Tonight, after checking out a custom shop gold top at the home of a colleague, I opted to drop by my local Guitar Sinner to pick up some strings.
It was kinda busy, so I thought I would kill some time and play through a few amps. I grabbed a 2018 Gibson Faded Bourbon Les Paul and started playing through a Boogie Combo of some kind with a bunch of little micro switches on it.
I really couldn't get a "decent" tone out of it, other than clean, so I plugged into a Marshall MG30DFX and Wow, Wow, Wubzy, did that little amp sing!!!
So, I'm jamming out Eagles, Black Label Society, Lynch Mob, Scorpions, and a few dudes come up and ask if I give lessons, so I handed out some cards and answered some questions.
Then, one of the guys that I know who works there told me, "Hey, Man, we got a Les Paul with a neck so fat that nobody wants it..."
I answered, "Don't threaten me with a good time!!!"
We laugh, fist bump and start catching up on music stories.
He then tells me that they special ordered a 2021 Les Paul Standard 50's Gold Top for a fellow employee. The story was that when he picked it up out of the case he was disappointed with the heft of the guitar and neck thickness.
They had the guitar in the back as it was slated to be returned.
We went in the backroom and he pulled this brown 'Gibson' logo case off a shelf. It was unusual looking, in that it had huge, squared-off brass hasps with almost a matte or sandblasted finish.
Inside, the guitar was in a sheer, white cloth "cocoon" that you could see through.
I pulled the guitar out and I mean there wasn't so much as a smudge or fingerprint on it front or back.
I've painted guitars. I've painted automobiles...but the finish on this was simply amazing...flawless...and such a high level of polish.
When I put my hand around the neck, it was one of the biggest necks I've ever felt on a Gibson.
Out came the calipers!!!!
The neck measured 1.695" / 43.05mm wide at the nut, which is only. 060" narrower than my mammoth 1.750" Stratocaster neck!!!!
At the heel, the neck measures 2.26" / 57.4mm wide and its a solid .951" all the way from the nut to the heel.
Headstock is traditional 17° tilt.
After checking out the guitar on the Gibson website, I started looking really closely at the details.
www.gibson.com
Neck angle is good as the bridge and tailpiece are nearly decked. No humps in the fretboard, or the all-too-common "swollen binding" at the fret ends that you feel if you run your fingers down the binding.
So far, so good....
I confirmed that it indeed had an aluminum ABR-1 and a aluminum tailpiece. This is SOP on ALL my personal Les Paul's. (Neither is magnetic and spec sheet calls the tailpiece aluminum.)
Next, I noticed the vintage tuners with keystones, which are again my personal preference.
Gold top hat knobs with pointers???Another one of my SOP's.
Weight...a whopping 10lbs 6 ounces!!! Not my favorite feature, but I'm open minded.
Let's move on....
Then I notice the frets...super thin, like vintage Fenders!!! I've never seen tiny frets like this - except on Randy Rhoads Les Paul Custom - which he had installed by Karl Sandoval. I saw this feature on Randy's LPC personally when I saw the guitar during a visit with his mother in March of 2002.
The fret finish and nibs are impeccable and the spec sheet states that this guitar was indeed plek'd. Far better fretwork than any of my (5) lower end Gibson's had.
The guitar is hand wired as opposed to having a PCB. It uses .022uf Orange Drops and Gravitt push-back wiring. It has 300K linear-taper volume pots and 500K audio-taper tone pots. (A variation from the website specs)
The neck pickup is a Burstbucker 1 Alnico II with 6.5k advertised ohms. The bridge is a Burstbucker 3 measuring 8.4k ohms. (Website claims Burstbucker 2 in the bridge, but 8.4k is a Burstbucker 3)
So, I was invited to put the guitar through its paces and I plugged it into the Marshall MG30DFX. It was a night and day difference when compared to the entry level Gibson in every respect.
The sound is very articulate, not overly gainy...but with a very cutting upper midrange with a pronounced, yet not brash top end. Surprisingly, the pickups were very pleasing to me.
Now, NO Burstbuckers are wax potted, so I'm really nervous about how this guitar might behave 6 feet in front of an Ivanberg Modded Marshall Origin 50 with the master on 7.
I'm not a bedroom player. I play for a living and I need to be able to control a guitar at elevated volume levels, but there is no way to simulate that in Guitar Sinner.
So, all and all, the guitar has a lot going for it and I couldn't find anything wrong with, no matter how hard I looked.
Note the odd looming latches on the case.
Hmmmmm...
If the unpotted Burstbuckers could behave under high volume levels, this guitar could check all the boxes.
My wife told me that if I moved a couple of guitars that I really don't play anymore, I could purchase one new guitar for my teaching job at the music academy, which is a write off.
My 1982 Stratocaster is my #1 guitar, but I need a fixed bridge for the downtuned songs.
Perhaps because my childhood idols (Rhoads, Felder, Page,) and later influences (Wylde, Ace, Slash) played Gibson Les Paul's, I think it fueled my desire to have a really good, genuine Gibson and not feel as though I need to rebuild it.
My thoughts are that I would (potentially) give my Slash Replica to my uncle in San Antonio (he loves it) and sell the Schecter Hellraiser C1FR that im.not using.
Could I trust those unpotted Burstbuckers under high gain and close proximity to my amp???
Hmmmm.....
