The Les Paul Quest Part 2

In Part 1 of The Les Paul Quest  I wrote about the Provision Les Paul my friend was contemplating on getting.  But you know, contemplate on something for too long and it'll grow legs and walk away.

With the Provision Les Paul snapped up by another buyer, Sherman sent me an email with pics of a Les Paul from the far, Far East -- Thailand! 

Thai-made guitars are a fairly recent entry into the guitar market and I'd tried a couple of bolt-on strat and tele-style guitars over the last couple of years.  Both were made by one Prasit Pariyarungsri. 

The guitars were pretty well-made and the attention to detail was definitely there.  But because they used indigenous local woods, they tended to be extremely heavy -- imagine a tele-style axe with a bolt-on neck weighing in at almost 9lbs! 

That would be on the heavy side even for a regular Les Paul.  And at that kind of weight a guitar is just not going to resonate.  The two guitars I tried felt like the pickups were speaking directly to the strings, with no contributing acoustic resonance from the body and neck at all.  Which is fine, maybe even desired, for heavier rock and metal, which would appeal to a sizeable chunk of the Thai guitar-buying market. 

From what I understand, Prasit apprenticed under another Thai guitar maker -- whose name eludes me now -- who also made a variety of solidbody guitars in the style of Gibson, Tom Anderson, Fender and PRS and marketed under the brand 'POT'.  And browsing the NNG Guitars website -- Prasit's current guitar company -- it looks like they are taking a similar approach.

This particular Prasit-built NNG Les Paul copy comes upgraded with woods more traditionally associated with the Gibson family.  The description in the email from Prasit himself is as follows:

********
Neck Joint : Set in (Long neck tenon type)    

Neck : One piece mahogany
Fretboard :  Rosewood with Mother of Pearl trapezoid inlays
Headstock shape : Les paul standard shape with real ebony wood veneer
Body :  Almost one piece Honduras mahogany (the one piece has 90% of total width body jointed with another piece has 10% of remainder).  However I ever found original Les Paul jointed same as this, everybody can be called that one piece body
Body top : Book match highly curly flame maple(4A grade)
PUs. : 2× genuine Alnico V magnet

********

And I appreciate the guy's honesty about the ratio of wood that makes up the body joint. Try getting the Gibson Custom Shop to openly offer up that kind of information!

Prasit's current approach, now that he has access to Honduran mahogany, is to bring his Les Paul guitars in at between 7.5 to 8lbs. 

I'm really digging the real mother of pearl inlays!  Why Gibson continues to use cheap pearloid plastic for the inlays on their Les Paul Standards continues to elude me. 

And it looks like NNG Guitars is getting their own Alnico humbuckers custom made as well.  Interesting.


Check 'em out -- http://www.nngguitars.com/

The Les Paul Quest Part 1

A good buddy of mine is on a quest for his ultimate Les Paul and he has kindly agreed to let me document his ongoing research and correspondence with the various luthiers, pickup makers and hardware manufacturers. Thanks Sherman! 

And having owned several Gibson Les Pauls in the past, he initially had his sights set on one of the obscure Japanese manufacturers.

Like this Provision Les Paul.

Largely unknown outside of the US, Provision makes mid to very high-end Les Paul copies in limited runs.

From Ishibashi Japan's U-Box listing of used instruments, this axe features a nicely flamed, solid maple top, mahogany neck and body and comes equipped with Seymour Duncan 59N and JB pickups.  It was listed on Ishibashi's U-Box for 140,952 yen  or US$1854.  This was Provision's mid-level model, so the price brand new would have been in the US$2500 region.  Pretty crazy I know.

So why would anyone want to pay that much for a no-name guitar?  Folks, it's all about attention to detail and looking past that unfamiliar name on the headstock. 

Gibson's quality began to flag in the early '90s.  My theory is that one Saul Hudson aka Slash suddenly drove demand for Les Paul guitars through the roof and Gibson were caught off-guard and were unable to crank them out fast enough.  In the process, quality was sacrificed. 

And thanks to Slash's popularity, almost overnight Gibson guitars appeared with dodgy craftmanship -- sloppy finishing, rough fretwork with sharp fret ends and misaligned pearloid fingerboard markers inlaid into oversized slots with a huge amount of surrounding wood filler.

What better conditions for a high-end Les Paul-copy market in Japan to suddenly fluorish and prosper, appealing to a culture that is positively fanatical about details.



This particular guitar sold out pretty quickly from Ishibashi's listing despite the numerous dings and dents that pervaded the headstock, sides and back.

Stay tuned for upcoming instalments of the Les Paul Quest!

