Gibson Les Paul Recording

My guitar is a 71 les paul recording. It's in frightfully good condition. Past reviews have explained the features (twin low impedence humbuckers, treble cut, bass cut, decade, phase, transducer, vol.).

You know, there are so many guitar snobs out there with their $200 custom wound seymour duncans that sound like $%^&*&. Get a good 60's harmony pickup and blow them off the stage. Well, everyone hates these low imp. pickups, but if you can set them up on the fly, they will cook. They can sound like a strat, a tele, a semi, and a range of completely unique tones that can't be described.

Wow. I run into an eq pedal to add some beef (the pickups can be thin like a strat) and go into either my Silvertone twin twelve, 66 Bassman, or early 60's airline and crank the hell out of the amp. I'd put the guitar up against any "cut-out-of-a-SRV-mold" strat blues player. This guitar sounds like anything and never fails to get a complement from vintage buffs & guitar fans.

Ahh, this plays like a hog... the way a blues guitar should. It's great for bending (wide, flat neck), except that the wide flat frets (hence fretless wonders) that Les himself prefered don't let you get under the strings. I eagerly await the day I need a refret. Oh, it will come. Yes, it will come!
The action gets VERY low without fretting out and would be good for a shredder except for the absence of open coiled humbuckers. Mine was refinished and the job is fantastic. The guitar is sooo resonant with its new thin finish, but not much of a collectors item. Everyone says that its the best sounding recording they've played [because of the finish].

It's been around for 30 years and come through like a champ. Barring a yanked input jack or a good smack on the headstock, you ain't gonna hurt this old lady. Those Grovers stay in tune nicely.

Hah, right. Gibson sucks. Guitars cost too much and do too little. Look nice, though. They don't care about a thirty year old throw away guitar, they just want to sell you a new one at 4 times its value.

I wish I knew what the heck the decade does. If anyone can tell me, PLEASE email me. I've heard that it works like a varitone in low impedence mode only. Mine doesn't seem to do anything.

This guitar is about a 72-73 based on the serial number. Havent checked the pots codes. It was sold as a 1972 form Guitar Broker in Ft. Lauderdale. It has 21 frets (but only on string 1-3, the other half of the fret is missing due to the angle of the neck pick up, which actually angles into the finger board), sandwhich all mahogany body, rosewood fingerboard with smaller block inlay, and Les Paul custom solit diamond on black headstock. It has a one piece mahogany top, and all mahogany, neck, back and top are stained walnut.
Controls on this guitar are not the ususal LP. The pick up selector is located in the general area of the pots, on a large black plactic plate. This plate has the following slide switches hi/lo impedence, in-out phase. It has four pots, as follows, volume, decade, treble, bass. It has a three position selector (like a strat pick up selector) marked "tone", cord jack is on the black face plate and not on the bout edge as is standard( and on second version-which has 2 inputs jacks hi and low impedence). This guitar has two low impedence pick ups by Dirty Works, black plastic covers with Gibson embossed, pick ups set at angle to strings (like bridge pick up on strat). Neck is three piece mahogany, but seems are almost invisible, has very slight volute. FInsh is Nitrocellulose. Body , while a Les Paul shape is about 1/2 inch larger in raduis than a standrard LP. Surprisingly, this guitar is lighter than some of my other LPs. Binding is five ply b-w-b-w-b. Neck, headstock and top are bound, Back is not (second version back is bound). Also a feature I sought is the "rib" contour on the back, similar to a Fender. (Not on second Version). Bridge is a Gibson Nashville, a larger, flat chrome thing, which is essentially similar to a tuneamtiac with a wider metal border. Height is adjusted by turning screw slotted post, not a wheel. It is easier to adjust harmonic intonation with this bridge than a tuneamatic, in my opinon. It is a bit unusual in appearance. Tuners are stock Grovers, but these also came with standard Gibson keystone metal knobbed tuners. Frets are original. They area medium size, but flattened, sort of a cross between the thin fretless frets and the Standards frets.
ALthough I could have had the original Triumph Bass case, I opted for a Gibson Protec case (big molded plastic ala 80's, very strong and reliable but ugly and not well balanced- a notable squeeze too, not so much for the body, but the headstock just fits (due to the extra body size pushing the guitar upward). Scale length is identicl to all other LP's. This is an important point if you decide to buy this guitar- It does not fit into a standard case-especially the early seventies designed for a regular Les Paul.

