1957 Gibson Les Paul vs Custom Shop R7 - Are The Old Ones Better?
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- čas přidán 9. 02. 2022
- In this video, Paul Drew and James Ivey compare an original 1957 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top with Paul's Gibson Custom Shop R7. We want to find out if the old guitars are that much better than the new versions.
In this video, we are using a RedPlate Overdrive amplifier.
The Studio Rats are core band members Paul Drew on guitar/production/mixing, drummer James Ivey and Dan Hawkins on bass. They collaborate with singers and musicians to produce radio-ready songs. - Hudba
Oops. Around the 5:49 mark the Les Paul was in the rhythm position so you can't compare that to the '57 in the middle position. No wonder it was darker!
Precisely. It sounded GREAT -- for the Neck pickup. lol But quite different from the middle, of course... and yes, there would be some 'extra clarity' on the original 57 in the middle vs. reissue on the neck. There'd better be!
@@lescaster2179 "I don't wanna say warmer, cause it's not warmer, it's just... different". No, it IS warmer, it's the neck pickup alone LOL.
Fail.
Pretty dumb mistake, Can't believe he did not catch that.
At 5:13 I think you've made a mistake. It's in the neck position instead of the middle.
I'm surprised they didn't hear that!! They must be bloody tone deaf!
Can’t believe the difference man that vintage gold top sounds amazing😳
Amazing how even on my phone at a low volume, I could still really hear a big difference. Glorious tone!
Great video, what an opportunity to play a piece of guitar history 👍
That was fun ! They have now gone back into store … keeps the insurers happy …….it is a shame that CZcams compression etc ruins the sound as in the room there was a distinct difference ..
Gold top Les Pauls are maybe the most beautiful guitars made and this is a very fine specimen.
5:14 middle position....I don't think so. The pick up selector is clearly showing it's in the NECK position. Sounds nice but not a direct comparison.
Congratulations to the owner - what a great guitar this is. And congratulations to James and Paul for getting the chance to play it.
To quote Bob Taylor of Taylor guitars - "The worst your [new] guitar will ever sound is the day you take it home." Let's hear that R7 in a few decades...
You weren't in the middle position on your R7 in the first comparison, hence the possible difference.
Exactly, but they talk about harmonics and warmth, making smart expert faces…LOL. You kids should read what is harmonic before using this word.
I've got a custom shop R7 '57 reissue and it's the best guitar I've ever played in my life.
Same here. My R7 is a gem
Very cool guys I missed this one some how. Tell Clive Thanks from all of us. I dont know how I will ever get to hold or play one of these rare beasts but these video's are awsome.
I have a 1953 gold top and it definitely sounds completely different to any of the custom shop's that I've played. Even compared to the PAF replica equipped R7's. It has such a unique voice.
I've got a 1995 R7 that I really love. I found a very old ABR-1 bridge (big tone improvement), a new Kluson tailpiece (light weight aluminum), a Mojo Tone low output neck pickup, and a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates bridge pickup. I haven't changed the pots or caps because it sounds so good now that I'm afraid to change anything else!
What is the value of the volume and tone pots on your 95?
@@avivpinto4013 I think that they are 500k. Don't know for sure but they are stock.
@@daviddequasie6816 thanks 🙏
I like how Paul said it sounds like a “fat boosted telecaster”. He’s exactly right. But many of the intergooglers go absolutely crazy when you say that. I’m with Paul! The good ones do sound like teles on steroids
So my Japanese telecaster is darn heavy & she sounds super tele twangy & she can also sound super gibson chunky fat sounding guitar I have the full true versatile & it was made 1990 magical work from the luthier
to quote jimmy page
Great video comparison.
What weights are the original and the custom shop guitar? Which was heavier?
Also what pickups do you have in the custom shop?
6:45 Gibson 1957 Drive bridge
6:09 Gibson R7 Divre bridge
7:48 Gbson 1957 Drive neck
8:31 Gibson R7 Drive neck
That bit you played at 3:14 gave me the chills. Hair stood up on my arm. Thank you!!
Does the tonal difference come down to pickup output and the pots/capacitors?
Looking forward to comparing the difference between the "CC57" Series and "Murphy Labs57" and this original 57
Les different when the gain was involved - little more prescence from the OG… Altho the neck pickup situation was revealing, the VOS being more dull and a little less clear and defined in harmonic detail and presence, was night and day with clean amp setting tho - that 57 was bonkers good
I've been lucky enough to own/owned vintage Goldtops and the VOS R4 and R7. Personally, I prefer the VOS series over the originals.
