Is a Les Paul more like a tele than not?

[gary buff]

I am with renderit, but also a bit with sikoniko.


Good OLD Les Pauls indeed sound a lot like an old Tele. Twangy, especially with P90s, but also sparkling with low output PAFs.
All modern day Les Pauls sound darker and muddier to me.

+1.....the '59 I owned years ago sounded like a Telecaster with balls. Especially when compared to my bandmate's early 70s Custom which sounded MUCH darker and lacking in treble even when played through a Marshall.

 

[miserneil]

In my experience, the closest that Gibson comes to Fender sonically is the Double Cut Les Paul Junior. In my mind the DC Junior is a slightly fatter Telecaster. One can get plenty of twang out of that bridge P90, especially with the volume wound back a touch.

 

[renderit]

In my experience, the closest that Gibson comes to Fender sonically is the Double Cut Les Paul Junior. In my mind the DC Junior is a slightly fatter Telecaster. One can get plenty of twang out of that bridge P90, especially with the volume wound back a touch.

Wow! I'll have to try that, but honestly I don't think my 59 sounds anything like a Tele. But I honestly have not spent much time with Tele's so I'll have to defer to you on that. I get meat outta mine. Nice thick meat. Well defined meat. I'm hungry now...

 

[Elmore]

I have a couple of nice Les Pauls, a routed '71 Deluxe, and an '87 prehistoric/standard. Both have Duncan Antiquities, and the '87 has upgraded pots and caps. About 5 years ago, I decided I wanted to really work on country guitar and play in a country band. I bought a $500 Mexican tele, upgraded the pots to 500K, put a Gibson mini-humbucker in the neck (from the '71 Deluxe), and put a Duncan vintage stack in the bridge. The bridge on that guitar does sould like the bridge of the '71 Deluxe. The tele twangs more, and that is a good thing. A Gibson mini-humbucker in the neck of a tele is a great thing. That tele sounds really good, an definitley hangs with the Gibsons. So versatile, great for slide. Yes, the bridge on a vintage style tele sounds like the bridge on a vintage style Les Paul. That is one way I measure a Les Paul's bridge pickup sound. The tele is more of a fight, but there are big rewards. It really cuts though the mix. People can hear it. And you can do behind the nut bends on the tele. It does make you reinvent yourself if you have never really played one. It made me feel like a kid again, with all the wide eyed wonderment of learning the guitar. But for straight rock, the Les Paul will always be my first choice. It really depends on the song.

 

[tooold]

and how about them neck bends? the big fat les paul necks are so stable plus I dont feel comfortable doing this with a set neck, and then a strat will go out to tune too quickly (plus there's a tremolo you can just push down against)

(two great videos)

watch either closely and you can see how much torque these absolute masters put on the neck and the beautiful warble that results from it. a les paul does it from the harmonics. a tele does it because it's player tells it to.

Always nice to see some Ted Greene love. Bill, too, but TG... :salude

 

[Big Al]

Obviously they don't sound exactly alike, but the 52, 53 Teles and the 52, 53 Les Pauls are mining the same vein, IMO. Every good flat pole Broadcaster/Telecaster bridge pickup I have heard had a fatter, growling type tone, much bigger than the staggered pole pickups that followed. The neck pickup had its own thing going on and combined they twang together like nothing, except for an early Bail Tail Goldtop! Of course, IMO.

Listen to the Danny Gatton cuts recorded with a Les Paul. Humbuckers and especially PAF's have a different tone, still most PAF's I have heard and used cut like no other. It is like the Early Burst tones from Clapton. In Cream on I Feel Free when he kicks in the Lead Pickup of his Les Paul at the end of the lead break you can hear what I'm talking 'bout. Yes the PAF has that double tone thing but, oh my!!!