I was reading this guitar discussion on a Facebook page for local blues players and afficionados the other night... seems like it would fit right in here...
HJ - The Outt Saloon w/Lil' Jimmy F August 2012
AL - digg'in the Les Paul! what year is it?
HJ - It's a 2006? Model 1960 Classic - one of the few I have ever loved... It has Harmonic Design Z90s (Very strong bucker sized P90 type single coils) which accounts for the cool cream color on the pickups... great playing and sounding...
AL - Very cool...post up some sound clips!
HJ - If I ever get any...
JB - That is one heavy guitar.
HJ - Lighter than most of them....
HJ - With the Z90's, the effect is kinda retro, more like an old Jimmy Page/Zeppelin thang...
JB - The grimace says "heavy" unless it is shocking the piss outta you.
AL - ...the grimace is due to the amp...he should be using a Bogner....
JB - HJ is experienced with pricey amps. The magic is not in the box.
AL - Hmmm...i guess i know nothing about tone...right HJ?
HJ - The two men making these comments are both frighteningly good players. Mr JB (The Voice) is sort of a traditional Soul/Rythym & Blues player with an encyclopedic knowledge of chords, who's natural frugality requires him to take inexpensive instruments and a Champ Amp to even the stadium venue. Mr. AL is his polar opposite, and would have to cut Eric Johnson & Eddie VH some slack should they happen to be in the neighborhood. His weapons of choice include obscure boutique guitars and Bogner amplifiers. Myself, I am a Classic Rock hack, lucky to be able to put two notes together via a Custom Shop Tele, the pictured LP, and a much worked on Fender Vibrolux. In either case, both gentlemen are incorrect as to the nature of the expression on that face - it is designed to cover a flub, and deceive the audience into believing I play with 'feel', when in reality I am totally lost while performing during a graciously invited sit-in with the Lil' Jimmy blues band...
AL - HJ...too kind...however i doubt you flub...get someone to vid the face & playing during a set so we can all hear the vibe!
JB - Thanks, HJ. My frugality also helps make those cheap asian guitars sound good with rootless chords, movable shapes, and pedal tones--my favorite tricks.
JB - You know this Mr. Pricey shi+ gets me riled up, and it has been a constant source of irritation to me that you think only an expensive guitar is capable of making music. If that is the case, I should be hearing a helluva lot more music from all these US Gibsons and Fenders. What I do hear is the bragging.
HJ - I simply like the style, feel, and weights of American Gibsons and Fenders, and some of the accurate reproductions. These just happen to be rather pricey - but that's after trying out all the both cheap AND expensive ones that I didn't like or turned out to be pieces of crap! It's hard to find any guitar that suits... only Paul I ever really liked for example... Never professed to be able to play one...
JB - It is a subjective matter, and I have never had the money to indulge in speculative purchases of high end instruments. I have to make do with what i have--and I have done damn well at it. I get tired of being singled out as flawed by my instrument choices. I wish that could be dropped as a subject of discussion.
HJ - It was a compliment regarding what you can do with almost any stick of wood - I don't do as well with everything I have tried...
JB - Ok, thanks, I just get so much of this dumba$$ "but it's an Epiphone" stuff that I could puke. They wouldn't say that about a 60's Epi, which I have played, too, but with less satisfaction--a certain dullness of tone and response in the electrics. The worst SG I ever played was an American 1969 I had. I'd pick any Tokai or Epi or Vintage Icon over that. My motto is 'suit yourself'--I don't prescribe rigs, just the willingness to try, to connect.
AL - Ok...time to weigh in...although 1 guitar on my wall is pricy...the one that makes 75% of the tracks is a modified pos ibanez...scalloped neck and 1961 fender single coils...i use the high end guitar for when its required...no bragging here and i dig the sound...not the instrument...matter of fact...i typically get tweaked when i get handed a coors lite vs. A real beer...so mr. JB...keep up killin it with what YOU like...dont listen to anyone puttin you down...for me..if you think i have passed judgement...i did and do not...i am thankful for what gear i have and continue to search for tone...regardless of what the headstock says...
JB - No, Alan, it's OK. I am poor and work unskilled labor jobs, so I need advice on everything, and get it. I listen to people trying to beat their PRS's into emitting something listenable, without success. They are on top of the world looking down on guys who play basswood guitars.
HJ - PRS is very good at marketing to people that believe guitars should look, feel, and sound like generic pieces of high end FURNITURE. You can get a beautiful $3000 coffee table, or a really nice actual wood one for under $200 at World Market. Having been in the unfortunate position of having enough money to buy a PRS, and several of the SE models, I found them to be heavy, colorless, flat sounding and without body resonance or character - and frankly quite useless and ugly. You will only find the very rare successful professional (in a specialized genre) that prefers them - but you will see plenty of both new and old Fenders and Gibsons, even Epis on the big stage. Isn't it funny how that famous guy you admire is usually holding some old piece of well crafted, well aged junk that happens to have a certain voice to it, rather than the latest flamed/bookmatched/highly stylized piece of eye-candy crap? My guitars are individuals I have searched for for years, which felt right at the outset, had 'something in them', and then were painstakingly worked with to try to bring 'that something' out. Notice - the Paul has a very ordinary, plain, unfigured top - geez, and what a surprise - the whole body resonates when played...
I happen to like the ugly blue Relic Tele because it feels like the real wood I learned to play on, and has a familiar, friendly sound & character to match...
HJ - Finallly, to me and me only - money is no object in the quest for a wonderful instrument that I feel good about playing - but I have taken a $99.00 Dan Electro to a job, and it gave me a night to remember...
JS - it ain't the bat, it's the batter. dollar signs just don't matter.
AL - Yep...I've had a custom PRS...and it ain't part of my collection anymore...was a very overrated guitar...I basically have 4 guitars...a Tak acoustic - sounds phenomenal in front of a ribbon mike...the Tom Anderson Custom (pricy)...middle of the road Ibanez neck through the body...for that heavy rock riff stuff, and then my favorite...the cheap 200 Ibanez in which I scalloped the neck and single coiled it to death as I stated earlier...the rest of the herd has been sold because I don't need it...I'd rather put the $$$ towards mic preamps and studio gear...still runnin my 2002 quick silver dual processor, DP 4, MOTU converters and an API preamp...
JS - some of the jap-o-casters i've seen over the years had the ability to sound better than the real thing. i saw chuck prophet recently and he was making incredible music on a fender squire tele. i am very fortunate to have found my les paul when i did, back in '74. a band mate had bought it in '72 and paid all of $200 for it. i have ruined what ever collector value it might have but, it sounds great to me. my favorite amp is my little electro M-8. it's 8 watts of 1950's single ended class a hell. i got it from a guy at fort jackson for $150 and wouldn't take anything for it.