Gibson 9/11 Les Paul

As we approach the 10th anniversary of that fateful day of September 11, 2001 let's take some time out to remember and honor those who passed. 

And let's not forget also, those who continue to bear the emotional burden of having lost a loved one in that tragedy.

Time, they say, heals all wounds.  And it does.  Up to point. 

I am entirely unqualified to give anyone who has lost someone in 9/11 any kind of advice.  But I can tell you how I deal with personal losses of my own. 

And it is simply this -- remember a favorite song you shared. 

Remember how you sang along to it, or danced to it, or laughed about it.  Remember the dinner you were having the first time you heard that favorite song, or that long drive together when it came on the radio.

Music has that incredible ability to transport one back in time to a happier place.  And if you can smell, taste or even momentarily touch a precious moment once shared you realise that that person, though no longer at your side, is very much a part of your being, your very DNA.  And they are not far away. 

This is music's gift to me.  And I hope, to you.

I initially wanted to peg this post as part of my Random Guitar of the Day series.   But then I realised how trivial that would make it all seem.  There is nothing random about this guitar. 

It's purposeful.  And the handpainting on it is purposeful.  It exudes as much heartfelt emotion as any great work of art.  And if art is a reflection of life, it don't get much more real than this.

If only we would all just pick up a guitar, any guitar, and direct our attention to the peaceful act of making music, instead of planning that next random act of senseless violence.  Legislated or not.  

Screw the guns and bombs.  Hopefully, one day we'll all evolve enough to know better.

Gibson 9/11 Les Paul

Les Paul Owned 9/11 Gibson Guitar on eBay

This Gibson Les Paul Standard Premium Plus was donated by Les Paul himself to raise funds for the Uniformed Firefighters' Association Widows and Childrens Fund in the wake of the September 11 tragedy.

This Les Paul received a custom paint graphic by retired NYC fireman Peter Ortel and then sent to Madison Square Garden where it was displayed before being auctioned on eBay in 2002.

Depicting firefighters raising the American flag at Ground Zero, the graphic is stunning and made all the more poignant by the fact that it was done by one of New York City's Bravest. 

eBay Item #: 110503138126

Orianthi, Rick Nielsen and Brian Ray Pay Tribute To Les Paul

Orianthi is definitely making her rounds -- this time performing a solo rendition of the Star Spangled Banner for the opening of an NFL game between the Miami Dolphins and the Houston Texans in Miami on December 27th 2009.

The Aussie lass was later joined at half-time by Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen and Brian Ray of Paul McCartney's band for a Gibson Guitar Tribute to Les Paul jam.

One of those rare occasions you'll see Orianthi with a Les Paul. And with a Floyd Rose to boot!

(Pic Source: AP Photo)

It's Golden -- The Birth Of The Gibson Les Paul

The Broadcaster, Fender's first widely marketed solidbody, was a runaway success. With a retail price of $170 in 1950, the utilitarian design -- little more than a maple neck bolted to a plank of wood with simple electronics -- was easy and cheap to manufacture.

And the Broadcaster -- soon to be renamed the Telecaster -- was to be something of a thorn in the side of Gibson's president, Ted McCarty.

On the one hand, he was eager to have Gibson launch their own solidbody electric guitar. At the same time he was being pressurized by his compatriots at other companies who were strongly advising him not to do so as this would legitimize the abomination that was the solidbody electric guitar!

Realising the enormous sales potential of a Gibson-made solidbody, McCarty set the engineering wheels in motion in November 1950 for what was to become the first Les Paul model, soon after the Broadcaster appeared on the market.

Seeking to produce a solidbody of a higher calibre than Fender's, McCarty and the engineers at Gibson decided on a glued-in set neck and more sophisticated electronics. It was also decided that the guitar was to have a carved arched top, much like their hollowbodies -- Gibson had a special shaper that could carve the arched top, a machine that Fender did not have. In effect, they took most of the features of their hollowbody archtop line and incorporated them into a solidbody instrument.

Mahogany was decided upon as the body wood, but by itself it was dark sounding. Solid maple was also considered but it would have been too heavy and bright sounding used on its own. With a carved maple top glued to a solid mahogany body, the characteristics of both woods were fully realised, with the darker sounding tone of the mahogany countered by the bright sounding maple cap.

A few years earlier, Les Paul, the late guitar legend, had approached Gibson with his 'Log', hoping to sell them the concept of the solidbody electric and had been unceremoniously dismissed. With Gibson's new solidbody in the works, McCarty decided to approach Les Paul for design input as well as for an endorsement deal.

