Can Les Pauls be played clean?

[Brian]

I'm serious. I'm also a newbie who has only played Fenders all his life. However, I've got G.A.S. for a nice Paul I've been looking at. I'm a country player and I've never seen a Les Paul that wasn't played thru a myriad of effects pedals. Does anyone play theirs clean? Or play country with one?
Hope my question doesn't sound too dumb.
Brian

 

[Darrell]

Heck yeah man, alot of jazz players use Pauls. Check out the Opry on Saturday nights Pauls being played , hey Les Paul himself big clean sounds. Check out out Early Danny Gatton rockabilly. KING OF ROCKABILLY Carl Perkins used a Paul in his early days. ANYTYPE of music can be played on a "Paul". My favorite clean sound is a Paul through a twin. From Bach to Rock a Paul is the answer :dude

 

[lure555]

I love the sound of both pickup be on when playing clean. I think Lee Roy Parnell had said the same thing in a recent interview. That man has killer tone and chops! Don't know if he still conciders his music 'country' though.

 

[Ian Anderson]

Speaking as a Les Paul man (don't own any other guitars) I use my LP's for everything.

I reckon the P90-equiped 'Pauls would be nice as a 'clean only' axe with the P90s giving a bit more twang.

:tfiend

 

[Burstboy]

Heck yeah is right...especially a Custom. Think Larry Carlton and a TON of other jazz players. My Stnadard also sounds SUPER clean in the neck through a BF Fender Reverb....

 

[Dave Paetow]

A LP with good PAF style pickups has some real good clean sounds. Of course if you have high output pickups in it, it would be tough to get pristine clean sounds.

 

[Lily]

I play rhythm on my Les Paul, and I use clean tones all the time. I play barre chords mostly and the LP just sings! Although, I like to add a touch of dirt - just for good measure.

These guitars handle the distortion differently. I like to dial in a bit at times. It just fattens everything nicely and gives its a bit of growl - which is cool.

 

[60burst]

I use my les pauls clean, all the time. For Jazz, I prefer a 335 but a Les Paul will work doing anything. A wonderful guitar just like the Fenders are.....

 

[Ed Rafalko]

No, you can't use your Les Paul clean. It has to be EXTREMELY dirty- and you have to be dirty to. Get some Dselaware mud, like they put on baseballas before every major league game, and rub it all over the guitar and your body before you play. if you don't, the World Organization of the Defenders Of Les Pauls (WODOLP) will get you.

Yep. WODOLP will get you if you don't watch out.
Silly man. Of COURSE you can play it clean! You can play anything clean, and you can play anything dirty!

 

[KennyY]

I think Les Pauls have nice warm jazz clean sound with teh neck pickup on. However I do not like the sound of the clean bridge pickup. It depends on on the pickup though. The 57 Classics sound good clean. However those Gibson ceramics (sound great with distortion) sound like poop clean.

However if i want more high end sparkle with the clean sound, I'd grab a Fender. Single coils to my ears have better clean sounds. I'd prefer humbuckers for dirty sounds.

The ultimate jazz clean tones to my ears come from those big hollowbodies....L5s and Super 400's....too bad they cost a fortune though.

Ken

 

[nicholas]

You can also get a pickup wired for split like a Duncan 59 or Jazz and then coil tap it. My custom is set up this way and you get really clean signals.

 

[gregc]

Have you ever listened to Les Paul? The MAN? It doesn't get any cleaner than that.

 

[Ed Rafalko]

LowZ'll do that to you.

 

[XOSKELETAL]

My dad still calls distortion just "fuzz." Nothing else. He played only rythym, and just 50's honkey tonk. And he makes his 57 GT sound better then I can. It's awsome baby:dude

 

[DrewB]

I'm getting killer clean sounds from the Duncan '59 in the neck position of my Norlin Lester. I put a .001 uf cap on the volume controls, and the clean sounds with the volume rolled way back on the neck pickup are very much like a tough Tele sound. The bridge isn't as good clean, but the different positions on the volume pot are more usable. BTW, I use Marshalls set to stun with the pickup volumes maxed out.:dude

 

[roadrunner]

Clean tone

As someone mentioned above... Les Paul himself is the "King of Clean". They were designed to be played with a clear tone and sound wonderful doing it. The neck pickup and the middle position seem to lend themselves to clean sounds. The bridge sounds good if you roll the tone control off a little and add some slapback echo... great for Bill Doggett type stuff and rockabilly.

Mickey Baker ("Love Is Strange") used a 2 pickup mid '50's Custom on many recordings with a killer clean tone.

Use an amp with some headroom, like a twin to get a clean sound with some volume.

 

[shawn julie]

As a fanof les paul the guitarist and the guitar the best clean sounds out of a les paul is a les paul recording that is as clean as you could get on a les paul, just listen to les paul himself. I have played a few reissues that where twangy but they where light weight You can pull of county on a les paul recording no problem .

 

[toni]

I love the clean tone of my two Historics in a Fender Twin or in a JTM45.
I like the "bells and chimes" clean tone of a Les Paul with good PAF type pickups.
I always set the amp so i can have a clean tone when the volume pots are set to 5 on the guitar.
Then i just have to adjust the guitar's volume pots higher when i want a sweet but not oversaturated tone and thus preserve the tone signature of the guitar.:wail: