Suzuki SLS-50BK

Made in China but Designed in Japan. 22 medium jumbo frets, good fretwork (nice and smooth, even all the way up the neck). Bolt-neck, but looks like a set neck from most front angles. Not sure about the body wood, wouldn't be surprised if it was mahogany. Carved-top. Well-balanced overall. Standard LP design in pup configuration, bridge, etc. Tuners feel cheap but hold it in tune great, way better than the tuners on my strat. Finish is black and even, with cream plastic components and excellent-quality cream binding on body and fingerboard. Trapezoid mother of pearl inlays on the fingerboard. A beautiful guitar.

I love to tool around with Zeppelin riffs, so I had to have a Les Paul. I've traditionally played strats (I love Pink Floyd, Gilmour being my favorite guitarist), but this thing is making me re-think my guitar preferance. The stock humbuckers are fairly high output and give a lot of finger noise and good harmonics on high gain. Wouldn't play the neck pickup dirty, too much low end. Actually, there's a bit too much low end in general from these pickups, and they sustain like crazy, which means you have to be very careful how you play. they also hum a bit, not as badly as a strat, but it's noticeable. Good variety of sounds between the two pups. Got the sounds from the solos on "Time" and "Money" from Dark Side dead on(Gilmour actually played a custom guitar with Humbuckers for the solos from that album instead of his strat so that he could hit the high notes without bending his strings to death). Solo from "Young Lust" sounds great (got those harmonics dead-on), as does second solo from "Comfortably Numb." Zeppelin also more or less dead-on, with proper amp settings. Everyone who sees this guitar says the same thing: "Suzuki? Don't they make motorcyles?", followed shortly by "a bolt-neck les paul?" My response is "here, play it." No more complaints from that point. Sustain from the guitar itself is great, beats the hell out of a strat, Bolt-neck or not. Turns out Suzuki also makes a pretty good guitar. I expect it to be an excellent guitar when I swap the stock pups out for Gibsons.

Factory set-up was great. Very low, but great for bends (no fret-out at all) No buzz whatsoever with factory strings. put on Ernie Ball super slinkys, and now i'm getting some buzz from the low E and A strings. Tried to adjust the bridge, but it wouldn't get rid of it. that's OK though, it's only noticeable playing unplugged, and i'm sure i'll find the right strings for it eventually, so it's a non-issue as far as I'm concerned. The most beautiful thing about this guitar is the neck. It's sooo comfortable to play on...a bit thinner than the Epiphones and Gibsons that i've played. Also, being a bolt-neck, it's actually easier to play high on the neck than a Gibby or Epi, because it doesn't have that bulky set-neck joint. Perfect for me, plays better than a traditional LP, as sacreligious as such a statement might seem. Neck is snug fit in the body joint, better than my strat. Finish is flawless, beautiful. Hardware all top-notch. Only problem is a noisy tone pot for the neck pup, but i'm gonna change them when i put the new pups in, anyways.

Haven't played it live yet, but I will do so with confidence. I use a backup regardless, but I don't expect any problems with it at all. Strap buttons were replaced with locking ones on principle. As I said, I'll but new pups and pots in and have them professionally done, so faulty wiring will not be a concern. I expect this guitar to perform well indefinitely. It's quite solid.

Haven't dealt with them., not sure about a warranty. Don't expect I'll need one.

I've been playing for about two years, and I'm a guitar fiend. Right now, apart from this guitar, I've got a Mexi Jazz bass, a Mexi Fender '70s reissue, and an old Yamaha acoustic, but I've bought and sold more guitars than I'm willing to admit looking for the perfect one. This guitar I will keep, and that means a lot coming from me. Who gives a damn about the name on the headstock? This is an excellent guitar, puts a lot of the Epiphone LP's I've tried out to absolute shame. If you've got the opportunity to play one, don't breeze past it because you're not in the market for a motorcycle. Chances are, you'll love it. My $650 dollar strat is gathering dust right now. When I change out the pickups, I'll look forward to the looks of awe and embarrassment on the faces of guitar elitists who dare to imply from it's make that it's inferior to their $2,000 Gibsons.
Really, though, as long as you're not Jimmy Page, this guitar is all you'll need, and probably more than that. Actually, I don't think the man himself would shy away from playing it.