The Neil Young Gibson Les Paul Project

[1DZReverendDavidLee]

A local music store that used to have the Gibson line (before they eliminated a bunch of smaller stores that weren't capable of selling a million dollars worth of product every year) has an owner that is a Neil Young fanatic. He even named his store Crazy Horse Guitars (there's a link to his store and email address on my band's website Links Page) John loves Neil Young - end of story. I've done alot of business with John over the years and he's a great guy - he's a player, a gear slut too -and an all around cool guy.

More importantly to get back to the reason for this thread - right before John lost the Gibson line - he ordered a Les Paul from the Custom Shop to recreate Neil Young's Gibson Les Paul. I think he paid something like $8,000

Well, as 911 came and went and the economy worsened - John had to part with his beloved Neil Young Les Paul. He recently decided to make his own - so he bought a used Les Paul Deluxe, black, for around $1400 - I think he got it off of ebay, not sure now...but then he ordered the pickups (Gibson P-90 at the neck and a Gibson Firebird bridge mini-humbucker for the bridge)

He found a place on the internet that makes chrome metal pickguards -and ordered that and the chrome bell cover - and then ordered a Bigsby tailpiece. The result - the same pup configuration, look, feel and playability of his original Gibson Historic Shop recreation (well sort of - he didn't want it faded and aged like the one's they did originally) for under $2000.

So I did the same today after spending an hour with that guitar at his store. THAT guitar by the way is NOT for sale - it's John's personal guitar so please don't email him and ask to buy it.

I found a Les Paul Deluxe (ebony) blemed on Musicians Friend for $1529.99 (about $250 less than the price of a new one). I had John order the rest of the parts and by this time next week I'll have my own quasi-replica of Neil Young's guitar.

I'm not that huge of a Neil Young fan myself - but the ripping assed tone of this setup has to be heard to be believed. Just thought I'd pass this along for you Neil Young fanatics everywhere.

[1DZReverendDavidLee]

Oops - photo of Neil's Guitar

[blaghaus]

I adore les paul deluxes.

[pallas]

ol black is one hell of a guitar

[j_hotch]

Now its time for step two: recreating that magic red box of his, with the "whizzer" controlling the knobs on the Deluxe amp and so forth. When you get to that stage, please post pictures!

[clayton explode]

that's cool rev.

but my favourite neil young guitar:



I will own one, one day.

[Fingermush]

WOW, that is so incredibly badass'd that I can't even deal with it, and now I know the pickup con/fig for my Epiphone Genesis project.


FYI. I don't know if Young ever used a WEM/watkins/Guild Copicat Tube Tape Delay , but with just my '61 Silvertone and that I've been acused of ripping off his 'Dead Man' tone.

[Fingermush]

one of the guts

[Fingermush]

da tubes

[seifukusha]

Originally posted by Fingermush

FYI. I don't know if Young ever used a WEM/watkins/Guild Copicat Tube Tape Delay , but with just my '61 Silvertone and that I've been acused of ripping off his 'Dead Man' tone.

dah dah dah dah dah!

great music...not even music!

[murtaghstyle]

I think another critical element to Neil's tone is his army of fender amps. They are the sweetest sounding twins I've ever heard.

Needless to say, that is a heck of a project!!

[Hemispheres]

Originally posted by 1DZReverendDavidLee
A local music store that used to have the Gibson line (before they eliminated a bunch of smaller stores that weren't capable of selling a million dollars worth of product every year) has an owner that is a Neil Young fanatic. He even named his store Crazy Horse Guitars (there's a link to his store and email address on my band's website Links Page) John loves Neil Young - end of story. I've done alot of business with John over the years and he's a great guy - he's a player, a gear slut too -and an all around cool guy.

More importantly to get back to the reason for this thread - right before John lost the Gibson line - he ordered a Les Paul from the Custom Shop to recreate Neil Young's Gibson Les Paul. I think he paid something like $8,000

Well, as 911 came and went and the economy worsened - John had to part with his beloved Neil Young Les Paul. He recently decided to make his own - so he bought a used Les Paul Deluxe, black, for around $1400 - I think he got it off of ebay, not sure now...but then he ordered the pickups (Gibson P-90 at the neck and a Gibson Firebird bridge mini-humbucker for the bridge)

He found a place on the internet that makes chrome metal pickguards -and ordered that and the chrome bell cover - and then ordered a Bigsby tailpiece. The result - the same pup configuration, look, feel and playability of his original Gibson Historic Shop recreation (well sort of - he didn't want it faded and aged like the one's they did originally) for under $2000.

So I did the same today after spending an hour with that guitar at his store. THAT guitar by the way is NOT for sale - it's John's personal guitar so please don't email him and ask to buy it.

I found a Les Paul Deluxe (ebony) blemed on Musicians Friend for $1529.99 (about $250 less than the price of a new one). I had John order the rest of the parts and by this time next week I'll have my own quasi-replica of Neil Young's guitar.

I'm not that huge of a Neil Young fan myself - but the ripping assed tone of this setup has to be heard to be believed. Just thought I'd pass this along for you Neil Young fanatics everywhere.

I recently sold a goldtop les paul deluxe because the minis are way too thin sounding for me IMO. That being said, that's a nice guitar you are going to have there. It looks pretty authentic. Congratulations.

[RevolutionFX]

Originally posted by murtaghstyle
I think another critical element to Neil's tone is his army of fender amps. They are the sweetest sounding twins I've ever heard.

Needless to say, that is a heck of a project!!

Not to be picky, but Neil doesn't tend to use Twins. His primary amp is a 1959 tweed Deluxe. He has HUNDREDS of them, but really only likes the sound of one particular one.

[digital]

the "deadman" music is the only thing i like of neil young...
that ol black is a nice guitar even the custom jobs..

[gearnut]

I've got a beat '76 deluxe that I may have to do that too. I actually like the neck mini, but I bet a P90 in combo with the mini would sound cool. So he just used a regular gibson p90? I don't always love 'em. they seem hit or miss (I've had a ton of p90 guitars over the years). And that bigsby is to die for.

[Diende McAuk]

That is going to be one sweet axe! If I can find a good deal on a used LPdeluxe one day, I will make a Neil replica too. Thanks for posting!

[1DZReverendDavidLee]

Originally posted by gearnut
..So he just used a regular gibson p90?

I believe so. Let me double check with John tomorrow. If any of you are seriously contemplating this, or some version thereof - I'd better get my factoids straight.

[1DZReverendDavidLee]

Originally posted by Diende McAuk
That is going to be one sweet axe! If I can find a good deal on a used LPdeluxe one day, I will make a Neil replica too. Thanks for posting!

Thanks to John McConnel -the Neil Young fanatic that showed me all of this and then let me play thru his. I'll go over there tomorrow and take some photos of John's Deluxe redo and post them up here tomorrow.

Jesus it was fucking excellent. Played it thru a Crate V30 with Tone Tubby speakers at the store. I own other Les Pauls as well so from a tonal perspective - I was absolutely reeling from the tone. I love when unexpected fun shit like this pops up out of nowhere.

[Nico de Roode]

Another one:

Originally posted by Nico de Roode
Visual clone: replica of the Neil Young guitar.


http://www.leviatech.fi/monsteramps

[ElectricMayhem]

That is one hell of a guitar to do a tribute to.