A cross between a Les Paul and a Strat?

[jtougas]

Re: A cross between a Les Paul and a Strat?

If it's not too late, I'll put in votes for a Spector ARC6 - provided you can find one.

I'm quite happy with mine (an ARC 6 Pro Trem).

[speed2dirt]

Re: A cross between a Les Paul and a Strat?

I'd say an older Gibson Nighthawk. I have one and love it!

[jtougas]

Re: A cross between a Les Paul and a Strat?

Also, the Godin LG series... with or without the piezo saddles in the bridge. Fantastic guitars.

[Tor]

Re: A cross between a Les Paul and a Strat?

Another vote for a PRS here, there are plenty of plain tops or solid colours that look classy without being too flash if that's what you're after.

Cheers, Don. Actually, I think I have found what I want to try out. A PRS David Grissom sig model, in a natural finish, with birds. That's pretty much my current dream right there. I have read a lot about it, and it seems to fit very well with the sonic properties I seek.

[ErikH]

Re: A cross between a Les Paul and a Strat?

I think if I was to do this, I would start with the Strat body and bolt-on neck, but make the scale 24 3/4", mahogany body with a maple cap, maple neck with rosewood or ebony fingerboard, Strat hardtail, rear-routed, HSH configuration, 1-volume, 1-tone, 5-way superswitch.

[bazie]

Re: A cross between a Les Paul and a Strat?

I'd say an older Gibson Nighthawk. I have one and love it!

But there were few versions. Which exactly do you mean?

[speed2dirt]

Re: A cross between a Les Paul and a Strat?

But there were few versions. Which exactly do you mean?

I have a 1993 Gibson Nighthawk Custom with the ebony board. It has a smaller body and the ebony board makes it brighter/clearer than a Les Paul. The old 1993-1998 Nighthawk Standards had a rosewood board which would give it a little more body and rounded tone. Still it's much thinner than a real Les Paul and has the 25.5" scale neck, but might be more Les Paul than the Custom. It really depends on what you're going for.

They also have the 2012 Nighthawk Studio's, which are all mahogany with a baked maple fretboard and regular humbuckers rather than the mini neck and slanted humbuckers. The regular full-size humbuckers (ie non-slanted) sound more Les Paul like also, but still keep the shimmer of the smaller body-longer neck combo. I had one of these and really liked it, but it was not the same tone/vibe as the original I have. I would have kept the 2012 Studio, but couldn't justify that many regular humbucker guitars at the time. Now I wish I had it back though.

The 2009-2011 Nighthawks were a mismash of things that only bore the Nighthawk body shape (2009 had 24.75" neck with '50s rounded neck, 2010-2011 had Poplar bodies).

[d1dsj]

Re: A cross between a Les Paul and a Strat?

Very cool guitars Tor, I must admit I'd like a DGT myself although I'm still both thrilled and stunned by mine and don't see any guitars for a long time. Hope you get it, nothing like getting your dream guitar mate! For what it's worth I like the fact that the PRS has it's own thing going on and the build quality is awesome.

[GourmetSaint]

Re: A cross between a Les Paul and a Strat?

Can I ask why you would want such a mix? It took me aged to convince my DW that I needed a "collection" of guitars with at least one LP and one Strat. Your undermining me guys!

[Morior]

Re: A cross between a Les Paul and a Strat?

PRS was designed to be a cross between a Les Paul and Strat...Problem is, then people complain it doesnt sound enough like a Les Paul or enough like a Strat, so you cant please everybody

This. The description in the original post sounds exactly like my Custom 22 (aside from the quilted top, which my guitar has).

Try finding one used.

[ratiug]

Re: A cross between a Les Paul and a Strat?

I been thinking about building a Les Paul body that would fit a strat neck, 3 pickups, a full-sized humbucker in the neck , A JB Jr or Hot Rail in the bridge , and a single coil or JB Jr in the middle.
One volume knob placed like a strat ,a 5 way switch in the same place as a strat and a bigsby vibrato. No tone knobs. That should do me just fine.

[B2D]

Re: A cross between a Les Paul and a Strat?

Interesting that this thread came up. My immediate reaction was 'mahogany tele deluxe".

My prior response was written before I owned a PRS Custom 22. Good guitar but it had it's own thing going on.

I find that when most people ask for a hybrid of two of the most popular, but very different, designs of instruments, they're usually going to want to lean more towards one side or the other i.e. Les Paul with some more versatility or a fat-sounding Fender.

Building will usually get you pretty close to what you want, but you have to commit to it. I went the Mahogany Tele route and for the most part I'm happy with it. If I wanted something closer to a Gibson sound I'd do a mahogany Tele Deluxe with a conversion neck on it.

[zionstrat]

Re: A cross between a Les Paul and a Strat?

Great ancient thread. Thanks for resurrecting.

Mahogany HH tele with Maple neck and fingerboard will definitely get you in the ballpark. The maple neck reinforces the brightness and snap and good dense mahogany it's perfect for sustain and warmth.

This question is close to my heart as I've worked with so many musicians to help them find one or two guitars that cover everything live. Here's some things to keep in mind...

You can tame snap but you can't add snap. as result you almost have to go with a 25 and a half scale. PRS certainly is a strong player in this middle ground however losing half an in scale definitely reduces their snap.

And simply splitting pickups rarely brings a workable fender like tone. If the humbuckers are strong enough and warm enough to drive the Les Paul tones it's unlikely that they all sound very good split.

So that's the area where we spend most of the time designing moding and reworking client guitars. Spin a splits and parallel to self are very common mods on the thinning side. Recently, variations on bass roll off have become extremely strong part of the equation.

With guitars that aren't as thick, we do a lot of blending and putting pups in series.

Here is an example...

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?321068-Have-found-my-Holy-Grail-Tele-to-P90-pup-and-it-s-not-a-PRail&referrerid=4379

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