LP/SG Type Guitars

FlowersForHuman · Post by **FlowersForHuman** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 12:03 am

Yeah i learned that same lesson as a 17 year old kid as well...ordered a LP special HB from musicians friend (big mistake to begin with obviously) with the money id saved forever, only to recieve a guitar with a quarter size gash out of the body that had been PAINTED OVER about 5 or 6 times. This gash was right in the top behind the bridge, like a 1/2" deep...but this actually made it onto the market?!?! It couldn't have happened in transit...it was painted over! Of course this guitar came with the little inspection tag that comes with all "handmade gibson guitars" and it passed flawlessly. Someone must have even checked off all the little boxes on the tag for fit and finish. Took 3 months to get a new guitar and the new one had an f'd up action. I also emailed gibson about it, and just like every time I've emailed them about things, never got a reply. Almost as rediculous as Snakes on a Plane.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 3:13 am

Well, mine's a mid '80s Hondo bought from a catalogue (Argos or Littlewoods) for ?120

It's not so much the manufacturer I'm here to praise as the design. There's nothing quite like being able to set the volume and tone independently for each pick up (except for having coil splitting, maybe, but that's a whole other thread). I realise there must be a sound (ha ha) reason why Fender went with the ganged pots approach on the Tele' and only introduced a second tone pot (for the middle pick up) on the Strat' but, like I said, unless you're really fast quick changes of volume AND tone are pretty much impossible on a Fender style guitar.

With my "LP" I just flick a switch

??????? · Post by **???????** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 6:11 am

FlowersForHuman wrote:Yeah i learned that same lesson as a 17 year old kid as well...ordered a LP special HB from musicians friend (big mistake to begin with obviously) with the money id saved forever, only to recieve a guitar with a quarter size gash out of the body that had been PAINTED OVER about 5 or 6 times. This gash was right in the top behind the bridge, like a 1/2" deep...but this actually made it onto the market?!?! It couldn't have happened in transit...it was painted over! Of course this guitar came with the little inspection tag that comes with all "handmade gibson guitars" and it passed flawlessly. Someone must have even checked off all the little boxes on the tag for fit and finish. Took 3 months to get a new guitar and the new one had an f'd up action. I also emailed gibson about it, and just like every time I've emailed them about things, never got a reply. Almost as rediculous as Snakes on a Plane.

amazing. It's entirely possible that someone at MF fucked up and tried to 'touch it up' hoping nobody would notice. In either case, it's totally fucking unacceptable.

What's funny is, Tokai/Gakki makes the same exact guitar at half the price that's sooooo much better. But nobody will buy it because it doesn't say Gibson!

Dubious · Post by **Dubious** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 8:20 am

The new Les Paul Studio's with the thin finish / natural look are pretty cool looking little guitars.. But at the same time im kinda skepticle of them. .the finish is kinda patchy (white spots).. of the two I looked at the fretboard of one had visible woodfiller on numerous spots..

kinda sad

additionally both of them we settup in kind of a weird way at the bridges.. both the stop tail and the bridge were way higher on the bass side and than the treble.. is this typical? seems weird to me...

personally i was never a fan of les pauls until i got a late 70's / early 80's yamaha SG off a buddy..guitar had been totally looted of parts so i got new pickups (GFS alnico PAFS) and hardware and stripped off the atrocious paint. Really dig this guitar now... super easy to play and the tone can go from seriously heavy to real clean with just a flick of the volume knob.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 8:32 am

brad347 wrote:What's funny is, Tokai/Gakki makes the same exact guitar at half the price that's sooooo much better. But nobody will buy it because it doesn't say Gibson!

Tokais are ace. Electras are good as well.

stratology · Post by **stratology** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 2:04 pm

I have an old Gibson SG ('67 or '73) - this thing has SO much character. Good guitar.

One thing that's really important (with any guitar) it to experiment with the pick-up height to find the sweet spot for the sound. This can make all the difference..

