New Guitar Day

[Archer_of_Fish]

I have been eying a Les Paul Traditional Goldtop (my pick for the best looking Les Paul finish) at a local shop for quite a while and decided to go for it today. I had the intention of waiting for one of the new standards, and did spend some time on a 2012 Standard, the neck size and compound radius weren't for me so i passed and went for the traditional.

It is a 2011 model a little heavier (9.6 pounds) than I usually go for but this guitar sounds amazing acoustically in spite of the weight. I love the the neck. The back is 2 pieces that line up nicely there is some flame in the mahogany on the neck which looks nice. The 57 Classics are nice and smooth but maybe a little dull sounding. I am going to play around with the heights for a while.

Here are some photos.

[SabbathFan0220]

Awww yeah. Awesome. Happy NGD.

[That90'sGuy]

Those goldtops are stunning! The Les Paul Traditional is the best Les Paul they've made in quite a while. Congrats!

[TheLivingDead]

Holy schnikes!

[stratsandaks]

That's purdy! Hard to go wrong with a LP Traditional

[JeffB]

Beauty. Congrats.

Throw some 500k volume pots in there before you give up on the 57s.

[phil_104]

That's purdy! Hard to go wrong with a LP Traditional

Yup. I've got a Trad, and they are the tits.

Rock on!

[Gearjoneser]

I like Traditionals a lot, mostly because they have nice neck profiles compared to some of the bat necks that come on Historics. I'm also a fan of Kluson tuners on Gibsons.

Can't go wrong with a Gold Gibson.

[Wattage]

Love it, congrats

[BloodRose]

Schwing!!! Congrats Bro! Finding the right Paul is a golden in itself!

[d1dsj]

Nice! That's what I'm missing.... a Gold top. Those 'Berts look pretty darn badass too.

[Archer_of_Fish]

Nice! That's what I'm missing.... a Gold top. Those 'Berts look pretty darn badass too.

I have no idea what a 'bert is

[FretFire]

Engelbert Humperdinck?

[GuitarDoc]

I love a goldtop LP.

But where are the P-90s?

[Archer_of_Fish]

I don't have a p-90 guitar yet. Maybe that will be penciled in for the next one

[Fender_Punk]

Or you could just load that with Phat Cats! Get the P-90 tone without altering the body or the look.

[Scott_F]

Great looking guitars. I sold an R7 goldie and regret it.

[Archer_of_Fish]

A few cosmetic changes today. I added tophat knobs and an amber toggle switch cap and a plain truss rod cover.







I have some PIO caps on the way. I love the 57 Classics on this guitar...they go nowhere.

[Archer_of_Fish]

I have now had some time to gel with this guitar and have done so in a big way. I have made some changes though. Mainly the pickups, stop and bridge.

The Traditional is sort of dark so I took the Bare Knuckle Black Dogs from my old Standard as well as the aluminium Tone Pros stop and the bridge (they are nickel) and put them in the Traditional. All I can say is 'bloody hell this is awesome' Acoustically the Aluminum tailpiece makes an incredible difference, things are brighter and airier sounding...very cool. The Changes compliment the guitar perfectly. The 57 Classics and the heavy stop and Traditional bridge also work perfectly with the fairly bright natural tone of the Standard.
Here are some shots of the end results of my wiring session:











These guitars are now finished.

[d1dsj]

Engelbert Humperdinck?

Bingo!

The more I look at that guitar the more I'm wanting a Gold Top.