Epiphone Les Paul vs Fender Telecaster

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djfeelgood

The Fly
Joined
Dec 20, 2005
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63
Location
kingston, jamaica
Hey all,

I'm looking at buying a new guitar, and i've narrowed down to an epiphone les paul and the fender telecaster (mexican).

Which one is the better quality and more versatile guitar.

Id be coming from a squier stratocaster.

help is appreciated.
 
The Epi Les Pauls with the glued on necks are generally pretty decent for the money (avoid the ones with the bolt on necks). Build quality is consistently good, or at least I have never played one that I thought was poorly built. The stock tuners are a bit prone to sliding out of tune but otherwise I like them. The Mexi Fenders are also generally good and the tuners are fine but overall build quality is variable in my experience, most of the time they play no worse than 90% of the US models but sometimes you get one that seems to have been assembled on a Friday afternoon after a trip down the pub. As far as your present guitar is concerned, the Squiers themselves have been very variable over the 20-odd years they have been in production, for example the Japanese ones (early 80s) are essentially indistinguishable from US Fenders and play really well whereas the Chinese ones (early to mid 90s) are generally pretty awful... Indonesian and Korean models are somewhere inbetween. If you have a great Squier you might not notice much of a difference. As far as versatility is concerned I don't see how you could really go wrong with either.

If you are still considering options I would suggest a Japanese 1980s Tokai Strat, these guitars are the reason that Fender introduced their Squier line and IMO are absolutely fantastic... they are considered collectable these days so the price is probably about the same as a new Mexi Fender. ebay is probably the only place where you'll find them though.

Good luck, let us know how you get on.
 
Having had experience in the past of both these mentioned, ad go wi the epi. its a better all round guitar to play.av played some right hummin mexicans fenders in days gone by.
 
I have a Chinese made Epi Les Paul it it plays very good. But I'm used to playing strats and they and tele's and I can play the the higher notes better on them then on the LP. The LP lacks a cutaway above the neck. However IMHO the LP has the superior tone over the tele. Especially with tons of distortion. I also don't like the sound of that small tele's neck pickup. The tele is also somewhat similar to the strat. If your looking for a 2nd guitar maybe its better to get a guitar which covers more different ground from your 1st guitar. Otherwise what would be the point of getting a 2nd guitar?
Have you looked at getting an Epi SG though? A similar sound to the LP but with better playability in the higher notes. They also seem to be cheaper then LP's. Probably because LP's use more wood as they are quit heavy guitars.
 
i prefer the Epiphone Explorer over the Les Paul. not just because of the looks -- the Explorer has a very playable neck and a cooler tone. for some reason the high notes are hard to play on the Les Paul, but much easier on the Explorer. it's just a really solid guitar.
 
I LOVE my epiphone les paul... I also have a telecaster but it's not as great as my les paul!:wink:
 
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