Looking for warm, fat and clear guitar tone...

[Alexander]

I'm expecting a little bit of money next month - am looking to by an Epiphone Les Paul and a distortion pedal of some kind.

I've narrowed down to one of two choices - the first being a Standard Plus in trans blue. If I go this route, I will change the pickups out (stock ones are a bit muddy IMO) and get some upgraded HW to help keep things in tune. Alternately (and likely for the same money) I'll get a 1959 reissue, which comes with Burstbucker pickups and US HW already. They do not have trans blue finish (which I prefer) and I've heard the pickups have a bit of bite to them. I'm really looking for warm, fat & clear with the ability to dial in a bit of dirt as opposed to high-gain fuzz and squeal. So not sure if the 59 is the right tone.

As for the pedal, I kinda like the Visual Sound Jeckyll and Hyde - my guitar player had one of these for a while and could get a lot of tubescreamer tones as well as warm, fat crunch. But I don't know. I've heard really good things about the Fulltone OCD as well, but don't really know about it.

Overall, I'm looking for a setup for blues-rock, classic\southern-rock, country. Any opinions on which Les Paul to go with (and with what pickups) as well as the pedal of choice? Thanks for the help!

[Nedmundo]

A buddy/former bandmate has a Les Paul Standard with Burstbuckers, and IMO they are incredible pickups. They have nice humbucker thickness, but are crystal clear at the same time. They sound much better played clean than just about any other humbucker I've heard, aside from some DiMarzios my current band's lead player uses. (Not sure which models.) Burstbuckers are expensive as aftermarket replacements, so I'd get the axe with them as standard equipment.

[poorbassist15]

A Epi or Gibson ES-335. My friend has the smaller version, The Es-339, and it is some of the best guitar tone I've ever heard.

[Alexander]

Thanks, Ned - I'll give those Burstbuckers a spin for sure. I really like the 59 - seems like a lot of guitar for the money and much closer to the Gibson version than many of the others. A good clean tone means a lot as well since I'll be playing this in church also (when I'm not on the bass). I've only owned Strats prior to this - thought about coil-splitting as well to get some single coil tones when I need them (though from what I've heard its not very Fender-ish).

Any other ideas? Thanks!

[poorbassist15]

Originally Posted by Alexander

Thanks, Ned - I'll give those Burstbuckers a spin for sure. I really like the 59 - seems like a lot of guitar for the money and much closer to the Gibson version than many of the others. A good clean tone means a lot as well since I'll be playing this in church also (when I'm not on the bass). I've only owned Strats prior to this - thought about coil-splitting as well to get some single coil tones when I need them (though from what I've heard its not very Fender-ish).

Any other ideas? Thanks!

If you didn't like Fender high end sparkle, go Gibson. The only Epi I've played is the standard, I liked it, it had some balls to it through a Fender Twin. But I have access to Two Gibson Les Pauls, an SG, and a CS Firebird so I really didn't need it.

[lunarpollen]

These are one good option to consider for replacements:

http://www.tvjones.com/pickups/powertron.html

You can get them in a humbucker mount

I replaced the stock pickups in my Epi Les Paul with the regular TV Classics and I love them. The Power'Trons are closer to a PAF 1950's humbucker in tone.

[Nedmundo]

Originally Posted by Alexander

I've only owned Strats prior to this - thought about coil-splitting as well to get some single coil tones when I need them (though from what I've heard its not very Fender-ish).

The Burstbuckers will sound good split into singles, and I think the new Gibson USA Les Paul Standard comes with this feature. (Many boutique Les Paul style guitars do as well.) Maybe you can find one to test. But they don't sound just like Fenders, probably mostly due to the shorter scale length, but also the different woods and construction. They don't have quite the same twang, but they sound cool.

One of my guitars comes at this from the other direction. It's a 2001 American Series "Double Fat" Strat that came stock with two Seymour Duncan humbuckers. The neck pickup is supposedly voiced like a vintage PAF. It has a five way switch like a regular Strat, which splits the humbuckers in positions two (one coil from each) and four (one coil from neck p'up). The "split" tones are great. So, it's a Fender that in some respects emulates Gibsons, but retains some classic "Fender-ish" tones as well. It's an incredibly versatile guitar.

[Stumbo]

What kind of amp will you be playing it through? Some amps have a clean channel and a distortion channel with a foot switch.

A Tube Works Blue Tube pedal (pre-amp tube, 3 band e.q.) works well to achieve a blues-rock tone at any amp volume, IME.