One of those Studios has a gloss finish, which is gonna be more expensive. Th rest of the guitars are essentially the same. That 50s Tribute is gonna have a huge neck on it.
2016 LP Studios
- Thread starter JDOD
- Start date
One of those Studios has a gloss finish, which is gonna be more expensive. Th rest of the guitars are essentially the same. That 50s Tribute is gonna have a huge neck on it.
JDOD
therecordingrebels.com
Cool, in that case I'll see if I can get my hands on a fireburst to try - think they look a bit nicer than the red one that I tried.
I wouldn'r mind trying a 50s tribute just out of curiosity.
I tried a really weird guitar at Crimson today with a tripezoid back to the neck, that was a LP shape too but I didn't get on with it at all.
I've been watching a lot of their videos. They really seem to have a handle on building fine guitars. I love their videos. The bad part for me, or maybe it's good for my wallet, is that I've not seen one thing come from their shop that I have even the slightest interest in owning.
JDOD
therecordingrebels.com
Go on Greg, pop them an email or give them a ring. They'll build anything you want. Ask them for a Les Paul shape guitar but with a 5 piece through neck, easy access heal, burst buckers, coil taps.. specify the neck dimensions, nut material, and all other components to be exactly what you want on your ideal guitar... they'll call you back pretty quickly with a quote. Tell 'em you know me.
Then you'll have the same "problem" as me. You'll never have a reason to get a different guitar down off the rack.
Its actually quite fun putting a spec together for your absolutely perfect guitar. Fortunately for me (and my wallet) my spec was relatively simple aside from the fancy neck.
All of the stuff that makes them special is stuff that I couldn't care less about. I'm not the kind of player that needs five piece necks or compound radius fretboards.
JDOD
therecordingrebels.com
What would be your perfect guitar if you could have literally anything?
Surely this is kind of up your street (aside from the fucking Bigsby)
The bespoke Bigsby loaded Les Paul type guitar | Crimson Guitars UK
I love Bigsbys. They don't stay in tune for shit, but that's rock and roll.
See, I look at that guitar, and I see a nice Les Paul clone with custom accouterments that mean absolutely nothing. I don't need or want matched wood cavity plates. I don't need or want smooth wood knobs. So basically, not that there's anything wrong with that guitar, it just has nothing for me that I don't already have.
I really do think I already have the perfect guitar for me - my Goldtop Traditional. There is nothing I'd change about that guitar. Nothing. It's 100% perfect. If I was a better player maybe I'd find a flaw in it, but I'm not, and it isn't flawed at all. The feel, look, pickups, pot values, set up, sound, it's all fantastic to me.
JDOD
therecordingrebels.com
Mate, Bigsby's look like shit and they fuck up your tuning stability! What's to like? Its not like you play any shadows covers!
That's cool then - great to have the perfect guitar in a totally stock instrument.
I just couldn't find something on the market that was exactly what I wanted. I really liked my old telecaster - it was pretty much there but it just felt like a 500 quid instrument, was good value for what it was but it wasn't a genuinely really good guitar.
Haha, I like tasteful tremolo. It's certainly better to me than dive-bombing floyd rose wankery. I like the look of Bigsbys too. They look like an old machine or motorcycle part. They have style. I wouldn't want one on a Les Paul though. To me, Les Pauls are pure rock and roll machines. They need to be left alone just as they are. They're like a muscle car. Basic, neanderthal, no-frills solid tools of rock and roll. When you start adding floyd roses and body carves and contours to Les Pauls, you're left with a PRS, and they are cheese,
It's not like my Traditional is some budget basement chinese guitar though. That thing is a higher end Gibson and I laid my hands on over 100 Les Pauls easily before taking the Goldtop home. I spent months cruising all over Houston, Tx and Austin going to every place that even had just one Les Paul looking for "the one". And I found it. I had to sort through lots of duds, but I found a killer. And I actually almost passed on it. I had a black one on hold and was on my way to pay for it when they got my Goldtop in. I saw it, and I was like "I better check that one out before I get this black one" because Goldtop was my first choice for finish. That black one went back on the hook and the Goldtop came home that day. I truly would not change one single thing about that guitar. It's my best player, it sees the most action, and in any situation I know I can just grab it and be just fine.
JDOD
therecordingrebels.com
Haha, I like tasteful tremolo. It's certainly better to me than dive-bombing floyd rose wankery. I like the look of Bigsbys too. They look like an old machine or motorcycle part. They have style. I wouldn't want one on a Les Paul though. To me, Les Pauls are pure rock and roll machines. They need to be left alone just as they are. They're like a muscle car. Basic, neanderthal, no-frills solid tools of rock and roll. When you start adding floyd roses and body carves and contours to Les Pauls, you're left with a PRS, and they are cheese,
It's not like my Traditional is some budget basement chinese guitar though. That thing is a higher end Gibson and I laid my hands on over 100 Les Pauls easily before taking the Goldtop home. I spent months cruising all over Houston, Tx and Austin going to every place that even had just one Les Paul looking for "the one". And I found it. I had to sort through lots of duds, but I found a killer. And I actually almost passed on it. I had a black one on hold and was on my way to pay for it when they got my Goldtop in. I saw it, and I was like "I better check that one out before I get this black one" because Goldtop was my first choice for finish. That black one went back on the hook and the Goldtop came home that day. I truly would not change one single thing about that guitar. It's my best player, it sees the most action, and in any situation I know I can just grab it and be just fine.
Yeah, by totally stock I didn't mean something that came out of the factory in Indonesia like my tele. I realise its a quality item! If I do get an LP Studio I won't just try one and find a nice one - I'll probably try all of the ones in the shop that aren't hideous to look at.
