Les Paul players...do you do this?

[JeffB]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

Ok here be a clip I did earlier today before I posted the thread... so maybe you can hear what I am talking about.

I start off clean with the neck volume rolled back to between 2 and 3. Then I flip over to the bridge full blast. Then it is that middle position. then I play some bluesy lead stuff on Built for Comfort then some riffs and chord stuff. I think you probably will be able to tell not only from tone, but from the sound of the switch toggling back and forth when I change things up.


335> Tubemeister 18. crunch channel. B/M @ 1 oclock. Treble at noon. Gain between 11 and noon. Master up full @ 18W. Its a little high mid chirpy sounding as I grabbed one of my nylon picks by accident. But I suspect in the mix it would probably cut through even better like this.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

Do your homework. He only used full size buckers on his black custom, which he hated.

+1. I read a recent interview with him, and he did not like that LP and it's mini-HB's. He thought he got the short end of the stick with that one.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

+1. I read a recent interview with him, and he did not like that LP and it's mini-HB's. He thought he got the short end of the stick with that one.

The Custom was a 1960 model (apparently) with full size HB pups. No Customs ever came with minis (to my knowledge). Maybe you are confused?

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[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

Yeah. All my clean tones come from the 59 in the neck position and my bite and most of the rhythm tones come from the Distortion in the bridge position. I didn't think that was a new trick or anything. The neck pickup is also good for fattening up leads or dual leads in my case.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

BTW, I read somewhere that his old Deluxe got stolen recently! :yell: Here's a clip of Robbo from 2012 and he's playing a LP Classic....

Just in the freeze frame before playing the vid, looks like the headstock says Tokai? So this is the replacement guitar?

 

[EET_FUK]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

Really it works for any 2 vol. 2 humbucker setup, 335s,.etc...but.

Back when I was a teenager a guitar mentor showed me a "trick" with the volume control, and old school single channel amps... Essentially you set the guitar up for 3 sounds. You have your bridge pickup full blast, and your neck pickup cracked open just a bit..2..maybe 3, and then you use the middle switch position for the majority of your crunch chunking and alot of lead work, your neck alone for clean stuff, and the bridge alone for the leads that you need the most gain and bite to cut through. And there is only a little perceived volume disparity at stage volumes switching from one to the other.

I've done this, and I've also noticed, and maybe this is common knowledge , I don't know, that with 2 volume controls in the middle position, when you roll off the volume from one pickup, it'll sound more like the other pickup. I don't know if that's just common sense that everybody knows, but I thought it was cool when I figured it out.

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

I've done this, and I've also noticed, and maybe this is common knowledge , I don't know, that with 2 volume controls in the middle position, when you roll off the volume from one pickup, it'll sound more like the other pickup. I don't know if that's just common sense that everybody knows, but I thought it was cool when I figured it out.

That's because your blending less of the one pickup and getting more of the other.

 

[Jocelyn]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

That's because your blending less of the one pickup and getting more of the other.

+1 Well said.

 

[Simon_F]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

Just in the freeze frame before playing the vid, looks like the headstock says Tokai? So this is the replacement guitar?

That's not Brian Robertson! Robbo's on the right in the video

 

[Simon_F]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

"Hillbilly Channel Switching"!

 

[EET_FUK]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

That's because your blending less of the one pickup and getting more of the other.

Well, yeah. I just wasn't sure if this was something that everyone obviously knew, or if I was a genius for figuring it out.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

I do not, I flip pickups and twist knobs the whole time I'm playing truth be told.

However, Greg Martin does what you're talking about with a 58 LP and a 100 watt Plexi...he calls it "Hillbilly Channel Switching"!

Ha. I used to jam along to that first Headhunters album alot when I was young. I am from The South of course, so hillbilly channel switching is appropriate.

I use all the knobs too...more so when I am on the neck or middle position. And I will roll off the bridge to clean too. But this hillbilly channel switching is not necc an all or nothing thing. There is plenty of bridge turned down too, or neck turned up as the song dictates. It is more of a foundation,.so to speak.

 

[erksin]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

I do it on occasion, but I use the controls on my guitar constantly so having fixed settings doesn't really work for me.

I will say that if you have your guitar set up with the '50s wiring scheme it sounds a lot better for this type of technique, at least it does for me.

 

[erksin]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

Another really cool setting to try with fuzzes is to roll off all the Tone control of the neck pickup.

Bridge pickup up full for the biting attack

Middle position gives up killer cocked wah/Mick Ronson sounds

Neck is tuba tones - really thick

 

[erksin]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

And because this has semi-derailed into a Thin Lizzy thread I can now post my '78 Deluxe lol:

Awesome guitar, BTW - those pickups are kickass. I can't believe people used to gut these things and rout them, but it was the '70s - they thought brass nuts were cool too. lol

 

[JeffB]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

Great Deluxe!

I had one just like it back in the 80s. I think it was a 78. I bought it , without playing it. Unfortunately mine was a real dog. It was just a typical Norlin Horror story. Weighed a ton, everything came loose or was crooked, sounded like garbage. I traded it away right quick.

Speaking of though....anyone notice in the vid of Robbo from the 90s, he talked about the fretboard /neck on his deluxe going wonky? And that is why he got the custom while the deluxe was repaired? If you look closely, it looks like he had the original board replaced with an ebony one, and put he original inlays back in.

Nothing wrong with any Thin Lizzy thread IMO. They are my all time favorite band :bigthumb:

 

[Soulcrusher_X]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

Even with most of my channel-switching amps, I liked using this kind of setup. Heck, it worked really well when I was using a 5150. Neck stayed on 2-4 for most of the time. Bridge either full up or just down to 8 for a little less hair. Worked really well with the Gibson Iommi pickups. In the middle position, they had a neat "wah" tone to them and incredibly rich harmonics.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

Well I guess if folks like a wah type tone as their main crunch tone, then that works for them, and that is great But that is completely opposite of what I want and the example players I posted about, thus my comments about high gain,.and HO midrangey pickups.

 

[j9fd3s]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

one of the happy surprises with the seth lover pickup set has been how the tone changes with volumes, so i actually play with the knobs quite a lot, cause they DO stuff!

 

[Chocklit_Thunda]

Re: Les Paul players...do you do this?

I honestly thought this technique was just common knowledge that every guitarist just kinda learnt after a few years? Either via experimenting or someone showing them