frisco
Formerly greeny
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2002
- Messages
- 801
thanks Mr. Beano for sharing that story
MrBeano said:Kurt had the guitar for a couple months before delivery.
During this time he switched the PickUps. The Rhythm PickUp
was switched to the Bridge position. And the Bridge to Rhythm.
This was common practice among the early Burst connoisseurs.
Me too!guitarjoe said:Wow. that guy really should write a book. Or maybe you should write it for him Mr Beano either way I'd buy it.
Big Al said:Well I was at Gibson, in Kalamazoo in the 70's with Seymor Duncan. Long, long time forum bros will remember my early posts about that experience.
We talked alot with Seth Lover,(a Duncan Fan), and old employees that made these things in the late 50's.
There were Two types of PAF Humbuckers made.
Regular and a smaller, narrow version for ES350T's and Byrdlands.
The coils were wound on a less than perfect machine. Coil's could vary abit as ED A has demonstrated. This is also the very reason why Burstbuckers were introduced.
I have seen PAF's with readings as low as 6.7K and as high as a whopping 9K!!
There are even more variables than 55Custom laid out as there is a plethora of coil combinations in those ranges.
It would not be prudent or econamical to have some poor bastard measuring and sorting coils, then sending them to be assembled, then remeasuring and sorting.
Seth Lover told me personaly that that was not done as did everyone we questioned. As long as the pickup worked and fell into a rather wide range of acceptable measurments they were used.
There is absolutely no evidence to the notion that they were sorted and placed into posistion by resistance readings.
Pet theories aside, no matter how much one may want to believe in them, or how logical they may seem to be based on todays assumptions, I'm telling you that they are only cool sounding myths and romance. Makes a neat tale, adds a certain gloss, but I believe the primary sources I have consulted, and the evidence of the existing stock examples.
Cool story. I don't doubt it, except for the above quote. In my experience that was not common practice by Gibson, and of all the many original untouched Bursts and Goldtops I've checked, there was no clear pattern of such a thing existing at all. The same for ANY humbucking Gibson from 57-60, there is no overabundance of guitars with hotter neck PUPs. Some are, some ain't, but not by design, but by happenstance.
Of course as we all learned more, and if it was noticable we would switch a weaker pickup with a stronger one as described, but to say it was a common practice by Gibson to place pickups by resistance readings, I dissagree with.
I picked alot of brains in Kalamazoo when I was there with Seymor Duncan and I asked about this very thing. I got a look of disbelief followed by laughter, "Hell no, Al! We measured each coil when it was wound, that's how we knew it was done, and put 'em together and slapped them into the guitars."
I also think there is alot of evidence that the Les Paul was not designed as a Jazz Guitar, but to compete with Fender as a bright solidbody guitar.
There is simply no other place like the LPF. The minutiae over tenths of ohms is superfluous for me but I know many enjoy that stuff. I can simply say the joy that The Allmans (Allman Joys!) brought me as a young lad, entertaining young ladies, in my lair with a nice stereo will forever be etched on my mind. Sweet as a Duane solo.
And then as I progressed as a guitarist with a decent ear, I found then, as I do now, playing Duane Allman is like mastering Chinese arithmetic. I will never get the nuances of his phrasing, note selection and command of the blues idiom. Regardless of which pup with what resistance went where! Great stuff. Thanks for posting.
You know what kills me about this, Doc? That little bastard did all that great playing, hell mastered it, in his early 20's! It has been a source of awe and wonder for me, still.
Are there any recordings of Duane playing the tobacco led paul..I believe must if not all his work with the Allman
Brothers and his work on Layla were done with his cherry les paul ,the pups switched out of the gold top..seems to me that thats the Guitar we should be glorifying..does anyone know what happened to that guitar..