pippy

A few days ago I was limited to putting an image of a MAXIMUM of 61kb. Today I was allowed to post an image limited to a whopping 10kb!!! What is going on? Do I have to reset something? Pip.

Cute! Happy Birthday, youngsters! And Play NICE, You Hear?!?! I know some folks don't always love these type of things which can slither but this past weekend I was delighted to discover that, after a one year break of absence, our resident Slow Worm family have returned home to their usual pad underneath a flagstone at the bottom of our garden steps and they, too, have had babies. Pip.

Oddly enough the peghead 'open-book' profile, similar to the Gibson one but with an added middle bump, is nigh-on 100% identical to that used by Tokai on their Love Rock LP clones. Tokai should take Harley Benton to court for copyright infringement......... Pip.

I'm very much with you on Zep III but I never took to Presence for some reason. Don't know why not. Even more unusually I'm one of the weird ones who likes 'In Through the Out Door'. Again, though, I don't know why I like that one. Like a shed-load of folks I know I overdosed on Zep IV and can only listen to it sparingly nowadays but I, II, III and Physical Graffiti all still get regular air-time. Pip.

I wonder how they now feel about Slash making his name - and in doing so resurrecting the Les Paul - by playing a counterfeit 'Burst? Pip.

If the prospective purchaser could not, under any circumstances, purchase a genuine Gibson then I understand why it might pose an interesting moral dilemma. My own viewpoint, FWIW, is that I have no issues whatsoever with the various LP Look-Alikes such as the Tokai Love Rock models but I would draw the line if the peghead had a Gibson logo in place of the name of the actual manufacturer. My own very first guitar (as I've mentioned before) was a 'Grant' branded Les Paul Gold Top and it was fine. As a 15-y-o kid from an impecunious Scottish family in the mid 1970's there was no way I was going to receive a £600 ($750) Les Paul as a Xmas present but the Grant could be had for 1/10th of the asking price so was good enough as a starter instrument for someone who had never played a note of guitar music in his short existence. After what seemed like an eternity - and, thinking about it, it was another 1/3rd of my lifetime - I bought my first Gibson LP when I was 20 / 21. Don't have that Les Paul anymore - it was a dog - but I do still have the Grant... Pip.

Oh, Well Played, Sir! I've obviously never paid enough notice to Percy nor the lyrics - which is a bit embarrassing considering not only have I had the album concerned for well over 40years but I have also owned a copy of the Led Zep. Songbook (I - IV) for the same length of time...... I feel some sort of penance is neccessary. Pip. EDIT : OK; Zep III is now up and running. "Must Pay More Attention, Boy!"

I thought it went; "Thunderbolt and Lightning; Very, Very Frightening Thing!" Pip.

They are getting cheaper, Scales. Even the briefest of googles shows that the current price range goes from c. $180 for the more obvious fakes to around the $240 mark for what appears to be of a higher quality that the usual stuff. By way of an example here's one "R9" for the $220 asking-price. The web-site involved has been removed so as not to appear encouraging to those who might be curious; I've played a few Chibsons over the years - even one of my mates (who thought he might learn to pay guitar) bought one - and they were all Crap; especially, I'm delighted to say, the one my mate bought. That taught him not to buy counterfeit garbage. Perhaps they are a bit better today but it's just wrong, morally, to buy this sort of stuff. Pip.

Yes. I'm sorry to say it's as I feared. No doubt at all that it's counterfeit. I don't, as a rule, go into much detail describing fakes in the forum but in this case I'll make an exception. The rear-of-peghead shot, alone, shows the wrong peghead profile; no 'wings' for the peghead construction; incorrect stamp-detail; non-brand tuning pegs - which are also incorrectly spaced - and the run-of-the-mill Les Paul Standard is not - nor ever has been - a product of the Custom Shop so would not have a CS waterslide. And that's just the six mistakes seen in that one snap. There are many more signs in every picture you have posted. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Hopefully you can discuss matters with the agents for the Estate Sale? Pip.

