I think I'm turning into a Les Paul guy

[i love sharin foo]

Snagged a 2013 Traditional. Iced Tea burst, Non weight relieved, '50s neck, and has a pair of Duncan Seth Lovers swapped in and Emerson Bumblebees. Sounds pretty damn fine. I'm going to stick an aluminum stop bar on there and top wrap to see what I think. I didn't weigh it, but it is not too bad at all. WAY lighter than my '18 p90 Classic with Grovers, a Vibramate and a Bigsby.

[sal paradise]

Lovely! Nothing wrong with a good Les Paul. I always drift back to them. How are those pickups?

[i love sharin foo]

Lovely! Nothing wrong with a good Les Paul. I always drift back to them. How are those pickups?

Thanks!!

So far, the pickups seem like great fit for what I wanted. They’re not very high output so the high end is still there and nice. There’s a good balance. They’re not mid heavy and the low end is full but not flubby. They’re relatively clear. So far, all the fuzzes I’ve tried have respond really well to them.

[hansbrinker]

Beautiful guitar!

I used to own a Norlin-era LP gold top back in the 80s... it wasn't the greatest and was as heavy as a boat anchor.

That said, there are few guitars as iconic and truly rock 'n' roll as the Les Paul. If my ship ever comes in I want a Custom Shop '55 reissue LP in ebony with the 'staple' P90s. Yowza!

[fuzzjunkie]

That’s a pretty guitar.

I’ve never been a Les Paul fan, but I remember a friend who had a Gibson endorsement and they sent him a classic cherry burst. He was always an offset player but was playing Gibsons in his new band. He handed it to me when I visited their rehearsal space and damn, that thing played like butter. Everything flowed so easily from it that I had to reconsider my Les Paul prejudice.

I guess that goes back to when I was first learning how to play and so many ‘70-80s guitarists were playing Les Pauls. A lot of them were guys I admire, like Mick Ronson, but I considered myself an anti-guitar hero and wanted something different. A number of my friends had Gibson knockoffs and that probably played into it as well.

I do have a Gibson. It’s a ‘76 Explorer, and my ‘61 Tele has a PAF in the neck, so I don’t lack a guitar with humbuckers. A vintage guitar dealer I used to know tried to sell me a ‘55 Gold Top Les Paul that had P-90s for a really good price back in 1995, but I had just bought an AC-30 and didn’t have $3k. Now they seem to start at $45k.

So I could have been a Gibson guy, but I was dead set on being a Fender offset guy, with my pre-CBS Jaguars and Jazzmasters. I’ve sold off all but one of those and now that I have Gretsch and Ricks instead I actually prefer the slightly shorter scale length. Maybe all those years fighting to get sounds out of a 7.25 radius 25.5” neck were a mistake when I could have been playing a Les Paul that practically played itself?

[i love sharin foo]

At risk of being ostracized here, I strung it with D’Addario 9-42s AND top wrapped the tailpiece. I’m over using heavy strings. I have enough issues with hands already. It’s so much more enjoyable that way. Over the last few years I’ve slowing been decreasing the gauges on most of my stuff. I like 9-42 on my Telecaster to. I think I have 10-52 on the Jaguars which work out fine with the 24” scale.

[i love sharin foo]

Beautiful guitar!

I used to own a Norlin-era LP gold top back in the 80s... it wasn't the greatest and was as heavy as a boat anchor.

That said, there are few guitars as iconic and truly rock 'n' roll as the Les Paul. If my ship ever comes in I want a Custom Shop '55 reissue LP in ebony with the 'staple' P90s. Yowza!

Those ‘55 reissues are beautiful! I’ve actually been considering putting a staple in the neck of my Classic. Besides the p90 Classic, I also have an SG Classic with p90s (Duncan Antiquities) and a Les Paul Jr. I am trying to get as many different p90 sounds as I can between them.


