Electric Bard

In my quest for the “ultimate” Les Paul, I’ve been outlining in this blog the kinds of features I’d like to see if I were to have, say, my own signature model Les Paul from Gibson. Having studied Gibson’s lineup carefully, I can’t find a model that gets it just right. A number of other manufacturers have some interesting takes on the iconic Les Paul design, though.

Paul Reed Smith guitars offer some lovely looking models, that include a few of my dream Les Paul features: two humbuckers, and a volume control you can reach with your right pinky for doing volume swells, as well as a pickup selector switch that won’t get in my way on the upper bout of the guitar body. And yet, as lovely as they look, the ones I’ve tried so far just don’t have “it”. I have not had an opportunity to try the SC 58, though, and it is so close to what I’m talking about in a Les Paul. Too bad they put the pickup selector where they did.

I recently say a new Godin guitar online that looks very impressive, especially in the electronics. Its pickups can be run as humbuckers, single coils, or P-90s. Wow! That covers it. The guitar is not bad looking. I wonder what it weighs. It’s called the Icon II Convertible . Is that really the best name they could come up with?

But maybe there’s another alternative showing up from, could it be, Fender? Fender’s new Blacktop Strat has two humbuckers with a 5-way switch that includes a couple of single coil modes, a master volume control (is it logarithmic?) and two tone controls. It’s also got 22 frets. They’re inexpensive and with a couple of mods might be very cool. I know I’d want to swap the saddles out for something more modern, and maybe change the amp-style knobs. With any luck I’ll get to try one out this weekend when I’m in San Francisco.