Best Budget Les Paul Guitars – 8 Affordable Gibson Alternatives!

That said, this guitar differs drastically from the real deal because, instead of being a set-neck build, it sports a bolt-on neck. As you might know, this changes not only the sound and sustain, but also the feel of the instrument.

Nevertheless, as I picked it up, before flipping it to see the bolts, this guitar does look like a Studio from the ‘80s. Mainly because that is the design it is based on. It has a similarly large headstock, and even a similar, and very comfortable, D-shaped 'SlimTaper' neck. 

It is quite a bit lighter compared to a more traditional Les Paul. But I think there is still enough weight to make it feel like one. This is because the body of this guitar, although still a carved mahogany piece, is thinner than that of an original LP and doesn’t have a maple top.

Sound-wise , this has an impact since the tone you have is a little more muddy than what you’d expect. One of the possible explanations for this phenomenon can be the pickups and the other the lack of a maple top. But it’s most likely because of a combination of the two.

While it certainly has the attitude and growly-ness of a Les Paul, I do feel like it isn’t as boomy and loud. It is a bit toned down. Yes, the 650R and 700T zebra humbuckers aren’t as defined and punchy as you would expect.

I did try some classics like the riff to Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” and a version of Gary Moore’s “Still Got the Blues” (with all due respect, of course). What I found out is that this guitar has slightly more spank than a conventional LP but lacks the sustain of the real thing.

Although it passed the sound exam clean, overdriven, and distorted, the true problem this guitar has is that the company installed way too cheap tuners. I mean, it’s to be expected at this price point, but it made playing the guitar a constant tuning exercise.

Nothing that can’t be upgraded easily and cheaply, but it’s something to bear in mind.

Back to the sound, this guitar isn’t as powerful or “hot” as other Les Pauls on this list. But this lack of power is made up for with versatility. Les Pauls are generally pure rock guitars. This Studio E1 is able to venture into different genres like jazz and pop.

Helping that versatility is the coil tap on the guitar. So, you get the best of both humbuckers and single coils. I did the old Mark Knopfler test and played the same clean riff with the coil-tap on and off as if I could jump decades on his career and results were great. Although they don’t sound like Fender single-coil pickups, they give you 3 more sounds to play with.

The Epiphone Les Paul Studio E1 is a fantastic guitar for anyone looking for a cheap Les Paul alternative. It is a simple, straightforward Les Paul that will allow you to explore genres beyond rock.

Furthermore, with a simple setup and hardware upgrade, you have a nice LP to play live shows, do studio gigs, or just home strumming.

The first thing I thought when I finished trying this guitar and looked up the specs was how did Schecter manage to fit all these goodies at this price!?

But let’s start from the beginning, this is one mean Les Paul-style guitar that sure likes to chug.

That bigger-than-life bottom end that floods the speaker every time you palm mute that sixth string with a healthy amount of distortion comes from a real mahogany body. But that’s not all, because the maple neck and rosewood fingerboard make this guitar close to those ‘70s Gibson guitars with the three-piece maple necks that had that piercing, wild upper midrange.

The rosewood is the drop of sweetness to the mix and really helps the guitar’s 24,75” scale. I played some nice bluesy bends that felt right and sounded like they should on the neck pickup.

That’s the weird thing, you can flip the pickup selector to the bridge and the guitar also has that dryness you need to make the chugging short and loud.

Moreover, cleaning up the signal and going for the middle position gave me a usable tamed neo-soul audio to play seventh, diminished, and other weird, beautiful chords with nice reverb (in shimmering mode, of course) and some mild delay.

But this guitar is more than just a versatile instrument, it’s also a very, very mean metal machine. To begin with, the beautiful thin-C neck offers a 14” radius which means you can shred the night away and hit your speed limit in every solo. Another big aid in this regard comes from the 22 extra-jumbo frets that feel effortless, especially when playing fast. And believe me, this neck is a highway.

The fire needed to bring the house down comes from a pair of in-house designed humbuckers that look active but are passive. These are called Schecter Diamond Standard and have face-melting levels of gain available. They sound well, are defined and round, and get punchy with power chords.

What’s the catch, you might be wondering? Where did the company cut the corners?

