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Most of my younger guitar students get summer jobs to buy gear... Doesn't seem to be nearly as big a deal for keyboardist and bassists, but I'm getting the inevitable Les Paul verse SG questions and figured I'd write it down for posterity.
First of all, a lot of my students need 25.5. Between country and sparkling reverb patches, we usually have this discussion up front.. of course some of the younger folks do better with shorter scales. So let's assume we are headed to 24 and 3/4 in this example.
And before we even get to Gibson, I generate a lot more Jet and Revstar sales than Les Paul's... The return on investment wins quite often with students... And they are often the better playing guitar anyway.
But a couple of times a summer, I get the "I have to have a Les Paul" thinking, and I usually can get these folks to start using their ears and compare and contrast with the SG.
Of course, the lighter SG cuts and barks and really fills the middle and the high end. The neck joint it is incredibly accessible and once again they are lighter. In my mind, an SG is a fantastic second guitar in a two guitar band cause it covers so so much ground and a lot of students figure this out when they compare and contrast.
On the other hand, the Les Paul's tend to be big fat heavy and fantastic when one guitar has to fill the entire sound canvas. However, I strongly push the bass roll off mod practically all the time. Everyone starts off playing Zeppelin and Boston licks but in the real world, the hyper bottom end is often just too muddy.
The other factor is playing clean. So many times my students will do all their demos with crunch sounds and then realize that much of the time, they need good cleans and in between sounds.
Of course this is mainly a pickup issue. Les Paul's and SGs can have beautiful cleans but a lot of times I'm retrofit fitting a lower output bridge pup down the road to get some flexibility.
And this is good time to contrast live versus playing at home. There is something about that humongous big sound that really works good when you're sitting on a chair in front of a nice tube amp. With these students flexibility tends to be second to the idea of "big".
But these are the same players that tend to muddy up a stage... Good argument for micing small amps so the engineer can thin things out.
And again, there are so many options out there these days... I'm usually pushing Reverends although I get no kickbacks :-)
Practically none of this is probably new to you guys... but open any stories about SGs vs Les Pauls that come to mind..
First of all, a lot of my students need 25.5. Between country and sparkling reverb patches, we usually have this discussion up front.. of course some of the younger folks do better with shorter scales. So let's assume we are headed to 24 and 3/4 in this example.
And before we even get to Gibson, I generate a lot more Jet and Revstar sales than Les Paul's... The return on investment wins quite often with students... And they are often the better playing guitar anyway.
But a couple of times a summer, I get the "I have to have a Les Paul" thinking, and I usually can get these folks to start using their ears and compare and contrast with the SG.
Of course, the lighter SG cuts and barks and really fills the middle and the high end. The neck joint it is incredibly accessible and once again they are lighter. In my mind, an SG is a fantastic second guitar in a two guitar band cause it covers so so much ground and a lot of students figure this out when they compare and contrast.
On the other hand, the Les Paul's tend to be big fat heavy and fantastic when one guitar has to fill the entire sound canvas. However, I strongly push the bass roll off mod practically all the time. Everyone starts off playing Zeppelin and Boston licks but in the real world, the hyper bottom end is often just too muddy.
The other factor is playing clean. So many times my students will do all their demos with crunch sounds and then realize that much of the time, they need good cleans and in between sounds.
Of course this is mainly a pickup issue. Les Paul's and SGs can have beautiful cleans but a lot of times I'm retrofit fitting a lower output bridge pup down the road to get some flexibility.
And this is good time to contrast live versus playing at home. There is something about that humongous big sound that really works good when you're sitting on a chair in front of a nice tube amp. With these students flexibility tends to be second to the idea of "big".
But these are the same players that tend to muddy up a stage... Good argument for micing small amps so the engineer can thin things out.
And again, there are so many options out there these days... I'm usually pushing Reverends although I get no kickbacks :-)
Practically none of this is probably new to you guys... but open any stories about SGs vs Les Pauls that come to mind..
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