Is PRS (FINALLY) Better than Gibson?

So what do you prefer PRS or Gibson?

I’ve got both a PRS SE Custom 24 Quilt and Les Paul Studio and the PRS is far, far, superior in every way IMO, and was about $700 less.

I love my LP but i hate the fact that it is out of tune every time I pick it up.

I think i just don't love the pickups in my PRS 24-08. It's still a great guitar but having picked up a Les Paul Custom recently it's getting me more of the sounds that make me want to pick it up and play. I'd like to try out some other models like the Tremonti, Dustie Waring, or just look at a good pickup swap

So many guitarists remind me of Harley Davidson fanboys, they are stuck in the past and refuse anything new. PRS pushes the envelope while incorporating what’s good from the past.

Imho, nothing can beat a Gibson, but I love PRS and I’m eager to try them all. Both have their place but Gibson is an historical icon which still rocks to this day. I’d give PRS another 15/20 years until it’s considered in the same vein

Rob what pickups does that gibson have in it ?
PRS DGT pickups are actual on the lower outoput side at 7.9 neck 8.7 bridge

PRS fret work is exceedingly better
PRS nuts are superior cut=
PRS fit and finish night and day better.. What I expect from $2000 plus thousand dollar guitars

I sold every gibson I owned except one, once I discovered PRS.. And will never go back

A better guitar in many ways but will never be as iconic as a les Paul, never

I agree and it sounds like Les Paul is more musical.

Gibson is the cooler older brother who’s street smart while the prs is the prissy younger brother with a masters degree.

Been playing both for 30 years and PRS had a pretty significant quality advantage until the early 2000's Gibson Historic's really took off and the last several years of LP standards are top notch. But I play them for different reasons. The PRS 24's are sort of like an RG Ibanez or performance guitar but in a beautifully finished suit. Versatile pickup switching, effortless playability, hot rock tones, 24 frets, a trem that stays in tune. . A true performance guitar as good or better as any super strat but so much more.

When you played the Les Paul I shouted out loud - that's it!

Had a 2016 Gibson LP Standard. It's a solid guitar, but my band plays a variety of songs from slow jazz to punk rock to heavy rock to pop music to country, etc. Got real old real fast having about 5 different guitars up there because of being a tone-chaser. Decided to focus on 2 guitars to cover the wide range.

After woodshedding it for a couple months, I found what works for me is a 1994 PRS Custom 24 for about 80% of all the songs, and my Telecaster with Texas Special pickups (made the Tele from a kit!) for the remaining 20% of songs that just need that extra treble to sound right. Fiddling around with stomp pedal effects, my PRS sounds close enough to an LP or a Strat that the casual listener won't really notice or care.

Gibson makes some kick@ss quality LPs, but it is a bit limited. Fender makes some kick@ss Stratocasters, but it is a bit limited. PRS is more like a Swiss Army Knife compared to those two, but the tradeoff is that it sometimes feels like it's a Jack of All Trades, but a Master of None. Still, it is far preferable to being a Master of only One.

This might be the first video I've seen of a Les Paul that made me want to get another one (I haven't owned one since the 80's). Great video!

Personally as someone who prefers Gibson anyway I think PRS probably has been better for some while on the whole, definitely quality control wise. I couldn't care less about comfort, guitars are performative things, not crocs. If a guitar is better but less comfortable for you, you play it. I don't want comfortable musicians, I want inspired musicians. They are not stay at home dads, they are performance artists. You make the sacrifice of comfort for the art; at least you do it you are dedicated. Think about all the uncomfortable s*t female performers have to wear for the sake of the performance. Think about the shoes ballerinas have to wear and what it does to their feet. F** comfort, its for p*****s. You're not laying pipes in the desert, you're playing music, it can't be THAT uncomfortable princess. Sorry, I don't know where that rant came from. Anyway I like Gibson more because I just don't see anything interesting about PRS, they're like the crocs of the guitar world. Functionally perfect and everything you need but just... bland. Middle of the road. Nowhere. Even THOUGH they look beautiful. Somehow it just doesn't matter. I know if I played one it would feel amazing but I don't want to. You can fix all the crappy things about a Les Paul. Yes it will cost more money, on top of what is already too much. But it's excalibur, the holy grail. You don't care. Cost is not an issue. It's a passion project and a labour of love. You spend your last dollar on it. There's no madness in a PRS, it's all logic and design and too-perfect-ion. Rant over.

I dont think there was ever a time when PRS wasn't better than Gibson.

Youre comparing a hardtail model to a stop tail.

If PRS would’ve started out when Fender and Gibson started out then Jimi, Jimmy, Jeff, Eric would’ve played one too. 😊

Im sick of comparing these two guitars . Always prs had the edge but ending up choosing the Gibson why because it the history you're buying, many musicians recorded their song using LP. But head to head guitar wise? prs wins all day all year!!!!

What pickups are in that Les Paul? I’m looking to replace the stock pups with some uncovered cream ones like those. Right now I’m leaning towards a Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge and a Dimarzio 36th Anniversary 59 PAF in the neck.

Les Paul for the win ! : )

The LP all day 🙌🏾

Wow PRS sounded better to me.

