5 les pauls, guitar center, and my brain and finger hurts
- i split my middle left fingertip open, wailin' away on les pauls during lunch hour.
the kid next to me, had a schecter, and into a rectumfrier, was going "URK--EEEE--URK--CHUGACHUGACHUGA-URK--EEEE--URK".
it was starting to make my bowel move.
hehehe
so i sat and tuned up, slowly, because all the guitars i tried were pitifully out of tune....
then i dialed in a super clean tone, and played an entire verse and chorus of 'Dixie'.
LOL
he was so annoyed.
LOL again.......
then i dialed in the 'boutique OD' setting, with a long delay, and just started wailin' pure doo doo for about 90 solid seconds.
he left.
i had a recording session set up for friday night, and now i can't even press a guitar string down....
how annoying....
i wont be able to play for a week, with this really deep split right across the callous. bummer.
oh well, i can mix!
Lunch time at Guitar Center
as i walked into the maw that is the mouth of the cave called 'guitar center', i was promptly greeted by the side of a kid's head saying 'what up?'
'surely', i thought. i mean, shirley. punk kid, he's busy texting somebody, i'm not sure why guitar center bothers, other than to catch people 'leaving' without paying.
i nod, and walk immediately to the back wall, where i spot my quarry... the ever elusive perfect-for-me les paul.
i stand, and i stand, and i stand, all the while making eye contact with anyone who works there... but alas, everyone is busy.
at least, they LOOK busy.... scurrying around, carrying this, picking up that, but i swear, it seemed to me that they weren't accomplishing anything..
it's almost as if, they all agreed to constantly look busy, but not really do anything. for example, the first guy i saw, pick up 3 guitar chords that were bundled together, start to carry them to the other side of the room, turned back around, and set them right back where they had been. the next guy i spotted, plugged in 3 guitar amps for a display, tested them off/on, left, came back, and unplugged them and left them there. these are the amps they send you to when you want to try out a guitar. another guy picked up a guitar on a stand, moved it over to the other side of the gaggle of semi-cheap guitars, left, came back, and moved it right back to where it had been.
i swear, i think he went to the other side of the store to see how it looked from that viewpoint, decided he didn't like it, and then moved it back.
LOL
right behind him, another young dude comes up and picks up that guitar, and another, carries it over to the nearest marshall valvestate, plugs it in for half a minute, then props the guitar against the amp (with no stand) and leaves.
LOL
finally, i get someone to help me....of course, it took me walking behind the counter and helping myself first.
i tell him i'm interested in a les paul with a 60's slim neck... either a 1960 reissue, or a classic with slim neck, or standard with slim neck. there are 5 available, that range in price from $1899 to $3400. i can't afford even the cheapest one, but figure i need to play some new ones to see where i stand if i decide to buy one on credit, or start looking for a good used one.
see, i have it in my mind that i need a les paul. don't know why, exactly, i think it's a obsessive/compulsive disorder i occassionally catch, brought about by catalogs that magically appear in my mailbox, uninvited, from time to time.
once upon a time, i set out to find 'the perfect paul'. i limited myself to under $2000, and spent 6 months playing every les paul i could get my hands on, over a 5 state area, in dozens of cities. this was about 1984. granted, the pauls made in this time period were not the highest quality, and i did remind myself to play used ones as well. but it turns out, i never found one i truely loved. there was always.... something. not quite right.
i've played dozens along the years since, and it seems that only the highest end models seem 'just right'.
it's mostly in the acoustic low end response, and the electronics, i think.....
it's funny, but of all the les pauls i played today, my favorite was the cheapest one... a 1960's reissue gold top.
and through a high gain amp setting, it was super crunchy...
till you go to the low E string...
then, it gets all mushy.
and no matter where i set the amp settings, it's still mushy.
now, if i set the amp up for a nice jazz tone, the mush disappears... you can hear the clarity of the tone, it's mahagony-solid, but as soon as i start adding some drive to it, the clarity gets lost.
and Gibson seems to understand this, because they make the pickups pretty hot and crunchy (this guitar had those cheaper ceramic pickups in it... the burstbuckers i like, but not these 496R ceramic humbuckers in the front and 500T at the bridge).
at high gain, the highs and mids are really bright, almost brittle, but the low end is just mush.
i tried a black custom, a faded sunburst standard, an all natural, all maple standard with a 3-piece maple neck ( i absolutely hated this one ), a wine les paul supreme, and the gold top. they all had this 'low end mush syndrom' with the high gain setting. but the goldtop played the best, had the best overall tone.. tho the much more expensive supreme had the sweetest high end sound... and of course, it had the alnico pickups. but it also had the 2nd worst mushy bottom.
now, i know all les pauls don't sound like this..... this mush issue. listen to adam jones with tool. he uses the silverburst paul, thru several crunchy amps, and his low end is taut. taut, baby. but it's a combination of the right pickups AND the bridge and wood. and though i could gig with the cheap gold top, it didn't pass my 'love' test.
on the other hand, with a 2 hour long equipment test this past saturday night, at my luthier's house, i instantly warmed up to his Paul Reed Smith custom 22.
taut low end, baby.
LOL
and now that they're making a single cut in a gibson scale length, i may actually consider that instead.
though, i've always, always wanted a Gibson gold top paul.
moral of the story?
