The WORST thing you could do to a Les Paul?! | Friday Fretworks
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- Опубліковано 13 тра 2024
- Les Paul Conversions - awesome or abomination?
Tour Dates: www.thecardinalblack.com/tour...
My Line 6 Helix Preset: www.chrisbuckguitar.co.uk/hel...
Tabs & Backing Tracks: www.chrisbuckguitar.co.uk/tabl...
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Key points:
0:00 Intro
0:06 JAM! (56/59 Les Paul)
1:51 Les Paul Conversion?
2:21 What is it?
3:31 Why did people do it?
4:59 Today's guitar
6:46 JAM! (56/59 Les Paul)
9:31 Economically-driven
10:12 Is it right?
10:48 What's the consensus?
12:00 JAM! ('55 Goldtop)
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Thank you for all the comments and views on this episode so far! I forgot to mention that myself and the band are on tour around the U.S and U.K later this year. Dates/tickets in the video description 🙂
Only 3 US dates? More please?
Was that just a backing track or??
Tickets already booked for Manchester U.K. 👍🏻😊
I wish you guy's would perform live here in Northern California.
@@user-iy7yb1sh8g Yeah I could find my way back to Chico for something like that.
Being 60 and starting guitar in the early seventies in the northeast of the United States, here is my two cents. Most of the stuff people today find valuable in guitars was less than worthless at one time. You could not give away a telecaster or p90 or offset in the early 80s. You just couldn't. Old Les Paul's were hanging from ceilings as decoration in music stores and nobody cared about restoring them. Also, few dreamed of re-fretting a guitar. Worn out meant collector's antique. Run what ya brung, as the race car guys used to say. Mod it or go without was a huge motivator. What the world lacked in wisdom about gear it more than made up for in the music it created. No matter how rich that generation guitarist born poor get, they are still the same poor kid inside. In 1970 my brother whined endlessly about the piece of S*** 57 les Paul he inherited!
Yeah, I had a friend with a 58 and 60 LP that his dad gave him. All he wanted was a BC rich warlock at the time. Go figure. He traded the gold top for a couple of pedals in the 80's . Not sure what happened to the 60.
when i first met my luthier in some bavarian shack in the forest, he dropped a lp he was playing in my lap, through his plexi. i was a beginner, ibanez…emgs…. wow. spanky, responsive like a strat. like a tele on steroids. big notes just jumped out and stood. remember that feeling. i played smells like teen spirit. killing in the name of. he smirked. „nice guitar, did you built it?“ nope. its a real 58 i got in for changing frets. noone in us wants to touch it. that was 1998.
Well said. I'm a little younger, so I speak for the late 70's. In NYC where I'm from, Les Pauls were everywhere. They were dirt cheap and you played them because there weren't a ton of options like now. You basically played Gibson or Fender or a knockoff. When other brands started popping up and getting popular, you had to practically give them away because nobody wanted them. IMO, they were, and still are junk, and unless you're an older player feeling nostalgic, the people paying big bucks for them now aren't real players, they're collectors who think because it's old, it's a good investment. Those who claim they're great are either lying to themselves or found the one in a hundred that were somewhat decent by 70's standards.
Your brother was obviously a whiner.
The world lacked nothing in wisdom about guitars. There is no wisdom to tell. All in your imagination.
Yes, sir. You’ve lived the experience and don’t need gear to live the moment 🙂
I've been playing guitar for over 40 years. Rarely solos gives me goose bumps, but man, I had goose bumps on both arms listening to your intro solo. It hit my soul's solar plexus 🙏
@@fritz596....Listen to this man. He speaks wise words! 👌🏻
@@ChrisBuckGuitaryou’re too humble. You laid down a good one. Thanks for the feels.
@@thomaskafafian2871 Haha. Don’t worry, I was joking. A delay pedal will make bad playing sound worse. Repeatedly 😆
@@fritz596....make a vid
@@fritz596.... ‘cause i’d like to hear it
Holly hell! that intro jam was some of the tastiest guitar I've ever heard... Bravo
Right up there with his jams on his Fender no caster video.
too bad he's just sitting there alone...the arrangement is clearly meant to be played in ensemble
Loved it
anyone noticed how good Chris is as a guitar player??
