• From: Northern British Columbia
  • Registered: 2009-11-28
  • Posts: 4

Topic: new LP is throwing me for a loop

I broke down a month ago and bought an LP, basically, none of my old setup sounds right anymore  hmm

I'm just wanting some tips from LP owners on dialing in your settings, I played directly into an amp of the exact same model  as mine in the store and very much enjoyed what I heard, so I took it home with me.   With my old guitar(strat), I usually played into the clean channel of my Peavey Delta Blues with my Radial Trimode handling the dirt, but with the LP my main struggle has been balancing a nice midrange and my highs, which have been either earsplitting and harsh or far too muddy for my liking.

for clarification, the LP is a studio, and is a maple capped model with the 498T/490R

any suggestions for smoothing out my highs? guitar mods and new gear suggestions are perfectly welcome as well.

Guitar - '09 Les Paul Studio, wine red.
Effects - Radial Trimode Distortion, Boss Bd2, Line 6 Dr. Distorto, EHX Micro POG, Big Muff Pi, Small Stone Nano, Hardwire Dl-8, Digitech Digiverb, Dunlop replica Octavio, Pigtronix Philosopher's Tone
Amp - Peavey Delta Blues
  • Registered: 2010-03-20
  • Posts: 536

Re: new LP is throwing me for a loop

CarswellB wrote:

I broke down a month ago and bought an LP, basically, none of my old setup sounds right anymore  hmm

I'm just wanting some tips from LP owners on dialing in your settings, I played directly into an amp of the exact same model  as mine in the store and very much enjoyed what I heard, so I took it home with me.   With my old guitar(strat), I usually played into the clean channel of my Peavey Delta Blues with my Radial Trimode handling the dirt, but with the LP my main struggle has been balancing a nice midrange and my highs, which have been either earsplitting and harsh or far too muddy for my liking.

for clarification, the LP is a studio, and is a maple capped model with the 498T/490R

any suggestions for smoothing out my highs? guitar mods and new gear suggestions are perfectly welcome as well.

If this is when you roll off the volume then get some bumble bee caps fitted. Most good techs know how to do the LP 'bleed' mod.

"Who wants an orange whip? Orange whip? Orange whip? Three orange whips...."

JB LP Goldtop No. 290- Aged...rather like me.
  • From: Florida, USA
  • Registered: 2008-06-04
  • Posts: 1,420

Re: new LP is throwing me for a loop

The way I typically run mine is with the bridge pickup volume on 8-10 for leads and the tone about 5.  I like the tone in the middle because this allows you to add or take away the treble the best.  The neck pickup is full on both volume and tone on 10 most of the time.  For a nice middle setting I like to have the bridge full up on volume with the neck on about 6 or 7. 

It's always a challenge to balance your rig to be equally Strat and Les Paul friendly.  I find that if you can get a really fat and pleasant tone from a Strat's bridge pickup you'll typically be able to plug a Gibson right in a be equally happy.  The reverse doesn't work as well for some reason.  Every time I dial the perfect sound with a Gibson and switch back to my Strat I think "GOD TOOO BRIGHT!!!!" so just experiment around.

'67 and '74 Fender Twin Reverbs, '74 Marshall 1987 lead mkII, Metro Superlead 100. Pedals from TC Electronic, Ibanez, Dunlop, BK Butler, Electro-Harmonix, Fulltone, Maestro/Gibson, Loopmaster switching, VoodooLab, Boss. Gibson and Fender guitars, Dimarzio pickups.
  • Registered: 2008-10-02
  • Posts: 373

Re: new LP is throwing me for a loop

I had the same problem with my studio with the same pickups. I think those pups are hotter than the classics and the burst buckers, I changed mine out, but still had some issues, I should of rewired my paul with the bumble bee caps like someone else said. One more thing to try is adjust the pup height I did this and had some success with that and turning the dials until I had something I liked.

What is odd is I have those old pup from my LP Studio in my Ibanez Lawsuite Les Paul and they sound killer!

  • Registered: 2009-12-01
  • Posts: 36

Re: new LP is throwing me for a loop

I have found with my rig, I dial in a MY tone on my Strat (I always roll off the tone a little on it) then with the Les Paul, as is stated above, I roll the volume back a little to smooth it out.  I guess my suggestion is find the best tone with your primary guitar and then spend some time with the volume and tone controls on the other guitar to dial in it's tone.  Good luck

http://www.facebook.com/cornerstonebluesband?ref=ts
  • From: Northern British Columbia
  • Registered: 2009-11-28
  • Posts: 4

Re: new LP is throwing me for a loop

Progawfer wrote:

I have found with my rig, I dial in a MY tone on my Strat (I always roll off the tone a little on it) then with the Les Paul, as is stated above, I roll the volume back a little to smooth it out.  I guess my suggestion is find the best tone with your primary guitar and then spend some time with the volume and tone controls on the other guitar to dial in it's tone.  Good luck

yeah I think that is my issue after spending some time with it again, the HB's are just overpowering my old rig, too much output (and I'm not used to having a tone knob on my bridge pickup) lol


on a completely unrelated note, Zendrive? are they all they are cracked up to be? I really want to be able to emulate Robben Ford's tone.

Guitar - '09 Les Paul Studio, wine red.
Effects - Radial Trimode Distortion, Boss Bd2, Line 6 Dr. Distorto, EHX Micro POG, Big Muff Pi, Small Stone Nano, Hardwire Dl-8, Digitech Digiverb, Dunlop replica Octavio, Pigtronix Philosopher's Tone
Amp - Peavey Delta Blues
  • From: Ridgeland, MS
  • Registered: 2009-08-12
  • Posts: 1,248

Re: new LP is throwing me for a loop

I don't know about the Zendrive, but you might want to check this out...

http://www.providence-effects.fr/crbst_18.html

  • From: Detroit
  • Registered: 2006-06-02
  • Posts: 5,807

Re: new LP is throwing me for a loop

Stock volume and tone controls?
An upgrade might be in order:
http://www.rsguitarworks.net/rsstore/pr … cts_id=178

- Nic from Detroit... posting on JB's Forum since 6-2-2006
Ask me about my handwound Great Lakes Guitar Pickups
Since 2010, Bonamassa fans have taken advantage of my JB friend discount = my cost + shipping. cool
  • Registered: 2009-02-10
  • Posts: 470

Re: new LP is throwing me for a loop

Try lower the pickups. If they're too high then you'll get harsh sounding highs.
Very easy fix too.
Other than that, make sure you get 500k pots in there. Make a huge difference.