Growing up in PA Vic sold me all my guitars. He’s one of the kindest most knowledgeable guys you could ever meet. He saved a lot of young guys like me a lot of time by pointing us in the right direction. He’s a wicked player too.
For posterity's sake here I go responding to a 5 yr old comment. Vic DaPra (pronounced DaPray)is one of the best guitarists on God's green earth and anyone who's ever heard him play will tell you that. And, he's even a better person than a musician.
The Burst phenomenon has been unbelievable and that's an extreme understatement! I would agree that Jimmy Page has sold more Les Paul Standards than any guitar shop salesman or entire staff for that matter! Bursts are simply the deal for many guitarist!
Jeff Beck - I agree. Gary was one of the best players who really understood how to extract the most usable tones in the settings of his songs. Gary's go-to Standard, the Green LP, is typical for its finish but the pickup wiring makes it a standout. Gary's Montreux performance of "The Sky Is Crying" is one of the best example of knob twisting for tonal variations that I've ever heard. Take care!
I have been going to the Guitar Gallery for a few years now, and everyone there is super knowledgeable and friendly. I felt privileged to buy my PRS Custom 24 30th Anniversary Artist Package there. I will definitely be back for more gear any chance I get. Great interview!
I think it's a sad indictment when the media promotes collectors in the same way as luthiers and players. There's this ridiculous idea that a perfect guitar exists and people like Vic just serve to fuel that bubble. I own a 1959 Les Paul Junior... it's a bit battered but it's a lovely, historical instrument. I feel privileged to be able to play it and feel its history through my hands, and that's what this should be about... feeling a connection to a vintage instrument, loving it and sharing it... not lusting and bragging about the quality of the flame or 'burst', or how much it's worth. Yes, 1950's Gibsons are rare, and some of them play beautifully... but there are some equally lovely - and loved - instruments being created today that need a home.
Vic is a great person and musician and his love and passion is like anyone’s when they feel connected to something. It’s too bad people have to look at the negative. The reason so many people love these guitars from that era is they are special and created great music. I hope people can see that is the most important aspect of this. The collectors are just as important as the players because they feed each other’s passion. Not everyone can be Jimmy Page or Peter Green but you sure can dream of being... These guitars are part of what made them great.
I'm with you on that, sad to say. If you buy a vintage Les Paul, suddenly players think you are famous, the more you own the more famous you get. I'm a member of the FB LP groups that focus on vintage Les Pauls, but there's a point where the lust for "flame" and what YEAR they were made, has been so commercialized, I want to gag sometimes. I know an owner of a famous Burst who wanted me to make a duplicate PAF replica set, but I asked him to make a video so I could HEAR it. He would not do that unless he hired someone to play it on video, because he couldn't play, and so far its never been heard online. Most of the collectors aren't players worth listening to. Its a rich man's club. Its not why they were made. They were made for jazz players, who ultimately didn't want anything to do with them. No Vic is not one of those snobs and has been a gentlemen with me personally. My work was the 20+ years of reverse engineering the vintage PAF's, and there's really nothing I don't know about them now. Most who are reading my comment here never heard of me and I don't really care. A lot of my videos are myth busting documetaries on things nobody else did any real materials science on. And its why companies who make "vintage" parts, don't know what they are doing, and their products sound nothing like the real parts at all. I don't care about flamey old Les Pauls, some of them do seem to look like they were actually PLAYED at one time. Most of the famous ones have little flame at all, they were the poor man's working instruments they were meant to be. So guys rave about "flame," and what the back looks like, but almost none of these guys ask WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE? I read that the flame maple was real softer wood than grainy maple, and why the real famous Claptons and Pages etc. ended up with the plain tops because they just sound better. Theoretically. Now