Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

dvanburen said:
Ironically those are two models that I looked at putting the winters in. Ive been looking for an older studio with an ebony board and Ive seen a few of the voodoos for sale with the swamp ash body that looked cool.
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Go for it. Most people believe that LP Studios are complete crap. I own two LP studios from the mid/early 90's, both with ebony fretboards, and they are very decent guitars. They get the job done without issues. I also have a LP standard that is really killer, and is my favorite one to play at the moment. It has the Whole Lotta Humbucker set in it.
 
Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

DoomBuggi said:
Go for it. Most people believe that LP Studios are complete crap. I own two LP studios from the mid/early 90's, both with ebony fretboards, and they are very decent guitars. They get the job done without issues. I also have a LP standard that is really killer, and is my favorite one to play at the moment. It has the Whole Lotta Humbucker set in it.
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I always thought the Les Paul Studios where Les Pauls without the trimmings (like binding). Are they different woods??
I've never heard anyone call them crap before, but I don't own one. Do you see/ hear/ feel a big difference between your studios and your standard??
 
Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

you essentially have a true les paul without the trimmings on it when you get a studio. I honestly think those LP studios from the early 90's are very good with the ebony boards considering Gibson doesnt do ebony anymore. I do beleive however that the LP studio bodies are the lightest, then the standard, then the custom as far as weight. Im not 100% on that but thats what ive heard from guys that work at gibson. LP studio is the same wood as any of the les paul models though. I dig the 90's studio models with the ebony board. You can get them used for like 700-800 bucks now. Thats a steal for the guitar you are getting
 
Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

Lucy Diamond said:
I always thought the Les Paul Studios where Les Pauls without the trimmings (like binding). Are they different woods??
I've never heard anyone call them crap before, but I don't own one. Do you see/ hear/ feel a big difference between your studios and your standard??
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Woods are the same. Some would argue that the quality of woods are better in the Standards, and Customs. The cream/white Les Paul I own is 10lbs, the black on around 7 or 8 lbs, and the standard is around 8lbs as well. The Studios I own are heavier in weight than the Standard I have. I think there is something special about that particular standard. It has a sound to it that is something else. Couldn't tell you which is better quality Though. I believe in the end, it is what ever feels right to each individual.

dvanburen said:
you essentially have a true les paul without the trimmings on it when you get a studio. I honestly think those LP studios from the early 90's are very good with the ebony boards considering Gibson doesnt do ebony anymore. I do beleive however that the LP studio bodies are the lightest, then the standard, then the custom as far as weight. Im not 100% on that but thats what ive heard from guys that work at gibson. LP studio is the same wood as any of the les paul models though. I dig the 90's studio models with the ebony board. You can get them used for like 700-800 bucks now. Thats a steal for the guitar you are getting
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Mid-Early 90's Studios with the Ebony board are pretty awesome from what I've experienced. The Standard I play is a 93. Its awesome. Lot of people frown on people playing metal on a Les Paul. Its interesting how that affects the thoughts of others.
 
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Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

I have a question about these. I'm going to buy the new Zach Myers PRS SE when it comes out and I have a Black Winter set just hanging around. I wanna go for that Opeth Blackwater Park tone, while still being able to use the guitar for other stuff (mostly modern metal). I figured the BWs would do the cleans well enough, but I'm curious if the bridge model would be too unruly or not. I run direct (currently do not own an amp, I sold off a lot of gear to move to a new state to be with a girl who dipped out a few months back), and I run through an Amptweaker Tight Metal pedal most of the time.

Edit: I also wanna add that the bend from Ghost of Periditon, that goes into the mini solo after the extensive clean part. . . I want that tone.
 
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Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

The guitar is a mahogany body/maple cap semi-hollow (the chamber is very small, its a singlecut body style). Thought I should add that too.
 
Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

I've owned two Gibson LP Studios–absolutely loved them. I've never personally owned a Standard; however, I have played several and thought the only difference was purely aesthetics. That being said, I'm more of a Strat guy, so a person who loves LPs might say I'm crazy. lol Also, one of my Studios had an ebony board and the other had rosewood. I personally preferred the rosewood.

Lucy Diamond said:
I always thought the Les Paul Studios where Les Pauls without the trimmings (like binding). Are they different woods??
I've never heard anyone call them crap before, but I don't own one. Do you see/ hear/ feel a big difference between your studios and your standard??
Click to expand...
 
Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

I about to order a Custom Shop Black Winter bridge w/soap bar housing. I was hoping they would make them a production model, but I have 0.0 patience.
 
Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

Ye gods.... Still can't believe this thread still going. BTW still super happy with my SD custom shop Tyrannotitan's, and still haven't gotten around to buying a Black Winter.... Not that anyone cares
 
Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

Dark Order Lord said:
Ye gods.... Still can't believe this thread still going. BTW still super happy with my SD custom shop Tyrannotitan's, and still haven't gotten around to buying a Black Winter.... Not that anyone cares
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I care...You started this thread. I think you're obligated to buy one.
I happen to like your CS pickup. I'm a huge DD fan and I think it's a flavor of that pickup you had MJ make.
 
Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

This thread is actually kind of making me want a set. The music I play with my band is jazz, ambient, soul and blues (none of which I play with a clean tone mind you) but I've always gravitated towards pickups that are clear and high output, as some of my personal songwriting influences are more in the direction of Opeth, Porcupine Tree, higher gain with complex chords.

Basically.. dissuade me or convince me to buy them. I'm currently on the edge of buying a distortion set for that guitar so..
 
Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

black winters will be the next duncan set Im trying. Just got to find a guitar. Ive got an old beat up all mohogany ibanez s classic bolt on with a maple neck that my store them. Reckon they'd sound pretty good there
 
Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

TimmyPage said:
This thread is actually kind of making me want a set. The music I play with my band is jazz, ambient, soul and blues (none of which I play with a clean tone mind you) but I've always gravitated towards pickups that are clear and high output, as some of my personal songwriting influences are more in the direction of Opeth, Porcupine Tree, higher gain with complex chords.

Basically.. dissuade me or convince me to buy them. I'm currently on the edge of buying a distortion set for that guitar so..
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I LOVE to hear that bro!!

What kind of amp are you using?

I'm telling you man...I've said it again and again...these things respond to the volume and tone controls like no other pickup I've ever tried in 25 years. It's like having a different pickup for each notch on your volume and tone knob.

Again...The neck pickup is completely unabashedly SICK.
 
Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

Okay, I don't play death metal or satan metal, but I do play a good bit of Master of Puppets style metal. I'm in a cover band that does everything from Guns n Roses to Aerosmith, to 80s hair rock, to actual Metallica, to Lady Gaga, and Green Day. My tone that I'm going for, however is balls to the wall aggressive. But, I'm using an Orange Dark Terror with two 1x12 Orange cabs with V30s. I'm planning to swap a JB/Jazz neck combo for a Black Winters duo into an Epi Les Paul Custom. I like the JB/Jazz combo, but I've never had a really high output aggressive heavy metal guitar. I already have a set of 59s in one Epi which I like, and I even have another Les Paul with an Alnico 2 Pro neck and a Pearly Gates bridge which doesn't get quite as heavy as I'd like. The Alnico 2 Pro is great, and with proper finger technique I can get pretty close to Slash's Sweet Child sound when we have to cover that song. However, for the Epiphone Custom, I want to dip into the higher output range and not go active (yet). I'm willing to take a chance at swapping the JB/Jazz neck out for another higher output set.

I originally wanted Invaders because the massive output sounded so intriguing, but I've been told that if I do that to a Les Paul I can wind up in instant mudzone. The Orange Dark Terror is a single channel amp, and when I'm cranking it, I really only push my gain to just about 2 oclock. Any more and it's just unusable. So I could stand to even dial the gain down even more if necessary. The JB is great, but it has this sag and sorta drags behind on chugga chugga stuff. We do a cover of AC/DC's "Whole Lotta Rosie" and I basically downpick every part of that song except for the solo I came up with.

What I do like about the JB/Jazz is that they both clean up well for my tastes even on a single channel amp. I like to hit my cleans with a touch of a Boss Super Chorus to add that 80s clean tone, and for the most part I'm pretty satisfied with what I come up with. I'd like to know this:

Instead of playing at drop H flat tuning, can I get away with playing in E flat standard and still be able to clean these Black Winters up enough to pass for a decent clean tone? That neck has just gotta be able to clean up. I don't really care if the bridge can or can't, but if it can that's always nice. The neck pickup on my Les Pauls are basically my "clean channels" when I'm not doing leads with them.... or semi-bluesy stuff with them.

Any thoughts and advice are welcome!
 
Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

I threw my set in my Les Paul today. I've only had the chance to try them through my little Peavey Vypyr so far (didn't have the house to myself, so I couldn't crank up the Splawn or the Marshall), but so far they are just as bright as the Gibson 500T/496R set that I had in there before, but the Winters aren't harsh like the Gibsons were. I'll take it to practice tomorrow and run it through my Mesa and see what happens.
 
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