- 2 days ago
Stellar guitarist Aynsley Lister and Guitarist magazine put seven genuine, original 1958-1960 Les Paul Standards through their paces live at Gibson Garage London. This video covers the third section of the event, dealing with the icon of icons – the 1959 Les Paul Standard. Join Aynsley, Guitarist Editor-in-Chief Jamie Dickson and former Guitarist Editor Neville Marten as they coax thrilling and iconic sounds from two famous '59 'Bursts - one of which formerly belonged to Mick Taylor. There was a further twist in the tale when Aynsley A/B'd the '59s with an original 1960 Les Paul Standard that was also onstage that night – sometimes slightly less revered than the '59, the slim-necked '60 was not to be dismissed lightly. Watch this video to find out which came out on top... Filmed live at Gibson Garage London.
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00:00So I think with that, it might be time to move on to some of our 1959 bursts.
00:06So this has become the icon in a way.
00:10What should we pick out first? We've got a few good ones. Nev, you pick one.
00:17I think I was reminded this evening, in 2001,
00:22I demonstrated one of these guitars on an online programme
00:26called something to do with how to be a billionaire or something.
00:30And I was in Vintage and Rare in Bath, and the guitar came, I believe, from South Wales.
00:37And I sat and played it through a little Fender Deluxe amp, I think it was, or Tweed amp.
00:42And it wasn't dirty enough for me, and I struggled with the sound a bit.
00:46But I think it's going to sound amazing here.
00:48So which one is that? Which guitar was that? This one here? The one I nearly knocked over?
00:53Yes.
00:55So this is Minnesota, if I'm correct.
00:58Yes, that's right.
01:01One of the prettiest bursts that I've certainly seen.
01:04I think Ainsley's going to make it sound rather nicer than I did.
01:07Yes. So let's hear it.
01:12Thank you all.
01:14Right.
01:18Oh, that does look good, yeah.
01:21That's really nice, isn't it?
01:22Yes, it's not too shabby, is it?
01:28Right. To start, shall we go for your favourite setting, Nev?
01:31Yes.
01:32Shall we go all the way on ten, and then just back it off?
01:36Back the neck one off to about seven and a half, eight.
01:42Well, I'll tell you what. Just let me just check this,
01:45because otherwise it won't tangle if it's not in tune.
01:55Right, here we go.
02:11I can't play that, can I?
02:23That's really nice.
02:24That's really nice.
02:25Do you know what, the neck on this is really not dissimilar to the 258s actually.
02:30Interesting.
02:30Yeah.
02:31So...
02:36Really clear sounding.
03:06Right, on to the bridge.
03:27It's backing a bit of tone off now.
03:50That's another good one.
03:52Yeah, wow. Amazing.
03:59It's interesting you said immediately that one of the things that is said generically of 59s is that the neck
04:06has a slightly thinner profile.
04:08That doesn't seem to be leaping out at you from that one.
04:10No, I wouldn't differentiate between either of these really.
04:18Yeah, it's about the same.
04:20What are your thoughts, Nev, hearing that?
04:21Yeah, that's definitely what one's told, isn't it?
04:24I have played a couple of 58s that do have big clubby necks, but I think these were made by
04:32people and they weren't made by CNC routers.
04:35And so, you know, it's quite conceivable that some would be thinner than others.
04:40And maybe this person shaping it, he preferred or she preferred it to be a bit narrower or a bit
04:47fatter.
04:48You know, I don't think there was a diktat from above to say they must be like this.
04:53I think what's interesting is the, you know, we're so used to highly uniform factory produced, when something is factory
04:59produced today, it's factory produced to very tight tolerances so that you get a replicatable product that is entirely predictable.
05:07And that's good in a certain sense because you don't get bad ones, but then maybe you don't get the
05:12exceptional good ones as well.
05:13And even like the metal parts, like the sort of the stock bar, when it came out, the mould had
05:18to be hand sanded and shaped and so on to a certain degree.
05:22It's subtle, but it leaves its mark.
05:25And I think the eye can detect that sort of human touch a little bit in these instruments.
05:29I think so. I mean, I think that still today with modern guitars, one will shine out.
05:37I mean, I've had it myself when I've tried two or three.
05:39I wanted to buy a 335.
05:40My mum died about 10 years ago and she left me a little bit of money, not very much.
