rockreid Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 alright, can't help with the stereo Varitone yet (will be messing around with Guitar Rig3 and a virtual stereo rig later), but my Marshall combined with this tone monster Lifeson guitar is an ear-gasm. Lead channel with a just-there singing sustain and Varitone on position 4 -I'm camped out all day. The versatility with this guitar is astounding (although would be a beast to try and deal with changing sounds live) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wondo Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 alright' date=' can't help with the stereo Varitone yet (will be messing around with Guitar Rig3 and a virtual stereo rig later), but my Marshall combined with this tone monster Lifeson guitar is an ear-gasm. Lead channel with a just-there singing sustain and Varitone on position 4 -I'm camped out all day. The versatility with this guitar is astounding (although would be a beast to try and deal with changing sounds live)[/quote'] You say you can't help out with the stereo thing, but if you are on Varitone position 4, aren't you running stereo? As I understand it when you are using the Varitone, you are using stereo. Unless you are using just one pickup with a mono cable. When you are using the bypass switch, the varitone is bypassed. So, I'm not quite sure how this would work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Envirotech Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 I got my Lifeson 355 last night. My Long & McQuade salesman phoned my cell while I was at work, and home too even, to get me the good news. So I packed up my trade-ins, my former Stagg SA 300 ES 335 copy & an old multi-effect pedal I no longer used, and went to pick it up. The guy brought down the box from upstairs, I was thinking holy cow it's finally here!! He took out the case from the box, it appeared smaller than I was expecting. The case for that Stagg 335 was pretty big. Opened up the case and man, what a beautiful work of art. Lots of white, gold, pearl inlays, a beautiful guitar on it's own let alone plugged in and rocking out. The ALEX LIFESON on the truss rod cover, cool!! The neck volute was neat to see too, I was telling the sales guy about it, I don't think they incorporate it into many guitars. I have to say I think Gibson did a fantastic job on these instruments, very happy with the work. I can smell a vanilla freshness that seems to come from the paint on the guitar or the case, I guess leaving it a crack open for the weekend might air it out. Fittingly we plugged it into a Hughes and Kettner Statesman Dual 6L6, and I jammed out about half of Working Man, Spirit of Radio, Bangkok intro, some timeless Rush stuff.. Fooling around with the Varitone; this beast has got a lot of great blues tones in it. Yorkville, the Gibson supplier for Long & McQuade had opened everything up to inspect, and setup too it seems, the guitar because everything on the guitar was perfect, just needed a quick tuning. That amp was great, making me rethink my current set up, but even with my limited dual small amps to provide stereo sound from my Zoom G9, it still smashes the tone from all my current guitars ten-fold, a good guitar will sound good thru anything I think I read somewhere. The by-pass switch seems to launch this guitar into overdrive, I jumped when I flicked it off the Varitone coolness on the clean channel of the amp. So I got number AL 069, apparently one of the first 5-6 in Canada so far. Right after I got my order in months ago about 20ish orders were placed so I got in at the right time. I had the old ES copy next to the Lifeson 355 and the copy is bigger than the real Gibson. So it wasn't a trick of the eye. I thanked him quite a bit, it'll be weird not going back and chatting with him while waiting for the guitar or any news on the date. At home it still sounds great. I've began start from scratch on new patches; reset the EQ settings for neck/bridge pickups then adding in effects. There's a lots of sound-power when it isn't on the Varitone and I find all my current patches really distort the tones from the guitar. The Varitone settings are quite interesting to play around with. Although I don't actually detect a real difference between position 0 and the bypass switch being active, but it will be a nice element to switch from a Varitone setting to full guitar power at any time. The guitar seems to stay in tune rather well, haven't really used the Maestro much yet but has an interesting vibrato sound to it. I played around with the mounting of the arm; I like it in the upside-down position so I can store it in the case and looks more like how Alex has his mounted. Took some pictures last night & I'll post them at the picasa gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/envirotech03/AL069 I can definitely say, it was really worth the wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scuba Steve Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 69 !!!!! hehehehe congrats...I am still without big AL : ( .... my gibson vendor said 2 more weeks ...... oh well !