This guitar is extraordinary. It should not, however, to be presumed to be a Les Paul soundwise, but it is in playing characteristics. I have found this guitar to be one of my favorite guitars. It is so clean and articulate. It reveals all the notes in chords, is well balanced in the response from each string in open positions or up the neck. It has more sounds than I can describe. The guitar can be played in and out of phase. This gives a country slide steel or Tele sound. It can be made very bright, very middy, very bassy and all sorts of combinations. I play lots of finger style country blues, as well as jazz, blues, Jimi. I play through a Fender 2-12 DeVille. This guitar, unlike any other electric I have ever played sounds like an accoustic, or an arch top, if you choose. It drives effects fairly well, but the pick ups even in high impedence mode, are relatively low output. They are quiet. I love the sound of this guitar, adn have gotten strat tones, telel tones, piezo tones and all sorts of really great clean tones. Plugged in straight into the amp this guiatr is geat all by itself. It does not have the output to give the sustain that higher humbuckers allow-this is notable even with a processessor- but this not to say it has low sustain. The pick ups are very clear, and in distortion settings, the guitar is too clean to give the really smooth sing of a humbucker LP. One drag is that the tone pots are cuts (treble cuts bass and visa versa). If one tone is reduced youre ok, but if you use both, one cuts into the range of the other and reduces volume. If you like the sound of a guitar (accoustic) or if you like the Fender sound and the LP shape and scale length and want that in your playing this is for you. This is not a rock axe, but might be in the wings.

The guiatr is a well made Gibson. I found no flaws which I can attribute to the manufacturere. I bought this guitar usd, in very, very good condition. I polished the finish and metal work, and plastic, and there are no problems, no lemon peel. Frets are better filed and finished tha any other LP I have including a custom shop and my Page. Binding is well fitted and routed to an even depth. INlay is well above average, tight, few gaps. Pearl in fingerboard blocks is bright and irridescent. Binding around fingerboard is excellent, but has some air bubbles around 9-13 frets. I presume these are original, as I can think of no other explanation. Nut is a bit squeeky (tight), but evenly spaced. Controls are still very tight. This guitar reflects being a top end Gibson in finsh and woods. Mahognay is beautiful, deep in color (stain) and deep in grain. QUality of Mahogany is consistent in neck and body and top. Rosewood is dark in color, lots of black and dark red-brown, but probably not Brazillian. The most notable feature of this guitar, and several others I have played, is the consistency of the neck. It is my favorite neck, very simial to a Standard, not too beefy, wide, thin for my medium sized hands. I love the feel of the neck and the precision of frets on this guiatr, It is easy to play all over the neck, with light pressure and finger twisting chords.

This guitar is rock solid, typical LP. Only potential problem might tbe all the damn switchs. Jack on face plate is anchored only to plastic face pllate and might alos be subject to a problem , such as tearng, cracking the face plate if the cord were to be yanked really hard. This guitar is not one I would gig with. It is a bit too much control wise to deal with. It is new to me, however, and I may learn to simply use a few settings and do the rest via the amp.

Asked Gibson for info on schematics and how all the controls work, and after one e-mail theyre sending them to me-that responsiveness.

I have played 30 years. I own a LP Artist (active electronics), Spotlight Special(PAF reissues);Page (496-500), 74 Custom with rosewood top (490-498) strat elite(active (gold?) lace sensor) and strat pluse deluxe(red-silver -blue lace sensors). I have been learning that the right tool for the job applies to sounds too. This is a great guitar with specific sounds. I would replace it before I would replace my Page. I wish I had the instruction book for the controls, because my ears cannot tell me whats going on all the time. This is a sleeper folks. If you have the time try this guitar with time and conditions that allow you to hear and experiment with the guitar. It is extraordinary.

Clean, this guitar is much more versatile than my Humbucker equipted guitars. However, it's hard to get the "silky" overdrive you can get with humbucker equipted Les Pauls.

This is an correction to my earlier review. Someone pointed out that the top is probably Mahogany, not maple. On closer examination, I believe he is right! The guitar is a 2ply construction, a 1-piece mahogany top on a mahogany back. Others have mentioned that their Recording was not as heavy as some other Les Pauls. This could well be because mahogany density varies a great deal from sample to sample. Mine is about the same weight as my '82 Artisan. They are both HEAVY!

I bought it new in 1971. It's a heavy, Mahogany LP with 22 frets and angled low-impedance pickups. The neck is big and round with lot's of clearance under the strings for pinger-fickers. Tuners are Grovers. Tuning is extremely stable, unlike my SG Custom. I have the action higher than my SG which allows great playing dynamics. The electronics include impedance switch (Hi-Lo) and phasing for the pickups as well as a tone control and an adjustable hi-frequency cut-off control.

This guitar has never been popular with rockers because the output is clean clean clean!!! No hum or buzz, very wide frequency response with lots of bottom. However, the output is lower than humbuckers and won't drive some effects. My rating assumes you want a clean, full sound. I love the "out of phase" sound...

I really don'r remember, as I always set up my own guitars. It doesn't require much fussing, unlike my SG Custom which requires that I re-adjust the truss-rod if I change string guage! There was (and still is ) a little fret buzz around the 12-15th frets if the action is set too low. The finish on this guitar is quite plain. I believe it was designed for use in the studio.

This guitar is more than 25 years old and has held up extremely well. You can drop it (I have) and it doesn't even go out of tune.

Never needed them in 25+ years.

This may well be Gibson's most under-rated guitar! I chose it for the rich full sound and great playability. It sure is heavy though!