I like Gibson tone

PRS I feel will always be better than Gibson, given the history of the instruments and that PRS never went and made there products cheaply made , Gibson have

Lol they’ve always been better. Drop Gibson pickups in a PRS….enough said. If you want the Gibson tone you can get more of it with a prs. I love the Gibson himbuckers but I’ve only played one les Paul I haven’t hated. It sounds great but playability, comfort and fun are huge factors if not the most important for me. Tone comes as a close second. But you can really get any tone you want with proper, good amp settings.

PRS has been better since Paul's first proper guitar. Now, I think it's unfair on PRS to compare, like comparing a Lada and a Rolls Royce to be completely honest.

“Always has been” shoots astronaut in back

PRS has never had the character and snarl of the Les Paul and the Tele, they play great but every time I’ve had one they end up hanging on the wall, well built, but too generic sounding for me

That's really what it comes down to, the guitar needs to just feel right, and that is an individual thing. I have an 80's Vantage Les Paul copy that I paid $200 for new. Definitely not a top end guitar, but it feels and plays awesome to me. I put a Carvin Allen Holdsworth pickup in it that probably cost me almost the same as the guitar. That guitar responds perfectly to my touch. It's awesome to find an instrument that has "that sound and feel" that makes your brain smile.

Paul Reed Smith has in depth knowledge of guitars that gives me a confidence with purchasing their guitars. He had a relationship with Ted McCarty who used to be at Gibson. Paul knows how the frets used to be put on the Gibson's, what type of glue they used, what all the specs are. He knows how the pickups were wound, what type of wire, all the little details about making a Gibson that Ted shared with him. He used this knowledge to make a better guitar. When making the Silver Sky, he x-rayed the John Mayer Fender pickups and studied them. He has a piece of equipment with software that tells him all the details about a pickup that you need to know. He knows the 21 rules for tone. He said there are about 2 or 3 where most people are dead wrong. He knows all the little secrets of making a good guitar great. You feel his passion about guitars every time he speaks. A guitar that sustains 45 seconds is better than one that sustains 25 seconds. With all of his hard work, he and his team earned to be where the company is today. Leo Fender did not stay with Fender as long, and we all know about the CBS Fender guitars and what many thought about them. Paul and his team focus on making sure a guitar that was made on a Monday morning and one made on a Friday afternoon are as close to each other as they can. For that window of changes between guitars to be as small as they can. This does not mean every guitar is perfect, as when people are involved, sometimes things happen. But with PRS, they happen less often. They also have weekly meetings that include a discussion on what can we do better? Having this knowledge about the team at PRS, gives me the confidence of the little things you don't see behind the paint job, and that construction, parts, and what you don't see inside the guitar they have taken the greatest care to make. This makes me want to own PRS guitars and when owning them proud to play them. The other guitars I have sit in their case more as the PRS 594 and Silver Sky I own generally meet the needs of a session or live gig.

The Les Paul tone has character compared to the generic PRS tone. Granted, the PRS doesn`t sound bad, it just doesn`t have that standout catch you ear tone like the Les Paul. The Les Paul is in completely different class than the PRS. PRS will never be able to duplicate the sound of a good Les Paul. Nor will it be able to (Silver Sky) overthrow a good Fender Stratocaster. Gibson and Fender, well, enough said.

PRS jack of all trades master of none !

Id say you prefer the sound of THAT les paul.

Its dangerous just making a generalization like that. Going through a bunch of guitars from all camps... yes there are some baseline characteristics that pickups share w their camps.

But dude.. ive played prs that were duds in sound and others that spoke to me completely.

Gibson even more so the variance is 3 fold it seems. It can be boarderline garbage to this is awesome.

Pickup a guitar play it through your rig and decide for yourself.

Going by brandname and reputation wont help you tone wise.

Build quality sure. Sound only to a certain extent.

I want to love PRS. Every single one I've tried over the years just sounded meh. My Les Pauls? Perfect.

Um, didn't you say the Les Paul was unbalanced and would fall then in the very next bit you had the Les Paul balanced on your leg or am I seeing things?

I can choose a 2002 Santana 2 or a 78 LP Custom: don't know what to do...so tough.

meme always has been

Feel and vibe aka its just looks better.

I watched this ,knowing it was an advertisement for both PRS and Gibson, while playing my G&L bluesboy

Over the years I have come to learn that the 24 3/4 inch scale length is KING!

Gibson all day!!!!

Easy fix. Put the Gibson pickup in a prs. 1000000x better than any Gibson

No...

I don't know, my PRS Tremonti played in D standard is just heavenly.

Les Paul all day

PRS right from the get go cared about his customers and still does. Paul Reed Smith is still really studying how his products are made right down to the bridge and pickups. That makes a huge difference as well as quality control verging on OCD.

The one thing Gibson has is a sharper edge on the body. I love the feel of my PRS against my body, but, as with Tele’s and Strats the squarer corners on the solid body guitars give , I believe, a slightly sharper edge to the tone. Maybe this is what we are all hearing? Look at Strats and Tele’s, even without the ashtray bridge my humbucker (Fender) tele thinline (72) has a more defined quack than the in-between positions on my 57 reissue strat. I don’t know if it actually makes a difference but it seems to to my ear.