Comparison Between Two Guitars Essay, Research Paper

The paper I have written and know alot about is a contrast on two really well known

and popular guitars. One which is the Gibson Les Paul, and the other which is the Ibanez 453

RVC. Both guitars may look alike to some, and to some they may sound alike as well, but are

they really alike?

Starting with the bodys, the Gibson Custom Les Paul is made of solid mahogeny wood,

which gives the guitar a more Classical look and feel and also a much better and clearer sound.

The Gibson is a more luxiourous guitar for which it is better for classical rock and light heavy

metal as opposed to the Ibanez which is excellent for hard rock and heavy metal.

Going further up the guitar, you have what are called the pickups. A pickup is a really

sensative box that is attached to the body in between the bottom 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 are many different types of pickups; for instance, the Gibson Les Paul

has pickups that are called Humbuckers, which are much higher and of a better quality than the

pickups on an Ibanez. The Ibanez comes with regular music store pickups that are not bad but

do not have the quality of the Humbuckers. So having better quality means that the pickups are

more sensative; being more sensative means that the guitar can put out clearer and higher quality

sound.Moving to the lower part of the guitar, both guitars have knobs. The purpose of these knobs are to

control the different types of sounds that you want to produce. The Gibson has four controls, but

the Ibanez only has two; having only two knobs instead of four means that the Ibanenz has less of

a selection or variety on the sound that you want opposed to the Gibson having more control over

the sound that you like and the sound that you need. The Gibson having volume and tone for

each pickup allows you to adjust the sound to the way you like it, while the Ibanez 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. Many guitars 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, is made of mahogany wood which produces a smoother

neck and has a comfortable feel to it. Having a better feel allows the guitar player to increase his

or her speed when just practicing or maybe even accidentally when performing live. The radius 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 are playing.

The fret board is located on the neck of the guitar. The fret board on an 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 too much playing of the guitar wears the frets down and are dead in a

couple of years. 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 very top of the guitar. On the

top of the guitar, we have what are called tuning pegs, used, obviously to tune our guitars. The

tuning pegs on the Gibson are much stronger and they won’t go out of tune as easy as the Ibanez

would. The reason the Ibanez goes out of tune is because the pegs are a different type of metal,

and the metal that the Ibanez has is much weaker than the Gibsons.

So having the Gibson makes it much easier on the musician from constantly having to tune the

guitar.

Then we have the bridge which is at the bottom of the guitar to hold the strings in place.

You connect the string from the tuning peg down along the fret board till you fit them into the

bridge. The bridge on the Gibson has better intanation, which means that the strings will last

longer, as the Ibanez has the Floyd 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 to

tune them. The reason the strings wear out is because, everytime you tune a guitar the strings

stretch. From too much stretching, the strings end up either popping 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 Led Zepplin, and

Slash from Guns-n-Roses, both prefer the Legendary Gibson Les Paul over any other guitar.

And then we have Joe Santriani, and well Known Steve Via who prefer the Ibanez.

The prices between these two guitars vary in a big price range. The Iast time I

checked up on the GibsonLes Pual was listed for $3199. which drastically overtowers the Ibanez

453 RVC listed at $599.