Epi Les Paul To Play Like Fender Strat?, Cant get my epi lp loose like my fender feels Options

[Georgia Rocker]

Let me describe it a little better, My epi lp is so tight trying to play from bends and vibro that it tears up my hands. I have an american strat that I play as well and it is so much easier to do bends. I have played for some time and dont feel its a weak finders and hands issue. I don't know alot about different guitars but the epi is twice as hard to bend with. My string are tuned down a half step. I have upgraded the epi pickups to 59 classics and I love the sound of it but love the playability of the strat. Is this normal between the 2 or is there something I can do to the epi. since I upgraded the pickups is there something else I need to upgrade also to get the most out of the pickups. The epiphone LP lite is the model.

Let me describe it a little better, My epi lp is so tight trying to play from bends and vibro that it tears up my hands. I have an american strat that I play as well and it is so much easier to do bends. I have played for some time and dont feel its a weak finders and hands issue. I don't know alot about different guitars but the epi is twice as hard to bend with. My string are tuned down a half step. I have upgraded the epi pickups to 59 classics and I love the sound of it but love the playability of the strat. Is this normal between the 2 or is there something I can do to the epi. since I upgraded the pickups is there something else I need to upgrade also to get the most out of the pickups. The epiphone LP lite is the model.

I just read Shuma13 topic about the string guage and bends, I wil check the strings tonight when I get home, that maybe some of my problem. Any hardware changes that might need to be done as well?

[SirJamsalot]

I've only played a Les Paul once or twice - after having played on a Charvel (the Strat neck is very similar in feel), and an Ibanez, what immediately struck me was that not only is the LP's neck thicker, but the frets are low profile which means you grab a lot of wood when you bend. It's likely the fretboard that is causing you problems. I'll defer to those with more LP experience than I, but string tension is not going to be different on different necks -it doesn't matter what kind of saddle/bridge the strings are strung between - it will be whatever you're pushing the strings against that give you more or less friction, and therefore harder to bend.

Short of scalloping your fretboard or getting jumbo frets, i don't think you can make an LP feel like a strat. Two different animals in my limited experience. How are the frets btw? are they really smooth or rough to the feel? You could try polishing them to make them as smooth as possible.

Cheers.

This post has been edited by SirJamsalot: Jun 30 2011, 09:13 PM

[Sinisa Cekic]

What type of strings you have on both guitars ? Brand, gauge ?

[SpaseMoonkey]

I'm going to have to add to Sinisa, is the stopbar (the piece you put the strings through) flush to the body or raised up? Because if your using some thicker gauged strings you could raise it some to release tension on them.

[Mudbone]

I'm surprised that you find the Les Paul has tighter strings than the Strat. The LP's scale length of 24.75 inches is a shorter scale than the Strats 25.5 inches. The longer the scale length, the more tension there is on the strings. This leads me to believe that you might just have heavier gauge strings on the LP. Try changing them out for a lighter gauge and see if that helps.

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Strat has more narrow and longer fretboard, and it's generally more twangy guitar with tremolo that further softens the tension (but cuts on the sustain). LP is quite the opposite. Very different instruments. I cannot say that some is better than the other, cause this is not the case, it's just that playability differs a lot, but softness should be found on both instruments.

Lower quality guitars usually feel "hard", while better guitars usually feel more "soft" on the fingers. But, in general, Epi should be softer if you put softer strings on it. Try 9s and see how it goes.

[Ben Higgins]

I'm surprised that you find the Les Paul has tighter strings than the Strat. The LP's scale length of 24.75 inches is a shorter scale than the Strats 25.5 inches. The longer the scale length, the more tension there is on the strings. This leads me to believe that you might just have heavier gauge strings on the LP. Try changing them out for a lighter gauge and see if that helps.

Exactly, Les Pauls should be easier to play in theory. Anytime I've picked up a LP I've always find them very playable as opposed to Strats, which I find more difficult to bend (maybe because of the old fashioned neck radius).

I'm not sure what frets come as standard on the Epi but smaller fretwire makes it harder to bend. Also the string guage might be heavier as the guys mentioned. If the action is very low as well then those 3 things combined can make a guitar difficult to play.

[Georgia Rocker]

I checked the string guage and the strat has 010 and the lp is thicker I imagine .011. The action is very low on the lp, Im gonna change te strings and take it to the local shop and have them look at the action and maybe raising the bar. Thanks for the all the input, taught me a few things.

Exactly, Les Pauls should be easier to play in theory. Anytime I've picked up a LP I've always find them very playable as opposed to Strats, which I find more difficult to bend (maybe because of the old fashioned neck radius).

I'm not sure what frets come as standard on the Epi but smaller fretwire makes it harder to bend. Also the string guage might be heavier as the guys mentioned. If the action is very low as well then those 3 things combined can make a guitar difficult to play.

[Gabriel Leopardi]

I've played Stratocaster, Ibanez and Les Paul and I think that the difficulty to play is the same.. however my finger feel more comfortable with the guitar that I play most... and it took a while (maybe days) to feel as comfortable with a different guitar.

[Todd Simpson]

I've only played a Les Paul once or twice - after having played on a Charvel (the Strat neck is very similar in feel), and an Ibanez, what immediately struck me was that not only is the LP's neck thicker, but the frets are low profile which means you grab a lot of wood when you bend. It's likely the fretboard that is causing you problems. I'll defer to those with more LP experience than I, but string tension is not going to be different on different necks -it doesn't matter what kind of saddle/bridge the strings are strung between - it will be whatever you're pushing the strings against that give you more or less friction, and therefore harder to bend.

Short of scalloping your fretboard or getting jumbo frets, i don't think you can make an LP feel like a strat. Two different animals in my limited experience. How are the frets btw? are they really smooth or rough to the feel? You could try polishing them to make them as smooth as possible.

Cheers.

VERY WELL SAID! This sums it up for me too. I was about to write the exact same thing. I own a LP body style guitar with hard tail and yup. Same finding. The LP has sick sustain, perhaps the non-bolt on neck/hard tail helping out on that, but my two Ibanez with Floyd Trems are easier to bend, play, etc. The SUPER JUMBO frets on the Ibanez neck are closer to a semi Scallop than other necks and train your hand not grab as much wood and use a lighter touch which helps a bit IMHO.

If you are using a floyd system, you can bend the string quite a bit and the floyd will give a bit if it needs too (it's held back by a few springs in stead of a mounted hard tail) so it might feel a bit easier to bend on a trem based guitar depending on a few other factors player/strings/trem tension.

In short, you can get used to your LP and play anything you can play on any other guitar you pick up, pretty much. It will just take some time and practice. In the short term, try a non hard tail/trem based guitar with super jumbo frets and maybe slightly lighter strings and see what your hands think about it. It comes down to you as a player in the end and different players/hands have different prefs. Give a Jackson/Ibanez/ESP with floyd and 9s a shot and see how it compares.