Quick snapshots of the guitar before I start to change parts . . .
I found it quite difficult to aquire a Les Paul in antique ivory until this one came around.
Epiphone Les Paul Custom Blackback - "The Tuxedo"
Quick snapshots of the guitar before I start to change parts . . .
I found it quite difficult to aquire a Les Paul in antique ivory until this one came around.
Various Pedalboards before Disassembly
Due to space constraints and simple boredom I think I'm going to pull those setups apart, so here are some collected pics to remind me, should I want to put them back together...
Gibson Vixen
Serial number marks 2006 as year of production.
Mahogany body (slimmer than standard Les Pauls) and neck with diamond - shape inlays.
Wrap around tail piece, 490R neck and 498T bridge pickups.
Master volume and tone with the common three way toggle options.
Everything else equals pretty much standard Les Paul specs.
Standard tuning with D'Addario EXL110W strings.
Epiphone SG "Les Paul Custom" - Gibson Burstbuckers
I found the time to work on my old SG.
Here it is before:
Not much of a change looks wise but the Gibson pickups make it sound a lot better in my opinion.
I always enjoyed three humbucker guitars.
The option to blend in the middle pickup offers interesting tonal variations.
Neck to bridge - Gibson Burstbucker 1, 2 and 3.
Green Flying V - Overhaul complete
New hardware - tuners, tremolo etc
The EMG Alexi Laiho set went in.
I think it's as good as I will get it right now.
Tuning is Open C: C G C g c e
but 1/2 step lowered to B F# B f# b d#.
D'Addario EXL 140 strings.
Johnson JS -500 Upgrade Update
In a post back in 2010 I wrote about my worries that something might break on this one and that's exactly the reason why I had to do some upgrades to make it playable again.
A picture that shows the original condition:
Over time the tuners startet to slip and get wobbly, so I had to change them.
Then the bridge started to ratlle and the bushings came loose, so I exchanged it with a Schaller STM bridge and tialpiece.
While I was at it, I replaced the stock pickups with a set of "Berserker" humbuckers by Viking Pickups.
Actually advertised as Thrash Metal pickups, these two sport Alnico V magnets with alleged 8,6k and 16,6k DC resistance. Doesn't really matter much, all this means is that they're pretty hot but I don't turn them up all the way and they sound quite decent.
Recent models of this guitar are sold as Johnson JS - 500 "Grooveyard" and are now made in China, with a maple top and back over the centerblock and a maple neck.
But Johnson Guitars is a rather elusive brand and solid information is hard to come by, so I'm not sure about the actual specs of my guitar.
That said, the instrument itself plays nicely and holds up well over the years and now the hardware is up to snuff too.
It has the "appropriate" scale length of 628 mm (24,75") and I put 10 - 46 strings on.
Tuning is E - standard.
Fenix Les Paul - Alchemy - The long true story of turning sh*t into gold
Let me elaborate for a moment because this one took me so long and life is made out of stories you tell, isn't it?
When I was seventeen, I was shovelling shit, muddy water and other waste at the local sewage plant.
It was one of the hottest summers even before climate change turned our planet into a crazy pressure cooker and the only thing that kept me going was the idea of buying my first electric guitar with the earnings of my labour.
All summer long I would work in the heat, reciting ICP's "The Great Milenko" in my head - it was like a mantra that kept me going.
When all was said and done I could perform the stupid verses of said album like a Shakespearean actor and I could finally afford my first Les Paul copy.
No, it wasn't the Fenix one - just hear me out, there's more....
In the same year on a family vacation in hungary I walked into a local guitar store.
All the way up behind the counter there was the most expensive guitar they had on offer, hanging on the wall - a slime green Epiphone Les Paul.
I bought it with my hard earned money after just holding it in my little hands for about 15 seconds - I could not try it out because I didn't even knew any chords to play back then.
I will remember the face of the shop keeper forever though....
So where is the connection to the Fenix Les Paul?
Well, even back then I was thinking about a pickup replacement and I wanted a Pearly Gates humbucker but it was just too pricey for a poor boy like me.
I picked up the Fenix Les Paul quite cheap because a girlfriend was selling the guitar of a former ex.
We met close to a local graveyard (how fitting) and although nothing worked on the instrument, I went along with the deal.
Just like life goes, I got an opportunity to finally get a Pearly Gates humbucker for reasonable money.
So there we go - Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates at the neck and a Rio Grande BBQ pickup at the bridge to live and breathe the ZZ Top sound.
Blonde Pedal Board
Strangely one of the most difficult boards to build for me...
Now I am quite aware of my colour compulsion but let's take a look anyway...
Visual Sound "Route 66" Compressor and Overdrive (V2).
Korg tuner off to the left corner.
There is a nice home made fuzz as well, a version of the Sodameiser Fuzz with Boost and Chaos switch - my basic needs are covered: Compressor, Overdrive and Fuzz...
The Vox Delay Lab is great, adding more options my tiny mind can't comprehend.
Green Pedal Board
I was working on this board for quite a while, I think I'm happy with it now.
In order to keep it light and compact, I just chose the basics I use the most:
A compressor, two tube screamer - like pedals, a fuzz, a wah and a delay - oh yeah and a tuner of course.
First in the chain there is the compressor pedal. It is on almost all the time but I turn it off when using the fuzz.
Next is the Big Muff Fuzz - using the bass version works great with guitar for me.
It also has two separate outputs which I use to split the signal for the overdrives and the wah pedal.
One line of the split signal out of the Muff Fuzz goes to the Morley Kiko Loureiro Wah - yes it's wah after fuzz for me in this case.
The pedal has a built in distortion option and also functions as a volume pedal by which I am able to silence one amp completely if so desired.
From the wah the signal goes out to amp 1.
By way of the direct output of the Big Muff the second line of the signal goes straight into the Nobels Overdrive - my first mild gain stage.
The Bad Monkey is used as second gain stage, both overdrives work on their own or stacked and can also be combined with the compressor pedal.
The Bad Monkey also has a second output which I use to connect the Korg Pitchblack tuner.
After the overdrives there's TC Electronic "The Prophet" delay just to enhance the sound slightly.
From here the signal goes out to amp 2.
So to recap:
I use two quite basic and yet very different sounding signal paths for my two amps -
one gets just (the compressor), fuzz and wah.
The other one gets the classic combination of compressor, overdrive(s) and delay.
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