Well, for one thing, it doesn’t have the sustain and feel of a set-neck guitar because it features a bolt-on neck. So, it feels more spanky and percussive. The maple neck helps cut the cost (compared to a mahogany one) and also adds to the whole bolt-on feel.

I tried some heavy rock on it, some blues, a little funk, some metal, and the right dose of pop, and the Schecter Solo-II Standard held it together in every scenario. I found the tone control rather usable, but the low end can be affected if you’re not careful; things can get really muddy, really fast.

I had a ton of fun trying this guitar and was able to get a plethora of usable tones out of it. It’s one of those you wish you didn’t have to give back. So, if it fits your budget, give it a chance, it might surprise you.

As you might know, Jackson isn’t really known for making guitars with a Les Paul body shape. On the contrary, they have endorsed bands like Megadeth and Anthrax for a good reason; they make kick-ass metal guitars.

That said, they have done a great job with the Monarkh, keeping to tradition while also adding their own flair. It’s exactly what all Jackson fans around the world needed, a metal-oriented Les Paul-style guitar. It’s more audacious, with more pronounced curves, and in the matte black finish, it really is a menacing instrument.

The body has some nice added contours at the top and bottom, and the cutaway has a sharp point. The headstock is also very Jackson. In my opinion, The Monarkh, to define it somehow, is the perfect outcome of a Les Paul and the very spirit of Jackson Guitars.

On one hand, the graphite-reinforced maple neck, nato body, and amaranth fretboard with a compound radius from 12” to 16”, the high-output ceramic pickups, and the matte finishes represent the metal-oriented spirit of Jackson.

On the other hand, the 24.75” scale length, the single cut, and the tune-o-matic bridge scream traditional Les Paul.

Now, once the guitar is plugged in, the real difference becomes apparent - this guitar doesn’t sound like your standard Les Paul. This guitar was designed for modern metal players who need utterly-hot pickups and fast-playing necks.

I played “Crazy Train” on this guitar because if there was ever a king of Jackson guitars, that was Randy Rhoads. Of course I did. Don’t look at me like that, you would have done the same. The sound, while not so focused, was very powerful with a huge bottom-end.

The Gibson scale is great for bends and the guitar plays comfortably. You can do the 100-notes-a-second thing or you can play some blues and the neck feels like butter at all times. I just wish the fret job would be a little better from the factory.

So, back to the Monarkh, Les Pauls are known for their very rock focused tone. The Monarkh is very much metal focused. It is a Jackson after all. It handles high amounts of gain quite well, even a bit better than some real Les Pauls in my opinion.

It can certainly do a more rock tone as well. But ‘80s and ‘90s metal is where this guitar truly shines. Oh yes, I drop-tuned the thing and it held pretty awesomely when I gave it my best Deftones riffs. That said, upgrading the tuners is a must if you’re to play shows.

The Monarkh is a great budget pick for beginners who are into rock and metal. It is super comfortable to play, sounds great, and is very affordable. But experienced players will have a great time with it, especially if you are looking for a Les Paul with a bit of a different flavor.

It’s also a great project for upgrades; I’d love to try it with an 81-85 EMG set.

The EC-256FM from ESP is another interesting Les Paul style guitar. It is in a similar vein to the Jackson Monarkh, albeit costing quite a bit more and with a plethora of things that make it closer to a Les Paul than to any other LTD guitar.

Well, it’s no coincidence that these two heavyweight champions of the strings are together in one brand. Marcus Miller, as you might know, used to be a Fender endorsee. Well, these elite-class musicians joined forces with Sire to bring a series of outstanding and affordable instruments to life.

The L3HH is cut from a single slab of mahogany and resembles the Les Paul junior in weight, feel, and looks. It comes with a plain top instead of a maple archtop like you’d find in a Les Paul Standard. It also comes in two possible configurations, a single P-90 in the bridge position, and dual humbuckers.

Speaking of which, there’s a medium-powered retro flavor in these pickups that’s the perfect match for the mahogany neck with a rosewood fingerboard. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s a slab of mahogany, so it excels in the midrange like a Junior or a Special does. But there’s more of a bottom end because of the combination of the humbuckers’ tone and the all-mahogany construction.

