Neil Schon Signature Les Paul

[Braciola]

Anybody get to play this at NAMM?

[guitonit]

No, but I've played all the prototypes. What would you like to know.

Scott A.

[Braciola]

Originally posted by guitonit
No, but I've played all the prototypes. What would you like to know.

Scott A.
All that you care to share :D

[guitonit]

This is not your Dad's Les Paul, that's for sure. There is a totally new neck joint design for starters. The neck tenon goes all the way to the treble pickup and fans out for an exceptionally stable neck joint (think kind of like a Stephens cutaway, but further into the body) This allows the heel of the neck to be carved like a neck through, allowing total access to every fret of the guitar. Makes playing on the top of the neck a breeze. The angle of the neck is flatter, to accomodate the Floyd, which Neal has blocked on his guitars. The last prototype we got had jumbo frets on it which Neal really seemed to like over the smaller ones on the previous proto's. The treble pickup is a 57 Classic Plus, and the neck is a Sustainer, and a Dimarzio Rails pickup (forgive me, we tried several different models, and for the life of me, I can't remember which one Neal settled on). There are two switches for the sustainer behind the bridge, one is on/off, and the other is a three way to change the harmonic/octave of the sustained note. The controls are volume, tone, sustain level, and a dummy push/pull which is a wah wah pot when pulled out, and the sweep is controled by the pot. You can geta really cool wah in one position effect that way. They should be available in Gold Top, Cardinal Red, Black, and White.

The guitar practically plays itself, the action is low, and the sustain of the instrument is amazing, even with the Floyd (I personally can't wait for a stop tail version, it should blow minds in my opinion)

Hope that answers some of your questions.

Scott A.

[Chiba]

How about some specifics, like...

What's the neck carve? Varied widely from a 'normal' modern LP or pretty similar?

How do the Floyd & locking nut affect the tension/feel of the strings?

How does the Floyd affect the TONE of the guitar?

What do the 2 little switches do?

How does a Sustainiac work and what does it 'normally' sound like?

When's Gibson putting the things on sale?

:D

--chiba

[Joe]

It must have a maple neck if it has Floyd Rose.

[Braciola]

Hope that answers some of your questions.

Scott A.
Thanks Scott!
WOW! I think this might be just what I'm looking for.
Any Idea what the street price on this might be?

[guitonit]

Chiba-

I would say the neck carve is somewhere between a 60's and 50's LP. Bigger than the 60's, but not a baseball bat either (PM me for the exact neck it was modeled after). Despite the Floyd, the strings still retain a "slinky" feel. Neal uses .009's, if I had to judge, they probably feel like 9.5's. The tone is definetly Neal. Not a vintage LP, but meaty with a little zing on the top for clarity. Chords are clear (the blocked trem helps alot here), and single notes just sing. The switches are the on/off, and the three way toggle for the sustainer- regular note, octave up harmonic, and two octaves up harmonic. The Sustainer is like having an E-Bow built into your guitar. It works by magnetic inductance, causing the strings to vibrate at different rates for different notes or harmonics. It does require a 9 volt battery for the operation of the guitar. When not in use, the Sustainer does not affect your tone. When engaged, you can hear a bit of tonal difference, because it is trying to resonate the strings. It is a bit of a freak out the first time you use it, when the strings move under your fingers without strumming them, but you get used to it quick. Now, as for when it goes on sale...... Hopfully soon!

Joe-

The neck is mahogany with an ebony board.

Braciola-

Rumour has it, and once again this is only a rumour at this point (sorry some overzealous folks on another forum nearly got this guitar canned for spreading bad information) is a list price of 10,800.00 for the Custom Shop model. Once again, I repeat, this is only a rumour!!! There is talk of a USA model soon after obviously at a lower price point.

Hope that answers everyone's questions, if there are more, feel free to ask!!

Scott A

[Riscchip]

Out of curiosity...why a floyd if it's blocked anyway?

Sounds like a sweet axe!

[guitonit]

Hey Carson!!

The trem is only blocked from going up in pitch. That way, if you break a string, the rest of the guitar doesnt go all out of wack. By the way, I hope the Boost is working well for you!!

Scott A.

[Braciola]

I Emailed Wildwood Guitars and asked them for any info on the guitar. Here is the responce:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We don't know yet when they are going to ship, probably SEVERAL months (though I can get a closer eta if you like). It looks like the guitar street price is going to be $6500.

Please let me know any questions I can help with.


Thanks for thinking of us !!


Lance

and the Wildwood Crew
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$6500.00 !!!!!!:eek: :eek: :(

[Motorhed]

anyone got pics?

[Chiba]

Thanks for the info Guit :)

Available in white...hmm... intriguing!