Freakin' awesome.!
That's why we all meet here at the same time, every week!
Just most of the internet guitar world.
Yep, another fretboard assassination.
No!
One amazing thing about the amazing jams at the start of these FF episodes? Besides their already amazing amazingness? Chris's use of a single, up close camera ... there is simply no way his amazing solo is result of editing trickery instead of played straight through, the real deal, a single take. Maybe not the only take, but ultimately a *single* take. Amazingly amazing.
creepy as fk
"omg he's not trying to fool us"...mmm-kaaaay
As soon as I heard the guitar I turned it up so that I could listen to it with the neighbors. 👍
Fucking hell man, that intro solo was an absolute belter. The best one I've heard from you.
That opening jam was epic
I know you played down being on that top guitar players list, but my god you deserve your place on that listing man. You are one of a select few players that have your own unique style of playing. You obviously have your influences, but have used them as a way to create your own style and feel. It's a difficult thing to do.
He’s at the elite level where the virtuosic technical skill almost disappears and instead it’s replaced with just moving emotional expression.
@G5Hohn that's a great way to put it, and 100% true!
100% agree. I love Chris' openings but this was truly epic. Rehearsed or completely improv, I do not know but allowed myself to enjoy. I think we all have our own style but Chris's mastery of meeting melody to technique to feeling is just completely "next level". It inspires me for my next level but am completely comfortable in realizing Chris' Imagination and mastery really is at a level I will reach for but never touch.
@@2010njdevilI’ve definitely heard that piece before on another video.
Agreed! Beautiful work.... very inspiring.
you have some of the most emotianal and expressive playing ive ever seen dude. actually unreal. the guitar is cool as well i guess haha
It’s V here, Chris - Utterly speechless as I learn more about you and your phenomenal talent and knowledge. Honored that Jeff and I are bringing Cardinal Black to headline Playing with Fire in Omaha, NE. My dreams are for your America fans to show up and experience your amazing talent and you gain massive more many followers. ❤
Good lord that Les Paul sounds freakin' amazing.
Don´t be fooled.....guitar doesn´t sound if it´s on the wall. Who makes it sound this way it´s Mr. Buck. 😅
And so does the playing
It's what he's doing with it.
That dirt is doing most of the tone your hearing. Chris is a pure savage but he’s got fancy pedals and amps making most of the sound your hearing.
It’s so subjective the sound of wood transmitted through pickups that we give these guitars more credit than they deserve. Especially now a days. I own several Gibsons and a Squier affinity with $150 pickups sounds just as good or if not better than my ‘09 LP with Burstbuckers.
I have a 52/59 Conversion, with the only non-period correct part being the M69 rings. I did not commission the conversion work. It is an original centre seam top (rare for a 52), and is visually and sonically indistinguishable from a real burst (but for 1/10th the price). One thing you have to consider (not discussed in the video): you would NEVER mess with the PAF pickups or other electronics on a real Burst. For my conversion, I auditioned 3 different sets of PAFs before settling on a set that achieved my holy grail PAF tone. Same for my 50s pots. One had a crackling/dead spot, so I swapped it out for another 50s pot, something you just couldn't easily do to a real burst. I also had it refretted with my favourite fret wire. Think about it. Even if you had millions to spend on buying and selling bursts until you finally found "the one" for you (remember, not all of them were great players), why not just grab a conversion with a suitable neck profile and just swap out PAFs until it is exactly how you want it? For players (not collectors), it makes all the sense in the world. Even if I could afford a burst, as a player, I would have no need for it - the chances of it edging out my perfectly customized (with all vintage correct parts) 52/59 Conversion would be pretty slim. Just my $0.02.
Great video man, stunning playing as always.
