Les Paul Recording ~ ~ ~ fascinating . . .

ChrisMusic

Fascinating info on this guitar, I nearly bought one way back, but I didn't know much about them.

Also pics of the Les Paul Jumbo acoustic, his signature amp, and an asymmetric 330 (Coronado-ish) style sig model.

Any of you guys owned one of these Recording models or any of the others ?  (or got close to owning one like me)

Do you know anything more about any of the models ?

Do tell.    Cheers,  Chris

http://www.gould68.freeserve.co.uk/lprusers/lprusers.html

ICBM

I owned a Les Paul Triumph bass (bass version of the LP Recording guitar) a long time ago, and recently a Les Paul Signature semi-acoustic.

The bass was a bit of an oddity - it did sound very good when it was set right, but there were a lot of ways to set it wrong. Unnecessarily complicated.

The LP Signature was flat-out great - probably the best-sounding and most versatile guitar I've ever owned, capable of traditional and powerful 'rock' Gibson sounds (contrary to popular belief) as well as much thinner, more acoustic-like ones. The control system is much simpler and totally logical. I just could not get on with the neck profile, or I'd still have it.

ChrisMusic

The semi looks like a pretty rare beast, I really didn't expect anyone here to have had one, does look nice though.

Please tell me about that neck profile on your ex LP sig.

Maybe I'll even get to try one, one day.  Thanks for the info.

What about the LP bass, it always looks from the pics I have seen, that it is going to be very neck heavy, is it?

Not seen a Les Paul Triumph bass, so off to Google that right now, my education continues, cheers ICBM  

monquixote

Wow that site is a trip back to the 90's

ChrisMusic

Hey Moxi, hope that was "a trip back to the 90's" in a good way  

Les Paul Triumph bass link for anyone interested in a peek    (sorry - MR content warning)

http://www.musicradar.com/news/bass/cool-and-classic-basses-gibson-les-paul-triumph-565342

ICBM

ChrisMusic said:

Please tell me about that neck profile on your ex LP sig.

What about the LP bass, it always looks from the pics I have seen, that it is going to be very neck heavy, is it?

The neck was too wide and shallow for me - typical for a '77. Earlier ones might not be, it was made from '73-'79.

The LP Triumph wasn't neck-heavy because the body weighed half a ton too!

ChrisMusic said:

http://www.musicradar.com/news/bass/cool-and-classic-basses-gibson-les-paul-triumph-565342

Ha, I didn't write that, really! I agree with almost every word . Although not about it being useless without the transformer lead, in low-impedance mode…. you could actually go direct to a low-impedance mixing desk rather than to an amp - I suspect this was the idea originally but they found the players of the time didn't understand the concept, so they did the special lead as a fix.

(Mine was the later version with the two-post bridge - probably the worst-designed bass bridge in history.)

You can do the same with any of the models, including the Signature - you need a lead with a TRS (stereo) plug at the guitar end and a male XLR at the desk end. The benefit is wider frequency response and more clarity, rather than just being able to drive long leads.

Even better, on the Signature you can use both outputs at the same time, going to an amp from the high output and desk from the low, and the 3-position impedance switch then becomes a selector between your amp and DI sounds, with the middle position being an equal blend.

monquixote

Very interesting site despite the retro html.

ChrisMusic

Thanks for the neck info ICBM, I'm not that keen on really chunks necks, so that may well work for me.......

hhhmmmmmm what's that sound, GAS calling, (maybe one day).

Nice looking guitar, and your description of it sound wise is intriguing.

Glad I put the discussion up.

Hey Moxi, I thought all us guitarists were into retro by nature  

randomhandclaps

As a totally random fact.  Around 2000-01 I walked into Andy's (rip off den) guitar shop in Denmark Street and the only other person in the store was Noel Gallagher.  He was sat on an amp strumming a Les Paul Recording (unplugged).  I had met Noel on a couple of other occasions at industry get togethers.... anyway he asked me if would test it out with him.  I then spend the best part of the next hour upstairs trying it out.  He bought it.  It's the kind of story that should hold good memories but all I can think of it the moment it dawned he was buying it for himself rather than some super-rich act of generosity for my time.

dogload

ICBM said:

The LP Signature was flat-out great - probably the best-sounding and most versatile guitar I've ever owned, capable of traditional and powerful 'rock' Gibson sounds (contrary to popular belief) as well as much thinner, more acoustic-like ones. The control system is much simpler and totally logical. I just could not get on with the neck profile, or I'd still have it.

