Hella Yes! NGD

[drew_half_empty]

Tax returns hit my account at midnight, so tomorrow after my first class I'm gonna go pick up my brand new honey burst 60's tribute Les Paul.


So freaking excited. Can't sleep.

[TheLivingDead]

Re: Hella Yes! NGD

Awesome dude! Get some pics for the rest of us!

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Hella Yes! NGD

it's about balls-ass time you got serious bro!

pix or it never happened. include one with all the old guitars sitting in the corner weeping.

[mwalluk]

Re: Hella Yes! NGD

What guitars do you have now?

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Hella Yes! NGD

he's got a bunch of decent guitars but he's been playing Les Paul-style rock on Strats and Gretsches and stuff

[phil_104]

Re: Hella Yes! NGD

**** YEAH!

If your situation ends up being anything like mine, your other guitars will not get much action after tomorrow!

Pics when she comes in!

[ricc]

Re: Hella Yes! NGD

played one of these last night through an orange th30 - really great tones, nice playing guitar. congrats in advance!

[Bones]

Re: Hella Yes! NGD

Jeez... a tax return sounds pretty nice.

[blueman335]

Re: Hella Yes! NGD

What a good feeling. Looking forward to your impressions after you put it thru it's paces.

[mwalluk]

Re: Hella Yes! NGD

No pix i see. NGD huh!?!?!? LIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!







Seriously tho, congrats and nice choice. Enjoying rocking out LP songs using a real LP!

[drew_half_empty]

Re: Hella Yes! NGD

Alright alright alright, I've kept you guys waiting long enough. It's been in my hands since 10am and I've basically only put it down to drive and take a spanish test.


First, pics. Sorry for the crappy cell-phone quality. I need a new digital camera, but, I needed a Les Paul more.









and a family pic





Truly a beautiful instrument. Much like a naked teenager, cell phone pictures just do NOT do it justice. After my test I went back into the music building to show it to my guitar teacher and ran into a bunch of people I knew. Everyone commented on how beautiful it was and how much it looks like "me". One girl said it was beautiful like 4 times hahaha


First impressions - in some ways it's obvious it's a studio. It came with a crappy gig bag, need to get a HSC ASAP. Also the nut is kinda crappy and needs to be replaced soon. Pots/caps are also kinda meh, but small complaints. I dig the matte finish and figured maple doesn't improve your tone at all haha, just looks nice. Acoustically this thing is decently loud, that's why I dug it in the first place. It wasn't the heaviest out of the lot--this other red one was stupid heavy, but it has some good weight to it and was the loudest/best sounding acoustically out of the 5 at the shop. I went into a practice room with this girl i know and with the pedal damper down on the piano you could hear the guitar decently well over it. Not bad for a solid body.

I didn't get a chance to plug it in until practice this afternoon, but even with my strat settings on the amp it instantly sounded awesome. I ended up backing off the volume (gain, for all intents and purposes) a bit and dialing in a bit more high end but the tone was always there; I didn't have to compensate for anything, just fine tune it. It's extremely dynamic, I didn't hardly touch the volume knob, picking dynamics were enough to take it from sparkly to thick and chunky. The tone was big, fat, round, full, but never muddy like humbuckers can be, but also clear, chimey, pianoey, without ever getting harsh like even neck single coils can sometimes. It sounds vintagey as hell, I spent most of my time on the neck pickup (which is kinda my thing) but I like the bridge more than 99% of the bridge pickups I've played. Middle position has its own distinct sound too which I like, good middle ground without takin too much from either pickup. It just sounds really... fat, and full, but still clear when you want it to be. Also coming from the strat it's kinda nice not having all that extra strat noise, the gibson just projects beautifully voiced notes. And the sweet singing sustain? Well that's pretty friggin awesome too. Sounds just as great for jazz as it does rock & roll--it was truly meant to be.

Playability is superb. The contour on the neck is great, upper fret access is just as good if not better than my strat (or at least seems that way). No fret ends hangin off and they're a good size, and it's good gettin back on a flatter fretboard radius, more precise. I had the tech string it up with Ernie Ball 11-48's and it feels only slightly tighter than my strat with DM 10's. Perfect--I got spoiled by the flatwounds on my Gretsch and now the slinky little 10's drag on the pick a bit much when I try to do fast runs, but of course I can't bend for sh** on the gretsch. Perfect compromise, enough tension to feel secure but I can still do the big full step bends. Also it's soooo nice having a big TOM to anchor my hand on again. I had a bad habit with the strat of rolling off the volume mid solo on accident by shifting my palm down, obviously a non-issue here.

It's true what they say about playing fenders vs gibsons. A fender is kind of a fight, you have to wrestle it and make it do what you want it to do, whereas a gibson will do everything you want it to as long as you respect it. As I've matured as a player and become more... deliberate, I guess, in my playing style it's great to have an instrument that seems equally as, well, deliberate. Everything's just so precise and "right there," incredibly conducive to my style of playing. Super comfortable and consistent.


Looks like I have a new #1. As the first person to get mine let me say all you guys with yours on order are gonna be blown away! Fantastic guitars, I definitely would have paid more for it if they asked for it. But, yanno, don't tell gibson that, it's nice getting a good deal from them for a change

[phil_104]

Re: Hella Yes! NGD

Your guitar > organized religion, philosophy, the universe.

Dude, let me be the first to welcome you to the honey burst club.

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Hella Yes! NGD

kick ass dude

so freakin stoked / jealous...rock on man

[astrozombie]

Re: Hella Yes! NGD

Dude, I've seen many a naked teenage chick through cell phone pictures, and most of them do the chick justice.

That Les Paul has P-90s? Jesus!

[Wattage]

Re: Hella Yes! NGD

Right on, nice guitar!