Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

George,

Gibsons are about double in price compared to Strats. I just picked up another one. I personally play a Classic 1960 Reissue, they have very hot pickups, I can roll off the volume for rythym and then crank it up for leads. When I plug my Strat into the same amp its a lot thinner sounding and I have to turn the gain up to get the same kind of distortion sound.

A great site to go to is mylespaul.com

Its a little overwhelming at first to wade thru all the different models.

I like the 1960 neck, it is slimmer than some of the others and I like the t-498 and t-500 pickups. This is my personal preference. Some guys I knoe dont like these pickups but I love them.

I think I told you before the best thing to do is play one acoustically. I like to play big open chords and see how the guitar sustains. If it sounds good acoustically it will sound good amplified. You still need to plug it in and make sure everything works.

A nice Les Paul will cost between $1000-2000 dollars and they are a good deal heavier than a strat. Time to be real nice to the wife again.

Another thought George is what is your other guitar player playing. I think its cool when you have a Strat (single coil) player and a Les Paul (humbucker) player, both have their own sound tonally so they dont take up the same space in the mix. When I record I will double the 2 guitars together to make the guitar sound bigger. If you happen to go to my player a lot of my original songs have both a Strat and Les Paul on rythym doubled and also the leads are doubled. So you may want to consider what your other guy is playing. Lately for pickup gigs I just take the opposite guitar of whoever Im playing with, with me so they compliment each other.

Ok, the research and the wife buttering begins anew. Ray has a Dean Warlock I think. Other than that I know little about it. More research to do.
Ray really has not got into the "stuff" mode like I have. But a sweet Paul would be cool. May the Strat gods forgive me. Some of the guitars I've been looking at run $1500 or so anyway. But being as Ive been working two full time jobs for a while now. What the hell.
Thanks for the info. Great starting point on the road to knowledge.

Played several guitars at the music store. A Gibson Les Paul Goddess caught my ear and my hand. The young manat the shop got it all set up for me lowered the action intonation strap locks and all. Going to pick her up tomorrow. Played against several other Gibson and Eppiphone guitars.
Oh yes, come to papa.

Thanks John. Always did like the sound of a Les Paul, But I've always considered it more of a lead players tool vs a rythem players tool.
Is this a dumb thought? Strats are easy to find. Les Paul, I dont feel like I know enough to go shop for one without getting ripped off.
Any advice?

I know you aren't asking for my advice: but you know I'll give it anyway... just like always...
I'd say it's much easier to get ripped off on a strat. I've witnessed tons of ppul trying to pass off a fake based on the neck being easily separated from the body. I've seen real necks w fake bodies ( the issue with this is simply that the gtr won't be worth as much as a 100% real strat ), and I've seen fake necks with fake bodies (I've seen ppul selling thos fender headstock insignia at gtr shows).

Les pauls have a 'set neck' and this just means the neck and the body are inseparable for the most part. They also tend to have inlays on their headstocks (I think even the studios do, don't they?). This would be a way more impractical guitar to 'fake'.
That said: I think either gtr could work for just about anything (many guitarist use either for rythm and/or lead, if anything i'd be inclined to think a strat would be a better candidate for lead based on the extra deep cutaway).

If you find a strat is too weak - you can easily buy a new pickgaurd and throw some humbuckers in their, getting you closer to that paul sound. If you find a paul is too heavy - you can always throw a tap on the humbuckers and get closer to that single coil sound.
The pauls are certainly more expensive... but they hold value well, and perhaps even better than a strat.
just some food for thought.
cheers
mv

Thanks Mike: I was addressing John, but anytime I ask advice, I want and expect people of knowlege on the subject to pipe up
It is a public forum. And I have a respect for the people here who willingly share their experience.

Looking through all of this - if sustain is the main issue, get one of those compression/sustain pedals, maybe? (They're cheaper than a Les Paul)Lots of guys I've played with use them, & I tried 'em, too. They're great, & don't affect the original sound of my strat, which I prefer. If I ever get in another position where I'm playing a lot of guitar, I'll want one.

Good luck with your new Gibson, sans. Hope you like it muchly.

For what I paid for it I'll have to, or my ol lady I'll kick my ass.
I finally got it home last night about 2200hrs. Ended up having to deal with an alzheimers pt whom attempted to take a knife off of the table to my staff. Hard to Kung fu someone you dont want to hurt because they really are not responsable for their actions. But all went well.
I am really inpressed with the playability of the Goddess. Will need to eq my amp different than I had it set up for my Strat. If I werent so stupid I would post a picture. She's what they call Ice burst. White with an aged ivory type yellow color around the outside. Kinda plain looking when I first saw her. But the more I am around her the more I like it.

Hey brothers it's been a while! I read through this thread and had to share some info with you dudes. I've recently purchased a very limited run Fender Strat made in Mexico. That was after I played a $2,500.00 US made one that was hanging right next to it and I actually liked the Mex version better and it cost a whole heck of a lot less. When I was younger I always said that I'd never buy a Fender and never use a Marshall amp...I guess the older you get, the more you appreciate good tone and learn where it comes from other than your hands. This model has one humbucker only and one volume knob (exactly what I like in an axe) and an original Fender trem, then I replaced the stock pickup with a Seymour Duncan Distortion and WOW!...This is the MEANEST metal axe that I've ever owned and it plays like butter. I had to turn down the gain on the rhythm and lead channels because it was CRAZY! My Jackson and Caparison can't even hold a candle to this bad boy and they cost waaaaaay more cheese than the strat. I played some Les Pauls while I was there as well, but they're just not my style yet, but they do sound really awesome! In essence this new Strat with a passive humbucker has better tone and playability than my expensive Jackson Soloist with active EMG's in it. Lesson learned...My new Strat + Marshall JVM410H half-stack = look the fu#k out when you're in the PIT!!!!!!!!!

