• Guys, we've spent considerable money converting the Les Paul Forum to this new XenForo platform, and we have ongoing monthly operating expenses. THE "DONATIONS" TAB IS NOW WORKING, AND WE WOULD APPRECIATE ANY DONATIONS YOU CAN MAKE TO KEEP THE LES PAUL FORUM GOING! Thank you!

I can't hear a difference. Have Gibson nailed it?

GuitarMikey

Active member
Joined
Mar 1, 2013
Messages
910
Is the difference worth an extra 150-350k ?
Can the average person hear the difference listening at home or on their radio cruising down the highway?
That's up to each individual :hmm

I feel like in most cases it just comes down to bragging rights.
 
Last edited:

Sol

Active member
Joined
Oct 26, 2001
Messages
775
Both guitars in the clip sounded great to my ear, and were produced under the same limited fidelity available on YouTube.

I'm assuming the recordings were done where the only variable was the guitars, given that, if we hear a difference between the two we have a reasonable basis for our opinions.

What can't be captured (And its all been said before) is the emotion, the way a certain guitar feels and responds to your playing, it can't be captured and reduced to a digitised bit rate.

No two Les Pauls ever sound the same and that's how I like it
 

jimmi

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 8, 2012
Messages
2,077
Is the difference worth an extra 150-350k ?
Can the average person hear the difference listening at home or on their radio cruising down the highway?
That's up to each individual :hmm

I feel like in most cases it just comes down to bragging rights.
The average person can’t tell the difference between Beck and Jeff Beck. Does that mean there isn’t one?
 

Wilko

All Access/Backstage Pass
Joined
Mar 11, 2002
Messages
20,854
For the record: here are my two favorite Les Pauls acoustic. I've owned many including a 1956 conversion that I sold a couple of years back. These two are right up there with and better than some bursts I've played...

 

marshall1987

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
3,278
For the record: here are my two favorite Les Pauls acoustic. I've owned many including a 1956 conversion that I sold a couple of years back. These two are right up there with and better than some bursts I've played...


Thanks for the demo....but help me with this....is the audio overdubbed or what? :dang. On my Mac it isn't even close to being in sync with the audio.

So what's the takeaway? :bh
 

Wilko

All Access/Backstage Pass
Joined
Mar 11, 2002
Messages
20,854
Thanks for the demo....but help me with this....is the audio overdubbed or what? :dang. On my Mac it isn't even close to being in sync with the audio.

So what's the takeaway? :bh

Crazy out of sync! damn. THe takewaway for me is that the guitars are close enough in many cases. Very good acoustic tone that is a hallmark of the vintage Les Paul.
 

agogetr

Active member
Joined
Jan 22, 2019
Messages
451
i love old les pauls. i can pour my soul and creativity into my guitar because it is a treasure to me that i have bonded with. the fact that it is old really makes me feel complete putting all of my music energy into it. it has been around longer than i have (not by much)the old les pauls were great when i was 12 and they havent changed. i will still be bonded with my old les paul when i kick the bucket. its all about how you feel about your guitar. it doesnt have to be old, but i have had all kinds of newer ones i just didnt bond with and wound up keeping the old ones because i was just more inspired when playing them.
There is much more to the guitar playing experience than simply registering the quality of the sound that you hear. Given enough time, practice, and instruction, an accomplished guitar player may bond with, and "become one with", his/her prized instrument.

In many instances, prized vintage instruments constructed from high quality tone woods, and built in low quantities by skilled luthiers, are capable of delivering an exquisite and sublime experience for the player, that just isn't possible with newer mass produced instruments. :dude:
 

agogetr

Active member
Joined
Jan 22, 2019
Messages
451
I have heard JB say 5% & friend I will never get that 5% out of a late 50's Les paul over one of my many fine Historic's . I think a lot of people reach for the stars & and lust for these guitars . Do you really think your sound will change that much ?
no but my enthusiasm will when playing it.
 

agogetr

Active member
Joined
Jan 22, 2019
Messages
451
Is the difference worth an extra 150-350k ?
Can the average person hear the difference listening at home or on their radio cruising down the highway?
That's up to each individual :hmm

I feel like in most cases it just comes down to bragging rights.
its not bragging rights. its 'the club' and that club gets you in with pro players and investors that all have direct contacts in the music industry that will give you a 45% better chance of getting a song out. your 'buying in' and if you have talent.. you might have a 15 percent chance of going somewhere. do you want to sell your house for that chance? if not.. then your not a go getter. if your wife keeps her job at walmart then you will be ok.
 

latestarter

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
4,173
It's not only about tone, right?

