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tjon901 « Crazy Maple Les Paul »
Published on 07/07/11 at 09:34The Raw Power series is another limited run of guitars they put out a few years ago. Gibson goes crazy with their limited run ideas. The Raw Power series of guitars are all maple guitars. The neck fretboard and body are made of maple. With the maple bodies you get totally different tones than you would get on a normal Gibson. This is the Raw Power Les Paul studio. The Studio is a more stripped down version of the Les Paul. This guitar has a maple neck and fretboard with 22 jumbo frets. The body has a maple top and is attached to a chambered maple body. There is no binding anywhere on the guitar. The pickguard is see-through for some reason. The guitar has two Gibson 57 pickups. It has the classic Les Paul control configuration. Each pickup has its own volume and tone control and they were switched with a 3 way switch.
UTILIZATION
Playability wise the biggest thing on a guitar is the neck. They have put the 50s profile Gibson neck on this guitar so the neck is huge. People call the 50s profile neck the baseball bat neck. This may make it hard for some people with smaller hands to play. With the maple neck and the small dot inlays the inlays can be hard to see if playing in a dark room. This guitar is a lot lighter than most Les Pauls due to it being chambered. This means they cut wood out from the inside of the guitar so it is almost like a semi-hollow. If you x-rayed the guitar it would look like it was made out of swiss cheese with little circles cut out of it. Gibson says this does not affect the tone but it really does.
SOUNDS
With the chambering the natural tone of the guitar is really effected. You can compare a chambered Les Paul to a non chambered Les Paul and you can really hear the difference. A non chambered Les Paul will feel more solid. The 57 pickups is something that is common in Gibson guitars nowadays. The Classic 57 pickups are modern day imitation of the classic PAF pickup that Gibson made famous. With the Classic 57 PAF style pickups this guitar is a blues and rock machine. The 57's have just the right amount of sag in the tone so you can really work the dynamics like you would with a set of real vintage pickups. The neck pickup is super smooth and when you throw in some tone knob you can get that sour tone like you have a parked wah on. The bridge pickup has a little more bite and spank to it. With some gain you can get good classic rock tones from the bridge pickup. These pickups can handle more gain than a set of PAF's could. Because of their modern design they retain their composure longer than a set of old pickups could. With the maple body and neck the natural tone of the guitar will be brighter than a normal Les Paul and this will give the guitar more clarity overall.
OVERALL OPINION
This is an interesting guitar but it doesnt really sound like a Gibson overall. It all maple construction gives it a bright and honky tone that you do not really associate with a Gibson. Gibson makes a lot of crazy limited run models and this is just one of them. This guitar may be worth a lot some day due to it being rare and not very popular but I would not bet on it. If you are looking for a stripped down Les Paul with a crazy bright and clear tone this guitar meets those specs perfectly.
UTILIZATION
Playability wise the biggest thing on a guitar is the neck. They have put the 50s profile Gibson neck on this guitar so the neck is huge. People call the 50s profile neck the baseball bat neck. This may make it hard for some people with smaller hands to play. With the maple neck and the small dot inlays the inlays can be hard to see if playing in a dark room. This guitar is a lot lighter than most Les Pauls due to it being chambered. This means they cut wood out from the inside of the guitar so it is almost like a semi-hollow. If you x-rayed the guitar it would look like it was made out of swiss cheese with little circles cut out of it. Gibson says this does not affect the tone but it really does.
SOUNDS
With the chambering the natural tone of the guitar is really effected. You can compare a chambered Les Paul to a non chambered Les Paul and you can really hear the difference. A non chambered Les Paul will feel more solid. The 57 pickups is something that is common in Gibson guitars nowadays. The Classic 57 pickups are modern day imitation of the classic PAF pickup that Gibson made famous. With the Classic 57 PAF style pickups this guitar is a blues and rock machine. The 57's have just the right amount of sag in the tone so you can really work the dynamics like you would with a set of real vintage pickups. The neck pickup is super smooth and when you throw in some tone knob you can get that sour tone like you have a parked wah on. The bridge pickup has a little more bite and spank to it. With some gain you can get good classic rock tones from the bridge pickup. These pickups can handle more gain than a set of PAF's could. Because of their modern design they retain their composure longer than a set of old pickups could. With the maple body and neck the natural tone of the guitar will be brighter than a normal Les Paul and this will give the guitar more clarity overall.
OVERALL OPINION
This is an interesting guitar but it doesnt really sound like a Gibson overall. It all maple construction gives it a bright and honky tone that you do not really associate with a Gibson. Gibson makes a lot of crazy limited run models and this is just one of them. This guitar may be worth a lot some day due to it being rare and not very popular but I would not bet on it. If you are looking for a stripped down Les Paul with a crazy bright and clear tone this guitar meets those specs perfectly.