Why Play A Les Paul? ASK ZAC 39

well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac I hope you are doing
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well today today of course we were gonna
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talk about Les Paul's and you know I had
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to kind of continue with the motif of
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the what are strats for and do the what are
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Les Paul's for but really this is a
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chance just to kind of talk about how I
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got this
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r9 Les Paul that I had to pick out from
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the factory and just the the tweaks and
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the things that I look for in a Les Paul
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and yes I'm a Telecaster guy but I love
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Les Paul guitars also in love you know
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the history and and such so if you've
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been enjoying the show and you haven't
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done it already please subscribe if
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you've already subscribed and you've
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been watching the show and you'd like to
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support it well you can go to askzac.com
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and you can pick up we have these
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new hats and this is when the new
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t-shirt says it's a sickness so you can
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pick up one of those and and I
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appreciate it
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also I had a few guys reach out to me
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wanting to support the show but not
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wanting to buy merch and so and they've
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wanted to PayPal me and kind of tip you
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know kind of tip me so if you want to do
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that that's great too and so I'll put my
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paypal email address you know in the in
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the description of the video if you want
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to do that alright Les Paul guitars so I
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think you know when when the Les Paul
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really hit me was hearing Mike
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Bloomfield on the supersession album
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doing Albert's shuffle that really just
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the first notes that I heard and the
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tone
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everything about that and then of course
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again as a teenager I got you know live
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at the Fillmore East and here and you
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know Dwayne and Dickie's you know tones
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on that album you know golly just blew
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my mind
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now some of the there's some lives
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there's all sorts of other live stuff
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with a Dwayne and on the deluxe set of
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the eat a peach there's some really neat
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I think it's some of the last film or
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stuff that they did and that's some of
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my absolute favorite but those are guys
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that really hit me you know as far as
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you know Les Paul players and of course
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I was listening to Clapton you know the
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Blues breaker record especially so I
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think those were common you know kind of
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Les Paul touchstones so you know of
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course I was playing a lot of country
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music in the 90s and such and I was
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mainly using a Telecaster and a strat
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and I think it wasn't until you know
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until the tooth early 2000s that I
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really started thinking about a Les Paul
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you know to own one so as the years went
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on and I started you know kind of
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getting some money together and learning
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about Les Paul's you know I started
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checking them out and I knew I you know
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I certainly couldn't afford a real burst
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and then of course even like the you
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know the Earl the like the 68 and 69 you
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know kind of reissues the gold top and
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the and the black beauty that Gibson did
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even those were kind of out of my price
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range just they were just still so high
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so I you know I started checking out
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some of the Gibson Custom Shop guitars
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and started finding out about you know
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the historic s-- and/or hysterics some
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people call them and you know after
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playing them all unfortunately the one
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that I liked the best was the r9 which
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is probably one of the most expensive
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ones but they also have like the r5 and
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r6 and the r7 and r8 and they all you
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know but the R nines and our O's
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they kind of get the they tended to get
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the prettiest tops on them and had the
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lightest weight in your bodies and such
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so I you know I contacted a friend of
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mine over at Gibson and I said I would
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like to pick up an R 9 I was wondering
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if I could buy it directly from Gibson
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and you know because sometimes they do
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lock accommodation sales because of
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course I've you know worked with artists
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and then also you know worked with true
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tone I said I would like to pick up a
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guitar directly you know from Gibson and
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I would like to go to Gibson Custom and
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I would like to try out a bunch first
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and pick one out well I would not have
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asked that of my friend if I had known
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you know what a ballsy request that was
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and how rare it was to actually get to
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go there and pick him out and so my
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friend was really kind and didn't say
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anything about how ballsy my request was
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but he he made it happen and so it took
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a it took a couple months but in in May
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of 2008 I got to go down to the Gibson
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Custom Shop and they told me that they
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were gonna give me a tour of the place
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also and so I asked can I bring a friend
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and they said sure and so I took my
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buddy Jay Smith and Jay is the guy that
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designed the ask Zach logo and also his
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t-shirts and other things and he's a
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great longtime friend of mine and so he
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and I went together and we got to take
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this great tour of the you know the
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Gibson Custom Shop and got to see
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everything from the woods to you know
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them scraping the binding and painting
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and the the vos stuff that they were
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using at the time that they were
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smearing on the on the finish and
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everything it was it was just it was
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fantastic and then I got to go through
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all of the our nines they had which they
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had about thirty five of them and so I
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went through every single one of them
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they told me beforehand I couldn't play
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through them through
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so there would be no amp available so I
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could just you know play through it you
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know acoustically and then also they had
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they had a scale so that I could weigh
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him because of course that's kind of a
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big deal with Les Paul's and so out of
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all the thirty-five this one was the
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lightest weight with the prettiest top
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and the most resonance and also you know
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it felt good to me
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so and this one was pretty enough that
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they had not put the pickguard on and so
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when I picked it out the the gentleman
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said oh you know it's this one's got a
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really nice top so we haven't put the
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pickguard on yet do you want us to put
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the pickguard on I said no way so I've
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kept it you know pickguard less and so
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yeah so it was really really special to
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be able to to get this and of course
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it's probably one of the most probably
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most money I've you know spin on a
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guitar besides my 67 tele and it's a
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great great instrument and funnily
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enough you know as soon as any of us buy
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anything even if it's nice you know we
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start jacking with it and you start
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getting on the forums and he start you
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know checking out all sorts of things
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and of course I did that and I tried out
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like tone pros like locking hardware and
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I didn't like it and so I stayed with
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the the stock hardware on here I have
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not changed that out I did I did change
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out the pots to the nicer feeling 500
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k's and actually got some old caps from
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bill crook he had some old caps lying
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around that were the I think they're the
