Doing up a Burny Les Paul versus keeping a Gibson i bought.

bignorm

Hmm I'm in a bit of a dilemma 
I started a thread re having a me wants for a Gibson and after a lot of deliberation ended up getting a Gibson les paul DC special.
I got it online from mansons so I have 14 days to decide if it's for me.

On the plus side..
It's light, plays well with good access to the dusty end of the neck.
P90s sound awesome.

On the downside 
The neck is very shallow and the P90s are extremely noisy.
I know thats part of the sound but jeez these are so bad I have to turn the vol knob right down to shut the little sods up.
Now if I had two vol and tone pots i could live with it coz I could turn one vol pot off and flip the selector on to that pick up inbetween songs.
So only having 1 vol and tone pot is another bad mark.
 If Its a keeper I'd have to address the P90 hum.
Do I change the P90s and hope i can learnt to live with the shallow neck.

I have a chinese Burny that i bought very cheaply to sell on but after setting it up realised it plays really nicely.
The neck profile is comfortable but once again the access to the dusty end is a bit restrictive but part of the Lester charm.
Do I reject the Gibson and spend some cash turning the Burny into a players guitar? 
The shopping list would include 
A set of P'ups wiring loom and pots for the Burny which turn it into a players guitar but not add any value to it.

Decisions decisions

Schnozz

I would recommend Seymour Duncan Phat Cats - I get barely any noise from them and they're Humbucker-sized P90s

I had Seymour Duncan SP90-3s in a Yamaha SG1802 and I couldn't get over the noise (but I don't like Single Coils either)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv6kK9Ef3_8

bluenile

If you're not keen on the neck I'd send it back personally. Shouldn't have to be a compromise like that on a £700 guitar

Voxman

bluenile said:

If you're not keen on the neck I'd send it back personally. Shouldn't have to be a compromise like that on a £700 guitar

Agreed - it's not about whether it's a 'good' guitar - it's about whether the guitar is 'good' for you.  A guitar should feel, sound and play right to you, so that you really want to pick it up & enjoy playing it.  If any part of that doesn't work for you, regardless of the name on the head-stock or if others have one that they love, it's not 'right' for you. 

Here's a thought though before spending lots of dosh on doing up any guitar - think about what your current rig is and what you're playing it through.  Because we hold the guitar in our hands and have the physical contact with it, we tend to focus on the guitar.  But sometimes a move up to a better amp or (if you're a home player) MFX unit with good headphones, can improve your sonic world far more dramatically than upgrading pick-ups.  

usedtobe

I don’t think I’d want to take the risk of not getting used to the neck, if it was me..

Funkfingers

IMO, if you are not in love with the Gibson and you have the option to return it for a refund, do that. 

Similarly, if you enjoy playing the MIC Burny, upgrade the deficient parts and get on with gigging or recording. I did exactly this to a Hamer XT Sunburst.

Assuming that the Burny has regularly sized humbuckers and you desire a P90-esque sound, you could do worse than buy the DiMarzio Bluesbucker listed in the forum classifieds. (Not mine!) With a push-pull pot, the pickup can be split to the screw coil for pseudo Strat sounds.

ICBM

The Gibson has two unfixable black marks against it - the neck profile, and the control layout. Even if you replaced the pickups it still isn't going to be right for you.

Return it, and either spend the money upgrading the Burny or put it towards getting a proper Gibson, with the traditional controls and a fatter neck - you might be surprised how cheap the entry point is for this - a second hand 'worn finish' Les Paul Studio is around £400, or a normal Studio around £500 if you don't like the matt finishes. You might even find the LPJ (not Jr) model for under £400, although it will need the pickups upgrading.

bignorm

Voxman said:

bluenile said:

If you're not keen on the neck I'd send it back personally. Shouldn't have to be a compromise like that on a £700 guitar

Agreed - it's not about whether it's a 'good' guitar - it's about whether the guitar is 'good' for you.  A guitar should feel, sound and play right to you, so that you really want to pick it up & enjoy playing it.  If any part of that doesn't work for you, regardless of the name on the head-stock or if others have one that they love, it's not 'right' for you. 

Here's a thought though before spending lots of dosh on doing up any guitar - think about what your current rig and what you're playing it through.  Because we hold the guitar in our hands and have the physical contact with it, we tend to focus on the guitar.  But sometimes a move up to a better amp or (if you're a home player) MFX unit with good headphones, can improve your sonic world far more dramatically than upgrading pick-ups.  

