NGD - P90 Fun!

[Gutch]

I've been hankering for a new electric git-fiddle lately. Had a few pieces of gear hanging around the house taking up space, and a well timed email from Guitar Center yesterday gave me the motivation to load them up in the car and make the drive into town.

I've had my eye on the Epiphone 56 Les Paul GoldTop with P90's for a while now. I prefer the shorter scale and feel of a Les Paul for lead work and I think humbuckers are best for jazz comping, but much prefer the sound of single coil pickups for both clean and gritty tones. P90's offer the best of both worlds -- They have a voice that's fatter than your typical Fender single coil models with plenty of chimey high end, but roll back the tone control and you have a sweet round and full voice for jazz work.

After a quick round of negotiations, I did a stratight up trade of my old Egnater amp and a Boss multi-effects pedal for the Epi GoldTop, a new hardcase, PLUS a new JamMan Express looper pedal. Fair deal for both sides, and I couldn't be happier!

Lately, I've been enamored by the build quality of Epiphone electrics. They are not the cheap Asian junk of years past. Frankly, I'm finding the construction to be of equal quality, and more consistent, than their US built Gibson cousins. They've gotten a handle on the finish thickness (much thinner now), and they are using better quality hardware (Grover tuners, etc.). Only difference I've found is the electronics in the American versions are better quality, but that's not a big deal. For a couple hundred bucks and an afternoon with a soldering iron, I can easily remedy that shortfall and end up with a great playing and sounding guitar at about 30% of the cost of the original.

The thing is, this guitar has it all going on! While waiting on the trade paperwork, I compared the Epi to a Gibson Les Paul Special Double Cutaway with P90s. The Gibson sounded really brash and cold, while the Epi gave me everything I was looking for tonewise. I also like the fatter neck of the Epi over the Gibson's thinner and wider neck. No regrets and no post purchase surgery required!!!

A big "Thumb's Up" to Epiphone! Now, off to work on my Carl Perkins riffs...

[Dru Edwards]

Gutch, Congrats on the new Epi! Those Epi Les Pauls have come a long way over the years (I have the Slash and Joe Bonamassa versions).

Enjoy those P-90s. They can be fun - it's what I've been playing the past week. They can handle gain and clean up well with the volume knob too.

[Bob Womack]

Enjoy the P-90 growl.

Bob

[Gutch]

Thanks, guys. The family is scattered to the four corners of the town this afternoon, so I had a chance to enjoy an extended "solo jam" with the amp turned up to a nice volume. Recorded a progression into the looper, then had fun swapping guitars and riffing over the loop. Lay down a new progression and repeat.

I love the way the different guitars/pickups respond so differently to gain changes, effects, playing dynamics, etc. I mis-spoke earlier when I said that humbuckers don't fit my ear as well as single coils. It has everything to do with the context of the music I'm playing/with. I have another Epi Les Paul that I picked up a couple years ago, this one with the classic pickup combination of a Duncan JB in the bridge and Jazz in the neck positions. I strapped that one on, kicked on the OCD pedal and dialed back the tone control. Creamy in the neck position and lots of classic rock bite in the bridge. Sounded great over the clean chords laid down with the P90 equipped LP.

After a while, I swapped out the LP for a Strat, snapped the pickup selector to the Bridge/mid combo and turned off the overdrive. That pristine clean tone of the Fender with a little delay played wonderfully over the chimey warmth of the P90 rhythm track. Then finished up with P90 equipped LP both clean and gritty to compare. Both were great in their own right!

Man, I love guitars!!!!

[Random1643]

Sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing. How bout some a few pics and sound files?

[Steve DeRosa]

I've got the Gibson version and I couldn't be happier - P-90's were the sound I had been hearing in my head, but couldn't quite get until 50 years and a whole lotta guitars later...