Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Sounding out (5)


Gibson purists won't have time for this kinda LP. This is the BFG, a stripped down model, totally devoid of gloss & any attempts to make the instrument look attractive. There are no fretboard markers & the models were finished in colours with no relevance to heritage/ nostalgia.

Compared to the original version seen above, mine had the Grover tuners replaced with a set of lighter, Kluson type Gotohs because the former were heavy & caused a neck dive in sitting position. The bridge pickup was swapped out, kill switch removed & the wooden knobs done away with in favour of a plastic set. This is the Gibson in my collection with countless mods done to it to serve my needs/ quirks.


The latest humbucker to make its way into the BFG is Gibson's 500T. It's one of my preferred pickup by the manufacturer with loads of clarity under high gain settings. The neck P-90 had been a mainstay since day one simply because I like a fat single coil tone in the neck of Les Pauls. 


The thing with gloss free finishes is that it does not offer any protection to any surface applications. I'm literally wiping away those labels every time I give the headstock a wipe down during re-string. 

Is this a sheer waste of money? That's a firm NO. I bought this one because it reminds me of why I find glossed out necks detestable. It also offers a different insight on Les Pauls; how a lighter, no-frills version of it would serve those among us who thrive on bite rather than those semi-useless, treble truncated vintage sounding humbuckers. 

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