Twang Gang

Regarding the shade of the Antique Naturals, they seem to vary quite a bit. Here is mine which I think is in between the examples Danny showed. Not as dark as his original, but certainly a lot darker than the replacement they first sent him.

A review of the Les Pauls on this website shows many "reissue" models from 1954, 56, 57, 58, 59, and 1968 and all of them have no weight relief in their specs. The new Standard 50s model and Standard 60s model also have no weight relief. And the Traditional model for 2019 has no weight relief. On the Custom Shop side they are showing again 1954, 56, 57, 58, 59, and 1960 models all with no weight relief. So where are you seeing these misleading '58 historics with weight relief? I can't find them.

What I recall was that the bands were so loud in the sixties it didn't matter how much noise, talking, or beer bottle smashing was going on, nothing was going to drown out the band. When I was in high school in the suburbs of Chicago there were "teen clubs" places that didn't sell alcohol, and you didn't have to be a minimum age to get in. Some big names played at them (I recall seeing The Who, and Cream on different occasions) and while there was some dancing and girls screaming none of it was loud enough to interrupt the band. There were a couple of Chicago based bands that got recording contracts and they played them as well, people like the Buckinghams, and the Shadows of Night. Once we got to the "stadium" rock shows at huge venues the bands got even louder, you could have 30,000 people there screaming and yelling, but the bands still held the upper hand in volume. As to my personal experience playing gigs, I played a lot of bars around Chicago and the suburbs. Some people were just there to drink and could care less if there was a band or not, leave alone what they were playing. Other crowds wanted to hear some music so if you played things they were familiar with they would sit and listen, or get up and dance. If you played originals they had better be super good, or you would lose the audience in short order.

Like many innovations from the past, it seems to work great. But it probably won't sell because we are all such die hard traditionalists.

Looks like they did get rid of them.

Fun exercise. Which did you like the best? I like the sound of that 2013 Tom Scholz '68 quite a bit, but I'd have to say my overall favorite was the 2014 model '58 re-issue. Least favorite tones were from the'02 Zakk Wylde.

The purpose of a prototype is to try out something new (pickups, neck angle, tonewood combinations etc) so it wouldn't make sense to use one type of wood in a prototype and then change it for the actual production model. AFAIK prototypes don't usually get out of the factory. I've heard of a few employees getting to buy one and maybe a signature artist getting to keep one, but generally I think they are destroyed after a production set of specs has been determined. I don't claim to be an expert so maybe there are lots of prototypes out in the real world, but I don't think so.

I asked Gibson customer service about the difference between the Burstbucker Pros in my LP Standard, and the 61R and 61T in my LP Classic and they replied very quickly with some interesting info. All the BB Pros and 61s have Alnico 5 magnets. The difference is in the windings. The BB Rhythm has 5000 winding on the pole, and 5200 on the slug side, the BB Lead has 5300 on the pole, and 5500 on the slug side. The 61s are both wound the same (explained because back in the day they didn't use different winding for the different position of the pickup) and they are 5261 winds on the pole and 5000 on the slug side. Also the bridge pickup is reverse wind/reverse polarity for the purpose of cancelling hum when you use coil tap or coil split function. So the BB Pros have more winds on the slug side of both pickups, whereas the 61s have more winds on the pole piece side. As to the difference in tone, that depends on your ears, but to me the 61s are a little louder, and a little crunchier or dirtier. The BB Pro are cleaner and more glassy. But regardless of ones interpretation, there is a distinct difference in the sound.

Firstly I never use a capo on an electric guitar only on acoustics. Secondly I certainly don't see the need to spend $60 for one, leave alone $200, but to each his own.

I have seen similar discoloration on older guitars. Not sure what causes it, but seems to appear on the binding usually and may just be a function of the plastic ageing?

Great looking custom T-man, and so glad to hear things are coming back toward normalcy at your home.

On the LP Classic I just bought they came uncovered. But not sure if all 61s are zebra or not - I would think they are, but you won't know for sure until you take the covers off.

The 61s are zebra (I have them in a classic uncovered). Both the Burstbucker Pro and the 61s use Alnico 5 magnets. The different sound is from the different windings. The BB rhythm has 5000 winds on the pole side, and 5200 on the slug side. BB lead has 5300 on the pole side, and 5500 on the slug. The 61R and T are both wound the same (as back in the day they didn't use different pickups for rhythm or lead positions) and they have 5261 winds on the pole side, but only 5000 on the slug side.

Incredible collection all in one place. I am not familiar with the two guys that were looking at them and playing them, but they seem like true guitar geeks, and basically after they played many of them, they were pretty much speechless. They talked, but you could tell they were searching for words to describe the experience. Pretty cool.

The originals did have fiberglass bodies, but what few realize is that in order to make fiberglass strong enough (especially on a convertible) they had to have so many layers they turned out heavier than a sheet metal body would have been. But they went with it in order to sculpt the shapes which would have been difficult to make dies for metal and since they weren't making that many (300 the first year) cost to tool for metal would be too high. As plastics developed and got stronger the bodies became what I would call plastic (ABS). Although some people think they are still fiberglass - sort of blurry line between plastic reinforced fiberglass. Billroy - if you are thinking about a new Camaro better get one now, rumor has it GM will stop making them soon.

The long anticipated launch of the new mid-engine Corvette happened last night. A few cool factoids about it; with the Z51 package they are claiming a 0-60 MPH time under 3 seconds! Base model price to start under $60K, room for two golf bags in the rear trunk (plus has a front cargo area), and for all our pals across the pond, they will make a right hand drive model. Just go to Chevrolet.com to check it out.