05:46And she always loved my red 335 that I'd sold and I wanted to buy a new one.
05:50And I tried, I went to all of the good Gibson dealers around the country.
05:56And I finally just happened to be in World Guitars near Stroud.
06:00And I just picked one up and it was it.
06:03Straight away it was it.
06:04And I knew it.
06:05It was, I don't know what it was, but it was it for me.
06:09Yeah, and I think that's a continuing reason to go into guitar shops.
06:13And I know it's so easy to buy online and that's convenient in all its ways.
06:17But that moment of connection with a guitar is totally unpredictable, isn't it?
06:22Completely, completely.
06:23I mean, I don't like to buy, I have bought guitars online.
06:27Of course I have, as everybody does.
06:29But I do like that connection.
06:31I like to go into a dealer.
06:32I like to talk to the guy.
06:34I like to talk to whoever's serving me.
06:37And I want to say, tell us about what's...
06:39When I used to go into World Guitars, because Jeff Pumfrit was a good old friend of mine.
06:43And I'd always go in, in fact, any guitar shop, I'd go in and I'd say,
06:46what's the best guitar in the shop?
06:48That's always my first question.
06:50And they'll tell you.
06:52It's really interesting, isn't it?
06:53Because they know, but they won't sort of volunteer it.
06:56Because you might buy something else that's, you know, not quite the best one in the shop.
07:01So, I mean, speaking, you know, in very general terms about what are thought of as the changes that occur
07:07in 59.
07:08Midway through 59, we get frets that have changed to a larger size.
07:12Though it took a while for the smaller fret wire examples to be completely phased out.
07:16So, as usual, there's no zero hour on a certain date where all of these things are brought in.
07:21Their kind of parts are used up.
07:24Things are phased out gradually and so on.
07:26So, that's why you get this sort of slight vagueness to when things happen.
07:31Most of the PAF humbucking pickups on 59 bursts are either zebra or double whites.
07:37This refers to the colour of the butyric plastic bobbins, basically.
07:41And they start out black in the 58s.
07:45And at a certain point, Seth Lover gets a call from the supplier of the plastic bobbins to say that
07:51the black colourant is in shorter supply.
07:54And can they do cream coloured ones?
07:56These are approved.
07:58And they start to be phased in.
08:00As we were saying, there is no moment where the door slams shut on the black ones and in come
08:05double whites.
08:07The old parts are used up.
08:09And in this case, that's why you get the zebra ones.
08:12But what I do think is interesting is that the zebra aspect of it, as far as I can recall
08:21it, it was the non-adjustable side, the pole piece side, that first got the cream bobbins.
08:30And it took longer for the screw pole side to change over to double whites.
08:35So, that's generally the way that zebras are, if I remember that one correctly, the correct way around.
08:41So, that's a little detail there.
08:44The other thing we alluded to earlier was that the flametops on 59s.
08:50I don't know whether it's because Gibson got wise to the fact that people really like to see the figure
08:54in there.
08:54I mean, who doesn't like to see that?
08:57But certainly, that's the general impression you get, is that in 59, we start to see more figuring coming through
09:04on more of them.
09:05But with that being said, the number of Les Paul standards with figured tops or noticeably figured tops is less
09:13than a third of total production.
09:14So, they were rare.
09:16Yeah, they were.
09:17I mean, Gibson were also, I mean, the guitars still weren't successful.
09:20They weren't a popular model because we know they were phased out.
09:24So, maybe it was Gibson trying to say, what on earth can we do to make these guitars popular with
09:29people?
09:30So, let's make them prettier.
09:32It could be something as simple as that.
09:34I mean, one of the things that sort of separates people's tastes in bursts is the kind of figure that's
09:40on the top.
09:40And you hear all kinds of things.
09:42You hear about flametops, obviously, but there's tiger stripes, pinstripes, you know.
09:47What's your favourite, Nevin, and what do you think is the epitome of cool on a burst?
09:51I like the average, the middle one.
09:54I don't like it when the join sends the flame backwards on the body.
10:01I don't like that, or forwards.
10:02I like it to be straight up and down.
10:05I don't like them too wide.
10:06I don't like too few stripes.
10:08I do like a lot of stripes.
10:11Some of them you see very, very, like, they used to call it fiddleback maple.
10:14That's what I used to call it, fiddleback maple, because violins were like that.