“Middle position” on the vintage ‘57, then plays the neck position on the reissue. Doh!
That amp sounds wonderful.
Get back to work
have an R4 and an R8. Phenomenal guitars
your head must spin with the amount of high end gear you get to play with 😂 nice vid as always 🙌🏻
I get a feeling of total desperation when I hear and see holy grail guitars. Knowing that I will never own one. Amazing.
I feel it's mostly the pickups that make the difference in tone and feel. Most likely weakened A2 magnets and the plain enamel wire in the PAF's.
Did you have your Les Paul in the neck position when you did the middle comparison Paul?
I’ve just looked your right. 🤦♂️
@@TheStudioRats Oh no!!! that means you will have to go back and try the 57 again :)
Yep Nice comparison
Mistakenly sold my R7 darkback. This reminds me of all the regrets I'm having.
Placebo, if I ever saw one. If you switched the guitars around without telling them, they would be in awe of the custom shop. I get it, if there's a guitar to be starstruck around, it'd be one of these, and maybe Jimi Hendryx' strat, like the one Paul Davis played :).
That turned out to be a fraud story but Paul was unaware is was a fake.
Lol!! When he played the 57 reissue clean....it was in the Neck pickup...🙄
Wow, what a difference😮
wax potted pickups vs non potted?
The glue the wood the paint incredible it's beautiful and sounds awesome I can't imagine Holding such a beautiful instrument
Yeah the original 57 would be my overall choice obviously BUT that Custom shop R7 held its own! That R7 is a great guitar!
BTW when you compared the middle position sounds of the two you had the R7 toggle switch UP in the neck p'u only position!
Yeah your not the first to spot that mistake.
I actually preferred the dirty tone of the R7.
Yours doesnt sound as good because you took the pickguard off.
Tell that to Dickey Betts 😂
What amp is that
I wonder how much aging capacitors have to do with the tone.
I did think when using heavy gain the custom shop was clearer than the original
This 1957 sounds like 1959.
Anyway, exxxxxcellent !
But you had yours in the neck pickup when you said it was in the middle position
Nice on its own, but in a gig situation would you really be able to tell the difference?
Here's middle position
Plays neck position
Sounds warmer
"Flubby and lacking clarity" not after they introduced Custombuckers though. Great pickups.
This is exactly why my favorite Les Paul is whichever one has the Gibson 57 Classic pickups in it. They sound just like these old classic 57 LP’s without having to pay $100k. I have them in my modern LP. It sounds like an old 57 PAF, but it’s more comfortable to play with all the modern comfort cuts, etc.
When you think you can hear differences, but it turns out you can't tell the middle form the neck setting. D'oh!
it is weird and strange that the old guitars always sound som incredibly good!
I'm not into the idea that vintage instruments sound better because of their aging. When Jimmy Page was using his Number #1 that Les Paul was only around 10yrs old.
Think they were built differently (material) back in the day, pickups and tailpiece mostly affecting the tone.
@@aleksik4028 For sure. But some people will say the maturing \ drying of the wood, over such a long time, is contributing. That's where I think it's a bit of a stretch, as these were great instruments when they were young too! I do beleive that the woods using original in construction may have been 'better' in the first place though.
@@odgeUK I think the guitars are magical when all of the components happen to match perfectly in respect to resonance. There are cheap Squiers out there today that are more magical than some of the genuine vintage guitars, simply because of the numbers in which they're made, which trough randomness over time will produce individual specimen that have this special quality.
@@AbcDino843 I agree with this!
It’s the 60yr old,old growth wood Honduran mahogany.that’s why simple guitars like 1950’s les paul juniors sound so good
Must me how the pick ups are wound the “real” 57 is better sounding foresure but the CS is no slouch. Thanks for the demo.
I hope James at least got some off camera time with the '57.
I would love a Gibson Les Paul R7 but I am a lefty so they are rare.
Well the old wood drier…wud probably be a factor and the pickups degauss a bit..probably a little nicer can’t fake age …I have an R9 07 vos lemonburst……I love it…but I think the older ones are just a bit nicer..seasoned naturally…but the Gibson custom shop does great work as are the stock Les Paul’s new ones now..
