Simon_F
Super Moderator
Well, the Les Paul I bought on Ebay recently finally arrived yesterday! It's a 1991 Classic, and differs in several ways from the current production Classics. It doesn't have those greenish inlays or tuning pegs, it has a plain truss rod cover, the serial number is a 5-digit ink stamped one and the pickups (as far as I can tell so far) are '57 Classics, not the 500T/496R combo. It does have the slim 60s profile neck and a scratchplate with 1960 engraved (though the gold has worn off).
I was pretty apprehensive about this purchase as, in 30 years of playing, I've never bought a guitar before that I hadn't played. I needn't have worried - this guitar is a killer!
The slim neck immediately feels right - I don't have big hands and this guitar is an absolute delight to play. I took it to band practice last night and it sounded excellent through my JTM60. I've yet to examine or measure the pickups to ascertain that they are '57 Classics - my initial impression is that they are hotter than the Seths in my Standard, but not overly hot. The cleans are warm and I'm pretty confident these aren't ceramics! Another surprise, and again I haven't ascertained this yet, is that the volume knobs have a rolloff that seems to me much more like audio taper than linear. I had a peep inside the control cavity and all the wiring looks original (and yes, there is a metal plate), but the volumes seem a lot more responsive than the 300k linears that were originally in my Standard. At some point I'll take note of the numbers on the pots and investigate further.
Enough trainspotting, I played this guitar loud last night and it all works just fine! While waiting for it I'd been mulling over ideas for pots/caps/pickups upgrades, but from what I've experienced so far I think I may not need to change anything. :bigeyes: It's a damn fine guitar, and may not need fixing! OK, I've done one little mod already - straplocks - but I think the rest can wait. I'm just gonna spend some quality time with this one before I start taking it all apart.
Here are some rather hurriedly taken pics. They don't really do the top justice, except the last one which does capture the birdseye effect. This is a really nice looking guitar. Interesting, but not overstated. :approve:
I'm in love. :32:
I was pretty apprehensive about this purchase as, in 30 years of playing, I've never bought a guitar before that I hadn't played. I needn't have worried - this guitar is a killer!
The slim neck immediately feels right - I don't have big hands and this guitar is an absolute delight to play. I took it to band practice last night and it sounded excellent through my JTM60. I've yet to examine or measure the pickups to ascertain that they are '57 Classics - my initial impression is that they are hotter than the Seths in my Standard, but not overly hot. The cleans are warm and I'm pretty confident these aren't ceramics! Another surprise, and again I haven't ascertained this yet, is that the volume knobs have a rolloff that seems to me much more like audio taper than linear. I had a peep inside the control cavity and all the wiring looks original (and yes, there is a metal plate), but the volumes seem a lot more responsive than the 300k linears that were originally in my Standard. At some point I'll take note of the numbers on the pots and investigate further.Enough trainspotting, I played this guitar loud last night and it all works just fine! While waiting for it I'd been mulling over ideas for pots/caps/pickups upgrades, but from what I've experienced so far I think I may not need to change anything. :bigeyes: It's a damn fine guitar, and may not need fixing! OK, I've done one little mod already - straplocks - but I think the rest can wait. I'm just gonna spend some quality time with this one before I start taking it all apart.
Here are some rather hurriedly taken pics. They don't really do the top justice, except the last one which does capture the birdseye effect. This is a really nice looking guitar. Interesting, but not overstated. :approve:
I'm in love. :32:
