Not a fan of clowns & tight flames, so I bought one...

NGD (Formerly, Not a fan of clowns & tight flames, so I bought one..."

I don't know why. Something about it just says the 1960's to me. Kind of hippyish. Kind of like a car crash, I couldn't stop looking . Normally this type of flame bugs my eyes, but somehow there's a softness in the contrast and it doesn't annoy me. I think it works with the colour and I find myself surprisingly attracted to it.

Maybe I'm just tired of the same old same old. On the plus side, the FB is perfectly dark and evenly coloured the way I like, and I much prefer the straight grained backs over the swirly. No idea how it plays, it's being shipped this week to me.

Looks good to me.

While it has the clown coloring.

The colors blend much better together than a true clown.

:dude:

I like it and the colors as well . Congrats !

Nice!

:salude

Your heart (and your eyes) spoke to you, and while you can be wrong some of the time, the times you are right will be the best time you ever did!

Enjoy your beautiful new guitar!

It arrives tomorrow, so I’ll try to give a decent in person report. I have many dark guitars and even my other LP is ‘13 Joe Perry - so I think I might simply be in the mood for upbeat and fun. I’ve even been jonesing the wide tomato soup finish on the V3. I’m mostly curious about the neck profile - I’m not very particular, I enjoy the slim taper of my CS ‘61 SG as much as my ‘59. Anyhow, it’ll be a surprise one way or the other

kats said:

It arrives tomorrow, so I’ll try to give a decent in person report. I have many dark guitars and even my other LP is ‘13 Joe Perry - so I think I might simply be in the mood for upbeat and fun. I’ve even been jonesing the wide tomato soup finish on the V3. I’m mostly curious about the neck profile - I’m not very particular, I enjoy the slim taper of my CS ‘61 SG as much as my ‘59. Anyhow, it’ll be a surprise one way or the other

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I look forward to hearing your thoughts and report .

Arrived, but cold. Snapped a pic. This pic looks as it does in person. Much better than the one sent by the dealer. Gonna let it sit in case for later.

You'd be a clown not to love it! Wow, that looks great!

kats said:

Arrived, but cold. Snapped a pic. This pic looks as it does in person. Much better than the one sent by the dealer. Gonna let it sit in case for later.

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Wow, that is not at all what I would call a clown burst. It looks great! Looking forward to how you think it sounds.

Very interesting guitar. The stats are:

Neck .84/.92 (V2)
8.4 lbs.

It's somewhat rounder than the slim taper on my '61 CS SG except at the first position where you notice it flat. EDIT: (Upon further playing side by side, it’s almost identical) Feels good, but like I said I'm not picky and actually like playing different necks. Odd thing is that the frets look slightly thinner and less flat. I measured one at .101 of an inch wide compared to my SG at .110 of an inch. Did they change the frets or perhaps just the +/- of a cheapo calliper?

The tone. So I still need to dial the pups in and I normally play with 9's. But with 10's on compared to my '13 Joe Perry which has Throbak PG's, I can so far say this;

The guitar is loud and punchy, especially in the mids. It's VERY fat sounding. The PG's with Alnico V on the JP seems to have more bite in the upper mids which I really like - especially in the neck position, it's like a fat strat - I can play Red House straight into a '67 marshall loaded with pulsonics and the vibe is right there. The neck pup on the CB is a bit on the boring side. Smoother, more balanced, but a bit 2D. The bridge pick up is an anomaly to me. Less upper mids and highs, more balanced, kinda funky cool sounding yet loud and great sustain. The distortion sounds a bit retro compared the the JP. Also I noticed it was a bit dryer sounding than the JP. If I didn't know I would have guessed the pups were A4's and not A3's. I can't decide which I like better and kind of would like to meet in the middle of both those worlds. Oddly though, these pups measure 7.8 and are A III's yet the guitar is as loud (maybe more) that the A 5's in the JP. I tested it with my daughter on drums (unfortunately no bass player in the house haha) and noticed the R0 bridge was a bit more preferable than the JP which sounded slightly thinner and toppy - though I think the quality of the distortion was a bit nicer in the top end with the JP and Alnico 5s. I'm going to set up the guitar with 9's and dial in the pups tonight and get it more in the zone I like and report back. But so far, I think the neck at full volume is going to give me trouble. We'll see.

I'll post some pics later, but the guitar in person is more than what I expected and the fit and finish is flawless. The FB is one of the nicest I've seen in a while - though it sucked up the fret doctor pretty damn fast, maybe it was quite dry.

NGD (formerly “Not a fan of clowns & tight flames, so I bought one...“

Your pictures so far make it seem like it might have a mid '90s vibe/look.
The sound & feel description is great.
Good fun!

In natural light. You can see more of a burnt orange/peach hue.

Beautiful Les Paul and a nice tone report also . If you already know the joys and wonders of ThroBak pickups , maybe a set of ThroBak are in order . Maybe the 101 Plus with A5 magnets ? They will cure your neck pickup for sure !

Throbak’s might be in the cards. I had time to really work on the pups, and to get it right was pretty tricky. Unfortunately to have some room to balance them I had to take the pup cover off the bridge, screw the poles flat aNd raise it to about on the high side 3/64 and low side 6/64 (approx 1.5mm/3mm). It sounds crazy good though, lots of girth, thick but still cutting - searing but, but not harsh. I really LOVE the sound. Not a great fan of the look though. Oddly the opposite of how many describe custombuckers...

The neck pup had to sink quite low (13/64 on low E, 8/64 high). Great lead tone, I’m happy with it. Two complaints are that the low E has a touch more low end than perfect. Secondly, it does not clean up as well as I would like. Not bad, close, but it could be better. I’m on the fence. The cover off bugs me the most, I’ll play it for a while and sees if the look grows on me.

Throbak’s might be in the cards. I had time to really work on the pups, and to get it right was pretty tricky. Unfortunately to have some room to balance them I had to take the pup cover off the bridge, screw the poles flat aNd raise it to about on the high side 3/64 and low side 6/64 (approx 1.5mm/3mm). It sounds crazy good though, lots of girth, thick but still cutting - searing but, but not harsh. I really LOVE the sound. Not a great fan of the look though. Oddly the opposite of how many describe custombuckers...

The neck pup had to sink quite low (13/64 on low E, 8/64 high). Great lead tone, I’m happy with it. Two complaints are that the low E has a touch more low end than perfect. Secondly, it does not clean up as well as I would like. Not bad, close, but it could be better. I’m on the fence. The cover off bugs me the most, I’ll play it for a while and sees if the look grows on me.

kats said:

View attachment 12167Throbak’s might be in the cards. I had time to really work on the pups, and to get it right was pretty tricky. Unfortunately to have some room to balance them I had to take the pup cover off the bridge, screw the poles flat aNd raise it to about on the high side 3/64 and low side 6/64 (approx 1.5mm/3mm). It sounds crazy good though, lots of girth, thick but still cutting - searing but, but not harsh. I really LOVE the sound. Not a great fan of the look though. Oddly the opposite of how many describe custombuckers...

The neck pup had to sink quite low (13/64 on low E, 8/64 high). Great lead tone, I’m happy with it. Two complaints are that the low E has a touch more low end than perfect. Secondly, it does not clean up as well as I would like. Not bad, close, but it could be better. I’m on the fence. The cover off bugs me the most, I’ll play it for a while and sees if the look grows on me.

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You probably know that the look you have with the bridge pickup cover removed and the color and figure you have reminds me of Jimmy Page's guitar .

Just realized now, it matches the orange sparkle fade of the drums... I see a pattern here