The final design included a 24 3/4" scale with 22 frets on a rosewood fingerboard, Kluson tuners and a 3-way toggle switch for selecting between the guitar's two P90 pickups. Each P90 had two Alnico 5 magnets wound with 42 gauge enamelled wire, producing a DC resistance of 8.66 k ohms. A cream plastic casing enclosed each pickup.

McCarty presented the prototype to Les at a recording session in a mountain lodge in Pennsylvania. An endorsement agreement was reached that night, and Les would receive a 5% royalty for every guitar sold for a period of 5 years.

The Les Paul model, as it came to be known, was launched in mid-1952 and priced at $210.

At Les' suggestion, the guitars were available only with a gold-finished top, further characterizing it as a luxury instrument.

At Les' suggestion also, the bridge with a trapeze tailpiece (as shown in the pic) was installed as a standard feature. But because these early Les Pauls were made with a very shallow neck pitch, the action was too high, even when the bridge was set at its lowest. To counteract the problem, Gibson started wrapping the string under the bridge instead of over it, which helped in lowering the action. But it also meant that Les Paul, the guitar's sole endorsee, could not incorporate his trademark palm-muting technique with this setup. Intonation was also inaccurate with these early bridges.

According to Les, these design flaws were the result of a gap in communication between himself and Gibson's engineers. When Gibson sent him some of these guitars, he immediately called them to stop production and fix the problem, which was primarily the result of the neck pitch being incorrect.

In January 1954, the trapeze was replaced with a single bar tailpiece design that was held by two bolts set into the guitar's top. The neck pitch was also increased which meant the guitar became more playable with lower action and improved intonation. In 1955 the tune-o-matic bridge was introduced on the Les Paul goldtops, allowing for extremely fine intonation adjustment, delegating the stud tailpiece to the sole purpose of anchoring the strings.

Like the Broadcaster, the Gibson Les Paul model was a huge success upon its release, and in its many marketing incarnations, proves to be golden til today.

Les Paul -- An Icon Passes

Innovator, inventor, recording pioneer, brilliant musician and one of the guitar's greatest elder statesmen has left us.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/arts/music/14paul.html

It's a sad day for the guitar universe.

But the world is richer -- much richer -- from him having come our way.

RIP Les.

Les Paul And The Origins Of His Namesake

Lester William Polsfuss, more famously known as Les Paul, is widely credited with inventing the solidbody electric guitar. Believing that a solidbody instrument would give him added sustain while eliminating unwanted resonances, Les commissioned two custom solidbody instruments to be built for him in 1937 by luthier August Larson.

In the early '40s he built his third solidbody himself using a 4” x 4” center block of pinewood attached to an Epiphone neck and fitted with a single pickup. Dubbed ‘The Log’, a pair of sides was cut from an old guitar and attached to the center block to make it look more like a guitar.

He approached Gibson’s parent company, CMI, in the late ‘40s to discuss marketing a solidbody instrument based on his design -- Gibson was producing predominantly hollowbody archtops and acoustic guitars at the time.

Les Paul had very definite ideas as to the design of the guitar that was to later become his namesake. Type of wood, choice of pickups and even the idea of finishing the guitar in gold paint were all in Les' design proposal to the corporate bigwigs at CMI.

Unfortunately, bringing ‘The Log’ to the meeting did not work in Les’ favor. The CMI boss dismissed his idea, calling him ‘the guy with the broomstick’.

But things were to change a couple of years later when Gibson began developing a solidbody guitar following in the wake of Fender's successful solidbody, the Telecaster.

Les Paul had become a huge music celebrity as one-half of the Les Paul and Mary Ford duo, and hoping to leverage on Les’ popularity, Gibson’s president Ted McCarty contacted him with the proposal of an endorsement deal. Signing a 5-year contract, Les was to play the guitar that bore his name exclusively, in return for a five per cent royalty on sales.

The first production models, sporting a gold finish, combination bridge/tailpiece and cream P90 non-humbucking pickups were delivered to Les in May 1952. He used them onstage the following month at the Paramount Theatre in New York.

In 1954, the high-end black Les Paul Custom was produced. Featuring the newly designed tune-o-matic bridge and stop bar tailpiece for more accurate intonation, the Custom was decked out with pearl inlay on the ebony fingerboard and headstock and multi-ply binding around the body and headstock.

Interestingly, Les Paul never kept any of his original endorsement guitars from the ‘50s – he had no idea at the time that the guitars that bore his name would become such collector’s items.

Seymour Duncan -- Pickup Tonemeister

Seymour Duncan started playing the guitar in bands in 1963, but it was meeting legendary guitarist Les Paul that fired his interest in guitar electronics. Little did he know at the time that, like Les Paul, his own name would also become part of electric guitar history.

