Gibson Les Paul Vintage Mahogany Review
Gibson USA Vintage Mahogany Les Paul
One of the guitars on my “to get” list is the Gibson USA Vintage Mahogany Les Paul (faded cherry). I've played several examples a great number of times over the past year or so… and although I could not purchase this one for myself (budget, budget, budget), I felt the need to express my view on this instrument. This instrument is a fundamental instrument that incorporates critical elements of a fabulous-sounding instrument. In its basic-ness, this particular Les Paul is all about sound delivery in a price-friendly Gibson package.
Tone folks will find the Les Paul Vintage Mahogany to be a monster… Folks whose budgets cannot achieve the heights of the Les Paul Standard, or even the Classic or Studio, will find this instrument to be a real bargain. Perhaps enough of a bargain to truly bring great Gibson-ness to many musicians’ sound libraries.
This is a fabulous instrument – stay tuned and I'll attempt to explain why it strikes me so well.
Quick Opinion: Grab one right now before they’re gone. Period. If I had the means, I would.
The wonderful Gibson Les Paul Vintage Mahogany is no longer in production :-(. But you can see more about the new Gibson LP Studios here at Guitarcenter.com Check out the new Raw Power LP and SG!
Playability: The Gibson Les Paul Vintage Mahogany is all Les Paul. It has the chunky 50's-style neck one expects from many Les Paul models. The neck is tapered in a subtle way, and the radius is extremely comfortable.
Another interesting aspect of the neck's playability is its consistency. It is even, smooth (if a little woody – like lots of natural-finish acoustic guitars, but not as wide), and very comfortable. As a person who truly likes the 60's neck profiles (and the slimmer Epiphone neck profiles), the Les Paul Vintage Mahogany was
different at first. However, after playing several examples over several months at my local, favorite Guitar Center, I adjusted to it. I am now more comfortable going between my Epi Les Paul and the Gibson.
The body’s weight seems to be really well-balanced. It doesn't feel as weighty on the shoulder as a traditional Les Paul – but it still retains that
singing, miles-of-sustain feel that makes Les Pauls so breathtakingly essential to many kinds of music. It plays like an old friend. It feels like an old friend, and is one of the most comfortable Gibson Les Pauls I’ve had the pleasure of playing.
Features: The features of the Gibson Les Paul Vintage Mahogany are varied and interesting. This particular Les Paul is a marriage of basic simplicity and killer electronics. The fretboard is very nice, the tuners are the (to me, essential) traditional green-tulip tuners. The body has no binding, and the top wood has the same feel and color of the back and neck.
This particular Les Paul may be a lower-priced Gibson, but it comes with a real, deluxe Gibson hardshell case. This is unusual, considering the fact that some of the other "worn-finished", less-expensive models only come with a gig bag (such as the Vee and the SG).
By far, one of the greatest values in the Vintage Les Paul Mahogany is its pickups. It comes with Burstbucker Pro humbucking pickups. I don't know how different the wiring is (as opposed to the Standard, Classic, or Studio), but the sound is absolutely awesome. The Burstbucker Pros, combined with the case, make this guitar feature rich – even though it isn’t a fancy Les Paul.
Sound: Sound, sound, sound, sound, and sound. WOW. Pick up an old or vintage Les Paul, close your eyes – pop it through some Marshalls or even a deluxe Twin Reverb, dial up the amp, and let loose. Now do the same with one of the Vintage Mahogany Les Pauls.
Listen... No matter if you can scream like Vai, cry and wail like Lang, or rip the souls of the audience into happy little pieces like Gilmour, or just play like a regular Jane or Joe, this instrument does not dissapoint. It takes that vintage-ness of the old PAFs, adds more output, and makes the dynamic range of the sound more (a good thing) complex and rich.
I’ve played several of these through a very wide variety of amplifiers, including nice Class-A Mesas, wide-rich VOXs, chunky Marshall stacks, cheap starter combos, Fenders, and some Kranks and Line 6s… this horse can not only trot, canter, or gallop – it is a true thoroughbred: it brings crunchy, singing, sustaining sound to any style, amp, pedal, or volume.
Sound, sound, sound, sound.
Value: Based on its sound, its case, its Burstbucker Pros, and its made-in-USA pedigree, this is absolutely worth much more than its street price. I’d put it at around $1k any day. The fact that you can buy it for much less makes it a 12-out-of-10 value any day of the week. If you've been thinking of going Gibson, or if you’re looking for that sweet, in-your-face rock. This guitar is a "jump on it now" opportunity. If you like warm, jazzy, neck-pickup sound that reminds you a little of B.B. King's ES-combined with some of that Jimmy Page roots-blues-rock, this is the one for you. You won’t be sorry for getting one of these. Go to your favorite get-in-trouble guitar store and play an example or two. If you don't have a git-box store nearby, check out your favorite online haunt and pick one up NOW.
Wishes: An optional 60's neck would be
fabulous (well, for me, anyway - sorry 50's fans).
Labels: electric guitar, gibson, gibson les paul, les paul, mahogany, usa, vintage
Parker P-36 Fly-cousin Electric Guitar Review
Parker P-36 Guitar Review
I play instruments each day – with joy, I might add. Part of the real pleasure of making my music is my enjoyment of interacting with
different instruments. One of the BIG things that is important to me in an instrument is flexibility of sound.
