Lets look at our guitars thread

Lets look at our guitars thread

Author
Discussion

Eddie Strohacker

3,879 posts

85 months

Friday 26th May 2017
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I wondered where I'd seen those strings before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X81s2RhNzTc

Dave2P

784 posts

179 months

Saturday 27th May 2017
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I've started playing again after a long break, and have always loved the sound(s) of a Les Paul. Lack of funds (and talent, compared to most of you here!), mean a real one is confined to the future for the moment but I spent a few weeks looking at Epi LPs that might get me close to that sound.

Putting aside old doubts about Epiphone quality, I looked at the "Plus Top Pro", with their "Probucker" pickups and flame maple tops but couldn't find a finish that really grabbed me within my budget.

Then I realised that the price of the "Tribute Plus" (around £120 more than the Plus Top) includes a hard case; so for the sake of an extra thirty-odd pounds you get another set of lovely finishes but - most importantly - you get a pair of actual Gibson USA "57" pickups and other hardware that would be more at home on the real thing.

So yesterday the nice man from UPS brought me...







I absolutely love it.

Fretboard was a little grubby from hanging in a shop for a while, and the strings were a little flat (think they come with D'Addarios which have never really stood out for me anyway) so I spent an hour re-stringing it with Ernie Balls and very lightly polishing the frets this afternoon and bonding with it!

Running it through my little Blackstar it sounds the absolute nuts; I've honestly never played anything that sounded as good. Completely un-prompted, my good lady asked "how are all the notes ringing out for so long?". It sustains for days, baby!

It looks very well put together and the finish is flawless; the "Crafted in China" sticker is staying on the guitar - nice job, Epiphone!

I'll shut up now... but this week I shall be mainly not putting it down...

red997

1,304 posts

208 months

Sunday 28th May 2017
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Nice guitar;
I picked up a second hand Epiphone Les Paul a few years back; (eBay special)
Loaded with Seymour Duncan APH-2 pickups, for about £200 if I remember correctly
Great condition - can't see a single blemish - even well setup !
I can honestly say it plays & sustains better than my 'real' Les Paul at 5 x the price (which I sold...)
Enjoy your Epi !

bga

8,134 posts

250 months

Sunday 28th May 2017
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red997 said:
I can honestly say it plays & sustains better than my 'real' Les Paul at 5 x the price (which I sold...)
Enjoy your Epi !
I had an early 90's Epi LP that was the same - better than various Gibson LP's I owned subsequently.

Don1

15,936 posts

207 months

Monday 29th May 2017
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Nice one - they always look so much better without the pick guard as well....

Ekona

1,652 posts

201 months

Friday 9th June 2017
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Dave2P said:
I've started playing again after a long break, and have always loved the sound(s) of a Les Paul. Lack of funds (and talent, compared to most of you here!), mean a real one is confined to the future for the moment but I spent a few weeks looking at Epi LPs that might get me close to that sound.

Putting aside old doubts about Epiphone quality, I looked at the "Plus Top Pro", with their "Probucker" pickups and flame maple tops but couldn't find a finish that really grabbed me within my budget.

Then I realised that the price of the "Tribute Plus" (around £120 more than the Plus Top) includes a hard case; so for the sake of an extra thirty-odd pounds you get another set of lovely finishes but - most importantly - you get a pair of actual Gibson USA "57" pickups and other hardware that would be more at home on the real thing.

So yesterday the nice man from UPS brought me...







I absolutely love it.

Fretboard was a little grubby from hanging in a shop for a while, and the strings were a little flat (think they come with D'Addarios which have never really stood out for me anyway) so I spent an hour re-stringing it with Ernie Balls and very lightly polishing the frets this afternoon and bonding with it!

Running it through my little Blackstar it sounds the absolute nuts; I've honestly never played anything that sounded as good. Completely un-prompted, my good lady asked "how are all the notes ringing out for so long?". It sustains for days, baby!

It looks very well put together and the finish is flawless; the "Crafted in China" sticker is staying on the guitar - nice job, Epiphone!

I'll shut up now... but this week I shall be mainly not putting it down...
Dave, can I ask how you're getting on with this? I very nearly bought one the other month but decided that although it was better than the Plustop Pro, it wasn't nearly £200 better so I ordered a Plustop in Lemonburst instead. Trouble is that's on a long delivery, and now I've had time to think about it (and realise that I may not love the Lemon finish as much as I thought I did) I'm kinda wondering whether to cancel that and pick a Tribute Plus up instead seeing as there's now deals to be had out there.

I'm just a little unsure as to whether the series/parallel switching is as useful as the coil-tapping on the Plustop. Have you played with this much?

singlecoil

33,314 posts

245 months

Friday 9th June 2017
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Ekona said:
I'm just a little unsure as to whether the series/parallel switching is as useful as the coil-tapping on the Plustop. Have you played with this much?
I expect you already know this, but if the pickups have 4 conductor (plus screen) cables, then the guitar wiring can be rearranged to provide either.

Evangelion

7,641 posts

177 months

Friday 9th June 2017
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I've tried both and am of the opinion that series/parallel switching makes more of a difference to the sound than simply switching off a coil.

Having said that, I'd love to know what the pull/push switch on my PRS SE Custom 24 does, because that's the best single-coil sound I've ever heard come out of humbuckers.

Ekona

1,652 posts

201 months

Friday 9th June 2017
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singlecoil said:
I expect you already know this, but if the pickups have 4 conductor (plus screen) cables, then the guitar wiring can be rearranged to provide either.
Hadn't actually considered that, doh! Would I need to change pots as well, given that on the two respective guitars one has the switching on the volumes and one on the tones?

