New parts coming for my Gibson USA LP Studio guitar.

[DrNomis_44]

Hey Everyone,

On Tuesday next week, I'm going to be ordering some new parts online for my Gibson USA LP Studio guitar from a website called The Stratosphere, I'm going to be ordering some new nuts, tuners, TOM bridge hardware, pickup selector switch, and some new knobs, this time round I'm going to see if I can get a mate of mine to install the new nut for me cause the last few times I tried to install a new nut didn't exactly go according to plan, no matter how hard I tried to do a good job of it, the other parts I can install myself though.

I'm going to be ordering two bleached white and slotted bone-nuts, and two Tone Ninja Nuts for the LP Studio, I don't know which ones will prove to be the best fit for the nut trench so I'll have to wait till all the parts to arrive.

The Tone Ninja nuts are interesting, from what I've read online they appear to be made from a special polymer material which is self-lubricating, supposedly this means that I won't have to keep putting messy lubricants in the nut slots, I've tried using specially-made nut slot lubricants in the past with very limited results, I've also tried rubbing pencil lead in the slots too, didn't really work at all, so it'll be interesting to see if the Tone Ninja nuts live up to the manufacturer's claims.

I'm also going to be ordering some bleached-white bone nuts for my Fender USA Strat, as well as some Tone Ninja nuts for it too, the stock nut on the Fender Strat is a plastic one as far as I can determine, and I'm experiencing a couple of issues with it, firstly the B and high E-string seem to be binding in their nut slots, the B-string seems to be the worst offender cause it keeps wanting to go slightly sharp all the time when I use the trem-bar, secondly the high E-String seems to have a slight sitar-buzz to it when played open, I've traced the cause to the nut itself since the sitar-buzzing goes away when I fret just behind the first fret, the first fret action looks fine to me as far as I'm concerned, incidentally, I tried putting some lubricant into the B and high E-String nut slots and noticed that it deadened the B and high E-strings a bit, so there's all the more reason to suspect the nut as being at fault, I'm un-decided as to whether I'll install a new bone-nut or a Tone Ninja nut, again I'll have to wait till the parts arrive in the post.

Here's a webpage article I just found:

http://www.addictedtogear.com/articles/that-nutty-tone


There's another reason I am very strongly suspecting the stock nut on my Fender Strat is causing the issue with the B and E-strings, I noticed occasionally, when I did a dive bomb with the Strat's trem-bar without the Strat plugged into an amp, that a slight pinging-sound came from the headstock end of the neck, I also noticed that if I pushed down on the B-string behind the nut the B-string would go sharp, gently pulling the B-string away from the fretboard would bring the B-string back to pitch, so yes I think the B-string is binding in it's nut slot for sure.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

Just finished getting all the parts for the LP Studio guitar ordered online from The Stratosphere, now it's just a case of waiting for them to arrive in the post, it's going to be great to play the LP Studio through my Marshall amp again.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

I got an email from The Stratosphere saying that my order had been shipped, checked the postal-tracking on it and it reckons that it should be delivered on the 24/01/2018, i.e. next Wednesday, feeling pretty psyched about all this, a mate of mine is going to organize a jam out at his place in February so hopefully I can get the LP Studio fixed and back in action by then, been missing the roaring tone I got when I played it through my Marshall amp.

[Marcel]

I have yet to identify exactly what it is but.... yeah, there is something magical about and actual Gibson LP vs a kit LP through a Marshall.... For all the hoo-haa over 'tonewoods' it is about the only thing I can put it down to, being a thick Maple cap on Mahogany.... Even though the others are setup exactly (as close as I can) the same as the LP there is still a difference that expensive hardware and hours of fretwork doesn't correct on the kits. Maybe It's the I'm missing the microchip RF-id tag under the fretboard on the kit builds, I don't know....

Mostly the same can be said for my Fender Strat's and Tele's, though not to the same extent.. Good hardware and a fundamentally good build will get you extremely close.

