gibson vs. fender

A

a_goodlett

New member
alright heres the deal, i've been looking into getting another guitar. i want a gibson les paul standard. i do alot of bend behind the stuff, i.e. Led Zeppelin's Heartbreaker. i tried a les paul out in a store and i bent it behind the nut and the string went severly out of tune. my fender strato doesnt do this. is this due to bad tuner thingies, the type of strings on the guitar & how old they are, or the shape of the headstock? OR is due to the fact that Jimmy Page is a god and he can get away with the bend behind the nut without the detuneing? i need to know if this would be a problem if i actually paid 2,000 for the damned guitar and then it goes out of tune when i bend behind the nut.

thanx people
 
a_g,
Now I might not be remembering this right, but I think Page played the "Heartbreaker" solo on a Fender telecaster through an old Supro amplifier. Teles have lots of room for behind the nut bends, but with any guitar that you do this kind of stuff on, the strings need to be thouroughly stretched out and properly secured to the tuners.

P.S. Here's another trick (kinda 80's flashy, but still cool) to get the same sort of effect. While your left hand fingers are fretting, reach behind them on the string you are on and pull it up off the fretboard in between your fret hand and the nut. It helps if you are playing at the fifth fret or above so you have some room to do this. You can get a whammy pull up sort of effect, just be careful not to pull the string out of the nut slot.

peace.
 
Re: that explains it

a_goodlett said:
that explains the bend the nut thing.
Click to expand...

Uummm... I don't care if you guys wanna bend your nut things - but do it in the privacy of your own home please.

There are children present.

;)
 
darn.

and I thought this was going to be one of those heated Fender Versus Gibson debates.

maybe tomorrow.

H2H
 
I tried doing a behind the nut bend once.

I was in the hospital for a couple of weeks after that.
 
The Truth is Gibson.



Gibson will set you Free.



Gibson will also put you in the Poorhouse.


(Oh, what the hell)...
 
a_goodlett:

Was the nut thing the criteria for choosing the guitar?

Listen to Heartbreaker on the BBC Sessions CD. In particular, listen to the section immediately following Page's solo where he does the nut bend thing. Hopelessly out of tune. Not even close. It probably dropped by a full half step!
 
If you really must bend behind your nuts, I have found that an application of powdered graphite in your slot will allow the string to move freely through without the detuning effect.

A soft pencil lead will do the trick nicely. If not, perhaps you need to have your nut slots examined by a trained professional. ;)

Don't try this at home, kids.

foo
 
I have never owned a new gibson but I can testify that the tuners
on all the vintage ones are garbage. I now need to replace the tuners on the vintage 335 I bought two years ago. This is the second one and all the other gibsons I have owned were the same way.
 
Les Pauls or Strats....I've always thought they were two different tools for two different jobs, but I do know that Chevys are better than Fords!
 
dragonworks said:
I have never owned a new gibson but I can testify that the tuners
on all the vintage ones are garbage. I now need to replace the tuners on the vintage 335 I bought two years ago. This is the second one and all the other gibsons I have owned were the same way.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you're right. But I've had my Les Paul for twenty years and have never had a problem with tuners, or anything else for that matter. And it has significant mileage. No tuning problems.

GetuhGrip has the right idea. I play a strat with a totally different approach than a Les Paul - it's like they're two different instruments. Not totally unlike the different approach you would apply to an acoustic guitar vs an electric.
 
bad tuners

Both myself and another friend replaced our Gibson tuners with Sperzel locking tuners.

Easier to change strings in a hurry and they seemed a bit more solid then the Gibson ones...so I rave about them now...I highly recommend them if you're having tuning problems.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top