My new axe

Well, I never thought I'd see the day, but I did it, I bought a Les Paul. Brand new, right out of the box(I saw the guy take it out) Black Epiphone Standard Les Paul with vintage white trim and pickgaurd, Gibson USA Humbuckers. What a sweet playing guitar. It is much easier to solo on this guitar than on my Tele, but the Tele has a tighter string setting so its easier to fret chords at a quick speed. Now I finally have two of my all time favorite guitars.

While Epiphone is the cheaper brand under Gibson,Few people realize that Epiphone has been around longer than Gibson.Just a thought.

Sounds like a sweet axe bro, good luck with it. Quick question for you tho. I think I'm in the same boat as you except with a Strat. I love my guitar but I want to kind of "widen" what I play and what I use... Did you try an actual Gibson Les Paul before you bought the Epiphone and was there a big difference. I just don't want to save (and save and save and save) for a $3000+ Gibson when I can get what I want out of the Epi. I've seen them before and they do look schweet..

thanks!

Yes I did try the Gibson first, just to see the difference. I noiticed a difference in feel on the fingerboard, either was better, they both felt good to me and while playing on the clean channel I noticed the Gibson had a slightly "brighter" sound to it. Other than that I couldn't tell any differences. I say go for the Epiphone, and then work your way up to a Gibson.

Also, save up a couple extra bucks and buy the Standard, not the Studio. The difference between the Epi Studio and Standard was like a Strat and a Tele. Totally different.

I'm a very discriminating guitarist when it comes to my sound, and will not play an Epiphone for more than 20 minutes. I play (as most of you know) a Gibson Les Paul Double CutAway +, which is the best guitar I've played yet.


Note!
I will be having a custom guitar built in about one year from now, I called/emailed my luthier in New York, and the price will be $6,000 instead of my expected $8,000. There are complex wirings and loops and coil splitters, etc, along with Cocobolo wood, etc. It's hard to explain, but I will definitely post pictures when I get it (in a long time from now).

It's all about your preference.


And the size of your wallet.

I want a double cut+!Dont have $1500 laying around though...

Incidents...
You should check out HEX Custom Instruments(formerly known as Gothic Custom Instruments).That dude Tommy can make one mean axe.Give him ANY shape and inlay ideas e.c.t.It would run you less than $6000 I can tell you that much(unless its solid gold hardware and such...which wouldnt be the best considering its a soft metal).Anyway...check him out
You might also want to check out Moser Custom Instruments...another great luthier.

Originally posted by chucklivesoninmyheart
I want a double cut+!Dont have $1500 laying around though...

Incidents...
You should check out HEX Custom Instruments(formerly known as Gothic Custom Instruments).That dude Tommy can make one mean axe.Give him ANY shape and inlay ideas e.c.t.It would run you less than $6000 I can tell you that much(unless its solid gold hardware and such...which wouldnt be the best considering its a soft metal).Anyway...check him out
You might also want to check out Moser Custom Instruments...another great luthier.

Chuck, you are missing the point; This is beyond rare woods, this has to do with electronics as well. Neither of those two companies can fulfill what I'm asking, Matt Moriarty with http://www.moriartyguitars.com can.

Thanks anyways.

~Incidents

I don't know how complex your wiring is, but unless it is something short of the equivalent of a hard wired Ripley Stereo setup, I don't know how complex you can really get with the wiring...

It's not that other people can't do it, its the fact that my luthier does this style of wiring all the time. The signal is basically sent from the guitar to my effects chain, back into a Unity Gain Buffer, sent to the amp, then sent back to the guitar's volume and tone pots. This requires Dual TRS outputs, one being sent to the effects, one being sent to the amplifier.

~Incidents

Your message is really long, so I'll reply to the 2nd one first.

Matt is still in the process of getting his shop set up in New York, and within the next two months or so, should have everything updated.

Those guitars are in the "Wolf" shape, which is one of the guitars that Jerry Garcia used in the 70's. He sells the ones on his page for $3500 or less.

I'm making a 2nd post to this;

~Incidents

On paper, the wiring looks complex; On the guitar, it is not. On the surface of the guitar, are these knobs;

1 Master Volume
1 Master Tone
1 Five-Way Selector Switch
3 Coil Splitters
1 Effects Bypass

You say "3 Coil Splitters, Effect Bypass, you don't need those on the guitar", well I'll tell you that this is NOT a complex guitar setup (btw: I've dropped the MIDI; I will be getting a 2nd guitar for MIDI). Master Vol/Master Tone/5 Way Switch are the only three that NEED to be used; In cases where I want to get a country sound, I simply hit the 2-way toggle for the humbucker I want to turn single coil (3 humbucker'd guitar). As far as my "Effects Bypass", it is simple. I have two TRS outputs instead of one, One goes to the Amp, the other goes to the Effects (or multi effects processor. or effects switcher unit) Pony, this is the same as your A/B selector, except I don't need to send it to a footcontroller, it's right on my guitar. That is what I'll be using, and that's how it goes on the surface.

--------on the inside--------

The guitar is wired in a way that will allow no change in tone due to volume, rather change from my tone knob. This may not make sense, but it allows stability in my sounds, because the signal is always constant. In heavy distortion, I dare you to turn the Tone Control down and tell me you hear a significant differance. The truth is that on a normal guitar, you don't. With this, VOLUME DOESN'T CHANGE YOUR "SOUND". The Tone Knob is much more essential for the effects with this setup; since everything is 'constant', it is wired so i won't have to adjust my effect settings from my rig, rather just change the tone knob for variance in sound.


Remember: the more mouths a message has to pass through to get to the final source, the further it is going to be from its original. The same goes for putting your sound through pot switches, selectors and, also, pedals: the more your tone has to go through the less pure it is. That's why I DELETED 3 of the switches on my Gretsch and instead routed them to a single concentric knob. With the 30 or so solder points you'll have, you'll have to spend an hour figuring out what's wrong when your guitar starts getting crackly.

Pony, this is changed. my older versions had alot more solder points than my newer version. My new version has no more knobs than a Carvin guitar, in fact, LESS knobs than many carvin guitars. The idea is simplicity, and ease of use (although that may seem a bit ironic). Dropping MIDI saved alot of space;

Okay, lets go through this one more time.

3 Humbuckers
-------
1 Master Volume
1 Master Tone
1 Five-Way Selector Switch
3 Coil Splitters
1 Effect Bypass Switch

these are the only switches on the guitar, count em, 7. Now, I could do it your way, Pony, and take off the effect bypass switch, and use an A/B switch, but I ask "why?". I'm pretty sure I hate footcontrollers as much or more than you do, I will not add another thing for my feet to play around with, when it can be put on the guitar as a SIMPLE 2-way switch. As far as coil splitters, they are very common, so that doesn't seem to be the point of argument.

It's 2 AM and I'm getting tired, maybe I'll continue tomorrow.

~Incidents

Originally posted by PonyOne
Oh, okay, I guess I haven't thoroughly read your new methodology... my bad...

but do a search for Valdez Guitars, see what you find. I have to go to work or I'd post a link.

Brian Moore makes a fine MIDI-equipped guitar.

I'll see if I can find Valdez guitars, I think I've heard of him before.

yes, for the price, you can't beat a BM MIDI guitar.

~Incidents