SteveFord

Or something...

Nah, no pedals or effects. I'll probably do something stupid like buy another Marshall with too much oomph. I have my eye on a nice white combo which I may have to bring home. Always was a sucker for things like that. Maybe I'm just lucky, both this Classic and Standard are really nice. No doubt the Custom Shop ones are better but I'm done buying Les Pauls with P90s. Or at least the carved top ones.

Got the refund so that saga is over unless I'm called to testify. A long shot but if anyone comes across a black Les Paul Classic w/ P90s, look at the back of the headstock, please. 5397 are the last 4 of the serial number.

I'm not sure. I have a 100W Marshall 1/2 stack and the sound is just tremendous but a bit too much of it. They're known to be a little on the loud side... Maybe a small Marshall? I really want something I can stick under a desk and it has to be tubes. I've had two SS Marshall amps and those things just suck.

Things are so much different today than when I was a kid. We smoked pot, dropped acid, stuff like that, no heroin. There's no telling what evil people are putting into that white powder, either. My wife had a job at a local hospital and they'd OD in the parking lot, their buddies would sneak drugs in and they OD inside of the hospital, just crazy.

That gold top just made me laugh with the sound that came out it. Hit an barred E chord up by the pick up and gave it a real snap and the sound just went ba-WAPP! That particular sound never came out of any of the other ones I have (or have had) here. I assume that this one is representative of the bunch and if so, this is a really good model. One (maybe two) more guitar for this year and then decent, small amp shopping time. Once again, the Classic is a really nice guitar but the Standard is worth the extra dough. You can just feel it the second you start to play it. I'm not sure exactly do to give it that particular feel but the neck and fret board just feel silky, for want of a better term. They must spend a bit more time on them at the factory and maybe use higher quality materials to begin with.

Dub-T-123, It was actually YOUR Les Paul which got me thinking about Les Pauls again! I figured that I'd give the P90 ones a shot to see if they were what I was after. Yep.

Finally gave up and opened a PayPal Dispute. Little write up on the replacement Classic and Gold Top in the Gibson USA section if anyone is really bored.

It should pop right off. Maybe wedge a guitar pick in there to pop it loose?

I am guitar heavy and amp poor and am waiting to get the claim settled on that missing Classic so I can buy yet another guitar. When the world goes crazy I buy guitars. Haven't done this since the Great Recession, I just loaded up on them. Right now just the little cheap Crate amp which sits under my feet at a rolltop desk. I've actually been able to find a decent setting on that thing and my Marshall is a bit much for my neighborhood. I will be going amp shopping late next month. I'm thinking small tube Marshall and/or Mesa Boogie.

I wear a mask when I'm in a store or around the locals. I'm not sure how much good it will do me if the people around me aren't wearing any but I do what I can. I've noticed that if somebody knows someone else (it's Uncle Fred and the kids) they act like there's no way they can infected so they don't worry about it. Last week a series of articles came out about llama antibodies and possible aerosol treatments. It may or may not work but I am really hopeful. https://www.statnews.com/2020/08/11/scientists-create-potent-anti-coronavirus-nanobody-inspired-by-llamas/

I do know what you mean. I sold off all of the previous P90 guitars. The old faded Double Cutaway would kind of come close to the sound I thought they should have but it's nowhere near the sound from this Standard. The Classic is close so I'm hoping it's the pots but it's probably a combination of the pots, neck and heavier wood. I am going to put P90s in that black Firebird and see how that goes. If it sounds like a surf guitar I'll be pissed but you never know. The stock (recent) Firebird pick ups sound better than the Seymour Duncans that someone put in there so they won't be missed.

This Gold Top came from Guitar Center in Missouri and was advertised as Used, Excellent and was the cheapest one I found that wasn't all beat up. It turns out it was New, Excellent! I guess removing the plastic on the pick guard made it a used guitar. I wondered what the extra $500 between the two models would bring and it buys a lot. This guitar weighs in at a whopping 11.2 pounds, the fret board feels smoother, the 50s profile neck is a little chunky and has that silky feel to it and the sound is just astonishing. You know a high end Martin has THAT sound? Well, this is the electric equivalent. John Fogarty did not steer me wrong. I figured he probably played a few over the years although I always associate him with a black Custom. You get the rich tone, the notes have some real snap to them, you can make it scream, it kind of made me think of This Is Spinal Tap where it will sustain for weeks, don't even look at it. In 2019 Gibson changed the pots and now rolling off the volume doesn't kill the treble. You can actually use the middle pick selector knob and blend the sound without it sounding like crap. I'm going to see about changing the pots in that Classic. That will tell me if the sound difference between the two models is down to the pots or the extra tonnage and stouter neck found on the Standard. Another thing they did is anchor the bridge pick up. Every other P90 I had was wobbly down there but not this one, it just stays put like they're supposed to. Fit and finish looks perfect to me, the wood grain is real nice, it has that Gibson upper crust feel to it when you pick it up. My favorite guitar is whichever one I'm playing but this is probably the best of the bunch. If you're looking for a Les Paul w/ P90s I don't think you'll be disappointed with this model.

