Help choosing a Gibson LP

Clingy

Hi

A colleague of mine approached me yesterday for advice for his son.  His son is 15/16 and in a band that is doing quite well.  I went to see them play recently and they are progressing very nicely.  Recently they managed to get a friend of a friend in the business to watch them at a gig and he was surprised at how good they were, but he did say my colleagues son's guitar was a week point in the sound of the band.  He has an American Fender Tele.  The pro's advice was to get a double humbucker guitar preferrably a Gibson Les Paul.  Now I have a Custom Shop 59 reissues, so I guess my colleague thought I would be able to help.  Sadly though they only have around £1000 to spend and I am not familiar with non custom shop Gibsons.

I was hoping for some advice from a Gibson LP expert or two.  Sorry this is somewhat vague, but what would be the best option for a gigging musician, who with a bit of luck and the right break will be hitting the big time sometime over the next few years....after which he'll be able to afford what he wants!  All I have said so far is that he needs to pay particular attention to the nect profile and the weight.  I was guessing a Traditional or Standard.  Whereas looks are never unimportant it's tone that needs to be good.

Thanks in advance

tbm

Odd question this, as it's based on one persons opinion. Someone else might see the band love the way the tele sits in the mix. Unless your pals son can't dial in a decent tone - which seems unlikely if he's in a band that's doing ok - its strange to hear that a guitar sound is a bands weak point. It's a very subjective thing.

Anyway as regard your query you, should be able to pick up a decent LP Standard for around a grand, maybe a little more. They can get pretty heavy though. I played a 2007 LP Classic the other day and it was very light and resonant.  Finish wasn't as glossy as a standard/traditional, but I certainly liked it. That as going for around £900 IIRC.

Fretwired

tbm said:

Odd question this, as it's based on one persons opinion. Someone else might see the band love the way the tele sits in the mix. Unless your pals son can't dial in a decent tone - which seems unlikely if he's in a band that's doing ok - its strange to hear that a guitar sound is a bands weak point. It's a very subjective thing.

^
This.

What type of music do they play? It could be an amp/pedal issue. The Boss doesn't seem to have a problem getting a decent sound out of a Tele ...

As for a Les Paul you could get a decent Studio for under £1K like this http://www.coda-music.com/gibson-paul-studio-2014-desertburst-vintage-gloss-p-17683.html

Iamnobody

Sorry that's absolute bollocks and poor advice.

By all means buy the lad an LP if HE wants one but pedals, amp and a poor mix could all be contributing factors.

What type of music do they play ?

There's a £400 studio in the classifieds that would do the job...

[Deleted User]

Yeah, I'd have told the guy to get stuffed - really weird advice to give, the friend of a friend sounds like he's the one who doesnt know what hes talking about tbh

Monkeybone

Does the "pro" that works "in the business" happen to work for Gibson?

57Deluxe

Being Gibson, you can only know what is good for you by laying hands on them. So many duffers always... try and try again...

ICBM

^This too.

Is it a two-guitar band?  If so, what guitar does the other player use? Is he the lead or rhythm guitarist, or a mixture?

What amp does he use? What amp does the other player (if there is one) use?

Without knowing these things I don't think you can have any idea of whether the Tele is the "weak" element in his sound. It could just as easily be the amp or the way it blends with the other guitar. (And that's even assuming that his sound is in fact weak.)

Jimmy Page used a Tele on many of the early Zeppelin recordings and to this day most people think it's a Les Paul.

Lindsey Buckingham used a Tele on a lot of the Fleetwood Mac studio recordings even though he mostly used a Les Paul live.

A Tele can be HUGE sounding through the right amp.

WezV

Sometimes when people are asked for advice they actually don't have any advice to give.  This does not always stop them giving advice.

 

 

When an 'expert' says something to fill a conversation it should not be enough to warrant spending a grand on a new guitar, but if he has money to spend and wanted a new guitar anyway then sure, try some LP's to see if they fit.   Also worth looking at other ways he may want to change his sound and reflecting on the advice to see if any of the band think its an issue too. 

 

There is no reason for a tele to be a weak point in the bands sound

JDE

I'm not sure what I would say to someone if they said to me "your band is great but I hate your tone." It would be very impolite, though. If you didn't notice anything glaringly obvious tone-wise when you saw them, I don't really think your insider could have either. A&R generally listen to tunes rather than tone.


I have never, EVER, known a band to not progress "to the next level" in the industry because of their guitar sound.

Phil_aka_Pip

• I endorse (for what that's worth) what everyone else has said
• You need to know if the "problem" really is a problem
• There are lots of alternative guitars that could be substituted if no tweak to the tele+existing rig could be found which resolves the problem, one of the most versatile (IMO) is the SG2000. Despite my personal dislike of teles, I don't believe that finding the right tweak is impossible
  

underdog

If he did want an LP to give a shot I'd be tempted to buy a 2013 LPJ from thomann, real Gibson at about 600 pound and the goldtop looks gorgeous.