I'm very sorry to have mis-spelled your name in my first reply, Lenny. I was far too careless. Mea Culpa and please accept my apologies. As far as the guitar goes don't give up all hope. The images posted don't show the 'red-flag' areas quite clearly enough for me (at least) to be 100% certain that it is a counterfeit but I do have to say that it's not looking hopeful for a number of reasons. I still do hope I might be wrong. If, unfortunately, it does turn out to be a fake would you have any legal recourse from the auction house / estate from which it was bought? Was it listed as a 'Gibson Les Paul' in the catalogue/brochure of the Estate Sale or just as something vague like 'Electric Guitar'? If the former then might you be able to get somewhere for Misrepresentation / False Advertising and could claim a refund on trading standards laws? If you can't achieve satisfaction in this quarter then you could simply hang on to it. As you said in the OP, it feels and sounds good to your ears and hands. That is at least something positive. If things do go pear-shaped and you don't feel like holding on to it then donating it to a high school is a generous thought. Pip.

That's the usual Chinese fake 'Custom Shop' sticker on the usual erroneous cream-coloured inspection plates which the manufacturers seem to think make the guitar appear more authentic. Very Weird. I don't want to get into a peeing-up-the-wall contest here nor go into details but there are at least nine things which appear to be classic tell-tale signs of a $220 Chibson. I hope I'm wrong but I'm 99.9% sure I'm not. Pics - as mentioned above - would help clear up this matter in seconds. Pip.

If the OP is correct the guitar is 19 years old; not 9. I have a rather uncomfortable feeling that the guitar might possibly come from somewhere other than the USA. I truly hope I'm wrong but, as mentioned above, there are a few areas where I would like to see some more informative snaps. Pip.

Hi Larry and welcome to the forum. I know I'm about to ask quite a lot from you and apologise for that in advance. I wonder if you could perhaps take a photo of the body absolutely square-on; one of the rear of the peghead; one of the neck-heel as seen from the side; one of the bridge showing the bridge-posts; and one the fingerboard inlays for us to see? Also a view of what is under the truss-rod cover might be informative if that's at all possible? It might be very useful to see what markings - if any - are stamped on to the bodies of the Vol and Tone potentiometers. Thanks in advance. Pip.

I, too, believe the only thing which the courts would uphold - as was the outcome when the case was first tested 40-odd years ago - would be the peghead shape and logos etc. I see the video is no longer 'active' but I did watch it when it was first posted and, at the time, wondered if the clip and the comments therein were cleared with Gibson's lawyers before release. To say that "...the actual shapes are an integral part of the Gibson DNA..." would leave Gibson themselves wide open to copyright infringement court cases from Fender - for the likes of the Gibson's US-1 and numerous Epi Strat-shaped instruments - and Martin in relation to, for example, the J-60, Hummingbird and, essentially, every square-shouldered Dreadnought Gibson has ever made. Perhaps the deactivation shows that someone, somewhere, has given the matter - and the potential ramifications of going down this route - a little bit more intelligent consideration? Pip.

I saw that somewhere a while back. The Monteleone guitar part was SO interesting. I checked his stuff out and he really is something of a modern-day Stradivari. His instruments go for CRAZY sums and it sounds like he has so many people wanting to place orders in his diary he will never be able to finish enough guitars to meet demand. The "Four Seasons" guitars were bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art; https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/506137 Pip.

In which case I heartily applaud your appreciative values and commend you on your purchase! Play Long and Prosper! Pip.

Lovely 60th anniversary. Many congrats. I really do like the various variations of Darkburst which have been appearing this year in particular. Personally I'd have scarificed the LHS and kept the RHS but also appreciate thet the R0/G0 neck profile wasn't your preferred profile. Hope you have tons of fun with your new darling! Pip.

I suspect we would all agree with that also - especially so if played clean. Of course as we all know once OD boxes etc. enter the mix the type of guitar matters very little to the point where - pickup configurations apart perhaps - it makes practically no difference whatsoever and every guitar ceases to sound like itself but sounds exactly like the amp any effects being used. Pip.

