'70s "lawsuit" LP Copies:
Some of the finest Les Paul copies ever made are the Japanese-built instruments from
what is commonly referred to now as the “lawsuit” era, which was from about 1970
through 1977, the year when the lawsuit itself (pitting the Norlin-Gibson camp against
the Hoshino-Ibanez group) was settled. These guitars are cool because they are
genuine vintage pieces, they are of remarkable quality (better than many American
guitars of the same era), and they are still very affordable for the most part. The true
lawsuit era guitars are easy to identify because they typically copied Gibson specs
and headstock designs to the letter. These instruments were sold under a number of
different names, but Ibanez, Tokai, Burny, Edwards, Fernandes, and Greco are some
of the common ones. Many of these have become fairly valuable vintage pieces in
their own right, with Tokai’s Love Rock model being especially coveted. Fine lawsuit
era Pauls can be had for anywhere from 400 bucks or so on up to 1000 or more, but
600 to 700 is about average.
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TONE TALK //
Paulternatives for the Working Player