Les Paul- Am I crazy to love plain top over flame top??

[mnewb1]

not at all, I love those plain 58 tops

[Beckman]

I'll take a nice Honeyburst or Lemonburst Plain Top anyday.

 

[Scoogs]

Not only do I prefer plain over figured tops... But I find myself being turned off by figured tops as a whole.

 

GAS for LP Classic is muchos right now.

[Mogwai]

I prefer plaintops as well, especially Tobacco burst and OMG Natural Plaintop Customs are teh seks!

[pigman]

If guitars could talk -- and we all know they do -- quilt tops would scream "cheesy" or "collect me," but a plain top whispers, "play me."

[Ratae Corieltauvorum]

I bought my Classic as a plaintop, but as Bigconig mentions maple is a mystical wood:cool:

 

 

But it did this sometimes, which is nicer than most flame I've seen

 

 

All that said, I still miss this:cry:

 

[cbc83]

I love plaintops on LP's, not as much on most other guitars.

 

Its not a Les Paul, but I always loved the "figuring" on my old, natural, plaintop Patrick Eggle:

 

[C-4]

I used to like heavily flamed LP's but got away from that and I don't like BBQ tops at all.

I do prefer a slightly flamed, but subtle, LP maple top in a teaburst the best these days.

[Dances w/carp]

I'm a woodworker. I like to see the character of the wood, whether that character reveals itself in growth rings or grain. So, generally, I like painted guitars the least. I can appreciate a plain top if it has some nice growth rings showin'. But I also appreciate the beauty of figured wood, curl, birdseye, quilt, burl, spalted with mineral, etc. Such wood can make guitars, bows, guns, and such unique and beautiful.

 

You know what looks bad to me in a guitar? The crappy 30 second spray-on dye jobs they put on em..... how they try to 'fade in' with overspray. That's lazy, cheezy and and just plain looks bad, amatuerish, unfinished. Often, the same dye technique goes into a $300 guitar as in a $4000 guitar.... and looks like crap!

 

Color applied, blended, and faded/rubbed out by hand enhances every speck of grain in the wood, gives it depth, which makes it stand out while changes in color are so subtle you can't tell where one stops and another begins..... Spray-n-walkaway jobs? Blech.

[Metalrulez]

Nope it is not crazy at all. You like what you like. I love just about all figured maple except splatted maple. It looks like someone shit on the top of the guitar to my eyes. Oh ya and green guitars. Green is a bad luck color for a guitar at the least and most likely pure evil.:evil:

[soundcreation]

Nine times out of ten plain wins for me. especially plain tops that have some strange lines in them...not flame but the more vertical lines they can sometimes get.

 

But every now and again I'll see a flame that is subtle and classy that really connects with me. Quilts almost never.

[tiltsta]

I like plain tops and flame tops. I kind of favor a nice flame top over a plain top, but it kind of depends on the guitar it is glued to.

 

Here is my current LP, which happens to have a flame top.

 

[JoJo68]

plains for me

[rockstrongo]

I love a good plain top Les Paul......but man, I absolutely HATE quilt top guitars.

[alphamarquis]

I love plaintops.

That's all I really need

[rvschulz]

i prefer plain tops too i don't mind a good flame top though

 

damn - i LOVE that.

[Les Paul Lover]

 

I do like the sound of that!!!!!

 

[wats]

I dig me that plain maple syrup. Mmmm!

[maltomario]

i think it depends on the colors and the figuring. I have 3 LPs, 2 are translucent finishes and have subtle flaming, not too over the top. Depending on camera angle the flame dissapears or is pretty significant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LaXu]

The flametops shown here don't do much for me. I find that they're too uniform. I think some of the Faded LP Standards had really cool flame tops because they were all over the place. Don't know why those seemed to have much nicer tops than some more expensive Gibbys.

[metalheadUK]

The flametops shown here don't do much for me. I find that they're too uniform. I think some of the Faded LP Standards had really cool flame tops because they were all over the place. Don't know why those seemed to have much nicer tops than some more expensive Gibbys.

 

Yeah, the natural uneveness of my LP Standards top was part of the attraction for me, though I have since tended to prefer plainer finishes.

 

 

 

[Carbohydrates]

Depends on the specific guitar, but in general, I prefer plain over flame. I can't stand uniform flame - no offense to the (previous) owner, but this one posted in this thread is the worst to me:

 

 

But some of the wilder flame posted here is gorgeous! It also depends on the finish - flame with cherry sunburst doesn't do much for me because it's SO overdone, but flame on rootbeer, wine red, natural, amber, and others can look amazing.

 

Here be my own honeyburst plaintop:

 

 

The color is a bit off in this shot, but it shows the grain nicely:

 

[Mid Life Crisis]

Here's my Orville By Gibson 59RI LP, very plain as you can see:

 

[dcooper830]

I like both.

 

I also like both chrome and gold hardware.

 

I also like both covered and un-covered pickups.

[Carbohydrates]

I like both. I also like both chrome and gold hardware. I also like both covered and un-covered pickups.

Oh boy, I wanna list some opinions:

- Plain > flame > spalt > quilt

- Nickel > chrome > gold

- Covered > zebra > double black > double cream