I'm not a Gibson Player
I have a couple of Gibsons, but I am realising that this does not make me a Gibson player.
(all that follows only concerns soloing, not chords)
I plugged in the Les Paul last night & played for a couple of hours. My regular alternating pick technique didn’t sound as good as it should. It has something to do with the sound (and definitely the sustain) of the guitar. So I concentrated more of hammer-ons & pull-offs. This made it sound much better. There was less pick noise and made the decay of the notes sound much sweeter.
The sound of a guitar has always influenced how I play it, and for 44 years I never owned a Gibson. I’ve had my 339 & Les Paul for less than a year.
I always loved the sound of a Les Paul, but knew from the earliest days that ‘my’ sound was something else; essentially more of a Fender sound.
When I gigged the 339 last year I even felt there was less of me in the performance. I played fine and enjoyed the gig but I felt as if I was acting the role of different guitarist.
Try and imagine a machinist who has used his lathe to turn metal for 45 years, now suddenly working with wood. He has to change the speed of the spindle and the feed rate of the cutting tool. He’s the same fellow with the same experience using the same machine, yet everything has changed.
I could change the sound of the LP with my signal processor, but it would be inhibiting the natural sound of the guitar. The main reason for buying a different guitar is to experience a different voice. So it’s me that needs to adapt to the guitar, not the other way ‘round.
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