I can't see any signature at all on the pickguard in this photo? When you look at it make sure it is a one piece all mahogany body. Looks pretty good overall, but I am not an expert on the prices. A new one is shown at $6,999 on the Gibson site so price may be reasonable. You'll just have to play it and see if it sounds like $4K to you.

There is a difference in some pickups as to the spacing of the pole pieces. I ran into this a few months back when I had to replace a pickup on my Les Paul Lite. All the humbuckers on my Les Pauls (Burstbucker Pro Lead and Rythm, Burstbucker 61R and 61T, and 490R measure 2 and 1/8 inches from the outside of one e string pole piece to the outside of the other e string pole piece. But the 498T in the bridge position on the LP Lite measure 2 and 1/4 inches. So it does take a different cover than all the others. By the way, I also was given some golf socks made by Puma that have a left and a right and they fit better. 🤣

I think it is what you are used to. I played mostly Gibson necks over the years so when I bought a Strat recently, I got one with a 12 inch radius so it would feel similar to what I am used to. Others like RCT aren't as concerned with it and play a variety of different radius necks. Just like no two necks are exactly alike, I doubt if players hands are alike either. The size of one's hands, and the length of their fingers probably has a lot to do with what feels comfortable. I have often noticed that many astounding guitar players seem to have quite large hands and long fingers. My hands are only average size which is my excuse for not being a better player. 🙂

Since all four of the pickups have Alnico 5 magnets, I concluded that it was the number of windings that made a difference in the tones. But I am making the assumption that all the Alnico 5s are of the same strength which I guess would depend on Alnico's quality control.

I was wondering why the 61R and 61T Burstbuckers in my new LP Classis sound considerably different than the BB Pros in my 2017 LP Standard so I emailed customer service about it. I was pleasantly surprised to get an answer within a half an hour on a Sunday afternoon. The pickups on the Classic are uncovered which I would think would make some difference, but both sets have Alnico 5 magnets. The difference is in the number of turns for the winding. The Bursbucker Pro Rhythm pickup has 5000 winds on the screw side, and 5200 on the slug side. The Pro Lead has 5300 on the screw side and 5500 on the slugs. So in each case 200 more winds on the slug side. The 61R and 61T are both wound the same (explained as because back in the day they didn't use different pickups for the different positions) but have 5261 winds on the screw side and only 5000 on the slug side. Gibson did say the bridge pick up is reverse/wind and revers/polarity to maintain hum cancellation when coil tapped, but both use the same number of winds. So the Pros use more winds on the SLUG side for each, whereas the 61s are the opposite - more winds on the SCREW side. I know nothing about how windings effect tones, and tones are subjective to each of us anyway - but to my ear the 61R and 61T are louder (A/B test done with amp and guitars both set exactly the same), and are just a little grittier or have a little more bark. The BB Pros seem to me a little cleaner and glassier sounding. Maybe nobody else cares about all this, but I think it's pretty cool that I was able to get a detailed explanation of the differences through Gibson in one quick email.

Gibson sells it's own branded line of polish. Many of us have found Virtuoso brand cleaner and polish to be great and safe for nitro finishes. Linseed oil for the fretboard - but probably not more than once a year.

If the wire you bent around your neck to get the profile matches the Oval-C then I would say there is no doubt that's what your guitar has. The profiles are distinctly different in the diagram and your caliper measurement bears that out as well. So I would have to say that Oval-Cs were being used on at least some 2012 CS-335s. As to whether or not you might find a 175 with the same neck profile - I have no idea. If all else fails, and the neck profile is absolutely critical, for the right price you could order a "Made to Measure" from the Custom Shop. Maybe your next quest is to try to determine which profile 175s commonly have. About the only one I could find on Gibson website was made in 2016, was a take-off on a 1959 ES-175 and it says it had "Soft-C" profile and was .855 at the first fret.

Wonderful playing I really enjoyed hearing those covers. Not sure what the latest protocol is on YouTube, there has been a lot of discussion about copyrights etc. But you may want to give credit where credit is due. While Chet Atkins is one of my favorite pickers he wrote none of those songs. In your videos you state "By Chet Atkins" for all three, and I'm sure you patterned your playing after his recordings. However "Taste of Honey" was written by Bobby Scott and Ric Barlow about 1960 and the most popular recording was by Herb Alpert. "Take Five" was written by Paul Desmond from the Dave Brubeck group and recorded about 1959. "Georgy Girl" was written by Tom Springfield and Jim Dale and popularized by the recording made by the Seekers. Not trying to rain on your parade or be too picky, as I say I love your playing. But to put up videos and state "By Chet Atkins" might offend the people that actually wrote the songs, and popularized them with their recordings.

Merciful - I had the same concern as you regarding the screw diameter and length. As I recall the old Schaller's actually included a couple different size screws for that purpose. But these new ones, the screw is self tapping, and it was wider and longer than the screw in the strap button from Gibson. I thought I might need to get a drill bit and ream the hole out a little, but I used Schaller's new design, screwed it in by hand, and it worked perfectly as advertised. It tapped it's own hole size without any chipping or cracking of the finish, and I could actually see a little (very little) wood coming out the threads as I screwed it in. And you are correct, the button attached to the guitar is no bigger so no problems with a tight case. Any extra protrusion is only attached to the strap.