The Les Paul Quest Part 2

In Part 1 of The Les Paul Quest  I wrote about the Provision Les Paul my friend was contemplating on getting.  But you know, contemplate on something for too long and it'll grow legs and walk away.

With the Provision Les Paul snapped up by another buyer, Sherman sent me an email with pics of a Les Paul from the far, Far East -- Thailand! 

Thai-made guitars are a fairly recent entry into the guitar market and I'd tried a couple of bolt-on strat and tele-style guitars over the last couple of years.  Both were made by one Prasit Pariyarungsri. 

The guitars were pretty well-made and the attention to detail was definitely there.  But because they used indigenous local woods, they tended to be extremely heavy -- imagine a tele-style axe with a bolt-on neck weighing in at almost 9lbs! 

That would be on the heavy side even for a regular Les Paul.  And at that kind of weight a guitar is just not going to resonate.  The two guitars I tried felt like the pickups were speaking directly to the strings, with no contributing acoustic resonance from the body and neck at all.  Which is fine, maybe even desired, for heavier rock and metal, which would appeal to a sizeable chunk of the Thai guitar-buying market. 

From what I understand, Prasit apprenticed under another Thai guitar maker -- whose name eludes me now -- who also made a variety of solidbody guitars in the style of Gibson, Tom Anderson, Fender and PRS and marketed under the brand 'POT'.  And browsing the NNG Guitars website -- Prasit's current guitar company -- it looks like they are taking a similar approach.

This particular Prasit-built NNG Les Paul copy comes upgraded with woods more traditionally associated with the Gibson family.  The description in the email from Prasit himself is as follows:

********
Neck Joint : Set in (Long neck tenon type)    

Neck : One piece mahogany
Fretboard :  Rosewood with Mother of Pearl trapezoid inlays
Headstock shape : Les paul standard shape with real ebony wood veneer
Body :  Almost one piece Honduras mahogany (the one piece has 90% of total width body jointed with another piece has 10% of remainder).  However I ever found original Les Paul jointed same as this, everybody can be called that one piece body
Body top : Book match highly curly flame maple(4A grade)
PUs. : 2× genuine Alnico V magnet

********

And I appreciate the guy's honesty about the ratio of wood that makes up the body joint. Try getting the Gibson Custom Shop to openly offer up that kind of information!

Prasit's current approach, now that he has access to Honduran mahogany, is to bring his Les Paul guitars in at between 7.5 to 8lbs. 

I'm really digging the real mother of pearl inlays!  Why Gibson continues to use cheap pearloid plastic for the inlays on their Les Paul Standards continues to elude me. 

And it looks like NNG Guitars is getting their own Alnico humbuckers custom made as well.  Interesting.


Check 'em out -- http://www.nngguitars.com/

The Les Paul Quest Part 1

A good buddy of mine is on a quest for his ultimate Les Paul and he has kindly agreed to let me document his ongoing research and correspondence with the various luthiers, pickup makers and hardware manufacturers. Thanks Sherman! 

And having owned several Gibson Les Pauls in the past, he initially had his sights set on one of the obscure Japanese manufacturers.

Like this Provision Les Paul.

Largely unknown outside of the US, Provision makes mid to very high-end Les Paul copies in limited runs.

From Ishibashi Japan's U-Box listing of used instruments, this axe features a nicely flamed, solid maple top, mahogany neck and body and comes equipped with Seymour Duncan 59N and JB pickups.  It was listed on Ishibashi's U-Box for 140,952 yen  or US$1854.  This was Provision's mid-level model, so the price brand new would have been in the US$2500 region.  Pretty crazy I know.

So why would anyone want to pay that much for a no-name guitar?  Folks, it's all about attention to detail and looking past that unfamiliar name on the headstock. 

Gibson's quality began to flag in the early '90s.  My theory is that one Saul Hudson aka Slash suddenly drove demand for Les Paul guitars through the roof and Gibson were caught off-guard and were unable to crank them out fast enough.  In the process, quality was sacrificed. 

And thanks to Slash's popularity, almost overnight Gibson guitars appeared with dodgy craftmanship -- sloppy finishing, rough fretwork with sharp fret ends and misaligned pearloid fingerboard markers inlaid into oversized slots with a huge amount of surrounding wood filler.

What better conditions for a high-end Les Paul-copy market in Japan to suddenly fluorish and prosper, appealing to a culture that is positively fanatical about details.



This particular guitar sold out pretty quickly from Ishibashi's listing despite the numerous dings and dents that pervaded the headstock, sides and back.

Stay tuned for upcoming instalments of the Les Paul Quest!

Gibson Les Paul Standard '55 to '59 Scott Lentz Conversion | Random Guitar Of The Day

This guitar is a Scott Lentz 'conversion' -- a 1955 Gold Top Les Paul modded and refinished to look like a vintage cherry sunburst '59, the Holy Grail of Les Pauls!

Prices of original '59 Bursts started going through the roof in the mid-80's, driven in part by post-war baby boomers going through a mid-life-crisis-guitar-acquisition phase.  With prices casually breaching the $250K mark for an original sunburst 1959 Les Paul these days, it's no wonder that we don't see too many of them outside of their climate controlled vaults.

