Gibson Lpj Review + Holiday Greeting!, Reviewing and playing a Gibson Les Paul Studio LPJ |
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Dec 17 2013, 12:50 PM
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To challenge myself, and to try and break some old habits - I have bought a Gibson guitar. This guitar only has two pickups, no single coils, no whammy bar and poor high fret access. Not only that, but it turned out the guitar seriously hurts by ribs.
Oh no what have you done, I hear you thinking. I bought it from thomann.de for €649 with these specifications: QUOTE Les Paul Studio LPJ DLX WC, electric guitar, Les Paul model, exclusive Thomann model, mahogany body, rosewood fretboard, maple top, maple neck, 22 frets, scale 628 mm, Burstbucker Pro humbuckers, tune-o-matic bridge, stopbar tailpiece, chrome hardware , vintage green key tuners, color: cherry, incl. gigbag, made in USA Sound This is my first mahogany body + maple top guitar, this in combination with the fixed bridge makes up for a sound I have never experienced before. My strat gives me awesome attack which I love - you can really work on your picking/hybrid attack and develop your own sound. However what happens after the initial attack is not quite as pleasant - the thin note dies! This guitar gives me amazing sustain and big tone. It does however also offer some ‘snappiness’ for my hybrid picking (see video) - this might be a result of the maple neck (which I think is not really standard for a Les Paul). Dialing in heavy metal, crunch or big warm clean sounds feels easy with this guitar. It is not capable of delivering twangy strat sounds, and it is not possible to install a coil split with these pickups as they are of vintage two-conductor style. It would be interesting to know how twangy a Les Paul can get with coil splitting, if at all. Playability It has a fat neck profile and action was perfect from the factory - low string height and no buzzing whatsoever. Fretwires are not perfectly polished and a slight joint can be seen where the fretboard meets the neck. None of this affects playability - the higher end models probably don’t have these flaws (and possibly not other LPJ's either?!). The fretwire feels like medium size to me - and this feels very strange as I like my guitars scalloped or with huge fretwire (or why not have both  )Other The volume knob gives a noticeable volume jump happening the first 20% - I got used to it quite easily though. The guitar did not come properly stringed - this resulted in unstable tuning. My other guitars have locking tuners so I used this video to get it right . Also, I will soon order some graphite nut lubricant - and hopefully after that the guitar will remain 100% in tune even after excessive bending. Lessons learned My experience with this guitar is extremely positive - although I had to adapt a little: * After replacing the factory strings (Gibson brite wires 0.10) - with my costume gauge elixir (0.46-0.09) I realised the factory strings were there for a reason: bigger sound! The video above is recorded with the Elixir set, but I have ordered new 0.10 - and I have already started praying my fingers will soon get strong enough to handle them. * The 24.75 Gibson scale offers a nice and different feel than 25.5 (typical for strats) . Shorter (and thereby looser) strings are more playable! * I have replaced (and sold, unfortunately) stock pickups too many times in the past. But I can safely say that these will get to stay for a long time - the burstbucker pros are highly versatile and dynamic enough. I have become allergic against high output pickups - and I am a bit sceptical about the 498T which is a standard Gibson bridge pickup. The are many highly musical stomp boxes that can increase your signal strength, but none that can resuscitate killed dynamics. * This guitar is “unchambered” which means the body has no internal cavities to provide weight relief. Possibly this is one of the great-sound factors. Downside: it’s 3.9 kg (8,6lbs) heavy. It currently feels like this guitar will become my new recording baby though, and I don’t foresee using it live. * The back/side of the guitar body is not contoured like a strat - and this initially hurt my ribs quite a bit. I had to learn to sit differently and with better posture, the later is a very positive side effect. Maybe I should try to get a bit fat as well - a worthy challenge for a chocolate lover! I cannot stop thinking about how the guitar would feel with slight scalloping and a not-so-slight backside/contour cutaway. The later to increase comfort and decrease weight. However I have not researched the cons of doing this… any thoughts about it? Right now I don’t plan on changing anything though - I let the guitar change me instead. It’s a very interesting experience. Happy holidays! |
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Dec 17 2013, 02:36 PM
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and one overlooked aspect of your improve, is that c-clamp holding your light,nice touch of authenticity
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Dec 17 2013, 02:52 PM
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What a great tune Kris! Damn tight and inspiring
 Seems like the guitar loves You from the first sight 
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Dec 19 2013, 12:18 PM
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Cool walking bass backing - it instantly sounds so classy and Christmasy
Those opening slippery phrases sound really cool in combination with the warm tone. The playing in the video and approach to melodies sounds so unique to my ears. It is a really cool idea to try out and get a guitar which is out of your comfort zone and favorite specs. I guess we all tend to form some "favorites" even though some instruments do deserve a second chance or we disregarded them without even trying - due to cosmetics, configuration, what our favorite guitar players use or anything... -------------------- For GMC support please email support (at) guitarmasterclass.net
Check out my lessons and my instructor board. Check out my beginner guitar lessons course! ; Take a bass course now! |
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Dec 19 2013, 01:00 PM
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Really cool, congrats on the new axe!
And glad to have a new review by our rocker & founder too! This is going straight into our wiki  Merry Christmas! Edit: and here it is https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/inde...udio_LPJ_Review This post has been edited by Fran: Dec 19 2013, 01:20 PM -------------------- Guitars:
Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster, Ibanez RG2570MZ, Epiphone SG G-400 Amp: Vox AC4TVH head + V112TV cab Effects: Vox Satchurator, Vox Time Machine, Dunlop CryBaby, Boss MT-2, Boss CE-5, Boss TU-2, Boss ME-70 Recording: Line-6 POD X3 + FBV-Express, Pandora PX5D GMC wants YOU to take part in our Guitar-Wikipedia! Have a good time reading great articles and writing your own with us in our GUITAR WIKI! Share your playing and get Pro-advice from our Instructors: Join REC |
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Dec 20 2013, 10:00 AM
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Thank you for the awesome explanation Kris, now I want to get a scalloped neck on one of my guitars
Apparently Yngwie Malmsteem does it as well.
-------------------- Tomislav
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Dec 21 2013, 06:31 AM
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The more I play my Les Paul, the more I'm aware I don't like 24.75 scale, I didn't get on with my Gretsch for a similar reason and thought it might be because of humbuckers (it had powertrons) when I got my LP I changed the humbuckers for BK Emeralds which helped a little, but I still much prefer my HSS super strat and my Tele.
The thing is how can you not have an LP in your arsenal, it's just wrong not to, so it stays and as for strings, I play 25.5 scale with 10's so 10's on a LP feels really loose and I have to alter my playing and my heavy right hand. -------------------- My SoundCloud
Gear Tyler Burning Water 2K Burny RLG90 with BK Emeralds Fender US Tele with BK Piledrivers Epiphone 335 with Suhr Thornbuckers PRS SE Custom 24-08 Ax8 Fessenden SD10 PSG Quilter TT15 |
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