Scott Henderson Discussion

[dizzy]

Hey Scott

I have always been a strat guy. I had a Les Paul but sold it...just didn’t bond with it.
I have been thinking about trying a humbucker guitar again and I was just curious what you think of Les Pauls vs SGs? SGs sure are more affordable!

[Scott Henderson]

Les Pauls have a huge amount of low mid. People who are inexperienced with EQ mistake that for bass, but a strat has far more bass than a Les Paul. SGs are a little closer to strats in their tonal range, but still don't have as much bass simply because of the humbuckers.

Just my opinion, but the sound of a Les Paul is more recognizable than the sound of an SG. I have both, but use the Les Paul more for layering because it's so different from my strats.

That being said, Allan got a great tone with his SG on the Tony Williams Believe It album, and AC/DC kicks ass, but Led Zeppelin is my favorite rock band so I grew up with the sound of a Les Paul.

If you buy any Gibson, the pickups suck ass. Their pickups are so terrible that they changed the pots in their guitars to 300K to hide the awful treble frequencies their pickups make. I changed the pots in my Les Paul to 500K, and use a Seymour Duncan '59 in the bridge and Jazz in the neck - it's the slide guitar on Church of Xotic Dance.

[Thanasis]

Hey Daniel, hope you are well.

Just thought I'd share my thoughts on the SG cause I have owned a couple.
The ones I had, had a tendency to be a little heavy on the headstock side, which made them quite uncomfortable to play on a gig, with a strap. You use quite a bit of effort on the left hand to keep it balanced and I got a bit tired of it over the few years I was playing with it.

Also, great care needs to be taken cause the headstock is angled and if the guitar falls it is probably going to be a disaster. This happens more often with les pauls, but I guess SGs are as fragile.
One of mine fell and broke on the other side(maple neck), where the binding to the body was and that was it. Although I fixed it, it never was the same.
On the other hand, the pleasure of pure mahogany (without the maple top) is a thing you only get with the SG type guitar. I have tried maple neck and light mahogany neck and liked both for different reasons . With a pickup combination just like Scott mentioned these guitars are something else. I used to have the custom five on the bridge and the jazz on the neck and it was totally the thing for me. The good thing about modern humbuckers is that you can have a total of 13 different sounds. I stuck to the pure humbucker tone but you can experiment a lot.

Not enough experience with les pauls, just thought I'd share a few things I have experienced with the SGs.

[dizzy]

Thanks Scott and Thanasis

That’s a hard choice because so many great tones have been made with both. I’ll have to play both of them a bunch when I decide to buy.

When I bought my Les Paul which I sold pretty quick I had the same experience with muddy bad pickups. When I put in Seymour’s and 500k pots it sounded much better. I bought one of the newer chambered ones that was lighter but that was probably a mistake.

[Thanasis]

Maybe you could get lucky like Scott did and get one for free!!
I currently own a very heavy all mahogany guitar (handmade) which is very SG like. That is all I have and I am very pleased with it.

I prefer it to the couple of standard les pauls I have tried, which are probably chambered slightly. I had recorded with an old les paul just once which I remember was pretty heavy and it was nothing like the ones that are available at the moment, but I can hardly remember what it felt like.

But instead of paying a lot for a current Gibson model, you could probably find a very good luthier make a better one for a better price. Don't know, just guessing.. I am not from the U.S.A. but I am pretty sure you are in a very good place to find a very fine instrument for less than Gibson demands. Sometimes it's just the name we pay for.

I am certainly not an expert on the subject, but I hope you find what youre looking for. Also sorry for the essay once again haha

[Scott Henderson]

Dizzy, my 90's Les Paul is also chambered - it's the only way Gibson can make a light guitar. I have some rich friends (apparently) who've brought over 60's Les Pauls - they're much much lighter than any Les Paul at a music store, even the chambered ones, and they definitely sound better than mine... but not $30,000 better! I've also heard quite a few late 70's and 80's Les Pauls, which are extremely heavy - so heavy that there's very little sustain. In my opinion, the chambered ones sound better than those.

[dizzy]

You guys are going to get me in trouble. Now I have major gas for a les paul or sg.
I'll go to norms rare guitars in LA because I can probably play a bunch of old SGs and Les Pauls and get an idea for what a good one is. The times I have played nice ones I always say "oh, so this is why people like this sound"

[Petar]

[dizzy]

[quote="Petar"][quote="dizzy"]Hey Scott

I have always been a strat guy. I had a Les Paul but sold it...just didn’t bond with it.
I have been thinking about trying a humbucker guitar again and I was just curious what you think of Les Pauls vs SGs? SGs sure are more affordable![/quote]

Get a strat or a tele and stop foolin' around.
I grew up with fender players, LP and SG don't sound right to me.[/quote

Ok Petar. Thanks

[MesolimbicNAc]

I've found the combination of an SG with p90's quite interesting,prolly due to my listenin to Mike Oldfield's " Ommadawn" ( 60's SG junior).

I would like to know Scott's opinion on such instrument.

[daschwarjazz]

What you could do is have Warmoth build you a mahogany strat body and a Gibson scale mahogany neck with a rosewood fingerboard. Basically a bolt-on SG! Could also get a maple top for the body if you’re feeling more Les Paul-y. Bolt on necks sound a bit different than set neck, of course, but you’ll more or less get a Gibson sound with a strat feel.

[dizzy]

That’s a great idea dashwar.
I could get a tremolo then too. Obviously having a floating bridge will make it more Straty but I would play it more then. It’s hard to get away from the expression that a wammy bar can give.
Have you tried this?

[daschwarjazz]

My Warmoth build is a roasted alder body with a Gibson scale roasted maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. The pickups are Xotic Raw Vintage humbuckers (highly recommended) and I put in a MannMade 2020 for the bridge. It’s an incredibly versatile instrument.

My next Warmoth build will probably be a bolt on mahogany SG thing with a tremolo. I too kind of need the tremolo — you know, just in case. Nothing is worse than playing on a stoptail guitar, and you go to dive that note just a little, and you realize you can’t. Speaking of diving, having a strat/SG hybrid fixes the neck dive issue inherent in most SG models.

[dizzy]

Those guitars sound killer. Thanks for the ideas.

[Petar]

[quote="dizzy"]