I like these. I missed out on an Epiphone model that they had at Nicks in Wetherby a few years back (for substantially less than the Gibson equivalent they had in at the time!).

I believe Peerless are making their own-branded version of these (presumably they made the Epiphones). 

My mate has a Jack Casady bass which he rates very highly. 

ICBM

dogload said:

My mate has a Jack Casady bass which he rates very highly. 

I like those a lot too, but I promised myself I wouldn't start collecting basses, and I have two already - fretted and fretless. On the other hand, neither is semi-acoustic .

monquixote

The LP signature is an awesome looking guitar. 

I don't know why Gibson don't do a new range of them rather than knocking out some of the tat they have been designing recently.

Skipped

Les Paul Recording:
Heavy
Ugly block inlays (along with the other Norlin design changes circa 1971.....see SG Deluxe etc)
A very unlikely choice at a time when most guys only owned 1 guitar.

But now? Yeah why not.

GuitarMonkey

dogload said:

I believe Peerless are making their own-branded version of these (presumably they made the Epiphones). 

Looks like it

http://www.peerlessguitars.eu/#/bassmaster/4557055576

"Influenced by producing products for many other named brands, Peerless has introduced the Bassmaster Player inspired 

by the Jack Casady."

Only the bass though it seems.

dogload

ICBM said: dogload said:My mate has a Jack Casady bass which he rates very highly.  I like those a lot too, but I promised myself I wouldn't start collecting basses, and I have two already - fretted and fretless. On the other hand, neither is semi-acoustic .
I've been so close to buying one myself in the past, but since he got his I can't even countenance it! Mind, his is black and I'd have to have the gold!

GuitarMonkey said:

dogload said:

I believe Peerless are making their own-branded version of these (presumably they made the Epiphones). 

Looks like it

http://www.peerlessguitars.eu/#/bassmaster/4557055576

"Influenced by producing products for many other named brands, Peerless has introduced the Bassmaster Player inspired 

by the Jack Casady."

Only the bass though it seems.

They do the guitar, but it's only the body shape that it shares

ChrisMusic

randomhandclaps said:   ...It's the kind of story that should hold good memories but all I can think of it the moment it dawned he was buying it for himself rather than some super-rich act of generosity for my time.

What an ingrate, least he could have done after your generous donation of part of your life for his education.

Great story, thanks for sharing the experience with us.

Skipped said:   ...A very unlikely choice at a time when most guys only owned 1 guitar.

Yes that's what I thought, it was a very long time ago, I think I walked out of the shop with a Custom IIRC.

dogload said:   ...I believe Peerless are making their own-branded version of these (presumably they made the Epiphones). 

They make some very nice guitars, tried a Peerless Hardtail at another forum members place a while back, sounded and played great, nicely made and finished, and a steal for the price, well worth checking out IMO.

Just checking out the Bird of Prey now, thanks for the links guys.

GuitarMonkey

dogload said:

They do the guitar, but it's only the body shape that it shares

Thanks, I couldn't find it on their hard-to-navigate website.

ChrisMusic

OK so I've had a look at the Peerless Bird of Prey on the site, looks nice, might make a good project for now.

ICBM, what did the electrics side of the LP SIgnature have that made it so special sonically.

The controls are thinned down over those on the recording, what was the secret ?

Re-createable for a project maybe ?

Cheers, Chris

Skipped

A nicer layout (IMO) on the Les Paul Personal model......
(this is Les Paul's own guitar which is on gbase for $50k)

Fretwired

Jan Akkerman went from:



To this:



It's a different shape to the regular Les Paul and is lighter and more comfortable to play.

Mosfed

The standard Les Paul Recording is one of the nicest and best sounding Les Paul's I have ever played.

I wish I didn't find the pickups so but ugly though.

I had never put 2 and 2 together about how the L6S and L5S came around though.  That is super helpful!