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Les Paul Classic settings

Chopper976

New member
Joined
Sep 15, 2020
Messages
3
Hello all. New member here. I just purchased a new Les Paul Classic and am wondering what y’all think are the best volume and tone settings for it. I am a rhythm player. I play through a Fender Blues Jr and then a Fender Supersonic. Just curious about the settings you all use. Thank!
 

Musicman

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 27, 2002
Messages
1,909
I'd say trial and error are your best bet. What I like and you like may be entirely different. I generally keep my tone knob rolled off slightly and use the volume to roll back the gain and grit.
 

lure555

Swirling Vortex of Sound, Classic Club
Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
3,417
Every guitar is different. I have two Classics, 17 years apart and the difference is night and day. One seems to like lower-gain stuff and the other is bright and aggressive.
 

Hamerfan

Active member
Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Messages
791
I play 1999 Classic Premium Plus and i am still struggling to get a decent tone. This guitar is quite heavy (4.6 Kilo) but the neck is a slim 60ies. It sounds congested and flat, a bit like as the tiny neck can't drive the heavy body properly. I bought a brass stoptail and use steel studs and steel Bridge posts, which opened up the guitar with more bass and treble.
 
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mrbeasty

New member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
114
I play 1999 Classic Premium Plus and i am still struggling to get a decent tone. This guitar is quite heavy (4.6 Kilo) but the neck is a slim 60ies. It sounds congested and flat, a bit like as the tiny neck can't drive the heavy body properly. I bought a brass stoptail and use steel studs and steel Bridge posts, which opened up the guitar with more bass and treble.

I have a 1996 Goldtop which was my first Les Paul and is about the same weight as yours. I have struggled with that guitar for 20 years. I would assume that your ‘99 is made out of the same stuff my ‘96 was. I considered selling it several times but felt emotionally attached to it, so I tried to improve it. I tried dozens of pickups, changed the electronic a few times, etc. Each time things would improve but still were somewhat lifeless and stiff. In hindsight the main issue was the hardware: heavy stop tail bridge and heavy ABR bridge. Changing them made a world of difference. Second was the 300k pots.

At this point I have all Faber hardware, 500K CTS pots and 2” brass posts and wheels. It finally acoustically sounds balanced, loud, and notes sustain well. It is on par with my other “fancier” Les Paul ... it only took me 20 years to figure it out. LOL

My $0.02!
 
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grimlyflick

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 27, 2005
Messages
1,276
I always think all the messing with hardware, pickups and wiring etc is merely just making slight changes to what is essentially the guitar’s voice coming from the wood. My 2004 Classic has a real loud mid focused voice, and although pickup changes have altered this slightly the loud bark of this guitar is always prevalent.

My 2016 standard has a more open tone and although I changed the pickups as I found the original to be a bit muffled tonally the voice of the guitar remains more of less the same.
:salude
 

mrbeasty

New member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
114
I always think all the messing with hardware, pickups and wiring etc is merely just making slight changes to what is essentially the guitar’s voice coming from the wood. My 2004 Classic has a real loud mid focused voice, and although pickup changes have altered this slightly the loud bark of this guitar is always prevalent.

My 2016 standard has a more open tone and although I changed the pickups as I found the original to be a bit muffled tonally the voice of the guitar remains more of less the same.
:salude

That is what I thought too, which is why it took me so long to replace the metal parts on my ‘96 Classic. Pickup swap has more impact than anything else for sure. Eventually, after a dozen pickups, I started trying other things, and little by little things improved. It wasn’t one thing per say, it was a group of changes that amounted to a bigger impact.
Also, there are 8 years between my ‘96 and your ‘04, yours could have a very different composition of parts. This ‘96 is on the heavy side, very stiff, and was rather quiet acoustically. The changes made it substantially louder acoustically.
Was it a game changer? IMHO, in this guitar, yes! In other guitars it could have been a marginal improvement.
 

Demon Dave

New member
Joined
Nov 24, 2019
Messages
13
I’d like my 2019 in the store, but after a month, I turned down the tuning, now it’s a killer:yah
 
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