Oh, I quite believe you, m-e. All I meant by my above post was that you sound like you do because of how you play; your phrasing, your pick-attack and so on. Guitar and amp come in to it, of course, but I agree with FZF's earlier post where he mentions Van Halen etc. plugging in to his rig but still sounding like themselves and not FZF. Pip.

Absolutely true. He wanted the type of guitar Freddie King played on his 'Let's Hide Away and Dance Away' album - which WAS a Les Paul - but Clapton didn't know the King LP was an early (1955?) P-90 Gold Top. He bought the 'burst thinking it would be the same... Pip.

Really? Interesting viewpoint, m-e. Surely over the years you must have heard pretty much every tone which can possibly be extracted from a Les Paul / Strat / Tele? Regardless of where my settings are and whichever guitar I'm playing I've never once thought to myself "Oooh!!! A brand-new-and-never-before-heard-sound-which-I-can-call-my-very-own-Tone!" Well, not one that was pleasant anyway... We talk about Gilmour's Tone; Green's Tone; the Bluesbreakers Tone and so on but, really, we are describing more the players' touch, style, phrasing and dynamics as opposed to any one type of tone produced by the combination of a guitar and an amp. We don't recognise Knopfler through his sound as by what, and how, he plays. His (original) essential sound, after all, was - and is - just a plain old clean out-of-phase Strat as used by countless millions of players over the last six decades. What makes Knopfler sound any different from all the others if not his actual playing? Nothing. Using a good approximation of "a Mike Bloomfield sound" but playing in your style is every bit as acceptable as playing with any other settings dialled-in IMO. Unless you are deliberately trying to ape his style, touch yadda-yadda-yadda you will not be a Bloomfield copy-cat. At least that's how I see it. Pip.

Hi and welcome to the forum. A 00 + six-digit serial number dates to 1976. As far as the rest of your post? Pictures will help us know what you are talking about. The L6S DeLuxe was available in Wine Red and had a regular 3-way toggle instead of the Varitone selector switch of the L6S Custom. The DeLuxe also, IIRC, had a rosewood 'board instead of the ebony used on the painted versions of the Custom and the strings were 'through-body' instead of the usual stop tailpiece. I have no idea what Polane is. Pip.

Well. I don't have any pedals so I just stuff each end of my cable into their respective noisemakers and let slip the dogs of war. In comparison to the LP with the Strat I punt in a bit more Bass and set the Bright / Normal switch to the latter. Like this with the Channel/Master duly set towards one end of the spectrum Mr. Knopfler's (early) tones are a dawdle and with simple tweaks in t'other direction Rory G. is mine for the asking. That was my main two settings way back when I used to play out whilst still a fresh-faced kid in my twenties. '70s-era Clapton-esque stuff was in the middle somewhere. And we did almost as much of that as we did Gallagher. Back several years ago when our former forumite friend and Very Good Egg Farnsbarns bought his R8 he brought it 'round these parts. When he plugged it in to the old MM and played he got some great Joe Perry / Slash type tones out of the kit straight away. He then handed the R8 to me and without touching the amp settings at all I was smack-bang in the middle of P. Green / B.B. King territory. Same kit. Same settings. Different pick attack. Different touch. Both Right- just different. Pip.

That's another discussion entirely. I think most of us here go about things in much the same way as many of the greats went about it; we listen to those players whose tones we love and 'our tone' is an evolution of what we find when we try to emulate the tones of others. Apparently (as I read today) Bloomfield modelled his tone on that of B.B. King. Gilmour (it is also said) initially modelled his tone on Bloomfield. How mant players the world over have been influenced by Gilmour? Incidentally B.B. King, famously, stated that he based his phrasing style on the great jazz saxophonist Louis Jordan. Clapton was inspired by Freddie King - which led to him buying the 'Beano' Les Paul. When Green replaced Eric in the Bluesbreakers he bought 'Greeny' to fit in with the repertoire. How many players have been influenced by these two chaps? And so it goes on and on... Pip.