Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

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dreadguard268

New member
Just curious what kind of pups you're using.

I know it's more typical for a super strat but I've been wondering how you could go about it with a les paul type (prs se single cut to be specific)
 
Re: Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

i have a esp ltd ec 1000 with a jb/59 set. it does pretty good with hair metal.
 
Re: Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

John Sykes always comes to mind. The Edwards copy of his beautiful Les Paul uses dual Duncan Distortions.

A JB works in any guitar for that 80s sound.
 
Re: Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

dreadguard268 said:
Just curious what kind of pups you're using.

I know it's more typical for a super strat but I've been wondering how you could go about it with a les paul type (prs se single cut to be specific)
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Timely thread . . .


. . . just saw a bar room rock band (playing AC/DC style while morphing it with 80's hair metal) this week end, and both guitarists used LP's.

Think; one part AC/DC + two parts Poison/Cinderella mix + one part Rhino Bucket.

After the show, when i asked them what is in their LP's, and they said 'after market pick ups'.
I told them i know a little about after market units, and the best i could get out of them was that the lead guitar had Duncan's in and the other LP, DiMarzios.
They were not too eager to say which models - as if i was going to try and copy their tone today !

They did a good job too.
And they were dressed 'only' in jeans & long sleeve shirts.
NO Make up or poodle hair.
 
Re: Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

DiMarzio Super Distortions. Duncan JB, Distortion, etc...

It really all boils down to amp settings and playing technique.
 
Re: Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

Myaccount876 said:
Wait until Aceman gets here.
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Aceman has no hair.... J/k Aceman!!

There were a few bands in the day that did hair metal but used LPs. Most bands used superstrats for the whammy bar. Faster Pussycat comes to mind, Bang tango, Bulletboys.. Not sure what pups they used, but Im sure it wouldnt be hard to find online. Im guessing prolly distortions or JBs. Metlking here on the forum plays in a band that does alot of cover stuff, including some hair band songs. He uses and LP with Distortion bridge. The other guitarist uses a Charvel or something tho.
 
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Re: Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

I was a Sunset Strip playing, big hair dude in the 80's, and could pretty much tell you what everyone used.

First of all, the JB was and is the best selling aftermarket pickup, so everyone had a guitar at some point with a JB bridge. They were the midrange that went hand in hand with the decade's JCM800/G-75T Marshalls.....stronger in lows and highs. But, after awhile many Gibson users veered away from the JB because of it's prominent midrange in mahogany. If you were going in a more hard rock direction, the Custom was what you wanted. If you were going in a more metal direction, the Distortion was pretty popular.
If you wanted a more classic sound, a 59 set was a good choice.

Later, I got into more Gibson models and PRS guitars, so I heard a lot more pickups and developed a better ear for tone. The Custom 5 became a big favorite for it's ability to do rock, metal, and cleans equally good.
The C5 would have been a hugely popular pickup in the 80's, since it's right in the same range as the others.
Nowadays, we know that the SD Customs can be fine tuned with different magnets like Alnico 8 and Unoriented roughcast Alnico 5. I've come to really like the Unoriented roughcast Custom 5.

Also, the C/59 Hybrid would have been very popular back then, as it should be now.

If it were my PRS SE Singlecut, I'd probably install a C/59 Hybrid with a Whole Lotta Humbucker neck.
 
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Re: Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

Steve clark was in fact an LP player. His guitars (one white, one black) had a stock set of Gibson pups and the other had a Duncan 59 in the bridge. IIRC


My personal choice for 80's hair metal is the Distortion. However, I have used the custom a lot as well. I think the Les Paul + Distortion cops the Superstrat/floyd/JB sound better. And that's what you are really shooting for here.

At the moment I don't have anything with a Custom. However, I am rocking a JB8, which sounds great, but not hair metal kind of great. I also use a PG b ridge occasionally for that sound.

And remember, for your hair metal, your delay and chorus are as critical as the pickups....
 
Re: Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

Is this the sound you are looking for?



