Epiphone Les Paul Standard vs Studio

[frankb]

I know that the studio's cosmetics are stripped down a little bit, but I was just wondering what other differences there are between the two. I'm contemplating buying either the standard or studio off of craigslist (am going to play the standard this weekend). Basically the standard is $400 (going to try to talk it down to $350) and the studio is $225. I was thinking that its probably just best to get a little better quality in the standard for the long run, but if the studio is the same in sound generally then maybe not? I know it varies even from guitar to guitar of each type, but in general. Also, what are the main differences with the custom, standard plus top, II, etc if anyone has experience with a few (basically all the different models confuse me).

[Evster2012]

The Standard has a maple top. The Studio mas a mahogany top. The maple will give a brighter tone. Also, the Standard comes with "Classic" pickups (like an original Gibson) while the Studio comes with open-coil "Hot" pickups. The classics will give you a more vintage Les Paul sound, the hots will give you a more modern metal sound. Other than that, it's mostly cosmetic.

Plain Top: A regular slab of carved maple. No real grain to be seen

Plus top: A piece of maple with highly figured "flame" patterns in the wood which can be seen through the finish

Custom: Fancier binding, gold hardware, block inlays on the fretboard instead of Standard's trapezoids.

Special II: Bolt-on neck slab of garbage. If you can get one for free, use it for firewood.

[frankb]

Ha ya I figured the II was pretty much garbage, along with things like the 100 and what not. Thanks for the description for everything else. I'm not a metal person at all, and while I do like a good looking guitar, the finish isn't all that important to me, so it looks like the standard it is. Thanks again.