Just got a New Les Paul !

We went North this weekend and ended up in Madison WI via Dave's Guitar Shop in La Crosse. This took us about 2h out of our way but boy was it Worth it ! 1500 axes of all sizes and shapes PRS, Gibson, Fender etc etc !

Well I had an inkling that a new LP would be a good idea and as my wifes brother had been salivating over my studio LP for a while. I let him have it very cheap (600 bucks with Sperzils, strap locks, graph-techs the lot...what a nice man I am). I had also been thinking about getting rid of the 72 Thinline Tele as it played like a dog and didn't really sound very nice. It was OK but a long way form either the LP or the PRS.

SO the Tele went as well. OK that is a grand in the war chest ! Lets go !!

SO I played a bunch of LPs a second hand supreme (very high action...not very nice), a couple of standards, also very clunky and finally a couple of 60s re-issue classics. The classics played very well and on that strength I parted with another 475 on top of the war chest fund and got me a honey burst. The pickups (496R/500T) are a little hotter than I am used to and have a different frequency response to the 490R/498T combo of the Studio, which I prefer. So I think I'm going to get me some 490R/498Ts and swap 'em out. I have also ordered a set of graph-techs and sperzles as well as a white (in stead of the orange) toggle switch it came with which looks like it has smoked too much !!

Just for clarity the reason I bought this Axe is the way it feels and plays. It is faster than my Ex-studio and just feels nicer. I will post some MP3 type stuff once I have my act together.

Overall impressions....yummm !

Wow, have fun with that. I've played some nice LPs at the local shop that I just can't afford. Man, I can't wait until I get my Bachelor's, get a decent job, and actually have some cash to blow on my rather expensive tastes in guitars. Being a college student blows financially. It's cool during the summer when I'm making ~$15/hour full time, but during the school year I just don't have time to work (because I take 19-20 credits a semester). Unfortunately, a lot of that money I make over the summer ends up feeding me and not my guitar habit. Ah well, I guess I'll stop my b****ing, a lot of people have it worse than me.

Dude, tell me about it ! I shudder to think of my years as a student, buying Gibsons was not an option !

I'm still saving up to get a LP Classic. Can't beat the tone. I have a few guitars, Fernandes Strat copy, Ibanez AX7221 7 string, Peavey Predator (another strat copy), Music Man EVH, Alvarez acoustic/electric, Yamaha bass. I was considering doing a trade on a LP with my EVH, but, I finally decided against that since the EVH's are getting rare. Probably something I should hold onto. Enjoy your new LP........

Originally Posted by: PonyOne... I know that LP's are truly a hit or miss, and if you get a hit, you've got one sweeeeeeeet guitar on/in your hands.

... and if you get a miss, you get to spend the rest of your life with the thought that the same dollars could have bought you a no-problem, sweeeeeet-every-time Yamaha SG or SBG! :p ... with enough money left over to buy whatever aftermarket pickups/stompboxes your acquisitive lust demands! :D

[QUOTE=Dr_simon]We went North this weekend and ended up in Madison WI
QUOTE]

Hey Doc, I live about an hour and 15 minutes away from Madison, ever heard of Fond du lac (wisconsin)?

~Incidents

That's so cool. The closest im getting to an lp is an epiphone. I'm only 12 so i figure wen im old enough top work most of my spending money is gonns go towards guitars and gear.

Incidents, Madison was lovely, really nice part of the world I jealous !!!

Guitar freak, stick at it, it has taken me 20 years of guitar playing to get to the point where I own an LP !!! This is LP #2, the Studio was nice but I really wanted to have a relatively inexpensive (600 USD from ebay) try out just to see what all the fuss was about !

I'm getting the Epiphone '56 Goldtop. Gotta love those P-90's. I don't think people should knock Epiphone and say "well, all I can afford is an Epiphone, so I GUESS I'll get one". Why don't you just keep saving and then you'll have enough money for the Gibson. If you want it enough you'll not spend your money. And besides Epiphone make good quality instruments.

Just finished the mods on the LP with no problems:
graphtechs (man the ABR-1s are a pain) are on,
Sperzles are on and
I swapped out the 496R/500T PUs and replaced them with 498R/490T.

This took me about 4h start to finish and it was quite an easy job and for spending 30 bucks on tools I figure I saved about 100 bucks on labour.

The only tricky bit was boring out the holes in the headstock and drilling locating holes for the Sperzles. I can now bend 5 half steps on the 12 fret (G string)... with no tuning problems !

The pickups are not quit so hot and are a little more resilient to breaking up, that is exactly what I was after so cool !

All in all I enjoyed tinkering with stuff and the axe is now exactly what I was looking for ! MP3s to follow !