I looked around for a guitar and tried several les Paul style guitars but I couldnt justify spending 600$ on them, especially due to the fact that I didnt like their sound.
What? One of the most iconic guitars in so many genre of music? Wow, the ear is really a fickle thing. One thing I might mention and not to be obnoxious or controversial, is that an instrument only sounds as good as the tone you set up. Every guitar has its own characteristics. I enjoy many different characteristics of a multitude of different guitars. Some characteristics are significant. Lets take the example of a Stratocaster and an SG. While you could get a Stratocaster to mimic the tone of an SG, I dont believe it is possible the other way around. Same goes with the Telecaster, there is no equal. Then there are the hollowbodys, choose your favorite or many, they are like acoustics with many flavors. And then the Les Paul with tons of mimics. Again choose your price range and flavor. But the characteristics are all unique to the Les Paul. And yes, worth mentioning is PRS, the over-achieving SG which rivals Stratocaster. All of these lines of instruments have unique tone qualities and can sound either good or bad if not properly set-up. With the same cognition, strings placed over a bucket could sound awesome in the hands of the right musician.
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