we got Gibson selling $75,000 "replicas" like the Peter Green guitar, but when you hear them being played in UA-cam videos, they don't sound anything like what they are supposed to copies of. They get so MUCH wrong. The aging is ridiculously fake looking. My four part series on why most Gibson Les Pauls AREN'T actually Les Pauls because of the low bidder contract hardware, electronics, and pickups, are nowhere close to the originals and don't sound anything like originals. You can spend $2500 on a Gibson LP abd they put cheap Nasheville bridges like you find on Chibsons :-) You have to spend thousands more just to get an actual ABR1 like the originals, and then theirs is one of the worst out there. The original Les Pauls were made when I was 8 years old, they are instruments of my youth. So, suddenly Bloomfield gets one and everyone wanted one but Gibson quit making them, so the rich rock star guys started buying them up, when they weren't even "old" guitars then. In '67 our local Tucson music store had one they kept in their attic space and were asking $500 for it. I'll tell you, every musician in town hated that store for doing that. You could buy a good used Chevy for that much money then. Its all so out of control now, they cost so much money now that counterfeits are out there because its BIG MONEY INTEREST now. At age 73 I've never seen one in person and probably never will, escuse me, I'm NOT rich and barely make a living what I'm doing. If you want a really great Les Paul, there are a handful of vintage LP lovers/experts who can MAKE you one that will put any Gibson product to shame. I own such a guitar, and among all the LP's I owned thru the years, none of them were worth keeping, but this one I will never sell. Don't get me wrong this is NOT a slam against Vic, its a sadness to what has happened to these guitars and many others, like vintage Stratocasters, Teles, etc. I owned a 50's Stratocaster in '68, $300, and honestly it was nothing special, now its worth tens of thousands of dollars. Most of these old guitars you will never see again, they are in bank vaults and the owners aren't players.....
Growing up in PA Vic sold me all my guitars. He’s one of the kindest most knowledgeable guys you could ever meet. He saved a lot of young guys like me a lot of time by pointing us in the right direction. He’s a wicked player too.
"BEAST" sighting @5:20! Marsden's 59 is easy for me to spot!😁
For posterity's sake here I go responding to a 5 yr old comment. Vic DaPra (pronounced DaPray)is one of the best guitarists on God's green earth and anyone who's ever heard him play will tell you that. And, he's even a better person than a musician.
The Burst phenomenon has been unbelievable and that's an extreme understatement! I would agree that Jimmy Page has sold more Les Paul Standards than any guitar shop salesman or entire staff for that matter! Bursts are simply the deal for many guitarist!
Exactly. Jimmy Page was also the guitar teacher of the world.
Gary Moore helped.
Jeff Beck - I agree. Gary was one of the best players who really understood how to extract the most usable tones in the settings of his songs. Gary's go-to Standard, the Green LP, is typical for its finish but the pickup wiring makes it a standout.
Gary's Montreux performance of "The Sky Is Crying" is one of the best example of knob twisting for tonal variations that I've ever heard. Take care!
I have been going to the Guitar Gallery for a few years now, and everyone there is super knowledgeable and friendly. I felt privileged to buy my PRS Custom 24 30th Anniversary Artist Package there. I will definitely be back for more gear any chance I get. Great interview!
Looks beautiful !!!!
I wish I could play one or even be in the same room
I think it's a sad indictment when the media promotes collectors in the same way as luthiers and players. There's this ridiculous idea that a perfect guitar exists and people like Vic just serve to fuel that bubble. I own a 1959 Les Paul Junior... it's a bit battered but it's a lovely, historical instrument. I feel privileged to be able to play it and feel its history through my hands, and that's what this should be about... feeling a connection to a vintage instrument, loving it and sharing it... not lusting and bragging about the quality of the flame or 'burst', or how much it's worth. Yes, 1950's Gibsons are rare, and some of them play beautifully... but there are some equally lovely - and loved - instruments being created today that need a home.
+Peter Marshall You clearly don't know and have never met Vic if you think that's what he's all about.
