Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Do Les Pauls Have Improving Tone With Age


Sabredog

Recommended Posts

Hmmmm..........interesting topic..........

 

My thoughts.......for what that's worth......lol.

 

 

If you take a brand new guitar.......install it in some sort of plucking machine and analyze the "tone", then put it in a vault for two years, take it out and use the same machine.............nope......no noticeable change in tone.

 

If you take the same guitar and play it for those two years, then YES, for sure! Why? IN MY OPINION, it comes down to how you interact with that guitar. As the back of the neck wears slightly to that glorious broken in smoothness so you can move around the fretboard with ease.........as you learn just where that sweet spot for rolling back the volume knob to clean it up is.........as you've tweaked your setup so that it plays at it's best and you attack it with confidence..........all those things will sound better. Did the guitar get better? I doubt it......... Did your bond with the guitar get better allowing you to get the best out of it? I think so.

 

On the scientific side of things...........Yes, with finishes there is a difference between "dry" and "fully cured"......could that make a difference? Not to my crappy ears, but maybe to someone or to a machine. Moisture content over time? Again, not to my ears, but maybe in THEORY.

 

To me, you can have the best pair of shoes in the world made just for you, but until you get them broken in, they won't be as comfortable........same with guitars.

 

NHTom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 76
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Nope. The science says it all for me.

 

"The raw acoustics of the electric guitar aren't quite as interesting as the acoustic guitars (although you may be interested in Dan Russell's work); the body is essentially a good-looking hunk of wood to counterbalance the weight of the neck and to keep the strings vibrating a longer time. (Although excellent for rock 'n' roll, lead playing, or burning and inserting into your amplifier.)"

 

 

http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/guitaracoustics/anatomy.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From the page in the link post #52

 

"The raw acoustics of the electric guitar aren't quite as interesting as the acoustic guitars..."

 

Clearly the author, Ra Inta (UNSW), should hang here more often...

 

Pip.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will be very interested to hear the improvement in tone as this little number ages.

I will be very interested to see what's left after the invertebrates hear the dinner-gong...

 

Pip.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reminds me of this wooden toilet seat I bought many years ago. Sure it was well above what I needed, but with store credits and whatnot I thought what the heck, this is the holy grail, being made in the USA and such...and so I pulled the trigger. After the initial excitement of the unboxing (see my YouTube channel), I gotta say I was underwhelmed - despite the deep lustrous beauty of the walnut stain the setup was lousy (I prefer high action) and I couldn't get comfortable (geometry M?) - I figured the humidity maybe was also a factor.

 

Anyway, long story short, after some expert tweaking and several years of the grain opening up suddenly we connected like never before...great bottom end...like butter! It had proven itself as my Number 2, but my wife declared that from her perspective it was a natural Number 1, and the initial cost has long been forgotten with some folks now considering these to be nearly vintage! Happy days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is about the most awesome review of something I have read in a long time!!!

 

 

 

Reminds me of this wooden toilet seat I bought many years ago. Sure it was well above what I needed, but with store credits and whatnot I thought what the heck, this is the holy grail, being made in the USA and such...and so I pulled the trigger. After the initial excitement of the unboxing (see my YouTube channel), I gotta say I was underwhelmed - despite the deep lustrous beauty of the walnut stain the setup was lousy (I prefer high action) and I couldn't get comfortable (geometry M?) - I figured the humidity maybe was also a factor.

 

Anyway, long story short, after some expert tweaking and several years of the grain opening up suddenly we connected like never before...great bottom end...like butter! It had proven itself as my Number 2, but my wife declared that from her perspective it was a natural Number 1, and the initial cost has long been forgotten with some folks now considering these to be nearly vintage! Happy days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i want to believe time does change tone, based on my knowledge of drums, woods, and violins. But I didnt see anyone mention that not only does your playing probably have a great deal to do with it, but the gear we play through is not made the same over the years... That would also include the gear we use to record with. Time changes the tones we want to get so as your taste changes it may seem the guitar tone is changing when it isn't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I seriously doubt we have the ability to remember the exact sound of a guitar over even small time spans. It's like trying to remember exact shades of color. My impression of my guitar sounds changes daily.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You guys think too much! EC's tone is in his playing, his Gibson LP, and MARSHALL AMP, in

that clip! [biggrin] Gibson Les Paul's, SG's and ES-335's(+) and Marshall Amps, are a match

made in Heaven, IMHO. Of course, Strats can sound pretty awesome, through them, as well! [thumbup]