Rumour or not, those list/street price estimates sound reasonable for a Custom Shop/Signature model Les Paul.

I'm not surprised it has a mahogany neck. It's well known the only TRUE FANS of maple necks on Les Pauls are me, Motorhed & Zakk :D

--chiba

PS: edit: :D

[Motorhed]

It's well known the only TRUE FANS of maple necks on Les Pauls are me & Zakk



hey, dont forget me on that list. lol, mine's got one, i think thats probably why i find something missing in the tone of most les pauls. :dude

[Joe]

Originally posted by guitonit


Joe-

The neck is mahogany with an ebony board.


Scott A

I guess Gibson is going to have a lot of warranty claims to ignore then.

[Chiba]

Thanks again, Joe, for your cheery and uplifting commentary.

--chiba

[Two-Octave]

http://www.bananas.com/multimedia/8176/FullImage/8176.jpg

[guitonit]

Ahhhhhh, the pics that got alot of people in trouble!! Jeez, at lease they could have used some polish on the guitar before taking them. Oh well, just an FYI, the final inlay on the neck will be different than this prototype. The angled portion of the diamonds will be reversed to match the one on the headstock, and there will be a MOP bar running through the middle of each one.

Scott A.

[Riscchip]

Originally posted by guitonit
Hey Carson!!

The trem is only blocked from going up in pitch. That way, if you break a string, the rest of the guitar doesnt go all out of wack. By the way, I hope the Boost is working well for you!!

Scott A.

Ahh...I undestand. I heard "blocked" and was picturing an Eric Clapton style fully disabled trem. That makes total sense. Really sweet looking axe!

My PHI Boost is rockin' my world! People ask me about the mysterious pedal with the single unlabled knob and the cool flame paint job and I tell them "it's the hotness knob." The more I crank it, the hotter things get. http://www.clicksmilies.com/s0105/teufel/devil-smiley-029.gif

[Joe]

Originally posted by Chiba
Thanks again, Joe, for your cheery and uplifting commentary.

--chiba

Tell ya what, you buy one, unblock the Floyd and use it like Steve Vai for 90 days and tell me how the neck is afterwards.

MOST manufacturers will not make a non-maple necked Floyd Rose guitar because they know that mahogany does not stand up well to the stress and release a Floyd user creates.

Name five guitars that come with factory Floyds w/o a maple neck other than this one.

[Mark C]

Originally posted by Joe
Tell ya what, you buy one, unblock the Floyd and use it like Steve Vai for 90 days and tell me how the neck is afterwards.

MOST manufacturers will not make a non-maple necked Floyd Rose guitar because they know that mahogany does not stand up well to the stress and release a Floyd user creates.

Name five guitars that come with factory Floyds w/o a maple neck other than this one.


PRS doesn't seem to have any problems and they use a full floating trem. It may not lock, but you can whack away on it just as hard as you would a floyd rose.

[John Hurtt]

Most factory Floyds did come with maple necks. However, most were really strat types which usually had maple bolt-on's anyway. I have no idea if mahogany can take the stress or not.

Here's a really poor pic of the Goldtop Schon at NAMM.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v450/JHurtt/GibsonSchonLP.jpg

[Joe]

Originally posted by Mark C
PRS doesn't seem to have any problems and they use a full floating trem. It may not lock, but you can whack away on it just as hard as you would a floyd rose.

I think PRSs attract a different customer, and truth is, unless someone here is a PRS employee, we have no idea what problems they face warranty wise.

Jol Dantzig, the president of Hamer USA told me that even their three piece stressed neck system can not withstand Floyd abuse long and this is why all the Archtop Customs they made w/ Floyds had maple necks. Hamer has also made other guitars that normally have a mahogany neck and made the neck out of maple when a Floyd was part of the order. Many Les Pauls got routed in the day and died as a result of Floyd Rose abuse, or so I have been told.

Given Gibson's reluctance to fix anything under warranty, I suspect this could become a problem, but of course YMMV and good luck with all that.

[Mark C]

I no longer play a PRS, mainly because I needed cash fast and had to sell my last one, but I used a 90 CU24 as my number one guitar for about 7 years and I tortured the whammy on that thing frequently, and honestly, the neck never moved except for climate changes. I had to adjust the truss rod one way in the winter and back again when it warmed up, about a quarter turn. Maybe it's more of a problem with a steeper headstock angle?

[guitonit]

Joe-

Interesting train of thought. Neal has some other PRSi with Floyds, some that he has had for 10 years or more, and I have seen no problems what so ever with the necks. Ironically, I actually owned a Hamer (one made when they were still in Illinios) that had a mahogany neck and a Floyd, never had any problems with that one either.

