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drkorey « An ok Les Paul »
Published on 07/21/11 at 20:00An early 2000's Gary Moore Les Paul Guitar, made in the USA. I bought it new on clearance from an online dealer. The Gary Moore sig. was designed with Gary Moore the guitar great, with the thought of making a great sounding, inexpensive L.P. It has a mahogany back and neck, carved AA maple top with a 22-fret rosewood fingerboard with pearl trapezoid inlays. Gary’s signature is on the truss rod cover. The neck is a very thick 50’s? style and has a 24 ¾” Scale. It has a standard Tune-o-matic Bridge and a Stopbar Tailpiece. The hardware is nickel with “perloid” tuning pegs. The Gary Moore was Gibson’s first attempt to utilize the Burstbucker pickups in the U.S., and has a reversed Zebra Burst-Bucker on the Rhythm and an Open-coil Burst-Bucker for the treble. They are basically overwound to make them sound hotter – a tribute to an old L.P. that Moore got from Blues legend Peter Green. It has the usual tone and volume control for each pickup and a three way selector switch. It has a Lemonburst finish – distinctive for this model guitar. It came with a custom hardshell case with a dark blue interior instead of the bordello pink that usually comes in Gibson cases. It also has a satin dust cover with Moore’s signature. A signed pickguard comes with the guitar – not installed. All in all, pretty standard Les Paul characteristics.
UTILIZATION
The guitar has typical Les Paul access to the upper frets, which can be hard to reach - especially if you have large hands. With the three way toggle and two humbucker pickups you can get a wide variety of sounds.
I never weighed it but it was very much on the heavy side. Your shoulder will feel it after 10-15 minutes.
The neck on this guitar was HUGE. I kept it in storage for the first few years I had it and after a few years of my lead playing developing I brought it out to record with and found it very hard to get around on due to the size. I was used to the 60's carve neck on my '67 Gibby Flying V reissue (which is about perfect!).
This was actually the second one I owned after I returned the first one that was shipped to me due to a faulty truss rod the wouldn't tighten and some other cosmetic issues.
The next one had a pretty nasty mineral stain going through the body but I decided to keep it anyway.
SOUNDS
I used this guitar with an Egnater IE4 preamp, a Peavey 5150II, Marshall TSL and a Boogie DC-5. The amps were paired with a VHT Fatbottom 4x12 that had Eminence P50E's and a Marshall 1960 B cab with stock speakers.
I usually go for a nice thick Jerry Cantrell AIC tone, to use with my modern rock/metal band.
The guitar had a very pronounced midrange and high end with not much bass. It was tight with a mid and treble crunch under high gain playing. I would attribute this to the Burstbucker pickups it had. I did not like the sound at all. The cleans were just ok, I didn't think the Burstbucker pups cleaned up very well.
My favorite sounds with this guitar were the high gain lead tones with the neck pickup. I found all other applications average at best.
Overall it was a very limited sound for my needs.
OVERALL OPINION
Let me state that I was young when I bought this guitar and didn't know much about different pickups, neck carves, etc. I just saw Les Paul, a famous guys name, clearance price and thought it would be killer for an LP.
After much more experience and having owned many guitars during the years where I would buy, try and flip, this guitar was a terrible match for my style and what I wanted it to do for me
I pretty much disliked everything about this guitar, except some lead sounds, the price and the very cool blue lined case.
I think it ws a good value for someone more vintage minded that loves huge necked LP's and the Burstbucker pups.
Knowing what I know now, I still would have bought this guitar because I held onto it in storage (maybe played it 4 hours total over 6-7 years) and ended up selling it for almost double to someone who was a GM fan.
UTILIZATION
The guitar has typical Les Paul access to the upper frets, which can be hard to reach - especially if you have large hands. With the three way toggle and two humbucker pickups you can get a wide variety of sounds.
I never weighed it but it was very much on the heavy side. Your shoulder will feel it after 10-15 minutes.
The neck on this guitar was HUGE. I kept it in storage for the first few years I had it and after a few years of my lead playing developing I brought it out to record with and found it very hard to get around on due to the size. I was used to the 60's carve neck on my '67 Gibby Flying V reissue (which is about perfect!).
This was actually the second one I owned after I returned the first one that was shipped to me due to a faulty truss rod the wouldn't tighten and some other cosmetic issues.
The next one had a pretty nasty mineral stain going through the body but I decided to keep it anyway.
SOUNDS
I used this guitar with an Egnater IE4 preamp, a Peavey 5150II, Marshall TSL and a Boogie DC-5. The amps were paired with a VHT Fatbottom 4x12 that had Eminence P50E's and a Marshall 1960 B cab with stock speakers.
I usually go for a nice thick Jerry Cantrell AIC tone, to use with my modern rock/metal band.
The guitar had a very pronounced midrange and high end with not much bass. It was tight with a mid and treble crunch under high gain playing. I would attribute this to the Burstbucker pickups it had. I did not like the sound at all. The cleans were just ok, I didn't think the Burstbucker pups cleaned up very well.
My favorite sounds with this guitar were the high gain lead tones with the neck pickup. I found all other applications average at best.
Overall it was a very limited sound for my needs.
OVERALL OPINION
Let me state that I was young when I bought this guitar and didn't know much about different pickups, neck carves, etc. I just saw Les Paul, a famous guys name, clearance price and thought it would be killer for an LP.
After much more experience and having owned many guitars during the years where I would buy, try and flip, this guitar was a terrible match for my style and what I wanted it to do for me
I pretty much disliked everything about this guitar, except some lead sounds, the price and the very cool blue lined case.
I think it ws a good value for someone more vintage minded that loves huge necked LP's and the Burstbucker pups.
Knowing what I know now, I still would have bought this guitar because I held onto it in storage (maybe played it 4 hours total over 6-7 years) and ended up selling it for almost double to someone who was a GM fan.
