My Les Paul Forums - View Single Post - The 1959 Les Paul Debate ...What made them So Great ?

treddingjr · 01-09-2008, 10:41 AM

Don't forget a couple of other things. Clapton's '60 burst was only five years old when he recorded with John Mayall. In the sixties, it was still relatively new wood. I still hear people say it takes five years before a guitar knows that it is a guitar. That burst was five years old when he recorded with it. That was true of my '01 R8. Something happened to it in '06 but it sounded better. Same guitar tech, same amp, same strings, but there was a 'wow' factor that hadn't been there. Wasn't me. (I still play the same way!)
Recording techniques and recording engineers were different. Stories abound about Hendrix and Clapton fighting engineers to play at the volume that gave them their tone.
Analog tape bleeds from one track to the next. The sound information was not recorded as data. It's not a precise recording medium. It wasn't on or off like the digital world,a one or a zero. Those guys used the room the same way Robert Johnson played into a corner to get the sound.
You used to be able to tell from a record, the black things with holes in the center, if it was a Les Paul or a Strat. I'm pretty sure that records, not CDs, are what the pickup guys model their pickups from, and if you've never listened to Wheels of Fire, or At Fillmore East, or any other great album on a turntable through real speakers with a Macintosh amplifier, you've never heard it.
I am pretty sure it was a magic era, and some things were more magical than others. Some Les Pauls were/are better than others. Whether it was hide glue or the wood or the craftsman no one will ever know. What are the chances that a reversed bobbin like in the Peter Green '58 could happen today?
I've watched the Gibson Historic video narrated by Duane Eddy several times. Those guys are craftsmen. For all the people who go on and on about the current Gibsons and all of the things that are 'wrong' with them, they're Historic Reissues, and a ton of RS or DMC parts can't change that. A Superformance Cobra is nice but a real one is better. Add all of the real cobra parts you want and it's still a Superformance MK III.
In that respect, there's only about 500 Shelby Cobras and only about a hundred of them have the 427 Side Oiler. Sort of like there's only 500 '59 Sunbursts.
I hope I live long enough to see the day when my R8 is worth a bundle. It will be but probably only because of deforestation and the disappearance of tone woods.
I rambled but . . .

01-09-2008, 10:41 AM	#50 (permalink)
treddingjr V.I.P. Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: NE Ohio USA Posts: 287 Thanks: 0 Thanked 10 Times in 2 Posts	Re: The 1959 Les Paul Debate ...What made them So Great ? Don't forget a couple of other things. Clapton's '60 burst was only five years old when he recorded with John Mayall. In the sixties, it was still relatively new wood. I still hear people say it takes five years before a guitar knows that it is a guitar. That burst was five years old when he recorded with it. That was true of my '01 R8. Something happened to it in '06 but it sounded better. Same guitar tech, same amp, same strings, but there was a 'wow' factor that hadn't been there. Wasn't me. (I still play the same way!) Recording techniques and recording engineers were different. Stories abound about Hendrix and Clapton fighting engineers to play at the volume that gave them their tone. Analog tape bleeds from one track to the next. The sound information was not recorded as data. It's not a precise recording medium. It wasn't on or off like the digital world,a one or a zero. Those guys used the room the same way Robert Johnson played into a corner to get the sound. You used to be able to tell from a record, the black things with holes in the center, if it was a Les Paul or a Strat. I'm pretty sure that records, not CDs, are what the pickup guys model their pickups from, and if you've never listened to Wheels of Fire, or At Fillmore East, or any other great album on a turntable through real speakers with a Macintosh amplifier, you've never heard it. I am pretty sure it was a magic era, and some things were more magical than others. Some Les Pauls were/are better than others. Whether it was hide glue or the wood or the craftsman no one will ever know. What are the chances that a reversed bobbin like in the Peter Green '58 could happen today? I've watched the Gibson Historic video narrated by Duane Eddy several times. Those guys are craftsmen. For all the people who go on and on about the current Gibsons and all of the things that are 'wrong' with them, they're Historic Reissues, and a ton of RS or DMC parts can't change that. A Superformance Cobra is nice but a real one is better. Add all of the real cobra parts you want and it's still a Superformance MK III. In that respect, there's only about 500 Shelby Cobras and only about a hundred of them have the 427 Side Oiler. Sort of like there's only 500 '59 Sunbursts. I hope I live long enough to see the day when my R8 is worth a bundle. It will be but probably only because of deforestation and the disappearance of tone woods. I rambled but . . . __________________ Grab life by the handlebars.