My brother just bought one of those infamous Tradetang "Gibson" Les Paul Supremes with the rootbeer finish and brought it over for me to look over. Now I've owned several Gibsons and currently have a Gibson Les Paul Traditional Pro and an Epiphone LP Ultra II so I can speak on both counts as far as comparing them (plus I've been playing for about 35 years and mod guitars all the time). The Tradetang Les Paul doesn't even come close to the quality of a Gibson Les Paul. Here's what I observed right after setting up my brother's Tradetang special:

  • Tuners - very stiff or loose depending on the tuner, inconsistent and obviously don't have quality gears in them. In addition they loosen and don't keep the strings in tune very well. You will have to replace them if you want them if you want your guitar to stay in tune.
  • Trussrod appears to be non-adjustable. When I opened up the cover there was not what I would call a typical trussrod with a nut on the end. The cavity where the trussrod was packed with what appeared to be sawdust.
  • Nut - very poor quality plastic nut that was seated incorrectly when it was glued in and doesn't appear to be placed or filed correctly.
  • Finish - obviously polyurethane and there were blemishes on the neck near the nut where the finish flaked off and finish defects on the body of the guitar as well.
  • Hardware in general - inferior even to Epiphone standards, in particular the saddle bridge.
  • Pickups - not on par with the Gibson or Epiphone in quality, however, not too bad. Not quite as much chime or bell tones as you get on a real Gibson but not as bad as I thought they would be. The neck pickup is pretty weak, even weaker than a Classic 57.
  • Case - not even close to the quality of a real Gibson case which is usually contoured. Looked very cheap up next to the real one though they did get the lettering / logo to look like the real deal.
  • The body is chambered but appeared to feel lighter than other chambered Gibson Les Pauls I'ved picked up before. I'd guess the bulk of the guitar s probably made of cheap basswood.



My personal opinion: Don't waste your money. The real Gibson Les Paul smokes them by a mile and they are not even up to the quality of an Epiphone IMO. You will spend about $300 on the guitar alone, plus another $80 or so on the case, then pay about $125 for shipping to the U.S. My advice save your pennies and buy the real deal. No comparison.