Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

JumpMarine

JumpMarine

18 watts of Mayhemologist
Well the brown truck has just come and gone leaving a nice big box from Nashville! Pictures to follow later tonight after I get home....

First impressions are that it looks much better in person than in pictures. It has a nice even brown finish that is much smoother to touch than you would think. Fit and finish both were top notch. Set up is pretty good out of the box, but I will have to tweek the intonation after the guitar stabilizes a bit. Action was right on the money for me, fairly low with no buzzing of any kind. The neck is wonderful, not quite as big as my R7...just right. Frets were dressed nicely on this one, no sharp ends! The top is a two piece(not perfectly matched, but you have to look close) and the back 3. I'll have to weigh it when I get home as well, but it's probably between 7.75 to 8.25# I'm guessing. Very nice weight, IMHO. It's super resonant and vibrates freely with each strum. The pups are better than I expected(BB Pros) and I will leave them in while I'm evaluating the guitar. The pots feel good, but I don't like the sweep range of the tone as they mud up around 6 when rolling them back. Other than that, I'm very happy with the purchase. Don't let anyone BS you, this is pure LP tone! I don't think that it's an especially dark sounding guitar at all either.

**Steve, you are going to love your's when it comes in!!!**
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

After a/bing against my buddy's Seth loaded warmoth, the pups will be replaced. It was always my intention to put my Brobucker in her, but after hearing the difference in note seperation and warmth of the Seth's over the Burstbuckers there is no doubt. The BB's aren't bad, just not as good as the Seth's. And I know what the Brobucker sounds like in an LP, wicked!
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

That's great to hear! The one I played at GC Saturday felt a good 2 lbs. lighter than some of the maple capped Studios - a good thing to me.

Lookin' forward to mine..............
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

Congrats!! I'm glad you like it. I've always wanted to try one of them out.
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

Nice gee'tar! looking forward to checking out the pics!
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

Congrats! Those VM LP's are really nice. I thought the one I played was a tad on the bassy side but it could have been what I was playing through.
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

Oh man....my local GC has 3 of them, and 1 is an absolute gem.....I mean the grain is nice, the neck is perfect, and there's zero flaws. Since I'm friendly with the guys down there, my buddy said I could have it with a case for $757 out the door! It's really tempting, but I've got 3 nice LP's already, so I've got to be realistic. I want it though. Brobucker/PG would get my vote.
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

This thread is worthless without pics!
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

I played a vintage mahogany LP studio yesterday that sounded amazing and was pretty light. :D it was nice for a lower end lp.
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

:32:

You peeps give me GAS.



:fart:
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

That's great Jump congrats!

These are some seriously tempting axes... glad you like yours!
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

Crapola, my camera is dead. I'll have to wait till tomorrow to get batteries! Anyway, updates: This thing is crazy light, 6.8#....I checked it 5 times on the digital scale. I popped in the Brobucker and my UGD Antiquity and had some minor problems. I put the cover back on the Brobucker, but should have wax potted it as it had a terrible squeal under high gain. The CS Antiquity is a bridge pup and an A2....just didn't sound right at all in the neck. Oh well, back to the Burstbuckers for a short time. I'm assuming that the pots are 300k and the Brobucker sounds best with 500k. I am going to upgrade the pots and caps, find a mate for the Brobucker(PGn or Seth most likely), repot the Brobucker and cover. But for now, I'm quite content to just play her the way she is. Something else that I found interesting today. The guitar came with Gibson Bright Wires(.10s) and I put on a new set of D'Addario 10s. The Gibsons were noticably slinkier.
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

Mine was here when I got home from work around 1 p.m. Very happy with the tone coming out of it. To me it's warm but not dark. It's lighter than my basswood Wolfgang and they're both the same body thickness, although the Wolfgang has a maple neck.

I really like the looks of it. I don't know why they call them faded. To me they have the look of a nice sealed piece of mahogany furniture. I think it's gorgeous in person with the chrome, wood grain and black.

Mine does have some fairly rough fret edges, though. I suppose if it bothers me enough I can file them. As of now it isn't that big a deal. The case is very nice also. I probably won't be swapping out the pups anytime soon, although I did lower them about 1/32 as per the Gibson factory specs in Dan Erlewine's book. The neck pup doesn't have that boominess that many have. This guitar has that nice grind that I've always wanted from a guitar - glad I finally gave in and got a Gibson!
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

Very cool Steve! My neck is really glossing up nicely from playing the tar out of it. I did take a file to the fretboard edges and fret ends a bit. As soon as I get some gear $$$ together I'll be changing out the pots to 500k and better caps. That should really open up the tone even more. I agree it's not a dark sounding guitar, warm and woody is much better. Weight wise, whoa what a switch from my R7 at 9.2# down to a very, very comfortable 6.8#.
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

So where are the pics?
 
Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

Man, I've got to say this guitar with this amp is the most satisfying tone I've ever had. I'll probably keep this thing stock. My Stiletto leans on the bright side so I think the stock pots (300k?) and lowering the BB Pros to near the pickup ring level are just right for my situation. Although I can see possibly replacing the tone pots for more reactive ones (are audio taper the ones?)

Something I never even considered before is to dial in the amp for the neck pickup and then dial back the tone control on the bridge pickup to compensate for the brighter amp setting. A nice tip I picked up at the LP Forum that you all are probably aware of but I never was. I also put on a set of nickel Snake Oil strings this morning - great strings.

I'm down to one guitar now and am enjoying the hell out of it!
 
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Re: Vintage Mahogany Les Paul: Impressions from the first hour of playing

SoCalSteve said:
I'm down to one guitar now and am enjoying the hell out of it!
Click to expand...

I hear you, I'm down to two....Lp and Tele, both are tone monsters!

BTW, who carries Snake Oil strings? For the first time ever I wasn't happy with my D'Addario 10's when I put them on the LP.
 
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