Larry Corsa's view of the Faded standards

Top on mine was hideous, I refinished it.

Big Al said:

I was speaking to the view that these were better sounding and playing Les Pauls. I disagree, to me they sounded as good but were of lower quality. They were spectacular bargains in the day. I played every new one the HOG had. Problem was they had fat necks, they had thin necks, they were solid wood, they were chambered. The only consistent thing was the crayola crayon sunburst!

Like I said they were very, very cool for true dough, but all this nonsense about how tonally superior they were was marketing drivel to sell a product. The mods were cool and no doubt delivered the goods, would sound just as good on a same year Standard as well.

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One could argue this very point (minus the budget pricing) about a certain 3 years of Les Pauls that carry much more fame (drama?).
But I am and will always be in an armchair on that topic.

What I can share is my experiences with a Standard faded that I had a couple years ago. Tonewise? To me not much different than any other burstbucker equipped Les Paul from that "era". (I've owned a S.F., Antique Classic (with burstbuckers installed), and a Standard in that time frame)
Playability? The satin finish neck is an absolute dream to me.. That's the only reason I currently own a Trad faded. And the Standard Faded really did sustain better than my other two glossy finish LP's mentioned. I had 3 other players do a shootout with the guitars I've mentioned and the decision was unanimous, Standard Faded for the win...

Full disclosure: I sold the S.F. because I found the top to be...... a duckling of the ugly variety