Gibson LeGrande - Would love to hear a review of this fine guitar

[AlsoRan]

I can't find a review of a Gibson LeGrande anywhere. How does its tone compare with the L-5? How about its playability compared to the L-5 or ES-175?

Just curious about this guitar that is at the top of Gibson's line, and I hope the timing is not bad for you, Jabberwocky, out of respect for your sale.

[Jabberwocky]

No worries, Alsoran, it's all good. Gibson made many of them so they are bound to have their fans and detractors. You are helping me actually but No Soup fer Ya, Oh-Liv-Vah! The Le Grand is like a less gaudy Citation, if such a thing as a less gaudy Citation were possible.

There is a Musician's Friend Youtube demo of a nice looking 2014 Le Grand Natural driving a Fender DRRI.

[Bluedawg]

No worries, Alsoran, it's all good. Gibson made many of them so they are bound to have their fans and detractors. You are helping me actually but No Soup fer Ya, Oh-Liv-Vah! The Le Grand is like a less gaudy Citation, if such a thing as a less gaudy Citation were possible.

There is a Musician's Friend Youtube demo of a nice looking 2014 Le Grand Natural driving a Fender DRRI.

Do you have a link to that demo?

I see two Le Grands currently at Musiciansfriend but no video on either

Someday I need to record mine

[Bluedawg]

I have a 1993 Le Grand ... the first year they came out .. after Johnny Smith switched to Heritage ... I ordered it in summer 1993 and I received it in February of 1994 or thereabouts.

Mine has a wonderful acoustic sound with a nice bottom end .... even with flat wound Thomastiks

One of the first things I did was replace the metal tunomatic bridge with a rosewood bridge. I was lucky enough to visit Jim Trigg's shop in Nashville in 1994 while attending the Nashville NAMM show and he made the bridge for me for a small fee. I think it made a major improvement in the tone.

The floater sounds good, too .... through the right amp .... matching floater archtops to the right amp seems to be tricky.

Of the amps I have ... My Le Grand sounds great in the Roland Cube 60, Henriksen Jazzamp112, and Fender DRRI.

I also have a Carr Rambler, but the Le Grand doesn't sound so good in it imho.

It's a very different sound than the L5CES or L5WES .... closer to the small luthier boutique archtops I hear demo'd on the internet ... definitely in the spirit of Johnny Smith and quite nice

It's always played decently if not great ... but I had it set up a few years ago by the techs at Rainbow Guitars in Tucson and now it plays very well ...


I have not played a recent model so I don't know how the '93 neck would compare to a newer one ... or how the tone would compare .... like any guitar ... even the same model can vary from one guitar to the next

[jads57]

The Le Grande was Gibson's reintroduction of a Johnny Smith but w/ the longer 25&1/2" scale length, and 1&11/16ths width. Very fine acoustic archtop w/ floating BJB p/up. The one's I've tried have had fairly slim neck profiles. That might vary depending on year manufacter. I've noticed newer 2014 Gibson Archtop models seem to have larger profiles in general. Great guitar!

[Bluedawg]

I can't find a review of a Gibson LeGrande anywhere. How does its tone compare with the L-5? How about its playability compared to the L-5 or ES-175?

Just curious about this guitar that is at the top of Gibson's line, and I hope the timing is not bad for you, Jabberwocky, out of respect for your sale.

Are you anywhere near El Paso?

[AlsoRan]

Are you anywhere near El Paso?

Thanks for the review, BD.

I actually live in Dallas, so it is a bit of a drive.

When it comes to fine archtops, I kind of live vicariously through folks like you and several other members. Its an enjoyable flight of fancy but if I ever get my chops to the point I am after, I would definitely look at investing in one of these fine instruments.

I do appreciate your review. To sum it up, it seems to boil down to "think Johnny Smith" - which to my ears is a nice, full, crisp Jazz tone in which all of the chord notes ring out. I also like the sound of floaters and am starting to be able to recognize their attributes.

One day.....maybe......