Clingy

Wooooow.  The expert is just that, so please don't suggest he has an agenda other than to help.  I am getting this advice second hand but I am assuming that the Tele does not fit with the style of music being played (all the bands own stuff).  Of course it's only one person's opinion, but how does a 15/16 year old sift through all the conflicting advice he would get here or anywhere else.   From what I understand he suggested a double humber style of guitar like a Gibson LP.  He did lend me the Tele when I was considering getting one and it was poorly set-up.  I adjusted everything, but had to adjust some things back as he liked to play with a very low action on 9s.

Amp is a Blackstar HT50....style err well not sure how to anwser that...failry mixed but currently heavier than they are going to end up I am sure.  They do play a few covers so perhaps that would give a clue...the ones I recognised were from The Subways and The Black Keys.

In any event shoudln't a gigging guitarist playing a variety of music have several guitars?

Clingy

57Deluxe said:

Being Gibson, you can only know what is good for you by laying hands on them. So many duffers always... try and try again...

Yes certainly the advice I gave....travel to many shops, preferably helpful ones, and play as many as possible.  He could do a lot worse, and probably not a lot better, than visit Doug of Coda.  I did suggest a few boutique makes such as Tom Anderson, Suhr, Vigier as well, but suspect only a Gibson will do for the lad.

Fretwired

I'd have thought it possible to get a decent tone from a Tele and a Blackstar 50 .... maybe add a dirt pedal or at the worst change the bridge to a humbucker. I don't think spending £1K on an LP is justified to be honest.

This guy can do it ...

ICBM

Clingy said:

Wooooow.  The expert is just that, so please don't suggest he has an agenda other than to help.  I am getting this advice second hand but I am assuming that the Tele does not fit with the style of music being played (all the bands own stuff).  Of course it's only one person's opinion, but how does a 15/16 year old sift through all the conflicting advice he would get here or anywhere else.   From what I understand he suggested a double humber style of guitar like a Gibson LP.  He did lend me the Tele when I was considering getting one and it was poorly set-up.  I adjusted everything, but had to adjust some things back as he liked to play with a very low action on 9s.

Amp is a Blackstar HT50....style err well not sure how to anwser that...failry mixed but currently heavier than they are going to end up I am sure.  They do play a few covers so perhaps that would give a clue...the ones I recognised were from The Subways and The Black Keys.

In any event shoudln't a gigging guitarist playing a variety of music have several guitars?

No, not necessarily.

While many guitarists *like* to have a lot of guitars, it is absolutely not necessary. You can get essentially any electric guitar sound, to quite a close approximation, out of almost any guitar, if you know how to use the controls, the amp and your hands. The big exception is that for parts with a trem, you need one. Most well-known guitarists in the past did not use more than one guitar on stage.

So Tele through a Blackstar HT50… that should be able to cover a huge variety of sounds.

Is there another guitarist, and if so what guitar and amp do they use?

Does he like the Tele? If he does, no need to change it even if it's not giving the sound he wants. You can always put different pickups in, for a start. A poor setup with too-light strings - causing a thin, weak tone with not much sustain - could easily be the problem too…

If he *wants* a Les Paul as well, then he should buy one probably, and there are OK ones you can get for under a grand. But there are a lot of other two-humbucker guitars available too.

JDE

For that type of music, (assuming he likes his Tele), i'd put a beefier bridge pickup in, maybe invest in a RAT or similar-voiced pedal and a Big Muff-type.
That kind of "rocky indie" stuff should be a doddle with a Tele, a Blackstar and those pedals, to be honest. In fact, I actually think it suits singlecoils better than HB's, but that's just me.  

Fiftyshadesofjay

I can only re-iterate what people have been saying here and that's that a decent Telecaster plus the Blackstar should be fine for a decent high quality tone.

I should add that I'm a professional gigging musician myself and I managed to tour playing the heaviest of music with a Telecaster, I just put a mini humbucker in the back.

I think the reason you are getting such a reaction here is from a guitarists point of view, a so called expert saying there's a problem with the guitar being used doesn't make any sense and does indicate they may not know exactly what they are talking about, especially when it comes to guitars!

p90fool

The guy was probably trotting out the usual (and fairly sound) advice of having one guitar of each pickup type in a two-guitar band in order to get them to gel.

Trouble is, by the time we get the third-hand version it starts to sound like opinionated nonsense.

If someone who really does know what he's talking about suggests that a Les Paul type tone would work better in this context then he'll also be aware that its a doddle to get an appropriate tone out of a USA Tele.

It all sounds like a mixture of bullshit with a hint of mistranslation to me.

equalsql

Yep I agree with @p90fool,  I own all the standard combinations T,S,LP,ES etc and to my mind the Tele is definitely the most versatile of any of them out of the box.  Blues, rock, metal, jazz, funk, country, you name it. The Tele covers all styles without breaking a sweat.

mudslide73

I agree with all this Tele stuff. I did a rehearsal with a US standard Tele and I didn't feel I couldn't do anything I can do on my LP. Just a few eq tweaks etc. Very powerful instrument.