Seeker of Rock
New member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2021
- Messages
- 16
A ‘98 Standard, an ‘86 Pre-historic, and an ‘85 Custom, all bought used at different times
The ‘98 was the first LP that I’ve owned, but I had a mid/late ‘70s Custom on a 3 month loan circa 1989 or so.
The ‘98 was selected out of a used Guitar Center collection they brought back from an Orlando guitar show just before they were official Gibson dealers, early 2000s. I forgot all of the gibsons they had but a ‘71 Custom, a Deluxe, an Explorer, and more LPs of different ‘70s/‘80s/‘90s vins. I found a Fender tube reissue (Twin or Deluxe Reverb can’t remember), pulled each LP up to the stool playing mostly clean so I could hear the honest guitar tones, and came up with a shortlist of 3. “Fly By Night” chords and walk down riff has long been a favorite for testing elec/acoustic guitars and amps in clean settings, Back In Black a goto for testing overdriven tones, at least to get a quick shortlist. The ‘98 Std, ‘71 Custom and (‘80?) Deluxe were the final 3 before the ‘98 walked out the door with me. When it’s down to a shortlist that’s where I deviate from the Fly By Night/Back In Black and explore more, trying to keep whatever I play on one consistent by playing on the others…riffs, noodling, chording. The 490/498 PUs were obviously a higher output but I didn’t even know what 490/498 pickups were when I was playing it, I was just using my ears (and eyes…looks obviously can’t be excluded from guitar choices). What I DO remember being unique was the “woody” sound of the ‘98…it just sounded like thick, beautiful, resonating wood.
The ‘85 LPC I bought blind off of Reverb circa early 2010’s from a Sam Ash in NJ. I was specifically looking for a black custom. Straight out of the shipping box this thing sounded and felt like a dream and still does.
The ‘86 pre-historic was bought on a whim while looking for a sunburst finish, no particular years or particular models (besides being an LP) I was looking for, just looking for a sunburst finish LP but specifically NOT looking for a new or recent one at the time. Why? Because I was really reeeeeeally turned off by the marketing shit being peddled like “the new 50’s feel Les Paul Standard light gloss finish but with 60s neck that’s kind of like a 70s feel between the 5th and 7th frets on the tone side of the neck, with frets plek’d by a new 8 trillion dollar autoplekker machine here at Gibson with software controlled by Son of Watson OS, fully appointed with two new ‘you will play and sound like Jimmy Page’ super conducting atomic pickups, in your choice of 2 new exciting finishes…‘Fruity Pebbles burst’ or ‘ripened babyshit confit yellow ’, auto tuning keys with mini robot arm extensions that smack your hands if you try to adjust or tune them manually, a 3D holograph embedded into the wood that logs you into all of your computer devices automatically when near and automatically fills your email inbox with the most current Gibson spam and hottest sale items each hour of the day, and featuring a painstakingly-accurate historic truss rod cover designed from 10 years of cumulative scientific studies on vintage 1950s truss rod covers, and two original vintage spec strap buttons designed from analysis of 50s LP Holy Grail strap buttons by the world’s top 2 metallurgists and only forged on days of the month when the moon is in a waxing crescent phase. Each guitar comes with 3 separate certificates of authenticity, a framed ‘outstanding buyer plaque’ to hang in your bedroom where you play, a commemorative official genuine Gibson 5’ guitar cord, and a pick embossed with the official Gibson logo. Cheap marketing techniques and I kinda haven’t followed anything new and Gibson since those carnivalistic ads of the 2000’s and 2010’s. Not that there aren’t fine offerings I’m sure, but that’s what novel overmarketing can do to a respected brand, and reversing that deep of a scourge can sometimes take years. So anyway, the seller of the prehistoric on Reveb was somewhat close so I drove to his work to pick it up, inspect, dry strum and noodle a little. It checked all of the boxes from the pics and description so she came home with me.
I love all 3 of my LPs, but the ‘85 is my fav. All of them are quality pieces but the ‘85 is like a refined, aged orchestral instrument. The pickups are Shaws and, like the prehistoric, measure around the mid 7’s on DC resistance (think I measured one of the LPC’s around 7.34 iirc, the other not far from that, and both prehistoric pups in the mid 7’s as well). The LPC can overdrive with clarity and purity in all 3 toggle positions, chimes and wails on blues leads with a lightly overdriven tube amp setting, and accurately doles out jazzy tones on any selector setting while playing with the knobs. It’s one of those blind purchases I got lucky on. ‘85 is my fav but all 3 are tone monsters, LPC just has a slight edge for my preferential tastes.
