Stagg Review: L400 (Les Paul Copy)

History:

Purchase: I bought this guitar from G.A.K.co.uk for £130. I was looking for a first electric guitar, but nothing too simplistic & tacky as Ive played acoustic for two years beforehand.

What I Like About This Stagg L400 (Les Paul Copy): First off, I have to say this guitar is very asthetically pleasing. I chose the black model with gold hardware. It looks easily ten times better than it does in the photograph on G.A.K. The gold hardware is all diecast, complementing the black body & white binding very well, also because theyre diecast the machine heads keep it relatively well in tune. The treble pickup has a nice sweet sound to it, thin, not nearly as thin sounding as a single coil, but with the volume low & gain high the sound becomes reedy The rhythm pickup is vastly deeper than the treble one. with a good, throaty response. The neck humbucker is better for rhythm playing (in my opinion, as chords tend not to mesh together so much as with the bridge pickup), but both are more than adequate for solos & lead playing

What I Do NOT Like About The Stagg L400 (Les Paul Copy): The biggest problem with this guitar is the output jack. it isnt very well attatched & if you dont keep an eye on it, it'll become so loose it falls off.Id suggest turning the main bolt(the hole where you insert the jack plug) until its as tight as itll go every time you pick the guitar up. the only other problem I have with the guitar is the volume & tone controls; they have no position markers indicating what theyre set to. of course after youve played a couple of times you get to know what number is what anyway, but it'd be nice if Stagg had included the markers

Stagg L400 (Les Paul Copy) Quality Rating: this guitar's very well put together. the grain of the wood cant be seen under the thick polymer finish, but its very heavy. a lot heavier than some of the other budget les paul copies out there. Its clear that its not mahogany though, because the guitars natural sustain is about 7 seconds shorter than a real les paul. But this isnt really a problem; you get what you pay for the necks glued in aswell, meaning it dosent wobble about like some cheap bolt-on necks. I havent dropped it yet, (I dont intend to) but it fell over once. This dosent seem to have damaged it at all, its very solidly built. my only complaint would be the strap holders, if you play standing for long periods, they have a nasty habit of wobbling, & the strap has falled off them a couple of times. as soon as I get some more cash Im going to swap them for some strap-locks.

Review Summary: I'd say this is the best budget begginer guitar I've looked at. The qualitys ten times better than some fender & gibson copies Ive played. Its well put together, sounds great & looks fantastic. my only real complaint would be the output jack, but this is a common problem on cheaper electrics & as Ive said, you get what you pay for. Its deffinately worth the money, & Id certainly buy another one if this was stolen or destroyed. In short, if you want a two humbucker starter guitar, dont pay £200 for a cheaply constructed tupperware box with a driftwood neck, just because it has epiphone or squier on the headstock. Buy one of these, theyre well worth the money.

Rating of this Stagg product: 4

This Stagg L400 (Les Paul Copy) Electric Guitars Review Submitted By: The man with the plan

Review Date: 2004-12-31