01GT eibach

I do like to take all of the strings off so I can give good cleaning. As for locking tuners, my Les Paul came with them, and they are great. For guitars with regular tuners, I set the tuner's hole perpendicular to the string, pull the string through, and then do a hard perpendicular bend coming out of the hole, and then -- as others stated -- wind downward. Then a few pulls at the 12th fret so that it is mostly stable, and then clip the excess less than half an inch.

You said "four really good albums in a row". Wow, so true ... For Famous Last Words, the "Don't Leave Me Now" track hits so emotionally as an eloquent 6-minute work left as the very last track on the album documenting the sad demise of the band. That is some very powerful stuff. "Crazy" is very good too.

I am not the expert on such things, but when I have had dead spots previously (never had one on my Gibsons, btw), it was due to an issue with the fret height in the vicinity of the dead spot. You need to address that along with possibly tweaking the overall string height -- I don't think a proper intonation would affect it (although it is obviously super important for playability). These things can be fixed -- check out Google and Youtube. I am surprised that a new Plek'd Gibson has a dead spot.

AC/DC -- The Powerage album is arguably the best thing they ever did. Every song is well written and catchy, with exceptionally well written lyrics. It was also the last album produced by "Vanda and Young" who did an AMAZING job. This is album is still a great listen. Additionally, this album separates itself significantly from the also-very-good Let There Be Rock album, but which suffers from much more simple themes and lyrics as compared to Powerage. As a very young (no pun intended) AC/DC listener at the time, I was actually very disappointed with the subsequent Highway To Hell album as the songs were not nearly as good as Powerage overall, and the all-new Mutt Lange production did not sound right to me (still doesn't). I was lost as a fan just prior to Bon's death, and when he died, that sealed it for me. George Thorogood -- To me, I really only liked the VERY OLD Thorogood when him and the Destroyers were playing only covers and there was no sax in the band. That was some killer, killer stuff. His interpretations and guitar work on those old classic (but mostly new to his audience) tracks was nothing short of majestic.

Good call. Supertramp is awesome -- so good. Crime of the Century is one of the best albums ever recorded. The thing is that many of the people that don't like Supertramp don't realize that they are one of few bands where their deeper tracks are MUCH better than many of the hits that they know. When Roger Hodgson left the band, he released In The Eye of the Storm at the same time Supertramp released Brother, Where You Bound? In my iTunes, I combined an interweaving of the the best from both of those albums to create the version of Brother, Where You Bound? that (in my mind anyway) would have been if Roger stayed in the band. To me, that is Supertramp's second best album behind Crime. It is a travesty (unfortunately in a long line of travesties) that Supertramp is not in the RRHoF.

In my book, that's as fine as they come -- a super nice guitar.

Sorry -- Herb Tarlek from WKRP in Cincinnati is NOT less cool than a Vespa. The SG and McQueen, yes. But not the Vespa.

Never -- even my 40-year-old SG Standard has never needed it. On the topic of humidity, this may sound stupid, but I had a small fish tank where my guitars are that I could not keep the fish alive, so I decided to bring it back to life but with just live plants instead of fish it because I don't kill the plants ... and it still looks cool with all of the rocks, lighting, features in it, etc. Anyway, it has come to act like a great humidifier ... keeps my guitars happy in the Colorado aridness (less work and annoyance than a true humidifier). An unexpected bonus ...

This is my first time back since Feb or March. I came to find that the time I spend here is better spent with a Les Paul in my hands instead of a keyboard. I am just going to pop in every now and again to see what is up ...

I saw them back in the day (early 1980s) numerous times under their alter-billing "Soft White Underbelly" in super small venues . Back then, they were ferociously good live with so many great songs. They are still one of my favorite bands. The new stuff is okay, but I honestly wish it was a little better. The Who's most recent album was surprisingly good (once you remove a couple of filler tracks); I am hoping that BOC hits that same upper tier.

The T60 was a well-made solid guitar ... as I recall anyway.

An very industrial 'burb ...

Thanks, Captain Obvious. Hopefully you didn't spend too much time researching that. Maybe time for some decaf, eh?

Wow. I hope that we ALL are playing for fun. LOL

Before there was a Custom Shop, I always thought of a "Custom" as being only a model, a model that was above a "Standard" and which included (at a minimum) gold hardware, 3-ply binding including the headstock, and the split diamond.

Chasing the perfect guitar solo ... When I am not playing regularly, that perfect solo gets much farther away. Playing regularly keeps me much closer than not.

"Ma Ma Belle" by ELO -- great riff

I have two fairly nice non-Gibson guitars that each had their own myriad of setup issues which have resulted in each of them being overly neglected. So I went through and resolved both guitars' issues including fixing a number of fret-edge and dead-fret issues which is definitely pushing the envelope of my limited skillset. Along with a number of other setup tweaks, I also changed strings on both of them, and then intonated them. One of them is my only P-90 guitar, and that led to ripping on that one for quite a while -- restoring my neglected relationship with P-90s. I was pretty happy with myself as I am far from being as knowledgeable as some of the luthiers and near-luthiers in this forum.

I think your guitar looks awesome. Going for a 70s look is especially cool as it really provides some uniqueness. And ... yes, definitely black over cream for the pick-guard. If you do go the pick-guard route, post some more pics. I know that I would love to see it.

I think it was the now-defunct Traditional model that was non-weight-relieved which was supposed to be like an old Les Paul. But the Trad Pro was different than that which was intended to be like a "modified old Les Paul" model and also sold only through Guitar Center. There were lots of variants of the Trad Pros, but I thought they all shared: antique binding, 60s neck, uncovered zebra pickups, high-gloss top with satin sides/back, PLEK setup, coil taps, and 9-hole weight relief (non chambered). Then the different Trad Pro model (depending on which variant) came with different top-shelf Gibson pickups, flame or plain maple top, passive or battery-boost, regular Grovers or locking Grovers, MoP logo or sticker, and (on some) the ability to select the specific coil when in coil-tap mode. With the brand-new Trad Pro V out this year, this current edition comes in two flavors: satin plain top or flame top (and separated by a shocking $700 in price) , and both with new "Tradbucker" pickups which reek of a cost-cutting cheaper pickup instead of the previous major model pickups previously offered. I have a 2010 Trad Pro so that is why I know more details about this model than I do other Les Paul models. But that is how I see it anyway ...

So, the new studs are for the ABR bridge, correct? You changed knobs and added pickup covers, too ... correct?

I remember seeing a Joe Walsh interview -- not on this topic exactly, but that he is finicky about having the tailpiece and bridge both as low as possible down to the guitar. He said that he feels that they flex a bit when they are not all the way down to the body. He also said the the best examples the way he likes it is in original '59 Les Pauls, and the Gibson replicas are still not the way he wants it even though he said he has specifically tried to work with Gibson directly to get it right "but even they could not recreate it properly".

The gold plating is wearing off. The amount of gold plating is extremely thin and wears away. The same thing happens to the nickel-plate ones; you just don't notice it as much. All you can do is apply some light metal polish. Whatever you are left with after that is it -- you restore parts of it but not all of it, and it will stop the existing corrosion that is currently eating away. After every time you play it, wipe it down to get the sweat and oils from your hand off the guitar (contains salt which is corrosive). Once it gets to the point that it truly displeases your eye, just buy some more gold hardware to replace and look all new. But keep the old original hardware with the guitar ... it is part of its mojo.

Very good -- quotable even.

Jane's Addiction Kettle Whistle ... I haven't listen to them in a while. They still sound so fresh ...