The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    May have cajooled a few of you into clicking, it's NOT a hollow body Gibson. Guitar Center was running a 599 sale on these US Gibson Les Paul Special Tribute DC and had seen them on the wall but never requested to have them brought down. I had a bit of Gift Card credit from Xmas and decided to try out the blue satin and the red satin one. I felt the red satin was a tiny bit easier to play but I think that had to do with height of the tailpiece difference between them. I have smaller hands so many guitars aren't super comfy for me to play right off the bat.


    The P90's sound great(my first guitar with them in), aren't that noisy at all in my practice room. I've had single coil strats that were much noiser. Your experience may vary depending on your environment and gain structure. The bridge pickup was set too high in height on both of them that I played and it was choking the strings out causing an odd harmonic, probably not something you'd notice if you were playing full on distortion or without an eye on clean tones but I borrowed a screwdriver from the guitar tech and fixed that on both of them. Neck is 60's ish style not super thick with a good width that fits me for lead and fingerpicking clean tones.

    The neck sounds great and has a lot of classic p90 jazz vibe, maybe mellowed out by the all mahogany body. The bridge is fantastic for gainy tones, blues etc and works very well in the middle position with the neck engaged as well. Hitting my Full Drive 2 Mosftet into a champ or Deluxe style amp is fantastic. Guitar is extremely resonant and chords and single notes feel lively with lots of life in them. Guitar isn't neck divey as I've seen on some SG style guitars possibly owing to a thinner neck, nice light in weight maybe around 7 pounds ish? I use a cushion on my straps and once I apply that I don't think it will shift at all as far as a neck dive perspective. Body is made from 2 pieces with a nice clean center join. I've heard the 2018 models varied as to how many pieces and they probably don't use 3-4 piece bodies on the more easily visible light red stain bodies but that is just conjecture.

    Nut seems to be cut properly as the G and D string are angled towards the tuning peg and not just straight back, I probably will graphite or lube up the nut to avoid tuning issues at all if possible. Mine came straight from the Gibson box with a nice plush soft gig bag and etc. I polished up the body and neck from a nitro satin to a low gloss using some virtuoso cleaner and polish and a lot of elbow grease, has a much nicer sheen to it now without stickyness of a poly finish. There's a tiny bit of red nitro on some of the very fret ends that didn't get polished off but no sharp fret ends and there aren't any other major issues with fit or finish. I heard with the new CEO they were trying to work a little more on QC at least publicly stating so and I will say these will total package quality will probably vary from guitar to guitar. All in all very pleased during this honeymoon phase but I've purchased and had flipped through possibly over a 100 guitars some high some lower quality. This guitar is dead simple in design and maybe I just got lucky with this one! P.S. I have no Gibson affiliation or sponsorship.
    Attached Images Attached Images P90 Gibson!-353f6985-6492-4911-912a-059fb0250eae-jpg P90 Gibson!-img_4706-jpg P90 Gibson!-img_4707-jpg P90 Gibson!-img_4708-jpg 

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    Shweet! I'm sure your neighbors will appreciate a full-throated demonstration late tonight!

    You might want to swap in a bridge/tp unit that lets you fine-tune intonation (and use bare or wound G). Search "guitar wrap bridge" on EBay and a variety of options between $8 and $230 pop up.

    If those are regular Gibson P90s, resist the temptation to launch a pickup search: You are already home.

    However, if you're decent with a soldering iron you can switch the magnetic and electrical polarity on one pickup so they humbuck in the middle position.

    Last but not least, P90s work just great with big strings. Don't hesitate to try out a jazz set.

    Cherchez les tonnes!

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Sam Sherry
    Shweet! I'm sure your neighbors will appreciate a full-throated demonstration late tonight!

    You might want to swap in a bridge/tp unit that lets you fine-tune intonation (and use bare or wound G). Search "guitar wrap bridge" on EBay and a variety of options between $8 and $230 pop up.

    If those are regular Gibson P90s, resist the temptation to launch a pickup search: You are already home.

