Zaphod B
Raccoons-Be-Gone, Inc.
After a false start earlier, it's time for another Zaphod B product review. I hope it's helpful to you. 
Guitar: 2007 Gibson Les Paul Classic Antique, wine red finish
General Stuff: This LP is very similar to the current LP Standards, differing mainly in the details. The body is chambered mahogany with a carved maple cap, a mahogony neck, and rosewood fingerboard.
Cosmetics: The body, fingerboard, and headstock are all bound. The detailing on the fingerboard is particularly nice, as the binding follows the profile of the fret ends very well. More on the frets below. The headstock has the holly inlay rather than the "Les Paul Model" decal. The truss rod cover is inscribed with "Classic" in script. The fretboard has trapezoidal inlays.
The gloss finish is overall very nice. There is one area at the junction of the neck and body, on the face of the body, where the finish looks a little built up but otherwise it's nicely finished. The maple cap shows a bit of flame and is a nice-looking piece of lumber.
The plastics on the face of the guitar - pickup rings, pickguard, pickup selector toggle switch cap and label ring - are cream-colored. Nitpicking, I would note that there is a slight discrepancy in the color of the pickguard and the pickup rings, and the pickup selector toggle switch cap is an even darker, antiqued cream. No telling what will come out of the parts bin, I gather.
The overall appearance of the guitar is very nice - it's a looker.
The wine red finish color works really well with the cream appointments. The color is deep, but not so dark as to obscure the grain of the maple cap. The color also blends nicely with the black end caps of the uncovered humbuckers.
Hardware: The stop tailpiece and tune-o-matic bridge are nickel plated. The tuners are standard Gibson issue (not the sealed Grover units) with green keys. The two volume and two tone controls have amber top hat knobs. The pickups are 57 Classic (neck) and 57 Classic Plus (bridge) and as noted above, are uncovered black.
Playability: Out of the box the guitar was set up very well, with accurate intonation and correct neck relief. The action was a just a touch high but easily enough adjusted. I must state here that the frets threw me off at first. The frets are not the wide, low rounded frets that I am accustomed to but instead they are a medium width and medium height, with a squarish profile. The edges are not sharp but they have a pronounced profile. So manhandling the fretboard will get your fingertips binding on the frets. After a couple of days of playing I learned to lighten my touch a bit and be more accurate with my finger placement, and can now get around on it as well as any of my other guitars. The advantage to having the slightly higher frets is that you can get more of the meat of your fingertip behind the string and have more control and less effort when doing string bends.
Sound: Unplugged, you can tell the guitar is chambered if you have a truly solid-bodied LP for comparison. It has a slight acoustic resonance that my '76 LP Special is lacking.
Plugged in, to my ears the guitar sounds like the quintessential Les Paul. Played through my Vox AC30 clean through Norm channel, the neck pickup and neck/bridge combination both provided rich, full, clean tone. Popping hard on the strings while fingerpicking results in some really nice dynamics. The bridge pickup is a bit nasal sounding on clean settings.
Pushing the AC30 preamp stages into overdrive, all the way from a little edge to full-tilt saturation, the bridge pickup comes into its own and just plain howls. Nice dirty lead sounds with good tone. I can get great pinch harmonics from this pickup - it's almost too easy.
The neck/bridge combination also sounds really good when the amp is being driven. The neck pickup alone sounds a bit muddy on the lower strings unless the volume is rolled off a bit.
The guitar has great tone in all situations and very good sustain. I think Gibson have done their homework on the chambering issue, and dire predictions of the death of the Les Paul line because of chambering are greatly exaggerated.
Les Paul fanatics all seem to weigh their guitars, and I think some of them actually go out and buy scientific triple-beam scales solely for this purpose.
I used the less accurate but free technique of weighing myself on a bathroom scale with and without the guitar, and as near as I can determine it weighs somewhere between 7.5 and 8 pounds.