[Jabberwocky]

[nickyboy]

My Le Grand is a 2010 or 2009 - I'll have to check.
It's worlds apart from my l5 and es175.
It's acoustic properties are highly apparent..it's louder, fresher and a lot of the amplifed tone can be adjusted with the single volume control on the pickguard..it make a signifigant change in how bright the guitar can sound.

For a guy my size it's a more comfortable guitar than the L5 as it's slightly less deep.

Mine is strung with Thomastik 13 flatwounds.

Plays like butter :-)...although can sound somewhat buzzy.

I'd like to have a wooden bridge to try.

Here's a previous thread with some pics.

https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/guita...-archtops.html

[Max405]

Brian does the LeGrande much justice. He's great player and a good guy too.

The Blonde looks amazing. That's the Guitar to have right there..

JD

[Archie]

I have a 1993 Le Grand ... the first year they came out .. after Johnny Smith switched to Heritage ... I ordered it in summer 1993 and I received it in February of 1994 or thereabouts.

Mine has a wonderful acoustic sound with a nice bottom end .... even with flat wound Thomastiks

One of the first things I did was replace the metal tunomatic bridge with a rosewood bridge. I was lucky enough to visit Jim Trigg's shop in Nashville in 1994 while attending the Nashville NAMM show and he made the bridge for me for a small fee. I think it made a major improvement in the tone.

The floater sounds good, too .... through the right amp .... matching floater archtops to the right amp seems to be tricky.

Of the amps I have ... My Le Grand sounds great in the Roland Cube 60, Henriksen Jazzamp112, and Fender DRRI.

I also have a Carr Rambler, but the Le Grand doesn't sound so good in it imho.

It's a very different sound than the L5CES or L5WES .... closer to the small luthier boutique archtops I hear demo'd on the internet ... definitely in the spirit of Johnny Smith and quite nice

It's always played decently if not great ... but I had it set up a few years ago by the techs at Rainbow Guitars in Tucson and now it plays very well ...


I have not played a recent model so I don't know how the '93 neck would compare to a newer one ... or how the tone would compare .... like any guitar ... even the same model can vary from one guitar to the next

Interesting what you say bout floaters and amps. I have been commenting that tube amps indeed aren't the best way to go and the reasons I have is because tube amps either sound really good or bloody awful with Archtops. Solid state amps on the other hand seem much better across the board.

It didn't escape my attention that the only amps you liked to play it through were solid state and that the one that didn't work was the tube.

[kamlapati]

Just to add, I think the differences between a Citation / Jonny Smith and an acoustic L-5 are quite subtle. One of my main players is a '77 L-5C with a floating Lollar JS PU, and I have another guitar that's high end luthier interpretation of a Johnny Smith. I have played a lot of Gibson JS and Citations over the years.

When playing I can feel the body thickness and the neck width difference, but with my eyes closed I can't really hear the difference when both are amplified. I would posit that there would be no statistical difference in a blind listening test.

The new Citations also IMO come setup optimized for electric tone. An ebony bridge and round wounds, and perhaps a PU with adjustable poles is a step in the right direction on that model, although I wouldn't do all that on an L-5CES.

And another thing: ArchtopHeaven, I totally agree with your SS amp conclusion. I think carved tops / floaters prefer full range amplification, not the peaky norm from tube amps.

[Bluedawg]

Interesting what you say bout floaters and amps. I have been commenting that tube amps indeed aren't the best way to go and the reasons I have is because tube amps either sound really good or bloody awful with Archtops. Solid state amps on the other hand seem much better across the board.

It didn't escape my attention that the only amps you liked to play it through were solid state and that the one that didn't work was the tube.

The Deluxe Reverb Reissue is tube ... but it is the only tube amp I have that seems to work well with my Le Grand

I also have an L5CES and an L5WES .. they do OK with the Rambler ..


But I generally agree with you ..... solid state just seems to sound better on average with archtops than most tube amps .. IMHO of couse

[fumblefingers]

i have two. i don't have my L5 anymore but I would guess that the LeGrand is a little brighter sounding. My Citation sounds deeper/warmer than my Le Grands.

