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I've started doing guitar repairs, set-ups and mods again.
My second customer wanted me to rewire his Les Paul back to stock. He had someone else put push/pull tone controls in it and he wanted it stock again. The guitar has a set of Pearly Gates pickups and the PG's sound great...he just doesn't want the coil splitting feature anymore. Says he's got a Strat for that tone.
But boy...I don't want to give the guitar back - the Pearlys sound so good!
I've always liked the Pearlys in a Strat, like the nickel covered Pearly in this video:
But in a Les Paul they're different. Uncovered, as they are in this Les Paul guitar I've been working on, the tone is more raw and textured than the smoother tone of a covered PG in a Strat.
The tone of the uncovered PG in this Les Paul is a little gravelly. Maybe that's what some guys call "bright"? I dunno - I don't hear it that way.
Almost wish I had a Les Paul of my own to put some in.
I've been playing his guitar through my old Deluxe Reverb with a Celestion speaker and that guitar just barks and overdrives the amp into a beautiful sustain at volumes as low as 3 1/2.
Been keeping the amp's treble down to around 6.
Not to bright in the least. Never have found that to be the case - not in my own guitars and not with this Les Paul. And not with my amps.
Of course I don't use mondo distortion - just the natural overdrive of a vintage Fender amp when I'm using humbuckers. And I turn the treble on the amp down until it sounds right to me.
BTW, my first customer had me re-wire his MIM Strat with David Allen 60’s R&B pickups (his choice) and do the Carl Verheyen vibrato set-up with the angled claw.
Really like the Allen pickups - especially after moving the middle pickup tone control to the bridge pickup.
Now he's getting a Callaham Vibrato made for the 2 1/16" screw spacing of the MIM Strats and I'll be installing that next week. Can't wait. I've never heard the diff a Callaham vibrato can make - only read about it.
My second customer wanted me to rewire his Les Paul back to stock. He had someone else put push/pull tone controls in it and he wanted it stock again. The guitar has a set of Pearly Gates pickups and the PG's sound great...he just doesn't want the coil splitting feature anymore. Says he's got a Strat for that tone.
But boy...I don't want to give the guitar back - the Pearlys sound so good!
I've always liked the Pearlys in a Strat, like the nickel covered Pearly in this video:
But in a Les Paul they're different. Uncovered, as they are in this Les Paul guitar I've been working on, the tone is more raw and textured than the smoother tone of a covered PG in a Strat.
The tone of the uncovered PG in this Les Paul is a little gravelly. Maybe that's what some guys call "bright"? I dunno - I don't hear it that way.
Almost wish I had a Les Paul of my own to put some in.
I've been playing his guitar through my old Deluxe Reverb with a Celestion speaker and that guitar just barks and overdrives the amp into a beautiful sustain at volumes as low as 3 1/2.
Been keeping the amp's treble down to around 6.
Not to bright in the least. Never have found that to be the case - not in my own guitars and not with this Les Paul. And not with my amps.
Of course I don't use mondo distortion - just the natural overdrive of a vintage Fender amp when I'm using humbuckers. And I turn the treble on the amp down until it sounds right to me.
BTW, my first customer had me re-wire his MIM Strat with David Allen 60’s R&B pickups (his choice) and do the Carl Verheyen vibrato set-up with the angled claw.
Really like the Allen pickups - especially after moving the middle pickup tone control to the bridge pickup.
Now he's getting a Callaham Vibrato made for the 2 1/16" screw spacing of the MIM Strats and I'll be installing that next week. Can't wait. I've never heard the diff a Callaham vibrato can make - only read about it.
I guess it's time to try that PGb!
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