[stevedenver]

well my 5 cents

i play both regularly- i love my teles

i have a nocaster clone with a very hot flatpole nocaster bridge pickup-and it can sound remarkably fat like a lp -

i think a lot has to do with what music you play and where youre playing-live playing rock, an lp certainly has a lot of punch-so does a hot tele-but not quite as much IMHO-but the tele will have more articulation -

i have several lps with aftermarket paf style pups-made by small builders-

and good caps and pots (500K) -LPs can sparkle like a tele-not the twang from the metal bridge but can be just as clean and bright-volume and tone knobs on both lp and teles can significantly color the sound-do a coil tap and or phase wiring on an lp and it can get pretty versatile-not as nice as a real single coil but close

i like lps and teles both a lot-when i play with another lp player sometimes i take my nocaster clone-for contrast in sound-

if im playing hard rock-chances are the lp is it-its the music and application-and of course what you like

a fender thorugh a fender is one great sound-tele through a marshall is fantastic too

a gibson through a fender or a marshall is another

each guitar reacts differently with each amp, and depending on how hard your pushing the amp and how much the pups are putting out

a good lp is great guitar imho-when well set up and with a good nut-just as stable tuning wise as any tele

lps are heavy-even the light historics (8 lbs or so) they get very heavy after 2-3 hours

like any guitar-tweaked properly and with good pups, caps and pots youd be surprised what a lp can do

i think you should try one and for more than a few days if you can-lps are just too expensive to rush into
-as noted they are different-the scale change doesnt affect me -and all of my teles have 9.5 radius or wider (which to me is the bigger issue)

choose carefully, get a good lp, and take the time to make some changes if you think you need to-theres a big difference between gibson's 496-500 pups and the classic 57s and the burstbuckers-if i had any advice to someone that IS going to buy one-id try to find a goldtop or plaintop historic, not over 9lbs and better at 8.5

-imho the 'low end' historics are gibsons best bang for the buck overall

all that being said-many lps will need a bit of TLC and tweaking desptie their price-nuts are often poorly cut and b and g strings stick, pots can be 500k or 300k or lower, and the orange caps used are not the greatest

you also want to check that when you gently press against the neck theres virtually no change in pitch-a stiff neck really contirbutes to the guitar's overall sound imho-may sound simplistic but ive found that if the guitar rings/resonates loudly when unplugged chances are your onto something nice-not always but often