Quantcast Ryan's Guitars: New Guitar!! Goldtop Les Paul Classic

Thursday, October 04, 2007

New Guitar!! Goldtop Les Paul Classic

I'm baaaaack... and with a major haircut! Still cycling and loving it, but the guitar has seduced me back into all things music.

Whoa! I finally did it... I bought a Gibson! I said I would never be a Gibson owner, and I certainly never thought I'd ever own a Les Paul. I always had trouble playing them because I grew up playing the flat profile Strat shape. After spending a good amount of time with my Grestch Power Jet I finally trained myself to handle the higher bridge.

I LOVE this guitar. It is a Les Paul Classic, so it isn't the most expensive model but not the cheapest either. This particular one felt really good, has tons of balls and plays exceptionally well. After spending a few days probing thoroughly I just can't find anything wrong with it. ;) It's definitely a keeper.

The Classics have the thinner 60's profile neck, tall frets and slightly yellowed trap inlays. The fretwork on this guitar is very good and well finished... nut is superbly cut and the Nashville TOM bridge appears to be of the pre-slotted variety, so there are no slotting issues on the bridge. The thumbscrew pins are bent slightly because the stopbar was screwed down way too tight and I think the string pressure bent them. I have new ones on order from Stew Mac.

I'll be re-stringing with a "reverse wrap" on the stopbar from now on. This will allow me to screw the stopbar all the way flush to the body without having too sharp of a string angle (thus, avoiding more bent pins and a collapsed bridge!). This should also provide better coupling and a slightly rounder, warmer tone. Since this particular guitar seems a bit on the treble side I think a reverse wrap will balance things out nicely.

This guitar has tons of sustain! The stock pickups are really hot and could probably stand to be lowered a tad from the very high factory setting. I'll probably experiment with some Duncans just to see if I like them. I will also be ordering a new blank pickguard and truss rod cover so I can get rid of the unnecessary script on those items.

Overall I am very happy with this guitar! I have always wanted a Goldtop Les Paul, and I am lucky to have found one with such good fit and finish. Gibson quality can be hit or miss so I feel extra fortunate that this one turned out so well.

More to come as I do some PU mods and set her up!

3 comments:

  1. Brutto Faccia di Cazzo!!! Great pictures and awesome comments! Now it's time to update your bike"s blog! Get to work....

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  2. Ha Ha! Thanks for checking out the blog, Dan. :) You must have been very bored to be up at 2am looking at my guitar blog.

    Don't worry, I have much to do on the bike blog, but I'll get it done sooner or later. :) Your pic will be up there at some point!

    See ya!
    RR

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  3. Anonymous8:51 AM

    How would you say the Les Paul compares to the new Gretsch. Tone, playability, etc, basically any thoughts

    I have had a few Gretsches in my life (I love them). I am considering a buying a Jet, but the thought of a Les Paul is also compelling. I like playing blues inspired rock (The Black Keys, White Stripes etc).

    My other guitars are:
    Gretsch 6118 Annie (has great sounding Filtertrons)
    1965 Airline pro (3 pickups and white).
    1968 Harmony H74 (fantastic tone)
    1963 Airline 7215 (Airline version of a Stratotone, sort of like a tuxedo)
    Nash T52 (humbucker in the neck)
    Godin 5th Ave.

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