RL> Alnico magnets are generally used on vintage style 
 RL> pickups.  Ceramic magnets are found on higher 
 RL> output pickups.  Two of the best medium-output 
 RL> pickups I've used are the Seymour Duncan 59 and ANP-
 RL> 2, both are alnico.
Well the ceramic sounds are what I want. I presently have a tele with vintage 
series pickups in it and I love it for the clean sound. I want to get a 
gibson for that fatter sound which the tele will not do. I have had 2 les 
paul standards in the past both with the alnico magnets but I am not spending 
1800+ which is the cost of a standard here in this country. 
 RL> I've tried a couple at the store.  The shape (body 
 RL> and neck) were the same as any Les Paul.  The tone 
 RL> is quite different though.  The solid mahogany 
 RL> bodies really make a difference.  I would say the 
 RL> tone is closer to a poplar or basswood bodied 
 RL> Japanese guitar like an ESP... it's simply not as 
 RL> warm as a Les Paul should be.  There's also a 
 RL> definite loss of sustain.  The ceramic pickups make 
 RL> up for the sustain loss to a degree when playing 
 RL> with distortion or compression, but they don't 
 RL> bring back the lost tone.
 Well to find out that the sound of the lite is not what a Les Paul should 
have does not make me to happy at all. What I shall do is find out the price 
of the ceramic pickups and I already know the price of the regular studio 
model and see how much that could cost. 
 RL> Nothing is going to have the same sound properties as mahogany with 
 RL> the possible exception of purple heart.  It's a 
 RL> simple matter of physics... lighter, less dense 
 RL> woods do not resonate the same way heavier, more 
 RL> dense woods do.  There's nothing that Gibson, 
 RL> Fender, ESP, Ibanez, or anyone else can do to 
 RL> change it.  They can fool you by tweaking the 
 RL> electronics by using different (or active) pickups 
 RL> or by changing tone cap and bypass cap values, but 
 RL> they can't change the way the body responds to the 
 RL> vibrating string.
 RL> The first thing I do when trying out a guitar I'm thinking of buying 
 RL> is spend about 15 minutes or so with it unplugged.  
 RL> I feel the way the body vibrates while I play, and 
 RL> I listen to the tone of sound coming from the 
Well thanks for this info. I shall take another hard look at this purchase. I 
am making a downpayment on Monday so I plan to make a final decision by then. 
--- Maximus 3.01
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