Well done! This is one of my favorite pieces you've put together. Thanks for all the hard work on this!
That's solo at the beginning and the end perfection
Neil Young's 'Blackie' Les Paul. A P90 at the neck and a Firebird pup at the bridge - and Bigsby to top it all off. But what a sound!
“Blackie”? I think you mean “Old Black”, but I could have that wrong.
Old Black! The ultimate Gibson "partscaster". It has a replacement neck with an SG/ES 335 headstock. The original 1953 neck was replaced at the Gibson factory before Neil ever got the guitar, at a time when Gibson didn't build Les Pauls (after 1960, but before mid-1968). Hence the SG/ES crown (or "wheat stack") graphic and no "Les Paul model" logo. The original bridge P-90 was long gone and had been replaced with a DeArmond single coil that hummed like crazy. Neil brought the pickup to a music shop in Los Angeles to get it repaired. When he returned the next week to pick up the pickup (hurr-hurr...), the shop was gone. According to some versions of the story, along with the entire building it was in - now just a vacant lot with nothing but a hole in the ground. That part of the story might not be true. Or maybe it is...
He first replaced the missing bridge PU with a Gretsch FilterTron for a while, then replaced that one with the Firebird humbucker that's been in there ever since 1972. Nothing on that guitar is an original factory part from 1953, except for the body (refinished in black) and the neck pickup (but not the chrome cover on it). It even has/had extra bindings (headstock) and stripe inlays (back of the body and neck) that a previous owner put on it - some of which fell off at some point and never got replaced. You can clearly see in close-up pictures, that the front of the headstock used to have bindings that are completely gone - only the empty slots remain. None of the hardware or chrome covers on it are orginal.
Old Black is a totally unique and very weird instrument. The more you learn about it, the stranger it gets. For example, one of the coils in the Firebird humbucker doesn't work properly and it has a lower output than regular pickups of that type. It has a mini toggle switch between the volume and tone knobs to bypass the controls. Even Neil himself has said that he doesn't know everything about his favourite electric guitar, especially what exactly happened to it before he got it in a trade from Jim Messina. Jim got Neil's 1958 Gretsch 6120 for the Les Paul. Apparently, one of the first things Neil did with it, was to to convert it from the stop tailpiece/shaved-down tune-o-matic that was on it instead of the orginal stopbar bridge, to a Bigsby B3/shaved-down tune-o-matic combo. He was used to playing his Gretsch with a Bigsby and wanted the same vibrato system on his Les Paul. He later replaced the B3 with a B7 with a tension bar, because the B3 didn't put enough string pressure on the bridge, due to the flatter neck angle that the early trapeze bridge or stopbar-equipped Les Pauls had, compared to the later stop tailpiece/tune-o-matic versions. That's the reason why the tune-o-matic on it is shaved-down (reduced in height), a regular unmodified one can't be lowered enough to get a playable action.
When Neil had worn down the frets so much, they were almost level with the fretboard wood in some spots, almost down to the tangs, his guitar tech Larry Cragg replaced them... and promptly got yelled at in a fit of rage because he "ruined" the guitar. Neil hated how Old Black felt and played now and refused to touch it again. Finally he ordered Larry to "put the old frets back in" to attempt to restore the "old feeling". Which was impossible because they had broken and crumbled into pieces during the removal. Larry then carefully filed the brandnew frets down until they were almost as low as the old ones and had a similar wear pattern - and peace and love were restored.
Neil almost never uses the the neck pickup. His classic sound is all bridge pickup, all the time, with all controls on the guitar on "ten" - or even entirely bypassed with the mini toggle. The different gain levels are achieved with the "Whizzer" device on top of his tweed Deluxe, that mechanically/physically changes the settings of the controls on the amp to four preprogrammed positions. But when he recorded his "Greendale" album, he _only_ played on the neck pickup, never on the bridge PU. Because he had decided that it was going to be "the neck pickup album". Inspiration comes in many forms.
