Tom (Sonoman), didn't you and Chaucer go to school together?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mwilkins,

He was year ahead me. Our eldest daughter did go a semester of her junior year to Cambridge with Chaucer's seventh son, twice removed. Something to do with laudenum. No, wait, that was Coleridge, which gets us to Olivia Fig Newton, and I didn't want to go there. See what happens with the degrees of separation business? The best coherent description of this kind of interconnection is in the introduction to Look Homeward, Angel, by Thomas Wolfe, after whom I was named. Whew. that was hard work. Nap time.

Les Pauls with humbuckers are fine for soloing...so are ES-335 style Gibsons like the ES-355 or Lucille models BB King plays.

But 90% of the time we're playing chords, and nothing beats the clarity of a nice Strat or Tele single coil pickup!

Humbuckers sound muddy to me - great for soloing but muddy for chords at rock and blues volumes.

Go see Robben Ford. Last time he had two Pauls: a newish sunburst and a 50s Gold Top. They sang through the Dumble.

Robben is touring right now. He comes to Bakersfield on January 25th.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: OM66,

Just found this thread and man does this bring back some memories. My first good electric was a 53 goldtop with the P-90s. Damn that thing had a sound like a human voice. I've had the humbuckers as well on a Paul but those P-90s were magical. Check out what Clapton has to say about Dereck Trucks in his autobiography. "Brilliant" as the Guiness commercial goes. The whole era of music we're discussing here was the best of my lifetime. Or maybe I (we all) just had the best time then.

Okay, here's specifics: Larry Carton on youtube, playing BP Blue. The orignal, from 86, is on a Valley Arts strat (at the time, Don Grosh was their key guy, and went off on his own shortly after); and then a long live version from 92 on a LP deluxe with P90's. It shows that blues ain't in a guitar, it's in a guitar player. I like the strat version better. Unbelievable touch.

Tom, if I'm not mistaken Larry's Valley Arts guitar had EMG pickups. I remember a video of him with this guitar if it's the same. I had a Strat with EMGs but just couldn't get into their tone. Maybe a little too smooth and quiet. Bottom line though, is Larry can make any guitar sing. I sure like that 335 though.

I couldn't tell from the film if they were lace sensors or some other smooth-covered pickup. EMG
pickups always sounded to me like tone waiting to be processed. Pedals, boost, eq, whatnot. I like the Fralins in my Grosh better than any other strat pickups I've used. I did like the Duncan '59 strat style for the bridge, but I like the sp43 Fralins more. Sound like a good P90. Larry Carlton can play driftwood and make it sound good.