Les Paul

J

JDWhite

Inspired
Hello All,

Well I have finally gone and purchased my first ever Les Paul. I got the 2013 Les Paul standard, and I have to say that I honestly had no idea what I was missing. This thing (Tea Burst) is absolutely gorgeous to hold and to hear. The nicest guitar I had before that was a strat. Still very cool, but in my mind has nothing on this guitar.

I do have a noob Les Paul question though. This guitar is obviously a lot thick sounding than anything else I have had thus far. Aside from dialing up some sort of Brit amp and letting rip, do you guys have any other tips as far as tone?

Favorite amps?
Do you low cut any freqs?

Any tips at all?

Thanks as always,

JD
 
My recommendations are to develop your own tone based on the style of music you play the most. There are so many great sounding amps in the Axe it truly is personal. I'm sure someone will respond to you with some amps to try but I still think you should listen to the music you love the most and try to emulate a tone that fits that music and then tweak it ti give it your own tone that you can say hey this is what I love and make that guitar sing.
 
It is a really personal thing. I don't own a Les Paul technically, but my #1 is a 2006 Gibson Custom Shop SG Standard 62 Reissue, which gets a real Les Paul vibe (it should, in 1962 it WAS the Les Paul). Personally I find that the Plexi 50W High gain model with a 4*12 cab model loaded with Greenbacks pretty much is the prefect all-around rock tone for me. Think somewhere between Slash and Tom Scholz. It's also a great metal guitar. And I can flip on the neck pickup, change to a nice Fender or other nice clean model and get into jazz territory.

You'll find that the Les Paul is one of the most versatile guitars you can own. I really can't think of a form of amplified music that the Les Paul can't be made to suit. Well, that's not technically correct. Classic jazz tones, like Wes Montgomery, really need a nice hollowbody to give them that airy-ness. And for some things you just need a Strat, but the Les Paul is a great all-rounder.
 
JDWhite said:
Hello All,

Well I have finally gone and purchased my first ever Les Paul. I got the 2013 Les Paul standard, and I have to say that I honestly had no idea what I was missing. This thing (Tea Burst) is absolutely gorgeous to hold and to hear. The nicest guitar I had before that was a strat. Still very cool, but in my mind has nothing on this guitar.

I do have a noob Les Paul question though. This guitar is obviously a lot thick sounding than anything else I have had thus far. Aside from dialing up some sort of Brit amp and letting rip, do you guys have any other tips as far as tone?

Favorite amps?
Do you low cut any freqs?

Any tips at all?

Thanks as always,

JD
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Pictures!!!! Or it didn't happen ;)

Congrats with your LP, I know what you mean. Once I picked it up it's my main axe for about 4 years now.
As for the amps I cannot really give you an advice (yet)
I suggest load this bank http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-preset-exchange/75325-coby-bank-all-amps-only-amps.html and cycle through all of them. They're mostly pure basic amp sounds and you can hear what you LP is doing.
I'm in that process at the moment also and found some nice sounds which I wouldn't pick on their name only.
It's also a matter of taste of course.

Oh and btw, this list can be helpful when exploring the amps: http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-discussion/75470-patches-amps-revealed.html

Good luck with it and enjoy.
 
Plexi 50w jumped amp, a TS 808 in front of it with drive off and level to taste (usually 3/4) In the amp the MV is usually all the way up the treble drive is anywhere from 1/2 way up to 3/4 depending on the gain you want. For best results with FRFR get the Ownhammer IR pack and run one of the Green backs or V30's or find one in the A2 you like. Most opt for the Tv mix ones.
I like to put a peq at the start of my signal path or right after a Gate. In the peq you can scroll to filter 5 and set to blocking to then dial back any shrill highs that may or may not exist in your rig. Then at the end delay and verb to taste. This is a huge tone with my Bonamassa pup equipped Les Paul
Let us know how is goes, and do post pics!
 
i've had a 58 re-issue for several years. Stats before that.

Definitely use the old trick of running at around 5-6 on the volume knobs, then turn up for solos. It works really well with most amp sims, particularly the AC30s. Maybe even lower. to get them sounding clean and chime'ing (as they do with the real thing when really loud....

