Gibson Les paul STD v Customs..... experts pop in for tea

samzadgan

@markblack thats lovely

ICBM

ADP said:

I like the way there's no control cavity cover on the Supreme. I've never seen one before so I googled it to see how they get the electronics in there. I'm guessing it's through the hole for the jack socket; the plate looks a little larger than normal. Very cool.

It will be through the bridge pickup cavity like an ES, I expect. (The switch will be via the neck pickup cavity.) I've never worked on one though.

I'm in two minds as to whether I like the elegance of not having the covers, or dislike the problem of maintenance...

koneguitarist

ICBM said:

I'd pick a Custom over a Standard any day, whatever the length of the tenon. I just think they ring better and sound bigger. It's the ebony fingerboard and/or the extra mass of the headstock, almost certainly - nothing else is different, unless the amount of binding affects the tone!

You can always change pickups and even the bridge, it's the basic guitar you can't.

Funnily enough, I agree. The Custom always seemed to be more focused and with a more distinct mid honk on bridge HB which cuts through the mix really well. I had a Variax for a while and even the custom V std settings bear this out. My mates Custom absolutely screams.

richardhomer

I loved Peter Frampton's Les Paul sounds on Frampton Comes Alive. Presumably his Custom was all mahogany - IIRC it was a '54 which had humbuckers retro-fitted.

I always thought it was a really great looking guitar.

thermionic

ICBM said:

I just think they ring better and sound bigger. It's the ebony fingerboard and/or the extra mass of the headstock, almost certainly - nothing else is different, unless the amount of binding affects the tone!

I was in the States a couple of years ago and tried a few Les Pauls, including a Custom in a trailer that Gibson drove round and parked outside guitar shops. I'm certain one of the Gibson sales blokes said something along the lines that the body of an LP Custom is a few mm thicker than a Standard. I replied that I always thought it looked that way to me, but put it down to an optical illusion caused by the binding on the back. A quick google is inconclusive...

ICBM

I must say I'd never noticed that, I think it's an optical illusion from the binding.

I forgot the tone-modifiying properties of gold hardware though .

bandmaster188

ICBM said:

I must say I'd never noticed that, I think it's an optical illusion from the binding.

I forgot the tone-modifiying properties of gold hardware though .

Custom is 51mm and standard is 49mm. Don't know if they differ in thickness from certain years, that was just measured from an 89 custom and 2008 standard. The custom definitely looks more than 2mm thicker because of the binding though.

darcym

There has to be something different of substance, I never like playing customs, but I'm fine with standards

ICBM

Damn... this is making me want a Custom again.

Voxman

There's definitely a difference in feel and tone from a Custom. I like Standards too, and I'm not suggesting one is necessarily 'better' than the other, they just feel and sound different.

For me, Customs sound fuller, have a tad more bite and a little more sustain. From a playing perspective they feel more substantial, and I prefer the better quality Grovers to the typical thinner plastic tulip heads on the standard, although they can be changed of course.

What I like about standards is that they are a tad lighter, the rounded back edge is more comfortable, and their tone generally has a slightly looser more rounded feel to them.

If I bought another LP, it would probably be a honeyburst or goldtop Standard, simply because I have a Custom already.

Bucket

ICBM said:

Damn... this is making me want a Custom again.

It's making me want a Custom even more.

To this day, the best Les Paul I've ever played was a black early 70s Custom, absolutely beaten to shit but played like a dream and sounded glorious. Apparently made between 1970 and 1972. The shop wanted three grand for it...

Philly_Q

I love the look of Customs but I've never found one light enough for me - apart from Japanese copies, which would be fine except that most have rosewood boards rather than ebony.  I like rosewood, but for a Custom it really should be ebony.

I hope to find a chambered one some day.

ICBM

My problem is that I will always be haunted by that damn '56 one I should have bought. Even though there is no practical way I could justify a 25-grand guitar now - you really couldn't gig it at a normal bar, and it would need special insurance even at home. So I would just end up buying something cheaper to actually use in public… in which case I might as well do that anyway!

I'd actually like a late-70s maple-neck one, but they tend to have other features I don't like (sharp cutaway horns, flatter tops), and dealers are starting to ask a lot for them now too.

And the reissue ones I could afford are out because every one I've played has had that stupid "50s" baseball bat neck, which the real 50s ones don't have!

Grrr.

It's almost enough to make me just stick with my PRS .

jd0272

'54 Reissue with huge neck for shovel hands here please  

Nicely kicked in 'course (and headstock repaired) so I can gig/thrash it with gay abandon.  

xSkarloey

@icbm So is your 'Custom that got away' the one with the P90/ Alnico 5 combo? There are some Youtube demos of those and in the right hands they seem like an incredibly versatile guitar.

ICBM

Skarloey said:

@icbm So is your 'Custom that got away' the one with the P90/ Alnico 5 combo? There are some Youtube demos of those and in the right hands they seem like an incredibly versatile guitar.

Yes.

I've tried a couple more of them, a '72 'first reissue' and a recent Custom Shop reissue.

The '72 was very good, and I probably should have bought that too... but it just didn't have the magic of the original 50s one, not sure why - although *not* having been refretted with bigger frets like the old one was made it hard to play, which might have had something to do with it.

The modern one was OK, but just a guitar. The neck was too big as well.