Wood is the same dryness it was when guitar was made or wetter. Why do people think wood dries out with age? The planks guitars are made of are kept in conditions that dry the wood out below what it would dry to naturally. In terms of degaussing pickups, you can fake that very easily actually, magnetism knows no difference between natural and artificial degaussing but it is not a positive thing so it makes no sense to do it. The only thing better in an old les paul is knowing that the neck wont move or warp and same goes for the body if it's one piece. There are great sounding PAFs and there are terrible ones, the consistency we have today is far superior and there are tons of great sounding pickups for every taste and price point. I don't really get the craze behind old guitars outside of collectors world. A good guitar is a good guitar no matter when it was made and a crappy guitar will always be a crappy guitar no matter how long it exists.
@@ilmisxx2 I totally agree with good guitars are good and bad guitars are bad regardless of price point, because often not even identical modern guitars give the same results (again regardless of price point). Two different pieces of wood cut from the same tree trunk can give quite different results, weight, density yada yada... All the micro details which make up each individual guitar are greater than the sum of their parts. That's why we can line up a bunch of identical guitars but maybe only like one of them to play, with some sounding quite different to one another. But that is also why people talk about wood and vintage guitars like they do. They were made decades ago with difference in materials and the good ones have clearly been played a lot. Perhaps that's a significant factor. I suspect any guitar that has been well played over 50 years will have further micro differences as a consequence of all that playing, all those vibrations. Bottom line each guitar is made from a mix of organic and human made materials all of which have micro differences (kinda like people ;-) and a guitar that's played for decades will mature differently to one that's rarely played and kept locked away in an enclosed space. Best not to dwell on it as even a vintage guitar like this sounds better in one set of circumstances than another. For example the R7 comes across clearer when played with gain in part of this video. I have a few LP Reissue models and the one that gives the most fantastic woman tone is definitely not in the best guitar category. The more balanced and open sounding guitars are judged to be so called "better", but they don't have the same vocal emotion in their woman tone. Enjoy your guitars my good fellows :-)
@@djt6546 I wish wood made enough difference to the sound of an electric guitar but sadly if the difference is there it's so tiny that only sophisticated electonic equipment can pick it up. The difference in tone when comparing a few specimens of the same line comes more so from tolerances on electronic components like capacitors, pots, pickups and tolerances in building process and setup like neck angle, string height, pickup height etc. A lot of people tried to convince me that the wood matters but none have been brave enoguh to put money where their mouths are. Guitars don't mature, players do, wether a guitar is played for 50 years or been lying in a case for the same amount of time makes no difference to the sound except maybe the guitar that has been played a lot is set up well and all the quirks have been figured out, some people like a "worn" neck with rolled edges etc. but the same result can be achieved with some sandpaper and elbow grease. All those said vibrations do is wear parts out and a guitar that is gigged a lot might get a lot of interraction with a guitar speaker magnet and degauss more as a result but that's pretty much it. A well setup guitar will always feel great to play but if it sits in a case for years chances are that it isn't set up and the one that has been played a lot and gigged recently is set up really well
@@ilmisxx2 With respect we shall have to disagree. My point is you can’t always scientifically force or explain something magical in life, whether it’s physical or emotional. Science can’t always measure what makes something special. Think of all these fancy scans and painstakingly copied guitars that don’t turn out like the original. You can setup guitars identically using the same components and get quite different results because there are elements you cannot account for scientifically. Rip out the heart of a great sounding guitar, put the components in another guitar and it typically does not sound or feel like the original guitar. All those micro differences in wood and other materials give you a guitar which is greater than the sum of it’s parts.
@@djt6546 well that's the thing, you can't set up two guitars identically because there are manufacturing tolerances and setups drift on some guitars more than others because different peaces of wood react differently to temperature and moisture. Is seems a millimeter in neck thickness or a degree on neck angle doesn't seem like much but to a player it does make a difference. And all those guitars you mention that supposedly dont sound the same as the original after all the fancy scans... Well they do and I challenge anyone to tell tem apart with a blindfold, pretty sure the fail rate in that experiment will be 100% given that guitars are actually identical but to do that is expensive and pointless since there are so many measurments and all of them have tolerances so two guitars coming off the assembly line one right after the other are not identical whatsoever, actually they can be quite different
Honestly I thought the original '57 sounded muddier with the gain but I wasn't in the room.
I agree after listening to the footage the R7 sounds better, but it lovely being able to play such a stunning vintage guitar.
@@TheStudioRats I've got a '57 reissue VOS honestly Gibson custom has done a stunning job on it, it actually feels like I'm holding an older guitar. Plus the custom buckers are probably Gibsons finest pickups yet other than the original pafs but I've never played any. Anyway great video.
its the pickups and the pot tolerances probably...the custombuckers had a little less presence and bite/ snap
The trios sounds darn good. What year is it? Some would argue the Murphy Lab paint formula is going to get you even closer to the vintage guitar.
