Guitar talk: acoustic, bass, classical, twelve string? You name it!

[Joe]

Not quite sure how the model designations work in truth - but this is the one I was thinking of:

https://gibson-guitar.eu/product/les-paul-standard-2019/

Some fresh colours in there too. I think they've got their act together with these

. One of them had what I'm sure was a 335 Gibson - with no less than three extra little toggle switches below the main controls. The more I see and read about coil-splits and phase wiring and the like, the less I understand why everybody doesn't do it..)

Only three switches?

.... yoU need one of these to really start bragging about switches . .....264269210788

 

[-alan-]

^ As they say round here..That's mad Ted

Yeah as Tony says - the downside of having more variables is that some of the sounds are indeed truly cr@p. The ability to coil-split hum buckers to get that clean single coil sound is invaluable though. I think I might have to go down that route with the Tokai LesPaul I have. It's sister - the doublecut - has it, and tends to get played a lot more as there are many nicer tones to be had.

 

[gavreid]

The ability to coil-split hum buckers to get that clean single coil sound is invaluable though. I think I might have to go down that route with the Tokai LesPaul I have. It's sister - the doublecut - has it, and tends to get played a lot more as there are many nicer tones to be had.

It can sound thin and also, of course, give a big volume drop when switched. I believe PRS has some trickery in their circuits to try to overcome these issues...

 

[gavreid]

Only three switches?

.... yoU need one of these to really start bragging about switches . .....264269210788

And there the Crimson Guitars Robert Fripp Signature - Fernadez Sustainer in the neck plus a Roland MIDI in front of the bridge - puts Ed O'Brien to shame.

https://crimsonguitars.com/store/robert-fripp-signature-guitar/

 

[Realist]

Ahem! Did someone mention switches? My avagitar is real, everything is wired up.
The reality is a total nightmare of course, me being a perpetual option paralysis enthusiast.
K.I.S.S. rules! (not the band!)

 

[claire.foxx]

Paul Simonon (of The Clash) went back to his precision bass every time: after he was given a Rickenbacker (by Patti Smith) and a Wal Pro (Give ‘em Enough Rope demos) — “too many knobs and switches.”

Paul Simonon Is smart
Be more like Paul Simonon
But if anyone gives you a bass like those take them!

 

[matthewr]

Why have a coil tap / split when you can just put down your Les Paul and pick up your Strat?

 

[cutting42]

Paul Simonon (of The Clash) went back to his precision bass every time: after he was given a Rickenbacker (by Patti Smith) and a Wal Pro (Give ‘em Enough Rope demos) — “too many knobs and switches.”

Paul Simonon Is smart
Be more like Paul Simonon
But if anyone gives you a bass like those take them!

For accuracy, Wal never gave basses to anyone, even Paul McCartney and Geddy Lee et al had to purchase theirs. No idea who bought Paul's Wal but it was not a sponsorship thing.

 

[claire.foxx]

He was given it by the producer to use. I imagine the rationale would be the tone of the thing cutting through the wall of sound the frontline were building with Sandy Pearlman on that album. History states he fell asleep and left it on a bus. I hope that is true.

Simonon’s Fender Precision (whom he did sponsor insofar as Fender sent him white Precisions every few years) on the final mix is a bit submerged but that’s no bad thing for what ended up a bit of a punk let down but I thought was a damn fine power-chord album. But nevertheless, far too many knobs on those early Wals and switches and later with all that pull push double stacking knob nonsense with no locking. I get Simonon’s rationale in that — all in all a big nope. Punk on a Wal, big nope. Post Punk on a Wal... Well, ok... why not?

You can hear the Wal Simonon was playing on the Demos on everybody’s favourite corporate-backed piracy website. I think it was a lined fretless.

Is it okay if I meander on this thread? That’s what I do... walk all over the melody...

 

[Enfield boy]

Why have a coil tap / split when you can just put down your Les Paul and pick up your Strat?

Or tele. Page used a tele on LZ 1.
It might be heresy here but the S1 switching on my Baja Tele is great, it gives the option for both pups series or parallel ( one sounds a bit humbuckerish) and in or out of phase for PG wish tones. It's an incredibly versatile guitar and sounds great too.

 

[-alan-]

Or tele. Page used a tele on LZ 1.
It might be heresy here but the S1 switching on my Baja Tele is great, it gives the option for both pups series or parallel ( one sounds a bit humbuckerish) and in or out of phase for PG wish tones. It's an incredibly versatile guitar and sounds great too.

(i). I dunno if it's true, but allegedly the iconic Stairway solo was also recorded on his old tele.

Why have a coil tap / split when you can just put down your Les Paul and pick up your Strat?

I guess (i) above and (ii) below - that's a question that could perhaps better be addressed to a certain Mr J Page, 28 Melbury Road, London

(ii). https://gunstreetwiringshop.com/theguitarblog/2015/9/1/the-jimmy-page-wiring-explained

 

[stephen bennett]

Only three switches?

.... yoU need one of these to really start bragging about switches . .....264269210788

Look at the switches on this. My 12 string Shergold has nearly as many. I had one of these (not a 'Rutherford' split as here) and it was hell to play.

