Brett Kingman | 2 weeks ago

A young friend from the next suburb messages me on Facebook - do I have a Strat that I could trade for a Les Paul? I have a lot of Strats and no 'real' Les Paul so I invite him over. He tries several of my guitars, chooses one of my three black Strats and leaves very happy. The Les Paul he leaves behind is a 2002 Honeyburst Les Paul Classic. Basically a Standard with 490 pickups and the 'swiss cheese' weight relief (I think). It's had a broken headstock repair, the neck is bowed, the electronics cavity is a biological nightmare and the ABR-1's saddles look like they were notched by an orc for another orc. The fingerboard is dry and basically this poor guitar needs a lot of love. But I could tell it had mojo. So I oiled the fingerboard, cleaned out the cavities, cleaned the entire guitar of sweat, pick scratches and other angst, threw out the Gibson ABR-1 and replaced it with a Faber ABRL (if you don't know them, look it up - amazing). I strung it up with Ernie Ball 10-46 Paradigms, straightened the neck over the course of an hour or so, sorted the intonation and now it's ready to rock. And rock it does. I love that it's a bit of an underdog - no pretty flame, no 'Standard' on the truss rod cover... But it's a smooth and quick ride and sounds great to me. Here it is with my favourite SLP1959 model in the Axe over a minor blues track. I have a Les Paul now. Mr Happy.

Backing track courtesy https://jtcguitar.com/

Marshall 1959SLP Treble Channel - Axe-FX III Turbo FW 21.04