sick of my '56 goldtop

Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

metallicaxlxl said:
yeah, but if they say that they can route it, im guessing it means they can make it compeltely possible to install a humbucker in it, so they probably add wood to the sidese or something, since its under the covers, you cant really see it. but ill have to ask them the question. ill do this when i get home.
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From my experience, techs will say yes to almost anything you ask of them, but that doesn't necessarily mean the guy actually knows what he's doing, or that the results will look good. "Want a Strat pickguard on the top of your Les Paul? No problem! Rout your PRS for Jazzmaster pickups? Bring it down!" It's good for them, because it gets them more work. You get your guitar back, and there's a huge gob of Bondo where your pickup used to be.

A GOOD tech will know his stuff and get lots of business as a result. He doesn't need your questionable project to get by. "Rout your PRS for Jazzmaster pickups? That's gonna look like a bag of ass, and nothing will line up correctly. Maybe we can find you some humbucker-sized pickups that will get you what you want." He doesn't need his reputation ruined with ghetto pickup routing jobs.
 
Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

The right Guitar and Amp match is always important.... Sounds like the Epi LP P90 is not for you if you want Slash thick tone.... Even adding mini humbuckers i bet will not make you 100% happy.... But i do love my neck postion Mini Deluxe pickups..... i love those things Large!
 
Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

well, most of my local shops send in all the guitars that requier woodwork to them. on their website they specifically talk about re-routing, so i think they got experience with it. they speciallize in wood work, so they know what theyre getting themselves into.

whofan - i like the sm-1 neck too, but its just a bit too muddy sometimes. but i still love it, in fact, today im putting it back in. the p-90 neck was too creamy (dont be hatin' all you p-90 lovers) for my taste, and it just sounded awfull at a lot of times, uneven it was like the sound didnt mix in it and i was getting a bunch of weird sounds, just weird...
 
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Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

metallicaxlxl said:
well, most of my local shops send in all the guitars that requier woodwork to them. on their website they specifically talk about re-routing, so i think they got experience with it. they speciallize in wood work, so they know what theyre getting themselves into.

whofan - i like the sm-1 neck too, but its just a bit too muddy sometimes. but i still love it, in fact, today im putting it back in. the p-90 neck was too creamy (dont be hatin' all you p-90 lovers) for my taste, and it just sounded awfull at a lot of times, uneven it was like the sound didnt mix in it and i was getting a bunch of weird sounds, just weird...
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I have a set of Epi P90 pickups sitting here that i bought used for $30..... i never used them because i didn't like the Epi's with P90 sound... I love P90's but not the Epi's....
 
Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

First ask your friend if he'll sell you or trade you his guitar. You love the tone of that guitar. See if you can get it. If not then start experimenting with the one you have and looking around for something new.
 
Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

theres no way my friend would want to trade. he actually does kind of like the tone of my guitar, but he prefers his a lot more, and he doesnt like the goldtop that epi's have, he finds it too sparkly... even though almost all goldtops are like that.

i think im just gonna go with the re-routing.
 
Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

I looked at your gear pics and the goldtop looks nice. I kind of figured it would be a long shot on a trade, but you never know.

How does the guitar sound unplugged? If it sounds great then I'd go to the trouble of routing, if it doesn't sound good acoustically, it's probably not going to be great no matter what pickups are in there. From what I undertand, pick-ups are like microphones and if the guitar isn't lively, they can't help that.
 
Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

Dude, if you think the SM-1 is muddy, I don't think you'll care for a full sized 'bucker in the neck.
 
Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

it might not be the right word for it, im not sure how to describe it, but something does bother me about it, but once again, the sm-1 i can live with, and actually sounds good. the most important part is the bridge pickup.

to tell you the truth, i havnt use my electric unplugged in way too llong. probaly because i have my acoustic in my room for unplugged, play when i feel like, and i have amp + electric in my living room, where i go each day for an hour or so. time to go play it unplugged, from what i remember, it sounded awsome.