Sorry the older one just sounds better…i own an original 59 .strat dark slab Brazilian board…unfortunately refinished professional a salmon pink …sort of faded fiesta..got it in 1974 …never sell it..my kids will though prob. One day..that guitar just resonates..most don’t like my theory of dryer wood but …having this59 and my newer even 2 custom shop strats …and just not as nice..call me crazy…not every older guitar is essentially better…but majority of friends contacts I know…the vintage gibsons and fenders…if kept up..have an amazing tone..
Andy FUCHs amps sound amazing!
The funny thing about vintage gibson les pauls is not all sound as good as you might think, some are really good and some are pure garbage, and i'm talking about the original ones from 1957 and so on because they used to over wound the pickups
I have a les Paul 2021 classic and it is better made and sounding than any of the custom shops I have owned or played. This is all in the minds of fools. It’s hype and the only factor that will make any difference is the player.
I got a 2019 classic. I was lucky to get it before the price hikes. I didn't like the pickups at all, I was considering selling it. I changed them to Thornbuckers, now I love it. I also took out all the switching pots and put lefty taper pots in with 50s wiring. I have to say it's one of the easiest most comfortable guitar to play, and it got easier after I switched the pickups
@@jeffroq yep, I got mine new at 1550 from dv247 just but at the previous price.
Thank you for sharing allan.
That amp fucks!
🤣👍 Yes, but pronounced (Few-ks). Rick Nielsen from Cheap Trick plays through them.
Like the reissue better..
Обе прекрасные гитары! Ощутимых отличий в звуке на видео не услышал😳может вживую они и были?
when you start the comparison on the real 57 your in middle posistion on your CS your full on neck
In the words of the great Jack Black
"My gut has been busted"
Had a simple share of the R7,R8& R9. Only the R7 stayed..
On a blind test would be virtually impossible to tell between them except for the mojo lost when taking the pick guard off
We all know that there weren't many of the 'special era' Les Pauls created (especially the 58s through 60..or Bursts...but let's also include the earlier ones, like the 57 in this video, into my argument to simply it)...and we all know about the countless, high quality, fakes on the market. These are extremely rare guitars. Doesn't it seem weird that so many of these guitars from this desirable period seem to be in the UK? Wasn't there a ban on importing certain musical instruments around this period? These guitars may have missed that importation ban...but I am fairly certain it was 'around' that period. I just find it really weird that there seem to be so many early LPs and vintage Gibsons in the UK.
..has anyone else noticed this?
...are there a lot of known fakes floating around there too?
The older pickups loose their magnetic power and the tone becomes less harsh giving a warmer tone .
Funny , I just recently read that theory is false.
A good LesPaul sounds like a bigger Tele is the best way to describe what a LesPaul “should” sound like. So many of the pickups Gibson has put out in LesPauls in the last 30 years (490, 498, burst buckers, classic 57, etc.) sound like a fart in a can on anything clean. All sound pretty good with a lot of dirt but they can’t do anything else. A “good” LesPaul is a versatile guitar, not a high gain machine.
shiiiiit… the real 57 sounds amazing… the vos is still great, but nothing in direct comparison 🙈
you where in the neck position on yours not the middle
Wow. In the next position, the reissue sounds like mushy peas compared to the original :)
The brighter vibey sound of the 57 is cool but not necessarily better, the new guitar seemed more full range and consistent to me
A good Les Paul sounds like a *cello*. No Tele does that, no matter how fat or hot.
5:18 you thought you were in middle. You were in neck
Why is pick guard taken off? Gibson went to the extremes trying to make plastic that has characteristics of the aging original pick guard. Whether pick guard contributes to tonality or not, it is the original specification that Gibson is trying to replicate with its reissued guitars. If you don’t like pick guard then oder a guitar without it. At least that way it is original from the shop. You do not customize a reissued LP from Gibson Custom Shop.
I want it.... its so awesome... someone spend me 170.000 € 😅
Is it really a 57 gold top. You know the old joke V made and X currently for sale. 😱🤣😂
150.000€ vs 4.000€ ...
The original 57 is Joe Cocker. The R7 is a teenage boy trying to sound like him.
They are as different as their hair styles.
I can not believe these two!
Me too and I’m one of them.
The R7 may only be a wiring harness upgrade from being right there with the real ‘57.
You can't go try someone's '58 and be so ungracious as to say "my r9 is better".
Grow up guys... It's just a guitar!