Over the years I've had an old SG-style Les Paul from the early 60s, a much later SG Classic, a Les Paul Special and a Les Paul faded double cutaway with P90s and none of them really did it for me. Some sounded better than others but I always preferred humbuckers as they had more body to the sound. However, many years ago John Fogerty was on the cover of Guitar Player and he said that the best sounding guitar he ever heard was a Les Paul Gold Top with P90s, that was his ideal tone. I always kept that in the back of my mind and then Bence, I believe it is, would post pictures of his beautiful Les Paul with P90s. Maybe the missing ingredient was the carved top? Gibson recently came out with a Classic with P90s which made me think impure thoughts and then a Gold Top Standard which REALLY made the credit card hand itch. They are evil people tempting nice fellows like me with their shiny wares. You guys know that my first Classic was stolen in transit so I ended up putting a fairly lowball bid on a replacement and somehow I won the auction. It doesn't appear to have been played very much, I think the owner decided he didn't want an electric guitar after all as it came with picks, strings, guitar polish, all sorts of stuff. It's a hard guitar to photograph as it's super shiny and shows every little bit of dust and smudges. It's like new. The guitar itself weighs 10.2 ounces, has a really comfortable 60s style neck and certainly sounds much better than the other P90 models I had before. It's got warmth, snap, you can really get some pretty cool sounds out of this thing. This is the last of the Henry J. era models but from what I can see, they did a really good job on it. With some lemon oil on the fret board, new strings (I use .011s) and two truss rod adjustments it plays really nice. The only shortcomings apparent are when you compare it to the Standard Gold Top.

The black one, gold top has been here a while. I'll do some pics and a write up later on, today is a work day as is tomorrow and the next five...

It's here! Oh, yeah.

All that to try and get my french fried, too. A phone call from the seller to UPS and the black bomber has stopped circling Tennessee and has made it to somewhere in Pennsyltucky. Tomorrow if I'm real lucky, Monday is probably more realistic. I will do a comparison between the Gold Top Standard and the P90 Classic in case anyone is interested. I know that I really am which is kind of how this all came about.

You have good taste in guitars. Looks like you're pedal deprived, better get going on that front.

It looks that way, doesn't it? Last night I remembered something: my mother-in-law is from Manhattan, she now lives in Florida and she likes these specialty potatoes from this store in NYC. Why, who knows. A few months ago she ordered $30 worth of these Hispanic spuds and the box showed up, sealed and totally empty. Her theory was somebody got hungry and ate them for lunch which made us laugh. I wonder if my guitar and those potatoes went through the same hub and it's just grab whatever you can, seal it shut and sell it at the end of the day? Maybe the guitar wasn't actually the target, it was just part of the day's haul. I read about the mob just raping JFK when it opened but they were making off with whole trucks, not filching stuff out of boxes.

My red 335 Satin really came alive when I buffed out the whole thing with the two part Virtuoso stuff. I was afraid I'd screw it up and be kicking myself but it turned out just fine.

Thanks! 50s style neck but it's not stupidly big, it just feels really good. I was really skeptical about the change in management and dismissed their PR stuff as hot air and wishful thinking but it sure looks like they're back to making consistently excellent guitars. This is a 2019 model if anyone is interested. Time to play the thing a bit and get a bit more used to it. It feels like home but not quite there yet. I know how granny got in there twice, I was going for this pic and somehow snagged the old buzzard.

Son of a gun, I just dug in the case and this guitar is brand new! It was sold as Used, Excellent. No wonder it looks like new. Just did the Warranty stuff online and now it's official. I think the last new guitar I purchased was a black Lucille DeLuxe back in 1981 or thereabouts when BB King was on the cover of Guitar Player and it was supposed to be a very limited edition. Limited to all they could sell over the next 4 decades, I suppose.

What makes it even stranger is when you click on the tracking it takes you to the UPS site but the tracking number starts with a "K". When you attempt to contact UPS they say that's not a valid tracking number as theirs start with an 1LZ or something like that, not a K. I contacted the shipper, maybe he can straighten it out.

UPS appears to be in a feedback loop: 08/26/2020 5:48 A.M. Bartlett, TN, United States We've incorrectly sorted this package which may cause a delay. 08/26/2020 5:10 A.M. Bartlett, TN, United States Destination Scan 08/26/2020 2:04 A.M. Bartlett, TN, United States Arrived at Facility 08/26/2020 1:37 A.M. Memphis, TN, United States Departed from Facility 08/25/2020 8:25 A.M. Bartlett, TN, United States We've incorrectly sorted this package which may cause a delay. 08/25/2020 7:34 A.M. Bartlett, TN, United States Arrived at Facility 08/25/2020 4:12 A.M. Nashville, TN, United States Departed from Facility 08/25/2020 12:01 A.M. Nashville, TN, United States Arrived at Facility 08/24/2020 8:28 P.M. Bartlett, TN, United States Departed from Facility 08/24/2020 5:59 P.M. Bartlett, TN, United States Origin Scan Past Event Shipped 08/24/2020 9:43 A.M. Bartlett, TN, United States Pickup Scan

You might want to rethink that as I've shipped the wife to you. If you're lucky the bottle won't totally empty, ha, ha.