 

My "tone" changed, dramatically, when I got my own Marshall amp! My playing, improved as

well, as I was (somehow) more "inspired," when I got my Marshall Amp! So, to me, the biggest

"tone" changer was the amp, not (any) guitar. They all have their slight tonal differences,

but amps have made more significant changes to "my" (raw=without pedals) tonal capabilities,

than any of my guitars, beyond their normal differences=strat vs LP vs ES, vs Ric, vs Gretsch,

etc., etc., etc.!

 

Carry on, my wayward sons! [biggrin]

 

CB

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That makes me think of that Jimi Hendrix line about he plays the amplifier, not the guitar.

 

One thing a Marshall Stack will make you do is practice like crazy until you get good. The whole world can hear your mistakes if you make any.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You guys think too much! EC's tone is in his playing, his Gibson LP, and MARSHALL AMP, in

that clip! [biggrin] Gibson Les Paul's, SG's and ES-335's(+) and Marshall Amps, are a match

made in Heaven, IMHO. Of course, Strats can sound pretty awesome, through them, as well! [thumbup]

 

My "tone" changed, dramatically, when I got my own Marshall amp! My playing, improved as

well, as I was (somehow) more "inspired," when I got my Marshall Amp! So, to me, the biggest

"tone" changer was the amp, not (any) guitar. They all have their slight tonal differences,

but amps have made more significant changes to "my" (raw=without pedals) tonal capabilities,

than any of my guitars, beyond their normal differences=strat vs LP vs ES, vs Ric, vs Gretsch,

etc., etc., etc.!

 

Carry on, my wayward sons! [biggrin]

 

CB

 

 

 

 

Charlie Brown Which Marshall amp did you get?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Odd nobody has mentioned the deterioration of the magnets in the pickup as a guitar ages. Or the fact that old 50s guitars used wiring that would degrade as well, after all, these are electric guitars.Unplugged solid bodies all sound the same, like planks..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Funny thing about many musicians is that they claim they can hear the most ridiculous subtle changes in various instruments, but has anyone ever thought that most of these players hearing is shot from years of dangerous noise levels. Most older musicians can't hear any high frequencies and have bad tinnitus. Makes me question the experts in the industry as they probably lost any sense of high frequencies back in the 60's & 70's [laugh]

 

Does a Les Paul's tone improve with age? Nope is my verdict and neither does your hearing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Odd nobody has mentioned the deterioration of the magnets in the pickup as a guitar ages. Or the fact that old 50s guitars used wiring that would degrade as well, after all, these are electric guitars.Unplugged solid bodies all sound the same, like planks..

Unusually I have to disagree with you on this occasion, Jax.

Unplugged a Les Paul (for instance) most certainly does not sound like a Strat (for instance). Nothing even remotely like it, in fact.

 

And magnets deteriorating?

According to the VP of one of the last guitar magnet foundries in the U.S.A.;

"The chance of it ageing?...it will but you are talking about miniscule amounts....The National Laboratories have studied this and we are talking about 0.1% over a decade! Basically if we had a magnet that had been sitting in a box since 1967 we wouldn't expect it to be any different today than on the day it was made."

 

Pip.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WOW!

 

So if I read that right the 2001 has a reading of 262.7 (bushells?) and the '61 has a reading of -262.6 (chains?) which makes for a difference of 525.3 (furlongs?)

In all seriousness I can't say I'm even remotely surprised by the (lack of a) difference.

 

msp_thumbup.gif

 

Pip.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So here is what I visualize, a cartoon figure who looks vaguely like the typical hard rocker standing in front of a wall of amps, at his feet a bank of pedals, A Fuzzface, three Phazers, two compressors, an auto whaa three boosters and Crybaby a rotor pedal that plays backwards, two tape delays etc...His LP is dangling from his shoulder almost hitting his kneecaps, and he leans into the mic and says to his sound guy,

 

 

Wow, this old LP really sounds mellow man........must be the wood!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...