yes, I already have an FM3.
there are a bunch of example videos of vintage les Paul’s through a variety of amps on YouTube from Emerald City Guitars for further examples……I have a les paul tribute from 2017, trying to see if I can get close for recording these type of tones as a departure from the higher gain stuff I normally play.
wondering what/how to upgrade the guitar and then how close I can come via FM3. They are videos of emerald city presenting the guitars for sale, but I. Ertainly cannot afford a real one.
I can't either. The first time I played a vintage Les Paul (which was an extremely clean "closet classic" 1952), it was because the shop owner had just bought it, saw me playing a (used, basic) Les Paul Special in his shop, and handed it to me saying, "Here, play a '52." He just wanted to show it off and could tell I wasn't going to smash the headstock into something or drop it. The story he told was that Les Paul (the person) gave it and an amp to a bassist friend of his so that he'd have something to play when they hung out at the guy's house. I, obviously, can't verify that. But it's a cool story if true.
FWIW, it was this one:
https://bighouseguitars.com/collections/solid-body/products/1952-les-paul
They can just come up out of nowhere.
As far as upgrades....IMHO,
1. A good setup with the neck as straight as possible (which isn't totally straight) and slightly higher action than most metal (or just modern) players like (it does affect the sound).
2. Un-potted, low output PAF-style humbuckers (SD Seth Lovers or Antiquities, ThroBak, Lollar, VI Pickups, etc.). The originals were a bit "random" because the machines didn't have automatic counting. And, again, Seymour Duncan owns one of the winders that Gibson used on the originals. If you buy one of the pickups that mentions it, there's a non-zero chance that you'll wind up buying pickups that were wound on the same machine as the Beano or Greenie or whatever pickups. Sadly, no one knows for sure.
3. Vintage-taper (10%) pots. CTS and Bourns both make replicas. A bunch of people sell them at various price points. The key is that vintage pots, at 5, yield 10% of the rated value, which is quite a bit different from modern audio taper pots. I think the CTS ones feel better.
4. 50s or 60s wiring depending on your preference. I've seen pictures of the control cavities of bursts that are claimed to be original, with all-original parts, that have both. The vast majority are 50s wiring, but I pretty significantly prefer 60s. It's largely a difference of preference....the big real difference is that with 50s wiring, the tone knob doesn't really do much other than cut level until you get down to about 6 on the knob.
And the big thing is how you use it. I think channel switching amps came about in the mid-70s. Fuzz pedals started in the late 60s. Overdrive pedals were also a bit late. In the 50s and early 60s, you basically had treble boosters and a few things that included a preamp (e.g., Echoplex) that didn't work quite like a modern overdrive or boost....they were always on.
A lot of it comes from what JB demonstrated in that video. Set your amp (or model) loud and bright and use the knobs to actually get the sound you want. Don't rely on cold-clipping circuits, preamp distortion, etc.. A lot of the sound on albums is the sound of a room (natural reverb), early plate reverbs, or chamber reverbs....some of which the Fractals can do pretty convincingly. Any of the Fender Tweed amp models, the early Marshalls, or the AC15/AC30 can get those sounds, depending on which sound you're going for.
