up a Les Paul. I have missed out on a couple in the classifieds but locally I found a 2015 Les Paul Traditional Pro 3. It looked great and sounded great. It's used but in excellent condition with all of the paperwork from the original sale. I am confident it's not a fake.

At any rate it's doable but does push my budget. Any thoughts on the LP Traditional?

Hey Sterling, I'm a big Les Paul fan. The Traditionals are great guitars, although I'm not familiar with the "Pro 3" model.

The 2015 was a new model that had the G Force tuning system, the zero fret nut and some other changes which were removed in 2016 due to a lack of support from buyers. That shouldn't have any impact on your decision if you like the guitar but could hinder resale should you decide to sell.

There's no weight relief on the 2015 Traditional (not sure if the Pro has it). I recommend playing the guitar standing up with a strap for 10 minutes just to make sure it isn't uncomfortable/heavy to play.

Specs:
http://www.gibson.com/Products/Elect...aditional.aspx

Thanks for the reply Dru. I pulled the trigger on the LP this morning. I did a ton of internet research and it sounded like the G Force tuners were not too popular. Gibson got tons of negative feedback. As a result they stopped putting them on and asked retailers to remove them and replace with grovers or klusons. I'm not sure if they did that for all models but I read they did that with the traditionals. This pro 3 was a limited run for GC and MF.

I agree with the stand up and play it suggestion. I was always a LP fan until I tried to play a Cheap Clone and found that the weight/balance were not to my liking. I haven't written LPs off on this just yet, but, this has moved them down my GAS list a little.

The Pro 3 EX model really isn't a LP Traditional at all. With a '60s neck, satin back and sides, different pickups, coil split, and an active boost it is different animal. I don't think I would compare it with a LP Traditional at all.

That being said if you like it and can get it for a good deal I'd say why not. Just remember that 2015 models tend to have a lot lower resale value, plus GC/MF models on top of that tend to be lower as well.

Congrats!!! If the Les Paul has the G Force, try using it. You may like it. If you don't you can still manually tune it. Post a NGD thread when it comes in.