I can tell everyone that we have had two of the Gibson prototypes that have been played to death for almost 2 years now with no ill effects. In my experience, if problems are going to occur, they will usually happen in the first 12 months.

Scott A.

[Chiba]

I've worked on a LOT of PRS guitars with trems and never seen one with a "bad" neck due to whammy use/abuse. I have one customer that absolutely beats the ever-loving crap out of his '88 (not a typo) Custom - and the guy's got the most abrasive sweat to boot - and I don't think I've ever adjusted his truss rod more than a half-turn in either direction - and he's been bringing me the guitar for maintenance for almost 5 years now. In that same time, I've replaced his entire trem once and the saddles 3 times (though since I made him switch to GraphTech, no more rust!).

I don't see any reason why a Gibson coming out of the Custom Shop with a trem would be any different than a PRS. Really.

Like you said, YMMV and all that.

--chiba

[shoe]

Has anyone else had any first hand experience with the Neal Schon Les Paul? I'd LOVE to take one for a test drive but they seem to be impossible to find.

[TBone]

Same here -

I've been looking for more info on them. Had a hard time finding anything.

It's listed on the current Gibson Custom Shop site here:
http://www.gibsoncustom.com/flash/products/signature/schon/NealSchon.html

Does anyone know if they're available? :confused:

TBone

[Don Ramsay]

Here is a link where Neal talks about it and demonstrates it.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VjzCwoYRLg0
Don

[shoe]

Here is a link where Neal talks about it and demonstrates it.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VjzCwoYRLg0
Don

Yeah, that's on the homepage of his website.

[JDouglee]

I spoke with someone who owns one, he says the guitar weighs a little bit, but it sounds amazing. And he's way into vintage guitars.

[sylvanshine]

I'm looking to buy a black one. If anyone has one or sees one, please give me a shout. jayspence at sbcglobal dot net.

[Rock Johnson]

I have a Vandenberg Custom Quilt that acts as my "LP with a Floyd." It's mahogany body / maple cap, mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard, etc., and a floyd on it. I've had it since '97, no problems with it at all. If they'd had this model of LP out back then, I woulda bought that instead.

I really like this model. THIS is the direction Henry needs to go -- start with the old ideas, but innovate on them. Oh, and drop the prices out of the stratosphere.

[LTE]

This is not your Dad's Les Paul, that's for sure. There is a totally new neck joint design for starters. The neck tenon goes all the way to the treble pickup and fans out for an exceptionally stable neck joint (think kind of like a Stephens cutaway, but further into the body) This allows the heel of the neck to be carved like a neck through, allowing total access to every fret of the guitar. Makes playing on the top of the neck a breeze. The angle of the neck is flatter, to accomodate the Floyd, which Neal has blocked on his guitars. The last prototype we got had jumbo frets on it which Neal really seemed to like over the smaller ones on the previous proto's. The treble pickup is a 57 Classic Plus, and the neck is a Sustainer, and a Dimarzio Rails pickup (forgive me, we tried several different models, and for the life of me, I can't remember which one Neal settled on). There are two switches for the sustainer behind the bridge, one is on/off, and the other is a three way to change the harmonic/octave of the sustained note. The controls are volume, tone, sustain level, and a dummy push/pull which is a wah wah pot when pulled out, and the sweep is controled by the pot. You can geta really cool wah in one position effect that way. They should be available in Gold Top, Cardinal Red, Black, and White.

The guitar practically plays itself, the action is low, and the sustain of the instrument is amazing, even with the Floyd (I personally can't wait for a stop tail version, it should blow minds in my opinion)

Hope that answers some of your questions.

Scott A.

Loads of cool info. So when is the stoptail version due? Also, I really like the diamond inlay in the headstock. Did Neil or Gibson come up with it (or who did if neither)?

[jazzandmetal?]

my friends dad owns one...it is really heavy...sounds okay though...it is also really expensive.

[Crunchyriff]

I've worked on a LOT of PRS guitars with trems and never seen one with a "bad" neck due to whammy use/abuse. I have one customer that absolutely beats the ever-loving crap out of his '88 (not a typo) Custom - and the guy's got the most abrasive sweat to boot - and I don't think I've ever adjusted his truss rod more than a half-turn in either direction - and he's been bringing me the guitar for maintenance for almost 5 years now. In that same time, I've replaced his entire trem once and the saddles 3 times (though since I made him switch to GraphTech, no more rust!).

I don't see any reason why a Gibson coming out of the Custom Shop with a trem would be any different than a PRS. Really.

Like you said, YMMV and all that.

--chiba

My 88 Cu 24 has never had one problem with my trem as far as negative impact on the neck itself, None whatsoever. And I've had it since it left the factory in May 1988.