Duncan also befriended the late guitarist Roy Buchanan, turning up at his gigs to hear the Tele-master in action. But because Duncan was underage, he would hide behind the bar at Buchanan’s gigs.

Stumped by the tonal difference between Buchanan’s ’53 Telecaster and his own ’56 model, Duncan started writing to Bill Carson at Fender. Carson was a gigging western swing guitarist and fellow Telecaster player who worked with Fender on an ad hoc basis, acting as road-tester for Fender’s new guitar and amp products.

Duncan made several important discoveries by tinkering with his guitars and trying to make improvements.

For example, frustrated with the microphonic squeal from the pickups on his Telecaster, he disassembled the pickup on an older guitar and found paraffin wax encasing the windings. Paraffin wax, he discovered, held the windings of the pickup solidly in place, virtually eliminating microphonic feedback. Duncan had found a critical element that he was to faithfully implement in his own line of pickups later on.

One night during a gig, the lead pickup on his Tele suddenly stopped working and, out of necessity, he rewound the pickup using a record turntable the following day. Experimenting with the different tones that different windings could produce he started rewinding pickups with a machine he had built, using a sewing machine pedal to control the speed of the turns.

He inadvertently set the machine to wind in the opposite direction, an error which led to another discovery – reverse winding also reversed the pickup’s polarity and when used in combination with a regular wound pickup both became hum-cancelling. This was an important discovery especially when applied to single-coils.

In 1968 Duncan took a job at a television station where he managed to meet and talk guitars with celebrity guitarists like Glen Campbell, Jerry Reed and Cal Collins.

A four-year stint in England followed, where he immersed himself in studio recording at night while doing repair work at the Fender Soundhouse R&D and Repair Department during the day for Peter Frampton, Marc Bolan, The Who, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck.

Upon returning to the States, he began manufacturing pickguards, bridges and knobs and selling them to Schecter, Charvel and Mighty Mite who were pioneering the guitar replacement parts industry.

In 1976 Duncan moved to Santa Barbara to set up a pickup rewinding service which soon blossomed into a replacement pickup business, hot on the heels of a certain Larry DiMarzio.

As mentioned above in the Seymour Duncan ad from 1979, Duncan’s business was also based on creating pickups built to his customer’s specifications, in addition to selling his own stock line of custom pickups.

Feeling that he had more to learn, Duncan started consulting with Leo Fender, Seth Lover, the inventor of the Gibson humbucking pickup, and Doc Kauffman, Leo’s early business partner and fellow tinkerer.

Seymour Duncan keeps meticulous records of every pickup he has ever taken apart and scrutinized – electrical readings, number of windings, layer patterns, magnet types – and he keeps one of each of these pickups in the company’s archives for future reference.

As he puts it, “I’ve just looked at a lot of small details that other people might have overlooked.”

Buy Seymour Duncan Pickups Here!

How To Choose A Guitar That's Right For You

This article is not about whether you should buy a Les Paul or a Fender Stratocaster.

Nor is it about buying a guitar that suits your budget, musical genre or penchant for a particular color. This article also has nothing to do with body-woods, fret size, neck shape, pickup configuration, or the age-old tonal debate of the tremelo versus a fixed bridge.

It goes slightly deeper than that.

On a Saturday afternoon in 1981 I decided it was time to get my first 'good' electric guitar. Heavily influenced by the jazz-rock guitarists of the day and given the limitations of my student budget, I decided on the Ibanez line of semi-hollowbody electrics. I even had a model in mind -- the Ibanez AS100. And preferably in a sunburst finish.

Accompanied by two of my guitar playing buddies, we made the bus journey to the guitar shop downtown. Needless to say I was excited.

At the guitar shop another teen, slightly older than I, was trying out a small-bodied sunburst Ibanez AS50. He was playing a few funky rhythmic ideas that I thought were pretty cool. A local professional drummer of some repute was standing nearby. After listening in for a few minutes he exclaimed, "This boy's got rhythm!" The kid put the guitar down when he was done and I asked the gentleman who ran the shop if I could have a go.

I picked it up, plugged it in and the first thing that struck me was how comfortable it felt in my hands. It had a low action, a really smooth, slinky feel and it sounded great. I proceeded to noodle on it, playing some rhythms and lines.

And I started to realise that I was playing some things that were beyond my level of development. To my ears, my playing sounded effortless and professional, bearing in mind that up to that point I had been playing for only 4 years . Even the man who ran the shop, who had seen me play in his store more times than he probably cared to remember, commented at my drastic improvement. My two buddies were staring at me, agog with disbelief.

