Guitar of the week #69 - Epiphone "1955" Les Paul Custom

I definitely see a future collectible here, while at the same time being a great player's guitar.

Those who know my opinions on guitars know I don't like gold hardware simply for the reason that the gold rubs off with regular play of the instrument...

...but I make an exception because the Epiphone "1955" Les Paul Custom just looks so damned good.

These are the things that make this guitar awesome:

• Split diamond inlay on the headstock. These are only on Les Paul Custom guitars, so it is totally appropriate for this one. The truss rod cover even states it's a Custom model.
• Block inlays. Not trapezoid, but still look great. I believe it is abalone or at least an abalone look.
• P90 pickups. Single-coil Les Paul goodness at its finest.
• Gold screws and gold pole pieces on the P90 pickups. Epiphone didn't have to do this but did anyway. Nice touch.
• Gold text on "poker chip" pickup selector plastic with gold color metal for switch housing and correct orange color switch tip. Again, Epiphone didn't have to do this but did anyway.
• Bound body, front and back.
• Bound neck.
• Bound headstock.
• Triple-ply black-white-black pick guard with gold screws and gold body mount.
• Gold-color tuner metal.
• Gold screws for both cavity covers on the rear.
• Gold-color strap buttons.
• Gold-color screws for the truss rod cover.
• EVEN THE FRICKIN' OUTPUT JACK IS GOLD.

This is, for all intents and purposes, a totally "fully loaded gold" Les Paul Custom. All the bases have been covered with this one and Epiphone did not skimp on anything.

I really mean it when I say this is one seriously good looker of a Les Paul.

Future collectible? Absolutely.

Good players guitar? Also a yes, but there are three things to note here.

First is something I already mentioned. The gold will rub off with regular play. Specifically, it will rub off in the upper area of the bridge and the stop tailpiece where the player's wrist rests when playing.

And no, there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop the rub-off other than not play it. But that's no fun.

There is however a nice part to the gold rubbing off from playing this guitar. It is genuine player wear and it does look cool when it happens.

Second are the tuners. These are the old-style gears with the "tulip" buttons on top, and it is totally period correct for a '55 inspired style. The downside to this is that the gears are nowhere near as good as a set of metal Grover Rotomatics. It can arguably be said that the absolute best set of tuners you could put on a Les Paul is a set of Grovers.

HOWEVER... there are Grovers in gold that would totally work on the '55 Epi Les Paul Custom. Yes, they exist. You'll even see from that link that there's even a tulip-shaped button version.

The third thing to note is that this Paul has a flatter-than-usual 14" fingerboard radius. The normal radius is a rounder 12". Although I can't confirm this for certain, I don't believe there is any drastic difference on this particular Paul for having a 14" fingerboard radius instead of a 12" due to the fact it uses medium jumbo and not jumbo frets. The neck shape is reported to be a C and not a D. That paired with with 14" radius should make for a very comfortable playing neck.

In the end, the "1955" Epi Les Paul Custom is a damned fine guitar. I rate it as an instant collectible and also a genuinely good player's instrument.

On a final note, this is one of the rarer instances where an import Epi Les Paul is actually worth its price tag. All the binding is there, all the gold is there, all the things that make it a true Les Paul Custom model are there and accounted for. The guitar is missing nothing.

permalink

1990s grunge songs I hated the most

In 1990 I was in my mid-teens and in 1999 I was in my mid-twenties, so it's safe to say I was right within the target market for grunge back in the day.

In all honesty, most grunge music just sucked. While true it was definitely better than the glam rock that preceded it, it still had a boatload of suck.

These are the grunge hits from the '90s that I hated the most.

Silverchair - Tomorrow

I remember the first time I saw this band on MTV. I hated them. They sucked. To me, it was painfully obvious they were only on MTV because they "sounded grunge". Absolutely terrible.

Pearl Jam - Animal

There are a few songs I like from Pearl Jam, but this is one of their worst. This song literally sounds like an unfinished demo that was slapped together with hardly any thought at all. The only reason this got any airplay back in the day was because Pearl Jam was still hot at the time. Crap song.

Mad Season - River of Deceit

This is a slow, droning song with boring guitar tones and is a total yawn-fest from beginning to end.

Bush - Machine Head

This was one of the last grunge acts that was still out there before the whole scene died. Very bland, generic sound with a vocalist that sounds whiny as hell.

Alice in Chains - I Stay Away

This band, like Pearl Jam, has a few good songs, but this is not one of them. Very overprocessed sound and way too much vocal layering, making the whole song just sound annoying.

Hole - Violet

The only reason this act ever got anywhere is because the lead "singer" of this band was dating Kurt Cobain. This particular number features the lead "singer" belting out notes out-of-tune and sounding like she was in a drunken stupor while recording (which is probably true).

L7 - Pretend We're Dead

Anyone playing guitar for 3 weeks could have written this. Dumb song, dumb lyrics, off-key vocals. This song is a total pile of crap.

Temple of the Dog - Hunger Strike

Literally combine Pearl Jam + Soundgarden together. Great idea, right? Wrong. Bad idea. The vocals in this song clash in a real bad way and it never should have happened.

A small collection of '90s grunge songs that didn't suck

Aside from the more popular titles, here are a few that are actually pretty damned good.

Meat Puppets - Backwater

Technically not grunge but called grunge anyway because it was a rock song released that wasn't glam in the '90s. It's just a good rock song.