Modifying this 1955 Les Paul to '59 specs would have meant stripping off the Gold Top down to the bare wood, removing the P90 pickups and routing out the pickup cavities for humbuckers.  A reset of the neck angle was also usually done to match the '59.

Surprisingly, quite a number of early Gold Top Les Pauls had immaculate, bookmatched, highly flamed maple tops underneath all that gold paint!  I guess flame maple wasn't much of a selling point in those days.

And Phil X.  Gotta love him.  A little over the top, but what a huge talent.  I would pay to go watch him play!

Gibson 9/11 Les Paul

As we approach the 10th anniversary of that fateful day of September 11, 2001 let's take some time out to remember and honor those who passed. 

And let's not forget also, those who continue to bear the emotional burden of having lost a loved one in that tragedy.

Time, they say, heals all wounds.  And it does.  Up to point. 

I am entirely unqualified to give anyone who has lost someone in 9/11 any kind of advice.  But I can tell you how I deal with personal losses of my own. 

And it is simply this -- remember a favorite song you shared. 

Remember how you sang along to it, or danced to it, or laughed about it.  Remember the dinner you were having the first time you heard that favorite song, or that long drive together when it came on the radio.

Music has that incredible ability to transport one back in time to a happier place.  And if you can smell, taste or even momentarily touch a precious moment once shared you realise that that person, though no longer at your side, is very much a part of your being, your very DNA.  And they are not far away. 

This is music's gift to me.  And I hope, to you.

I initially wanted to peg this post as part of my Random Guitar of the Day series.   But then I realised how trivial that would make it all seem.  There is nothing random about this guitar. 

It's purposeful.  And the handpainting on it is purposeful.  It exudes as much heartfelt emotion as any great work of art.  And if art is a reflection of life, it don't get much more real than this.

If only we would all just pick up a guitar, any guitar, and direct our attention to the peaceful act of making music, instead of planning that next random act of senseless violence.  Legislated or not.  

Screw the guns and bombs.  Hopefully, one day we'll all evolve enough to know better.

Gibson 9/11 Les Paul

Gibson Guitars CEO on the Recent Federal Raid

In this radio interview, Gibson Guitars CEO Henry Juszkiewicz talks about the recent raid on Gibson's factories in Nashville and Memphis.  Gibson was also raided in 2009 over woods imported from Madagascar with formal charges yet to be filed against the company.  The latest raid late last month was again over Gibson's alleged use of illegally imported woods, this time, ebony from India 

What is chilling is how Juszkiewicz describes it:

"It was a nightmare.  We had over 20 armed men descend upon three factories in different states and our corporate headquarters, and at gunpoint close our factories and evacuate the employees, put them out on the street and in the parking lot.  And then they proceeded to pore thorugh the production facilities and confiscate loads of wood, they grabbed computer hard drives, all kinds of papers, invoices, and generally closed us down for the entire day, and then send us a letter that if we were to continue to use anything, any wood from India, that that would be considered a Federal crime."

"Originally, we had a raid in 2009 that was in regard to wood apparently from Madagascar, and subsequently we have sued them, to recover the goods that they have seized.  We have affidavits from the government of Madagascar that the wood we purchased  was legally obtained and legally exportable." 



According to Juszkiewicz he was told by the authorites that all these problems could be avoided if Gibson were to manufacture in Madagascar -- something which he says is inconceivable.

To top it off, he has no idea why Gibson is being targetted when their competitors are using exactly the same wood, from the same countries.  As of this date, formal charges have yet to brought against Gibson.

"We're the only company that is being targetted.  It's more frightening because the law that's been passed that requires anyone who transports an instrument across borders, they have to know what specie of wood, every piece of that instrument is and where it was acquired.  And while that wood and that specie might have been perfectly legal, the likelihood of your knowing where it came from at any point in time is unlikely.  So even if there's no question about the legality of the wood, the bureaucracy allows people to confiscate that instrument, fine you and produce criminal charges."

As one defiant Twitterer aptly puts it, “They can pry my Gibson guitar from my cold, dead hands.”

Ordering a Gibson Firebird V from Ishibashi Japan

I've always had good experiences when buying online from Ishibashi Music in Japan.  Their service has always been top-notch, and I like the fact that they always try to be as thorough as possible when describing an item a customer might be interested in. 

But they do get a large volume of incoming emails everyday, and only a small handful of staff who are able to answer emails in English, which means that a one or two day wait for a reply is the norm.

I ordered my Gibson Firebird V from Ishibashi's U-Box or used item listing a year ago, last September.  Yeah I know, it's taken me that long to blog about it.

Here's the initial reply from Ishibashi:

Hello! This is ____  from Ishibashi Music, Shibuya.


Thank you for sending our Kobe Sannomiya branch an inquiry of the used GIBSON FIREBIRD VS (316212705).  As all international orders are handeled here at Shibuya, I am writing back to you on behalf of them.

I am glad to advise you that this Firebird guitar is still available and would like to share you some information of its overall condition and accompanying item is as follows;

- No outstanding damages such as big dents, finish chips or cracks are found on this guitar, except for some minor picking scratches and small dents.
- The condition of the neck is good, not warped or twisted.
- Fret wear is just a little. The remainder of the frets are approx. 80%.
- The color of the hardwares are still shiny.

