Thanks to
@TheMarlin (or ‘that bastard’ as he is now known in my house) I’m really lusting after a P90 equipped guitar, preferably in gold top livery. Now despite how utterly, utterly gorgeous the above-referenced Murphy Lab is, its waaaay out of my league and - now here’s the thing - I’m not 100% sure I’m a Les Paul kinda dude anyway; I’ve had several, including a beautiful Feline, and I’ve moved them all on. I have one now and I love it, but it’s a Special without the carved top - maybe that’s why I like it?
Yet I still feel that the traditional LP gold top is what I want.
So the question: if I were to break my no new (or used) guitar rule and get a gold top, what do you rabble suggest? It doesn’t HAVE to be LP-type, but if it were…? MIJ, Vintage, Harley Benton or just man up and get a Gibson? Or others: PRS, Hamer XT, Yamaha Revstar (do they even do a GT?)
Theres a USA PRS GT soap bar near me for 1500 OBO on eBay which is kinda tempting; it’s a bit shabby but that’s OK by me - so am I.
Indulge me. Please.
Edit: budget would be up to £1k in an ideal world but we don’t live in that so… £1.5k absolute top end.
Comments
throw in a Gretsch hard case for beer money. You can then fit it with Mojo (or other brand) Filtertron sized P90’s (or goldfoils, or staples etc etc), and still be well within budget.
Probably not much help as I can't remember the model and they weren't exactly commonplace when they made them.
I'd be quite tempted by the guitar owned by @TheMarlin though. I am in fact tempted even though the GAS tank is empty due to buying a Gretsch and an Eastman at the tail end of last year.
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder
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Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder
My trading feedback - I'm a good egg
Then I got a GT in a trade for an old acoustic. For some reason I thought this was one I could get to work on.
They have great necks and nice dark rosewood boards. The stock pickups are decent too.
I wasn't a fan of the finish so I stripped it, changed the pickups (twice), reshaped the headstock and added CTS pots... but honestly they are great stock. I just have this disorder to change everything!
I have one (not for sale, so not bigging it up) it has Seymour Duncan P-90's & it sounds simply glorious.
No pics to hand, but looks like this https://reverb.com/item/67105416-godin-lg-p90-gold-2003-gold
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https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/156040152724?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=6eggpscVQGW&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=Agi8rxNMQ9W&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
Barstard’s Gretsch is also every bit as nice as he says, if a slightly different vibe. It’s one of these
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I didn't remember who made the P90s but I do remember them sounding great. The fact that they're Seymour Duncans would probably explain it!
Lovely looking and playing thing. Can't remember why I didn't buy it but I probably foolishly assumed they'd be around for a few years. That was the last time I saw one.
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Rather surprisingly, it's better than anyone has a right to imagine, especially for the price; it certainly sounds good and following a decent set up, it plays well too. It is interesting to note that some Fazley models are identical to Jet models apart from the headstock shape; not suprising then to learn that Jet and Fazleys are both made in the same factory, but Jet's JL-500 (which is their Gold Top but with humbuckers as opposed to P90s), has an rrp of 460 Euros. So I think that Fazley is quite a lot of bang for its meagre bucks given that production is carried out at the same place. Anyway, I reviewed that Midas here on the fretboard forum last week and if anyone is not snobbish about logos, I genuinely do think it is worth considering for some inexpensive Gold Top shenanigans.
Things to note are that although it as a carved top, it's not a maple cap; the entire body is mahogany, as is the neck, but the fretboard is poplar rather than rosewood, although it is nice for all that. As everyone knows, CNC manufacturing these days means most inexpensive guitars are, from a body and neck standpoint at least, cut and fitted as well as anything else and this one is no exception. The hardware is okay, but anyone hoping to get serious mileage out of one of these would definitely want to look at upgrading these bits, and possibly the pots and wires too, but as noted on my review, the P90 pickups themselves sound pretty damn good, thus I've no intention nor desire to replace those, but will probably stick some gold Grovers on it at some point. You'd better really want a gold guitar though, because literally everything, apart from the front face of the headstock, is either painted gold or plated with gold. They didn't call it the Midas for nothing.
Given you seem to have a bit of wiggle room with budget, I've heard nothing but good things about FGN Guitars and they do a lovely looking Gold Top. Probably be tough to find one used, but even new they're under your max budget:
https://www.coda-music.com/fgn-nls11rmp-neo-classic-p90-goldtop-a230844.html