While restringing this new one, I discovered that it has a Callahan bridge and a really nice bone nut. Those were pleasant surprises

[OffYourFace]

i had put down the jazzmaster for Gibsons around 2002-2007. Currently, I don't even own a guitar with humbuckers but I'm going to change that eventually.

[marqueemoon]

I like LPs fine, but the culture around them these days not so much. Lots of this going on.

It’s one of the classic guitar designs. If it plays well sounds the way you want, and has a look you’re into that’s awesome. Spending a ton of money is completely optional.

[spindizzy]

At risk of being ostracized here, I strung it with D’Addario 9-42s AND top wrapped the tailpiece. I’m over using heavy strings. I have enough issues with hands already. It’s so much more enjoyable that way. Over the last few years I’ve slowing been decreasing the gauges on most of my stuff. I like 9-42 on my Telecaster to. I think I have 10-52 on the Jaguars which work out fine with the 24” scale.

Yeah, my 2009 goldtop (Antiquities and nickel hardware now, including a Gotoh aluminium stop tail) runs Les Pauls signature strings in 9-42 and is top wound. Nothing heroic in running heavy gagues and the 9s sound good.

[zhivago]

Awesome guitar Justin!

Give me a LP and a Tele and I am set for life, the two designs just work for me.

And I too have been going down string gauges over the years...currently all my guitars that are in standard pitch tuning are 9.5s.

[BoringPostcards]

Beautiful Les Paul. I always loved looking at them, but I didn’t enjoy the two I owned (an Epi Standard and Gibson Jr) due to how they felt sitting down.
I often practice seated and they were both rather butt-heavy. Like if I took my hand off the neck, they wouldn’t stay put. I guess I am spoiled with my offsets and SG and how comfy they are in seated position and how they sit in my lap.
My SG isn’t neck-heavy, so I guess maybe there are Les Pauls out there that don’t feel butt-heavy.

I have also been using lighter strings. 10-52 hybrid set on my Jag, and 10-46 slinkys on my JM and Mustang. The SG Standard has 9-42 on it. My days of using 11s and 12s are over (unless I run flats again sometime). Next up for me is a Telecaster, which will get 9s.

[R_T_Hermit]

At my age (I’ll be 73 next week) I’ve gone to 9’s on my 25.5 inch necks and 10’s on my shorter scales. Well… except for my old, beat up, warhorse of a Les Paul which still has 12’s due to the fact I am prone to use a bottle neck on it.

EDIT: This is the warhorse. Serial number searches date it 74-75. One (or some) of the original owners had removed the pick guard so the one that’s on it is from 2023. When I got it I was glad to see that it sort of matched the yellowing of the original plastic parts. I suspect that a head repair was done on it because the paint on the back of the head is somewhat gloppy; although it could have come from the factory that way. It’s a Deluxe so the truss cover should say Deluxe, but it doesn’t, and when you look under it it has an extra hole. I assume that whoever lost the pick guard also lost the truss cover. Straight neck. Action is almost unbelievably low, but the radius has always been a bit of a sore spot with me, but I don’t notice it as much when playing with it hung around my neck. Oh, and somewhere along the line a set of Grovers were screwed onto the head. I would say "installed" but the original mounting holes weren’t dealt with. I got it in 79 and, during the time I gigged with it, it earned the name Warhorse.



ANOTHER EDIT: I just took the pot cover off for the very first time today. 2 pots say x7437. One says x7325. And I refused to shove the harness around to read the last pot. Ya see; I had to lick my finger to clean off the patina to read those numbers and it kinda broke my heart to do so. I guess that makes it a valid 1974?

[i love sharin foo]

Nothing heroic in running heavy gagues and the 9s sound good.

That is a great way of putting it! 9s sound perfect, feel great, and stay in tune. They are so much easier on my hands.

[Chippertheripper]

It’s honestly pretty hard to dislike a LP. If I could keep them all I’d probably still have one.
Also been gravitating towards lighter strings…why fight the guitar?