It's the kick. It's the responsibility of owning a proper rare piece? It's the smell. It's the authenticity (no Gibson employee jokes please). The loose fitting case. The groovy hide n seek top. The fact they got it THIS RIGHT, in 1959.

Modern versions do not deliver this specific kick...this high. I do think they deliver the tone pretty good. But I get a different buzz every time I am privileged to pick up an old high end quality instrument (regardless of brand to be fair). Don't ask me to intellectualise the experience.

It's so much more than the tone.

Thank goodness they sound good too.
 

garywright

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 17, 2002
Messages
15,586
its not bragging rights. its 'the club' and that club gets you in with pro players and investors that all have direct contacts in the music industry that will give you a 45% better chance of getting a song out. your 'buying in' and if you have talent.. you might have a 15 percent chance of going somewhere. do you want to sell your house for that chance? if not.. then your not a go getter. if your wife keeps her job at walmart then you will be ok.

Huh ?
 

brandtkronholm

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 3, 2006
Messages
2,737
its not bragging rights. its 'the club' and that club gets you in with pro players and investors that all have direct contacts in the music industry that will give you a 45% better chance of getting a song out. your 'buying in' and if you have talent.. you might have a 15 percent chance of going somewhere. do you want to sell your house for that chance? if not.. then your not a go getter. if your wife keeps her job at walmart then you will be ok.

No.
 

Black58

New member
Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
10,139
Once you actually set it up "right", acoustically, and get the G to sound good (acoustically and electrically), you'll have no problems with almost any Les Paul. Gibson has never nailed anything, and they never will.
 

agogetr

Active member
Joined
Jan 22, 2019
Messages
451
I have guitars that sound like the unplugged Burst, so don't tell me it can't be. I have found some that are indistinguishable when directly compared.

If one spends the time and finds a great guitar, instead of focusing on top figure or cosmetics, you'll have a great guitar.

Show me where all 57-60 paf Les Pauls sound the same. Hell, show me where all 59s do. I've been lucky through the years to have played many Bursts, side by side, and owned two. They do not sound the same. Many sound quite different, and no two random guitars, of any vintage sound the same.

Braz boards make no difference. Hardware bullshit claims started from overseas parts pirates haven't proven true. I've collect vintage hardware for 45 years for restorations. There is no magic tone.

I personally find these claims insulting, especially those hinting that I am unable to hear or descern the finer aspects of vintage tone. What I do know is most hear what they want to hear, or expect to.
i have a 56 tv model that sounds like a tele.. all treble. thers no rules on fifties pickups. best crankin single coil i ever heard was my brothers 55 junior. when it flew 150 feet in a car wreck and was broken my brother (in the eighties) hotrodded the junior and that pickup wound up on a kent guitar that disapeared with its owner i looked for years for that guy. i still have the wiring harness. best crankin junior you could ever hear. it was loud and pushed an amp into pure glory. i still hope i can find that pickup. my brother always had the best tone when he had that old junior. guys tried to trade him new les pauls for it.
 

C-4

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
1,776
If you can't hear a difference when you are playing them yourself side by side through the same amp, consider yourself blessed. Life would be a lot easier...and cheaper!:jim

Wow! Is this ever true.^
I've played a lot of 50's LP's and I find it impossible to say that playing a RI and playing a 50's burst leaves so much or so little variation. Which 50's burst is someone comparing to which RI? It's only 2 guitars out of how many possible combinations of 50's LP's and RI's?

I go by the sound of the individual guitar in my hands.
The very best sounding electric I ever played was in The Guitar Trader back in the 1970's, when I hung out there a lot. It was a '59 plain top which had the red faded out to a pea green perimeter. The guitar had unbroken solder joints and was in otherwise great shape. For me, it had the perfect neck shape and size, the perfect pickups and sounded like no other electric guitar I ever played before or since. Everything about the guitar including the weight for me seemed to be perfection.

Having played that burst often, I try now and have since playing that guitar, to judge my current guitars or newly acquired guitars after it, as best as one can with only a memory to guide me.

I know what I prefer and favor, sound-wise from any guitar, but one has to live within the confines of not being able to play every RI out there to find one's perfect guitar. You just do the best you can and live with your choices.
 
Top