Which has the biggest impact on tone from a Les Paul?

Thanks for this info. I will research, as a natural swell in/ fade out is a bid deal when it comes to great violin roll/swelled delays delays.
 
I'm a major Les Paul fan. I've owned 17 over the years and kept 9 of them. They all have their own unique character, sound, and feel.

There are lots of factors that impact the recipe of a Les Paul's tone. Weight, weight relief type, neck thickness/profile, bridge/stoptail/saddle material, pickups, pickup magnets, and pickup/pole piece height can all have a drastic effect on the guitar's overall tone.

I love swapping pickups, magnets, and hardware on them to fine-tune their sound.

As others have said, the pickups are a massive part of the equation. Hot pickups will hit the front end of the amp hard, which adds low-mid congestion and clouds note articulation and top end. Using a moderate output pickup around the 8k area brings out more of the guitar's character and gives you more note clarity. It also gives you more control when dialing in your amp.

If you like the output of your pickups, but don't love the tone, I HIGHLY recommend trying a different bar magnet before spending the cash on a new pickup. It's an easy swap that doesn't require any soldering and only costs about 4-7 dollars for a new magnet. I have an ES-335 with stock pickups, but the Alnico 5 magnets gave it a really piercing top end. Rather than going through the nightmare of a semi-hollowbody pickup swap, I simply replaced the Alnico 5 bar magnets with Alnico 4 and it made a massive difference that turned it from an ok guitar to a great sounding guitar. The top end was more balanced and the midrange gained some meat. I'd grab some Alnico 2, 3, and 4 magnets and play around a bit to see which one you connect with the most.
 
York Audio said:
I'm a major Les Paul fan. I've owned 17 over the years and kept 9 of them. They all have their own unique character, sound, and feel.

There are lots of factors that impact the recipe of a Les Paul's tone. Weight, weight relief type, neck thickness/profile, bridge/stoptail/saddle material, pickups, pickup magnets, and pickup/pole piece height can all have a drastic effect on the guitar's overall tone.

I love swapping pickups, magnets, and hardware on them to fine-tune their sound.

As others have said, the pickups are a massive part of the equation. Hot pickups will hit the front end of the amp hard, which adds low-mid congestion and clouds note articulation and top end. Using a moderate output pickup around the 8k area brings out more of the guitar's character and gives you more note clarity. It also gives you more control when dialing in your amp.

If you like the output of your pickups, but don't love the tone, I HIGHLY recommend trying a different bar magnet before spending the cash on a new pickup. It's an easy swap that doesn't require any soldering and only costs about 4-7 dollars for a new magnet. I have an ES-335 with stock pickups, but the Alnico 5 magnets gave it a really piercing top end. Rather than going through the nightmare of a semi-hollowbody pickup swap, I simply replaced the Alnico 5 bar magnets with Alnico 4 and it made a massive difference that turned it from an ok guitar to a great sounding guitar. The top end was more balanced and the midrange gained some meat. I'd grab some Alnico 2, 3, and 4 magnets and play around a bit to see which one you connect with the most.
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Thanks very much for this info. I never considered this option. I am gonna search out some magnets indeed. So much great info had in just a couple hours. I appreciate you all for chiming in on this for me.
 
I will say I tried a different bridge on a les paul and did not enjoy the difference. Some folks love to swap parts to fix something or just to experiment. I dont do most of my own tech work and try to buy guitars that dont require anything aftermarket these days.

Just be realistic about why you’re doing what you’re doing and enjoy!
 
I actually think that the setup can be #1, largely because it affects (or at least can affect) how you play and the height of the (fretted) string above the pickups, which affects the sound....if you include pickup height in "setup", then yeah...it's #1 with some small caveats.

Pickups seem to matter if you're making a large change and/or play relatively clean. I've had several PAF replicas in a few LPs and half-similar HH guitars, and they never seem to make that much difference to me. I have $800 limited edition SD CS pickups in my LP, but it's because they're cool. I'm pretty sure I'd fail a blind test between them and the Seth Lovers I had in that guitar before them. But, they're so cool that even if they sound literally identical, I'm still not sorry I got them....I'm convinced that they at least don't sound worse.

Pickup position (distance from bridge and scale length) matters, and that's not always the same on different "Les Pauls" (e.g., Gibson vs Epiphone or a clone or whatever). It's also not something you can really tweak after you've picked a specific guitar, at least not without a lot of work. I'm under the impression that they might also be subtly different between different years of Standards, Traditionals, Classics, Historics, etc..

I honestly don't know whether I've played a chambered LP or not. I don't think I have, so I can't really speak to that.

50s vs 60s/modern wiring makes a difference both in sound and how the knobs work if you turn down your volume control. If you play with volume on 10 all the time, there is no difference. I strongly prefer 60s/modern wiring. YMMV.

Treble bleeds make a difference and IMHO never improve anything. YMMV. Some people swear by them.