- No parts seems to have been modified, replaced or missing.
- No problem with the electronics.
- The playing condition is good.
- Made in 2003 (S/N 02533397)
- The guitar comes with a hardshell case.

Based on the above written condition, the best offer for this GIBSON FIREBIRD VS including the shipping/insurance fee for sending you this guitar to your country via EMS is...

Used GIBSON
FIREBIRD VS (316212705)--- ******* JPY

Shipping/Insurance fee----  ***** JPY

______________________________________

Total Amount: ******* JPY (tax excluded)
 
ISHIBASHI MUSIC, SHIBUYA 
**End of correspondence**
 
Thorough and descriptive like I mentioned.  And they even provided me with additional pictures of the guitar.
 
I sent them another email to confirm and received bank wire transfer details.  I prefer bank transfers instead of credit card payments in these cases as it gives me solid documentation of my purchase --a bit of a hassle with the $20 bank wire charge from my bank but worth it, I feel. 
 
After confirming payment on their end which took one additional business day, the guitar was shipped promptly within hours.  I even got a EMS tracking number so I could track my purchase all the way from Shibuya, to Narita airport, right up to my doorstep.  
 
Speaking of doorsteps, the visitor intercom to my apartment wasn't working on the morning the guitar arrived, which was, literally, a day after they shipped it!  Which meant that I had to schlep all the way to the post office the next business day to pick the guitar up.  
 
I was really happy with the way the guitar was packed.  Removing the outer protective cardboard box, I found the hardcase within thoroughly bubble-wrapped with the guitar snug inside.  And my first hands-on experience with the huge Firebird hardcase was that it does not fit in the boot of a cab.  So the backseat it was.
 
Since the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March 2011, Ishibashi has shortened their working hours as part of the energy conservation program so they might take longer in answering incoming emails.  But from what I understand it's business as usual.
 
Check 'em out sometime.
 
http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/

Random Guitar of the Day | 1964 Gibson ES125

Gibson revamped their ES100 model after World War II and renamed it the ES125. 

Upgraded with a more modern P90 pickup and a 16 1/4" hollowbody, the ES125 proved quite popular as an entry-level archtop in the Gibson line.

This particular Gibson ES125 from 1964 shows off the sheer simplicity of the design -- button tuners, unbound rosewood fingerboard with dot inlays, non-laminated tortoise shell-style pickguard, a volume and tone control, single 'dog ear' P90 pickup, trapeze tailpiece and Gibson's standard 24 3/4" scale length.
.
The ES125 remained in production until 1970.

I've a played few ES125's in the past and every one had that vintage mojo -- not surprising for guitars that were all 50 years old.

Duane Allman's '57 Goldtop Les Paul

I just came across this very cool site about a '57 Goldtop Les Paul, serial number 7 3312.

Originally owned by Duane Allman who played it on a number of recordings including Statesboro Blues and Layla, Allman swapped this Goldtop for a '59 'plain-top' sunburst Les Paul model in 1970.

The guitar resurfaced in 1977 when it was traded in at a music store, stripped of its goldtop to a laquered natural finish. 

It was purchased by Scot Lamar and Peter Young who saw the instrument's intrinsic value, although the fact that the guitar was owned by Duane Allman apparently did not factor into the music store's asking price!  I'm guessing they would have pretty much paid the standard going rate for late '50s goldtop Les Pauls at the time, which would probably have been anywhere upwards of $3000 or even much less, considering its delapidated condition replete with tooth marks on the headstock where it was chewed on by a previous owner's puppy!

Rightfully, the guitar was restored back to its former golden glory by Gibson finish guru Tom Murphy in the late 90's.

One of the current owners, Mike Boulware, has this to say about the instrument and its link to Duane Allman:   

"I think the reason is that, like many great players, he, as a man, came through stronger than what instrument he played, with one notable distinction... when he played slide on the Gold Top, the universe held it's breath to listen."

Apparently the owners are now selling the Duane Allman Goldtop. The asking price? A cool $1.1 million. 

Check out a detailed history of this amazing axe here:  http://www.duaneallmansgoldtop.com/

Gibson Howard Roberts Formerly Owned by Steve Miller on eBay

Here's an early version of a Gibson Howard Roberts guitar on eBay, formerly owned by Steve Miller of Abracadabra and Fly Like An Eagle fame. 

Howard Roberts wanted an instrument he could really hear acoustically when he designed his namesake instrument, and decided on the oval soundhole instead of traditional f-holes.  In fact, the first batch of Howard Roberts guitars made by Epiphone, Gibson's sister company, were very acoustic in nature, featuring both the oval soundhole and a carved solid spruce top. 

According to Howard Roberts himself, these Epiphone models were "a little too expensive and a little too fragile."  The subsequent versions by Gibson, like this Steve Miller-owned piece, had bodies made entirely out of maple.

In addition to the standard volume and tone controls, a mid-range roll-off control was also standard on the Gibson Howard Roberts, but many players didn't find it useful and ended up disconnecting it from the circuit.

I thought it was pretty cool that Gibson decided to retain the elaborate Epiphone-style pearl inlay on the Gibson Howard Roberts headstocks -- there's some fine, old-world craftsmanship for you! 

