The most superb clean tone, right up there with the finest classical guitars. No trace of listening fatigue. The tone caresses the ears like a woman whispering in your ear her love for you. Few joys in life can match this.
They are the stratovarious of guitars...I'm 60 years old and I have played two 59s... actually I could have bought one in 1981 while stationed at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson Arizona...a guy had posted a add in the local for sale ads which I would get every week...it read...old Les Paul for sale...I met him at a local guitar store that I hung out at on a regular basis... unfortunately he worked at the store and knew what he had...the asking price was 5,000 dollars...well it might as well been 5 million dollars because for an airman first class it was way way out of my reach...but at any rate I was able to sit and play it for a half hour or so....it was by far the best guitar that I have ever played....if I would have been smart I would have ran to my credit union on base and got a loan for it...I saw it recently in the beauty of burst book...I cried...just thinking about the day I got to play it in a little guitar store in Tucson Arizona.....
Had a friend who got one in a pawn shop in Philly in '67 for 50 dollars. He went on to get it painted psychedelic on the front. Ruined it. I wonder where that thing is now? Makes ya cry....
Thank all of you Gents very much for a fun and very informative video! I was so pleased to actually hear the clean tones from these gems. And a big thank you for NOT using bleeping pedals or overdriven amps.
Sorted Jamie.. all.you have to do to make this a fabulous series of to get Chris to do all of the playing. Mr Buck is simply the greatest... the greatest and most expressive player but also a fabulous man to listen to.. I could listen to him talk and play for days
lovely vid and playing... But would have been much nicer seeing one continuous play through rather than 10 sec interrupted snippets of Chris' playing! Please post the whole chunk of his play-through vid !
I couldn’t stop looking at the daphne blue Strat with the slab board on the couch. That is a rare guitar. Not that the bursts aren’t but that Strat would be the first one I picked up to check out
The one thing that almost all the really good 59s have is that horn like quality to them....in the hands of a really great player they sound alot like a saxophone....🎸🎸🎸
I love a clean Les Paul 😎. P90 and vintage PAF humbuckers sound fantastic plugged into a clean fender amp. So many people miss out on it. Do yourself a favor and try it sometime
Lower power, unpotted pickups give that. You don't need a sixty year old guitar to have defined, articulate note definition. Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers...Gibson Burstbucker 1 and 2. Those are the same as the original PAFs. They also don't have the same number of turns for each coil...that gives the "bite". P.S. nice to see younger generations carrying it on this well!
Very cool....I'm thinking about getting a new standard Only 24 hundred but I'm having a serious Standard itch Do have a couple knock offs but man they are heavy The one I'm looking at is 8.4 lbs and that's lighter than all the Murphy aged ones I've seen Not an exotic burst but not quite a plain top I've heard people state the plain top's are some of the best sounding I sub'd guy's like what your doing
You know you could hand a great guitar player the best sounding Burst and they cannot handle the accuracy. That is not a problem for the sublime Chris Buck. He can coax all of the idiosyncrasies out of a guitar.
I’ve played guitar for a majority of my life. I’ve met and played with many incredible musicians, and handling “the accuracy” of a guitar is definitely a not a concept I’m familiar with 😂
No, "Beano" was not the neck pickup, c'mon...The amp was aimed up against the wall to keep it from ringing the cymbals and bleeding into all the mikes. Eric didn't have the volume pot on full all the time and he also used the tone pot.
Great video, Chris is a fantastic player. Never having played a genuine ‘59 ( I’m a lefty...), I must say I’m super fortunate to have 2014 Gibson Custom R9 that has EXACTLY the same tones on tap, stock and right out of the box. Just to say you don’t have to sell your limbs to get that tone. That said, it doesnt make me a better player, allas.... :-)
A well built guitar that feels good to play and the right set of pickups is the key imo. Alnico magnets are a massive part along with the coil wind/wire. That and lots of practice. These old gems are amazing but for most people the things I just said will be more than enough to feel and sound great.