I'm a gigging musician that plays in a couple of bands.
I use a H&K Grandemeister 36 live which gives me all the tones i need. I push it pretty hard and ride the guitars vol knob to give me the sounds I want.. 40 years of playing through Marshall stacks has given me habits that are hard to kick so I don't use pedals.
I didn't think about the consequences of adding a single coil guitar to a really hot valve amp until i plugged it in lol.
To be honest ... sound wise it's absolutely stunning when you churn out some chords, but the background noise is beyond belief. 
I used to have an ac30 back in the 70s that had totally destroyed itself and caught fire.
The sound it made just before it died is pretty similar. 

At home I use a Sansamp Flyrig through a small mixing desk 

Philly_Q

You don't really like the Gibson but in theory you're still in the honeymoon period.  I doubt you'll grow to like it any better...

bignorm

Sometimes it's great to put into words what's going on in your head.
This whole journey started as a me wants coz I wanted a raw Gibson snarl for my rock band that I'm in.. I play in an 80s party band most of the time so most of my guitars are having to cover a lot of styles.. luckily my Prs's cover that but theyre a tad too polite for tits out rock.
I've decided to return the Gibson as it doesn't quite fit.
Next thing is to keep an eye out for something else.. I don't mind a faded finish but my budget is £500 - £600.
I'm still toying with the Burny upgrade. I've various pick ups in the bits drawer so all I need to find are some pots and stuff.
It's either that or flog that for 250 and increase my budget for a proper Lester.

ICBM

bignorm said:

Next thing is to keep an eye out for something else.. I don't mind a faded finish but my budget is £500 - £600.
I'm still toying with the Burny upgrade. I've various pick ups in the bits drawer so all I need to find are some pots and stuff.
It's either that or flog that for 250 and increase my budget for a proper Lester.

The pots won't significantly change the tone, nor the function unless you're very into fine-tuning with the controls - they affect the taper, but not much more than that. If you've got different pickups to try that's worthwhile, but I wouldn't spend more on it unless you know it really is the 'keeper' - you can get a nice Les Paul Studio for £500-£600.

bignorm

ICBM said:

bignorm said:

Next thing is to keep an eye out for something else.. I don't mind a faded finish but my budget is £500 - £600.
I'm still toying with the Burny upgrade. I've various pick ups in the bits drawer so all I need to find are some pots and stuff.
It's either that or flog that for 250 and increase my budget for a proper Lester.

The pots won't significantly change the tone, nor the function unless you're very into fine-tuning with the controls - they affect the taper, but not much more than that. If you've got different pickups to try that's worthwhile, but I wouldn't spend more on it unless you know it really is the 'keeper' - you can get a nice Les Paul Studio for £500-£600.

The Burnys volume pots are very on or off. Pretty shite, a couple half decent pots will help there. I used my volume pot all the time so that's a must as far as I'm concerned 

bignorm

Gibson Les Paul Less Plus  any good ?

Philly_Q

bignorm said:

Gibson Les Paul Less Plus  any good ?

No need to shout!

2015 model I think?  So you'll have the wider neck, adjustable brass nut and robot tuners if you can live with them.

Not a chunky neck, either, although they call it "rounded" as opposed to slim taper.

The thinner body did appeal to me though.

Funkfingers

bluenile said:

a £700 guitar

Notional £700 refund + the £200 that you could spend on upgrades for the Burny = the price of a pre-owned Gibson LP Standard or one of the "shape" models. 

I dare say that @HarrySeven would be delighted to hear from you.

bignorm

I realise im turning in to an indecisive idiot in my old age, the myriad of similar looking but totally different Gibson's isn't helping

Boromedic

This is in your budget, might be worth a punt?

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/137720/gibson-les-paul-studio-t-2016-ebony-for-sale-price-drop-now-600-ono#latest

bignorm

All sorted now, I came across a 2017 Gibson Les Paul tribute that had never been used and was in dire need of some TLC.
I fed the dry rosewood fingerboard with Bore Oil, polished the frets as they were turning green and set it up with new strings. It absolutely growls through my H&K amp.
im totally in love with the stripped satin no frills look.

Funkfingers

Happy ending.

ICBM

bignorm said:

im totally in love with the stripped satin no frills look.

Very nice. Just ditch that hideous plastic thing tacked onto the front and it will be perfect .

bignorm

Already ditched mate...
I can't believe how quickly it went from being a right dog to princess. 
It was in such a rough state, I nearly walked away.
Once i sorted the dry fingerboard, polished the green frets and ditched the rusty strings, the true guitar started to shine through. 
If I change anything it'll be the tuners but there's no rush 
There's no bells and whistles but I don't need them, plug in to a cranked valve amp and wail.