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the white Dublin or whatever they're not
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the bumblebees they're the ones that
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were used right before the bumblebees
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but anyway he had a set of those in his
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parts drawer and so he gave he donated
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those to me so thanks to bill crook then
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you know i you know i started messing
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with pickups and you know the pickups
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that were in it were burst buckers and
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they were heavily potted
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and so I knew I wanted to try I wanted
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to get something that was unpadded and
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so what I ended up doing and ended up
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being very happy with and they're still
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in the guitar is I contacted the Seymour
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Duncan Custom Shop and I had a custom
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set of antiquities made and this other
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unpadded and I wanted them under wound
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because I had found that I really liked
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the the humbuckers that were lower
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output because they tend to have more
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that chirp to him and more clarity and I
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wasn't trying to be you know no I wasn't
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trying to be Led Zeppelin or anything
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like that and I'm more of a clean player
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though I do like some Drive so I ended
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up I had to write this down
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so the neck is 6.8 K and the bridge is
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7.9 K and so basically it's kind of like
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the the the the bridge pickup is like a
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stock neck pickup as far as output and
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so what I've told told people is if they
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want to get a set of Antiquities get to
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neck pickups and use them in both
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position that way you'll kind of have a
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lower output set and not have to pay
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extra for a custom thing on top of that
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you know because I was having to have
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these custom-made
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I asked if if Seymour Duncan would sign
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the bottom of the pickups saying to Zack
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from Seymour and I didn't think he would
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do it but he did so yeah so if this
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guitar is ever still one yeah it'll be a
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set of Seymour Duncan antiquities with -
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Zac from Seymour on the bottom so anyway
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yeah so yeah so this has been a really
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great guitar and you know I know I'm you
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know a Telecaster guy but there is
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something about the the fatness and the
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sustain that you can't get you know from
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other instruments and you know it's just
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having to do with the you know a big
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block of mahogany you know with a you
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know slab a maple on the top
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and just you know the design the neck
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angle body the neck angle you know these
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you know separate you know tail piece
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and Umbridge you know which is really
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neat because on a on a telly or a strat
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you can't really adjust the tension
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because that's what this tail piece is
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for you can raise it or lower it and you
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can change the tension here and and you
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can even would get the tension really
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low by top wrapping which that gets too
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loose for me but yeah on a telly you
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know our strap you're kind of stuck with
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you know when you get to action where
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you want it that's just the break angle
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that you have and you can't you can't
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change that that's kind of one of the
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tough things but it's also you know
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there's simplicity in the Telecaster
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design so yeah so yeah so this is turn
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the moss torsion off and echo so this is
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this is just the guitar and this this is
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the neck pickup
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[Music]
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[Music]
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again what I look for in a Les Paul is
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clarity and also that chirp I want to
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hear that chirp and so in the the bridge
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pickup has a nice you know clarity you
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almost kind of do kind of a Telecaster
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thing you can almost chicken pick so it
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has a nice thing to it a couple things
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that I do whenever I'm playing a Les
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Paul one is I I do not use the same EQ
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settings at all so you know normally I
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set the treble at four and the base at
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five when I'm playing a tele or the Les
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Paul
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I set the treble to five and the bass
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down to three and that's because you
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know this guitar just has more output
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more content more mid-range more bass
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and because that you kind of have to
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tame it a little bit you know on the amp
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otherwise it's just going to be too much
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so kind of have to be careful especially
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if you're going back and forth with a
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Tele and a Les Paul it can be you know a
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bit much but these guitars are great you
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know because of the amount of sustain
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that they have and you know they're easy
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to play yeah they have less you know
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kind of fight to them than a telly and
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so it's a yeah and the reason I have one
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is because it just it makes me play
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very differently you know I'm not
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tempted to do anything said I would do
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on a on a Telecaster and that's and
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that's good it's a it's a it's a very
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very good thing
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I love the the fact that it's got two
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volumes and two tone controls because
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that fixes the problem that I have with
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the tele
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we're this way I can you know set the
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tone you know full up for the neck
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pickup and then I can darken the back
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pickup and you know that just you know
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gives you you know a much much better
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sound another thing that's interesting
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about Les Paul's is by watching a lot of
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the better players that use them you'll
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see that a lot of them will live kind of
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on both pickups and they won't really
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change that they'll just mix the pickups
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differently depending on what song
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they're playing or if they're going to
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solo or not and a lot of them will tend
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to kind of back off the bridge pickup on
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their playing rhythm and then they bring
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in more of the bridge pickup when
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they're gonna solo and it's a it's a
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great great sound and yeah definitely
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you know don't just leave everything
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full up and just go back and forth you
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know really really utilize those the
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mixes of tones that are available here
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another thing that I've always been
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tempted to do on one of these is to get
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a phase reversal switch and that's
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because of you know of course Peter
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Green and you know just that that cool
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out of phase sound and it's great
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because you know again because you have
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two volumes and two tone controls you
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can mix the amount of out of phase nests
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and so like on a tele when you put the
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two pickups out of phase I mean you're
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stuck with that weird phased you know
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heavily phased sound that has no base
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and on a Les Paul you can mix that
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amount of out of phase nests and you can
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get some really really great tones and
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you know JD my buddy JD has a push-pull
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pot on his old 62 335 which he calls
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read and you know and he he can flip
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that and get that cool sound
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so yeah and then it's just fun to put
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some put some drive on and a little
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delay and put it on the back pickup and
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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alright well guys I really appreciate
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you watching the show today and I hope
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you will you know get out your Les
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Paul's and you know comment below about
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about your Les Paul or humbucker
18:46
equipped guitar and yeah let's just have
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fun together well thank you so much and
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we'll see you next time
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buh-bye