Zaphod B
Raccoons-Be-Gone, Inc.
...at the nearby GC over the weekend.
Not to be confused with a LP Custom, it is one of the Gibson USA LP "Classic" models - it's the black model with gold hardware and exposed pickups with gold polepieces.
I'm not that into black LPs, but this guitar really is a looker. The body, neck, and headstock are all bound; the body and headstock are triple-bound in cream/black/cream. The bindings are a nice amber color as is the pickup selector knob. The tuners are the sealed Gibson units (Grovers or whatever they are) rather than the standard Gibson tuners. The headstock has the holly inlay. Volume and tone controls are black speed knobs. The fretboard is ebony and the fret markers are trapezoidal.
It's immediately obvious that the guitar is chambered when you pick it up. It's very lightweight compared to my '72 LP Special, with its slab-'o-mahogany body. The light weight feels fine to me but I understand that those who equate LPs with "heavy" may not like it.
I picked a new Fender Twin Reverb to play through. This was a bit of a mistake on my part, as I didn't know that the new Twins have no master volume, and so I couldn't coax any kind of an edgy sound out of it at the volume I wanted to play. So crystal clean it was.
Filthy strings notwithstanding, the guitar played very well. Action and intonation were excellent and the only distraction was the nasty strings, which prevented me from moving up and down the fretboard with anything approximating dexterity.
The guitar seemed to sustain very well even through this clean amp at low volume, so I think the chambering has at least not affected that characteristic detrimentally. (Maybe even improved it compared to previous unchambered USA LP models with the less-high-grade mahogany bodies?)
The pickups on this model, as on all Gibson LP Classics, are the '57 Classic and '57 Classic Plus in the neck and bridge positions respectively. These pickups are just slightly hotter than the Burstbucker Pros used in the LP Standards. I found the neck pickup to have a nice, rich, full tone with lots of bottom (but not mushy, and, no, I'm not talking about yo' mama
), and the middle position gave a nice balanced tone. The bridge pickup sounded a bit nasal. I would add that I only spent about 10 or 15 minutes on the guitar and didn't take the opportunity to fool around much with the tone controls on the Twin, so I definitely didn't have the tone dialed in.
I plan on going back and playing this guitar though some kind of tube amp that can give me a little tube overdrive, so that I can see what it sounds like when it's given the opportunity to push the amp a little. I suspect that the bridge pickup will sound better with some bite in the amp.
I won't be buying this specific guitar, but the LP Classic Antiques are on the top of my short list. I'll post up again when I've run that black Classic through another amp.
Not to be confused with a LP Custom, it is one of the Gibson USA LP "Classic" models - it's the black model with gold hardware and exposed pickups with gold polepieces.
I'm not that into black LPs, but this guitar really is a looker. The body, neck, and headstock are all bound; the body and headstock are triple-bound in cream/black/cream. The bindings are a nice amber color as is the pickup selector knob. The tuners are the sealed Gibson units (Grovers or whatever they are) rather than the standard Gibson tuners. The headstock has the holly inlay. Volume and tone controls are black speed knobs. The fretboard is ebony and the fret markers are trapezoidal.
It's immediately obvious that the guitar is chambered when you pick it up. It's very lightweight compared to my '72 LP Special, with its slab-'o-mahogany body. The light weight feels fine to me but I understand that those who equate LPs with "heavy" may not like it.
I picked a new Fender Twin Reverb to play through. This was a bit of a mistake on my part, as I didn't know that the new Twins have no master volume, and so I couldn't coax any kind of an edgy sound out of it at the volume I wanted to play. So crystal clean it was.
Filthy strings notwithstanding, the guitar played very well. Action and intonation were excellent and the only distraction was the nasty strings, which prevented me from moving up and down the fretboard with anything approximating dexterity.
The guitar seemed to sustain very well even through this clean amp at low volume, so I think the chambering has at least not affected that characteristic detrimentally. (Maybe even improved it compared to previous unchambered USA LP models with the less-high-grade mahogany bodies?)The pickups on this model, as on all Gibson LP Classics, are the '57 Classic and '57 Classic Plus in the neck and bridge positions respectively. These pickups are just slightly hotter than the Burstbucker Pros used in the LP Standards. I found the neck pickup to have a nice, rich, full tone with lots of bottom (but not mushy, and, no, I'm not talking about yo' mama
), and the middle position gave a nice balanced tone. The bridge pickup sounded a bit nasal. I would add that I only spent about 10 or 15 minutes on the guitar and didn't take the opportunity to fool around much with the tone controls on the Twin, so I definitely didn't have the tone dialed in. I plan on going back and playing this guitar though some kind of tube amp that can give me a little tube overdrive, so that I can see what it sounds like when it's given the opportunity to push the amp a little. I suspect that the bridge pickup will sound better with some bite in the amp.
I won't be buying this specific guitar, but the LP Classic Antiques are on the top of my short list. I'll post up again when I've run that black Classic through another amp.
