80s lawsuit era Les Pauls

  • Thread starter Thread starter Matt300ZXT
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Matt300ZXT
Matt300ZXT
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So I used to have, what I believe, was an 80s/early 90s Burny Les Paul Custom and LOVED it....should've never sold it. Anywho, I remember everyone saying the Burny, Greco, and Tokai copies were superior to anything Gibson was putting out at the time. Fast forward to the 21st century, are those guitars still better playing and quality than say a 2012, a 2015, 2021, etc? Let's say a Burny can be found for $1500 and a USA Gibson Standard for $2200....is the Gibson $700 better in this instance? I know it'll be easier to sell or trade a Gibson over a Japanese lawsuit era guitar, but just thought I'd gather yalls collective .02.
 
The higher end guitars those companies made are getting expensive.
 
mooncobra said:
The higher end guitars those companies made are getting expensive.
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True, which is why I may wanna get one now. I remember paying like $600 shipped to get it here from Japan in like 2002ish.
 
I think the best way to go, is to stalk Ishibashi or another Jap reseller site and grab a used one for 5-700 bucks...like I've done numerous times. That way you're so far under the Gibson used prices that you can't lose $$$. The one I have now is a 1980 Greco EG500 that was 650 shipped to me...took all of 4 days from Tokyo too. Last year.
It's as good as any Gibby classic or standard imo.
 
I have several Japanese LP’s from the 80’s, a couple of Gibson’s and a Heritage. They all play and sound great. I like the smell of the new nitro guitars better. That’s about it.
 
Matt300ZXT said:
So I used to have, what I believe, was an 80s/early 90s Burny Les Paul Custom and LOVED it....should've never sold it. Anywho, I remember everyone saying the Burny, Greco, and Tokai copies were superior to anything Gibson was putting out at the time. Fast forward to the 21st century, are those guitars still better playing and quality than say a 2012, a 2015, 2021, etc? Let's say a Burny can be found for $1500 and a USA Gibson Standard for $2200....is the Gibson $700 better in this instance? I know it'll be easier to sell or trade a Gibson over a Japanese lawsuit era guitar, but just thought I'd gather yalls collective .02.
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You can get a Greco cheaper than the burny. I can’t stand the burny frets
 
scottosan said:
You can get a Greco cheaper than the burny. I can’t stand the burny frets
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What about them did you not like? It's been so long since I've had the guitar that I don't remember anything about the feel of anything specific like that.
 
A lot of those vintage Japanese Gibson copies I’ve played I’d take over the majority of Gibson’s I’ve tried other than a good custom shop reissue or ‘50’s/‘60’s ones (hard to rival those still)

Vintage Japanese gear in general is just very underrated. They also had some really great vintage pickups and tubes that can be had really cheap and smoke the stuff made in the last 25 years or so that also costs more. I guess their vintage pedals somehow didn’t get underrated
 
braintheory said:
A lot of those vintage Japanese Gibson copies I’ve played I’d take over the majority of Gibson’s I’ve tried other than a good custom shop reissue or ‘50’s/‘60’s ones (hard to rival those still)

Vintage Japanese gear in general is just very underrated. They also had some really great vintage pickups and tubes that can be had really cheap and smoke the stuff made in the last 25 years or so that also costs more. I guess their vintage pedals somehow didn’t get underrated
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I forget sometimes that some of the British Mullard Tube tooling went to Japan in the 70s. If I remember right, the top of the 12ax7s glass has 3 seams, not 2 like the British version. All the rest of the interior of the tube is the same. I have 1 like this and it sounds almost identical to the Blackburn made tube.
 
JackBootedThug said:
I have a mid 80’s Greco Sykes with the kahler…fuckin thing kills. I think I’m in it for less than 7 shipped from nippon….
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There's really not a better deal, for the money, for a guitar that's gonna be equal to or better than a USA made Gibson.
 
Racerxrated said:
I forget sometimes that some of the British Mullard Tube tooling went to Japan in the 70s. If I remember right, the top of the 12ax7s glass has 3 seams, not 2 like the British version. All the rest of the interior of the tube is the same. I have 1 like this and it sounds almost identical to the Blackburn made tube.
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I find the Japanese tubes and pickups have a bit of their own flavor. It seems like their stuff in general tends to sound similar to what they were copying but darker, fatter and a bit less detail

I’ve got for tubes their EL34’s, 6L6’s, 6V6’s, EL84’s, ECC83/2/1’s, 6SJ7, 6SL7, 6SK7, 6SN7. I’d be curious what they were copying for some of those tube types that Mullard didn’t make
 
Racerxrated said:
There's really not a better deal, for the money, for a guitar that's gonna be equal to or better than a USA made Gibson.
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I would say also the vintage Hagstrom’s and maybe a few other vintage ones I’m blanking on also are up there as best for the money
 
I
Racerxrated said:
I think the best way to go, is to stalk Ishibashi or another Jap reseller site and grab a used one for 5-700 bucks...like I've done numerous times. That way you're so far under the Gibson used prices that you can't lose $$$. The one I have now is a 1980 Greco EG500 that was 650 shipped to me...took all of 4 days from Tokyo too. Last year.
It's as good as any Gibby classic or standard imo.
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I appreciate that info, now I have a reputable place to look for one, I've been thinking of buying a Japanese guitar lately and was always afraid because of the shipping distance, etc.
 
jtees4 said:
I

I appreciate that info, now I have a reputable place to look for one, I've been thinking of buying a Japanese guitar lately and was always afraid because of the shipping distance, etc.
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I got mine from a sniper over there. I guess there are dude’s who go around taking pictures of guitars at music stores and reselling them. You might see the same guitar listed on eBay 2 or 3 times. I got a little nervous because I went a day or two with no communication. But I think they take their weekends pretty seriously. Monday rolled around and got my tracking number. Guitar showed up Wednesday I believe. Ordered on a Friday. Transaction was smooooth…
 
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