Essay/Term paper: Coparison between two guitars: ibanez 453 rvc and the gibson les paul

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Culture

Coparison Between Two Guitars: Ibanez 453 RVC and the Gibson Les Paul


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.