10:19So, I like that, and we'll come on to him later on.
10:22But I particularly always loved Peter Green's Les Forkwood.
10:26It had that slightly shimmery, shimmery flame on it, and it was very, very pretty.
10:31And before it, when Peter had it, before it lost all its colour, it was a beautiful guitar.
10:37And I think one interesting point to make about that is that the figuring at the centre is well-matched,
10:44when they've sort of bookmatched it, but as it goes out toward the edges, it becomes less symmetrical.
10:49And that is a function of the top surface is going to be well-matched,
10:54but as you sort of carve away, you get a different layer of figuring,
10:58and so you get these sort of asymmetrical effects around the edge,
11:01which is, again, part of that, almost like that unique fingerprint of a burst, isn't it?
11:07Shall we move on to another 59 and see if we can sort of detect some of these changes,
11:12which are thought to be coming in 59?
11:18Yeah, let's go for the ex-McTaylor Exile burst here.
11:23I think this is one with the first of our guitars with a sort of musical association with a known
11:30musician.
11:31That one would do.
11:39I'd say they're all roughly thereabouts, similar sort of way.
11:43There's none that are super light, there's none that are super...
11:45I wouldn't say they were mega, mega heavy.
11:47They're all just, yeah, pretty average between them.
12:06Oh, hang on.
12:13Oh, hang on.
12:15Oh, hang on.
12:26Oh, hang on.
12:30Oh, hang on.
13:24Let's try the bridge.
13:41It's got that edge, on the edge of feedback.
13:45Obviously, if we had the amp cramped a bit more, it would probably go really easily.
14:17It's got this real crystalline kind of top end thing.
14:21It seems a bit gutsier.
14:23Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
14:24Is it gutsier?
14:24Yeah, it is, yeah.
14:25Yeah.
14:27Yeah.
14:30Yeah.
14:32Yeah.
14:33Yeah.
14:45Yeah.
14:47Yeah.
14:49Yeah.
14:57Is the tone control flat out?
14:59It is on about six.
15:03OK, it sounded like it was backed off.
15:05I've just taken a bit of that.
15:08It actually makes it louder, doesn't it?
15:12It's sort of interactive.
15:16It's like a volume as well.
15:21So, if I go full up on there, well, basically full beans.
15:33And if I back off the tone to about, I don't know, where I was.
15:49And then as soon as you're back off the volume, it cleans up.
15:56Yeah, it's kind of got everything, doesn't it?
15:58This guitar in particular really puts me in mind of something we've said a lot of times is treble that
16:03doesn't hurt the ear.
16:04There's nothing in that sound that makes you wince.
16:09And I don't know how that happens, but it's a characteristic of a really nice Les Paul sound for me.
16:16I've often said, on the bridge pickup, if you turn the volume down to about three, the tone down to
16:23about three or four,
16:25and strum an open G chord, it sounds like a Gibson acoustic guitar.
16:29Try it.
16:30Right, go on.
16:30Give me those instructions again.
16:32Bridge pickup.
16:33Bridge pickup.
16:34Volume and tone down to about four, three and a half four.
16:37Just strum an open G chord.
16:41So, they're both on four.
16:43Yeah.
16:43Right.
16:59It's getting there, isn't it?
17:00A bit of a tweak.
17:01Yeah.
17:02Do you agree?
17:06I think I'm also struck by, you know, so many players from the sort of, you know, golden era, if
17:11you like, of blues and blues rock,
17:14played off the controls, you know, the amp was dimed and they used the controls.
17:19And this, the dynamic range of these pickups really, really lets you do that.
17:23You had, back then, you had to, because, you know, anybody similar vintage to me knows the amps didn't have
17:29master volumes.
17:30You had to do everything you possibly could, be it crank the reverb, be it crank all the controls to
17:3610, to try and get that thing to do what you'd heard Eric do on the Beano album, on the
17:42Blues Breakers album, or Peter, or whoever else.
17:45You just had to, how can I get a little bit more?
17:49And that's how the pickup manufacturers started to create their super distortions and stuff, just to give you something that
17:56would hit the front end of your amp a bit harder, just to give it more.
18:00But actually, in hindsight, you don't really want it, you want that, what you've got there.
