Vintage Gibson Les Pauls & The Magic Tone Of P90 Pickups with Nashville Guitarist Rob McNelley

yeah and welcome welcome once again to rob mcnelly's studio so uh today i'm going to call these gear geek and episodes because you uh have acquired all the gear i wish i had yeah so so today is uh we're both huge p90 fans so yes so what do we got what what oh well this is a 1958 les paul special going through last year before they went to the double cutaway oh interesting yeah yeah yeah and uh so anyway uh do you favor one over the other i mean obviously you have this but is there a difference there is a little bit of difference i think i think the single cuts uh have a little bit more low end okay a bit more all right push interesting um both great versions of the same guitar yeah um and it's going straight into a deluxe reverb which is crazy give him the give him the sound because it's just that's hard to believe it's just okay like okay so this is bridge pickup volumes on 10 on the guitar [Music] like dude talk about a dynamic freaking pickup yeah that's crazy yeah all right all right we got well neck pick up same thing like yeah it's pretty cool i mean [Music] middle position gets pretty you know you can get that sounds kind of pretty twangy that's freaking out what if you start tweaking with the knobs what do we get okay well so like i notice it with these guitars especially like so so when you turn down the tone knob like say we're on the neck pickup i noticed this on this guitar like if you turn down the volume just a little bit like between it i don't know eight and nine somewhere in there yeah and then turn down the tone uh it it doesn't get muddy sounding yeah like i'm on the tone's on seven yeah but it kind of gets this like um like uh it gets kind of in distraction [Laughter] [Music] you know that that you wouldn't expect that from these pickups and then you know is it is it a 50s specific that does that or is it well i don't hear it as much with 60s okay p90s yeah but uh so i don't know but i find it on almost all the p90 guitars and and you know a few many years ago there was like uh uh all this uh talk about 50s wiring okay like the way they wired their gibson wire the guitars back in the 50s um i i don't know what's different it's very subtly different from the way they do it now but but i hear a clarity more so yeah more so with the 50s p90s equipped guitars like when you when you start messing with the knobs yeah there's a lot more clarity uh when you start turning down um okay the blue knobs and tone knobs or whatever you know [Music] okay which is crazy because that turns that guitar into something that's insanely versatile yeah you wouldn't you wouldn't picture that guitar dude that sound yeah yeah and now i turned the volume all the way up uh on the neck pickup and kept the tone pot on seven you know and then you get into your you know sort of sort of like you know a little bit bigger yeah bigger thing but tamed in some way it's almost like the tone controls are almost like a secondary volume control oh interesting like oh yeah so it's just it's subtle but um but when you start backing this down the tone pots it's like [Music] it's kind of like uh like how tweed amps uh like a deluxe tweed deluxe like the tone knob is also like a gain knob the more you turn it up the crunchier it gets oh so you got one of those too yeah whatever now we're on the bridge pickup so let's see what happens now when you start you know that that tamed it a little bit um when you turn down the volume like uh that's with both volumes and tones down a little bit okay like uh say like eight you know on the volume and seven again on the tone you know you know you can kind of get that uh cleaner skankier yeah it's like it's like it hollows out before you get into woman tone where you know well i don't know okay like eric clapton popularized that that tone sort of i always associate that with him and what is it though well it's where you turn the tone down almost all the way or all the way off on whatever pickup you're playing on and i don't have sometimes it requires turning the amp up a little bit more to be effective right right so like you're just you're just hitting it with nothing but low end again super velvety like yeah yeah yeah smooth yeah [Music] right really muted i mean i don't have any kind of gain going the amp is really clean yeah yeah it's way more effective let me turn on it let me turn on a pedal so that you can kind of simulate what would it be if the amp was turned up a little bit more like [Applause] leslie west territory you know oh so did he do that too yeah yeah i mean you know um he's a p90 guy yeah but yeah yeah he was yeah yeah yeah so um you know i don't know they just really respond this these guitars really respond to your picking dynamics yeah [Music] you know which is crazy because that's not a pedal i mean no that's all coming from the guitar well and you didn't even move the knobs yeah yeah it didn't move the knobs you know it's just all about your picking yeah whatever so all right what about this one okay well let's trade here let's see uh so this here is a 53 gold top les paul how the hell do you get all these cool guitars well uh that one uh i traded money for okay and uh see how it works yeah this one this one i actually uh i may have talked about this in another video uh this this belonged to a bass player here in nashville victor krause he's got a crazy collection of all kinds of instruments pedals guitars basses you know one of those guys yeah he's got everything yeah but um i had a i had a sg an old early 60s sg that i loved but but i just wasn't playing it much all the time yeah and uh he was he was on the hunt for like his dream sg yeah he loves sg's okay just ended up we i i was gonna sell him the guitar but when i got over there this guitar was sitting around and he said well how about a trade and we ended up trading no way so you're like how about yes yeah yeah i mean you know i've always been a fan of these guitars just from years of uh being like either a freddy king fan and uh yeah there's a famous picture of muddy waters with with a gold top uh les paul like this and i never even i don't even know that i ever saw any footage of him ever playing yeah but he's pictured with one for an uh an ad or something you know oh my god that freaking sounds amazing