But I bet any of the 3 would be leaps and bounds ahead of CS Gibson’s 
Sorry Gibson and Epi lovers, but it seems to be pretty well known they have had their issues with quality of US built guitars and basses in recent times. With that said, I am just regurgitating stuff I have heard, and have not bothered doing my homework on it, so That might not be 100% accurate, but then it also boils down to personal taste, and I don’t have much Gibson / Epi love.
Yeah the common knowledge is that their stuff sounds great but is super hit or miss quality-wise.
I do like the sound but have no direct experience with the quality. Last time I owned one was when I was in grade school.
I love the look and sound of Les Paul’s, they are certainly Iconic. But I never could stand to play them, they were never comfortable and I found them very difficult to play, compared to my 1989 MIJ Fender Squire Series 62 Reissue Telecaster, and especially my Custom Carvin (now Keisel).
I have played Fender, Squire, Jackson, Ibanez, Schecter, Dean, PRS, EB EVH (my personal favorite aside from my Carvin back then, oh how I wanted one), and probably a handful of other guitars, and they all played fine. I loved Les Paul’s and SG’s, but couldn’t stand to play them.
I have played many basses, and same, I don’t like to play EB’s or Thunderbirds. They sound great, but still, funky to play for me personally.
I also don’t personally like T-birds. I never tried a Les Paul bass, and they look great, but IDK how they would feel.
And that is before any quality issues, it is just the construction.
I would personally get an ESP LTD EC model guitar, vs. a Gibson / Epiphone Les Paul.
I would also get an ESP LTD Viper Bass or Guitar vs. a Gibson / Epiphone SG / EB as well.
Yeah same here. Also I am pretty sure most of the Les Paul sound is the pickup type and position, which you can likely replicate without the body shape.
If I were ever to want a T-Bird type bass it would definitely be that retro-Jetsons looking Edwards one.
Speaking of Edwards, J/J basses aren’t my thing but have to admit this ESP Edwards Reita signature E-RF-137 is pretty sweet. Coolest pickguard I have seen on a J/J anyway 
This is the ESP Stream, the full ESP version of the retro Edwards T-Bird like bass I was mentioning above, the first one I saw was an ESP Edwards and thus less expensive than the $6k this one runs:
There’s also the ESP Star Bird:
for about $4500 (for this color, it’s a signature model too). Pretty sure there’s both Edwards and LTD versions of this one.
Never looked into ESP but those look serious amazing.
Wow the red one is absolutely beautiful! I was already fan of the esp stream but this specific red one!
That turned out fantastic.
I wonder if there’s a gold control plate out there you cound try to see if you like it.
SWEET.
Do your tuners have the black bushing at left end of the tuning peg or is it all gold/metal?
Trying to figure out which one is the ‘current’ model, since I got 2 of each. ARG
Ok that purple P is glorious.
Yeah I ordered. I thought I have one but I probably used it in the build already so ordered one today.
Those are the RT Gold pickups on the Jazz, right?
Freaking gorgeous, they go very well together, and the sister aint bad either.
Are you going to try to get a Gold control plate on the Jazz as well?
Yeah. The pink one is hard to put down with the Frank Bello ceramic X series pickup. That’s fun.
I would be stark raving madly in love with it if it were an Orange pickguard with black hardware and black or white pups.
It is still “Hot Stuff”, but not marriage material in my book.
I actually thought about it. I have white pickup and black pickguard. But I’m definitely selling this bass so I went for pink and red setup.
Another vote for the pink P here 
Not a colour scheme that would spring into my head but man it looks good 
Can you find Orange aluminum pickguards for the P basses?
I never searched for any pickguards other then MM Stingray. Some colors are hard to come by. The ONLY non standard Orange pickguard was Orange Pearl. I actually liked it and would have gladly put it on my MM Stingray SLO special, which is white, BUT they didn’t have any in stock, and they were pretty expensive as well, but I would have paid the $60 if they had it, even tho, I can get a perfectly good (quite good to excellent) Chinese Black Pearl (Cap’n Jack Sparrow . LOL) for under $10 shipped.
I never looked for pickguards for P basses much, but would be interested, because if they do have good pickguard colors, I can see a white P in my future. Distant, but future.
White or black P bass, Orange pickguard with all black electronics and hardware.
That is marriage material.