Also, Paul Kossof's trick: in the old days, the treble pu's were labelled as for "solos". He reversed this, playing chords on a backed-off treble pu, and solo'ing on the bridge and sometimes both combined.
 
Having a new les paul is great an all, but you have to know and understand that its full potential an tonal range cant be achieve with the stock parts! you have to upgrade the pickups and potentiometers as a first step to opening your Les Paul to a new level of tone monstrosity!.

That said, the volume and tone knobs are the secret weapons in your les paul. Find and nice amp that when set to a good overdrive tone it cleans up to almost zero overdriven tone with the volume of your guitar. Good PAF pickups have a magic to them that when clean up with the volume know they sound more organic and dynamic then at full volume. I always try to do clean/overdrive tones just using my volume knobs and switching positions.

This is my current Les Paul, to me, she is a magical guitar, i love her.

IMG_7503_zps513894b8.jpg
 
Try the Herbie 3 preset - for mine it sounds amazing without any adjustments. Switch on the multidelay and you get a huge and I mean HUGE 80s rock solo kind of tone.
 
Some very nice ones here! :encouragement:

I've never had a real one, but had an Epi '56 Gold Top with P90's and a White Custom. They were ok - the '56 tone was cool. Sold 'em both a few years ago, but...

Recently had my attention drawn to the Ultra III - largely due to the Shadow Nanomag pick up for acoustic tones. Ordered one and whilst the initial impressions were a mile from stellar, some attention and fettling made it someway playable. In fact, I've played it a lot over the last couple days and am really enjoying it! I certainly wouldn't claim it's anything special of course, but inspired by Tonic's Bogner XTC tone, I haven't as much fun playing in ages! :)

Oh and yes, I saw an Epi Gold Top (pre-China 2003 model) on ebay sat at £201 with a hard case earlier... damned if I could resist! :| Ah well, at £206, it'll be a bit of fun


So my experiences are not quite up to 'the real thing', but they do draw me in way more than Fender styles for some reason
 
cragginshred said:
Plexi 50w jumped amp, a TS 808 in front of it with drive off and level to taste (usually 3/4) In the amp the MV is usually all the way up the treble drive is anywhere from 1/2 way up to 3/4 depending on the gain you want. For best results with FRFR get the Ownhammer IR pack and run one of the Green backs or V30's or find one in the A2 you like. Most opt for the Tv mix ones.
I like to put a peq at the start of my signal path or right after a Gate. In the peq you can scroll to filter 5 and set to blocking to then dial back any shrill highs that may or may not exist in your rig. Then at the end delay and verb to taste. This is a huge tone with my Bonamassa pup equipped Les Paul
Let us know how is goes, and do post pics!
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I agree. Even at the very least, just the Plexi 50w jumped and a Les Paul is da' bomb! One of my favorite tones.
 
Nice bro!! The other great amp with the LP for more vintage tone and less gain is the JCM 800. Once you set up the pre set i described save it to another loacation then hange the amp to the JCM 800, go to the master and back it down a bit. ****Both Marshalls run very low bass (were talking 0 or just a skosh), this makes or breaks your tone. A lot of bass even just under 1/2 and it get s fluby. So the JCM is my old Zep tone and works great with for clarity and volume roll off, brin it up and listen to it roar. For me with out cranking the gain I don't use it much for solos.
If running frfr find cabs that you really like a/bing many to hear how good and bad they can be to find what you dig!
 
I bought my first (of many) LP's in 1974 (Cherry Burst Deluxe because I worshiped Dickey Betts, still do) - still have it and play it. My advise would be to learn the volume and tone knobs and how to get the blend you need when in the middle switch position. A LP can sound fantastic through any amp and any speaker.
 
bammbamm said:
Congrats! Due to the cost of one, my first LP-type guitar with most likely be a copy.
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Not to be sniffed at :encouragement:

I made reference to the ones I've had above. For sure, they're not the real deal, but they can get you pretty close! (sound familiar..? ;))
 
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