Frank

nestle · Post by **nestle** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 4:25 pm

cool thread...because I just bought a used LP standard 2004.
For years I had a bad opinion of the LesPauls. I had played a few during the early 80's and 90's and man they were outright dogs. The 81' custom I bought back then for a few hundred bucks used just sucked so badly, nothing I did with pick-ups could make it sound musical and it weighed about 25 lbs. But the latest batch of Standards have really pulled through, I have been totally won over. They have really turned the quality around after 2002, the guitar just has tone for miles. Only issue I have is the sucky Kluson tuners with smaller peg holes : ( I hate them. They are such slaves to detail now which mostly good but I just can't see this guitar without Govers. I hope I'm not making a big mistake but it's in the shop right now getting the peg holes reamed against the tech's opinion. He said that the Grovers make headstock breakage more likely, but what am I gonna do? I want grovers that bad.
Anybody else with this issue?

Also have a Epiphone Korina SG which is a sensational guitar for 300 bucks on Ebay.

and a 60' Gibson LesPaul double cut TV yellow. nice-

??????? · Post by **???????** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 5:31 pm

just keep the grovers off that 60's TV yellow one and we'll let you live

nestle · Post by **nestle** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 6:00 pm

brad347 wrote:just keep the grovers off that 60's TV yellow one and we'll let you live

Ha! thats the main reason I did it to the standard, the TV special had PAF Grovers decades ago...before I born- it's so rocknroll in that Jonny Thunders kinda way, I think it adds to the sustain, never hurt that guitar, but the tech said the mahogany is softer these days... (rainforst wood guilt

....too many guitars)

kojdogg · Post by **kojdogg** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 8:16 pm

i have a '94 hamer usa studio archtop (like a dc lp) with joe barden hb's that i got of the bay for $6-fitty. it rules. lots of cheap used hamers are around.
________
Marijuana Vaporizers

saultime · Post by **saultime** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:29 pm

Modern Les Pauls just overpriced--we're taling 2K for a Standard.

Gibson has for the most part stopped building guitars for the average musician. Their customers are mostly dentists who buy les pauls to put in their den.

The exception might be some of their more mid to low range guitars. I bought an Explorer a few months ago, and it's pretty great. I mean, you can tell it was "polished" on a machine buffer rather than by hand--but it's a solid instrument. The bridge pickup was shit though--not bad per-se, just bad for the guitar. It came stock with this stupidly hot ceramic humbucker--all mids and mud. Probably the sort of thing that would sound nice in a les paul (maple cap), but not in a big chunk of mohagany. I eventually settled on a pickup riped out of a Rick Turner (Lindsey Buckingham) guitar. Go figure.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:29 pm

early 80s Hamer's are often sweet.

awhile back i got to try an early 70s ('74?) LP Standard goldtop with cream-coil+ring DiMarzios (some combo of Dual Sound, Super Distortion or X2N, not certain) and liked it alot.

only LP i ever dreamt of having was a goldtop LP Deluxe, tho.

am i the only person here who likes mini-humbuckers?

??????? · Post by **???????** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:55 pm

RefD wrote: am i the only person here who likes mini-humbuckers?

no

lg · Post by lg » Wed Aug 23, 2006 2:42 am

nestle wrote:Also have a Epiphone Korina SG which is a sensational guitar for 300 bucks on Ebay.

i have same guitar, and really like it! two curiosities: i assume because korina is maybe less dense than mahogany, the guitar's balance is a bit headstock-wonky; wonder if you've experienced this also (and if the original korina SG's were like this). i've actually been tempted to throw some lead weights (crazy?) into the lower bout for more balance. second, opinions on a pickup upgrade?

getreel · Post by **getreel** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 5:55 am

I have one of the faded Vs and it is great. It has almost stolen favorte status from my SG at times. It only cost me $450 brand new(it's good to have friends that manage music stores). It totally rocks. I've also had a very different customer service experience with Gibson. I emailed about a 1977 S-1 and they emailed the schematics and info the next day. That's for a 29 year old model they don't make anymore and hadn't just sold to me.

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LP/SG Type Guitars

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