My 23 year old carvin still rules.
- i split my middle left fingertip open, wailin' away on les pauls during lunch hour.
the kid next to me, had a schecter, and into a rectumfrier, was going "URK--EEEE--URK--CHUGACHUGACHUGA-URK--EEEE--URK".
it was starting to make my bowel move.
hehehe
so i sat and tuned up, slowly, because all the guitars i tried were pitifully out of tune....
then i dialed in a super clean tone, and played an entire verse and chorus of 'Dixie'.
LOL
he was so annoyed.
LOL again.......
then i dialed in the 'boutique OD' setting, with a long delay, and just started wailin' pure doo doo for about 90 solid seconds.
he left.
i had a recording session set up for friday night, and now i can't even press a guitar string down....
how annoying....
i wont be able to play for a week, with this really deep split right across the callous. bummer.
oh well, i can mix!
Lunch time at Guitar Center
as i walked into the maw that is the mouth of the cave called 'guitar center', i was promptly greeted by the side of a kid's head saying 'what up?'
'surely', i thought. i mean, shirley. punk kid, he's busy texting somebody, i'm not sure why guitar center bothers, other than to catch people 'leaving' without paying.
i nod, and walk immediately to the back wall, where i spot my quarry... the ever elusive perfect-for-me les paul.
i stand, and i stand, and i stand, all the while making eye contact with anyone who works there... but alas, everyone is busy.
at least, they LOOK busy.... scurrying around, carrying this, picking up that, but i swear, it seemed to me that they weren't accomplishing anything..
it's almost as if, they all agreed to constantly look busy, but not really do anything. for example, the first guy i saw, pick up 3 guitar chords that were bundled together, start to carry them to the other side of the room, turned back around, and set them right back where they had been. the next guy i spotted, plugged in 3 guitar amps for a display, tested them off/on, left, came back, and unplugged them and left them there. these are the amps they send you to when you want to try out a guitar. another guy picked up a guitar on a stand, moved it over to the other side of the gaggle of semi-cheap guitars, left, came back, and moved it right back to where it had been.
i swear, i think he went to the other side of the store to see how it looked from that viewpoint, decided he didn't like it, and then moved it back.
LOL
right behind him, another young dude comes up and picks up that guitar, and another, carries it over to the nearest marshall valvestate, plugs it in for half a minute, then props the guitar against the amp (with no stand) and leaves.
LOL
finally, i get someone to help me....of course, it took me walking behind the counter and helping myself first.
i tell him i'm interested in a les paul with a 60's slim neck... either a 1960 reissue, or a classic with slim neck, or standard with slim neck. there are 5 available, that range in price from $1899 to $3400. i can't afford even the cheapest one, but figure i need to play some new ones to see where i stand if i decide to buy one on credit, or start looking for a good used one.
see, i have it in my mind that i need a les paul. don't know why, exactly, i think it's a obsessive/compulsive disorder i occassionally catch, brought about by catalogs that magically appear in my mailbox, uninvited, from time to time.
once upon a time, i set out to find 'the perfect paul'. i limited myself to under $2000, and spent 6 months playing every les paul i could get my hands on, over a 5 state area, in dozens of cities. this was about 1984. granted, the pauls made in this time period were not the highest quality, and i did remind myself to play used ones as well. but it turns out, i never found one i truely loved. there was always.... something. not quite right.
i've played dozens along the years since, and it seems that only the highest end models seem 'just right'.
it's mostly in the acoustic low end response, and the electronics, i think.....
it's funny, but of all the les pauls i played today, my favorite was the cheapest one... a 1960's reissue gold top.
and through a high gain amp setting, it was super crunchy...
till you go to the low E string...
then, it gets all mushy.
and no matter where i set the amp settings, it's still mushy.
now, if i set the amp up for a nice jazz tone, the mush disappears... you can hear the clarity of the tone, it's mahagony-solid, but as soon as i start adding some drive to it, the clarity gets lost.
and Gibson seems to understand this, because they make the pickups pretty hot and crunchy (this guitar had those cheaper ceramic pickups in it... the burstbuckers i like, but not these 496R ceramic humbuckers in the front and 500T at the bridge).
at high gain, the highs and mids are really bright, almost brittle, but the low end is just mush.
i tried a black custom, a faded sunburst standard, an all natural, all maple standard with a 3-piece maple neck ( i absolutely hated this one ), a wine les paul supreme, and the gold top. they all had this 'low end mush syndrom' with the high gain setting. but the goldtop played the best, had the best overall tone.. tho the much more expensive supreme had the sweetest high end sound... and of course, it had the alnico pickups. but it also had the 2nd worst mushy bottom.
now, i know all les pauls don't sound like this..... this mush issue. listen to adam jones with tool. he uses the silverburst paul, thru several crunchy amps, and his low end is taut. taut, baby. but it's a combination of the right pickups AND the bridge and wood. and though i could gig with the cheap gold top, it didn't pass my 'love' test.
on the other hand, with a 2 hour long equipment test this past saturday night, at my luthier's house, i instantly warmed up to his Paul Reed Smith custom 22.
taut low end, baby.
LOL
and now that they're making a single cut in a gibson scale length, i may actually consider that instead.
though, i've always, always wanted a Gibson gold top paul.
moral of the story?
My 23 year old carvin still rules.