Veruca Salt - Seether

L7 sucked. Hole sucked. Veruca Salt did not. This was one of the few '90s grunge bands with girls in front that did it right.

Stone Temple Pilots - Vasoline

This song really captures the STP groove. I have absolutely no idea what the song is about, nor do I care. The guitars are perfect, the bass is loud and gritty, the drums are organic and beautiful, the vocals are mixed perfectly.

This song is just so damned good.

Oh, and another thing. I don't know who directed STP's videos back in the day, but the whole "throw random crap in a video and make it stylistically cool" was something few got right. Vasoline is done right. It's visually different and cool without being disturbing. It rides really close to being disturbing but doesn't cross the line. The director just did an awesome job there.

Was this STP's top song? Not by a long shot. But it's one of my favorites.

permalink

Guitar of the week #68 - Oscar Schmidt OS-300

A cheap Strat clone at a good price. A very good price.

The Oscar Schmidt OS-300 comes in a bunch of different finish options, and is the same price as the Squier Bullet Strat.

The guitar comes in natural finish, black, transparent blue, sunburst, seafoam green, or a purple burst.

Functionally, the OS-300 and Bullet Strat are basically identical and probably sound pretty much exactly the same.

If you're looking for a dirt cheap Strat clone to mod, the OS-300 is actually the better choice because it has a maple body. Or at least that's what the Amazon description for the guitar states.

I know for a fact that Squier Bullet Strat guitars have basswood bodies. Nice enough wood, but it dents very easily and it's also really easy to strip a screw hole when dealing with basswood.

Maple on the other hand, even if it's a soft maple (I'm not sure which on the OS-300,) can handle mods much better. If you need to drill an extra hole or cut out some area under the pick guard for whatever reason, you'll have an easier time dealing with the maple body compared to basswood.

It should also be easier to refinish the guitar, should you decide to change the body color.

In short, if you want a decent first Strat or something that will take to mods fairly easily, grab an OS-300.

permalink

Should bands even bother with physical media anymore?

Does anyone care if a band releases physical media anymore?

Maybe.

Let's talk about the compact disc for a moment.

Ever since the CD was introduced in the 1980s, audiophiles have always, repeat, always hated the format. And I know exactly why they hate it. It's because digital audio is "squashed," and the fidelity is vastly inferior compared to other media formats.

Today, the music CD is for all intents and purposes a totally dead format. Nobody plays CDs in cars anymore, instead opting just to play music directly from a smartphone or small portable player. Who would want to deal with discs when you can stuff so much more music on something so much smaller where the audio quality sounds the same if not better when using a file data format like FLAC?

Every audiophile knows, or at least should know, that nothing sounds as good as a freshly pressed vinyl record, provided you play it on a quality turntable. That is the gold standard of recorded audio, so to speak. Nothing before or since has been able to reproduce the how good fresh vinyl sounds.

I won't get into why vinyl sounds so good because I could write a tome on it, but in short, it is the audio that sounds best to humans.

Now aside from all that, from a band or artist's perspective, there are 3 things you need to know about vinyl:

1. Vinyl is the only physical audio media format worth paying for.
2. Audiophiles purposely seek out vinyl because it's just that damned good.
3. Vinyl is the only truly collectible audio format.

Some bands make compact cassettes, because there is a company out there who still makes them. All well and good, but... no. Bad choice.

You can obviously still make CDs. All you need is a computer with a CD burner for that.

But then there's vinyl.

On Amazon, vinyl shows up more than you might think.

So what's so damned cool about vinyl?

Well, I mentioned the collectible reason above, but there's something else.

The artwork.

There are vinyl collectors who don't even own record players. They buy vinyl records just because they look cool.

Out of every audio media format that's ever existed, a record album cover is, as far as I'm aware, the largest amount of space where a band can put dedicated artwork on it.

For example, on the Alice Cooper School's Out vinyl record, that actually looks like a real school desk and even opens up like a school desk.

If you're an artist or a band looking for something cool to sell, consider vinyl

There are certain things artists and bands can sell that are cool. T-shirts is one of them. Can't go wrong with that. There's also other little novelty items like mugs and little stuffed bears you could sell too.

But the vinyl... now that's a collectible right there, even if it's just a single and not a full album.

If you search Google for "create your own vinyl record", there are companies out there who will manufacture your record right now. And that's cool.

To answer the title question of this article, yes, bands should bother with physical media...

...but only if it's vinyl. To hell with the CD. I'm glad that media is dying. Optical discs are good for movies and data, but audio? Nah, that time has very much passed.

On a final note, I was never into vinyl, said honestly. But I totally respect the format, and just from a collectible point of view, the vinyl is just so damned cool. I am one of those people that would buy it just for the artwork.

permalink

Guitar of the week #67 - Gretsch FSR Two-Tone Electromatic Double Jet

Wow, what a looker.

There are regular Gretsch Electromatic Double Jet guitars normally seen in black, red and gold (the gold one in particular in amazing,) but then there's the special run Surf Green and White version, and wow, does it look good.

How many guitars do you know that could get away with a surf green front and white sides and back? And with gold hardware? It's only something Gretsch could do.

Gretsch has a knack for color. On any other guitar, this would not work, but on this Double Jet it totally does. And it's not a bad price, either.

permalink