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5 things about a les paul you may not know


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Posted

I just watched that video last week, actually. I watch a lot of his stuff. I was also surprised that the Burstbuckers are basically vintage output. I'm still not entirely sure I believe it. They seem super hot to me, even when compared to my Seymour Duncans.

Posted

I put BB 1's on my LP Classic. They are lower output and much better tone for me. I love them. The high output buckers didn't work for me as well.

I didn't know maple weighed more. Interesting.

Posted

Interesting about the BurstBuckers; I'd not looked into the specifications all that much before and had assumed they had a higher output than a '57 Classic, possibly because they're placed in a lot of the more modern guitars (LP Standard and such) while the 'Traditional' holds the '57s.

Posted

while this was well done, unfortunately, there was nothing there I didn't already know........

and I was hoping the old dog would learn some new tricks... not today..

Posted
...I was also surprised that the Burstbuckers are basically vintage output. I'm still not entirely sure I believe it...

As I believe was mentioned in the clip they are wound to sound like original '58-'60 era Les Paul (sun)Burst (hum)buckers so there should be no real surprise at their relatively low output.

 

For anyone not already familiar with the relative output chart of the various Gibson p'ups;

pickups.jpg

Low output should NOT be confused with inferior tone.

As can be seen those other favourite p'ups of the vintage tone brigade, the '57 Classics, are also way down in the output stakes but are often cited as being amongst the finest and most authentic "PAF-voiced" Gibson p'ups currently available.

 

Pip.

Posted

I think a good point to take away from this is that all Gibson's pickups are relatively hot in comparison to a lot of the other factory pickups out there. Most people (including myself) don't really know about the output of the different models. A guy at Guitar Center 2 years ago told me with absolute certainty that the mini humbucker was the highest output Gibson pickup. Looking at the chart above, that would seem to be total BS. In a real world comparison, my Burstbuckers pushed my amp harder than my all Seymour Duncans except the Distortion.

Posted

"A guy at Guitar Center 2 years ago told me with absolute certainty..."

 

yes, I feel your pain, they are often more full of BS than a politician! LOL!

Posted
...In a real world comparison, my Burstbuckers pushed my amp harder than my all Seymour Duncans except the Distortion...

Oh, I believe you, StRanger.

One of my '57 Classic-equipped LPs (the R0) has equal output volume levels as one of my 1960 Classics which has the 496/500 pairing and which, according to the chart, are rated as being the "#4 and #2 hottest" on the scale. The '57 Classics, in comparison, are the #3 lowest of the full-sized humbuckers on the list.

 

Pip.

Guest Farnsbarns
Posted

Most of this is nonsense. Absolute rubbish.

Posted

Most of this is nonsense. Absolute rubbish.

 

 

I don't find any of it "Rubbish", there's just no deep dark secrets revealed here.

Posted
I don't find any of it "Rubbish"...

Oh, come now.

With all due respect, kidblast, and with the best will in the world quite a bit of it IS nonsense, much of it is very debatable and almost all of his observations are just plain wrong at one point or another.

 

"...The Burstbucker Pro pickup....the truth is it's the lowest output pickup..."

No. It isn't. The truth is the Burstbucker 1 is the lowest output pickup.

 

"...it actually has less output than the '57 Classic..." (as he points to the bridge pickup...)

Hair-splitting, I know, but the bridge position BB Pro has a higher output than the '57 Classic.

 

"...(the BB Pro) was made before the technology of the '57 Classic..."

No. It wasn't.

 

"...(the BB Pro) were pre-wax-potting...so they kinda have a feedback kinda issue..."

No. The BB Pros are wax-potted so they kinda don't.

 

"...a lot of people think that mahogany is where all the weight comes from...but that's why SGs...tend to be lighter than Les Pauls with a maple cap..."

So nothing to do with the body of a Les Paul being around 30% thicker than the body of an SG?

 

"...If you look at the vintage Les Paul, the very first one, it had a single-piece bridge (AKA the McCarty bridge)..."

No. It didn't. In 1952 the Les Paul had a separate, two-piece, bridge and trapeze tailpiece combination. The one-piece McCarty stoptail/bridge unit wasn't adopted until '53.

 

"...later it was decided to go to a two-piece bridge...there's a very important reason why. The tailpiece, by raising it and lowering it, allows you to adjust the string tension..."

](*,) Rubbish. The two-piece system was introduced after the invention of the vastly superior ABR-1 bridge unit which didn't allow for the previously utilised string-through process.

 

OK, I'm really not going to go into the 'Top-Wrapping' charade again (let's just say there are differing views on the matter) but even if we accept that top-wrapping MIGHT have an effect...

"...one of the things that other companies do....string-through body and stagger the strings...to change the break angle..."

To maintain a taught bass-side but make the plain gauge strings 'slinkier'... in which case both instruments featured have the staggering going the wrong way round. To make the skinny strings 'slinkier' the break-angle needs to be shallower meaning the string anchor-point needs to be further from the bridge than the thick strings; not closer to it.

 

By this stage we're still only half-way through the vid clip and I'm losing the will to live go through the rest of the inaccuracies.

But there are a few beauties...

"Your grandpa told you that a Gibson plays better than a Fender...well, he's right!!!...."

 

[blink]

 

[lol]

Pip.

Posted

It was all internet wisdom, the stuff guys like me have been railing against since HCGF took off and we got all these places full of people with Overnight Masters Degrees in guitar history and whys and wherefores.

 

Some weiner will come up to me in a bar and regale me with all the (wrong) facts about Les Pauls next time I take it out. Thank jeebus today you can pull yer cellie out of yer top pocket and say "...I gotta take this bro...".

 

rct

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