Vic is a great person and musician and his love and passion is like anyone’s when they feel connected to something. It’s too bad people have to look at the negative. The reason so many people love these guitars from that era is they are special and created great music. I hope people can see that is the most important aspect of this. The collectors are just as important as the players because they feed each other’s passion. Not everyone can be Jimmy Page or Peter Green but you sure can dream of being... These guitars are part of what made them great.
I'm with you on that, sad to say. If you buy a vintage Les Paul, suddenly players think you are famous, the more you own the more famous you get. I'm a member of the FB LP groups that focus on vintage Les Pauls, but there's a point where the lust for "flame" and what YEAR they were made, has been so commercialized, I want to gag sometimes. I know an owner of a famous Burst who wanted me to make a duplicate PAF replica set, but I asked him to make a video so I could HEAR it. He would not do that unless he hired someone to play it on video, because he couldn't play, and so far its never been heard online. Most of the collectors aren't players worth listening to. Its a rich man's club. Its not why they were made. They were made for jazz players, who ultimately didn't want anything to do with them. No Vic is not one of those snobs and has been a gentlemen with me personally. My work was the 20+ years of reverse engineering the vintage PAF's, and there's really nothing I don't know about them now. Most who are reading my comment here never heard of me and I don't really care. A lot of my videos are myth busting documetaries on things nobody else did any real materials science on. And its why companies who make "vintage" parts, don't know what they are doing, and their products sound nothing like the real parts at all. I don't care about flamey old Les Pauls, some of them do seem to look like they were actually PLAYED at one time. Most of the famous ones have little flame at all, they were the poor man's working instruments they were meant to be. So guys rave about "flame," and what the back looks like, but almost none of these guys ask WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE? I read that the flame maple was real softer wood than grainy maple, and why the real famous Claptons and Pages etc. ended up with the plain tops because they just sound better. Theoretically. Now we got Gibson selling $75,000 "replicas" like the Peter Green guitar, but when you hear them being played in UA-cam videos, they don't sound anything like what they are supposed to copies of. They get so MUCH wrong. The aging is ridiculously fake looking. My four part series on why most Gibson Les Pauls AREN'T actually Les Pauls because of the low bidder contract hardware, electronics, and pickups, are nowhere close to the originals and don't sound anything like originals. You can spend $2500 on a Gibson LP abd they put cheap Nasheville bridges like you find on Chibsons :-) You have to spend thousands more just to get an actual ABR1 like the originals, and then theirs is one of the worst out there. The original Les Pauls were made when I was 8 years old, they are instruments of my youth. So, suddenly Bloomfield gets one and everyone wanted one but Gibson quit making them, so the rich rock star guys started buying them up, when they weren't even "old" guitars then. In '67 our local Tucson music store had one they kept in their attic space and were asking $500 for it. I'll tell you, every musician in town hated that store for doing that. You could buy a good used Chevy for that much money then. Its all so out of control now, they cost so much money now that counterfeits are out there because its BIG MONEY INTEREST now. At age 73 I've never seen one in person and probably never will, escuse me, I'm NOT rich and barely make a living what I'm doing. If you want a really great Les Paul, there are a handful of vintage LP lovers/experts who can MAKE you one that will put any Gibson product to shame. I own such a guitar, and among all the LP's I owned thru the years, none of them were worth keeping, but this one I will never sell. Don't get me wrong this is NOT a slam against Vic, its a sadness to what has happened to these guitars and many others, like vintage Stratocasters, Teles, etc. I owned a 50's Stratocaster in '68, $300, and honestly it was nothing special, now its worth tens of thousands of dollars. Most of these old guitars you will never see again, they are in bank vaults and the owners aren't players.....
HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEW 2018 LES PAUL CUSTOM IN THE I'M ABOUT TA BURST FINISH ? IT HAS A MUCH FULLER SOUND TO IT.
my frst love-tudau-tumorow forewer
My like! ;-)
'58 through '60 is the time when the Les Paul achieved perfection in a guitar...
It IS all about the wood. This "expert" is not that knowledgeable.
How many '58, '59, and '60's burst do you own?