Some instruments are very well made and don’t have any flexibility beyond the musician’s ability to alter sound. These instruments are important, and are the basis of any “sound library.” A superb oboe, trombone, piano, or trumpet can be played in many different sound-wise ways. But, some instruments allow for added flexibility. Electric guitars, basses, and other electric instruments can have built-in sound-shaping capability.
I recently went looking for a very playable, but very flexible guitar to add to my sounds. I had read about Parker guitars for quite some time – but I brought focus to Parkers because of some truly interesting capabilities. This review unfolds a bit about my decision to go with a Parker P-36.
Quick Opinion: The Parker P-36 is a pleasure to play. Its sonic capabilities are very wide, and the relative price is a bargain. The Parker P-36 is sort of akin to the superb set-neck and fabulous USA-made Parker Southern Nite Fly. As is often said, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and the P-36 doesn’t disappoint.
The P-36 is feature-rich, flexible, playable, and fairly comfortable to play (comfortable even for playing long periods of time). The P-36 I picked had one nice little extra feature – the maple fretboard looks nicely flamed – a beautiful and nicely-done touch.
The P-36 appears to no longer in production, but you can see more information about Parkers and get Free Shipping on Parker guitars and basses at GuitarCenter.com
Playability: The P-36 has a comfortable radius on the fretboard, excellent fret height and width. The all-maple neck and fretboard is extremely accessible and feels "quick." For those of you who are big Fender fans, the P-36 neck is a comfortable marriage between the wider, more arced Strat neck and the narrower, quicker, flatter Tele neck. Overall, I’d give the neck a solid “A.” One distinct advantage of having this instrument is that switching among 6-string Fenders and the P-36 during a session is effortless and doesn’t cause the guitarist to have to re-think much of the scale reach in his/her head.
The interesting, trademark Parker Fly-shaped body of the P-36 allows for easy access to the whole fretboard - with middle-finger access to the upper 6 frets being fairly comfortable to those with longer fingers. After months of playing my P-36, I’ve found very few spots in the fretboard that require a funky hand shape to reach.
The body is nicely contoured. The overall thin-ness of the body, and the wonderful ribcage scoop behind the top horn make the guitar a favorite in our house. Just strap the P-36 on, and the guitar seems to fit against the body as if it was custom-made. Although the top lower-bout of the guitar body doesn’t taper for the pick-hand arm, the thinness and gentle shape of the top makes the lower bout fairly un-intrusive. To reiterate an important point, the guitar is well-balanced, and actually feels lighter than it actually is. The body’s Ash wood is a serious asset in this aspect of playability.
Features: The features of the P-36 is where it truly shines. The excellent marriage of magnetic standard-type coil pickups and piezo-bridge pickups give
huge combinations of sonic choices. Combined with the extra-flexible volume and tone control layout, a single P-36 can sound like many different guitars, each by just flipping the small piezo and/or magnetic pickup-select switch. Combined with the familiar neck-both-bridge magnetic selector switch, just a flip, dial, and click causes the P-36 to sound like a completely different instrument.
The P-35 has the fun and interesting headstock of the Fly clan, EXCELLENT genuine Grover 18:1 precise tuning machines, a lovely and comfortable maple fretboard, and an easily-accessible truss-rod adjustment wheel (you don’t have to remove the pickguard to adjust the rod – just use the notched wheel to loosen or tighten).
The tightly-glossed Ash body is done extremely well, and looks good to boot. I chose the blonde finish (what was it they said about blondes ;-)?). Overall, the P-36 is a very high-feature guitar for the money.
As an added bonus, the P-36 sells with a better-than average Parker Guitars gig bag.
Sound: Sound is a strong suit of the P-36. The two single coil pickups are very low-noise, but strong enough in output and aren’t gnarly. The sound from the magnetic pickups is on par or slightly better than comparable singles in guitars in the P-36’s price range. The Fishman piezo saddle pickups are crisp, even, and sound very good.
The piezo pickups add an almost acoustic quality to the sound of the P-36, when the pickup-type selector is set to piezo or piezo-and-magnetic. Although some amplifier types will cause the piezos to quack a bit under load, the piezos actually outperform almost all the bridge/saddle pickups I’ve tried.
The P-36’s sound has very good sustain for a bolt-on neck and moveable saddle guitar. The sound is very consistent throughout the life of the strings, and the tuning stability of the P-36 is well above average.
Value: I believe that the Parker P-36 is well-priced at its “street-price” level. It compares well with many instruments in the $600-$800 range – but with a boatload MORE features. Given a budget in this range, I feel as though I got a bargain – considering the sonic choices now in my sound palette. Since the P-36 is really in its own ballpark (more or less), it is difficult to compare it to the same price-range guitars from many excellent brands. That said, once you pick up a Parker P-36 and plug it in, you’ll be hard-pressed to walk out of the store without it.
Wishes: I have almost nothing to cite as concerns on the P-36. If I was designing the P-36, I think I would only ask for a little difference: a set neck. The bolt-on neck is fabulous, don’t get me wrong… I realize that one of the many feature upgrades going to a Southern Nite Fly is the Fly’s set neck. I also think that better availability of hard cases would also be nice.
Labels: electric guitar, fishman, guitar, p-36, p36, parker, piezo
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