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wondo Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 . I played around with the mounting of the arm; I like it in the upside-down position so I can store it in the case and looks more like how Alex has his mounted. http://picasaweb.google.com/envirotech03/AL069 I can definitely say' date=' it was really worth the wait.[/quote'] Envirotech, Can you tell me how you mounted the arm. Did you use the nut on the bottom? Did you have to take the strings off or losen them to get underneath where it mounts? I like the way you have it mounted. I think that Alex's looks the way it does because it may not be the exact arm for this guitar. The story of the guitar is that it was redone by Freddy Gabrsek in Niagra sometime after Grace Under Pressure. Alex had the Maestro Vibrola removed and a Kahler installed and it was Freddy's job to restore it to its original condition, but Alex no longer had the arm or could not find it, so Freddy went out and found one and put it on there. He was not sure if it was the correct one, but it worked. If you look closely at Alex's guitar, the arm has quite a bend to it. It is installed right side up but yet still fits snug against the tail of the guitar. I have seen other 355s with this same arm, so actually I think Freddy got it right and Gibson with this guitar got it wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wondo Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Guys' date=' the mono/stereo-Varitone toggle idea sounds brilliant. Having both options in one guitar is awesome. Actually, I'd prefer no stereo option, just the Varitone bypass. With that, you'd get the Varitone (which sounds really cool for certain Blues tones especially), then you can bypass all that circuitry and get the pure unadulterated voice of the guitar, probably clearer than you get with the Varitone "1". It's like you get Varitone "0" along with 1-6.[/quote'] As it turns out, your preference is just exactly what it does. The Lifeson is a fully mono guitar with the option of switching the Varitone on or off. The mini switch allows you to go in or out of any pre dialed up Varitone setting with just the flip of a switch. Having the Variotone off is pretty much the same as setting 1 but you can get there much quicker instead of having to dial in the correct tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Envirotech Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Envirotech' date=' Can you tell me how you mounted the arm. Did you use the nut on the bottom? Did you have to take the strings off or losen them to get underneath where it mounts? I like the way you have it mounted. I think that Alex's looks the way it does because it may not be the exact arm for this guitar. The story of the guitar is that it was redone by Freddy Gabrsek in Niagra sometime after Grace Under Pressure. Alex had the Maestro Vibrola removed and a Kahler installed and it was Freddy's job to restore it to its original condition, but Alex no longer had the arm or could not find it, so Freddy went out and found one and put it on there. He was not sure if it was the correct one, but it worked. If you look closely at Alex's guitar, the arm has quite a bend to it. It is installed right side up but yet still fits snug against the tail of the guitar. I have seen other 355s with this same arm, so actually I think Freddy got it right and Gibson with this guitar got it wrong. [/quote'] Hi Wondo, it just came with a 3/4" gold bolt, a plastic white washer and a very thin clear washer that I almost lost; looks like it's very easy to drop that and never even notice it's gone. No nut at all was included, there's threads inside the hole on the Vibrola. I installed the arm upside down on the top of the string holder part, there's no room underneath to install it either way, one would probably end up scratching the paint. Yeah I've been keeping track of this forum and that Les Paul forum during the wait for the Lifeson 355s to be delivered to Long & McQuade and was reading the posts made by Freddy Gabrsek. Really neat history about Alex's guitar. Pretty funny that some of the hardware isn't original to his guitar at all. That arm Freddy put on it; looks like it bends inwards towards the Vibrola, where as the ones that come on these guitars looks straighter. Also the angle on it seems to be more pronounced and looking at photos at least about 1 cm less lengthwise on Alex's guitar. Sticks out past the end of the guitar a bit but still fits inside the case no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midnight Blues Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 Good morning Envirotech, I can't seem to get the Vibrola Bar attached the way that you have (upside down?). It does not sit flush on the Vibrola Tailpiece, nor does the screw line up properly. When you installed it, did you put the clear washer on the bottom and the white washer near the screw head, or were they reversed? Also, was the metal around the screw hole gold platted or bare? Last question, I'd like to read the Freddy Gabrsek posts about Alex's 355. Can you send me the link? Thanks and regards, AL 028 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superdick2112 Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 Differentstrings89 and Enduroexpert - are you still up for celebration beers before the show? How about meeting on the upstairs patio of the Morrison Inn a few hours before showtime? Rich W. