Rare Form
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2006
- Messages
- 1,090
I am new to the Forum and wanted to post about my Les Paul Custom PF. I did a search on the forum and did not see much posted about the guitar and what I did see was some mixed opinions. Let me start by saying I have been playing for 26 years most of these years professionally. My band, a progressive rock band Rare Form based out of Philly/Baltimore area, has one independent release and finishing up our second.
I have owned several Les Pauls and other Gibsons and this is by far my favorite guitar. I have had it about 18 months now. I also own a CS 356 which is sweet in its own right. The PF that I got was especially well done. It is the first guitar ever from Gibson that I did not have to set up differently when I got it. It plays perfectly. I am a fan of the 60's neck and this one is just a bit thicker. Perfect for me and my small hands. Yes, it has sound chambers in it. But, this makes the guitar much more resonant than the Les Pauls I have owned in the past. It is light weight and fits very comfortably. I love the tone of this thing. It is amazing. Can I get true Les Paul tone from it? Absolutely! The magic is in using the knobs to dial in a variety of tone. I just A/B'd it last night with a Les Paul Standard (Honeyburst with 496/498T pups) and a Classic (Ebony 498/500T) before writing this post to be sure what I was saying was based on a fresh trial. When the middle pickup is dialed out and only using the bridge (500T coils exposed) it sounds just like the classic - Very hot and mid rangey with plenty of punch. It does not sound as thumpy as the Standard with only the bridge pick up however. But, here is the magic...dial in the middle pickup to about 6.5 and wallah almost dead on identical. The only difference I heard was more brightness in attack with the PF mostly because of the Ebony board. Even the feedbacked sustain started at the same spot and the same distance from the amp. The beauty of the PF is in dialing in the middle pick up and the sound chambers which give the guitar a wider range of tonal capabilities. When using a clean channel and all three pickups with the middle pickup dialied in about half and the tones all the way up you can get a very good fat Stratocaster sound. You cannot get the thin Robbie Blunt single coil sound, but you can get the Strat sound where you blend a humbucker with a single coil. Very nice. In the neck position, you can get the same deep jazzy sounds or Slash-like overdriven sounds for leads. Without the middle pickup in the neck position you can get really close to the sound of the CS 356 because of the resonant chambers which comes close to the sound of a 335 or 355 with a little less resonance and brightness. But, when you add in the middle pickup, you can increase the fatness of the tone. This is really one versatile guitar. I really think it is perfect for my style of progressive music. I thought I was being original with having one, but as soon as I brought it to practice, the other guitar player had to have one. So, now there are two in the band. It made Saul from Center City happy though. He sold his last two Framptons (at the time) to us. I sold a Les Paul Custom and a EDS 1275 to fund the Frampton and my new rig. That is how much I like this guitar. It is one of the most versatile Les Pauls I have ever played. And the combination of pickup blending and tonal chambers really allows this one to cover a lot of ground. I went and saw Frampton in October. I figured since I had the guy's signature guitar, I should pay him some respect. I have been a fan of his over the years, but quite honestly has not been my favorite guitar player and he was not a factor in purchasing the guitar. The guitar transcends Frampton. It is a progressive instrument in every right. But, after seeing Frampton, I have a new found respect for the man. He is truly under-rated. He is a fantastic player and gets superb tone from his rig. He even signed my Framptone Amp Switcher for me. Great guitarist and nice person to boot.
Here is a pic of my PF
I have owned several Les Pauls and other Gibsons and this is by far my favorite guitar. I have had it about 18 months now. I also own a CS 356 which is sweet in its own right. The PF that I got was especially well done. It is the first guitar ever from Gibson that I did not have to set up differently when I got it. It plays perfectly. I am a fan of the 60's neck and this one is just a bit thicker. Perfect for me and my small hands. Yes, it has sound chambers in it. But, this makes the guitar much more resonant than the Les Pauls I have owned in the past. It is light weight and fits very comfortably. I love the tone of this thing. It is amazing. Can I get true Les Paul tone from it? Absolutely! The magic is in using the knobs to dial in a variety of tone. I just A/B'd it last night with a Les Paul Standard (Honeyburst with 496/498T pups) and a Classic (Ebony 498/500T) before writing this post to be sure what I was saying was based on a fresh trial. When the middle pickup is dialed out and only using the bridge (500T coils exposed) it sounds just like the classic - Very hot and mid rangey with plenty of punch. It does not sound as thumpy as the Standard with only the bridge pick up however. But, here is the magic...dial in the middle pickup to about 6.5 and wallah almost dead on identical. The only difference I heard was more brightness in attack with the PF mostly because of the Ebony board. Even the feedbacked sustain started at the same spot and the same distance from the amp. The beauty of the PF is in dialing in the middle pick up and the sound chambers which give the guitar a wider range of tonal capabilities. When using a clean channel and all three pickups with the middle pickup dialied in about half and the tones all the way up you can get a very good fat Stratocaster sound. You cannot get the thin Robbie Blunt single coil sound, but you can get the Strat sound where you blend a humbucker with a single coil. Very nice. In the neck position, you can get the same deep jazzy sounds or Slash-like overdriven sounds for leads. Without the middle pickup in the neck position you can get really close to the sound of the CS 356 because of the resonant chambers which comes close to the sound of a 335 or 355 with a little less resonance and brightness. But, when you add in the middle pickup, you can increase the fatness of the tone. This is really one versatile guitar. I really think it is perfect for my style of progressive music. I thought I was being original with having one, but as soon as I brought it to practice, the other guitar player had to have one. So, now there are two in the band. It made Saul from Center City happy though. He sold his last two Framptons (at the time) to us. I sold a Les Paul Custom and a EDS 1275 to fund the Frampton and my new rig. That is how much I like this guitar. It is one of the most versatile Les Pauls I have ever played. And the combination of pickup blending and tonal chambers really allows this one to cover a lot of ground. I went and saw Frampton in October. I figured since I had the guy's signature guitar, I should pay him some respect. I have been a fan of his over the years, but quite honestly has not been my favorite guitar player and he was not a factor in purchasing the guitar. The guitar transcends Frampton. It is a progressive instrument in every right. But, after seeing Frampton, I have a new found respect for the man. He is truly under-rated. He is a fantastic player and gets superb tone from his rig. He even signed my Framptone Amp Switcher for me. Great guitarist and nice person to boot.
Here is a pic of my PF