I think the biggest things are just in how you play. Does the guitar make certain techniques easier/harder? Does it make you want to use a wider vibrato? A faster one? Is it more comfortable to do minor third bends, or does it make you not want to do that? Are the frets so tall that you get little micro bends on every note? Is the action so low you have to ham-fist it to keep the strings from buzzing?

I think all of those things make a bigger difference in the long run than little circuit changes or slight differences in the dozens of good PAF replicas.
 
I've found the amp models can make as much of a change as a pickup change would, and it's free to try if you've already got the Axe FX lol. If my guitar is super dark, I'll simplistically try the Brit #34 or add bright caps to my EQs and see if that helps at all to get my sound. Sometimes that's been all I've needed, but then next step I'll consider changing pickups.

IMO, getting a pickup set that's balanced between the neck and bridge pickups makes dialing in tones a lot easier. That tends to just add another hurdle in trying to dial in a good preset if your pickups are too different in general tonality.
 
I have a 2017 Gibson Les Paul Classic Silverburst with the 4 conductor 496 and 498 humbuckers with a Jimmy Page wiring harness installed. I also have the Epiphone Alex Lifeson with the stock ceramic pickups and Ghost piezo system. Also had a Chibson LP standard with Alnico 3 and 5 pickups that I installed with a Jimmy Page wiring harness that got destroyed in my move. Also, I had the Electra Vulcan with early 80s Invaders installed. I also had a Gibson Dusk Tiger for a while until the robot system started breaking strings at random.

From my experience, the pickups make more of a difference than wood of the body. It's more output levels and EQ curve they impart in terms of sonics.

Pickup height makes a huge difference too. I tend to back off my pickups from the strings to get a more open sound. Having the pickups too close tends to make them sound muddy.
 
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I have really old and kind-of old Les Pauls. And I’m going to also include early 60’s LPs and SG’s in my answer. Note that I don’t play metal, so the guitar’s acoustic properties are really important - therefore my two elements below:

When it comes to only the guitar, I’ve arrived at two big factors:
1. The pickups: PAFs should be unpotted.
2. The circuit: vintage tapered pots, 50’s wiring, and the right values of capacitors. Be careful, almost all of the pots that claim to be vintage tapered are not. There’s only one brand that’s right.
 
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skydog said:
I have really old and kind-of old Les Pauls. And I’m going to include SG’s in my answer. Note that I don’t play metal, so the guitar’s acoustic properties are really important - therefore my two elements below:

When it comes to only the guitar, I’ve arrived at two big factors:
1. The pickups: PAFs should be unpotted.
2. The circuit: vintage tapered pots, 50’s wiring, and the right values of capacitors. Be careful, almost all of the pots that claim to be vintage tapered are not. There’s only one brand that’s right.
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Ok I'll bite.
What brand of pots are actually vintage tapered?
 
Shepdoggiest said:
The reason I bring up the body type is I've heard some chambered body owners say there are lower resonances that poke out and ring. One of mine is chambered and I agree with that. I am glad you brought up bridge. I hear what I consider odd harmonic content from some of the open strings. I'm going to try Graphtech string saver saddles and see what happens. Which do you prefer - the wrap or the ABR? Do you wrap the ABR strings? Thanks.
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I would look into a Faber bridge and tailpiece over Graphtech saddles. IMO
 
marsonic said:
They seem to have basically the same 10, 20, and 30% CTS pots that basically everybody else does....am I missing something?
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Yes, but it’s not your fault - it’s mine. I was answering a question directly.

When sample pots of sellers that advertise their products as vintage are compared against the mean nominal values of actual vintage pots, the Bare Knuckle vintage pots show the least amount of variance to the NOS pots.

It was a pet-project study of mine. I use the full range of my volume and tone pots. I want my later SG and LP guitars to behave and play like my oldest SG and LP guitars (60+ years old).
 
skydog said:
Bare Knuckle. I have a bunch not metered values compared in Excel.
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Great to hear. I have been looking at getting a set of The Mule, for about a week now but haven't jumped. The unpotted was something I was concerned may be squealy. Now I know! Thanks much.
 
skydog said:
Yes, but it’s not your fault - it’s mine. I was answering a question directly.

When sample pots of sellers that advertise their products as vintage are compared against the mean nominal values of actual vintage pots, the Bare Knuckle vintage pots show the least amount of variance to the NOS pots.

It was a pet-project study of mine. I use the full range of my volume and tone pots. I want my later SG and LP guitars to behave and play like my oldest SG and LP guitars (60+ years old).
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Which ones?

Shepdoggiest said:
Great to hear. I have been looking at getting a set of The Mule, for about a week now but haven't jumped. The unpotted was something I was concerned may be squealy. Now I know! Thanks much.
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FWIW, I don't use potted humbuckers. I've never played 60s stadium volumes, but....they didn't have potted humbuckers in the 60s either, AFAIK.
 
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