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Musician thread

Kornholio said:
I think this thread needs to be resurrected!


As some already know, I'm mostly a Fender guy at heart (I love me some single coils!), but I've been jonesing over a Les Paul lately. I have ZERO interest in paying close to $3,000 for a Gibson version and thus have been primarily focused on the Epiphone versions, more recently the Les Paul Modern version they currently offer. Any thoughts on this?

This one in particular...

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https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/EILMFPENH--epiphone-les-paul-modern-faded-pelham-blue
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I originally bought an epi lp traditional pro-iii plus that I got on sale from musicians friend. I ended up sending it back because the damn pau ferro fretboard wasn't glued on straight and there was a huge ridge at the 1st-4th fret on the treble side. It sounded great but the fit & finish on it was terrible.

I still really really wanted that sound within a solid, reliable package so I ended up spending 6x what I spent on the epi for a gibson standard and I am super happy that I did. Just a word to the wise/buyer beware
 
tzrider said:
With a mid-gain amp, this would allow for fast switching between a lead rock sound and a jazzy clean with one flick of the pickup selector.
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When are you leaving California to join me in Europe? ;) I have a Funky-Metal (hate the genre name) project that I'm starting with some pretty seasoned pros. We just write and jam for fun, and will do some clubs next year.
 
My wife would enjoy living in Europe for a year or so and I'd certainly enjoy playing with you again. I don't think a move is in the cards very soon though.
 
tzrider said:
Seems like a nice guitar. They seem to have made it more versatile with push/pull pots for coil split and phase, though it can sometimes be fiddly to get from one sound to another, depending on where you're switching from and to.

For the kind of switching I do, I've always preferred a master volume and tone, but some people really like the separate volume and tone of the typical Gibson layout, which could allow you to have the bridge pickup wide open and the neck tone rolled off and volume reduced. With a mid-gain amp, this would allow for fast switching between a lead rock sound and a jazzy clean with one flick of the pickup selector.
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The coil splitting thing isn't a feature I'm particularly enamored with as I feel like that's really more a facet of manufacturers trying to develop what amounts to a "jack-of-all-trades" guitar. To me, true single coils will always sound superior to a split humbucker. No, what I'm looking for in particular is the humbucker sound in the first place and there's something about the single-cuts that just draw my eye.

Brown81 said:
The new Epis are amazing. And Pelham blue is best color ever.

I have a PB Epi, but it's an older version. It's super nice for the money, but these new ones are much nicer.
Hard to go wrong for a hobbyist.
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The color is definitely a big seller for me.
 
Okay I need your guy's opinion on what to do.

I have a 2020 gibson slash standard. I love how it sounds but I hate the look of the zebra burstbucker pickups. I recently picked up a set of seymour duncan slash signature pickups that come with the nickel cover over them and they look amazing.

Now, my question is, should I take out the stock pickups and put the seymour duncans in or should I just buy a nickel cover for the burstbuckers and modify them to fit a cover?

Pros of SD pickups:
-Looks better
-Retains the sound I want
-Tape job on burstbuckers are sloppy and new pups will make the guitar more aesthetically pleasing
-The original pickups the first slash signature came with and gibson made their own because they didn't want to pay SD for the licensing.
-makes it look more like Peter Greene's famous les paul
-I am not a fan of the zebra color pups

Cons of SD:
-Modifying the factory wiring in an expensive guitar hurts the resale value
-The pickups are expensive and I could resell them and pocket about 200 bucks if I just went with nickel covers over the BB's

Pros of keeping burstbuckers w/nickel covers:
-The factory soldering stays in tact.
-I already know what they sound like
-If the covers affect the sound negatively, removing them isn't too difficult


Cons of keeping burstbuckers:
-putting the nickel cover over them requires removing them, adding wax to the top of the magnetic poles and soldering the cover onto the back, when just having the og pups included with the guitar won't hurt resale value as much
-Im not happy with the tape wrap job on them and even though they'd be covered, it'd still bother me.
-the change to the tone of the guitar is unknown and might be dramatic
-having to reset the screw poles on the pickups because it has different resistance properties
-covers are back ordered until January


Sorry for the long post but I'm looking for a little guidance here since I can't make up my mind
 
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At the risk of being overly simplistic, it boils down to whether your priority is resale or how it works for you as an instrument. If you're not clear on that, you're not going to be able to make a rational choice.
 
tzrider said:
At the risk of being overly simplistic, it boils down to whether your priority is resale or how it works for you as an instrument. If you're not clear on that, you're not going to be able to make a rational choice.
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good point. I mean, my main concern at this point is aesthetics and sound, as im sure ill own this guitar for a long, long time. I am leaning towards just changing the pickups. I already have them in my hand and I think i am a little more intrigued by putting them in and seeing how it sounds rather than knowing, by all other's accounts, that it will sound much muddier if i put the covers over the stock pups. I just dont want to be down the road in 40 years and my guitar loses 30% of its value just because I re-soldered a couple wires.

I am probably just going to put the SD pickups in, since that'll be more authentic to the actual Derrigg built guitar as well as the early 2000's gibson reissue, which came stock with the SD pickups.
 
Did you honestly buy that guitar as an investment? To me, no guitar is an investment unless it has provenance linking it directly to ownership by (and even more so being played live by) a professional musician, particularly one of celebrity status. Everything else is going to depreciate. Me personally, I've never understood the allure of paying thousands of dollars for a knock off "signature model". :dunno
 
I don't know if he thought it might increase in value, but he's probably not wrong that whatever its resale value is would be adversely affected by modifying the guitar.
 
Took a couple weeks for this one to show up, but the setup on it was done fantastically by the dealer and it sounds way better than I expected! The Indonesian Squier Classic Vibe guitars are way nicer than their price denotes! :thumbup

123728861_10221492641359232_3772552642493442763_o.jpg
 
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