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  #1  
Old 12-25-2004, 11:06 PM
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Hondo Hondo is offline
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Default Les Paul - Round Top?

I know this is the Acoustic Guitar Forum....but -

I had a guy ask me a question about the Les Paul I'm trying to sell on ebay. His question was, "Does this have a round top? I can't tell from the pictures."

What in the world did he mean?
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Old 12-26-2004, 12:18 AM
jhm-614 jhm-614 is offline
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Hmm... maybe he's asking if it's a carved top or not :

some (most) new LPs have a carved top (maple?) : http://www.gibson.com/products/gibson/lespaul/lpsu.html

But some don't like (like the Jr's and certain specials) :

http://www.gibson.com/products/gibson/lespaul/lpsh.html

http://www.lespaul.com/lpjplus.html
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Old 12-26-2004, 03:28 AM
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Les Paul came in several trims.

Les Paul (custom, standard, studios... etc) all had a carved top, as in an arch on a jazz guitar or violin.
Les Paul Jrs. all had a flat top, as in like a steel string guitar's top.
Les Paul SG was essentially a different guitar, but for completeness it's a flat top.

There is no such thing as a round top, but he is probably asking if it's a carved top.
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Old 12-26-2004, 03:38 AM
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Makes sense to me, BTW, aren't Les Paul's known as the "standard" for semi-hollow body electrics? With hollow bodies, top shape would be an important parameter effecting tone, correct?
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Old 12-26-2004, 06:48 AM
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Les Pauls are solid. Oh these days they make some with hollowed-out chambers filled with "chromyte" (balsa wood) to cut down on the weight, but the traditional Les Paul is built up of a sold mahogany body to which a maple cap has been affixed. The solid maple cap is then routed down to the carved belly shape on the outside, with a pantograph router table and a form.


There have been several LPs which didn't feature the maple cap and carved top. Your buyer probably wants to know whether the one you are selling features the maple cap and carving.

Bob
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Old 12-26-2004, 07:18 AM
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Boy, did I have my facts wrong, thanks Bob!
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Old 12-26-2004, 07:39 AM
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Well, interestingly, there actually was a short-run slimeline, archtop, semi-hollow Les Paul called the "Signature". All of them were made with a gold top, and they made a short run in the mid-'70s. They featured low-impedance pickups and both low and high-impedance outputs, as well as the Gibson "decade" switch.



It was made in very small numbers, but the lead guitarist for the WallFlowers plays one. Pretty, huh?

Bob
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Old 12-27-2004, 03:03 AM
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Except for a very few exceptions, see Bob's posts, no Les Pauls were semi-hollow. The tops are carved out of a solid piece of wood.

A semi-hollow from Gibson would be the ES335 (es for electric spanish), In this case, it's essentially a plywood top that is pressed into an archtop shape and is made like a regular acoustic guitar other wise. The reason it's called a semi solid is because in order to reduce feedback, a solid block of wood is in the center of the guitar. Since except the solid wood block, the rest of the guitar was hollow, it's refered to as a semi-hollow, or semi-solid I suppose.
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Old 12-27-2004, 03:06 AM
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By the way, a semi-solid sounds rather different from a solid body guitar.

Semi solid more of a jazzy bluesy sound, very warm generally; and solid more for rock because of the grunt (as I call it) like sound it produces.
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Old 12-27-2004, 03:15 AM
SearedAhi SearedAhi is offline
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Not technically hollow (but chambered) has anyone seen these Cloud 9 LP's and here
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Old 12-27-2004, 06:40 AM
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Ok, THAT's what I was thinking about when I made my erroneous post before. I'd always thought the big difference between Strats and LPs (other than the PuPs) was the LPs having a chamber (which I mis-labled semi hollow and had as a separate category from the "hollow" arch-top jazz guitars, talk about nomenclature getting in the way!) and Strats being a solid piece of wood. Of course, I'm by no means learned or experienced in the history of electric guitars, so a lot of this is me making conclusions without enough factual data to make a solid observation.

Gee Whiz, now I sound like I'm in the Creative Design thread!
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Old 12-27-2004, 08:54 PM
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That's what questions are for, no prob.

Semi-hollows are not the same as chambered, you are right, chambered just means take chunks here and there out. Which semihollow are constructed like a hollow but filled in (generally one block in the center).

Strat and LP are more different than that. Both of which will have chambered model (or has had sometime during the models very long lives) as special models. But fundumentally, strats are constructed very light (and rather simpler construction characteristic which I will not get into) with light wood such as Ash. But Les Paul are generally mahogany (special editions will have similar woods such as Korina or other mahogany like hardwoods), they weigh a ton, and sound very different even if you used the same pickups on both of them.
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Old 12-28-2004, 09:52 AM
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Got it, thanks. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...sorry for the hi-jack!
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