This guitar comes with documentation from Guitar Showcase in San Jose stating it was consigned from Steve Miller's collection as well as a purchase receipt from the Gibson factory indicating that it was made for Miller.


eBay Item number: 120559295205

Plek Technology | Ultimate Guitar Setup

Deriving its name from the word 'plectrum', the Plek machine is revolutionizing the way guitar setups are traditionally done. The brainchild of German inventor Gerd Anke, the Plek still relies on the trussrod adjustment to be done by hand, but once that is accomplished -- watch out!  The Plek machine takes over with unerring accuracy; measuring, grinding and crowning each fret to 1/100th of a mm.  That's a fraction of a millimetre folks. 

If the map of Plek users in the video (1:29) is anything to go by, it appears that there are already a considerable number of Plek machines earning their keep throughout the US, with some guitar manufacturers owning several:

Martin Guitars (Nazareth) -- 13
Heritage Guitars (Kalamazoo) -- 12
Wechter (Paw Paw) -- 6
G & L Guitars (Fullerton) -- 3
Gibson Guitars (Nashville) -- 10
Suhr Guitars (Lake Elsinore) -- 4

Suhr Guitars puts their four Plek's to good use even on their imported Rasmus guitar line.  And other than guitar manufacturers, a number of repair shops have also purchased Plek machines of their own.

See the Plek in action in this video starting at 2:26.

Warwick Thumb Bass SC | Single Cut-Away

For your perusal, this is the new Warwick Thumb Bass SC, Single Cut-Away.

Every once in a while, a new bass catches my attention and which I just have to feature here on The Guitar Column.  Okay, this is actually the first bass I'm featuring on TGC, but who's keeping track, right?  Let it be the first of many firsts..

The original groundbreaking small-bodied Warwick Thumb bass has been around since the mid-80's and has won its share of players and fans.  Its clear, hi-fidelity tone, active electronics and use of exotic woods like African wenge and bubinga really turned the bass world on its ear.  These basses were also precisely set-up out of the factory with low action, allowing even a guitar player like myself to fake some Stanley Clarke runs with minimal effort.

But a common gripe with the original Warwick Thumb bass was that the size of the small body and close positioning of the strap buttons made reaching for that low F on the 1st fret (or low C on a 5-string) something of a stretch.  Great for players 5'10" or taller with long arms, but not so good if you were a little guy.  

On the new Warwick Thumb Bass SC, the front strap-button is moved further up to around the location of the 13th fret, which helps with the instrument's overall balance and solves the stretching dilemma mentioned earlier. 

Oh yeah, and no surprise that all that extra wood attached to so much neck area is a great tone and sustain enhancer as well.  If you ask me, the Warwick Thumb SC actually bears a striking resemblance to Fodera's design.  Hope we won't be looking at another Gibson guitars vs PRS Single-Cut debacle.

The neck-through Thumb SC comes with Warwick's proprietary height-adjustable nut, 2-piece bridge, passive MEC pickups and active electronics, flame maple neck, tiger-stripe ebony fingerboard, American swamp ash body and a Bubinga Pommelé top.  The Warwick Thumb Bass SC is also available in fretless and 6-string versions. 



See http://www.warwick.de/ for more details.

Gibson Reverse Flying V | Benefit Haiti Relief Effort

I've featured many eBay items in the past but this one supports an important cause.  (eBay Item #:  160396737083)

Gibson Guitars and music blog Miami New Times have created a special edition Reverse Flying V which is being auctioned on eBay to benefit victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti .  The guitar also features custom artwork by Miami artist David LeBatard of LEBO Studios.

One hundred percent of the proceeds from the sale of this guitar will go to http://www.standwithhaiti.org/.

Tom Morello | Support For Laid-Off Cort Factory Workers

Following up on my article on the plight of laid-off Cort guitar factory workers, it looks like some prominent guitar folk are getting involved.

Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello showed his support at a recent Cort Action Solidarity concert on January 13. 

The concert, dubbed A Night of Guitars, was staged during NAMM 2010 week in Los Angeles while guitar manufacturing bigwigs were in town.  In addition to their own guitar line, Cort also supplies Fender, Ibanez, Gibson, Lakland and ESP. 

Morello also issued this statement:

“Guitars should be a means to liberation, not exploitation. I fully support the Korean workers’ demands for justice in the workplace. All American guitar manufacturers and the people that play them should hold Cort accountable for the awful way they have treated their workers. Without us, they would go out of business. Simple as that. No one should have their job taken away because they stand up for their rights.”

Fender apparently, is the first to step up to the plate and will be conducting their own investigations into the Cort guitar factory lay-offs.

(Pic Source: http://cortaction.wordpress.com/)

Gibson ES355 Owned By Freddie King On eBay!

Here's a 1967 Gibson ES355 that, according to the seller, was owned by the late legendary bluesman Freddie King!  (Item #: 180375852258)

The ES355 was intended to be a deluxe version of the ES335 and featured an ebony fingerboard, pearl block inlays, gold-plated hardware, six-position Varitone and multiple binding on the body, neck and fingerboard.  The headstock was also adorned with the Les Paul Custom-style 'split-block' pearl inlay.

