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03-24-2019 09:41 AM
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Originally Posted by golfus
My experience is that all maple topped Lesters sound similar. The Studios (slightly thinner maple top) are a bit on the dark side and the Deluxe (mini humbuckers) and Custom (70's on have a male top and have an ebony board) and the Artisan (same as the later Customs) are a bit on the bright side. It is the Hog topped Customs (as played by Pat Martino and Jim Hall) that have a different sound.
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it's not the warmest tone, but sounds great, and works in the groups context well... i just got a LP style guitar and it doesn't make me want to play straight ahead at all, lol... but i love the clean tones so much... great for fusiony overdriven tones though
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Originally Posted by Donelson
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Not really many examples of Lesters being used in what you'd call straight-ahead jazz. Benson did sound great, in spite of the flat string - gotta love Bigsbys (?)
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A longtime friend of mine told me recently that he had seen Lenny Breau play here in Nashville a couple of times, mid-70's, where Lenny was using a Les Paul. Here is a pic that confirms that. LP Custom, hard to tell the vintage from the blurry pic.
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Originally Posted by Peter C
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Originally Posted by Donelson
1. The old guys rarely needed the volume
2. An LP is really uncomfortable for any player who's used to archtops, which means most old jazzers.........and worse if he's a tall old jazzer........
If the old guys needed volume they turned to 335 style guitars...played standing they're fine, and at least players could play them when seated....but if you have to sit and play an LP, you fight over which knee is better, and you feel like each of your arms suddenly got a foot longer......
......the same answers apply to why there aren't more old jazzers playing Strats or Tele's, which early on were also much lighter than LP's..........
.......just my .02 cents worth.......
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Originally Posted by golfus
-Does it matter what we call it? Maybe when trying to answer the OP:
Originally Posted by Donelson
Because the LP-model is associated with an era that put an end to Jazz as pop music.
Because since the '70s, everyone that ever owned a LP viewed it primarily as a blues/rock guitar. We have all explored the tones made famous by legendary LP players and tweaked setup and rig for the most glorious distorted tones. Once I get there, I'm likely to keep it in that shape, i.e light gauge strings, hot pickups, low action, various mods for increased brightness etc. Perhaps not the most favored setup for clean Jazz, even though Jazz can be played on any guitar. Also Jazzers like to sit down and play and it could take some time to adapt to the ergonomics of the LP.
Most people think of an archtop as a "Jazz-guitar", but the musician may see it as a "guitar". I like to differentiate acoustic vs electric guitars. My logic is that any guitar with a magnetic pickup becomes an electric guitar when amplified.
The guitar is a tool (with a certain look) made relevant by the player. Some guys like to capture the vibes from the golden days before the LP was born, some are post bop and some are modern avant-gardes'. Some just play.
If Jazz is whatever I like it to be, then obviously I can use any guitar to play my "Jazz".
Other than that, I would refer to George Benson, that used to play a LP Standard in his early days.
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Two week anniversary since I got this awesome 2016 Les Paul Traditional. Last night I did two small mods, reversible easily. #1, swapped out the tailpiece with my 2016 ES LP. ES LP had a stock featherweight aluminum tailpiece; LP trad had the stock regular heavy one. Done. I would not have bothered with that, except I mainly wanted to do #2, Put a brand new Gibson Nashville unslotted bridge on LP trad. Point, to make my own slots, so that the strings line up over the neck PU polepieces, & set the radius correctly. Done.
How much weight reduction with the aluminum tailpiece? My first weigh was 9.56 lbs. Now LP trad weighs 9.41 lbs. That is 2-3 ounces I guess. Noticeable? A little bit. ES LP is still way under 7 lbs with the heavier tailpiece. Win/win IMO. Different sound? Some say that there is a different sound with the tailpiece material. To me, the difference is minuscule, if any. Zero listeners could detect any difference in a blindfold test, that is for sure.
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Joe Morris uses his Les Paul Custom for most of his career, below are a few performances that he has done!!
Also, he's one of the reasons why I bought a Les Paul Custom!!!
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Originally Posted by mr quickOriginally Posted by Donelson
The clip of GB playing a Les Paul is inspiring. I'd be very interested to know if he used one on albums like Giblet Gravy. Does anyone know?
Not the finished (tone) article yet and I think I can get it a little more "hollow" and old jazz with some tweaking, but here's where I'm at with Les Paul jazz tone so far..
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Years ago I had an Epi LP, and later a PRS single cut. Both were no fun playing seated. I have enough problems just playing. Don't need to fight the guitar too. They are so butt heavy they want to flip up.
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Years ago, I had (first) a Les Paul sunburst with two P90s, and (second) a Les Paul Recording with two low impedance pickups.
I loved the sound of each guitar and enjoyed the jazz tones I got from these two quite different Les Pauls.
Ultimately, though, I didn't like the size of the guitars. The very small body size was comfortable when playing standing...but was a chore to play seated. I just don't like playing a guitar smaller than a 16" archtop when playing when sitting.
Les Pauls are very nice guitars on a strap though.
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Steve Erquiaga plays a Les Paul and sounds awesome.
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Back in the 1950s Louis Primas guitarist as well as Bill Haleys guitarist used Lee Paul Customs when they were called fretless wonders,LOL!
I think the Les Paul can be a good Jazz guitar,but not the best choice for several
reasons.
Weight, Size ergonomically, lack of acoustic properties. Sustain is definitely a plus but at the cost of the weight.
Jazz players are generally accustomed to feeling some air move in both feel and tonally.
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I took my Les Paul Recording out for a 3hr gig last night, the tone was great.
However, my shoulder sure is on the sore side today.
It's a very unique instrument, in my opinion a superb solid body jazz guitar, but there are certainly more comfortable instruments to play for longer gigs!
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Originally Posted by entresz
Jan Akkerman likes that size and has a custom Gibson with a Recording body but regular humbuckers
I'd like a Les Paul Personal myself, but only two ever came into Australia
The LP Recording we had in the shop around 1978 was an unusual one, it had this cool multicoloured prism tint on the headstock
Anyone else seen that on a Gibson before?
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Originally Posted by matcarsa
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Here's my "Les Paul" (a Slaman Pauletta) - check the "video" from 1:45 which is when the jazz player takes over:
It has a full size CC pickup and some slightly different woods (and 1.75" nut width plus slimmer neck specs than stated in the original CR guitars' description - basically feels like an archtop neck), but it still has the DNA of a Les Paul.
As you can see/hear, it sounds just great for jazz (and that video was played with 10's or 11's). I've had great results with it when playing with others. BUT I concur that my shoulder "feels it" after about an hour, and sometimes that lingers to the next day if I press on...which recently happened to me when I was called to sub for a long big band practice.
While I've always been a neck pickup guy, running both pickups can work pretty well when comping...a luxury we don't get on archtops.Last edited by coolvinny; 10-23-2020 at 12:38 PM. Reason: changed link to youtube link from CR guitars
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Originally Posted by coolvinny
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My hunch on the "not many Les Pauls in jazz" deal is that a lot of players who are after the Gibson aesthetic are probably going "the full Gibson" and playing one of the many hollowbodies available, and those who want a more versatile or rugged instrument are thinking "shoot, my tele could fall off the stand at a gig and nothing would happen."
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Originally Posted by Marcel_A
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I will mention however that I recently saw an excellent pro play an entire jazz gig on a Les Paul but, to be honest, I thought he sounded better on the semi-hollow Gibson which he used to play.
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Originally Posted by Humbuckr
Question about All of Me / Ella Fitzgerald version
Today, 01:31 PM in The Songs