I. Some interesting remarks from Luc (Canada), who is a professional player and offers a detailed review of the Les Paul Custom model.
1) Most of it is very faithful to the classic LP construction.
The body is solid mahogany with a carved maple top. You can see it through the pickups and electronics cavities. The neck is also mahogany, visible from a few chips. As opposed to the 70s LP (the Norlin era) my Stagg is not a "sandwich body" guitar, which
consisted as stacking two pieces of mahogany + the maple top (not very appreciated by Gibson lovers).
2) The finish seems to be nitrocellulose laquer. Not too thick....the paint and finish job is well done.
3) The neck is very comfortable, maybe a bit thicker than a Gibson 60s neck. Bone nut. Rosewood fingerboard (instead of ebony). Set-neck construction, short joint tenon.
4) An interesting fact, is that the neck and the body joins differently than on a gibson (it is visible through the neck pickup cavity). My luthier told me that it's not a better or worst contruction. Just different. The tuners are fine.
5) The guitar sustains well, even unplugged.
As I played a real Gibson Les Paul Custom for a few years, and tried plenty of them, I can say that this Stagg is overall, a very good instrument, reliable and roadworthy (and a better build guitar than most of the LP of the same era). Honestly, I think I could not make the difference between this one and the real thing...
II. Other good observations come from Andrea from Rome, Italy. Note that his model is actually a black Standard model.
I own my Les Paul Custom Stagg for over 25 years and it comes from a professional guitarist. Of course I cannot find on the body the serial number or the year of production. Just the Stagg logo on headstock and “made in Japan” stamped on the plate. But the construction period is surely ante 1980.
I always considered my guitar a really remarkable piece. Solid mahogany body and neck, rosewood fingerboard with mother of pearl inlays, very good black nitro laqued with cream (getting dark for the age) pickguard and features. The neck is really confortable and fingers can slide very easy on the freats. Bridge and electronics are still good. All components are original but the former owner surely changed the pickups with a couple of fantastic diMarzio (must be the classic DP100 superdistorsion of 30 years ago). So the sound that comes out from my small tube amp is really close to the original vintage Gibson LP: warm, fat but wide, powerful and rich of tones, and with incomparable sustain. Another gift from the former owner is a self-made selector to switch the bridge pickup from humbucking to single coil but I don’t like it to much because the output level of the pickup is lower than the neck one. Some fault? Just one. The machine head maybe is not of the best quality and after decades of use the strings detune often. I have good results putting some grease on the nut and bridge but I’m sure that when I will change the keys everything will be perfect.
What else? I usually play a Fender Stratocaster 50th Anniversary but I cannot stay a week without earing the sound of my Stagg.