Who loves playing their Les Paul mellow and clean?

[lpfan1980]

Friend came by today. We butchered some jazz & blues.
Clean sounds. 2020: ‘54 Goldtop R4.
Yesterday I round robin-ed my two LP’s and a Tele through my Carr Rambler (a very Ampeg-like clean sound).
I love 490’s, P-90’s, even ‘57 Classics in the right guitar.
My R8 has the new whatevertheyare humbuckers. I like those too!

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LOVELY!

 

[sonar1]

That's how they were made to be played. I play mine clean like 90% of the time. They're amazing for jazz, funk, and r&b. Do most people here really play with distortion most of the time? I know they sound great with distortion, but after a while almost any guitar sounds the same with a bunch of distortion. Playing clean really brings out how these guitars actually sound.

Right on!
I almost never use distortion to make music: only for pissing contests!

 

[Demon Dave]

'57 tap coil, phase, on my 2019 Classic, offer you such rich range of tones, and with my Laney VC15 on clean sounds, are beautiful. This guitar becoming my no. 1

 

[Classicplayer]

I have two Les Pauls that I like to play from a cleaner setting on a Micro Cube “Fender“ Blackface model. One Les Paul has Burstbucker I and II and the other has Seth Lovers.

I enjoy hearing how my two guitars sound through a clean settings because I can tweak pickup heights for different sounds especially in the the middle position and find some interesting variations of tone there. I also like to adjust the tone for the neck pickups and play some Bop or chord melody Jazz and Popular music from previous eras such as the 40's and beyond. It's a pleasant and productive change from my Orange Terror amp and its higher gain Rock sounds.


Classsicplayer

 

[73171]

Sometimes I play clean jazz chords on my Les Paul without a pick. It's a great sound!

 

[LesPaul60sTribute]

I'm likely one of a very rare few. I have only played with a distorted/overdrive sound maybe twice in almost 30 years. The two times I did were brief too

 

[Midnight Blues]

I just like playin' mine, be it clean, or dirty.

 

[jc2000]

I also enjoy hearing the voice of the actual guitar without being all muddied .

 

[1all's Pub]

I’ll go ahead and say no. Ha! My LPs get played with varying degrees of dirt 99.979% of the time (unless I am A/Bing pickups of amps of something, then it‘s a useful comparison/evaluation tool).

Otherwise, on the rare occasion I do play clean, it’s only briefly and so I can appreciate the crunch even more once I click it on!

If I want clean I play an acoustic. Each to his own!

 

[dro]

Clean Les Paul's are like a clean woman. Can play with them for hours.

 

[AJK1]

That's how they were made to be played. I play mine clean like 90% of the time. They're amazing for jazz, funk, and r&b. Do most people here really play with distortion most of the time? I know they sound great with distortion, but after a while almost any guitar sounds the same with a bunch of distortion. Playing clean really brings out how these guitars actually sound.

Absolutely agree, I sold all my pedals except chorus, and am happily playing all my guitars through my AC 15 greenback clean with a little reverb and tremolo sometimes
I’m waiting to get a Plexi type pedal that I like as I’ve had many that have all fallen short, I had a Dirty Shirley pedal that was amazing but still had too much gain for what I play now
I’m curious now on getting a Marshall Guvnor but they are hard to find

 

[rswenson]

Love playing my 3 Les Paul Guitars and SG Custom clean through my Fender Custom Champ Amplifier on about 4, nice and simple. Guitars about 8, tone about 5. Clean and sweet sound. Mostly bedroom or living room player these days, but about an hour of playing clean releases lots of stress. Much calmer after playing. Les Paul Pickups most powerful I’ve played on.

 

[Herringbone777]

I just spent an hour having a blast playing my Gibson old school nice and clean and it sounded so good.Its by far my most powerful guitar with 490s in it-she can roar yet playing her Les Paul 50s style is just too much fun-makes me sound like I know what im doing anyone else?