[Cunamara]

Tube amps tend to be voiced Fenderishly, meaning bumped up bass and treble with a drastic mids cut. This causes- to my ears, with my guitars- a harsh high end, a thin nasal tone and feedback problems because of the emphasized bass frequencies. Fender amps were designed for Fender guitars: solid body with single coils and biased towards a country-western type sound because that was what Leo was into. Archtops have different needs.

That said, for many people tube amps work really, really well with an archtop. Peter Bernstein's tone is gorgeous, for example, using a Fender Deluxe Reverb (IIRC) and a carvetop with a floater. There are probably thousands of examples of guitarists sounding great through Fender Twins, Pros, Deluxes, etc. I haven't had much luck with them myself with my archtops but lots of recordings I really like were made with them.

I think it's not about matching the guitar and the amp but about matching the guitar, the amp and the guitarist. There is something about my guitars and my technique that doesn't jive with Fender amps and those amps designed along the lines of Fender... which is most of them.

[nickyboy]

My next purchase will be a quality transistor amp.

[nickyboy]

i have two. i don't have my L5 anymore but I would guess that they're a little brighter sounding. My Citation sounds deeper/warmer than my Le Grands.

Very nice:-)

I find that that volume control on the le grand makes a huge difference in the brightness of tone. I find myself keener on the tone when it's rolled back a bit.

[gianluca]

I wasn't happy with a LeGrand which I re-sold after few weeks

As I've already said in other threads, I found it very different from what I had in my mind.
to me it was like a folk guitar and I wasn't able to play it at any decent amp volume without an enormous feedback.
it needed a pretty high action to play without any buzz.

Why did I bought it? I was looking for a Gibson super V with a floating BJB pickup for the tone I often have heard from bireli lagrene with that guitar. when I found a Legrand used for sale , I bought it without try before as I believed it must to be similar to a super V. It wasn't so.

[fumblefingers]

the action on my natural LeGrand is the lowest and best of any guitar that I have ever owned. its feel and ease of playing are almost unbelievable.

[Jabberwocky]

That Iced-Tea/Sunrise Tea Burst Le Grand looks Da Shizz. From TMZed's, I gather? Would love to see the back.

Wish I can afford to have two but one in, one out or I sleep with the fishes...

[nickyboy]

Likewise - I have an SG that couldn't compete. It just keeps going down!..to the point where it's too low - and it's not often I have to worry about it being too low!! :-)

[Bluedawg]

i have two. i don't have my L5 anymore but I would guess that the LeGrand is a little brighter sounding. My Citation sounds deeper/warmer than my Le Grands.

I wonder if that is consistant across most Le Grands and Citations or if that is just the luck of the draw on your specific guitars .... hmmmmm

I've been near a one or two Citations, but have never had the pleasure of playing one

For that matter I think I've only played one other Le Grand besides my own .... it was not as acoustically impressive as my Le Grand, but it still had the TOM bridge .... a wood bridge may have brought it to life

I'm tempted to call the Le Grand the poor man's Citation, but at current prices it's more like the middle class professional's Citation ...... LOL

I'm not sure there are that many real full time pro musicians who can afford these treasures anymore

[jads57]

I think by Poor Man's archtop you might mean actual gigging musician,LOL! All Gibson archtops would be out of the ?

[mr. beaumont]

Evidence is to the contrary, though most of the cats I know who play Gibsons bought them used.


Remember, y'all, as far as instrument prices go, guitar players get off easy. Priced a baby grand recently? A concert bassoon?

[fumblefingers]

That Iced-Tea/Sunrise Tea Burst Le Grand looks Da Shizz. From TMZed's, I gather? Would love to see the back.

Wish I can afford to have two but one in, one out or I sleep with the fishes...

its Honeyburst actually, the same as the Citation sunburst color (supposedly). It caught my eye too. The natural plays better but i prefer to pick up the Honeyburst. Silly, I know.