That's all I've got for now. Please do not expect another new guitar review for at least a year, as anything sooner would result in my untimely demise at the hands of Mrs. B.
Guitar: 2007 Gibson Les Paul Classic Antique, wine red finish
General Stuff: This LP is very similar to the current LP Standards, differing mainly in the details. The body is chambered mahogany with a carved maple cap, a mahogony neck, and rosewood fingerboard.
Cosmetics: The body, fingerboard, and headstock are all bound. The detailing on the fingerboard is particularly nice, as the binding follows the profile of the fret ends very well. More on the frets below. The headstock has the holly inlay rather than the "Les Paul Model" decal. The truss rod cover is inscribed with "Classic" in script. The fretboard has trapezoidal inlays.
The gloss finish is overall very nice. There is one area at the junction of the neck and body, on the face of the body, where the finish looks a little built up but otherwise it's nicely finished. The maple cap shows a bit of flame and is a nice-looking piece of lumber.
The plastics on the face of the guitar - pickup rings, pickguard, pickup selector toggle switch cap and label ring - are cream-colored. Nitpicking, I would note that there is a slight discrepancy in the color of the pickguard and the pickup rings, and the pickup selector toggle switch cap is an even darker, antiqued cream. No telling what will come out of the parts bin, I gather.
The overall appearance of the guitar is very nice - it's a looker.
The wine red finish color works really well with the cream appointments. The color is deep, but not so dark as to obscure the grain of the maple cap. The color also blends nicely with the black end caps of the uncovered humbuckers.
Hardware: The stop tailpiece and tune-o-matic bridge are nickel plated. The tuners are standard Gibson issue (not the sealed Grover units) with green keys. The two volume and two tone controls have amber top hat knobs. The pickups are 57 Classic (neck) and 57 Classic Plus (bridge) and as noted above, are uncovered black.
Playability: Out of the box the guitar was set up very well, with accurate intonation and correct neck relief. The action was a just a touch high but easily enough adjusted. I must state here that the frets threw me off at first. The frets are not the wide, low rounded frets that I am accustomed to but instead they are a medium width and medium height, with a squarish profile. The edges are not sharp but they have a pronounced profile. So manhandling the fretboard will get your fingertips binding on the frets. After a couple of days of playing I learned to lighten my touch a bit and be more accurate with my finger placement, and can now get around on it as well as any of my other guitars. The advantage to having the slightly higher frets is that you can get more of the meat of your fingertip behind the string and have more control and less effort when doing string bends.
Sound: Unplugged, you can tell the guitar is chambered if you have a truly solid-bodied LP for comparison. It has a slight acoustic resonance that my '76 LP Special is lacking.
Plugged in, to my ears the guitar sounds like the quintessential Les Paul. Played through my Vox AC30 clean through Norm channel, the neck pickup and neck/bridge combination both provided rich, full, clean tone. Popping hard on the strings while fingerpicking results in some really nice dynamics. The bridge pickup is a bit nasal sounding on clean settings.
Pushing the AC30 preamp stages into overdrive, all the way from a little edge to full-tilt saturation, the bridge pickup comes into its own and just plain howls. Nice dirty lead sounds with good tone. I can get great pinch harmonics from this pickup - it's almost too easy.
The neck/bridge combination also sounds really good when the amp is being driven. The neck pickup alone sounds a bit muddy on the lower strings unless the volume is rolled off a bit. The guitar has great tone in all situations and very good sustain. I think Gibson have done their homework on the chambering issue, and dire predictions of the death of the Les Paul line because of chambering are greatly exaggerated.
Les Paul fanatics all seem to weigh their guitars, and I think some of them actually go out and buy scientific triple-beam scales solely for this purpose.
I used the less accurate but free technique of weighing myself on a bathroom scale with and without the guitar, and as near as I can determine it weighs somewhere between 7.5 and 8 pounds. That's all I've got for now. Please do not expect another new guitar review for at least a year, as anything sooner would result in my untimely demise at the hands of Mrs. B.