    However, if you're decent with a soldering iron you can switch the magnetic and electrical polarity on one pickup so they humbuck in the middle position.

    Last but not least, P90s work just great with big strings. Don't hesitate to try out a jazz set.

    Cherchez les tonnes!
    Yeah thankfully my neighbors have never complained when I dime my champ through a WGS 75watt 10 inch speaker. If I did it with the Deluxe and the Celestion 2x12 cab that'd probably be another story!

    So looks like Gibson had some foresight and wound these up to be hum cancelling and RWRP in the middle position already. Yeah the pickups sound really good, more practice and familiarity with the guitar would be the biggest return on investment right now. I have 10's on them right now with a plain G I have 11's on my 335 style Eastman guitar and that plays great with them so may up them eventually or maybe try and go down to 9's and get some BB King vibrato on. I'll take a look at other bridge options eventually I gather.

  5. #4

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    P-90s, mahogany neck, mahogany body - warmth, sweetness, articulation - you're pretty much set. Congratulations, and play it in good health!

  6. #5

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    Nice! I had one years ago and set it up for slide playing. It was perfect for that. I wish I still had it!

  7. #6

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    I bought my first new Gibson in over a decade last year (1960s LP Standard), and it's a beast of a guitar. These P90 DCs are absolute monster guitars, their really tremendous price-to-value ratio. Congrats on an awesome guitar!

  8. #7

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    Hey Ric!

    I'm considering taking advantage of the KILLER deal on this guitar myself, my only reservation is that we are looking at two P-90s, but only one set of tone / volume controls.

    Do you find yourself wishing it had a full control layout (ie a tone & volume for each pickup)?
    Last edited by Fat Fingers; 02-17-2020 at 04:19 PM.

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Fat Fingers
    Hey OP!

    I'm considering taking advantage of the KILLER deal on this guitar myself, my only reservation is that we are looking at two P-90s, but only one set of tone / volume controls.

    Do you find yourself wishing it had a full control layout (ie a tone & volume for each pickup)?
    Hey Fat Fingers I don't really find myself missing it my Eastman T486 335 style has two volumes and two controls set up, if you wanted two different flavors, like maybe a thin neck pickup to rip roaring bridge setup with a flick of the switch I supposed you could miss that but you could also get that with either another boost pedal or distortion or varying your pick attack intensity.

    The way it's set up now I'm mostly playing this distorted lead riff style and switching from neck to bridge allows two different flavors with the same kind of output and treble settings. It won't be vastly different when the switch is flicked but more complementary in tone. And then there's the pick attack and the middle position doesn't suffer for me. The guitar has a lot to offer as it is and simplicity is kind of in its makeup!

    Are you buying online? All I had to do on mine was lower the bridge pickup a smidge as it was set too closer to the strings as mentioned, it felt vary similar to the other blue and the black single pickup on the wall as well though I liked this one the best but it wasn't an exhaustive AB. Best of luck, I'm playing the guitar right now doesn't feel limited to me. I've seen some players get on with just the JR style with a single p90 in the bridge and they seem to do fine with even less controls. It is its own flavor and I'm enjoying it. Hope you nab a good one.

  10. #9

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    If I decide to pull the trigger, I'll likely let "my guitar guy" evaluate it or set it up as needed. I know a brilliant one nearby. I'm not comfortable doing a lot myself yet, but keen to learn!

  11. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Fat Fingers
    If I decide to pull the trigger, I'll likely let "my guitar guy" evaluate it or set it up as needed. I know a brilliant one nearby. I'm not comfortable doing a lot myself yet, but keen to learn!
    Mine plays better than my Eastman t486 from the factory. I think all the USA Gibson’s are now run through the Plek machine and other than adjusting bridge height to suit my preference it needed no further setup. May not need much work depending on how you get it. Lower that bridge pickup possibly a hair and give it a try? Just my 2 cents

  12. #11

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    Thanks, I certainly appreciate ANY advice, I'm not so for along that I can not learn lol.

    It seems like too good a deal to pass on at this price, even if I hate it I can probably get great trade in or sell value towards one that I will.