It was kinda busy, so I thought I would kill some time and play through a few amps. I grabbed a 2018 Gibson Faded Bourbon Les Paul and started playing through a Boogie Combo of some kind with a bunch of little micro switches on it.
I really couldn't get a "decent" tone out of it, other than clean, so I plugged into a Marshall MG30DFX and Wow, Wow, Wubzy, did that little amp sing!!!
So, I'm jamming out Eagles, Black Label Society, Lynch Mob, Scorpions, and a few dudes come up and ask if I give lessons, so I handed out some cards and answered some questions.
Then, one of the guys that I know who works there told me, "Hey, Man, we got a Les Paul with a neck so fat that nobody wants it..."
I answered, "Don't threaten me with a good time!!!"
We laugh, fist bump and start catching up on music stories.
He then tells me that they special ordered a 2021 Les Paul Standard 50's Gold Top for a fellow employee. The story was that when he picked it up out of the case he was disappointed with the heft of the guitar and neck thickness.
They had the guitar in the back as it was slated to be returned.
We went in the backroom and he pulled this brown 'Gibson' logo case off a shelf. It was unusual looking, in that it had huge, squared-off brass hasps with almost a matte or sandblasted finish.
Inside, the guitar was in a sheer, white cloth "cocoon" that you could see through.
I pulled the guitar out and I mean there wasn't so much as a smudge or fingerprint on it front or back.
I've painted guitars. I've painted automobiles...but the finish on this was simply amazing...flawless...and such a high level of polish.
When I put my hand around the neck, it was one of the biggest necks I've ever felt on a Gibson.
Out came the calipers!!!!
The neck measured 1.695" / 43.05mm wide at the nut, which is only. 060" narrower than my mammoth 1.750" Stratocaster neck!!!!
At the heel, the neck measures 2.26" / 57.4mm wide and its a solid .951" all the way from the nut to the heel.
Headstock is traditional 17° tilt.
After checking out the guitar on the Gibson website, I started looking really closely at the details.
Gibson | Les Paul Standard '50s
The new Les Paul Standard returns to the classic design that made it relevant, played and loved -- shaping sound across generations and genres of music. It pays tribute to Gibson's Golden Era of innovation and brings authenticity back to life. The Les Paul Standard 50's has a solid mahogany body...
www.gibson.com
Neck angle is good as the bridge and tailpiece are nearly decked. No humps in the fretboard, or the all-too-common "swollen binding" at the fret ends that you feel if you run your fingers down the binding.
So far, so good....
I confirmed that it indeed had an aluminum ABR-1 and a aluminum tailpiece. This is SOP on ALL my personal Les Paul's. (Neither is magnetic and spec sheet calls the tailpiece aluminum.)
Next, I noticed the vintage tuners with keystones, which are again my personal preference.
Gold top hat knobs with pointers???Another one of my SOP's.
Weight...a whopping 10lbs 6 ounces!!! Not my favorite feature, but I'm open minded.
Let's move on....
Then I notice the frets...super thin, like vintage Fenders!!! I've never seen tiny frets like this - except on Randy Rhoads Les Paul Custom - which he had installed by Karl Sandoval. I saw this feature on Randy's LPC personally when I saw the guitar during a visit with his mother in March of 2002.
The fret finish and nibs are impeccable and the spec sheet states that this guitar was indeed plek'd. Far better fretwork than any of my (5) lower end Gibson's had.
The guitar is hand wired as opposed to having a PCB. It uses .022uf Orange Drops and Gravitt push-back wiring. It has 300K linear-taper volume pots and 500K audio-taper tone pots. (A variation from the website specs)
The neck pickup is a Burstbucker 1 Alnico II with 6.5k advertised ohms. The bridge is a Burstbucker 3 measuring 8.4k ohms. (Website claims Burstbucker 2 in the bridge, but 8.4k is a Burstbucker 3)
So, I was invited to put the guitar through its paces and I plugged it into the Marshall MG30DFX. It was a night and day difference when compared to the entry level Gibson in every respect.
The sound is very articulate, not overly gainy...but with a very cutting upper midrange with a pronounced, yet not brash top end. Surprisingly, the pickups were very pleasing to me.
Now, NO Burstbuckers are wax potted, so I'm really nervous about how this guitar might behave 6 feet in front of an Ivanberg Modded Marshall Origin 50 with the master on 7.
I'm not a bedroom player. I play for a living and I need to be able to control a guitar at elevated volume levels, but there is no way to simulate that in Guitar Sinner.
So, all and all, the guitar has a lot going for it and I couldn't find anything wrong with, no matter how hard I looked.
Note the odd looming latches on the case.
Hmmmmm...
If the unpotted Burstbuckers could behave under high volume levels, this guitar could check all the boxes.
My wife told me that if I moved a couple of guitars that I really don't play anymore, I could purchase one new guitar for my teaching job at the music academy, which is a write off.
My 1982 Stratocaster is my #1 guitar, but I need a fixed bridge for the downtuned songs.
Perhaps because my childhood idols (Rhoads, Felder, Page,) and later influences (Wylde, Ace, Slash) played Gibson Les Paul's, I think it fueled my desire to have a really good, genuine Gibson and not feel as though I need to rebuild it.
My thoughts are that I would (potentially) give my Slash Replica to my uncle in San Antonio (he loves it) and sell the Schecter Hellraiser C1FR that im.not using.
Could I trust those unpotted Burstbuckers under high gain and close proximity to my amp???
Hmmmm.....
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