Edit:
yeah, still sounds as good as i remember it did. this guitar is very well built, i love it. it was made in '04, didnt epiphone start making better stuff by that time? even though that neck cavity was ****ed up.

one of the main reason i want to have a humbucker in neck would be for the possibilty of having a decent coil split.
 
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Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

The '04 Epi's are really nice. From about '03 onwards the quality is much improved over previous years. My Standard Plus is an '04 as well and plays/sounds great. The only thing I've had to do maintenance wise was change both volume pots. Each one went out at different times, first the bridge, then the neck. Easy fix. The rest of the stuff (aside from the pickups) is stock. I'd love a Goldtop down the road.
 
Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

Seriously, don't go routing your guitar for humbuckers.

I've got a set of overwound P-100s with your name all over them.

Overwound Gibson P-100s. These are firebreathing humbucking stacked coil soapbars. If memory serves, they were wound by either Mike Smith or Lindy Fralin, the bridge is wound up to about 15K and the bridge around 12K. The neck pickup has an extension on the lead.

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Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

i think im done experimenting with unusual things. (except for hybrids of cource!!) in my guitar. im just going to settle with something i KNOW is going to sound good, and that i can still mod a bit (coil tapping). i asked that shop, they told me that the p-90 cavities are wide enough, but they will have to lenthen the cavity (neck-bridge =length), and add 4 blocks for screwing in.

i emailed them to ask them if they had a picture of such a job being done, or if they had more info on it (like if they use same wood, or refinish or something) hopefully ill get something out of them.

why are so many of you trying to tell me not to redo the cavity? is it because you dont want me to pay extra, or is it because you dont want me to "ruin" a beautiful goldtop? well sorry, but i find this to look better than this
 
Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

metallicaxlxl said:
why are so many of you trying to tell me not to redo the cavity? is it because you dont want me to pay extra, or is it because you dont want me to "ruin" a beautiful goldtop? well sorry, but i find this to look better than this
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Truthfully I really doubt it has anything to do with "ruining" a "beautiful" gold top (lets face it, its an epiphone, so who cares?). But more with the fact that, its not reverseable, and theres so many other opitions you could try before going this route, and possibly still being disappointed. Have you tried any of dimarzio's p90 sized Buckers? Those might get the sound you want without having to route. Duncan even makes some p90 sized buckers in the custom shop (if you don't wanna use dimarzios for whatever reason, like alotta people here).
I think the point is, Theres alot of options you haven't even tried/considered. And thats probably why everyone is trying to deter you from hackin up your guitar. Sumthing like this is a pretty big thing, being as you can't go back after its done. And If the tech messes up your guitar (which is a very real possibility) your gonna be pissed and were gonna have to listen to you whine about it on here.

But from your last post I get the feeling taht your feelings towards trying other alternatives has less to do with Sound, than it does with Cosemetics. "this looks better than this" Doesn't really seem like Sound is the most important thing in your choice to me. And if thats the case, thats fine too. But why not just Trade your 56lp, for a Normal Lp and avoid having to route? If you route that guitar out, and then still Don't dig it, and try to sell it. Your gonna take a massive hit due to your having routed it, so you'de be better off just Buying what you wanted.
A normal epi lp isn't really a High priced Item. If you REALLY must have buckers, I'm sure you could sell your Lp and have enough to buy a plaintop epi. Even if you had to spend a little extra over whta you sold it for, it would still work out cheaper than getting your lp routed for buckers. (Remember you'll have to Pay for the routeing AND still have to buy new pickups.) Do whatever you want, I think everyone is just trying to make you Think it through. So you don't disappoint yourself.
 
Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

i understand what youre saying and all, first of all, cosmetics has a part in my decision, as it does in every decision i make, but its not the biggest role. if i was only for looks, i would be getting a hybrid, i wouldnt even want to do this change because heck, the mini's look pretty damn nice. the biggest factor is tone of cource, than upgradability, and than finally cosemetics.

the shop i was going to, and probably will bring it to will be tr guitars. they are a "gibson warranty service center" http://www.trguitar.com/ so what does that mean? being a gibson warranty service center, does it mean that im protected by gibson if it ****es up??

i promise, if somethign screws up, ill just have ONE post about the tragedy, with pics and me crying (not too much though) and thats it. than it can be put in the vault as a valuable lesson for everyone else to doublethink what they are about to undertake... but thats only if it screws up, which it probably wont, and its a risk im willing to take.
 
