Larsongs

While I’ve heard that said, I’ve never heard a Guitar with a bad 57-59 PAF Humbucker Original Vintage Pickup. I have played & even owned some modern Guitars with so called Reissue or Tribute or whatever Vintage Correct PAF’s that sound nothing like the Originals... I’m sure there are exceptions given those Guitars are from 60 years ago & could be the result of poor care or any number of things..... Asian P90’s sound nothing like USA Gibson, Fralin, Lollar, Duncan & other high quality P90’s. I own Gibson’s & Epi’s with USA P90’s which sound great... I also own a Peerless Epi Casino. While a wonderful Guitar the Asian P90’s sound harsh & I need to change them... All the Asian, except Terada Epi’s, , with Asian P90’s I’ve played sound Harsh... Changing them to one of the Boutique builder P90’s would make them wonderful sounding Guitars.. Pretty easy & inexpensive mod to have done....

The 2nd best Guitar I ever owned I bought in a Pawn Shop in Wash. D.C. a really long time ago. I was a kid with no money.. I’d almost given up buying an Electric Guitar as I couldn’t afford any of them... As we were leaving the last Pawn Shop I spotted a Neck sticking up behind some stuff back in the corner... I asked, what’s that.. The Storekeeper said, it’s an old Guitar that’s pretty beat up. I asked to check it out.. I had no idea what it was but it played ok. I asked how much? He said, how much do you have? I said, $73.00. He said, that’s exactly how much it is! LOL, naive me.... Turned out to be a 50’s Gibson Les Paul Jr. with P90. It was one of the best sounding Guitars I’ve ever owned. But, once again I had no idea what I had.. I foolishly sold it a short time later for $100.00. Which went to buy a Vox Phantom 6 string.. That’s another story..... I love Gretsch Guitars.. I have an older Korean G-5120 that is a great Guitar.. I paid about $400.00! I also have a Gretsch George Harrison Duo Jet that cost a bit more than that. I love that one too.. I think one of the coolest Guitars out right now is the Epi Wilshire with P90’s... Awesome sounding, cool Vibe & $449.00.... Guitars at any price can be awesome...

I have some MIC & Korean built Epi Casinos. The Peerless built Korean Guitars are far better built quality than Chinese & Indonesian. The Peerless come close to Terada Japan built Guitars.. What they lack are some of the high quality USA components like USA Pickups & better Bigsby’s.. MIC’s are quite good though......

335... Forget the others.. You’ll be glad you did...

Tuner, Janglebox, Tube Screamer, Boss Fender 63 Reverb, Boss Delay, Keeley 30 MS Double Tracker.....

Depends on what level of Guitar you bought & where you bought it.. Some higher end Guitars come with great Set ups. Some Sellers do Set ups & some don’t... It all depends... I agree, if it feels right, just play.........

GK’s with Neo Dymium Spkrs. 250 Watts. Weighs about 20 lbs, loud & sounds great! 500 Watts even louder.. Still only 30 lbs aprox... Both are inexpensive..

Unfortunately, Everybody uses the PAF name.. the holy grail Gibson PAF Humbuckers were between 1957 & 1959... Arguably, Some say 1960 & 1961’s.. Everything else is a reissue re-creation trying to duplicate those 57-59’s... If not all, almost all fail.... Most sound nothing like the Originals.. They range from absolutely awful to very close.... Like the Thro Bak’s which even uses the original Gibson Kalamazoo Winding Machines... Hence the wide range of Prices.. Gibson moved from Kalamazoo & they Guys who stayed bought the factory & Gibson Guitar building equipment. They became “Heritage”. They build beautiful variations of Gibson designs. Anyhow everyone has been trying to reproduce a serious reproduction of the original PAF’s including many attempts by Gibson... A few sound close.. I owned a 1959 Gibson ES 345 with PAF’s.. It was in Mint condition when I bought it in 1986.. And remained so, even after playing for a thousand hours until I foolishly sold it in 1997.... The biggest regret of my Music Career! I would buy it back if I could... I’ve played hundreds of Guitars & bought 50 or so since then chasing that Sound.. I’ve come close but nothing sounds as good as that ‘59 ES345 with those Holy Grail PAF Humbuckers.....