18:05I think that's what, that's, playing all these guitars so far, the one thing that's massively apparent to me, as
18:12a player, is the range of sounds, without touching anything,
18:17but just either playing differently, harder or softer, and then using the pickups, and using all this stuff.
18:22And you can just get, you know, I mean, the first few Les Paul's I ever played, they're just modern
18:30ones that just had those super high output pickups,
18:33and it just did this one thing, the bridge pickup riffy thing, but try and get any clarity out of
18:38it.
18:39Whereas these ones, they've kind of just got, yeah, they're not hot guitar, they're not super powerful.
18:45Again, sorry to keep harking back to when I worked for Gibson, but we had a big book that had
18:51all the specs of all the guitars, every single model,
18:54and it had all the specs of everything on it, and we were shocked, you know, it was Robbie Glabble,
18:59me, Martin Booth,
19:00we were shocked to discover that the Les Paul standard had the weakest humbucking pickups that Gibson made.
19:07The custom was a much more powerful guitar, and we thought, no, it can't be, it can't be, but it
19:12was, and that's proof of it there.
19:15Because you get the dynamics from, I mean, Ainsley was talking earlier about, on his Gibsons and Gibson-style guitars,
19:22he lowers the pickups into the body because he likes the extra dynamic range.
19:26Yeah, so it's not too hot into the amp, and then you have got that kind of variation, yeah.
19:31You can always jump onto a distortion pedal if you want that lift.
19:35Yeah.
19:37So, I mean, quick word about the pickups, the PAF, the beating heart of the burst sound.
19:45The humbucking pickup, designed in 1955 by Seth Lover, put into production late 56 or early 57,
19:53appears on 1957 gold tops.
19:55The first ones had steel covers, that was swiftly phased out for the nickel ones.
20:01And I think the sticker itself, the sort of patent applied for sticker, comes in in 1958 on the base
20:08plate.
20:10So, worth mentioning that the magnets were Alnico 2 or Alnico 5 in the most part,
20:18with a smattering of Alnico 3 and 4, depending on whether the supplier actually supplied the magnets to spec
20:24or gave Gibson something else that they happened to have in stock.
20:28So, again, it's a picture of things not being quite exact and not being exactly to spec that gives this
20:35variation
20:35that I think preserves the mystique of the burst, wouldn't you say, Nev?
20:41I think all vintage guitars suffered, if you want to use that word, or excelled because of the variation,
20:49because different people were making them on that day, and somebody happened to do this this day,
20:56they did something totally different the next day, which gave you these different variations.
21:01And I think that's the wonder of them.
21:04They're guitars built by humans, the musical instrument built by humans.
21:09And they still are, but not in the way that they were then.
21:13Yeah, absolutely.
21:14Well, I think it's time now to move to the last of the variations that was recognisable as a single
21:21cutaway burst,
21:22which is the 1960.
21:24We do have a 1960 example here, which is just to Nev's left there.
21:29This one's with the Bixby.
21:31A small proportion of bursts were produced in the factory with Bixby's.
21:36And this is one of them, less than 15% of the total output.
21:42And there's a few things to say about the 1960 model,
21:48which is that the sunburst moves from a dye-based red to a pigment-based red,
21:54which has no blue in it, which means it's a slightly less deep colour.
21:58Some people call that, what would you call the classic 1960 burst?
22:03I'm not an aficionado.
22:06Sometimes known as tangerine burst, tomato soup, you know, there's a few sort of nicknames.
22:10My mum used to call it bilious.
22:13Bilious?
22:14I had a Les Vaux custom, Cherry Sunburst, Les Vaux custom.
22:16She said, that's bilious.
22:20I liked it.
22:29Well, let's start on the bridge, because it's already there.
22:32Right, everything wide open then, here we go.
22:47Well, let's start on the bridge, because it's already there.
22:48Well, let's start on the bridge, because it's already there.
23:31Well, let's start on the bridge.
24:08Hang on, your favourite sound.
24:38Let's go in.
24:40There we go.
24:42A little bit of tone knocked on the bridge.
25:07Try the Clapton Woman tone
25:09with the tone control rolled completely off
25:11with volume on 10.
25:12Which pickup is that?
25:14Either.
25:15They kind of end up sounding more or less the same.
25:17Right, okay.
25:18So if I do...
25:20Volume 10, tone 0.
25:22So if I do...
25:39Yeah.
25:40Volume 10, tone 0.
