Hey guys, i have a2007 gibson les paul custom with j/b jazz pup set, but i was offered a trade for a esp, eclipse with emg81/60 and a ltd with ec1000 with sd jb 59, both new for my used les paul custom. im stuck they both play good and have differebnt tones which is cool, 2 guitars for one sounds pretty good, i already own a les paul custom, well 2 a black and white, basicallty would any of you guys take this trade? why or why not. keep in mind i already have a custom. honest oppinions and let me know whta u guys think of the esp's and Lts's. please help me decide. its a even trade no cash to change hands. by the way i bought my lp for 2600 new if that helps, the esp list 1449, and ltd 849.
HELP! les paul custom trade for 2 esp's?
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Those ESP guitars may list at 1400 dollars and 850 or whatever but used they will get you 1000 and about 400.
Your Les Paul can get you more than that.
I'd say hell no....better to have one great piece than 2 mediocre ones.
Sorry ESP fans....
Your Les Paul can get you more than that.
I'd say hell no....better to have one great piece than 2 mediocre ones.
Sorry ESP fans....
xnatex
Well-known member
Im and ESP fan and i would still say Hell No
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I like to have a variety of gear so I'd say to sell one of the Customs and buy something different If you feel the need for a change.
I would advise against it. In the long run, both your Les Paul Custom & your SG Standard will hold its value for a few years then will rise in value. The ESP, & especially the LTD, more than likely will not ever increase in value, unless a future iconic rock-god guitar hero starts to play one. (Like the next Hendrix, Page or Van Halen)
For example, I bought my first "pro" guitar, a desert yellow Ibanez RG-550 in 1990 for $300 used. Today, it MIGHT still be worth $300, had I not sanded the body down to bare wood. These guitars are a dime a dozen in pawn shops and go for around $200. 1995, I bought a '92 Les Paul Custom used at a guitar show for $750. It wasn't in mint condition by any means, it had some dents & scratches and it was the cheapest Les Paul at that particular show (Standards were going for about $1,200). I put this guitar on ebay in '06 & got $1,325 for it. If it wasn't for the fact that I was moving to a different town & needed money to move with, I probably would have kept it, who knows how much $ it would've been worth 10 or 20 years down the road.
If you really like those other guitars better than the Gibbys, you might ask what their bottom dollar for cash is, sell one (or both) of the Gibby's on ebay, & then pay cash for those ESP's & you'd probably have quite a bit of money left over.
For example, I bought my first "pro" guitar, a desert yellow Ibanez RG-550 in 1990 for $300 used. Today, it MIGHT still be worth $300, had I not sanded the body down to bare wood. These guitars are a dime a dozen in pawn shops and go for around $200. 1995, I bought a '92 Les Paul Custom used at a guitar show for $750. It wasn't in mint condition by any means, it had some dents & scratches and it was the cheapest Les Paul at that particular show (Standards were going for about $1,200). I put this guitar on ebay in '06 & got $1,325 for it. If it wasn't for the fact that I was moving to a different town & needed money to move with, I probably would have kept it, who knows how much $ it would've been worth 10 or 20 years down the road.
If you really like those other guitars better than the Gibbys, you might ask what their bottom dollar for cash is, sell one (or both) of the Gibby's on ebay, & then pay cash for those ESP's & you'd probably have quite a bit of money left over.
Turumbar82
Well-known member
eldi said:
I disagree with you about the idea of rock guitar icons. There are some pretty big players that play ESP. You don't get much bigger than Metallica.
I do agree with you that it's a better idea to sell the Les Paul and get as much as you can and use that money to buy the ESP and LTD and pocket the rest.
In my opinion it's hard to make trades even.
Like when you go into a car dealer. Don't talk about trading your car in...talk about selling your car to them and then buying another car. Two seperate transactions. They will give you less for a trade in than if they buy it.
Same idea I think.
Now thinking about how much the guitar might be worth in awhile...I don't think that's important for guitars. Yeah your Les Paul Custom could have brought a ton more in in 10 to 20 years...or Les Paul Customs could lose their values by then. I don't think you can buy musical instruments based on how much you can get for them later.
