Historic Makeover in Alabama

[stevensj]

http://www.historicmakeovers.com/82326

I've had my makeover for about three weeks now and felt I should post. Been a member for awhile but don't post much given a low-bar wireless or dial up connection at home and I'm lucky enought to get a whole thread loaded before computer locks up. I'm holed up on a friends computer on a Sunday just to get this out.

Anyways some background and observations....

1. Original guitar was an 02 R8 that I felt was a ringer. I haven't played hundreds but out of tens of guitars I've gotten to play I've only felt one was comparable to it. I bought from Chris' Guitars in NY and have been dealing with him for about 15 years now. He's too busy and doesn't e-mail very well, but he doesn't pump all of his guitars up and when he does, I've learned to trust him. I'd bought another historic from him but bought this one because he said it seemed like a ringer to him. When I got it and compared to my other one, I knew he was right -- big difference. The other guitars I've compared it to included 50th anniversary (only a few I got to play). The one I felt was close was an 03 R7 with a brazilian board. What my R8 had was loud acoustic tone and sustain, particularly on the 4th and 5th strings. It had a real sweet woody depth to the tone and sounded more alive than typical reissue. What it lacked was some sparkle in the highs. I liked the R7 brazilian because it had louder highs. My R8 had really sweet highs, but just not enough. It was a tough call for me between the two but mine was louder and more resonant overall.

2. The dimarzio video sums up one of the problems common to historics and mine had less of it than others I played, but I still had to admit it was there. You hear the pick sound when you strum the guitar a lot more on the reissue than 50s guitars. Something in the highs and the upper mids on the older Les Pauls seems to swamp out the clickety sound of the pick hitting the strings. That bothered me. I've only played conversions and some old specials and juniors, never a real burst but had heard that people playing a real burst are usually surprised at how bright they are. I know I hear a lot of highs and upper mids in Peter Green (even without his middle position out of phase tone) and in Allman Brothers and the conversions I played were not unusually bright, but closer to Dimarzio's 59 than the historic he's playing here. The 50s guitars all imparted more energy to the strings overall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d1QSS3qoCw

3. One of my favorite sound guys told me that my R8 was a little dark and hard to mix. It didn't cut through well. I had people that saw me play it and knew it was a Les Paul and commented favorably, but no one who was blind to what type of guitar I was playing ever said how good it sound. The sound guy mentioned above could care less what I have around my neck, he goes by his ears.

I sent off to Kim a while back (back in the Dave Johnson days) and bought a Special DC reissue to get me by in the meantime. I also played a CS356 that I've had for about 8 years.

Cutting to the chase, after the wait as things got stood up in Florida with Kip, I finally got my guitar. I knew it had been a while so I couldn't pull out and do a direct comparison but my first impression was...

...almost disturbing. I liked my old guitar and I liked this one, but this one seemed like a totally different guitar! First, the action was ridiculously low. Then I realized something -- the guitar still had a decent tone with action that low and no fret outs. All of the bends worked, and the strings seemed to stay over the frets. I couldn't leave it that way, but was impressed by the fretjob and finish work. Kip's showing off a bit when he does these set ups.

After getting the action up a little higher, I started to hear some more clearer wound strings notes and realized my old guitar was still in there in terms of A and D string, but it was about swamped by the new highs and upper mids! I've since gone back to the youtube video with Dimarzio and did a blind test. Asking people to listen to guitar A and B acoustically (the reissue and Dimarzio's real 1959) setting the volume as equal as I could and then playing mine acoustically and asking which one it was more comparable to and why. So far I'm 5 for 6 with people saying mine is more like the real 59. The one outlier said that the reason mine sounded more like the guitar A (the reissue) said that the guitar B was more of a rhythm guitar and mine was more of a lead sound like the reissue (guitar A) -- whatever?!?

I can tell when I'm playing some licks on the unwound strings that I have a lot more energy to work with than I used to -- meaning I could bend a note, pull it back, and wiggle it some and still hear it pretty well. When I heard Dickey Betts do that, I always assumed it was fingers, NOS tubes and speakers and transformers. Now I'm guessing it had a lot to do with the energy his guitar helped impart to the strings I could only compare to my other guitars, but I never remembered my old Les Paul ringing out as much as my CS356 hollow body. Now it does.

I took it to play out with the same sound man again. He'd forgotten the old guitar, but last time I played I had an old Mark Sampson era Matchless Chieftain with the bass down at 9 o'clock or less. Now I had the same amp and cranked the bass (and all of the tone controls). He said it was one of the best sounds I've ever gotten. The zing in the higher strings was coming out of the amp and it was balanced. Before I always had to watch the bass for fear my Lester would swamp the higher notes. To cut through the mix, I had to turn up highs and turn down the bass. Now I'm cutting through with bass at 3 o'clock or higher. I'm still getting a lot of bass, and still a warm sound but just a lot different. Given that tubes have either changed, or are probably a little different sounding then last time I played though...

I loaned it out to a buddy (owner of the 03 R7 and another 01 R8) to see if I was just going insane, my ears had changed or what and he confirmed that it had gotten a lot more energetic in the upper mids and high end tones. We had swapped out guitars in the past and he'd spent quite a bit of time with my old guitar. He was impressed with the old guitar, but is really impressed with the new one.

