Les Paul vs PRS Bernie

[Barquentine]

The 2016 Les Pauls are now showing up in my local shop and I'm going to try out the Traditional (£1699). Next up the line is the Standard (£2099) but I'm more interested in the Traditional because it has a much fatter neck than the Standard and I've grown to love the neck on my Bernie. The Bernie is an amazing guitar and I'm very curious about how it will stack up to a guitar that's more than three times the price.

Now, I guess you have to factor in that the Gibbo is more expensive because of the name on the headstock and it's made in the USA. I'm not going to be influenced by the name so it's down to playability and sound. My Bernie plays like a dream and sounds wonderful with it's Abraxas pups.

So - do you think it's possible I could find something in the Gibbo that the Bernie doesn't have ? Any of you out there that own great Les Paul's but have tried a Bernie ?

 

[S27NJH]

Unless Gibson have made some HUGE improvements I'll be staying well away. To answer your question, no. I tried out the new studio and it was ok at best. I have owned and sold 6 les Paul's. I picked up a tokai John Sykes 1981 Japanese model and it blows all my ex gibsons away. Ive really tried to like Gibson but they make it really hard to do so. Have you tried the new (ish) S2 singlecut. I went to try one out the weekend before last. I was unsure whether I liked it or not but walked out of the shop with it and not been able to put it down since. As soon as I picked it up I was sold. A little off topic I know but why not try one out. Will save you quite a few quid too. Good luck though if you choose to go the Gibson route, I hope you find a good one

 

[CantankerousCarl]

I hear if you wait until 2017 they'll have some really cool upgrades like robotic tuners!

In all seriousness, any SE singlecut I have ever played holds up extremely well / surpasses Gibson USA-made offerings in terms of feel, playability, stability. USA Gibbys stock would probably have the edge in the pickup department - but you can get ALOT of nice pickups when you're saving 67%

 

[bigcohoona]

The S2 Singlecut is absolutely amazing.

All the PRS' I tried before settling on this were excellent (and I was sad to send back the Vela, I wish I could have kept two!). I'm also a LP convert.

Here's my review at Sweetwater:
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Let me start off by saying this is my 4th PRS this month... but this is THE ONE! So if you want the quick version, here it is; "Buy This Guitar!", it's versatile, well built, and beautiful. If you want the longer version kick your paws up, here we go.

Hopefully this journey of mine will benefit some of you trying to make an informed decision between the PRS SE and S2 lineups as well as if the Singlecut meets your needs.

I'm very picky when it comes to tone. Having been trained by the Navy to run an underwater recording studio (Submarine Sonar Tech) I tend to know tone instinctively down to the Hertz, and I've always had almost perfect pitch vocally. So I tend to know what I'm after when it comes to frequency response. As a keyboardist, vocalist, and guitarist, I tend to use anything and everything I can think of to get the right sound to fit the project or the right project to fit the sound My musical tastes are also as broad and cover everything from Bela Fleck & Bruce Hornsby, to Moby & Imogen Heep. Not being a phenomenal guitarist, being primarily a keyboardist, I tend to find guitars that can help me out tonally some. I've traveled Europe in a band, and play regularly in my personal studio and small live venues... other than that there really is no reason you should listen to me other than I've been playing for over 20 years and have had the pleasure of having and playing some amazing instruments (not all of which were costly). How they play and how they sound is what matters to me... though a PRS finish is also nice, lol.

My needs for this guitar were simple.. I needed one that could pretty much accomplish whatever I threw at it to, a work-horse that was very flexible sonically. Having sold all my Electrics 2 years ago to move out to the Oil Boom in North Dakota I needed a good Tele-to-Les spectrum to cover all the bases of previous and upcoming projects.

This started out with the Tremonti SE, which I think is one of the greatest values of any guitar available. The wide-fat neck is perfect (not too fat to fly) and a fantastic setup and finish from PRS' Korean factory (which is also making the Line 6 JTV's and Chapman Guitars). Incredible sustain from this LP-ish wide body and the PRS 245 pups are a fantastic blend of beauty & the beast. They can chime when your gentle and roar when your not. The first one I bought from a competitor and the wiring wasn't correct. There were slight imperfections of the neck and fret scalloping but other than that for $650, what an incredible guitar. The second one which came had a slightly different neck shape, which was better imho and the finish was flawless and the fret finish much better. Sent it back because I just couldn't get the thinner tones I needed with the straight HH setup and the Sapphire blue was a little too turquoise for me (purely subjective).

My next model was the Ice Blue Vela which just came out. What an incredible guitar! I loved everything about it, the new design, the new pickup configuration (especially the D-Coil) but the attack on this guitar was too hot on every setting. This is one "Spankin" guitar with a sound all it's own. The Vela can be a Tele or Strat when she wants but quite a bit more as well. The 2 piece Bridge Saddle was perfectly intonated (if anyone is concerned about it) and was both comfortable and very robust. Had the thinner sounds but couldn't do any ballad-esque pieces on it or anything heavier, she just wanted to honk in the country! I predict this guitar will have a huge cult following, and rightly so... the Ice Blue Fire-mist paint job is one of the best color schemes I've ever held in my hands, pictures don't do it justice. I'd love to hear what Brad Paisley or Johnny Marr could do with this one.

So after another 50 hours of Youtube videos, listening to both PRS and other brands demo's, and scouring every related forum thread out there, I settled on the S2 Singlecut. The only thing missing seemed to be a Bigsby / or Trem but having a PRS Core model stop-tail with the added sustain is a good trade off. After getting mine in today let me just say I am grinnin from ear to ear.

As always with Sweetwater it was perfectly set up. The S2 neck (like the Vela) is far superior to the SE line, at least twice as nice as is the hardware. The tuners turn like butter, all the control pots are well constructed, tight, and solid, and the toggle switch is not loose/floppy like my first Tremonti SE. My "Whale Blue" was quite a bit darker than the older Zach Myers SE and has a good figured pattern on top. This is one area to pay special attention to as PRS tries to use Grade C on their S2 Maple Caps and not all of them look great (if you care at all), but the extra sparkle in tone with the maple is a fantastic combo with the thick mahogany body/neck. The Body is as thick as the Tremonti SE and tonally very similar but the Singlecut has the dual coil split. This coil tap makes all the difference in versatility with this guitar. There is not a tone I can't get with this one. I can quickly go from light ballads and Tele/Strat pickin to Great LP-ish Randy meets BB's 335. It really surpassed my expectations. These PRS #7's are exactly what I was looking for. They sound similar to the 245's but I personally find them having a lot more character breadth and smoother response for both strumming and picking. I'm not a high gain aficionado so how she does dancing with Iron Maiden I'm not too sure.

This S2 line is fantastic, not enough $ out of pocket to worry about gigging with it, but on par in it's construction and tonal quality with any other high end guitar I've ever owned or played (Except my McPherson acoustic). It's not a PRS "Core" and if you're the type that is bothered by that, then save a little longer... I can only imagine the craftsmanship those models must have.

 

[radiomatts]

If you EVER go with Gibson, go with something older. The only good Gibson nowadays is a Custom Shop guitar, but you'll need a second mortgage to afford one.

 

[nico44]

I always wanted a LP Custom....and then they went up to an MSRP of $4,799 for a "Richlite" fretboard... I think I would opt PRS.

I guess that's my way of saying I think Gibson's prices have skyrocketed and the materials they use seem to have not kept pace. Just my opinion.