Way cool shred (why the hell do I talk like my kids?) anyways post up a picture I'd love to see her as well as hear her talk.

My favorite pups are; Dimarzio, Evolutions, X2N, The Chopper, Fast Track2, The Breed, YJM and HS-2, S.Duncan; Hot Rails, Dimebucker,Invader, SH-6 and G.Lynch Sceam'in Demon, Bill Lawrence ; L-250, L-500XL and L-500, Rio Grande; Dirty Harry's, Fender Custom Shop, Texas Specials, 69's and Noiseless series pick ups.

so... basically anything on the market then? me too.

Hahaha.. Yea, I've tried out my fair share of pickups. I've found Gibsons to be my least favorite for what they cost.

Dimarzio Super Distortions and Seymour Duncan Blues Saraceno Trembuckers are my 2 favorite humbuckers.

Duncan Cool Rails for the bridge of a Strat are pretty cool too. Lace silver middles.

I never use neck pickups anymore, so I usually just pop anything stock in there.

Well, I hope you like the new axe, sounds like a nice one.

couple of random comments...

If you like a Bad Company type sound a Les Paul will get you there quicker,

Saw Bad Company in the mid 70's, Mick Ralphs played a strat through a Marshall stack all night, swapped for a different one for the encore, never a LP in sight, although I know he did use those too. Ditto for Robin Trower, all Strats.

I think I told you before the best thing to do is play one acoustically. I like to play big open chords and see how the guitar sustains. If it sounds good acoustically it will sound good amplified.

Best advice around, I always try guitars unplugged first, if I don't like the unplugged sound I put it back on the rack. If I like it then I plug it in. Even with dead strings it should sound decent unplugged, or I can make it sound decent anyway, and especially if it does it will sound good with new strings and amped. That was the situation when I tried out my Cort CL 1500, strings were well rusted but I could still hear a nice sounding guitar, although sustain was lacking and intonation was out of the question. New strings, a little work to get it set up to suit me, now it sounds great, clean or fuzzy. (love them fuzzy guitars...blame Billy Gibbons for that...)

Les Pauls are excellent for rhythm as well as lead, I've used both (usually LP copies though) and usually lean more toward strats since I just like the single coil sound (think Gilmour) and Pauls are usually a lot heavier. 4 hours and you are quite well aware that you've had a LP on your shoulder...Plus most Gibsons have necks that are way too fat for me, the only one I've ever picked up that was really comfortable to my hand was a 61 goldtop that the guy refused to sell, and he could barely play 4 chords while I was playing in a band at the time and really wanted a second guitar...anyway a LP can do an excellent job of rhythm, and getting a clean sound out of it, at least for me, is just a matter of how I set the amp. My Super Reverb is el rauncho deluxe no matter what guitar I plug in and the MX is squeaky clean. Right now the MX is parked until I can afford new tubes, an "amp tech" here swapped my good ones for 3 old, weak Fender tubes and a chinese 6L6GCR I've never seen and suspect to be weak as well. Since I didn't realize it for a long time, never had a reason to open it up for a while, I can't take it back now and demand my original tubes back. But onstage it just sounds weak and wimpy. With any guitar...

By the way I play strictly volume pedal, I never touch the knobs on the guitar. Turn everything up to 10 and let the pedal control the volume, the A/B switch for which amp I want. I can't get the Super to clean up enough for me and if I want effects I usually go to the MX with a really clean sound, works better for pedals. The exception is the delay, which is on 95% of the time, set for one echo and pretty light to mostly replace reverb, and the reverb is set pretty low.

Enjoy the new LP and get some pics up here. I'm sure soem of us can help you figure it out again...

I use both active and passive pick-ups. It depends on the guitar.
I've used EMG's since the 80's and not all of them are hi-gain/hi-output pickups. I also have found the "active pickups lose the tone/sound of the wood/guitar body" to be false. I can take the same EMG (and have) and put it in different guitars and the tone is very different. Each guitar's tonal character was distinct. One thing I like about active pick-ups is that all 6 strings are the same volume across the pickup surface and the low end is tight, great for metal picking. I also like the better noise/feedback control I get from EMGs. (Epoxy potted over Wax potted) Then, I also like passive pickups. I like the Gibson Tony Iommi as well as the Duncan Iommi signature. (You have to get that as a custom winding from Duncan or scavange one from a Kevin Bond sig Jackson). I've started exclusivly playing some custom guitars that have a LACE Drop & Gain (passive) which I'm slowy falling for totally. It's clarity with "C" tuning and heavy gauge strings is very impressive.
My opinion is always to stop listening to hype and listen to the pickups yourself. Every Guitar Center has guitars to demo with both active and passive pickups. (Plus most pick-up websites will have sound clips of their pickups) Go and play/listen to what sounds good for you and your style of playing. It's your sound - explore it. I never add or change anything in my guitar/rig without hearing it myself first. Whatever you get - always enjoy!