Larry Cragg is quite the character, too. Like Neil, he's a firm believer in the philosophy that passive control potentiometers on electric guitars all suck - especially, but not limited to, while playing with overdriven tube amplifiers - and should always be fully open or bypassed. Larry even tried to convince Carlos Santana once or twice to not use the volume controls and tone controls on his guitars for his different gain levels and sounds anymore, when he worked on his instruments. I'm sure that went over REALLY well with Carlos... It's only an essential part of his playing style...
Larry is also a committed proponent of the theory that guitar necks should be "dead flat", completely straight with no relief whatsoever. He claims that it makes the neck "more rigid" and sounds better. Physically, it obviously makes no sense, because you pay for that increase in "rigidity" with a worse string action on the upper frets, to avoid rattling noises in the lower positions. Every luthier or guitar tech who isn't a follower of the "Cragg philosophy" will tell you that _some_ neck relief is absolutely necessary if you want the best possible setup across and along the entire neck of your guitar. The amplitude of the vibrating string needs a little room - you simply can't beat the laws of physics.
I DARE anyone to tell me they can _hear_ a difference between a completely straight neck with a slightly higher action on the upper frets - and the same neck on the same guitar with the correct slight relief, with a better overall string action everywhere on the neck (pickups adjusted to the same distance to the open strings, of course). I'm not talking about liking the haptic "feel" of one over the other in the higher register, that's a personal subjective preference. I'm talking about the SOUND. I dare you to tell me there's a difference!
I got sidetracked somewhere... What was I talking about? Oh yes, Old Black is a fascinating musical instrument with almost as many legends, lore, history, mystery, and fun facts attached to it as its owner! I barely scratched the surface. It's completely different from any other Les Paul on the planet, even from the other modified 1953 gold tops Neil Young uses as spares or occasional alternatives. One of a kind.
And to sum it up - Old Black is my favorite guitar of any-especially when in the hands of it’s master-Neil Young.
@@henrygvidonas9573interesting stuff. Thanks for the info.
@@alexo5861No, you are not wrong. It is indeed Old Black.
A torchy, spectacular feel Chris has.🎸👍
My goodness… that playing during the middle of the video was utterly beautiful.. You are truly a gifted and talented fella.. Please, keep it up. Thanks and cheers from snowy Calgary, Canada. Wow! Always enjoy your stuff.
Great playing . Can listen to you all day
Great videos and fantastic player. Just beautiful stuff Chris. Keep it up. Thank you very much.
I have a beat-to-shyt early 73 BB Fretless Wonder that looks like it was dragged by a car and buried in the dirt. It has embossed pups (yes, early 73's had embossed pups til Gibson ran out of gold covers). It has an old first class neck repair (splined and contoured over the volute). It of course has the pancake body and wafflebacks. I've played thousands of LPs over 47 years of owning my repair business, and when I tell you this guitar is amazing, I am not lying. After it warms up, if you can play, it gives back 110% of what you put into it. Truly astonishing.
Aaaah Chris, that intro playing was sublime. What a pleasure to watch. 💯🤘🏻
I really hope that intro jam finds its way onto the new CB record 👌🏻
That opening jam was awesome...I put my guitar down and stopped noodling when I saw this. I'll start practicing later but right now I'm going to watch that jam again. Excellent work love the channel!
That intro and outro lead work actually made me weep with musical joy. Original, expressive and masterful. Glad I stumbled across this page today. Subscribed.
Wow man, that intro solo was VERY enjoyable. I need that section out of this video and available for download! Really great tone and your playing is wonderful! I'll have another listen in a minute.
That intro tune! One of your best Chris!
Absolutely loved the intro 😊
Great video. Awesome playing. Well done
As always, incredible playing and bang on unbiased videos that are truly informative.
that little choppy sequence of volume swells on the bridge that Chris accentuated his notes with (0:41 seconds into the video) while playing a loosely repeated set of lead of phrases - that start about 0:32 into the video and runs through 0:56 seconds - gave me some goose bumps when it played through the first time I was watching this video, and I just had to re-listen to that whole section a dozen times in a row to even want to move forward watching the video.