At times, it felt like I was playing an SG (although with a much wider neck than a slim taper) with added lows. I had to try “TNT” and “Iron Man” by AC/DC and Black Sabbath because, well, they’re SG icons.

This guitar handled high gain perfectly, and the moment I went into a clean setting, I had this beautiful somber and full tone. Furthermore, if you dial the guitar’s volume to 8, you’ll find a clean sweet spot that’s just musical and great.

Strumming (and not singing) “Sweet Home Alabama” and playing some neo-soul licks trying to sound like Tom Misch, what I got was a responsive guitar that sounds big and, although not too defined, bright, and clear.

The wraparound bridge and the construction are excellent as is the attention to detail and the quality of the components.

This is a great bang for the buck in any of its two iterations.

Apart from a sharper cutaway and different headstock shape, you would be forgiven for thinking this is a real Les Paul. Even the finish and pickguard are classic Les Paul.

When you pop open the hood you find out there are even more reminiscences to the Gibson timeless classic. The L7 sports a maple arched top over a mahogany body. If you go for the colors with the translucent flame top, that’s a veneer, but still a maple top.

The neck is mahogany too and the fretboard is made of ebony.

Let me tell you that the combination of the ebony board, the locking tuners, and the bone nut makes it a guitar that could have a price tag, at least, twice as high. Not even the Epiphone Les Paul 1959 features a true rosewood fingerboard.

We have to dedicate a paragraph to the neck. The company went as far as giving the body a glossy finish and the neck a matte one. So, along with the utterly-comfortable C shape, the velvet touch of the finish makes it a guitar difficult to put down.

I plugged it in and even the tone is reminiscent of classic Les Pauls. It has a very warm, bluesy tone to it. The gain tone also has that growly, raw tone that a Les Paul has. In my opinion, when you push it a little out of its comfort zone, it falls a little short. The high-gain settings sounded undefined and harsh. That said, it makes a terrific overdriven rock and roll sound or mid-gain hard rock sound.

Moving over to clean settings, the middle position rolling the tone off a little gave me a great jazz experience. Finally, the neck position with some lush delay and mushy reverb put me straight into bluesy territory. Turning on the TS-9 took everything up a notch. I said it already, this guitar excels in that rocking, raunchy, rock and roll tone.

The frets are definitely something that you will have to get used to. They are much wider and taller than both Gibson and Epiphone Les Pauls, at least in my experience.

I do wonder what effect this might have on the string action, but I didn’t need to make any adjustments to find out.

Honestly, this is just an incredible guitar, easily the best affordable Les Paul for me. I actually don’t know why it isn’t at least twice the price. This is definitely one of the closest ways of getting a Gibson Les Paul without actually buying one.

This guitar is close to the real thing in many aspects. The first is that it’s entirely made of mahogany and sports an Indian laurel fretboard (affordable replacement for rosewood).

The second is that it has the trapezoid inlays, binding, and overall looks of the Gibson Les Paul Standard. Finally, it comes equipped with the same pickups of the Studio, the 650R and the 700T with individual controls and a 3-way switch.

Although it has all those similarities, it’s very different too because the scale is 22 ¾”. While to some size might be a drawback, to me it was a great plus since it makes it a great all-round little guitar to strum around.

Now, if you’re a big person with big hands, you might not be able to fret right. That said, if you have small hands, or are a kid or teenager, this guitar sounds and plays great.

The guitar is quite similar to the Studio. It is made from the same wood and uses the same pickups, meaning that the tone and playability is pretty much the same. It also has the same controls, so you aren’t losing out on versatility.

The shorter scale does make it more comfortable for younger players or those with small hands. The body is also smaller. Of course, this does mean that the guitar isn’t quite suited for adults. But that isn’t really the target market of this guitar either.

I think the real draw for most people is going to be the bundle as a whole. This is the perfect starter kit for any beginner. You aren't just getting a great guitar, but also a gig bag, cable, strap, and picks.

Believe me, I played everything from “Digging the Grave” by Faith no More to “LaGrange” by ZZ Top and, while it had some limitations, this guitar kept it up in all terrains.

Even if you aren’t a beginner, I would recommend it. This is a great travel kit for anyone going on vacation or traveling for work who wants to keep practicing.