NGD 2012 Gibson Les Paul Gold top tribute

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Markedman

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No GAS but I bought it anyway. Half price sale at the local pawn shop. I paid $500 out the door only because there's one selling for over $700 on eBay so what the heck, I have money.
My current keyboard player (age 50) dropped dead less than two weeks ago and my former bass player/best friend (age 60) dropped dead Thanksgiving. Three weeks ago my last relative my parents age or older died from cancer, told on a Thursday, died the Sunday right after. Her dying really shook me hard, now this.
About the Les Paul. It's junk. It has what every junk guitar has, that loose, vibrating sound when played unplugged. My MIM Fender strat doesn't have it, but the PRS SE had it and so does every other junk guitar I have ever played. My idea of a good guitar is that when it is played unplugged, it should be solid and tight with no rattling of any kind in the sound. What is it? The bridge, tuners, neck/rod, body, or all of those things? Has anyone a quick fix for this? I'm inclined to start with the bridge, nut and tuners. https://www.flickr.com/photos/100168049@N04/15721481107/ I didn't test it out on an amp before I bought it but I have band practice tonight so I'll throw on some new strings, check the intonation, and have at it.
 
My condolences to you on those that have passed. Congrats on the guitar. The vibrating can be caused by fret buzz, the bridge or possibly the tuning keys. Since you got it for a good price, bring it to a good luthier to have it set up and checked out. A good one can make that guitar as good as any other. Good luck.
 
Thank you knotts, I appreciate it. Anyway, I changed the strings to 10-46 and checked the relief (distance from string to 9th fret when pushing down on the first and last, 20th on this guitar, frets) and it was huge, about an 1/8 of an inch, so I tightened the loose rod and was a big help as far the rattling. The strings had a half turn of string on them on the tuners and they felt like 9-42. I like my neck almost straight with about enough space to fit a high E string. The intonation was spot on, nice. I also lowered the strings closer to the fretboard, Gibson must be plekking their guitars because the fretboard was near perfect and I could lower the strings further than any guitar I've owned. The pick-ups were raised up to the strings, almost touching the strings, so I lowered them and that also helped with the rattling. When I plugged it in, my drummer and bassist were ready to jam so I turned on the amp and, this isn't a strat, totally odd for me, soooo different in every way. I plays nice and sounds great, different but great for classic rock. I was thinking I'd sell it to a friend for what I paid for it, but I'm going to keep it. It is very light compared to other LP's I've played or owned (I owned Randy Rhoades' LP once, traded the very first 3 bolt strat ever made, made for John Mclaughlin, to his brother Danny in 1980, his father made him trade it back, argggg!) so I played it all night, about 5 hours straight. It is a 2012 model. I'd say it's now a 4.5 on a scale of 10, which would be a 8 or 9 compared to most of the guitars hanging on the wall at GC. The truss rod was where most of the rattle noise was but the body has no heft so changing the bridge won't do much. The "Gibson Deluxe" tuners have to go today, the guitar wouldn't stay tuned at all. I put graphite under the strings at the nut to see if the strings were catching but it's the tuners. I'm keeping the pick-ups that came with it as I am not entertaining the thought of using this for metal. I might change the nut and string size to 10-52. I haven't picked it up yet today, well I have by the time anybody's read this post.
 
Glad it's usable for you now. 2012 models are plek'd. I wouldn't rule out bridge change. I know the opinions vary on the subject but many argue that tone and or sustain is not in the heft of the guitar. Some say that the bridge transfer to the guitar is more important. I don't have an opinion on the subject but it's fun to experiment on a guitar that didn't cost you a fortune.

Make the change from a strat is drastic, but goes away pretty quickly with time. I did the same thing a year ago with my 2012 LP Traditional. Plenty of weight on that beast but nothing a great guitar strap didn't solve. The feel is definitely different but over time I find that I can pick them up one after the other and not really notice the difference. That's not to say I don't feel it, but it's no longer a problem.
 
I'm in love with the guitar right now. I saw roller tune-o-matics, do you know anything about those? I've always have had floating bridges. I'm definitely getting new tuners and strap locks before this weekend's memorial show for my friend. It's at Infinity Hall http://www.infinityhall.com in Norfolk, CT on Saturday from 12-2, everyone is welcome, bring your instruments, I'm providing the drum set , it's a killer set btw. The bridge is cheesy like the rest of the guitar and a new bridge is cheap enough, but I own a whole bunch of pick-ups and the temptation to throw a new bridge pick-up in is eating at me. Of course I'll do it, I'm a tweaker at heart and I always say to myself, "what if"? I haven't trolled the Les Paul forums yet because every single free second I have I'm playing the **** thing. I'm going to post a solo at some point this week in dedication to my buddies that died and to honor Dimebag from Pantera who will be gone ten years next Monday.
 
