Guitar Design Reviews

New guitar and headstock designs, reviews of guitars, guitar designs and more.

Stratocaster and Les Paul combined – Stratpaul or Lesocaster?

The Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul electric guitar models are the all conquering and enduring Goliaths of the guitar industry. Both designs have their origins in the 1950s, the jet age. Both designs still appeal to aesthetic tastes today and are incredibly popular. They must have got something right! However they come to electric guitar design from different philosophies, the Fender with it’s unprecedented body shape and bolt together construction and the Gibson with the more traditional construction and materials which make them, in general, more expensive.

The Lesocaster mock-up, probably my favourite of the two illegitimate children
The Lesocaster mock-up, probably my favourite of the two illegitimate children

The best guitar you can’t buy

If a company were to blend the best of the [amazon_link id=”B001L8MBW0″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Stratocaster[/amazon_link] and [amazon_link id=”B000PFLKAY” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Les Paul[/amazon_link] into one guitar many would consider that to be the ultimate in electric guitar design. However it can’t really be done officially as the two guitar makers are not, any time soon, going to get into bed together. You also won’t be buying Pepsi Coca Cola any time soon but likewise you can make it for yourself. Just put two cans in a big cup, or if you’re less ambitious two half cans in a regular cup. This also works for the guitar, sort of… You can make the guitar for yourself! You can also write Lesocater (or Stratpaul) on it. Just don’t try to sell it, nothing good will come of that.

The formula for making a Lesocaster (and Stratpaul)
The magic formula for making a Lesocaster (and Stratpaul)

Above you can see the result of my musings and mixing of Pepsi/Coca Cola one day. The outline drawings have 3 degree slants but the illustrations have 5 degree slants, so they look a little bit different. I think perhaps 4 degrees is Goldilocks

A hybrid Stratocaster and Les Paul design and encapsulating some of the sound properties of those classics would really be a great feat. In actuality I have messed around with a few strats and tried to get more Les Paul style sounds with various humbuckers but it’s never really got there. The worst sounding attempt was using the Seymour Duncan Little 59. I’m pretty happy with [amazon_link id=”B001R2PRKI” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]HSS Stratocasters[/amazon_link] of various types and flavours, they are so flexible, I love the neck single coil and bridge humbucker config. So this hybrid has adopted that scheme.

The Stratpaul, not photorealistic but gices you an idea of the look
The Stratpaul, not photorealistic but gives you an idea of the look, picture it with a flame top?

I don’t know if many people are in the same position as me; I don’t have much room for guitars on my wall, just 3 and a bass. I like to have variety on the wall but I also like to have as many sounds as possible in one guitar so I think a Hybrid electric guitar is a winner. I’d also really like to have a piezo bridge pickup on it for a passable electric acoustic sound, why not?

[amazon_my_favorites design=”2″ width=”610″ title=”Time for new strings?” market_place=”” ASIN=”B0000WS7YO, B0002E1O3G, B0009G0ENS” color_theme=”Default” columns=”3″ rows=”1″ outer_background_color=”#333333″ inner_background_color=”” background_color=”” border_color=”” header_text_color=”#FFFFFF” linked_text_color=”” body_text_color=”” shuffle_products=”False” show_image=”True” show_price=”True” show_rating=”True” rounded_corners=”False”/]

Anyway I hope some people like the shapes of these guitars and perhaps even make one of them. If you want, get in touch and I can send you the outlines as a scalable vector EPS or PDF. Combine it with one of the original headstock designs I’ve made previously here, or here and I think you could have a cracking guitar in your hands after a bit of work. The Lesocaster and the Lazy Book headstock would be extremely cool I think. Please anyone, except for Michael, leave any comments or questions below.

12 thoughts on “Stratocaster and Les Paul combined – Stratpaul or Lesocaster?

  1. I would love to see an LP/ST with the Red&White Canadian flag on the LP top, and the Red/White&Blue of The United States of America on the ST side. The North American.

  2. There have been many attempts to cross pollinate the two guitars. The most notable being a Paul Reed Smith..They now have single cuts and non trem bridges, so they are moving to Gibson territory.
    I have a Samick guitar that I refer to as a Les G. It is a Torino. It has a symetrical double cutaway, but is arch topped and has binding and matching pickup rings. It encompases both the SG and Les Paul in it’s design elements. Even Fender has been been entering Gibson territory with some of the Pawn shop guitars they issued.

    1. Hi Larry, Even more Gibson style than the Fender Pawnshop series, I think, are the Blacktop and Big Block Fenders. They take some of the Gibson styling cues and merge them into the Fender guitar range. The Lesocaster and Stratpaul above are kind of mathematically derived from the two classic shapes. When I finished the outlines and looked at the shapes I thought they were pretty good hybrids and was surprised I hadn’t seen these shapes or similar used by a third minor manufacturer, like Peavey or your own Samick, for example. I think a company could make a guitar with the above shapes without annoying Gibson or Fender as long as there’s no mention that it is half of each?!

  3. I get it .Take two things that are good and put them togather to make one really awesome creation,the the “Tuna salad chocolate sunday”comin to a choke and puke near you!!!

  4. The thing about these designs is that… well… they remind me of some guitars that are actively manufactured by Reverend. Not that the idea is bad!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.