Crafter Cruiser LJ-550

Korea made, Les Paul Special DC model. 22 frets. Hardwood solid body with mapple sixties thin profile neck and rosewood fingerboard. A nice all black glossy finish. TuneOMatic bridge and stop tailpiece. Controls: 2 volume, 2 tone, 3 way toggle switch. Two P90 pickups.

When you buy a Les Paul style guitar, made after a vintage model, you should expect these features. Nothing is missing. So, I give it a 10.

I play traditional rock. From fifties to modern, but mostly based on vintage voicings. I bought this axe to run an amp without no effects, and I wanted that P90 kind of sound, brighter than a humbucker, punchier and with more mids and lows than a strat single. And I am a fan of Les Pauls.

The guitar is a little bit noisy for my standards, but, hey, these are single coils. Maybe I will spend a little time on shielding it a little better. But the pickup tone is much better than I expected for the price I paid. It suits from blues to hard rock. And it`s not for those ultra high gain metal heads.

I like the thin neck very much. And the guitar fits me well, like the other LPs.

I won`t give it a 10 because it is not the best guitar I have played. But for the price...

Well... I am an old @#$%^ when it comes to guitar set ups... I set all of my guitars myself, no matter how they come from the shop.

This one was OK. But, of course, the first thing I did was to disassemble everything and bring all to my very specs.

The finish is great. No flaws. The frets were properly adjusted (this one item I did`t have to mess with), the truss rod worked perfectly, no loose parts, no noises on the controls (though I have changed them all).

The control cavity was painted with conductive paint for shielding. But it was poorly painted, so I had to put on another coat.

The neck bolts bushings were a little out of alignment.

Another issue was the neck angle. It was not correct, so I had to work a little to bring it to specs.

After disassembling the whole thing, I can say that it would withstand hard live playing. The finish will survive for a long time as far as you take the proper care of the instrument.

I always use strap locks on all my guitars. I`m not the quiet type of guitarrist, so I have to take care about this issue.

And yes! This guitar is reliable. This one is going to the road with me. I`ll soon find out if it will last much. But with my experience, I would say that I am pretty sure it will do the job.

Never dealt with them.

I have been playing for 20 years, and have had a few dozens of guitars. Some of them built by myself.

I was looking for this LP special based model for quite a long time. Now I found one for a reasonable price. It has all I wanted for it.

Great guitar for the money.

les paul special style double cut away. Flat Hardwood body, maple neck/rosewood finger board. 22 frets, bolt on neck. 2 volume/two tone controls with a LP type pickup selecter. Two pickups - look like soap bar humbuckers but are high output single coils. made in china no idea what year.Tune o Matic style bridge. passive electronics. Functional features.

which is what i was after.

There appears to be no shielding from the front. Its quiet on its own but near a Computer monitor it hums almost as loud as the guitar plays.
The guy in the shop descirbed it as a monster of a guitar for the price - he showed off some nice punchy blues type licks - they did sound cool but i think the #800 fender valve amp helped ;)

it does have a very interesting tone though - single coils but with a lot of grunt! - at the bridge through my GNX3000 it can get some serious attitude - power chords work very well - not quite heavy enough for pure metal heads but rockers would enjoy it - on a par with the humbuckers in my stage master, in fact seems to have a bit more bite! - perhaps a bit too light on the bass at the bridge for thrash metal - ok for 70s rock, seems trebly and middy to me but not thin like a normal single coil.

The middle position can sound very spanky strat - only with a lot of mids and bass.

The neck is warm and dark, perhaps a but a bit muddy - but enough spanky punch for some good blues.

Kind of like a really hot strat sound - but the bridge can chug quite well. for the price its quite a cool sounding guitar! just needs more shielding.

setup in shop just the way i like it - d'addaio strings - not sure what gauge but vey light = 8s?

theres a lot of gaps where the neck meets the body - and it looks like the screws that join the neck and body have been put in at angles. but otherwise okay. - no dead spots on the neck or buzzes - obviously the shop probably set it up well.

its a very light guitar - easy to play, the neck is smooth and easy to get a round - the way the guitar feels kind of reminds me of my mate's danelectro, but different neck.

i think the nobs and electrics and okugs will require attention sooner rather than later - its a light guitar - so easily dentable bt if you treat it with care it should be ok. Not sure if its something you'd actually want to gig with - but theres no moving parts except for the tuners and volume/tone nobs = so not too much that can go wrong - which is what i wanted ;)

ok - i have a floyd rose, which i love but somtimes hate, i also have a variax 300 that i love but sometimes the piezos pickups piss me off. Also i dont like carrying these guitars around with me.

I decided i wanted a super cheap hardtail guitar like a squier tele or an epi les paul. The LP would be preferable to me as i get bored with the tele sound quickly. This guitar is like a mix of humbucer and Single Coil - interestig tone. i liked that it had no piezos or floyd roses and that i could carry it around town, and wouldnt mind if it got lost or broken too much. It was cheap/functional and fun to play and so I came home with this - there was an eastcoast arch top LP copy i considered but it was #149 and this was #100. its actually in the argos catalogue a little cheaper i think (oops!)

it does exactly what it says on the tin and i think with a bit of upgrading here and there (not too much - i want it to remain a cheap plank!) it will be quite a passable jamming guitar.

Its very light and easy to play, due to lack of trem etc.. i think it would be a great learner guitar.

but dont get the mustard colour like i did! - (whre's that sandpaper)