Looking for an LP style guitar

I've been lucky enough to have owned a lot of guitars over the years.
My most expensive guitar was a Gibson Les Paul Heritage series Standard 80, which I bought new back in the early 1980's. It was (some say..) Gibson's first shot at trying to emulate the style of it's vintage guitars. It had a nice flame top, Tim Shaw PAF pups and looked great. I thought it would be the pinnacle of LP ownership, the best of the best within my £ means.
How wrong I was.! My all time fave LP style guitar ended up being a japanese Fernandes Super Grade (LP copy). It was my all time fave number 1 guitar. Sadly it was stolen and never seen again. I could not find another so went back to s/h Gibson LP's. Fernandes, Burny, Tokai and Greco LP's from the 70's and early 80's are fantastic instruments and (now with the internet) do pop up for sale at around a similar price to LP studios etc.
This has me thinking that I should have a look out there to see if I can find another Fernandes? I think the hunt is now on for a "new" guitar!
 
Little update here. My Rebel Yell Bare Knuckle Pickup arrived this past week and today I got around to installing it. For the time being I am leaving in the PCB board so I just ordered a quick connect wire from eBay to splice with the BKP. First impressions of the Rebel Yell in this guitar were wow. Thick , juicy, growling yet smooth and very well balanced across the EQ spectrum. Hot. Much much hotter than the stock 490T that was in the Tribute. I have to fine tune yet and play around with pickup height. There is a lot more hum/feedback on this one high gain preset I have and perhaps I need to dial down the gain/boost etc. There's a strange hum after hitting a palm mute...hopefully my ground isnt' buggered from my soldering. I'd hate to redo. Its all fresh today so yet to see where this extra noise is due to the hotter output and/or gain levels or an electronic issue. I also threw on EB Ultra Slinky 10-48's for the first time vs my usual Hybrid 9-46 choice.
 

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alex1fly said:
No, but the ESP EC-256 absolutely smokes. Push-pull to split your pickups comes stock. Neck feels great.

Long story? My buddy has one and I was blown away by how it sounded in a live jam (guitar, bass, drums, keys). Then he let me play it, and I was blown away by how good it felt. Just vibes, articulate, toneful, soulful, thick but with cut through the mix and could thin up with the push-pull which comes in handy when trying to be dynamic in a group setting. Then while I was waiting for the color I wanted to be available at Sweetwater, I played another two ESP EC-256s and an ESP EC-1000 (same guitar basically, but with different pickups). Very consistent performance between all 4 guitars. But while Sweetwater was re-stocking Covid struck and I found a used Gibson SG that just sung and I ended up taking it home and stopped ESP shopping. I was this close to getting an ESP though, and can see no scenario in which I'd be displeased with the guitar.
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Dude, I was about to comment here about the EC-256. I bought one last week to use to practice doing pickup installations on and maybe turn into a project guitar, but I ended up absolutely loving it how it felt and sounded. I don't even want to change the stock pickups out, they sound great through the Axe. It's my favorite guitar at the moment - totally unexpected.
 
For the hum and extra noise can you not just add a noisegate to your signal chain so as to not have to adjust gain/boost etc? Rock on and have fun!
Brett
 
I have the S2 Singlecut. Bought it new from a retail shop that lists on Reverb for c. $1,300 US. Great guitar. Great value as compared to the Core models and worth the extra money over the SE models, IMO.
 
Chewie5150 said:
Little update here. My Rebel Yell Bare Knuckle Pickup arrived this past week and today I got around to installing it. For the time being I am leaving in the PCB board so I just ordered a quick connect wire from eBay to splice with the BKP. First impressions of the Rebel Yell in this guitar were wow. Thick , juicy, growling yet smooth and very well balanced across the EQ spectrum. Hot. Much much hotter than the stock 490T that was in the Tribute. I have to fine tune yet and play around with pickup height. There is a lot more hum/feedback on this one high gain preset I have and perhaps I need to dial down the gain/boost etc. There's a strange hum after hitting a palm mute...hopefully my ground isnt' buggered from my soldering. I'd hate to redo. Its all fresh today so yet to see where this extra noise is due to the hotter output and/or gain levels or an electronic issue. I also threw on EB Ultra Slinky 10-48's for the first time vs my usual Hybrid 9-46 choice.
Click to expand...
I love, love, love the BKPs in a les paul. I just got the Holy Diver in my epi LP custom silverburst limited edition. It is most definitely a dry solder. It would undo the ground clean it real good with some Flux and redo the ground and make sure the pickups are tightly connected to the board.
 
jamesmarshall said:
I love, love, love the BKPs in a les paul. I just got the Holy Diver in my epi LP custom silverburst limited edition. It is most definitely a dry solder. It would undo the ground clean it real good with some Flux and redo the ground and make sure the pickups are tightly connected to the board.
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yeah its possible. I knew as I was doing it too. I rushed through and the iron tip wasn't bad but wasn't great. I may redo, use some flux and tin wire ends before splicing. On second thought I think i'm just gonna rip out that pcb board nonesense and put in a new wiring harness from Jonesy Blues. Got one from him back in 2019 for an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro that I had and it made a world of difference to the guitar
 
