OP
So, this morning, I'm up early as usual and working on our band's expansion of its musical catalogue.
I'm really kind of surprised - and in some ways - a bit disappointed with some elements surrounding this situation with my Jackson.
I truly love a Les Paul. The tone. The feel. The control layout...it just makes such perfect sense and is so familiar to me.
But, as far as being user-friendly, the Jackson is just such an easy guitar to work with. Its ergonomic, uses my regular Stratocaster strap I made in 1980 and stays almost shockingly in tune, regardless of environmental factors.
The tone isnt bad from the Jackson, to my ears, but it's so hard to beat a Les Paul, IMHO. When I play them back to back through my tube rigs, the LP's of course, just sound bigger, but the Jackson has more bite and midrange, which makes it stand out even more in the mix. That ugly Stratocaster "twang" is there, due to the 25.5" scale length, but its manageable.
The interesting part is how comfortable the thin/wide neck - with very pronounced shoulders - feels to me. For some reason I can play really fast passages much more cleanly, despite have much more string bend resistance due to the scale length, than i can on my Les Paul's.
So, i guess I'm just exploring the differences and trying to make sense out of them.
With the Jackson, I can play an entire 6 hour rehearsal and never retune it and TBTH, this factor is very appealing to me. It's nowhere near as cool looking as any of my Les Paul's, but it's certainly the most friendly guitar I've had in my stable.
Tone wise, I guess it's just a matter of appreciating it on a different level, but the added bite really does stand out in a mix. The bridge tone control works fabulously and twin, parallel 0.0.01uf box-type capacitors give me twin tone controls that are useable across the pot's entire range of motion.
I just find it so comical that after 28 years of playing a white, 'E7' Squire - that I simply tolerated because of its infallible tuning stability - I seem to have ended up with essentially the same guitar.
So, some EQ adjustments are required. The GFS double slug humbucker (13.5k) requires much more gain than the Epiphone H8BN (13.9k) pickups do, (to get a similar chug)
but even with more gain, the GFS is quiet and displays good behavior at high volume levels.
I was able to roll in a little more bass in this mix and a bit of increased presence too.
The 15 year old Tru-Coils are really versatile, balance well with the humbucker, and do not yield Wolftones, most likely due to a flat stagger of the pole magnets.
I guess my biggest question is why I didn't just go Jackson years ago???
I'm really kind of surprised - and in some ways - a bit disappointed with some elements surrounding this situation with my Jackson.
I truly love a Les Paul. The tone. The feel. The control layout...it just makes such perfect sense and is so familiar to me.
But, as far as being user-friendly, the Jackson is just such an easy guitar to work with. Its ergonomic, uses my regular Stratocaster strap I made in 1980 and stays almost shockingly in tune, regardless of environmental factors.
The tone isnt bad from the Jackson, to my ears, but it's so hard to beat a Les Paul, IMHO. When I play them back to back through my tube rigs, the LP's of course, just sound bigger, but the Jackson has more bite and midrange, which makes it stand out even more in the mix. That ugly Stratocaster "twang" is there, due to the 25.5" scale length, but its manageable.
The interesting part is how comfortable the thin/wide neck - with very pronounced shoulders - feels to me. For some reason I can play really fast passages much more cleanly, despite have much more string bend resistance due to the scale length, than i can on my Les Paul's.
So, i guess I'm just exploring the differences and trying to make sense out of them.
With the Jackson, I can play an entire 6 hour rehearsal and never retune it and TBTH, this factor is very appealing to me. It's nowhere near as cool looking as any of my Les Paul's, but it's certainly the most friendly guitar I've had in my stable.
Tone wise, I guess it's just a matter of appreciating it on a different level, but the added bite really does stand out in a mix. The bridge tone control works fabulously and twin, parallel 0.0.01uf box-type capacitors give me twin tone controls that are useable across the pot's entire range of motion.
I just find it so comical that after 28 years of playing a white, 'E7' Squire - that I simply tolerated because of its infallible tuning stability - I seem to have ended up with essentially the same guitar.
So, some EQ adjustments are required. The GFS double slug humbucker (13.5k) requires much more gain than the Epiphone H8BN (13.9k) pickups do, (to get a similar chug)
but even with more gain, the GFS is quiet and displays good behavior at high volume levels.
I was able to roll in a little more bass in this mix and a bit of increased presence too.
The 15 year old Tru-Coils are really versatile, balance well with the humbucker, and do not yield Wolftones, most likely due to a flat stagger of the pole magnets.
I guess my biggest question is why I didn't just go Jackson years ago???
We have to get you to try a Godin Progression Plus with HDR Mitch, They make excellent quality, great playability and are sold less than the competition. The competitors know who they are, you should too. 