25:45Volume 10, tone 0.
25:48Volume 10, tone 0.
25:49Volume 10, tone 0.
25:51Volume 10, tone 0.
25:53Volume 10, tone 0.
26:07Wonderful.
26:08It's so savage.
26:15I remember on
26:17Cream's early single
26:18I Feel Free
26:19Clapton started the solo on woman tone
26:22and then you could actually hear the switch flick
26:24anybody remember that
26:26and then he goes on to that bridge pickup
26:28using exactly those two tones
26:30that Ainsley had just there
26:32really exciting
26:34the neck profile
26:36is the thing that's meant to be really different
26:38do you notice it on this one?
26:40out of all the ones I've played
26:41this is the first one I'm like
26:42this is different
26:43this is really quite slim
26:45in terms of depth
26:46like that way
26:50it's not
26:51it's still got some shoulder on it
26:53but it's not got anywhere
26:54near as much depth
26:58as that one
26:59all the other ones
27:00so that is noticeable
27:01it just feels still
27:03as we come to the end of our little walkthrough
27:06of the 58 to 60 guitars
27:07that we've played here
27:08this evening
27:10do you have a favourite?
27:14there's one leapt out at you
27:16as being
27:16just for personal taste
27:18what would you spend
27:18your 350,000 pounds on Ainsley?
27:22well
27:24I don't know
27:25because they're all
27:26they've all got their own
27:27they're all unique
27:28they've all got their
27:29it's
27:30I think you can tell
27:31more difference between them
27:32when you
27:33as a player
27:34I mean probably
27:36when you're listening to them
27:37you can tell they're all
27:38you know
27:38old Les Pauls
27:39but it's
27:40I think you tell more difference
27:42when you're playing them
27:42and
27:44they're
27:44I don't know
27:45they're all
27:45they're all great
27:46in their own way
27:47they've all got their own
27:47thing like
27:48there's
27:49I can't remember now
27:50but there was one of them
27:51where it
27:52I think one of the
27:53the first time I went
27:54to the bridge pickup
27:55that
27:56had a thing
27:57where I'm like
27:58ooh
27:59and then there was another one
28:00that had a neck pickup
28:01that was kind of clear
28:02but it's a little bit
28:03softer sounding
28:04they're all just
28:05slight variances
28:07that's the thing isn't it
28:08you sort of
28:08you kind of
28:09you'll fall somewhere
28:10on the spectrum
28:11with them won't you
28:11well I mean
28:12we are so lucky
28:13in this room
28:14because I
28:14have been
28:15in the guitar business
28:17for decades
28:18I've never been in a room
28:19with this many
28:2158, 59, 60
28:2354 Les Pauls
28:25and to hear them
28:26it's actually
28:27a privilege
28:28to sit just
28:29feet away from Ainsley
28:31and hear him
28:31and hear all the differences
28:33of all the guitars
28:34you know
28:34the differences in tone
28:36the differences in look
28:37they are
28:38they're so
28:39such variation
28:42and you know
28:43if you did have your
28:45350,000 pounds
28:46to go and spend
28:47tomorrow
28:47or if I did
28:48I don't know
28:49which one I would
28:50buy
28:51I think it would
28:52take a while
28:52to decide
28:52to have to pick one
28:54because you might get
28:55you know
28:56with the ones
28:57that we tried today
28:57like
28:59there might be one guitar
29:00where you think
29:01oh I really like
29:01the bridge on that
29:02but I like the neck
29:03pickup on another one
29:04and it's
29:06they're all just
29:06subtly different
29:07so yeah
29:08it would be
29:08a very hard decision
29:09they definitely
29:10sounded different
29:11I mean
29:11I don't know
29:11if you
29:12in the room
29:12you felt the same
29:13as certainly
29:14I did from here
29:15each guitar
29:16you could
29:16oh yeah
29:17that's different
29:17that's different
29:18in this way
29:18that's different
29:19in that way
29:21well I think
29:22on that note
29:23ladies and gentlemen
29:24Ainsley's going to
29:25leave the stage
29:25for a bit
29:25but please give him
29:26such a warm
29:27round of applause
29:28for being our
29:29demonstrator
29:29it sounded fabulous
29:40and so we move on
29:42to the next part
29:42of tonight's
29:43entertainment
29:43I mean
29:44I mean
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