That’s funny cause I have one of the new original p90 gold tops and the neck pickup is my favourite position….I also love the middle position…and the bridge Amazing absolutely amazing guitars and playing
I dont have a burst yet ..nor have i played one ...but i got an early epiphone trad pro wich sounds realy good and feels good to play ..i play it through a marshal ...they sound good clean definitely and are easy to set up i tend to tincker with strats too much !
Probably the only person that feels this way, but this made me like Gibson less. They sound so good and the modern Gibsons are just so average unless you spend crazzzzzzy money 💰
Vote for a blindfold test. The difference can't be that big between a 2k model and a 59' model. Andertons did a blindfold test where they missed an Epiphone LP and a Custom Shop LP.
The person playing it would certainly know. The right guitar’s feel makes music come out differently. Do I think these are worth what they go fo? NO. Doesn’t matter what I think though.
And John Sebastian, and Keith Richards… As far as the man himself goes: anyone ever see Les Paul with a humbucker-equipped Burst? I think not. Les preferred the crispy, bell-like tone of low impedance pickups and the looks of a gold or ebony top. Bursts are fine guitars, the design is classic and some tops are absolutely breathtaking, but let’s be honest, it’s the myth you’re paying for. Believe me, I know. One day in 1966 in an LA pawnshop, I walked straight past a whole wall of bursts going for 150 bucks a piece and watched my mom fork out 230 dollars for the shiny new-in-case cherry red SG I just HAD to have after seeing George Harrison play one on the Ed Sullivan Show. Some of the older, lightweight Bursts do indeed have that famed ‘Tele on steroids’ quality, as does my own 2001 Murphy aged R9, but in all honesty, most Les Pauls still sound like someone threw a blanket over the amp.
I want to see (hear) a blind test and see if anyone can discern between a real ‘59, a custom shop, a newer standard, heck throw in Epiphone standard into the mix. I’ll bet it would be hard to pick out the real ‘59.
Was he implying that the Gib Les Paul should be carried with support to the body and not lifting it by the neck? I had no idea I needed to treat it delicately.
So many people talk about 'those' Les Paul's having much more clarity and less wooly, muddy tones than future incarnations. I always wonder how come they haven't tried to get closer to maintaining those characteristics if that is what is so desired by people. Especially with modern technology, can it be down to cost?
Cost? Kinda yes, kinda no. It's complicated, but can essentially be boiled down to; nowadays Gibson builds more Les Paul's in a month than they did in 3 years during the "Burst" period, while also having to comply with much stricter health & safety laws. This has led to many changes in production materials, methods and machinery, but results in a consistent product at a "reasonable" price. If you want something that is much closer to the original bursts in both tone & feel, look to the Custom Shop & Murphy Lab ranges - just be prepared for a touch of sticker shock at the prices...
Is there magic or is it a myth. Just like any vintage guitar made in certain eras there are, I’m sure, good ones and bad ones. Are the ones with underwound pups better than overwound? Amp/guitar combos? There has to be a psychological component to all this as well. It’s been confusing me for a while but I’m easily confused 😄
There were bad ones too. That’s why guys ditched them and moved on. Some guys ditched them for an unfancied mid 70’s strat or something and they did it because it sounded better. In truth a burst is nothing but a 57 goldtop with a different finish. Literally that’s what it is. I have played in 5 in my life (in the 80’s and 90’s) before they were completely outrageous. One was probably the best guitar I’ve ever played. Two of them I wouldn’t have even gigged on (not because of value they just sucked). Absolute dogs. And two of them were really good. If you go buy a custom shop, then send it to historic makeovers or something for the Brazilian board and throw a set of Throbaks or something on there, upgrade the bridge and tail and put in real paper in oil caps you will have a guitar that will outperform over half of the real ones out there. Wood dries out over time and becomes more resonate. That’s true. However they’re using hood light wood again that doesn’t kill your shoulder and resonates well (as if that’s a huge thing with an electric guitar anyway). But aside from the wood being more dried out look at this logically. Who would make a better guitar a housewife with a piece of sandpaper on a Friday afternoon in the Kalamazoo factory or somebody or some company like those I’ve mentioned using the same actual equipment and processes but in a much more refined and learned way. It’s just no stoic bullshit and the image of Jimmy Page with it slung low and we here things that aren’t there. Don’t get me wrong I’m a Les Paul guy and I have several reissues of the type I described and I can tell you a real good old one probably is better, but I’d put a modern one (with all the bells and whistles) up against an old one and win more than half the time. Fact
I agree! People will say things about the neck shape but the necks were all finished by hand so each is different. There is no one 1959 neck profile some are more chunky then others. My 2018 Historic R9 is cloned after a 1959 named "Carmelita" and has a really unique neck profile. Guitars today the necks feel a lot alike when you play on 10 different ones. with the 59's they are all feel different.