The Gibson ES355 also came with a 'Stereo' feature with discrete outputs from each pickup that could be sent to two separate amplifiers.   Freddie kept his pickup selector switch in the middle position --both pickups 'on' -- and played through a Fender Quad Reverb amp. 


The ES355 was Freddie King's main axe of choice for most of his career, although he did on occasion also play ES335s, ES345s and Les Pauls.

This particular ES355, serial number 580445, dates from 1967.  According to the seller, Freddie had its Vibrola trem removed and replaced with a stop bar tailpiece.


With a Buy It Now price just shy of 50 grand, this guitar comes with a letter from a roadie who travelled with one of King's opening acts, as well as a road-worn, duct-tape reinforced hardcase stencilled with 'Freddie King, Texas Cannonball, Fragle (sic)'

Larry Perkins Bluesman's Journey.. And Meeting The Ghost of Orville Gibson?

Larry Perkins, guitar player extraordinaire, is a guy you've probably never heard of.  But he has a few good stories to tell. 

Larry was on the second last day of his 3 month stint as frontman for the houseband at the Crazy Elephant club, Singapore, when this interview took place. An accomplished guitar luthier and repairman, Larry also worked at Heritage Guitars in Kalamazoo, from 1996 to 2006. 

This conversation took place in a Japanese restaurant over a bottle of chilled sake and plates of seasoned baby octopus.


The Guitar Column:  Tell us a bit about your early years. Where did you grow up and what was your earliest musical memory?

Larry Perkins:  I grew up in Paw Paw, Michigan. It was an agricultural town. I remember going to a barn dance when I was maybe 3 years old and the guitar player was playing a Fender Stratocaster. I remember sitting there and just watching him for hours.

Later on, my older sisters were into the bands of the British Invasion. I was 8 years old and exposed to the music of the Beatles, The Stones. My favorite band was The Yardbirds.

TGC:  Were you aware then that Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton were in The Yardbirds?

LP:  I didn’t know. I just liked the songs.

TGC:  When did you get your first guitar?

LP:   It was 1967, I was 11 years old. My first guitar was an old Sears acoustic. It was a piece of junk. In school choir the kids got the baritone ukuleles, the 4-string ones tuned like the lower 4-strings on a guitar. I dove right into it and when the teachers saw I was pretty good at it, they put me in with the older group of kids.

I didn’t know it was Jimmy Page I was listening to when I was listening to The Yardbirds. When Led Zeppelin came out I found out that it was Page again, and I felt I had to listen to this guy!

TGC:  When did you get your first electric guitar?

LP:  I got it in 1968. It was a Teisco. My mother got it for me on condition that I stayed with the school music band. And I had a little amp. I had only one setting for the amp – turned up all the way up. It was the only way to get it to distort.

TGC:  Were you really into the guitar by this time?

I was obsessed by it. I would stare at the clock in class and I couldn’t wait to go home and play. I couldn’t understand why everybody wasn’t into it.

TGC:  What were you practicing? Did you jam along with records?

LP:  I was jamming along with the records -- Beatles, Zeppelin.

TGC:  When did you get your first band together?

LP:  This would have been in 1968, when I was 12 years old.

TGC:  12 years old in ‘68! That must have been a great time to grow up!

LP:  It was, it really was! Woodstock, flower power!

I had a very Mid-western upbringing -- you could put the same story all throughout America. The first band I was in played school dances, talent shows.

TGC:  What songs were you playing?

LP:  We did Grand Funk Railroad, Led Zeppelin, Donovan. I remember we played The Animals’ House of the Rising Sun. I also played a lot of old standards – American standard pieces. There was a jam session on Sunday outside of Paw Paw that I would attend. I played Satin Doll, A Foggy Day. I was a young kid hanging out with these old farts playing these tunes!

As a matter of fact, last New Year’s Eve (2009) was the 40th anniversary of my first band’s first bar gig. It was New Year’s Eve 1969 -- the drummer in my band called to tell us he had got us a gig. We got together and he handed each of us 40 dollars and a shot of whiskey. 40 dollars was a lot of money back then!

TGC:  And things haven’t changed, there are bars that still pay musicians 40 dollars! You must have been pretty good by then.

LP:  I got a lot of encouragement. I was into any band that had a big guitar sound. I was playing blues based rock n’ roll. I didn’t quite get the connection about the (traditional) blues yet because I thought it was kind of hokey. I was totally wrapped up in rock n’ roll.

TGC:  Was it at this point that you wanted to play music seriously?

LP:  No, I just always wanted to. I was always practicing. It was something I always wanted to do, to make a living from music.

TGC:  What were some of the things you were working on at this time?

LP:  I would work on my repertoire, my lead work. I would work on my tone. If my band was going to play a new song I would work on that. I also picked up the bass guitar. In high school I was also gigging as a bass player. I actually made a lot of money playing bass in college as a hired gun.

TGC:  Where did you go to college?

LP:  I went to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, studying science with a minor in music. I didn’t graduate but I was there for 3 years. I went in as a horn player, trombone, but I could play any kind of brass instrument. I would go to theory classes. As far as music, it exposed me to a more academic approach.

TGC:  So there you were, a guitar player right in the heart of Gibson town!

