Brian Krashpad
Active member
- Joined
- May 16, 2016
- Messages
- 211
Brian, nice photo thanks, what do the different Pauls give you from one another?
Do you find the SG is more comfortable being so much lighter? And do you find the sound of the SG is on par with Pauls?
Well truth be told the 4 Specials are pretty similar, soundwise, despite having different versions of P-90s (they are all stock, so the Hamer has Seymour Duncan, the Gibsons have Gibsons, and the Epiphone has Epi pickups). Of course, 2 are doublecuts, so they are a little different in looks and weigh a smidge less. But at least they are each a different color, haha!
The Epi Les Paul Deluxe has mini-humbuckers, so that's it's distinguishing feature. Minis have a slightly different sound from full size humbuckers, a little more clarity and high end.
As to the remaining two sunburst humbuckered Gibsons, like the Specials they are pretty similar to each other, but one is singlecut and one doublecut, so the DC is lighter. Also, the doublecut has a 24-fret neck, to the more standard 22 on the singlecut. And lastly, the pickups are not the same, the DC has the stock LP Studio pair of alnico 490/498, while the singlecut Classic has the stock neck pickup (496R ceramic) and a Seymour Duncan SH-5 Custom 5 in the bridge. The bridge pickups in these two are pretty similar, both being hot Alnico 5 humbuckers, while the neck pickup in the singlecut Classic, being ceramic, is more aggressive than the stock alnico 2 magnet in the 490 in the Studio DC.
The SG's sound, to me, is pretty similar to the 2 Gibson humbuckered Pauls. Although the body is thinner, the sound isn't much if any so, because it has 490s in both positions, which have the mellower alnico 2 magnets, whereas the two sunburst LPs (Studio DC and LP Classic) both have hotter alnico 5 bridge humbuckers. Also both the sunburst LPs have maple tops, which tends to brighten the sound from what the thicker mahogany body would tend to produce. So, at least with the Pauls and SG that I have, it all tends to even out.
Of course, the SG is lighter than any of the humbuckered Les Pauls, though less so as to the doublecut. The Specials are lighter, than the humbuckered/maple capped Pauls, being slabs with no maple cap. So the weight difference to the SG is less with the Specials, particularly the doublecuts, which are only slightly heavier than the SG.
Frankly I pretty much always end up sounding like me anyhow. It's just fun having different guitars even on a purely visual level. Happy hunting!