Yes I like to play them clean as well. I often record them clean with just a bit of chorus. When I say clean I am referring to not using distortion on them. However sometimes I just play it straight into the amp with nothing else. That sounds really good if you have a decent nap yes I like to play them clean as well. I often record them clean with just a bit of chorus. When I say clean I am referring to not using distortion on them. However sometimes I just play it straight into the amp with nothing else. That sounds really good if you have a decent amp. I have a 1970 fender twin so I get some great sounds along with the reverb in that amp. Rock on my brother!

 

[dro]

Yes I like to play them clean as well. I often record them clean with just a bit of chorus. When I say clean I am referring to not using distortion on them. However sometimes I just play it straight into the amp with nothing else. That sounds really good if you have a decent nap yes I like to play them clean as well. I often record them clean with just a bit of chorus. When I say clean I am referring to not using distortion on them. However sometimes I just play it straight into the amp with nothing else. That sounds really good if you have a decent amp. I have a 1970 fender twin so I get some great sounds along with the reverb in that amp. Rock on my brother!

Got a bit of delay in there as well yes?

 

[ayakush]

That's how they were made to be played. I play mine clean like 90% of the time. They're amazing for jazz, funk, and r&b. Do most people here really play with distortion most of the time? I know they sound great with distortion, but after a while almost any guitar sounds the same with a bunch of distortion. Playing clean really brings out how these guitars actually sound.

Totally agree with you! I thought I was one of not so many who’s doesn’t use distortion with a guitar. I still think that guitar as a musical instrument was meant to be played clean in order to “breathe” otherwise for making crunchy sounds no use for playing guitar - it’s more handy to use any working tool

 

[captdan61]

Yep, clean Les Paul is always good!

Lester and tweed Fender Blues Junior with a dollop of reverb.

The Strymon Flint, especially its early ‘60s reverb and tremolo works a treat with clean Les Paul tones. I quite like a hint of analog echo too.

It’s not the true Les Paul Classic ‘57 humbucker tones of the Trad but the various pull-push options of the ‘14 Standard, with coil taps and out-of-phase settings, make for some very interesting clean tones and there are a lot of sounds to play with.

I have a tweed deluxe clone (5e3) and a les paul with custom wound P90s by Rick Norman. I love getting a T-bone walker kind of blues/Jazz tone with a bit of Verb. Or a danny kirwan Fleetwood mac tone. Or grab my Esquire or R9 wirh Rick Norman humbuckers volume at 7 tone at 4 an try to play Kenny Burrell chitlins con carne. Either of my Les Pauls will get a great jazz tone all.day long. And if you want slow blues...

You can never have too many P90s!

 

[captdan61]

Totally agree with you! I thought I was one of not so many who’s doesn’t use distortion with a guitar. I still think that guitar as a musical instrument was meant to be played clean in order to “breathe” otherwise for making crunchy sounds no use for playing guitar - it’s more handy to use any working tool

I personally think the magic happens when your amp is just beginning to break up if your guitars volume knob is all the way up. And you back it off until clean. Between adjusting your picking and the guitars volume knob I can get MOST of the guitar tones i like.

 

[Banastre]

I'm playing clean more and more. I really get a sense of the materials that make up the thing more, and get the natural tone out of it all, IMO. Spent a good 2 hours last Sunday early morning on the deck (before it got hotter than hell) and really liked the quiet clean. Such a lovely morning, and the sounds I was getting (using a pick, flatpicking and straight finger style)....it just makes me love that guitar.

 

[ManicPete]

This has been me this week. Due to AC needs, I've moved my set up into bedroom upstairs. The wife will only tolerate clean sounds so I've been playing around with my R8, my Vox AC10, and a Naga Viper. My favourite sound at this volume is middle position with treble pup at 5 and tone at 0(!) and then rhythm at 6-8 and tone at 6. Gorgeous tele-ish cleans with a bit of warmth and a bit of pop. I've played around with the levels but the key is always to keep the treble pup tone at 0. Anything at all and it sounds weedy. God I love LPs.

(And I've been mainly working on the clean stuff that Greg Koch plays on the Wildwood videos - great workouts!)

 

[EasyAce]

I've been playing my Les Pauls clean with no apology for a long time now . . .

The different pickup configurations make for different variations on my sound. I run both pickups together on each of them with nothing in between them and a Fender amp but a volume pedal, with reverb set to 4. I've loved the sound ever since.