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Differentstrings89 Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 sounds like a good plan to me, my emails not working so post all the info here superdick2112 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evilmusician Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 Ahhhhhhhh ,I'm like Homer waiting to get his gun ! (If i had my gun I'd fix you!)lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wondo Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 What you guys are calling upside down with the trem arm is actually right side up. Mine did come with a nut on the bottom of the screw. It was in this order: Screw, white piece of plastic, trem arm, then clear piece of plastic on the bottom, then nut. But, I am discovering like Envirotech did, that you actually do not need the nut. The nut will fit underneath the metal piece that holds on the arm, but it looks like you would have to take the strings off in order to do this correctly. I was able to get the nut on by sliding it under the extended metal piece. I slid it under there with a guitar cloth until it lined up with the hole and then screwed in the arm and it worked. But, later the nut fell off. So, either you need to put it on with strings off to get it on there tight or just leave the nut off if you are not going to use the tremelo that much and just make sure that the screw is always tight. The trem arm is too long. Either this is how they are supposed to be and Alex had a smaller arm installed by Freddy Gabrsek or Gibson just gave us the wrong arm. If installed so that the tip of the handle of the trem arm points downward (this is the correct way) then when you put it back by the tailpiece it will fit snug and fit in the case, but it still extends from the guitar body a bit unlike Alex's which does not extend the body. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enduroexpert Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 Differentstrings89 and Enduroexpert - are you still up for celebration beers before the show? How about meeting on the upstairs patio of the Morrison Inn a few hours before showtime? Rich W. Sounds good to me Rich.........is this the pub you mean in the link: http://www.pbase.com/erwinsalbach/image/47568349 There'll be myself and my mate Pete, better think what t-shirt to wear so you can spot us. Well there'll probably be very few pairs of English blokes in that pub going to the gig anyhow if any at all....!!!! Do you think we should email/post on forum our mugshots......? Don't even know what the time the show starts, my tickets are in with my guitar at Wildwoods......think we'll probably try and find somewhere to crash in the truck after the show also, I'd imagine there'll be plenty other folk doing the same thing, thats if we've not already booked anywhere to stay meanwhile.... We're only in Colorado for 5 days so we've only booked our first night in Boulder so far, check the guitar out then get some sites done pre & post show, so we'll be like gypsies..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Envirotech Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 Mine did come with a nut on the bottom of the screw. Mine never came with a nut, sounds like it wasn't much of a loss not having it. Probably only an added gripe fiddling with a nut underneath everything trying not to scratch any paint. I did use a mirror to look under mine and there is a nice cut out circle that would fit a nut perfectly. Yeah on Alex's real 355, and old model 355's with the Maestro vibrola, the arm appears to have a bend inwards to the vibrola and less length by about 1cm or so. Hard to find photos of guitars w/ Maestros that have them in the tucked in position, but there's a white SG on this page that has the shorter arm. http://www.coreguitars.co.uk/all.htm A weird side benefit of the extra 1cm of the arm hanging past the guitar is I can still use it to add a bit of vibrato, although does affect the tuning a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wondo Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 A weird side benefit of the extra 1cm of the arm hanging past the guitar is I can still use it to add a bit of vibrato' date=' although does affect the tuning a bit. [/quote'] Yeah, these things will go out of tune very quickly if you use the vibrola. It would be really great to record with, but using it live would be a challenge. Another strange thing is the harmonica bridge. I just got