Another amazing performance, Chris.
Love the sustain you get when you hang those notes! ❤
Jeeezus, Chris. I haven't caught Friday fretworks for a while. That intro solo was the bomb!!! Love ya!! ✌🙏☯🎸♾
Love Chris's playing 😊
Brother, that intro solo... absolutely exquisite!!
Beautiful playing!
Chris: you are an amazing player. So lyrical, subtle and tasteful. No unnecessary shredding. Just awesome phrasing and touch. I could listen to you all day … it is a joy to watch and hear such talent and devotion to the craft. Along with Matteo Mancuso, you are proof that there is hope for a new generation of guitar masters … rock on, my friend …
I really liked your opening solo. Very inspiring.
Just keep practicing, playing and taking us on this journey Chris. See you in Chester
Came for the review. Stayed and re-watched for the solos. Velvety, crisp & raspy. _Super_ cool Chris!!
Great playing, Chris!
Wow ! Great playing and tone in that opening music.
that jam in the begginig was so goooood, i love the use of all of ur techniques
Great video. I love the ‘55 gold top with P90s. Tasty playing as always.
Absolutely lovely opening jam! Really tasteful
Your playing is so awesome !!! Love it !!! Thank you !
Interesting. Great playing as always
Brilliant playing of course and two fabulous sounding guitars
Love the way you play brother!!
Great episode !!!!
You always come up with the most creative phrases Chris. Thanks for your hard work. Really enjoy it.
Stellar playing Chris ... hats off on the righteous tones & licks, esp. in the middle of the vid! Yes the guitar's are great. But your talent is undeniable. Cheers!
I haven't watched anything on You Tube that has made me smile the Way you just played that Opening! Bravo!!
I gotta say, it is some mighty tasty licks. Mighty tasty.
Just listening to you noodling on a guitar is pure joy to my ears.
Brilliant vid. Again! And it’s fun watching the live View and Like buttons ticking over. Must have been one or two hundred more views in the time I was watching!
Best solo I`ve heard so far this year. Wow. Loved this: the melodic themes, the energy, the rytmic play.
Always a pleasure Chris. Thank you
Wow, love that opening jam! Going to try to cop this!
Great soulful playing. Thoroughly enjoyed your vibe, your subtle finger style and unsaturated sound. Such a relief to hear that tone from fingers and good rig.
Loved the jams. Thanks man
Dude you have a silky smooth, subtle, colorful fiery and dynamic touch!🤘🏻🤘🏿🤘🏽🎸
Always steller playing! ❤
Love to watch Chris play.....pure awesomeness...👍
You’re my favorite guitarist of your generation. My own playing uses some similar ideas (if way less skillfully done). Love this and all your vids. Thank you.
Love Chris’ playing and this thing sounds great.
I dig your touch and tone dude, nice and choppy and off the cuff, well done
I love Chris's solo work, gimme an album with just that!
Subscribed because of this solo. Outstanding playing.
Great guitar, great player ... (Love your pick control)
Beautiful Tone my friend. I mean like, seriously. That was awesome.
Your tone and playing are just amazing here!!!
Damn Chris that's solo has so much feel so much amazing tone
Great video and KILLER INTRO! Thanks much….
That’s some sick playing, mid way through. Sounded like a 10 years gone jam. Nice work CB
Wow, wonderful intro. Great phrasing and sensitivity to a down dirty vibe. Cheers.
A coffee-spitting intro and outro. Holy lyrical playing Batman!
he's a soul man. riff cred helps sell his spiel ...
I thought I was on the right track.
This guy is truly inspirational with his playing.
After listening to each a few times, Wow!, I'm leaning towards the outtro with the P90s.
Wow that's some mind-blowing playing!
That intro is so bloody good
Real tasty intro solo. Good job!
Love the sustain you get when you hang those notes out there.
Killer playing, man!
Chris that opening riff beautiful!!!
Brother... you got some chops! Thank you for the informative video!