LP:  I never realized that Gibson Guitars was in Kalamazoo til after college! Somehow I never made the connection.

TGC:  When did you start getting into guitar building and repair?

LP:  In college, I owned a Guild solidbody. And I had friends who would come with minor guitar problems and I would do repairs. I learned to solder at a young age and I would work on guitar electronics. Just helping friends with repairs for a few dollars, and maybe a joint. You can print that!

TGC:  What bands were you playing in after college?

LP:  In my 20’s I had my rock n’ roll band but I also bounced around in half a dozen bands, sometimes playing bass. I was in demand because I was known as the guy who could sing and play guitar, or sing and play the bass.

1983 was a real turning point. I auditioned and joined a band out of Detroit as the bass player. The band was a drug front. They (the management) didn’t care about the band -- they were only using the band and the club as a front to sell drugs. I had to leave. It broke my heart.

I was engaged to a girl about this time and went the route of selling every bit of gear I owned in November of ‘83. You know, ‘quit music and get a real job’. I went to work for my future father in law.

Four months went by and I had to get a guitar. I got a Harmony Flying V and a Peavey amp and started working on my chops again. At this point my first wife had some drug issues and was indulging in drug-related behavior. I got into the bottle pretty heavy.

I would go down to the basement and try to reinvent myself, I wanted to work on my chords. I would take a chord and find every possible position to play it. So as my first marriage disintegrated, I was reinventing my guitar style. I went back to the roots with the blues as well.

I put a band together called Red Rooster which lasted from 1981 til 1999. I almost died from a drug overdose in October of ’88. That was the darkest period of my life, ’83 to ‘88, but it put a fire in me and gave me an understanding of myself and my talent.

In 1989 I got divorced and moved back to Kalamazoo. I hadn’t had a band for almost 6 years, but I had a new lease on my guitar playing. I had lots of old friends and connections with the clubs in Kalamazoo. And within a couple of months I was doing gigs. I was doing a lot more blues gigs as well.

TGC:  What happened after that?

LP:  In ‘91 I got more heavily into repairs. I went to work in a music store, Farrow’s Music in Kalamazoo. They had a couple more stores in the country. This was the era before the big Guitar Center stores.

TGC:  A real mom n' pop type operation – just a little bigger.

LP:  Exactly. I got the job by complaining to the manager about the guitars they had on display. They were poorly setup, strings were rusting, the guitars were dirty. I told him I could increase his guitar sales and that I would work for free for 2 weeks to prove myself. I sold more guitars in 2 weeks than he had sold in 6 months, just because I cleaned them up, put new strings on them and set them up well. I ended up working there about two and a half years.

When Farrow’s closed I worked as a groundskeeper taking care of things in an apartment building, Milham Meadows – taking out the trash, shoveling snow in winter.

TGC:  You’re the king of guitar setups. Your guitars at the Crazy Elephant all play great. What do you look for when buying a new or used guitar?

LP:  I’m really anal about my setups.

I wouldn’t buy a guitar if it didn’t have the features I was looking for. The last thing I would consider would be how it looks like – which is probably the first thing that most people buying a guitar look at. One thing I insist on though is a nitrocellulose finish because I‘m old school.

TGC:  I remember in the late 70’s Fender was making Strats with really heavy ash bodies covered in thick polyurethane finishes.

LP:  Guitar culture is festooned with myth.

Brass nuts and heavy bodies were the in-thing in the 80s. But those same guys telling you that you needed brass nuts, brass bridges, these were the guys with the tiny mosquito tones. And they would tell you these things -- that you needed brass to get sustain. Sustain comes from your hands first.

TGC:  Do you have any setup secrets you would care to share? How do you set the neck relief on your guitars for example?

LP:  Good action is good playability. Most of my guitar have low action, but I like the guitar to fight back a little bit.

The first thing I look at is the relief on a neck. It doesn’t matter if a guitar is poorly setup with too much relief. If you sight down a neck (the fingerboard) and see the curve of the relief only occurring between the 3rd and 8th fret, that’s the neck that’s going to dial in perfectly.

When I worked at Heritage Guitars I would look at the neck blank the same way. Once the fingerboard is glued on, it will accept stress in the same way. When I was ready to build my personal guitar at Heritage, I went through about 40 or 50 neck blanks (necks with no fingerboard installed yet), and picked out one. I brought it to the guy in the neck and body department and said “This one’s got my name on it.”

TGC:  What are your opinions about neck woods?

LP:  I want very straight grain. No grain that moves in a wavy pattern, and no knots in the wood. I generally avoid flame or figured maple for necks. Flame necks have been known to shatter at the figured part of the grain, but this doesn’t happen very often – maple is quite reliable.

TGC:  Do you prefer quartersawn or flatsawn wood for necks?

LP:  Flatsawn or quartersawn are both ok. Fender necks if you notice are mostly flatsawn. But if it’s a mahogany neck, I prefer it quartersawn.

TGC:  Tell us how you got your job at Heritage Guitars.

LP:  I joined Heritage Guitars in November 1996. My second wife worked with a girl whose father was one of the owners of Heritage -- J P Moats. My wife said that she heard they were hiring and suggested I apply. I went for the interview and after that I was going there every 2 weeks for a year, pounding on their door. They finally agreed to hire me.