Turumbar82 said:
You have a point with Metallica. I'm not saying it happens to all rock icons & their guitars, but I have seen it happen with others. Like when Jimmy Page started playing "Kashmir" with a Danelectro on tour with Zeppelin in the late 70's, the values of those started to rise. Or when Eddie Van Halen appeared on the cover of a major guitar magazine with a Tiesco Del Rey, a cheap common pawn shop type guitar, all of the sudden became collectable afterwards. In the 80's you couldn't give away Fender Mustangs, Jazzmasters, or Jaguars. Then came the 90's with the popularity of Kurt Cobain with Nirvana & to a certain extent, Sonic Youth, & all of the sudden they made those the coolest guitars to have. And I'm sure Dimebag Darrell's popularity made 70's era Deans desirable too.
But I kind of like the idea of buying guitars as investments. It's something that I'm passionate about, & have quite a bit of knowledge about, so why not? It's way cooler than the stock market! (although I wouldn't advise people to cash in their 401k's and their IRA's to buy up guitars) Warren Buffet has said that people should "invest in what they know". Now, don't get me wrong, it really irks me (or, pisses me off rather) that non-playing, foreign businessmen are (or were) buying up all the pre-CBS Fenders & '59 Les Pauls. I apprieciate the quality of a well made guitar. My "investments" get played. I've recorded with them, & if I ever get a band going again, I will gig with them. I get a kick out of telling people that just 1 of my guitars is worth more than my car.
But thats not to say that non-collectable guitars are inferior to the "collectable" guitars. I've played around with some really killer LTD's & Schecters. But, like anything else, its just a matter of personal preference..
Turumbar82
Well-known member
eldi said:
Really good point about investing in guitars being more fun than the stock market.
I completely agree with you about people buying guitars to just put them away and never use them. Such a good instrument should be in the hands of a good musician so people can hear how good it is. It's like buying a Picasso and putting it away for no one to ever see.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, the tech at my local guitar store told me that there was an actual surge of power drill sales after Van Halen started using them on his guitar to get that crazy sound.
Sounds like a joke to me but it would be funny if it were true.
"For example, I bought my first "pro" guitar, a desert yellow Ibanez RG-550 in 1990 for $300 used. Today, it MIGHT still be worth $300, had I not sanded the body down to bare wood. These guitars are a dime a dozen in pawn shops and go for around $200. 1995, I bought a '92 Les Paul Custom used at a guitar show for $750. It wasn't in mint condition by any means, it had some dents & scratches and it was the cheapest Les Paul at that particular show (Standards were going for about $1,200). I put this guitar on ebay in '06 & got $1,325 for it. If it wasn't for the fact that I was moving to a different town & needed money to move with, I probably would have kept it, who knows how much $ it would've been worth 10 or 20 years down the road."
a dy rg550 from that time is a seriously sweet instrument. you dont need "quotes" around the word pro. id take it over any gibson any day...
a dy rg550 from that time is a seriously sweet instrument. you dont need "quotes" around the word pro. id take it over any gibson any day...
fatoni said:
Can you please elaborate as to why you think an Ibanez RG is better than a Gibson? Or why I don't need "quotes" around the pro?
Personally, I beg to differ....Compared to my Les Paul, that Ibanez sounded "muddy", had very little sustain, & just kinda sounded "dead" & "lifeless". I liked the wide, skinny neck at the time that I bought it, but nowadays I prefer something a little more chunkier. And, I loved doing divebombs with the Floyd licensed Edge trem. My Les Paul Classic, on the other hand, is "warm", "resonant", has nice sustain, & a nice feeling neck. & the flamed cherrytop just looks darn purdy too! The only drawback to it is those ceramic magnet 500T & 496R pickups, but that will change, because I just bought a set of Seymour Duncan '59s with my economic stimulus money...I anticipate it to sound nice and "warm & creamy" after I drop those pups in there. And believe it or not, thats the first time I ever bought replacement pickups for any of my guitars
Now, it's possible that maybe the Ibanez that I had was a "dog". And it's possible that your experience with Gibsons may have been "dogs" as well. It happens. Thats why I don't buy guitars w/o playing them first. And that Ibanez served its purpose & was okay for the type of stuff I was doing @ the time. But over the years my ears have become more discerning than they were 18 years ago. That kinda reminds me of when I was kid, my parents would take us kids out to eat at a nice steak restaurant, & we kids would be whining about it because we would've rather had McDonald's. To me, that Ibanez was a "hamburger", & the Les Paul is a "steak" (maybe even a ribeye or a KC strip...)
nathan28
Well-known member
No way dude, a les paul custom is art with strings. A esp or ltd is foreign made crap that won't hold its value and only little kids or posers that want to be metallica play. Keep your les paul man.
eldi said:Can you please elaborate as to why you think an Ibanez RG is better than a Gibson? Or why I don't need "quotes" around the pro?