Chris, your methodical approach, pinpoint accuracy, effortless bends/slides on pitch each time make me appreciate guitar more. I've been playing for over 40 years. Thank you.
Wooooooowwwww! C’mon man…the tone, phrasing and emotion…truly amazing
God damn great playing in the beginning there wow!
You really are just insanely excellent on the guitar.
The opening guitar demo just blew me away... thanks! Really gorgeous right hand, finger and pick technique. Never quite heard a LP do that before. Super skill. Now I just got to the end and the Gold Top sounds even better! Holy Crap.... I would never mess with that :) Dont like the finish but the sound is epic.
I'd add Ace Frehley to the list of iconic Les Paul users who did mods.. not just his 3 pickup models or Deluxes with mini hums converted to humbuckers, but his biggest conversion - his do-it-yourself double cut Les Paul when he turned his famed '73? Tobacco Deluxe into a black double cut).
For me, true sacrilege is when Gibson themselves started offering a Les Paul with a Floyd Rose. Back in the 1980's a friend of mine asked Gibson if he could order one with a Floyd and they laughed at him. Oddly, the players known for having Les Paul's with Floyds today aren't hair-metal guys but older players (Alex Lifeson, Neal Schon, Dave Amato) who probably would have also laughed at the idea like Gibson did back in the 80's.
Fact is Gibson could not have sold them then. they didnt start being about the money last year. They have realized now that a few players like Like Lifeson, Amato, maybe schon, actually knew what to do with a vibrato on a LP. If they wanted to keep those players in their stall and sell their fans expensive guitars maybe they should add a floyd once in a while.
@@richardclark. Fact is the 80's were the height of Floyd Rose use and everyone started shifting from Gibson to super strats and other modern Floyd equipped guitars. And not only were hair metal shredders doing it, players like Gary Moore, Alan Holdsworth and Jeff Beck were playing Charvels and Jacksons in the 80's too. Gibson sales were hurting until the late 80's/early 90's when Slash and GnR became popular.
Chris, that last Jam.......Ive just listened to it about 6 times, been playing and listening to guitar for 40 years and that is up there with the best of them, emotive, beautifully crafted, touch, tone. Just thank you man, a real pleasure to listen to. Gonna have a few more listens
Damn Chris, I'm surprised no smoke was rolling out of that Les Paul. Great playing!
Had a friend who had a 67 gold top Deluxe which was wonderful sounding. In the band we were in together in '72-'74, I played Dave's LP for a tune and it was very easy for me as I was used to my '69 335. Thanks for the video, mate!
My uncle Paul had a wonderful, beautiful, gold top LP with the P90s that he bought for a few hundred dollars in the late 60s and kept it until he died about 15 years ago. At one point, he decided to strip all the finish off and refinish it, but it remained bare wood till the end. I remember playing that guitar as a kid. My dad had an ES 330 and my uncle had a LP. Life was good.
really sweet jam at the start of this.
respect on the jm basquiat shirt
P F's LP was a gift by a fan who had just had it completely refurbished/converged with the 3 p/ups!. PF shares about just not progressing as a guitarist UNTIL he was lent and then gifted this LP!
Not everything we revere now, was popular back in the day. My dad managed a small Canadian music store in the mid-60's. After splitting the store to make room for electric organs, wall space was at a premium. They'd had a pair of '59 gold tops hanging around for 6 years. The owner finally authorized him to sell them for $125 each. The second one still took a couple of months to move!
Incredible playing🎸👍👍
Once you buy something you can do whatever you want. People will judge, enjoy the moment.
100%
Sacrilege, heresy!
I’ve generally looked at guitars from the perspective that if you don’t personalize them, you probably don’t play it very much. The cool thing I ever saw was a kid with a PRS custom 24 he routed out the middle for a third humbucker at home by hand. I thought to myself that kid is a boss.
@@woofcity6307 yep
Back in the we “hotroded” everything, cars, motorcycles, guitars, amps, bigger better faster