I got a MIM loaded guard through the guys at Stratosphere. and at a very competitive price. I think it was the one change to my plywood Strat that took it well past the finishing post... You know that you can get complete new guitars through them for quite a bit better than current Aussie retail prices...

A jam where you can turn up the noise sounds like fun...

[DrNomis_44]

I have yet to identify exactly what it is but.... yeah, there is something magical about and actual Gibson LP vs a kit LP through a Marshall.... For all the hoo-haa over 'tonewoods' it is about the only thing I can put it down to, being a thick Maple cap on Mahogany.... Even though the others are setup exactly (as close as I can) the same as the LP there is still a difference that expensive hardware and hours of fretwork doesn't correct on the kits. Maybe It's the I'm missing the microchip RF-id tag under the fretboard on the kit builds, I don't know....

Mostly the same can be said for my Fender Strat's and Tele's, though not to the same extent.. Good hardware and a fundamentally good build will get you extremely close.

I got a MIM loaded guard through the guys at Stratosphere. and at a very competitive price. I think it was the one change to my plywood Strat that took it well past the finishing post... You know that you can get complete new guitars through them for quite a bit better than current Aussie retail prices...

A jam where you can turn up the noise sounds like fun...

Yeah, I share the same sentiments, I'm thinking that the reason why the LP Studio sounded so great through the Marshal was due to the pickups installed in it, they are genuine Gibson pickups, their 480 and 490T (think that's what they are) PAF Humbuckers with the chrome shields on them.

Here's a pic of the LP Studio guitar sitting on top of the wooden computer desk in my loungeroom, you can see my cat Holly sitting on my computer case, telling me that I'm doing it all wrong...she's my biggest critic....lol:

[Marcel]

Yep, mine is a 2016 50's tribute with uncovered 490R and 498T PU's.... the video explains it all... lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44VCUXjcdl4

[DrNomis_44]

Yep, mine is a 2016 50's tribute with uncovered 490R and 498T PU's.... the video explains it all... lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44VCUXjcdl4

Mine's a 2013 vintage Les Paul Studio model, so that makes your guitar about three years younger than mine, I think the silver shields on my guitar's pickups do something to the midrange frequencies cause when I played it through my Marshall amp, the tone was very midrangey, fortunately it's a tone that I really like.


That Les Paul in the video clip is a nice one, the bridge pickup sounded like it wasn't adjusted properly with respect to the strings, or it could have just been due to how youtube handles audio.

[Simon Barden]

The covers will remove some of the top end of the pickup due to extra capacitance, so they will seem to have slightly more mid-range than the same pickup with the cover removed, but it's quite a subtle effect.

[Marcel]

That Les Paul in the video clip is a nice one, the bridge pickup sounded like it wasn't adjusted properly with respect to the strings, or it could have just been due to how youtube handles audio.

I was surprised to hear the YouTube one sounding so bright/brittle/thin on the bridge PU. Same look yet completely different sound to the one in my hands. Crunch/dirty and lead are pretty similar to the video through my JVM210 combo.

As it stands right now I have a few HB loaded hard tail Mahogany body axe's, all of which can sound pretty darn awesome in their own right, yet there is still something which sets the Gibson apart from the rest of my LP style herd. On the 'Fender' side there is none that come close on the emotional/feel/tone dimension as to beat the Denim Tele, although the MIM loaded 40yo ply body strat is not that far behind with the G-LP and SD rails loaded Alder strat build lingering in seemingly equal third.... which just shows that when there is more than one axe to choose from personal taste accounts for a lot in parts choices and playability preference for any axe.... lol

[DrNomis_44]

As an exercise in curiosity, I might use my Digital LCR Multimeter to do some measurements on the two pickups in my LP Studio guitar, I'll measure their DC resistance and inductance and post my findings in this thread, my LP studio guitar uses a PCB that has all the pots and tone-caps soldered onto it, the two pickups plug into sockets on the PCB so all I have to do is unplug them and then I can do the measurements.

The test results could prove to be interesting, so stay tuned.