so so okay so the obvious differences are uh for those that don't know a lot of you i know know um the the special that we were just listening to that's that's uh all mahogany body okay right right this is more like a traditional les paul where it's a mahogany and then a maple cap okay which i think kind of it to my ear uh you know most les pauls they have a little bit of like uh brightness on the on the note like okay on the front of the note yeah which is which is i i attribute to the maple cap and the the maple top and then uh and and they also like kind of compress in a different way okay right like that one that one's just big every all the frequencies are equally uh represented or represented and uh like that it still it sounds great but there's a little bit of compression in in there too you know [Music] it sounds kind of stones-y in a weird way too yeah yeah it does i mean i i totally think that he used you know we see him with this uh he has the double cut uh specials yeah stuff like that and juniors and stuff he's you know he wasn't always a tele guy yeah yeah yeah so you know this one gets a little prettier like uh you know if you if you put a little like a nice delay on there you know this one this one has a little bit more like uh it's got a little bit more of the chime [Music] factor right but then it's just it's just got a different you know [Applause] what about when you give a little boost or something to it you gotta go freaking crazy right yeah it sounds pretty cool uh let's see like all those harmonics it's so funny i'm so used to like stepping on a gain pedal or even more so back in the day but like hearing that just plug straight into an amp it's like yeah there you go yeah yeah i think i i feel like p90s yeah work with an amp really really they do like you know um yeah so like like same thing on this guitar you know [Music] right right so i'm down on the volume of the of the of the neck and down a little bit on the tone control you know and [Music] you know you know you you can't you kind of get yeah a lot out of just a little bit of volume tweaking and tone tweaking what about the uh the metal okay [Music] so [Music] what's the ambient action sound like an [Music] hour [Music] [Applause] [Music] you know dude yeah yeah it's just it's funny because um and i don't even know why i would associate this or think about it this way but you don't think of a guitar especially vintage you're trying to advantage amp being able to really shine through in a modern context and sound like totally you know what i mean like you hear i i just that's not the two that the amp side and guitar i would associate with the modern sound yeah yeah yeah yeah sometimes yeah they did it right the first time yeah there's a lot that they got right back in the 50s in particular with guitars wow dude so you know so you got one more yeah yeah let me show you this one i have to walk over here and get so uh hold tight yeah i'll get it away okay so here we have just in case you didn't know we got a party going on yeah we got above us kids kids kids playing i don't know if i've ever heard one of these what do we got this is a 225 and i'm really uh i've i know i used to know what year this guitar was i'm not sure it's 50s uh yeah some of you out there can tell me what year this is that'll be a fun project for everybody okay so is this what they called the dog ear p90s yeah yeah so they're they're mounted on top of the body they're not down in the body dog ear the only vintage thing i know dog here p90 and these guitars are really great they're and they're similar to like um 330s in in that there's no uh bracing under here so they live that sometimes they'll be unruly beast yeah you gotta learn how to tame them live but how dude that freaking sounds great too so you know i mean yeah is that pickguard well this is that age okay naturally do that 50s pick guards on gibson's will start to curl on you a little bit this one's doing it a little bit i don't know that's classy uh they also disintegrate um and they'll gas off and like right like if they're sitting in a case for too long seriously yeah the gas often it's really a huge mess to clean up luckily it's never happened to any of my guitars yet i've got a 355 that i'm always worried about i'm gonna open up the case one day and it's just everything's gonna be covered in gunk seriously they literally disintegrate yeah yeah yeah why like it's a weird i'm not a scientist don't ask me it just does it happens uh you don't believe me i'll show you right where it happens okay so what would you use this for well you could use i i don't have this plugged into a marshall but this sounds amazing into a marshall for rhythm okay like any kind of ac dc sounding rhythm i know this is not the the types of guitars that they used but it gets really into that territory we're gonna have to do that now for sure maybe down the road yeah we can plug it into a marshall and and i can show you what i mean but um but i i would use this guitar for anything that i would use the other guitars for except maybe a live a loud live situation yeah yeah it doesn't even exist anymore yeah right [Music] actually there's a there's a cool uh delbert song that i played this guitar on uh go check it out it's uh it's on um oh what's the name of the record uh well look up uh mama's little baby mama's little baby so they don't know who delbert is no delbert mcclinton i used to play in his band uh we recorded uh i'll put it in the link below yeah yeah i recorded it it's a record that don was produced um and we we uh mama's little baby i think it's the opening track on the record and it's this guitar go check it out it's it's really cool uh way to hear this guitar um but anyway what's a talent like what'd you do well well when i did you know hey i was plugged into a different amp okay it was really rocking it was cranked up but like like uh let's see if i can simulate it with a like a pet like an overdrive pedal yeah you know like that kind that's kind of the guitar part that's on that song but go check it out it's pretty fun to listen to when did you get this one i got this one somewhere back i don't know probably about 15 years ago so you've had it a long time i've had this one a long time a buddy of mine that i used to play with a lot he he had one and i always loved that guitar and he wouldn't sell