You really do need to try as many as possible. Studios are pretty notorious for being totally great or totally shit. If you find a great one, it will have all the goodness in tone that a higher end Les Paul would have and not feel like total crap. In my experience, the most common problems with Studios are the neck/fret finishing and the general setup. A setup is no big deal provided basic adjustments can get it just right. But the fret crowning and ends might need more attention. The higher end Gibsons have rolled frets and binding. It feels real smooth and comfortable. Studios have a raw neck and sometimes brutal fret ends. To a novice these things might not even be noticeable, to a more seasoned player these things are a big turn-off.
Dave Matthews
Dave's not here
A nice used PRS McCarty is a wonderful machine. Wide fat neck is a dream if you didn't bond with the Mira. 22 frets though not 24. Lots with dots instead of seaguls...
Brought to you by your resident side parted hair wearing old fart weekend warrior PRS loving Canadian (not a Nickelback fan) wanker.
Brought to you by your resident side parted hair wearing old fart weekend warrior PRS loving Canadian (not a Nickelback fan) wanker.
JDOD
therecordingrebels.com
Crimson have actually just done some work on my fret ends. Where the guitar has settled since it was built they were starting to become noticable, so they filed them back in today. Feels amazing now. It is something I am sensitive too.
Did the fat tattoo head guy do your guitar?
JDOD
therecordingrebels.com
No, the guy with the goatee and glasses. I did have a good chat with Ben (the guy with all the tats on his head) today though. They're a nice bunch there - really friendly.
They seem like a good group - the kind of business you can pull for. You can't say that about many small businesses trying to make a dent. There's an amp/guitar manufacturer here in Houston that makes pretty decent amps, shitty guitars, and I can't stand their business model or the guy that runs the thing. I'm good friends with the lead amp builder. Great guy and he'd probably give me an amp if I asked, but I wouldn't play that thing if it were the last amp on earth.
JDOD
therecordingrebels.com
That's annoying, I don't feel like that about these guys at all. They really are a good bunch, they do a good job and they're basically giving away as much free knowledge and advice as they can on YouTube as a way of promoting their business which is really good way of doing it. You don't feel like you're just getting advertised to - they basically give their advertising some value.
Its gonna be fucking hard for them to compete with the big guys with their stock instruments though and I'm not sure that they can get enough commissions for "master builds" (what I had) to really make money - I just don't think the market in the UK is big enough to support that. Maybe in London, but they're really out in the styx there. They seem to be doing OK though as they make tools too, and I suppose the people that use their tutorial videos will buy their fret levellers and shit like that.
jimistone
long standing member
I've only had one Les Paul studio. I sold it because I needed some quick cash, but it was a great guitar. As good as the customs and standards I've had. I didn't know there were problems with build quality on studios.
But, I don't buy new guitars. I always buy used and I haven't gotten a lemon yet. Of course if you play a guitar for a while and inspect it closely...and you really like it....the build quality is there.
Buying brand new guitars over the net could be dicey with build quality issues.
But, I don't buy new guitars. I always buy used and I haven't gotten a lemon yet. Of course if you play a guitar for a while and inspect it closely...and you really like it....the build quality is there.
Buying brand new guitars over the net could be dicey with build quality issues.
Hey JDude, I was just across the road at my local GC buying some drum hardware parts, so I checked out the ten or so Studios and Tributes they had hanging on the wall there.
I was pleasantly surprised mostly. Of the 6 I tried, they were all pretty decent. Two of them had razor sharp fret ends, but the setup, neck relief, bridge height, etc was all pretty nice. No serious buzz or fretting out notes. No weird bridge angle setups. The raw studios had semi-shoddy fretboard-to-neck joints. One of them was a Studio Deluxe, meaning it had a gloss top, and the neck had a much better finish to it. I think I liked the 50s Tribute the best. Big neck on it, but it played nice. Good solid guitar IMO.
I was pleasantly surprised mostly. Of the 6 I tried, they were all pretty decent. Two of them had razor sharp fret ends, but the setup, neck relief, bridge height, etc was all pretty nice. No serious buzz or fretting out notes. No weird bridge angle setups. The raw studios had semi-shoddy fretboard-to-neck joints. One of them was a Studio Deluxe, meaning it had a gloss top, and the neck had a much better finish to it. I think I liked the 50s Tribute the best. Big neck on it, but it played nice. Good solid guitar IMO.
JDOD
therecordingrebels.com
Cheers, that's quite handy to know. So far I've only tried that one LP Studio and I liked it, so I'll keep trying a few different ones while also trying anything else interesting that I come across. It would be nice to get something semi-hollow as that really would be an alternative as opposed to just a backup.
Gotta get rid of this pair too:
One thing I forgot to mention, that PRS I tried had no balls whatsoever. I was playing through one of them Fender Supersonics, nice amp, set to crunch. Ideal with the LP, roll off the vol for cleans, bit of crunch with it on, some good leads on the bridge etc. The PRS was just completely clean on the same settings - was like a different amp, not just quite clean, really clean. OK, so there was some noice in the shop but there was no discernable breakup. By far the least pokey humbuckers I've come across.
Gotta get rid of this pair too:
One thing I forgot to mention, that PRS I tried had no balls whatsoever. I was playing through one of them Fender Supersonics, nice amp, set to crunch. Ideal with the LP, roll off the vol for cleans, bit of crunch with it on, some good leads on the bridge etc. The PRS was just completely clean on the same settings - was like a different amp, not just quite clean, really clean. OK, so there was some noice in the shop but there was no discernable breakup. By far the least pokey humbuckers I've come across.