J P Moats started with Gibson Guitars in 1956. He was what we call in the manufacturing business, a 'floater'. He could do about just anything. He would move from department to department making sure everything was ok. You had to be a pretty senior employee to do this.

I played a few Heritage guitars before I worked there. I was impressed – the playability, the way they looked. I actually bought a H150 model, the Les Paul type. They preferred to keep it a small operation. They maintained the handbuilt aspect.

TGC:  Jig saws and routers, no CNC machines.

LP:  Exactly.

I was the first non-Gibson guy they hired. All the employees were ex-Gibson guys. Heritage started in ‘85 and when I went in, it was the 11th year of Heritage Guitars. (Note: The idea for Heritage Guitars began when Gibson decided to move its factory from Kalamazoo, Michigan to Nashville, Tennessee in 1984. When a number of staff refused to move, they decided to buy the Kalamazoo plant from Gibson, including the original tools and machinery, and started Heritage Guitars.)

When I started, they put me in white wood prep (the pre-finishing stage) for six months, ensuring that all aspects were perfect. They liked my attention to detail and in Spring of ‘97 I was promoted to the finishing department . I did the finish on guitars for Roy Clark and John Sebastian. These guys would always ask for custom finishes, custom binding. Actually every Heritage guitar coming out of the factory now is custom.

TGC:  The Heritage Les Paul-style solidbody you mentioned you had specially built -- did you build it entirely yourself? Were there any special features you had put in that you wouldn’t find on any other Heritage guitar?

LP:  I did some of the work on it, but it was put through the production stages (at the factory). There is a higher arch on the carved top. From the side it looks like a turtle! And the guitar is all-maple – I wanted a bright sounding guitar. Heritage uses the VIP system which allows you to cut coils and get a few switching combinations out of two humbuckers.

For my guitar I came up with a system, that allowed me to get every possible switching combination from three humbucking pickups. This allowed me to get any sound I wanted – I could get it to sound like a Les Paul, or a Tele or a Strat. There were only two Heritage guitars built with these electronics. And I own both of them. 

TGC:  I notice you went with a Bigsby tremolo.

LP:  I like Bigsbys. They stay in tune if they are maintained well, and they have a nice 50s vibe. And you don’t have to rout out the guitar to install them like with most tremolo systems. You can’t do dive-bombs with them of course.

TGC:  Any insider stories about the goings-on at Heritage?

LP:  The old Gibson factory that Heritage took over has a lot of ghosts! Lights would turn themselves on and off, footprints would appear on the floor. Orville Gibson himself is said to wander around the factory. Almost everyone in the staff has at least one Orville story.

TGC:  Did you have any encounters yourself?

LP:  One winter day, during a bad blizzard -- this was in my second year at the company -- only about a third of the staff showed up. My boss came to me and told me that once I was done with what I was doing, and if the blizzard didn’t subside, I should go home.

It was about 10 in the morning. The last thing I needed to do was take a rack of guitars to the finishing department upstairs. I rolled the rack to the elevator. And sitting in front of the elevator, partially blocking the door was this dolly with a 20ft long piece of mahogany on it.

It probably weighed about a ton and I definitely couldn’t move it by myself. So here I was wondering where I was going to get someone to help me move it – there was hardly anybody around. And then the dolly with this huge piece of mahogany just moved about 8 inches by itself!  Just enough so I could get the rack into the elevator!

TGC:  Did you go up the elevator then? I would have split!

LP:  I went up and then I went home. I met Orville. Everybody at Heritage has an Orville ghost story.

Ghostbuilders of Slash's Les Paul Replicas

I just came across a tribute site to Kris Derrig, ghostbuilder of the famed Les Paul replica which Slash used extensively on Appetite For Destruction. 

There was a time in the mid to late-80's when Floyd Rose-equipped super-strats were the de facto standard. 

It was also a time when Gibson's production quality was, arguably, at its lowest, paving the way for several private guitar builders to start building high quality Les Paul replicas for a small but discerning clientele.  These Les Paul replicas were physically identical to the originals, Gibson logo and all, and flying under the radar just enough to not be noticed by Gibson's lawyers. 

The more famous of these builders were Kris Derrig and Max Baranet, and across the pond in the UK, Sid Poole.

While Gibson strayed from their original specifications and cut corners in quality, these ghostbuilders started adding their own little improvements in terms of neck pitch, headstock angle, the use of more exotic woods and better overall construction. 

The late Sid Poole began adding sonic chambers under the highly-figured tops of his Les Pauls, lending his guitars an airy, resonant quality -- a concept that Gibson themselves were to adopt later on.

Kris Derrig and Max Baranet became known for building the replicas that Slash was to acquire.  The huge success of Guns N' Roses 1987 debut Appetite For Destruction -- replete with the creamy, sustaining tones of the Derrig Les Paul replica -- led to a tremendous resurgence in the popularity of the Les Paul.  It's ironic that the very guitar that helped make Gibson popular again was not made by Gibson at all!

www.KrisDerrig.com appears to be still in its infancy.  And I'm not sure if its meant entirely to be a tribute site dedicated to Kris Derrig as there is also a fair amount of detail on the site about Max Baranet's work.  I'm bookmarking this one to see how it develops.

