Strat to Les Paul Transition

I think you just have to play them often.  You'll eventually get used to it, I'm sure.  I always wanted a strat since I first started playing guitar, then after 14 years of never buying one I finally did.  I felt like I was in the same boat.  Being strictly used to Ibanez and PRS necks, I thought I made a $1,500 mistake!  I made it my everyday guitar at home and just took it to band practice every week for a month or 2 and now I love it and since bought another.  Since you already bought 2 Les Pauls, I'd say you better put them to good use and start playing them!!  After a while, if you still don't like them at least you gave them a fair chance.  -Seth

I'm a strat guy.  when I started playing I went out and bought 3 with in a year of playing, and later that same year (2001) I bought a SG Standard with a 50's rounded profile then finished off the year with another stratocaster by mistake (and its my favorite).  In 2002 (still living with mom and dad) I bought an original 68' ES-335, Eric clapton Signature model, and a Les Paul Classic.  So my first 3 years of playing I had all these lovely guitars to work with.  The 335 had a broken neck so I got it for a great price, but the neck was so skinny that year at the nut it was 1 inch wide!!!  You seriously couldn't play an A chord on that thing if you have sausage fingers like my dad, I always used my index finger and got them all in that way.  So that guitar sounded amazing but seriously didn't have want it took to make me happy.  The clapton strat has a V neck and personally I think V necks are for those Gibson guys who want to play strats but still need a thick neck to feel comfortable on the guitar They are thinner then the slim 60's but much more beefy then a Standard C like my other strats had.  The Les Paul Classic has a 60's slim profile and felt like the back of the neck was sanded flat for playing metal or something didn't feel like a 60's neck on a standard anyway.  My SG was my favorite Gibson of all time and my biggest regret that I sold.  It had the 50's rounded profile and I always thought that it was a slim 60's like my Les paul but it felt fatter.  It wasn't until later in life that I found out it had the 50's neck on them.  The best I can say about all this is I am like you  a Stratocaster guy.  Standard C works great for me, but I liked fat tones too and out of all this I would say I like the 50's neck better.  My advice is play long and switch often because I agree that in les Paul land your might have the thinnest they got.  The Classic's might be thinner but I don't think you'll be happy with them, You have 2 Les Paul Customs and those guitar are top of their class in my opinion.  Remember setup is everything to a Gibson with a Fender your setup can be a little tough to play and still feel good enough to play, but with a gibson they need to be setup acordingly for the best experience you can get from them.  Good luck and enjoy those Customs!

The problem with les pauls and strats isn't neck thickness...there are some fat neck strats out there and some thin neck les pauls. But! The fretboard on a les paul gets wider nearer the upper register. The distance from the low E to high E gets greater the closer to the body. On a les paul it is far more exaggerated than on a strat and it is horrible if you're not used to it. For me it really is a struggle at times as I've fairly small hands and I cannot use my thumb for the low E anything about the 7th fret. And even around there it's tough.

I'm afraid you will just have to persevere. You may get there, you may not. Here's hoping you do learn to love them.

This is a funny situation that you bring up because I had my les paul and a 335 in the shop for 50s wiring, pio caps, cts pots, and pups.  I had to play my brothers strat for 3 weeks gigging.  I hated it at first and now 2 months later I really like it.  I will always be a gibby man but that american made strat ain't bad.  If you like those guitars you have I would consider getting a luthier to sand down the necks to match the one you have.  A good luthier can match whatever neck you want to a T.  It should only cost you $200 a neck tops.  This will be well worth it!  I can keep my eyes and ears open for someone who can do the work.  Your local lumbershop should have a good idea.  If your neck feels right then you will never hold back when you play.  If you always desire a different neck then that will come through in your playing.  I hope that helps.  Let me know how it goes.

Wow! You play 2-hours a day....I'm jealous, lucky if I get 15-30 minutes a day of noodling :-(

Some people are Strat or Gibson playaz, not that they can't play both, but generally each player falls on one side of the fence.  I started on a beautiful 1979 Sunburst Custom Les Paul about 15-20 years ago and one day about 3-4 years ago I was listening to SRV on the way down to the guitar store and thought, I should get a Strat....so I did and when I first starting playing it, it fought back at me, but after time I started to win more battles with it and now own a dozen of them.

Too each their own, but each player will find one style guitar their bread and butter via feel and tone...your identity.  I found playing a Strat also to be more vocal of an instrument or could make more sounds come out of it than a LP, which to me played far much easier to the point of sloppiness.....just my experience and thoughts.

I played strats and teles for 20 years before getting my first LP (a 2008 Traditional).  I tried dozens of LPs before picking that one, and the neck felt wonderful even though it's fairly chunky and wasn't what I thought I wanted.  It did take me months to really get completely comfortable with it, but now every time I pick up the guitar I like it more.  The feel to me is the most important thing about a guitar.  If it doesn't feel right, forget about it.  It could be that the neck on your LP just isn't right for your hands - I tried a bunch of really expensive guitars that I just didn't care for because the neck wasn't right for me (shape, nut width, freboard radius).  Or it could be the setup.  Nothing ruins the feel of a guitar more than a bad setup imho.  What I'm saying is, there's a lot of variety out there - doesn't matter if it's a strat, LP, Suhr... there are models that will probably feel great to you, and models that won't.  You might want to shop around more and try a lot of options to find what you like.  Isn't guitar shopping one of life's great pleasures anyways?

What I found about the LP is that it's like playing a piano - the neck doesn't move much under your hands.  My strats and teles move with my body more as I play.  I'm not saying either one is better, but they lead me to play a little different on each guitar.  Not sure if that helps, but it might be something to consider.