The reviews are mixed on the roller bridges unless you're looking to slap a bigsby on there. I was looking at them myself but if you've been trolling the LP forums than you've probably come across this some Faber fans: http://www.faberusa.com/. I think schaller might have some decent options too. If I were to spend money on a bridge, it would be with these guys. No first hand experience but a lot of guys swear by their product.

I'm about 2 1/2 hours away from your gig but am headed out of town for work. Good luck.
 
Trolled some Les Paul sites last night. It seems most people feel the same way about these guitars as I do. The ones who hate them never should have expected a MSRP $849.99 to be a $$$$ guitar in the first place. Every part is slightly compromised in some way from the electronics to the bridge and tuners. I like this cheap guitar and now that it stays somewhat in tune, I'll have to think about throwing on $80 tuners, a $40 bridge, $200 for new electronics and pick-ups and strap-locks. Some players complained that the p90's were too hot, (my guitar came equipped with volume control knobs) that is not a problem for me as I'm using it for classic rock, not metal, and the heaviest song we play is AIC's "Man in the Box." I'll play Pantera and Metallica this weekend with it and there will be no complaints from the peanut gallery. I live in Northwest Connecticut and there is no one who plays metal anymore but me it seems, so I have a great appeal to the ears when it is heard live, even by those ears who normally hate metal. Thank you again for the advice.
 
I took the guitar and a small combo, a Tech 21 10 watt, to an acoustic open mic to play along with a friend Wednesday night. I had adjusted the height of the pick-ups to even out the volume earlier in the day but when we started playing, the bridge pick-up sounded weak so I used the neck pick-up all night. I didn't have a chance to look at the guitar before I went to an electric open mic yesterday thinking I'd get a good sound with my Mark lll, plus I brought another guitar as a back up. Well the bridge pick-up was way attenuated to the point of being unusable so I grabbed the other guitar for the three songs we played to start the night. After we finished, the bassist and I took the back covers off and wiggled the wires. I adjusted the pick-ups up and down for the sake of it, plugged it back in and it seemed to work O.K. I am playing tomorrow at noon and have band practice at 6:00 so I'm headed out to my studio to try to find the bug. I'll spray everything with cleaner and mess with the wires hooked up to the Tech 21. You get what you pay for.
 
I've had the guitar a month now and have only put strap-locks on it. It is the guitar I grab in the morning when I first get up, I slept with it last night in my bed, the wife was like, "WTF you are so lazy!" So I have to do some things to it to make it real. The pick-ups will need to be replaced due to excessive noise and lack of what I consider tone. I'm looking at P90's but may get humbuckers, either way they'll be a step and a half better than what's in there. I can get a useable sound by twisting all the knobs on my amp, but it lacks something when compared to my other guitars that I use when performing. It is meaty like SPAM, but I like prime rib myself. The electronics from what I've read are CTS pots and there is orange drops in the cavity so I'll let those stay for now. The bridge will be replaced this week. The bridge is making this thing rattle and after researching, I'm confident this will help big time. The tuners are useable for now. It is a great stage guitar, I have had a guitar stolen while playing once, so I never bring the vintage stuff where there would be a chance of that, so this guitar is a perfect mate to my beloved MIM strat.
 
I've decided to get EMG P81 & P85 pick ups which come with the electronics. This will pair up nicely with my MIM stratocaster which also has active EMG's and my Mark lll's. Made for metal? I must say, I'll never use this guitar or the MIM for metal. I like passive PU's (SD Dimebucker, Anderson H3) for metal myself.
 
When I brought the guitar to the music store to order the right bridge, George, the owner asked if I had tried lowering the tailpiece? I hadn't, so when I got home I did just that, I tightened it actually right down to where the tailpiece almost touches the guitar body. Now there is almost no vibration at all. I also asked him what he thought about the EMG P81/85 pick-up selection and whether reversing the positions, bridge p/u in the neck position, was something he's heard of. He told me that the 81/85 p/u were designed for country music players and that he "had heard" that some players like the p/u reversed. The new EMG p/u are very easy to switch around, so I'll be trying that experiment when they come in. Upgrading this cheapo guitar was a great decision.
 
The EMG's are in. Solder-less all the way, from pick-up to jack. NGD all over again, the tonepros bridge is back ordered. I like cheap guitars. There, I said it. Now my MIM stratocaster and LP are interchangeable on the fly, whereas if I wanted to switch guitars before, I had to turn knobs on the amp.
 

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