The Gibson Les PaulCoparison Between Two Guitars: Ibanez 453 RVC and the Gibson Les PaulThe paper I have written and know alot about is a contrast on two reallywell known and popular guitars. One which is the Gibson Les Paul, and the otherwhich is the Ibanez 453 RVC. Both guitars may look alike to some, and to somethey may sound alike as well, but are they really alike?Starting with the bodys, the Gibson Custom Les Paul is made of solidmahogeny wood, which gives the guitar a more Classical look and feel and also amuch better and clearer sound. The Gibson is a more luxiourous guitar for whichit is better for classical rock and light heavy metal as opposed to the Ibanezwhich is excellent for hard rock and heavy metal.
Going further up the guitar, you have what are called the pickups. Apickup is a really sensative box that is attached to the body in between thebottom of the neck and the bottom of the bridge. The purpose of a pickup is to”pick up” the sounds of the notes or chords that are being strummed. There aremany different types of pickups; for instance, the Gibson Les Paul has pickupsthat are called Humbuckers, which are much higher and of a better quality thanthe pickups on an Ibanez. The Ibanez comes with regular music store pickupsthat are not bad but do not have the quality of the Humbuckers. So havingbetter quality means that the pickups are more sensative; being more sensativemeans that the guitar can put out clearer and higher quality sound.Moving to thelower part of the guitar, both guitars have knobs. The purpose of these knobsare to control the different types of sounds that you want to produce. TheGibson has four controls, but the Ibanez only has two; having only two knobsinstead of four means that the Ibanenz has less of a selection or variety on thesound that you want opposed to the Gibson having more control over the soundthat you like and the sound that you need. The Gibson having volume and tonefor each pickup allows you to adjust the sound to the way you like it, while theIbanez has volume and tone for only the one pickup, which controls the sound.
The next piece that is connected to every guitar is the neck. Manyguitars have many different types of necks varying from length, width, thickness,and different types of wood. The wood on the neck of the Ibanez is poplar wood,which makes a rougher and more rugged neck. The Gibson, on the other hand, ismade of mahogany wood which produces a smoother neck and has a comfortable feelto it. Having a better feel allows the guitar player to increase his or herspeed when just practicing or maybe even accidentally when performing live. Theradius of the neck on a Gibson is much smaller than the neck of the Ibanez:having a smaller neck also lets the musician have more control of what they areplaying.
The fret board is located on the neck of the guitar. The fret board onan Ibanez is made of rosewood as opposed to the ebony fret board on the Gibson.
Having an ebony fret board, the frets are a lot stronger, more precise (tighter),and better quality. The Ibanez, having rosewood, is not as strong, and from toomuch playing of the guitar wears the frets down and are dead in a couple ofyears. So, when the frets are so worn out, you can’t just buy a new fret board,you have to buy a whole new guitar.
Then we have the head of the guitar which is located at the verytop of the guitar. On the top of the guitar, we have what are called tuningpegs, used, obviously to tune our guitars. The tuning pegs on the Gibson aremuch stronger and they won’t go out of tune as easy as the Ibanez would. Thereason the Ibanez goes out of tune is because the pegs are a different type ofmetal, and the metal that the Ibanez has is much weaker than the Gibsons. Sohaving the Gibson makes it much easier on the musician from constantly having totune the guitar.
Then we have the bridge which is at the bottom of the guitar to hold thestrings in place. You connect the string from the tuning peg down along the fretboard till you fit them into the bridge. The bridge on the Gibson has betterintanation, which means that the strings will last longer, as the Ibanez has theFloyd Rose tremel bridge which won’t stay in tune as long as the Gibson would.
The strings have a tendancy to wear out a lot quicker from constantly having totune them. The reason the strings wear out is because, everytime you tune aguitar the strings stretch. From too much stretching, the strings end up eitherpopping or not being able to tune to the key you want them in.
Some well known musicians that use the guitars are: Jimmy Page from LedZepplin, and Slash from Guns-n-Roses, both prefer the Legendary Gibson Les Paulover any other guitar. And then we have Joe Santriani, and well Known Steve Viawho prefer the Ibanez.
The prices between these two guitars vary in a big price range. TheIast time I checked up on the GibsonLes Pual was listed for $3199. whichdrastically overtowers the Ibanez 453 RVC listed at $599.
