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Should I trade my Tele for a Les Paul Classic w/ P90's ?


cave89

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Hi everyone!, I was wondering if you could help me out on choosing the right Axe for my single coil needs. I'm trying to cover as much sonic spectrum as I can with my guitars, I'm really into 90's Alternative Rock and I run all my guitars through a MESA Mark V with great results... Right now I have a Ted McCarty Limited Edition PRS to cover all my thick humbucker PAF'y stuff , a Gibson Firebird for my bluesy needs and an American Pro Tele for all the sparkly cleans, but recently a friend of mine who loves Tele's offered me his 2018 Les Paul Classic w/P90's in trade for my Tele, as a matter of fact I've already owned that Lester and I loved it, but not sure if I could get Tele cleans on it... what do you guys and gals think?

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If it's my decision I don't sell one for the other.  A p90 gibson (be it a paul or an sg) is going to sound like a p90 loaded gibson. 

A telecaster is going to sound, like...  yea, you guessed it, a telecaster.  My bet is over time you'll miss the tele.

I know this b/c I bought and sold 4 of them before I finally smartened up and decided to always keep at least ONE telecaster on hand. 

The fact is, Telecasters have their own voice.   nothing else will sound like a Tele.

 

 

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"If it's my decision I don't sell one for the other.  ...

The fact is, Telecasters have their own voice.   nothing else will sound like a Tele." - Ray is right. On the other hand, if You are considering this exchange, then probably You haven't really bonded with that Tele.

Bence.

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Thank you all for the great advice, I'm keeping the Tele. Its true, nothing else sounds like a Tele... And I have also realized that I can live with the p90ish tone i get form the mini 'buckers on my firebird 'till i get my hands on a good P90 loaded lester or SG, they aren't too expensive 2nd hand on Reverb anyway... 

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3 hours ago, cave89 said:

Thank you all for the great advice, I'm keeping the Tele. Its true, nothing else sounds like a Tele... And I have also realized that I can live with the p90ish tone i get form the mini 'buckers on my firebird 'till i get my hands on a good P90 loaded lester or SG, they aren't too expensive 2nd hand on Reverb anyway... 

From my experience , minis sound nothing like P90s.  

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14 hours ago, btoth76 said:

"If it's my decision I don't sell one for the other.  ...

The fact is, Telecasters have their own voice.   nothing else will sound like a Tele." - Ray is right. On the other hand, if You are considering this exchange, then probably You haven't really bonded with that Tele.

Bence.

Hey Bence!  Glad to see you're still around!  Been a while.  Hope all is well.

And Brad is right, P90s and Mini Buckers are also quite different.  

Cave, Scope out SG Classics on Reverb or the Bay.  They stopped making them sometime around 2009 I think.  But they're nice SGs.  P90s, bound neck, white "Bean" tuners.

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On 5/27/2020 at 5:54 AM, kidblast said:

Hey Bence!  Glad to see you're still around!  Been a while.  Hope all is well.

And Brad is right, P90s and Mini Buckers are also quite different.  

Cave, Scope out SG Classics on Reverb or the Bay.  They stopped making them sometime around 2009 I think.  But they're nice SGs.  P90s, bound neck, white "Bean" tuners.

Sounds great, i'll be in the lookout for one of those SG Classics, i've always heard nothing but great things about those, I think p90's and SG's go like bread and butter, just can't go wrong with that!. As far as the mini humbuckers vs p90 tone, I can tell you that my bird has the midrange punch and the brightness of something that reminds me of a p90'ish experiment but without the hum obviously, it'll be interesting having both the p90 and the mini hum flavor at my disposal, anyway thanks for all the hints and tips!

 
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Edited by cave89
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I will offer a dissenting opinion.

Listen to Roy Buchanan's albums.  When he switched to a Gold Top with humbuckers  he sounded JUST like Roy Buchanan.  I think it's the guitarist and experimenting with amp settings.  

I couldn't get used to the neck on my SG Classic so sold that off but out of the 3 Gibsons I've had with P90s the cheapie double cut faded yellow Les Paul sounded the best.  The other one was a Les Paul Special with an ebony fret board.  That one was the best instrument but it sounded the cruddiest of the bunch.  Go figure.

I haven't had  P90s in a carved top Les Paul or a 335 but wouldn't mind trying that out.  P90s in a Firebird is another thought and would probably be the best of the bunch due to the neck through body construction.  Hmmm...

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For alternative rock, the Tele is probably better suited.  I would think. 

It looks like you have your sound palette covered. Lose the Tele, and there go the twangy cleans. 

I say this, of course, as someone who's never played a Tele in his life. 

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I would try it first on your amp and see if you like it. You have a nice collection going, but the P90's are a completely different animal. Requiring some tweaking of your amp and effects differently, usually a little cleaner as the P90's are a little more driven. But turning down the volume on the guitar will clean it up a bit. Perhaps adding it to your stable unless your are tired of the Tele.

I have small collection of different types of guitars, all with P90's.. All with slightly different versions of P90's and have very wide tone ranges.

MTDjKBA.jpg

Edited by mihcmac
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On 5/27/2020 at 10:40 AM, cave89 said:

Sounds great, i'll be in the lookout for one of those SG Classics, i've always heard nothing but great things about those, I think p90's and SG's go like bread and butter, just can't go wrong with that!. 

 
  • Yeah, I agree!  Is it frowned on to mention Epiphone here?  For 2020 Epi has two SGs with P-90s selling for around $400 while Gibson has the SG Standard starting at $1500 new.
  • I've got an Epi G-400 SG and am swapping out the HBs for GFS HB-sized P-90s,  From the good reviews of those pups I'm expecting great results.

 

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On May 26, 2020 at 10:29 AM, jvi said:

add dont subtrack...

+1

If you have to get rid of one it would be the PRS. Keep the Tele. Replace the PRS with an ES330 P90's, Elitist Casino or one of the new USA Casinos.. Add Bigsby..

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