Bottom line. I had what I thought was some good wood going on, a good example of historic reissue tone and am now into what I feel is closer to the real deal than it is to my old historic in terms of tone. I took me a while and wasn't cheap, but I'd do it again in a heart beat. I'm now looking to sell my DC special eventually or get it fixed up right.

This was really a game changer for me. My friend with the 03 R7 and I have had a number of conversations on what happened to this guitar. He thinks it has more to do with the board. I'm thinking truss rod. Either way, given the same electronics (Peter Florence Voodoo 59s, RS super pots volume and audio tone, and Luxe fake bumblebees) its made an amazing difference.

PS sorry about the lack of pictures. I'm still new to posting and hope the links work for you all.

[MapleFlame]

email me and I will post them for you later. go on my forum name and get my addy

[MIKE20]

...that's a nice one...killer back grain to boot...

[cooljuk]

Sweet makeover. Really sweet!

[stevensj]

thanks for the compliments. I had to add a couple of points, some facts and some wild guesses.

The top is a little unusual and has a lot of movement in it (I thought it was western but did the chemical test with some scrap shavings from the control route and it came up sugar maple -- although test criteria is not the clearest). its quartersawn wood (med rays come up on the flat) and the top carve done on the makeover really came out nice. it has a lot of flicker to it. I don't think most of the originals were quartersawn tops. I've seen some evidence that some might be, but most don't look like it. The back and neck grain is straight and pretty tight grain. I've guessed that this could be from the stuff they were getting in Peru and the like before they went to plantation wood. Who knows?

I replaced the bridge and the tailpiece with pigtail stuff and thumbwheels and posts are Kim's. All good stuff, but the tailpiece has ears that look a little big for vintage. Its amazing how some of the things I used to not notice stand out now that the fretboard and inlays and colors look vintage correct. I never noticed how green my tuner keys looked....

The paint job is modeled after a real burst, 8 5418. Kim was going to let it fade a little more and I told him to pull it off the fade machine (whatever he uses). I was getting excited about the pictures and wanted to let it fade the rest of the way in my care.

Also wanted to add that Kim was willing to do whatever I needed to make this come out right on my terms. I tried not to be too much of a pain because I wanted all of the extra care going into anything that would make it sound better.

Thanks again for the complements.

[stevensj]

[stevensj]

[Cream Fan]

Glad you love your HM. I sure love mine, too. What you're hearing is more than just the board or the truss rod. It's the sum of everything that was done to the guitar, including that new really hard finish. Over time, as that finish cures, it will open up more and more. What I do, when I put it into the case is leave the lid propped open to let the lacquer off-gas unimpeded. That will help things along, too. Enjoy your guitar.

[Marshallhead]

I have watched the Historic Makeovers from the very beginning when they were debuted at the Dallas show a few years back. I have seen many since and I have to say in my opinion, the new ones are definitely a cut above. The depth of the "look" is astounding on the newest ones. Please do not take me wrong here because I amm not casting aspersions on the older HM's I just think the product have improved immensely.

I have seen two in person recently including this one:

http://vintagecheckout.smugmug.com/H...qAHum/Original

The same guitar aged more was for sale here recently(I played this and spent a good 1/2 hour looking it over at the NY amp show last month...THANKS BUGMAN!). The guitar was spectacular. I really thought at first it was an old one from a few feet away. The color, fading, detail and aging were just excellent. There is a level of detail now I think were missing on some of the west coast done HM's. They were very nice but not to this level IMHO. I had often wanted to send one of my guitars in but never quite saw one that really made me say "YEAH, gotta do that." When I played and handled bugman's( which he sold and if I had the cash, I would have bought that in a second) I was floored. It inspired me to have one done and I think I have found my candidate..not the best pics but after the frets wear out in a year or so, it will go to HM. I need to get on the list!

My 2010 R9 that will get a Historic Makeover(bad pics, sorry)...

[Cream Fan]

Yes, the look is important, but I did mine primarily to improve the tone. It did that, in spades. Now that it's been back in my hands for nearly two and a half years, the tone has improved even more. Acoustically, electrically, it's all there.

Marshallhead, I wouldn't wait for the frets to wear out before sending it. I'd get on the list now and send it when it come up. When you get it back and hear it, you'll be glad you did.

[Marshallhead]

.

[Marshallhead]

Originally Posted by Cream Fan

Yes, the look is important, but I did mine primarily to improve the tone. It did that, in spades. Now that it's been back in my hands for nearly two and a half years, the tone has improved even more. Acoustically, electrically, it's all there.

Marshallhead, I wouldn't wait for the frets to wear out before sending it. I'd get on the list now and send it when it come up. When you get it back and hear it, you'll be glad you did.

I hear ya bro! The sonic/plyability improvements were never an issue even with the earlier HM's...I played the first batch of those and loved them but if I had it done, I wanted the "look" too. I lost my Mirabella conversion (thank you economy) so this time, I just want to get the whole package done on a Historic I can enjoy and most importantly, not be in the 10's of thousands as far as cost goes.

I'm on the list and when they get to mine in it will have a good amount of wear on it already so I just want them to age it as if I had played it say, for 5 years. Just go by my own natural wear. What I do need to do is call and get some plastic. The pink is spoiling my teaburst

[PHILBERT]

steve...STUNNING GUITAR!

I hope I find "the one" someday. I will send it in to HM without a second thought. Congrats!