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What would you think is more salable, a hand made Les Paul guitar with unique features or a hand made Les Paul-like guitar that is completely unique?

Thoughts? Anything else to do with salability of these types of instruments I am interested in as well (asides from fit-finish/playability)

Thanks

C : A Les Paul clone with the exact same features as a Gibson.

That's followed closely by the Les Paul with more features, and very distantly by the unique guitar.

I'd say the number of custom electric guitars being sold that aren't knockoffs of a Tele, Strat, or Les Paul (in that order, possibly with PRS sitting right next to LP) is an order of magnitude lower than the number of any of the above.

_________________
Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

The farther you go from the les paul, the better the guitar, and the costlier the les paul, the more ripped off you get. Everyone knows what a les paul is, but a custom made guitar is still a custom made guitar.

Argh... why does everyone want to have the same thing?
Are we who enjoy individuality such a small race?

I am thinking of doing a guitar for charity but I do not want to build just another guitar that comes off the assembly line, whats the fun in that?

Follow your heart, not your pocket. If you build with passion, you'll find people who play with passion and want your stuff. It's a happy life, building for a crowd that wants to challenge you.

I have a couple custom LP's, neither is made by Gibson. I love em both. Everyone is different though. Personally I like the semi hollow LP's, and I don't see them often. So I had one built for me and I had a solid built as well (I'm not into building electrics yet). Who makes them is not overly important to me compared to the features I want. For me:

Semi Hollow:
3 piece neck through design
dual entwistle humbuckers ( all hardware in silver color)
silver Bigsby tremolo system
Bigsby rolling bridge
locking shaller tuners
candy red and yellow burst paint on flamed maple
MOP trapezoid inlay
6.5 lbs.

Solid body
2 piece neck through design
triple entwistle humbuckers (all hardware in gold color)
gold bigsby tremolo system
locking shaller tuners
Crimson red quilted maple cap
solid maple cap
abalone block inlay
ebony binding
Independent volume control for each pickup (Like Jimmy Page's custom LP)
7.0 lbs.

Everything else is copied straight from Gibson. If I was going to order another one, I'd want to go with a a 5 piece laminate neck through body design, making the whole thing 7 pieces after adding the wings (simply for aesthetics). Semi hollow, tripe pickup system and some kind of crazy burl for the cap. I think I would keep everything else the same except maybe upgrade the pickups. Entwistles are nice but there is nicer out there. I picked these up for $400 each, which is very reasonable.

+1 on Edward !

Amen to that.



I am not one to follow my pocket, and thats what worries me doing a project for charity. I dont care if something I make for profit does not sell, but something I market for a cause and have other people on board with is a different story.



Those sound like nice guitars, have pics?


Oh, and thanks Lars. I think