Orianthi, Rick Nielsen and Brian Ray Pay Tribute To Les Paul

Orianthi is definitely making her rounds -- this time performing a solo rendition of the Star Spangled Banner for the opening of an NFL game between the Miami Dolphins and the Houston Texans in Miami on December 27th 2009.

The Aussie lass was later joined at half-time by Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen and Brian Ray of Paul McCartney's band for a Gibson Guitar Tribute to Les Paul jam.

One of those rare occasions you'll see Orianthi with a Les Paul. And with a Floyd Rose to boot!

(Pic Source: AP Photo)

Gibson Releases The Jimmy Page 'Number Two' Les Paul

The Gibson Custom Shop has announced their latest artist signature model, the Jimmy Page 'Number Two' Les Paul, billing it as a culmination of "the extreme efforts of Gibson’s Custom Shop and the intimate cooperation of Jimmy Page himself".  

According to Gibson, several hand-built prototypes were presented to Page.  After he critiqued each one, refinements were made until the last prototype was given the master's blessing.  This last prototype was the template that was taken into final production.

Legend has it that after Page received his first 'Number One' 1959 Les Paul -- a gift from Joe Walsh -- he started looking for a second '59 Les Paul.  Purchasing 'Number Two' in 1973, he had the neck shaved down to more closely match the feel of 'Number One', which already had a slimmer shaved-down neck when he received it from Walsh. 

Gibson necks from the '50s were notoriously clubby and Gibson started to give their necks a slimmer profile in the 60s, no doubt due to customer feedback.

In the 80's, Pagey decided to get the electronics of 'Number Two' extensively modified.  He commissioned Steve Hoyland to devise a wiring system with push/pull pots on both volume controls and both tone controls and pickguard mounted switches, enabling a wider range of sounds via coil-splits, series/parallel and phase reversal of the pickups.  Hoyland was also brought in as 'hands-on consultant' in duplicating the wiring in the new 'Number Two'.

Gibson details the switching system thus:

With both pickguard-mounted switches pushed in and all push-pull pots in the down (in) position the Custom Shop Jimmy Page “Number Two” Les Paul functions as a normal Les Paul. From this starting point, the functions of the push-pull pots include:

Bridge Pickup Volume Control - Pulling this knob out switches the bridge pickup’s coils from series (standard) to parallel

Neck Pickup Volume Control - Pulling this knob out switches the neck pickup’s coils from series (standard) to parallel

Bridge Pickup Tone Control - Pulling this knob out switches the bridge pickup from humbucking to single coil

Neck Pickup Tone Control - Pulling this knob out switches the neck pickup from humbucking to single coil

It's interesting to note that this exact push/pull switching system was implemented in the first Gibson Jimmy Page Les Paul Signature model from 1995.  Personally when I tried out the mid-90's Page Signature, I found the switching system to be a hassle and actually took away from the gutsy Les Paul tone.  The tone was thinner than a non-modified Les Paul, even with all knobs down and the guitar in 'standard' mode!

A total of 325 'Number Two's' will be produced -- 25 guitars will be custom aged by Tom Murphy and played, inspected and signed by Page himeslf,  100 guitars will be custom aged sans signature  and 200 instruments will receive Gibson's VOS (Vintage Original Spec) finish.  Tom Murphy will be aging each guitar faithfully to match every scratch, ding and wear spot of the original Number Two.

Judging from Murphy's replicated belt-buckle wear, we also get a good idea of how low Pagey actually slung his Les Pauls onstage.

I'm guessing that Page's vaunted 1959 Number One will be next on Gibson's agenda.



(Quote Source:  www.gibson.com,  Pic Source: http://www.themusiczoo.com/)

Royce Campbell Plays The Christmas Song

Here's an old chestnut from 1945.  Written by Mel Torme and Bob Wells, The Christmas Song was recorded most famously by the great Nat King Cole.

The guitar player in this vid is Royce Campbell who at age 28 became the touring guitarist for composer/arranger Henry Mancini's orchestra up until Mancini's passing in 1994. 

Royce has also toured with Cleo Laine, Marvin Gaye and Mel Torme and has performed with jazz luminaries Jack McDuff, Jimmy Cobb, Joe Williams, Groove Holmes and James Moody. 

Merry Christmas to you and yours, from all of us here at The Guitar Column!



Listen To Royce Campbell CDs Here!

1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard on eBay

Here's another vintage beauty put up by Norman's Rare Guitars on eBay. (Item#: 180433734696)

This 1960 cherry sunburst Gibson Les Paul comes with all hang-tags and paperwork intact and in dead-mint condition. The guitar appears to be in pretty good shape too!

The nitrocellulose finish appears unmarked and pristine -- except for a little finish wear on the top edge of the back of the headstock, there appear to be no finish checks, belt-buckle rash or other wear spots from looking at the pics.

And the red pigment in the sunburst paint-job hasn't faded at all. This guitar has probably not seen much light of day in its 49 years -- a closet classic in the truest sense of the phrase.

This guitar doesn't come cheap. And that's an understatement considering the Buy It Now price of $325,000.

But this could be one of the most sound investments one could make, if this Guitar Trader ad from 1979 is anything to go by.