The guitar was perfect except for one thing. It was not the AS100 model but a slightly cheaper lower-end model in the series. I put it down and asked if I could try out the AS100 which was also on display.

It was a gorgeous instument with a transparent red finish that showed the grain of the wood beautifully with a symmetrical pearl inlay design on the headstock. I plugged it in, tuned and started to play. And I sounded like my old self again.

Gone was that magic I had felt coursing through my hands just moments before on that other guitar. I rationalized that it was some sort of strange fluke. I was also sure that now that I had experienced that magical feeling, I could work toward experiencing it again and with some practice, make it a permanent feature in my playing.

And I put the money down on the AS100.

Don't get me wrong. The Ibanez AS100 I had purchased -- and still own -- is a fine instrument. But I can't help but wonder about the musical direction I would have taken because of the leaps and bounds I might have made in my playing, if I had gone for that 'magical' guitar all those years ago.

Since then, I've experienced this phenomena several times over the years -- that strange connection with an instrument for no apparent reason. About 20 years ago I played a beat-up early 70's Stratocaster that belonged to a rehearsal studio. It had ridiculously high action and rusty strings and was difficult to play, but it too had that magical vibe. It was then that I also realized that the physical setup of a guitar had nothing to do with this connection I was feeling with certain instruments.

In a 1983 Guitar Player magazine interview, Frank Zappa succinctly stated, "If you pick up a guitar and it seems to scream 'take me', then that is the guitar for you."

How true.

I never go guitar shopping anymore. Not deliberately. I prefer to let myself naturally discover instruments that I truly feel a connection with -- guitars that are so inspiring that I feel a sense of joy and freedom playing them. These instruments are few and far between.

Joe Bonamassa | Signature Sounds, Styles & Techniques DVD

Bonamassa opens this DVD with a free-form guitar solo that is very reminiscent of Eric Johnson with flurries of pentatonic licks cascading in position vertically up and down the fingerboard. Which I find strange. Most guitarists, given the opportunity to produce their own DVD, would strive at the outset to establish their own distinct musical identity.

But no matter. Perhaps it was more of a homage and stylistic tip of the hat to Eric Johnson, whom Bonamassa is obviously greatly influenced by.

In the first chapter of this dvd, Bonamassa proceeds to talk about the versatility of the Fender Stratocaster and begins by playing what he calls a Hendrix blues-rock style. Again we hear that unmistakeable Eric Johnson influence. I admire Bonamassa's playing, so this is just an observation on my part, as a fan of both Eric and Joe. And Jimi.

His explanation of the different pickup selection combinations available on the Fender Strat is one of the clearest and best I've seen as he explores the various timbres the instrument has to offer. He also demonstrates using the tone controls for even more colors and mentions how he wires the lead pickup on his Strat to a tone control where the lead pickup would ordinarily not be wired.  Really, a very valuable insider tip to get that Strat lead pickup under control, and something too few instructional videos talk about.

Joe goes on to very ably demonstrate his various techniques on a custom Gigliotti telecaster-style guitar with a brass top(!) and a Gibson Les Paul.  And Bonamassa's pro tip on stabilizing the Tele's bridge pickup to eliminate squealing feedback is priceless information to Tele players everywhere!

His sections on rhythm playing, soloing and slide guitar, while not being very explanatory as far as the notes he is hitting, are nevertheless good demonstrations of the many stylistic facets of his style. A beginner or novice would, however, be left in the dust with no clue. As with the other examples throughout this DVD, no written music or explanations are offered as to what is being played.

In the effects chapter of his DVD, Bonamassa talks about his pedalboard that includes a discontinued Korg G4 for a Leslie speaker effect and Boss DD3 delay, both of which are run through the effects loop of his Marshall amp.  A Carl Martin Hot Drive 'N Boost, Fulltone Octafuzz and Reverend Drivetrain II are the source of his overdriven tones while a Prescription Electronics Vibe Unit, TC Electronics Chorus, Flip Vintage Tremelo, Line6 DL4 Modeling Delay and Vox wah complete his tonal palette.

In the amp chapter Joe talks about the Budda and Marshall Jubilee amp heads that he switches between for different tones.  A plexiglass baffle surrounds his speaker cabinets enabling him to crank up his volume so he can drive his power tubes hard while not blowing out his audiences eardrums when playing in smaller clubs. Makes a lot of sense.

All in all this DVD provides a great overall view of the guitar style and musical personality of Joe Bonamassa. Like I mentioned, it is not an instructional DVD in its truest sense but one does get a sense of what hanging out with the man for an afternoon might be like.