Personally, I beg to differ....Compared to my Les Paul, that Ibanez sounded "muddy", had very little sustain, & just kinda sounded "dead" & "lifeless". I liked the wide, skinny neck at the time that I bought it, but nowadays I prefer something a little more chunkier. And, I loved doing divebombs with the Floyd licensed Edge trem. My Les Paul Classic, on the other hand, is "warm", "resonant", has nice sustain, & a nice feeling neck. & the flamed cherrytop just looks darn purdy too! The only drawback to it is those ceramic magnet 500T & 496R pickups, but that will change, because I just bought a set of Seymour Duncan '59s with my economic stimulus money...I anticipate it to sound nice and "warm & creamy" after I drop those pups in there. And believe it or not, thats the first time I ever bought replacement pickups for any of my guitars
Now, it's possible that maybe the Ibanez that I had was a "dog". And it's possible that your experience with Gibsons may have been "dogs" as well. It happens. Thats why I don't buy guitars w/o playing them first. And that Ibanez served its purpose & was okay for the type of stuff I was doing @ the time. But over the years my ears have become more discerning than they were 18 years ago. That kinda reminds me of when I was kid, my parents would take us kids out to eat at a nice steak restaurant, & we kids would be whining about it because we would've rather had McDonald's. To me, that Ibanez was a "hamburger", & the Les Paul is a "steak" (maybe even a ribeye or a KC strip...)
that guitar was made when ibanez had something to prove and the quality was unbelievable for the price or better yet just unbelievalbe. their guitars from that era are on par with just about any guitar ive ever touched. ill admit that im not a fan of stock ibanez pickups. the wizard I neck has always treated me well and i hate the feel of the gibson necks (at least the ones ive tried) and the ones today seem way too costly for what youre getting. the guitars are just too different to compare them outside the terms of quality. the feels are opinions but i prefer the feel of the ibanez
the rg550 is a pro guitar if you consider people like marty friedman, paul gilbert and john petrucci pro.
Herbie the Rad Dorklift
Well-known member
nathan28 said:
Uhm...no.
Personally, I've played good LP Customs and crap LP Customs, haven't played the Holy Grail yet.
I personally would trade for the ESP and the LTD, if you already have an LP Custom.
Unless of course, the LP Custom you have is the Holy Grail...
nathan28
Well-known member
Trade a esp or ltd thats not a james hetfield signature series and see if the dealer wants it or gives you anything for it.......then take a les paul custom in the same shop and i bet a million dollars the dude will want it and give you some money for it. Sorry man, but to me and alot of players/collectors made in america means something. I dont want a wannabe les paul made in japan or korea i want the real thing that was made in nashville, TN!!!! Esp/Ltd's are geared and made for teenagers. I remember when the jh-1/jh-2 came out, i was a teenager and i wanted one. I bought the jh-2 brand new for 1499.99, it was a foreign made bolt on neck guitar!!!!lol.(Hetfield doesnt even use bolt on necks) I kept the guitar until 2002, in which i sold it on ebay for $8500.00 to some dude that had a lot of money and wanted to be james hetfield, just like tons of ppl on this forum. Style = being unique, not copying. and for some reason people dont get it. Thats why Hetfiled is so popular, his unique style, not because he copies you.
Sorry guys about the rant, i just live in a small city full of posers, so everyday is a uphill battle for me.
Sorry guys about the rant, i just live in a small city full of posers, so everyday is a uphill battle for me.
Herbie the Rad Dorklift
Well-known member
So, by playing a Gibson Les Paul you're being unique? :lol:
ESPs are fine instruments you tard.
ESPs are fine instruments you tard.
nathan28
Well-known member
I was talking about his style being unique dumbshit, not my guitar or my style. Go play your foreign made guitar through your american made amp. :lol: Like i said see if you can get anything for trade in...
Hetfield does play a Les Paul Custom in the DVD that accompanies the "St Anger" CD, I don't think he plays it to copy anybody or anything, he just plays it because its a good guitar, like so many other players...