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Chewie5150 said:
yeah its possible. I knew as I was doing it too. I rushed through and the iron tip wasn't bad but wasn't great. I may redo, use some flux and tin wire ends before splicing. On second thought I think i'm just gonna rip out that pcb board nonesense and put in a new wiring harness from Jonesy Blues. Got one from him back in 2019 for an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro that I had and it made a world of difference to the guitar
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Yeah, good idea. I always hate those PCB connections and usually end up yanking them out and just doing a proper solder job. Those wiring harnesses are no joke.

You may still need to adjust the input on the Ax Fx and dial the gain down a little after the rewire, but what you were hearing isn't normal with a Rebell Yell. My Holy Diver set is quiet. You still get a little sqeal or hum every so often depending on where you face the guitar (in front of monitors/cab, etc), but not like you described.

Keep us posted on your progress with this!
I am interested to hear. You might reach out to Tim at Bare Knuckle as well he is a wiring wizard and might be able to give you another point of view.

James
 
Thanks! I just ordered a Master Series Phase Harness with luxe bumblebee's and new switchcraft toggle/output jack w/ 50's wiring. CTS 550k pots. Should be a fun project once it arrives...will definitely share my thoughts once that's done. Now debating if i match the bare knuckle rebel yell bridge in the neck as well or something else. Currently its the stock GIbson 490 neck.
 
Chewie5150 said:
Thanks! I just ordered a Master Series Phase Harness with luxe bumblebee's and new switchcraft toggle/output jack w/ 50's wiring. CTS 550k pots. Should be a fun project once it arrives...will definitely share my thoughts once that's done. Now debating if i match the bare knuckle rebel yell bridge in the neck as well or something else. Currently its the stock GIbson 490 neck.
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I have the 490 in the neck of my latest acquisition and I dig it. If you find it very bassy, drop it to a hair over the pickup ring.
 
Chewie5150 said:
Thanks! I just ordered a Master Series Phase Harness with luxe bumblebee's and new switchcraft toggle/output jack w/ 50's wiring. CTS 550k pots. Should be a fun project once it arrives...will definitely share my thoughts once that's done. Now debating if i match the bare knuckle rebel yell bridge in the neck as well or something else. Currently its the stock GIbson 490 neck.
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Just so you know, I recommend not googling "Master Series Phase Harness" o_O

What are you referring to?
 
Chewie5150 said:
Thanks! I just ordered a Master Series Phase Harness with luxe bumblebee's and new switchcraft toggle/output jack w/ 50's wiring. CTS 550k pots. Should be a fun project once it arrives...will definitely share my thoughts once that's done. Now debating if i match the bare knuckle rebel yell bridge in the neck as well or something else. Currently its the stock GIbson 490 neck.
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What do you do/like?

I am an 80s shredder who uses his neck for solos due to the rolled off high end and defined low end. I love the bridge for a bright solid rhythm and harmonies/lower note leads (pushed high end).

A few good options would be a matched Rebell yell, a VH2 is a good neck pickup, also a silo in the neck might work well too. I have seen you post you like higher gain, so these are just a few guesses.

Yes the 550k CTS are nice.
I did exactly what you are about to do, with my epi LP I put a Switchcraft switch and 2 push pull BKP tone nobs with 2 550k volume nobs from BKP and their 0.15 and. 022 caps.
I almost did the CTS again (my EPI had all CTS to start with), but after looking at all the specs, the BKP (CTS custom for them) seemed to be more what I needed (30% slow taper "J" pots, since I like to use my volume and tone nobs for variety).

James
 
I need to chime in and say the ESP LTD EC-1000 is a fantastic single cut away for the price. I played in a few bands and was gigging almost every Friday and Saturday night for at least 5 years. I had 2 of them and beat the piss bag out of them. Always stayed in tune no matter what I tuned them to. Action was always stable. Sounded great with a variety of rigs. After the first few dings I no longer worried if they got messed up because they were reasonably cheap. Change the battery once a month, new strings and minor intonation adjustments is all they needed. They’re the Ford F150 of guitars. But my point is anytime someone asks me what’s a really good guitar for under a grand I always recommend them.
 
Ha yes! I should've added that it was from Jonesy Blues. That google search would've otherwise gone beyond 'sub forums' to 'dom forums' ;)
@Budda the 490 is actually a really decent pickup. I was just thinking since i'd be redoing the entire wiring that'd be good time to consider replacing the neck but truth is I stay on the bridge most the time. I think I'll leave the 490 in and see how well it pairs up with my BKP rebel yell.
 
If it ain't broke don't waste money. If you still want to spend money, send me the cost of the BKP and I'll send you a box with a surprise (hint: it won't be a pickup).
 
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