Look you assholes. Fuck Les Pauls. Fuck Strats. When I bought my Gretsch 6120 I never played my Strat again. A Strat is just a piece of wood, with some holes carved out of it, and some guts put in it. A Gretsch is a nice, well made, quality, beautiful instrument. If all you bastards got on a stage with me and we all took turns jamming in front of a crowd, the only guitar people would fucking remember is that nice, big, orange Gretsch 6120 with the gold hardware and big-ass Bigsby tremelo arm.

Les Paul or Stratocaster? Posing such a question is to suggest there is nothing else available in the market place or otherwise. The industry at one point did have a limited choice of guitar makers, and this restricted the consumers options of what could be purchased.
Although, todays market is flooded with all types of makes & models, and if that doesn't suit you, you can have a guitar custom built, or do it yourself. My personal take is from an artistic perspective, I see guitars like unto tools that I paint with: each one has its own tone and color suitable for a particular application.

So, in my opinion its not the Paul or the Strat from which we choose, but rather, it is from all of the above. The best is what best suits you.

I'll stick to my Vox Mark III and Rickenbacker guitars thank you very much. I've owned and played many Gibson and Fenders and you can keep em' matey!

Actually I would love a Gretsch also but budget constraints are such...

Strats... Huh!! Strats are for losers. Their firewood! Cookie cutter design. Over rated. Junk bolt on necks. Plus they look just plain ugly. Reminds me of a 59 VW. I wouldn't give you 2 cents of Mexican money for anything Fender.
Ricks and Gretsches Rule.

I hate LP's and Strats!

How could that jerk dissmiss my dear Gretsch. He never heard me play it! And I get the most awesome tone out of it!

If someone dare say everything else is junk he is not a guitar lover and has no love for music!

Rickenbackers brittle?

Ricks hold up as well as any other guitar on the market. The tone they make sets them apart, not just the look.

I guess the beatles played rics because they were stupid?

Strats and LP's are great guitars, but different guitars do different things. Good msuicians use the tool that is right for the job.

Of course if you want to sound like everyone else, limit yourself to a strat or a LP

LP's and strats...yes at one time i think only those 2 existed when Strats were made hardcore now thier made shittier than ever and even more so expensive. this guy whoever he is that wrote this is possibly a bigger moron than the guys who continue to make shit strats. dont forget that when u walk into guitar center the PRS guitars are always wiped clean after use...just think about that, and remember the PRS custom 24's those guitars sit on top of LP's and strats. there is also gresche and jacksons and peavy and epiphone and BC rich and the famous Wolfgang by only deamed the BEST guitarist in the world. and as a finaly note its not the guitar its the player....i still LOVE my Squire strat and can probably outplay most guitarists on it. even if they do use American Strats. if ur good ur good and if the sound fits u then Amen. next time keep an open mind and remember LP's and strats arent the only axes u can use to slit heads.

Although Les Paul and Leo Fender invented fine instruments, there is other companies and other technologies whihc one can note. Sticking to Fenders and Gibsons is like buying only Fords or GMs. There are many notable half breed guitars like Ibanez. (half breeds employ both Fender and Gibson ideas).
For a plyer who wants just one stage guitar. THAT' S me! And who plays from jazz to metal to rockabilly to swing to country to southern rock, AND who wants a whammy bar on some stuff then who uses a Roland synth attachment I went with Ibanez and (close but not perfect) got close to both types of sounds IM STILL WORKING at it ..... but you variety players keep trying we can over come the duocity of bi polar Fender and Gibson world with attempts made at inviting new combinations of pick ups and tones ... both my Ibanez use Duncan pick ups and I CAN get Fat and Quack carry on soldiers ....

Sure, I'd like to own a big 'ol Gretsch hollow-body, but I like a guitar I can buy cheap, and do almost endless mods to. So, I choose the Stratocaster, but I seldom have a use for the version that Leo created. So I mod them to sound like semi-hollow-body guitars, by using a "swimming pool" rout, with a wood pickguard on top. I bet if I stuck a Filtertron pickup in my Strat, and did some recording with it, I could tell you I was using a Gretsch, and you'd believe it.
I can take my Strat apart and put it in a suitcase, which is another big plus.