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Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

Bro, there is going to be cosmetic problems routing a P-90 to a humbucker. A P-90 is wider than a bucker and the ring will probally not cover up the ends of the cavity where the P-90 rout was.

Your BEST option, sell your 56 Epi and use that cash to buy a humbucker Epi! It will be foolish to drop cash on the 56 to get routed than it look like hell afterwards! Sell your Axe and buy a used Epi LP. Hell, if you play your cards right you may even come out ahead!

No, just cause they are a Gibson warranty center, that does not protect you from a damn thing. Sell you guitar, buy used Epi LP.

Here is the trading post,
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/forumdisplay.php?f=7
put it in there for a "reasonable price"!
 
Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

As others are saying, cosmetically it'll never be perfect (and you're hooked on cosmetics, so you need to seriously think about this... I don't care how much "experience" a store says they have with routing). If you're so bent on the looks of a humbucker routed Epi, why not simply sell your goldtop (sounds like there is some interest on here) and get what you want? It seems silly to pay someone a decent amount of money to route an Epi when you can find any humbucker loaded Epi in any music store out there in the US easily and cheaply. Epis aren't exactly the "holy grail" so you won't be missing anything by selling that exact one.
 
Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

theodie said:
Bro, there is going to be cosmetic problems routing a P-90 to a humbucker. A P-90 is wider than a bucker and the ring will probally not cover up the ends of the cavity where the P-90 rout was.

Your BEST option, sell your 56 Epi and use that cash to buy a humbucker Epi! It will be foolish to drop cash on the 56 to get routed than it look like hell afterwards! Sell your Axe and buy a used Epi LP. Hell, if you play your cards right you may even come out ahead!

No, just cause they are a Gibson warranty center, that does not protect you from a damn thing. Sell you guitar, buy used Epi LP.

Here is the trading post,
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/forumdisplay.php?f=7
put it in there for a "reasonable price"!
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the_Chris said:
As others are saying, cosmetically it'll never be perfect (and you're hooked on cosmetics, so you need to seriously think about this... I don't care how much "experience" a store says they have with routing). If you're so bent on the looks of a humbucker routed Epi, why not simply sell your goldtop (sounds like there is some interest on here) and get what you want? It seems silly to pay someone a decent amount of money to route an Epi when you can find any humbucker loaded Epi in any music store out there in the US easily and cheaply. Epis aren't exactly the "holy grail" so you won't be missing anything by selling that exact one.
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+1 To both. Try out an epi Les paul Studio. You could probably offord that new if you sold the goldtop.
 
Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

metallicaxlxl said:
alright, so if i were to sell it, why should i get epi again? wouldnt it be better to go with
http://cgi.ebay.com/Agile-3000-Pres...ihZ012QQcategoryZ2384QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem
or agile or edwards if i can find them around the 400-550 price range. arnt those better than any epi's except maybe the elitist series?
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IMO they are usually better than Epi's with exception to the elitist models. The agiles are a bit better but, the Edwards would be the best bet if you can find one within your budget.

None of them (epi, Agile, Edwards) are bad guitars by any means though!
 
Re: sick of my '56 goldtop

alright, well for now, at this point in time, these are the guitars id be willing to go for.

Tokai love rock goldtop
tokai love rock flametop
tokai les paul reborn goldtop
Edwards lp flametop orville
agile AL-3000 csb flametop
agile-3000 prestige goldtop

im probably more interested in the goldtops, and more into the ones that are under 600 bucks. can anyone rate these guitars telling me which one would play / sound better and have better build quality?

thanks.

actually all tokai have 100+ shipping, so unless i get more money for this, i can probably give up on them except for the les paul reborn goldotp one.
 
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