his so i had to go out and find another one come on dude i know i know and then after i bought this he ended up selling it to uh jeff sinn so then then you know the one that you know but but they were so identical uh it was really freakish how a lot of these 50s guitars you can put 10 of them in a row and and none of them sound alike right but these actually do yeah jeff still have it uh no i think he sold it jeff's a awesome local builder yeah his guitars too oh yeah yeah yeah we'll talk about send guitars maybe maybe we should do an episode on saying it wouldn't be good let's get him out of here keep talking see yeah get jeff over here so he can talk about it anyways so p90s give them a try okay yeah yeah check them out any other uh p90 representation guitars that you do not have but are that are cool oh well um les pauls or i mean uh sg specials like like uh like uh those are the two p90 yeah two p90s um they're the uh pete townsend how do you not have one of those oh you know what i've i've i've thought about it yeah i don't think i haven't thought about it yeah i just i just hadn't found one that that you know i was like okay that's it yeah nowadays i you know i i don't buy anything unless i like it it comes to me it's it's probably you go shopping for it good idea but like oddly freed man he's got a les paul special or an sg special that sounds amazing in his hands he he what doesn't sound amazing in his hands if you guys don't know who that is a little game freaking used to play well he's played in a bunch he's in cheryl crow's band now right yeah yeah he's like black crows he was in the black crows he he had a band called cry of love that which was great yeah they were great bands it was like uh early late 90s late eighties early nights i'd say i'd say uh mid to late 90s yeah well well no uh i feel like i was hearing them on the radio it was in the in the mid 90s huh yeah mid 90s yeah it was cool because at that time it was like nirvana all these other bands which were great but then like all of a sudden this like kind of blues rock band yeah yeah yeah it's no surprise that that when the black crows were looking for somebody that he ended up in that band perfect because he he really yeah you know uh kind of comes out of that he's cut from that same cloth but but he's also very uh there's a lot of things he can do that that a lot of people don't realize you know well which is interesting because jeff was saying that exact same thing the other day and sorry we're getting off on a tangent but this is freaking great guitar player so you can find clips of them go go check them out but um he was saying that he usually just holds the fort down at the cheryl giggs but on the last gig they saw him on they actually let him cut loose and jeff was like he just ripped my face off like i couldn't even he's like jeff's wife knows a lot about guitar players too when she was just like well like speechless because how awesome it was he's just he's just he's just knows how to lay down the law i mean no matter what he's playing yeah it feels like he's he's pulling everybody along you can you know yeah but he's he's an incredible person and he's an incredible musician too so yeah i asked ryan warner i'm like because he was talking about i'm like dude do you think he'd ever do a video and he's like not unless it's about gardening yeah that's the other thing he's he's one of those guys like you always hear that about jeff beck that he that i i don't think it's true yeah i've heard i've heard there uh other reports but but uh you always hear oh when he's not playing you know on the road or whatever he's at home working on his car yeah he never even touches a guitar which if that's true if that's true that's very disappointing because he gets better every time i hear him too yeah i know like really you're 70 and you freaking just wipe the floor with everybody yeah i know it's crazy i i heard that about derek trucks too i mean i heard that he didn't he didn't really i mean i don't know but somebody told me that like he shows up to the gig and just puts the guitar on and plays like that way um you would think i would need to sit around all day playing to be that good there's a there's a band uh called blackberry smoke i know some of you guys know who they are but they were on uh i think the friends and he went to a show and he was saying that um you know he was warming up and just you know obviously mind-blowing player but then like five or ten minutes into the conversation he noticed that his first finger was bandaged up oh yeah and he's like what's up and he's like dude i think i cut my finger down to the bone today and he's like teddy you're going to play tonight he's like i don't know i'm trying to figure that out right now it's like 10 minutes before they went on he's like didn't miss a beat like you would have never known he didn't and he just played the whole show with these three yeah yeah which is like what freaking ever well you know free you've got that level of musicianship inside of you there's a lot a lot you can do when you need to well thank you for thank you showing us some more tone goodies what do you guys want to see rob's got a smattering of just about uh whatever you'd want to hear yeah we've got a pretty good collection going over here you mentioned telly's you guys want to see a bunch of different tallies in a video yeah we could do it we could do a show some different tellys we got to do your freaking tweet amps too yeah yeah i got a lot of work to do [Laughter] all right so make sure to check out rob's channel he's going to be posting on that too so subscribe click the bell do the same here and check the links down below we'll throw out your music and all that other stuff down there below so thank you for checking it out once again i'll catch you next time thank you

Channel: Brett Papa

Views: 176,590

Keywords: vintage gibson guitars, guitar tone, p90 guitar, p90 pickups, gibson les paul, gibson les paul p90, vintage, guitar, rob mcnelley, session guitarist, session guitar, session guitarist tutorial, vintage guitars, vintage guitar amp, vintage guitar review, gibson special les paul, gibson special, gibson special p90, brett papa guitar, Brett Papa, papastache, papastache102

Id: Q7UD0B26-Kc

Length: 25min 41sec (1541 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 30 2020