Jump to content

Gibson brings back The Paul


gardo

Recommended Posts

  • Members

The L6s is one of the best things Gibson ever produced!

Designed by Bill Lawrence, with his special wiring, all maple, later all maple with an ebony board, and 24 frets before anyone knew what to do with them. Even during the Dark Ages, some things weren't bad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

In 1980 I bought a 1976 Fender Start from a local guy. He took the 315 bucks I gave him for the Strat and bought The Paul. I had it re-fretted a long time ago. I put the mom on his mom's kitchen table so he could count it.

 

So I remember the guys name ( Kevin) and found him on facebook, like 10 years ago. He lives in NH now and said he got rid of "The Paul" a long time ago, but owns a Strat.

 

In my will, the Fender Start can go back to him, if he's still alive. Free too. It's in really nice shape, some dents came with it.

 

What Gibson doesn't need is another Les Paul that was not great in the first place. Gibson has made some interesting Les Pauls over the years, but it wasn't "The Paul".

 

The Sonex was another short-lived Les Paul-like guitar from that era, with a coil tap pick up .

 

I have strats I like better than the 76.

 

Gibson should have hired me instead of Anderton. Not that I have any great knowledge of guitar manufacturing or business sense, but every time they got a hair brain idea to build a guitar like the Robot X or Les Paul Robot guitar I'd line the CEO and board of director up and give them a swift kick in the pants. I 'd send them all home with a 1/5 of Vodka and tell them not to come back up till they finished off the vodka and slept it off. Without pay too.

 

I figured I could have saved Gibson Millions and millions working a few hours a day here and there.

 

All in a days work.

 

What every Gibson guitar should come with a DVD or Blu Ray disk that not only gives you lessons, plus how to tune the guitar and change a string or two, but locks out the family Play Station and cell phone service except for 911 calls for a few months.

Yeah, The Paul is back.

 

In my plan, you get a free 10 dollar guitar tuner.

I wouldn't mind seeing a few amp reissues or them to get back into the dobro and banjo building business. It might be too late, but then again who knows.

 

 

 

 

[ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","title":"DCP_1112.JPG","data-attachmentid":32393024}[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","title":"DCP_1117.JPG","data-attachmentid":32393025}[/ATTACH][ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","title":"DCP_1118.JPG","data-attachmentid":32393026}[/ATTACH]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have owned a couple of those - both Firebrands. I purchased one new from a music store I worked at when I was a teenager - it was my very first Gibson guitar. The Firebrands were mahogany instead of walnut. The first one I purchased was natural. It came with (or maybe I paid extra for - I don't recall) a chainsaw case. I really liked both of those guitars... the second one I picked up used a few years later; it was painted a kind of burnt orange color.

 

If you haven't played one, don't underestimate them - they may be stripped back compared to a Standard, but they're very good guitars - at least the originals were. I'm going to see if they'll send me out one of the new ones to review, and see how they compare.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

They are just about the most comfortable electric you can put over your shoulder too (IMO). Maple isn't light, but they are about half as thick as a tele and have belly cuts. The one thing that I have grown to despise over the years though - thin and narrow neck. My fingers have not grown thinner nor narrower.......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I have always wanted a "the Paul" in walnut thank you very much. The couple I have played, weren't Pauls. They weren't meant to be IMHO. They were Paul shaped, with a Paul like neck, but the tone was different and the feel was different. Much like the "Studio" they created later.(Hated the Studio, still do.) Same with much hated Marauder and Sonex series. Paul like, but weren't Pauls.

Now, 1400 list? Or.... roughly 999-1100 street is kinda stupid for a "budget" guitar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

OK, I can guess. I looked at my wood database and the average dry weight of black walnut is 38 pounds/cu ft, Claro walnut is 40. The average dry weight of Honduras mahogany is 37 lb/ft3, African mahogany is 40. Therefore an all walnut guitar would weigh very close to the same amount as an all mahogany guitar.

 

My all mahogany Les Paul clone weighs 9 lb 3 oz (it has a maple top cap but that is about the same weight). The chambered mahogany LP style guitar that I built is 7 lb 10 oz. Therefore, if this guitar is a completely solid body its going to weigh right at 9 pounds, if it is "weight relieved" it will be pretty close to 8.

 

So it will be heavy , like a Les Paul, but no more than a mahogany one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd much rather have one of The Pauls over a Marauder or Sonex. I never cared for either of those models. I always thought the pickguards were a bit too much on those.

 

I understand what you're saying re: the price of the 40th anniversary The Paul reissues, and it would be nice if the price was less, but IIRC, the originals were something like $550 back in 1978 when they were new... and that was 40 years ago. According to this inflation calculator, $550 in 1978 is equivalent to $2,133 in today's dollars. It's actually pretty cool how much guitar we can get today vs. the prices things were going for back in the '70s and '80s. The prices for new USA-built instruments have generally stayed lower than the inflation rate....

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

i once saw someone play a gibson marauder playing in person, and thought damn this thing looks sexy as hell, had to ask him after gig about his guitar and what it is cause never have seen such thing before...

 

but hey i'm the guy with an all maple and maple fretboard '75 les paul custom :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators
It came out at the end of the Norlin era with other horrible guitars like the The 335 solidbody ' date=' Marauder, S1 L6s Ect. They were not worth looking at then or Now.[/quote']

 

Although I agree the Marauder, S1 and Sonex were not worthy of the Gibson logo [why didn't they just make them as Epis?], the L6S and the 335S were interesting...and the L6S actually is a very giggable guitar with very un-Gibson-y features. The ES335S weighed a freaking ton, but had resonant sustain for days...I remember being in a music store in Hollywood and the salesperson picked one up, strummed it, put in a stand and we came back several minutes later and the strings were still vibrating...:eek:

I was in a band for a while where the other guitarist had a 'The Paul', and he really liked it, but to my ear, it didn't really have the same sound as a Custom or a Standard, probably the p-ups...a few people I knew commented that my Melody Maker sounded better with the skinny single coils.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was in a band for a while where the other guitarist had a 'The Paul', and he really liked it, but to my ear, it didn't really have the same sound as a Custom or a Standard, probably the p-ups...

 

The originals came with T-top pickups. They are a bit hotter than PAFs, but nothing too outlandish. Not horrible sounding at all IMO. I never felt the need to swap mine out.

 

Walnut's a fairly dark sounding wood, and that plus the lack of a maple cap like you'll find on a Standard is what I think gives The Pauls a bit of a darker sound - the mahogany The Paul Firebrands had a sound that I always thought was somewhat closer to an SG - not quite as warm/dark sounding as the walnut The Pauls, but more mid-focused and with a bit less sparkle in the highs than a LP Standard.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

it might have been the wood, but that guitar just didn't 'sing'; and yeah, it was 'dark' even on the bridge with the tone maxed...the best sound was the 'tween'[out of phase] position, had an almost 12string kind of ring. Then again, it might have been his amp...an old Silvertone 1482 15w with half the knobs missing on the front.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...