Jamming last night- 7620 vs. Les Paul, some suprises

[Drew]

Turns out one of the guys who lives in the apartment below me is a drummer- we've been meaning to get together and play for a while now, but finally got a chance last night. First off, it was just AWESOME- he's big into primus, so I was trying to do some funkier, more dissonant stuff, which, as it turns out, is a HELL of a lot of fun to do, especially when you break it up with some 7-string crunch, and then at one point, a 7/4 jam that fell apart into 8 basically deteriorated into god knows what when I started hitting some ompletely random accents, he tried to follow me and gave up, and we just started jamming out with absolutely no regards to time signature, accenting whatever we felt like while i was playing mid-register parallel 4ths... I couldn't even begin to explain to a third person in the room what we were playing in, but it sounded SICK, most free-associative jamming I've ever done. We each had big stupid grins on our faces... good times.

Anyway, he's got a rather cool Epi LP- i guess he worked for SoBe at one point- maybe he still does, didn't ask- so he''s got a special edition black LP with green flames and a silk-screened sobe logo on the pickguard and lizard on the body, tuned down to D. quite a cool looking guitar, and I'm not generally a huge fan of black guitars, guitars with flames, and even les pauls in general, for that matter. so after a few songs, I picked that up, threw it into drop-D (C, really), and broke into some tool.

I think any frequent reader of this board knows I'm not a big mahogany fan, but the old "les paul through marshall" recipe certainly works... I mean, the fact that this was the first time in months I'd been able to really turn up my TSL certainly helped (man, anyone who says those thigns don't have enough gain 1.) has never played one with a set of JJ's, and 2.) has never turned one up. With the gain on 4 and the volume on 6, the sounds i was getting were just devastating), but it was a great tone. The thing that suprised me, though, was just how little midrange there was. I mean, there's a number of factors in play, here- he has the pickups set closer to the strings than I do on my 7620, so the reasonably scooped tone I had dialed up (mids 4-ish) on the amp was probably playing a larger role with the LP than with my guitar, and the tone zone/air norton combo is quite mid-y anyway, but the LP sounded WAY more "scooped" than my 7620. The les paul also had a more agressive, crunchier treble range, while the 7620 was a little smoother and more refined in the high end- this is something I'd noticed back when I had my 2027, that it sounded like there was a presence control that had been turned up a couple notches when I switched between the two guitars.

Anyway, just wanted to post some musings on the ever-raging debate about tonewoods... I definately dug the sound, and while I wouldn't want to live with that exclusively, last night's jam has definately made me want to grab one of those SZ's even more (i can't stand the bridge and body shape of the Les Paul series, it digs into my arm and palm).

I might try to grab a pic or two of that guitar next time we play, it was a cool looking instrument.

-D

PS- oh, as for the scale length? Sure, you lose definition, but given a proper setup, i could just FLY on that neck. Stretches that slow me down JUST enough to make playing at rapid speeds troublesomewere effortless. Cool.

[Polaris20]

I was playing an Epi LP last night, actually. It's a really nice guitar, and sounds pretty good too.

It made me check out Rich's site for the new AR stuff

[Two hands31]

I love the look and sound of a nice Les Paul, but I have yet to play one that I liked the feel of, and it has nothing to do with the scale length. To me the necks always feel cheap like they rounded off the back of a random piece of wood and put frets on it. It's not the fact that it's a fat neck that bugs me (I almost like it for some stuff, like simple chords) since I've played PRS's and others with similar thickness necks. Granted I've only ever played one really expensive Les Paul, but even it didn't impress me much. For some reason I've always found every other company's necks to be better than Gibson (that I've tried so far anyways).

But that's just me I guess

[The Dark Wolf]

I'm with Two Hands AND Drew on this one.

Yeah, Two Hands. Les Paul necks... faugh. I'm not nuts about 'em either. Feels blocky and stiff. I like the action and fretboard, but the profile and overall feel isn't what I'm about. I liked flat, wide profiles, aka Skinny, for years before I got my Ibanez. The wider and flatter the better really, but then, I come from a classical guitar background. Hell, my classical is STILL wider than my 7-string necks, and it's a 6.

