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New Les Paul Day


badbluesplayer

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What's not to love on that fiddle?

 

 

I played it a bunch yesterday through a DR and PR and I was struggling a little to get the thing to sound good. It's pretty harsh sounding with a super narrow sweet spot on the controls. I can say without hesitation that this guitar has the worst sounding electronics of any Gibson I ever played. I figured up front that I'd be replacing the guts, so it's kind of in the budget already. [thumbup]

 

So I popped off the back plate to see what they're doing with the electronics. I didn't remove the board yet, so I couldn't figure it out 100% yet. There are no schematics available or any description of what's actually going on (strike one). I discovered that it's basically 50's wiring, which makes for a very narrow sweet spot (strike two). It has two treble bleeds, one of which seems to always be in the circuit (the rhythm pickup). The other one is in a weird place and I couldn't tell how it kicks in. Strike two and a half.

 

The push pull functions are just kind of foolish. I tried the out-of-phase thing. I tried the tone pot bypass thing. I didn't try the coil taps/splits. I have a telecaster, I just need this to sound like a Les Paul. I didn't try the 5 different functions that the dip switches are for. One of them, an overload circuit includes two little clipping diodes (ewww). To an amp guy and an engineer, this stuff is science fair level material. Nice project Jimmy. You strangled this LP until it sounds like a science fair. [laugh]

 

I can't really tell if the pickups are that good. I'll have to do some research and try them with some conventional controls with regular sixties wiring and see how they are. They' just super harsh with these electronics.

 

I'll prolly replace the whole guts. Make a new harness with some two wire pickups. No diodes, please. [biggrin]

 

Hey Gibson boss man - get rid of this stuff, save yourself a few mil every year and stop trying to be smarter than your customers. You're not. The customer is king. Not Jim Decola. Why is that guy even anywhere within 100 miles of Nashville? I figured they'd run him out with Henry.

 

Anyway, the guitar itself is super nice.

 

I was sorta half-way kidding, too. Had forgotten how tricked up that pony was. I love my 2008 Standard, but apparently, the wiring/electronics aren't even close to the same. I will be interested to see what you think of the pickups, if you can actually hear them through all of the options. They are my favorite Gibson humbuckers. Also, I'm with you on split coils... never play the singles on the guitar I have with that option.

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I was sorta half-way kidding, too. Had forgotten how tricked up that pony was. I love my 2008 Standard, but apparently, the wiring/electronics aren't even close to the same. I will be interested to see what you think of the pickups, if you can actually hear them through all of the options. They are my favorite Gibson humbuckers. Also, I'm with you on split coils... never play the singles on the guitar I have with that option.

I ordered a set of Fralin Pure PAF's and I ordered the pots, switch and shielded cabling from StewMac and it'll be here today. Not sure how long the pickups will take to make and ship. I'll rewire it to sixties wiring. The electronics seem to be nice and transparent as long as you don't use the treble bleeds. And as long as you like fifties wiring. The tone is funky with the treble bleeds, like it's getting tortured pretty good. It looks like a normal treble bleed but when you can switch it in and out you can really hear how the treble bleed cuts into the fullness of the tone. And the pickups are just a little too trebly for me.

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Yeah, IMO that design sounds like a recipe for subpar performance

 

I’m sure you’ll like it better once it’s redone. You gonna do any shielding tape while you’re in there? I know Gibson uses shielded cable already, but I noticed a big improvement when I shielded my SG control cavity. Thing is dead quiet into my cranked 5e3 clone. I was playing my friend’s beautiful 335 into the same amp this weekend, and sure enough I noticed a little noise that isn’t there with the SG.

 

All subtle stuff but I think we can agree it’s the fine details that sometimes take it to the next level of quality

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I ordered a set of Fralin Pure PAF's and I ordered the pots, switch and shielded cabling from StewMac and it'll be here today.

 

I have several sets of Fralins, but not the PAFs. His PAFs have gotten great reviews.

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