Rest easy my friend! Arguably, Thro-Bak makes the most authentic PAF type Humbuckers you can buy.. They own & use the original Gibson Kalamazoo Winding machines to produce them.. Very much worth considering if you want, as close as you can get, PAF Sound... Here’s a YouTube of their PAF Machine....

Those 2012’s are awesome.. Apologies... I meant to post one of the new inexpensive reissues like this one here... These are very cool at any price IMO... $449.00 MAP

A set of real vintage Gibson PAF Humbuckers will cost into the Thousands of Dollars... Fralin makes some amazing Pickups for very reasonable $$$. The new Epi Coronet & Wilshire are inexpensive, very cool & sound great Stock! These Guitars List at $399.00 & $499.00... 10-15% off & they're smokin’ Deals!

Heck yeah! Get them to knock off 10-15% & it’s not much more than a pair of good P90’s!

Just a thought... You can probably pick up a Used Epi LP with P90’s for little more than buying a good set of P90’s & modding the LP you have.. Wouldn’t it be great have both? I know I like having both LP’s with HB’s & P90’s.... It provides a huge palette of Sound.. A new one has a MAP of $399.00... You should be able to get it for about $350.00.....

Different strokes! I like HB’s in my LP’s & ES335. IMO both P90’s & HB’s are great... Both for different reasons.... I also like the Pickups in my Firebird V.. I just learned they aren’t Mini Humbuckers? New one on me!

If the OP is talking one or two frets I agree. If it’s the whole Neck? In either case I’d call the Seller & say if you expect me to resolve this issue it requires a renegotiation of the Price.. It should be at least equal to a quality Luthiers Estimate to resolve the issue.. In either case if you or someone else does something to the Guitar & it ain’t right it very well could void the Factory Warranty... Which is why I’d avoid all that nonsense & say send me a replacement. A NGD is supposed to be special! Do what you think is best to make it special!

Yeah! That’s the one.. So Cool! Thanks for posting...

Yeah, those are great too as are The Stones & Beatles with their Casinos with P90’s.... But, definitely Carl Perkins way back in the mid 50’s Rockin that cool Goldtop LP with P90’s & Bigsby! Him & Scotty Moore were the inspirations for most who followed..

There’s a great 50’s performance of Carl Perkins doing “Matchbox” & he’s playing an early 50’s LP Goldtop with P90’s & Bigsby on YouTube... after seeing & hearing it I became a huge P90’s addict! I don’t know how to post YouTube’s but if you like P90’s you gotta check it out!

Love the Natural finish... Great Guitars! Enjoy yours....

You might want to upgrade the Pickups.. Fralin, Lollar & other Boutique Pickups are excellent upgrades.. Thro Baks are probably as close to original PAF’s as you can get... They’re pricey though....

Why do people use Super Glue on Guitars???? Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!! That drives me crazy!!! One of the advantages of Hide Glue is when it comes to Repairs & Restorations.. It holds Guitars together extremely well.. But if a Repair is needed it can be heated & removed making the repair much easier to perform. The Hide Glue can even be reused if you want to keep it historically correct....

Similar, yes, but, different Trapeze, Pickguard, Inlays & Tuners are noticeable right off the bat...

....choose to make a vintage spot on correct Spec USA Casino? It’s certainly not because they aren’t able to... Seriously, they had plenty of time to think about it & plan it. Is there a method to their madness? Or, do they throw Darts at a Dart Board while drinking at the local Honky Tonk down there in Nashville? They certainly could’ve made a version with spot on vintage correct appointments. Does anyone know? What do you think? Lucky

I tend to agree with the the worst Gibson being better theory... Unless the Epiphone happens to have Gibson USA Pickups.. And some do... Gibson Pickups are usually better sounding than their Asian counterparts. I have high end LP’s with HB’s that I love & an LP Special with P90’s that I love just as much... I also have 2 Epiphone Casino’s with Gibson USA P90’s that are great sounding Guitars....

I like to play stereo into my Vox AC15CC1X & Fender 65 DRRI via my Keeley 300 MS Double Tracker... Best of both Worlds! Love the Sound of those two Amps playing in Stereo!!!