MWA hua hua... Drew is coming around to mahogany in a live situation. It's the whole reason I love it. My myself, if my 2027 wasn't so dang nice, I'd probably go with a basswood or ash guitar. But you're right, there's just SOMETHING about a Les Paul, even with it's weight, shape (pretty, but not really ergonomic,) HEAVINESS, and playability. And overall vibe. In fact, I've been lusting after one of those Epi LP 7's lately. Put some new tuners and some new PU's in it, and I think it would make a fun guitar, short scale and all. Esp. just to get the reaction from other guitarists. "Is that a Les Paul... wait! 7 strings? Huh?" Besides, everyone should have a Les Paul.

P.S. You see that Epiphone is making some Baritone LP's now?

[The Dark Wolf]

I'm with Two Hands AND Drew on this one.

Yeah, Two Hands. Les Paul necks... faugh. I'm not nuts about 'em either. Feels blocky and stiff. I like the action and fretboard, but the profile and overall feel isn't what I'm about. I liked flat, wide profiles, aka Skinny, for years before I got my Ibanez. The wider and flatter the better really, but then, I come from a classical guitar background. Hell, my classical is STILL wider than my 7-string necks, and it's a 6.

MWA hua hua... Drew is coming around to mahogany in a live situation. Heh, I can dream, can't I?) It's the whole reason I love it. By myself, if my 2027 wasn't so dang nice, I'd probably go with a basswood or ash guitar. But you're right, there's just SOMETHING about a Les Paul, even with its weight, and shape (pretty, but not really ergonomic.) I like its HEAVINESS, and playability. And overall vibe. In fact, I've been lusting after one of those Epi LP 7's lately. Put some new tuners and some new PU's in it, and I think it would make a fun guitar, short scale and all. Esp. just to get the reaction from other guitarists. "Is that a Les Paul... wait! 7 strings? Huh?" Besides, everyone should have a Les Paul.

P.S. You see that Epiphone is making some Baritone LP's now?

[Drew]

Well, I've always dug mahogany for "normal" tuning riffing, and I gotta say in the defense of my 2027 that the amp I was playing it through (Mesa Rocket-44) was, muchlike the Mark series it's loosely based around, awfully transparent. It wasn't going to get any help producing death-defying amounts of chunk from the amp, whereas my Marshall, not ultra-high gain in "normal" situations, certianly produces some SERIOUS crunch when you push those tubes a bit. Given my current setup, I might have dug that guitar a little more.

That was my impression, though, between the two; the 7620 sounded much more mid-y thani'd have expected from the settings, while the Epi LP sounded more appropriately scooped, and matched the EQ curve on the amp more... It was like the Epi was allowing the amp to color it more than the 7620 was.

Don't get me wrong, I still preferred my 7620. The Epi was more Godsmack, very broad, gain-y, and with a raspier high end, while the 7620 was actually more focused in the mids and a little rounder in the highs; closer to "my" tone. But the Epi was definately holding it's own. For a few applications, I could see it being a better option, and I'd love to have one kicking around the apartment for when the muse struck. And with a nice thick maple top, maybe this thing would just kill.

Jammed a bit last night, just a few minutes before we went out to a bar down the street, after some, um, rather sobstantial pregaming. I was drunk and playing an unfamiliar guitar without a pick, but it was still pretty cool. Anyone know a bassplayer int he Providence area?

-D

[Drew]

Twohands, i sorta hear you on the neck. I don't mind the profile or tyhe fretboard or anything.. I think for me it's the combination of small frets with a really thick, plastic-y high gloss neck finish. And I've never liked the look of a bound neck anyway... It's not a huge issue for me (9the body shape is th ekiller, for me), but I just prefer bare wood.

-D

[Two hands31]

Originally Posted by Drew

Twohands, i sorta hear you on the neck. I don't mind the profile or tyhe fretboard or anything.. I think for me it's the combination of small frets with a really thick, plastic-y high gloss neck finish. And I've never liked the look of a bound neck anyway... It's not a huge issue for me (9the body shape is th ekiller, for me), but I just prefer bare wood.

-D

Yea, I think it's the frets that do it for me too. I'm a big-fret kinda guy And the finish is ok at first until you really start to sweat, then it just gets nasty real fast

[EnigmaUV7]

Certain Gibson LPs, such as the Classic, comes with a slimmer neck and hotter open coil pickups, I would have to go for that one if I got a LP. And it would have to have an unpainted neck, like the Zakk Wylde model, I can't deal with paint on the neck. I used to have a Gibson V, huge neck but you could really dig into the notes, something that can't be said for Wizard necks, which feel like toys to me. I like a nice, somewhat medium profile, like Carvin or JEMs.