I agree! People will say things about the neck shape but the necks were all finished by hand so each is different. There is no one 1959 neck profile some are more chunky then others. My 2018 Historic R9 is cloned after a 1959 named "Carmelita" and has a really unique neck profile. Guitars today the necks feel a lot alike when you play on 10 different ones. with the 59's they are all feel different.
Chris Buck is a fantastic player with a technique and a tone of his own - simply great. And those are awesome guitars. Are they worth the money? They are worth what people are willing to pay for them! But I am tired of hearing a good Les Paul should sound like a "Telecaster on steroids". NO! A Les Paul should sound like a Les Paul. If I wanted a "Tele on steroids" (which I don't), I would buy a Tele and put hot pickups in it.
I just don't get it. I love guitars. I know that some are better than others, and in fact some are really great. But a solid body electric guitar is really quite a simple instrument. There is absolutely nothing that gibson we're doing in 1959 to make their les Paul's, that they can't do today. I'm sure they are great, but the hype over these is ridiculous. They are only going for this kind of money because enough guys who idolised jimmy page and whoever else as kids, have now got the money as middle aged guys and are willing to spend absurd sums of cash on one. In fact, pretty much any electric guitar can be made to sound almost like any other when played through the right amp. I don't understand it, and I play guitar myself and absolutely love it. But guitarists generally are such a strange bunch
I bet a double blindfold test would corroborate what you saying. There are very elite pickup winders and luthiers out there now. My pickups are from Holmes and I can't hear anything missing. Maybe others could discern the original '59 with eyes closed?
Chris buck has the opposite of what you call a light touch. I'll bet he took a good bit of those frets down playing that guitar for just 15 minutes. Even when he's playing quietly, he's grinding the frets.
The reason Gibson Custom shop do come close to the sound of 1958, 1959,1960? Simple, all that real old wood is gone. There are builders that seek out old wood that build Les Paul they very close to that sound. Not cheap
Great guitars, but hell no they're not worth the money. You give Eric Clapton a 2021 Gibson and he sounds like Eric. It's primarily in the fingers and technique. What's a real shame is how the market has made it to where these will primarily belong to Doctors and Lawyers, or collectors who sit on it a few years rather than in real musicians hands. Oh well, that's life. Disappointing.
Again...finger picker... Use the plectrum if you got one in your hand!!! Somehow everytime I watch this kind of vintage guitar demo videos, it's played by finger. Why?? If you want to show us how good you play, that's absolutely fine. But if you want to show us how good "this guitar" sounds..Maybe you need to play in the way most of us do. I do fingerpick occasionally, but I do think 90% of the electic guitar sounds from the records we listen to today.. They're played by plectrums.
I really wanna enjoy buck but he kinda gets old and doesn't really have any technique,pop or ever change key ,he sticks to a very common melody path. I wish "musicians" today were as tasteful as the legends they compare themselves too
Was hoping to get some dirt out of that 68 JMP, especially when he said he was into Slash. I mean, 68 JMP, 59 Les Paul... You kind of have to, it's the rules.
Very much blahblah, very little playing besides some clean noodling on the neck pu with fingers, which is definitely not the strength of a Les Paul. Could have been a way better video. Pity!