So there it is, my Tale Of Three Pauls
The ‘98 was the first LP that I’ve owned, but I had a mid/late ‘70s Custom on a 3 month loan circa 1989 or so.
The ‘98 was selected out of a used Guitar Center collection they brought back from an Orlando guitar show just before they were official Gibson dealers, early 2000s. I forgot all of the gibsons they had but a ‘71 Custom, a Deluxe, an Explorer, and more LPs of different ‘70s/‘80s/‘90s vins. I found a Fender tube reissue (Twin or Deluxe Reverb can’t remember), pulled each LP up to the stool playing mostly clean so I could hear the honest guitar tones, and came up with a shortlist of 3. “Fly By Night” chords and walk down riff has long been a favorite for testing elec/acoustic guitars and amps in clean settings, Back In Black a goto for testing overdriven tones, at least to get a quick shortlist. The ‘98 Std, ‘71 Custom and (‘80?) Deluxe were the final 3 before the ‘98 walked out the door with me. When it’s down to a shortlist that’s where I deviate from the Fly By Night/Back In Black and explore more, trying to keep whatever I play on one consistent by playing on the others…riffs, noodling, chording. The 490/498 PUs were obviously a higher output but I didn’t even know what 490/498 pickups were when I was playing it, I was just using my ears (and eyes…looks obviously can’t be excluded from guitar choices). What I DO remember being unique was the “woody” sound of the ‘98…it just sounded like thick, beautiful, resonating wood.
The ‘85 LPC I bought blind off of Reverb circa early 2010’s from a Sam Ash in NJ. I was specifically looking for a black custom. Straight out of the shipping box this thing sounded and felt like a dream and still does.
The ‘86 pre-historic was bought on a whim while looking for a sunburst finish, no particular years or particular models (besides being an LP) I was looking for, just looking for a sunburst finish LP but specifically NOT looking for a new or recent one at the time. Why? Because I was really reeeeeeally turned off by the marketing shit being peddled like “the new 50’s feel Les Paul Standard light gloss finish but with 60s neck that’s kind of like a 70s feel between the 5th and 7th frets on the tone side of the neck, with frets plek’d by a new 8 trillion dollar autoplekker machine here at Gibson with software controlled by Son of Watson OS, fully appointed with two new ‘you will play and sound like Jimmy Page’ super conducting atomic pickups, in your choice of 2 new exciting finishes…‘Fruity Pebbles burst’ or ‘ripened babyshit confit yellow ’, auto tuning keys with mini robot arm extensions that smack your hands if you try to adjust or tune them manually, a 3D holograph embedded into the wood that logs you into all of your computer devices automatically when near and automatically fills your email inbox with the most current Gibson spam and hottest sale items each hour of the day, and featuring a painstakingly-accurate historic truss rod cover designed from 10 years of cumulative scientific studies on vintage 1950s truss rod covers, and two original vintage spec strap buttons designed from analysis of 50s LP Holy Grail strap buttons by the world’s top 2 metallurgists and only forged on days of the month when the moon is in a waxing crescent phase. Each guitar comes with 3 separate certificates of authenticity, a framed ‘outstanding buyer plaque’ to hang in your bedroom where you play, a commemorative official genuine Gibson 5’ guitar cord, and a pick embossed with the official Gibson logo. Cheap marketing techniques and I kinda haven’t followed anything new and Gibson since those carnivalistic ads of the 2000’s and 2010’s. Not that there aren’t fine offerings I’m sure, but that’s what novel overmarketing can do to a respected brand, and reversing that deep of a scourge can sometimes take years. So anyway, the seller of the prehistoric on Reveb was somewhat close so I drove to his work to pick it up, inspect, dry strum and noodle a little. It checked all of the boxes from the pics and description so she came home with me.
I love all 3 of my LPs, but the ‘85 is my fav. All of them are quality pieces but the ‘85 is like a refined, aged orchestral instrument. The pickups are Shaws and, like the prehistoric, measure around the mid 7’s on DC resistance (think I measured one of the LPC’s around 7.34 iirc, the other not far from that, and both prehistoric pups in the mid 7’s as well). The LPC can overdrive with clarity and purity in all 3 toggle positions, chimes and wails on blues leads with a lightly overdriven tube amp setting, and accurately doles out jazzy tones on any selector setting while playing with the knobs. It’s one of those blind purchases I got lucky on. ‘85 is my fav but all 3 are tone monsters, LPC just has a slight edge for my preferential tastes.
So there it is, my Tale Of Three Pauls