79 Les Paul
Distortion Bridge
Marshall VS100 on OD1
Boss DD-3 in the loop
 
Re: Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

Aceman said:
Steve clark was in fact an LP player. His guitars (one white, one black) had a stock set of Gibson pups and the other had a Duncan 59 in the bridge. IIRC


My personal choice for 80's hair metal is the Distortion. However, I have used the custom a lot as well. I think the Les Paul + Distortion cops the Superstrat/floyd/JB sound better. And that's what you are really shooting for here.

At the moment I don't have anything with a Custom. However, I am rocking a JB8, which sounds great, but not hair metal kind of great. I also use a PG b ridge occasionally for that sound.

And remember, for your hair metal, your delay and chorus are as critical as the pickups....
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@Aceman on Steve Clark. If I'm not mistaken Steve Clark used stock pickups his whole career(though he mainly did play Phil Collen's Japanese strat 'Felix' with a Super Distortion while recording Hysteria). His white 3 pickup LP was all stock and the black one had a Dirty Fingers in the bridge if my resources are correct. I found this site that details his gear if you're interested http://www.steveclarkguitar.com/steves-gear

Your PRS SE chould do the job. The stock pickups could do just fine too, just as Aceman said, the delay and chorus(and amp) are crucial to the sound. If you can do without the whammy bar an LP-type guitar are great for hair metal too.

The first guy that comes to mind when playing hair metal on an LP is John Sykes. So Dirty Fingers bridge and a less hot pickup in the neck(he had a T-Top in his #1 LP). JB/Super Distortion/Duncan Distortion/Custom will all do fine. The pickups boil down to personal preference really.
 
Re: Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

Quite a few of the metal dudes back then used LPs:

Vivian Campbell - Les Paul for Holy Diver - X2N's during Sweet Savage, X2N for rhythms on Holy Diver, JB for leads.. Some weird pickup from JayDee after that (You can see it in live videos where viv uses the guitar back then) - later FullShreds during his Riverdogs tenure

John Sykes - Dirty Fingers and T-Tops - the rest is in the fingers.

Zakk - EMGs - No Rest For The Wicked, dudes.. Awesome 80s metal tone.

Mick Mars - Super D for Too Fast For Love and Shout At The Devil

there were a few others from what I have read and seen in videos, the dude from Seduce used EMG 81s, the dudes from Faster Pussycat used Les Pauls - no idea on the pickups..

Dont forget Steve Stevens, the first Billy Idol record was done with a Les Paul IIRC - he was a big JB user back then, dont know about the Les Paul.. Check out the Atomic Playboys video, for some cool stage moves :D

One good thing to remember, even though you see various superstrats in the videos, quite a few of these guys recorded with Les Pauls and vintage Strats. Anything goes, I guess :)

I always go back to the Dirty Fingers for this kinda stuff.. It just has this edge in a Les Paul, that just... works. It is so different to anything else, but for this type of stuff, it is the business. I would look into the Distortion or Custom. Think Distortion for some of the heavier and more aggressive tones, and Custom for the thicker tones - McAuley period Schenker for instance. Like a huge fat PAF on steroids :)
 
Re: Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

My Ibanez ARZ800 (EMG 81/60) LP-style can do hair metal fine (as any other genre). The only think it can't do is that surf/dire straits typical position 2-4 strat tone. But nearly nails all the rest. I have another partscaster which does only 2-4 decently.

That said, my prefered hair metal guitar is a Kramer 210 with Seymour Duncan livewires/livewires metal, with floyd rose, which screams van halen/hair metal from miles away!
 
Re: Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

Hasn't Vivian Campbell been back to LPs for a number of years now? At least from the shots I've seen on stage.

Steve Stevens has been going with LPs a lot and I think he has a sig model with some company called Knapps ( or something like that ). He also has the Bare Knuckle Pickup signature model ( Rebel Yell ) that is a bit hit in LPs, as is the John Sykes BKP sig model ( Cold Sweat, a lot like a Gibson Dirty Fingers model ).


Sent from my armored space station using Tapatalk on iPad
 
Re: Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

yeah viv uses the paul almost exclusively now. I saw an interview recent which he stated he couldn't imagine going back to a tremolo type guitar. ahh but never say never.
 
Re: Anyone use a les paul type for hair metal?

Tom Keifer and Jeff LaBar were big Les Paul guys
 
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