done setting mine up and had to adjust the intonation a bit for my brand of strings. There are screws on the back of the bridge facing the tail and flat head slotted nuts facing the bridge pickup. I'm not really sure how to use this bridge exactly. I turned the screws from the back of the bridge but then the front of the bridge became loose or stuck out a bit. I think there is a way to adjust both to get it just right, but I am not completely sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superdick2112 Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 Enduroexpert (and Differentstrings89) - that is the correct link to the Morrison Inn. I'll be wearing a black "Spector Basses" hat, and my sister & I will be upstairs on the patio with many large beer mugs on our table - we should be there around 6:00 or 6:30, the show starts around 8:00, and Red Rocks is only about an 8-minute drive from the pub. Looking forward to it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midnight Blues Posted May 25, 2008 Share Posted May 25, 2008 Mine didn't come with a nut either and to your point about set-up Wondo, I'm actually surprised that Gibson didn't send any literature at all (at least I didn't receive anything), like Fender does, that would provide instruction on the proper set-up, electronics, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wondo Posted May 26, 2008 Share Posted May 26, 2008 Yeah, It would have been nice if Gibson would have included directions. But, I must say, Gibson did a superb job on this guitar. The binding is not 100% perfect but about 99.8% perfect which is better than othes I have seen. The set up is practically flawless. I lowered the bridge, set intonation and took a little bit of relief out of the neck and this thing is playing wonderfully now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evilmusician Posted May 27, 2008 Share Posted May 27, 2008 Yeah' date='It would have been nice if Gibson would have included directions. But, I must say, Gibson did a superb job on this guitar. The binding is not 100% perfect but about 99.8% perfect which is better than othes I have seen. The set up is practically flawless. I lowered the bridge, set intonation and took a little bit of relief out of the neck and this thing is playing wonderfully now. [img']http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb206/RareFormMusic/CIMG0599-1.jpg[/img] Sweet setup! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turkeyT Posted May 27, 2008 Share Posted May 27, 2008 AL 034 is here! I got the call on my cell at work and headed straight to Long & McQuade (a 20 minute walk away). Got it back to the office and played it a bit on it. It's unbelievable. It feels even better than I imagined. For people about to pick theirs up, MAKE SURE YOU GET EVERYTHING COMING TO YOU. In the cardboard box (not the case!) there's an additional plastic bag with a cord, polish cloth, Gibson Custom picks and instructions on setting up the guitar. I would have missed this totally if the guy at L&M didn't fish it out of the box. And my wife and I are going to the RUSH show tonight. Pretty good timing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Envirotech Posted May 27, 2008 Share Posted May 27, 2008 Yeah my Long & McQuade guy was telling me about the box it came in on the phone "of course I want to keep that!" even he was thinking it'll probably be worth something to have everything the guitar came with.. And that bag with the cord fell out of my box when I got it home too, turning it upside down, "hey what's that". I like the vintage font they used on all the instructions. Nothing really new to me on any of the printed cards, or related to the specifics of the Alex model like the harmonica bridge. But looks like Yorkville set up mine perfectly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turkeyT Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 Went to see them live last night. Great show. Sat at the side so had a great view of stage right. Watched the guitar tech tuning up the guitars before the show. Definitely 2 355s being used. I would assume the prototype is being used for the one song in the first set and the original for the encore. The pickguard was removed on both guitars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarFan Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 Is anyone else wondering about the raw edges of the cut outs? I just got mine, and was surprised. Is that right? I thought "laminated maple rims" meant the edges as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wondo Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 How many people have or are going to take the pickguard off the Lifeson. I have been toying with this idea. But, I kind of like it on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Differentstrings89 Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 took mine off right away I love it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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