Stephen

 

[-alan-]

Hokey Ginger Stephen

They must have spent a lot of time trying to get the contours at the rear of that thing and the hidden join between the two bodies just right..

 

[cutting42]

He was given it by the producer to use. I imagine the rationale would be the tone of the thing cutting through the wall of sound the frontline were building with Sandy Pearlman on that album. History states he fell asleep and left it on a bus. I hope that is true.

Simonon’s Fender Precision (whom he did sponsor insofar as Fender sent him white Precisions every few years) on the final mix is a bit submerged but that’s no bad thing for what ended up a bit of a punk let down but I thought was a damn fine power-chord album. But nevertheless, far too many knobs on those early Wals and switches and later with all that pull push double stacking knob nonsense with no locking. I get Simonon’s rationale in that — all in all a big nope. Punk on a Wal, big nope. Post Punk on a Wal... Well, ok... why not?

You can hear the Wal Simonon was playing on the Demos on everybody’s favourite corporate-backed piracy website. I think it was a lined fretless.

Is it okay if I meander on this thread? That’s what I do... walk all over the melody...

V Cool. Do you know who the producer was ? Mik Walker was a big Wal fan and tried to get everyone to use one at some point and they were the thing to have in the late 70's and 80's. I agree not very punk tho!

 

[Tony L]

They must have spent a lot of time trying to get the contours at the rear of that thing and the hidden join between the two bodies just right..

They actually did! The point of it was it could be reconfigured for different songs, even used as two conventional guitars with normal tops/bottoms bolted on. Radical in its prog-rock heyday!

 

[claire.foxx]

The sliders on that Shergold are absolutely hilarious. Like something out of Metropolis or Forbidden Planet.

V Cool. Do you know who the producer was ? Mik Walker was a big Wal fan and tried to get everyone to use one at some point and they were the thing to have in the late 70's and 80's. I agree not very punk tho!

Almost certain it belonged to either Phil Wainman who owned Utopia studios where the demos were stationed... or was a generic studio bass (remember back in the day Wals did not have the woo-woo cachet they had today, they were just really really good sounding basses that had a habit of cutting through a mix)... although I think Sandy Pearlman was flown in for the end of those sessions and being an American Rock Sound kinda producer could hear how punk’s muffled basses might be lost in a mix as dense as tracks like Drug Stabbing Time and Tommy Gun and suggested it. It’s a good question, I’d like to ask Paul at his next interview cycle but these days (aside from The Good the Bad and The Queen — he’s only really wanting to talk about his fine art paintings and that’s ok). Another possibility might be Mick Jones who was a real hard core heavyweight guitar slut — by the end of the eponymous first LP he had amassed about twenty guitars and several basses.

Some Clash history here.

 

[cutting42]

(remember back in the day Wals did not have the woo-woo cachet they had today, they were just really really good sounding basses that had a habit of cutting through a mix)...

I totally agree, they were designed as workman session guy basses by Ian Waller and Pete Stephens. The first was for John G Perry a renowned session player and player for Caravan and later Gordon Giltrap amongst others after which the first basses were named the JG series before the Pro and then Custom ranges. As other players and bands saw the work being done, the Wal name grew especially in the prog scene with Jethro Tull, Yes and then onto Brand X before becoming more popular in the 80's

My first was in 1985 after seeing a session player at a big band gig I was doing sound for playing one. I actually ended up buying his bass from an ad in the music press for £500. Seemed like all the money in the world back then. But despite that they were not in the same league as the very expensive american basses like Alembic and Fodera. They have got very expensive now and a part of me regrets that as I would love another Wal (4 string fretless) but it will have to wait a a while.

 

[claire.foxx]

Mick Karn always seemed to sound consistently good on them, and the Kramer metal necked bases. I have never been one to want to copy another player’s style down to the level of buying their equipment just to sound like them (Tool-fan bassists seem to flock to Wal for similar reasons and I just don’t get that mindset) but if I ever wanted to stray from my trifecta of Fender Bitsa/NS upright/G&L i’d probably just stump up the money for a used Wal fretless and be done with everything else. Or buy a luthier build — sort of what I do with my Fender bitsas. a Wal wouldn’t be an investment because I would use it to within an inch of its life.

 

[Yank]

The sliders on that Shergold are absolutely hilarious. Like something out of Metropolis or Forbidden Planet.

Aren't those just regular Strat/Tele switches? I think the only thing different about them is the bezels, which are a bit EMI REDD 51-ish...

 

[Tony L]

Aren't those just regular Strat/Tele switches? I think the only thing different about them is the bezels, which are a bit EMI REDD 51-ish...

No, they are certainly different to Tele switches, and the double-neck above isn’t quite ‘right’ (I think it is a modern replica as someone on the Shergold forum made one years back). The switch-tops and knobs are wrong, as are the bass pickups. Here’s my ‘78 Masquerader:

All original aside from the paint (I landed it cheap due to a truly horrible DIY refin that looked like it had been applied with a brush!) and cat. Note the square switch-tops. These switches and tops are very hard to find if you are restoring a Shergold, thankfully mine had them all plus the even rarer fragile perspex ‘ashtray’ (my basses have them too).

Top switch is a conventional pickup selector, the other two humbucker/single coil/phase.