Thinking about it then, it should be possible to have one pup set to series/parallel and the other to switch a coil off. Not sure whether that's any practical use, or even if that would give me the tones I'm after, but an option I guess.

Evangelion said:
I've tried both and am of the opinion that series/parallel switching makes more of a difference to the sound than simply switching off a coil.
I've no practical experience with either aside from half hour in the shop playing with them, how do you find the differences? YT video only gives so much of an idea.

singlecoil

33,314 posts

245 months

Friday 9th June 2017
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Ekona said:
singlecoil said:
I expect you already know this, but if the pickups have 4 conductor (plus screen) cables, then the guitar wiring can be rearranged to provide either.
Hadn't actually considered that, doh! Would I need to change pots as well, given that on the two respective guitars one has the switching on the volumes and one on the tones?
Almost certainly the switches on the pots will be electrically separate, so no problem, the pots can stay.

Ekona

1,652 posts

201 months

Friday 9th June 2017
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Brilliant, thanks. Even more of a reason to change to the Tribute now then...

Dave2P

784 posts

179 months

Friday 9th June 2017
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Ekona said:
Dave, can I ask how you're getting on with this?
I'm smitten! It's doing my productivity (working from home) no good at all... keep finding an excuse to go and pick it up again, and really motivated to try and make some progress with my (rather mediocre) playing.

Ekona said:
I very nearly bought one the other month but decided that although it was better than the Plustop Pro, it wasn't nearly £200 better so I ordered a Plustop in Lemonburst instead.
Ha, I tried to find the "Dirty Lemon" Plustop Pro too... but here's the thing; the price difference isn't £200 if you shop around.

Cheapest I found the Lemon priced (out of stock) was £379, but you can get the Tribute Plus for £469 which [i]includes[/] the (very good) Epiphone hard case. I couldn't find the hard case for less than £75, and was planning on getting one anyway, so that made the price difference £15 for me! So £15 to get the Gibson pups... and no scratch plate!

Ekona said:
I'm just a little unsure as to whether the series/parallel switching is as useful as the coil-tapping on the Plustop. Have you played with this much?
I think you'd need to play them back to back and see what you prefer TBH; there's quite a variation - of course - between each pickup and with the tone knob wound-up/backed-off. You can probably find the sound you want?

Evangelion

7,641 posts

177 months

Friday 9th June 2017
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It is possible to have series coils, parallel coils and coil tap (the correct name for which is coil split by the way) via a 3-way toggle switch. I've no idea how it's wired up though - Google is your friend!

Ekona

1,652 posts

201 months

Friday 9th June 2017
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Dave that's great help, many thanks for that. I think I'm pretty much sold now, prob go and try the Tribute out one more time to make sure and then I'll swap.

OldSkoolRS

6,718 posts

178 months

Monday 19th June 2017
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I've been keeping my eyes open for a good deal on the matching cab for my Mini Jubilee. I missed out on a used one for just over half the new price, now Guitar Guitar have a Marshall sale and they are doing new ones for even less than the used one I found (£329 down from £599), so I caved in and ordered one.

It sounds brilliant, though I'm sure the speakers will break in a bit with use. I haven't really got anywhere to keep it at the moment as the longer term plan is to convert my garage into a music room, but I'll find a corner to squeeze it into until then when not in use.

Along with my Les Paul that I've just had the frets reduced and levelled; I quite like the gold and silver scheme. smile


singlecoil

33,314 posts

245 months

Monday 19th June 2017
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OldSkoolRS said:
Along with my Les Paul that I've just had the frets reduced and levelled...
Purely as a matter of interest, why would you want the frets reduced?

OldSkoolRS

6,718 posts

178 months

Monday 19th June 2017
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singlecoil said:
Purely as a matter of interest, why would you want the frets reduced?
After 34 years playing my '57 style Strat (with vintage frets) I just can't get on with the height that these ones had. To me they feel like speed bumps as I slide up and down the neck.

It's the second guitar I've had this done to and it was really worth it from my point of view as it suits me fine now. I have a 1989 Epiphone LP which has very low frets too, so I'm just really accustomed to the feel.

Tl;dr. Old dog and no new tricks. smile


Evangelion

7,641 posts

177 months

Monday 19th June 2017
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Ekona said:
Evangelion said:
I've tried both and am of the opinion that series/parallel switching makes more of a difference to the sound than simply switching off a coil.
I've no practical experience with either aside from half hour in the shop playing with them, how do you find the differences? YT video only gives so much of an idea.
I find that just switching off a coil reduces the volume and little else, whereas changing from series to parallel alters the character of the sound, giving what I can only describe as a lighter voice with less midrange honk.

6th Gear

3,561 posts

193 months

Tuesday 20th June 2017
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OldSkoolRS said:
I've been keeping my eyes open for a good deal on the matching cab for my Mini Jubilee. I missed out on a used one for just over half the new price, now Guitar Guitar have a Marshall sale and they are doing new ones for even less than the used one I found (£329 down from £599), so I caved in and ordered one.

It sounds brilliant, though I'm sure the speakers will break in a bit with use. I haven't really got anywhere to keep it at the moment as the longer term plan is to convert my garage into a music room, but I'll find a corner to squeeze it into until then when not in use.

Along with my Les Paul that I've just had the frets reduced and levelled; I quite like the gold and silver scheme. smile

That LP is Stunning RS.

Wow.

lel

395 posts

122 months

Thursday 22nd June 2017
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This got delivered today, for £112 posted from Germany it is unbeatable.

DSC_0135 by Lel Atkinson, on Flickr

DSC_0140-2 by Lel Atkinson, on Flickr