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Making your Les Paul Play and Sound Better


mikesr1963

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So the take away is - flip one pickup over so it sounds like a stratocaster' date=' break the headstock off and soak it in water for 5 days[/quote']

 

Yeah, that was the gist of it - this is definitely not recommended - don't try this with your own Les Pauls at home folks! :eek2::D:wave:

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You realize this is advice coming from a actual guitar player who's involved in the making of guitar pedals right?

 

The thought occurred to me that it's quite possible they all have other motives here... after all, they apparently own guitars that suffered serious damage and were repaired - if they can get other guitarists to start thinking that a headstock break / repair (or a five day Nashville bath) actually improve the sound of a guitar, then maybe the value of all the guitars that have broken headstocks (and that took the five day Nashville bath) will go up - and they profit! :idea::D

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The thought occurred to me that it's quite possible they all have other motives here... after all, they apparently own guitars that suffered serious damage and were repaired - if they can get other guitarists to start thinking that a headstock break / repair (or a five day Nashville bath) actually improve the sound of a guitar, then maybe the value of all the guitars that have broken headstocks (and that took the five day Nashville bath) will go up - and they profit! :idea::D

 

Phil and Mike, I don't have a clue who those guys were - you know what a luddite I am when it comes to all things electric.

 

However I have fixed a lot of broken head stocks and believe me, it does not improve the sound of a guitar. And I remember the Nashville flood very well - there were many discussions on lutherie forums about the almost heroic effort to save some of the iconic instruments that were stored in the basement of the Oprey - but again, it didn't make any of them better. And lastly, if flipping a humbucker up side down to put it in phase or out of phase or whatever b.s. that guy was shoveling was the magic - then we would all be doing it.

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However I have fixed a lot of broken head stocks and believe me, it does not improve the sound of a guitar.

 

I've never repaired a broken headstock (although I have a Baby Taylor that is in need of such service... would you be interested in doing some work for me? :) ) but I have played plenty of guitars that have had repaired broken headstocks - including a few that I was able to play both before and after the break occurred - and my experiences mirror yours - it never helped or improved the sound of those guitars in any way whatsoever.

 

And I remember the Nashville flood very well - there were many discussions on lutherie forums about the almost heroic effort to save some of the iconic instruments that were stored in the basement of the Oprey - but again, it didn't make any of them better.

 

The number of instruments that were affected by that flood are shocking - and heartbreaking. It was a huge loss. I can't see any reason why any of those guitars would sound better after immersion, and many of them were destroyed completely.

 

And lastly, if flipping a humbucker up side down to put it in phase or out of phase or whatever b.s. that guy was shoveling was the magic - then we would all be doing it.

 

Yeah... I agree - but there's a bit more to the Peter Green Les Paul's "flipped neck pickup" than what he discussed in the video. It's not just installed "backward" (with the pole pieces towards the bridge instead of the neck) - the stock pickup magnets were reversed - they have different polarity. I'm pretty sure it came from the factory that way (with the north / south and south / north magnets) - all Peter Green did was to reinstall the pickup "backwards" - the magnets were just a fluke. But lots of people know the secret now, and you can order a pair of pickups from several companies now who will install reverse polarity magnets into one of them so you can get "that sound."

 

https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/deep-secret-behind-peter-greens-magic-1959-les-paul-tone

 

 

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There are many repair people who could fix your Baby, including me. Unfortunately that is probably my second most common repair (lifting bridges being first) and a Taylor should be easy. The one thing that is almost always a problem is matching the finish - Taylors poly is hard to work with. But structurally and tone wise, not a problem.

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The Peter Green reverse neck pickup is something I’ve heard about on that guitar a number of times by a number of different people. I can’t say what else if anything was done to the wiring. While Peter Green was great I really don’t know much about him or his blues music. His guitar wouldn’t be on my top 25 guitars I would want to play or own.

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I didn't know Kirk owned that guitar.

 

I knew about the reverse pick up thing.

 

Money problems forced Moore to sell the guitar in 2006 for somewhere between $750,000 and $1.2 million, according to various reports online. It was purchased by Phil Winfield at Maverick Music and, reportedly, later put up for sale on the company's website for $2 million. Since then it has been owned by one or more private collectors before Hammett purchased it in 2014 from Richard Henry Guitars

 

Green would probably sound like himself with a 59 RI from the Gibson True Historic Collection. Flip the neck pickup and he's probably good to go.

 

 

[video=youtube;UHOdXWLrxPk]

 

 

Would have been cool to get Peter on the latest Fleetwood Mac tour. They could have nailed some pretty cool songs from that area. Which I think they plan on doing anyway.

 

[video=youtube;hRu7Pt42x6Y]

[video=youtube;0yq-Fw7C26Y]

[video=youtube;rqxqyxnuaJg]

 

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