Les Paul time! Ruokangas Unicorn & vintage PAF Les Paul

[kingsleyd]

A little fun down in Kyngsland (my studio) playing a brand-new Ruokangas Unicorn and a vintage Gibson Les Paul with PAFs.



The Ruokangas has pickups that Harry Haüssel wound specially for this project. The woods are Juha's standard, which is Spanish cedar back and neck and an Arctic birch top. The fretboard is ebony, at my request.

The Gibson is a 52/59 conversion/retop, with the work done by Johan Gustavsson. The pickups, electronics, and parts are all period-correct, except for the pickup rings.

The amp is a Carol-Ann OD2, running through a Two-Rock signature cabinet with the Tone Tubby "H Bomb" hempcone speaker combination. There's a room mic, plus a touch of reverb added in the mix. The backing during the song portion is my usual Digitech Jam Man looper.

[Mayo5]

Thanks for the sharing, that conversion sounded fantastic!

What mic/pre-amp were you using?

[kingsleyd]

Royer R121 into a Grace m801 into PT 10 via an Apogee Symphony I/O.

[abergdahl]

Great demo, the Unicorn is slightly clearer sounding than Amber. Both sound great.. somehow i suspect that you could EQ the Unicorn to sound like Amber but not visa verse.. perhaps.. maybe.. sort of anyway..

[Gnash]

You seemed much more comfortable with Amber KD. I imagine it's down to your familiarity with that guitar over the newly acquired Babs.
Having played some of Juha's guitars ( and I'm in the position where one will be arriving at my door in a week or so *the wait is agony, believe me*) I can see you having a lot of fun developing that relationship with the Unicorn. If you can put down the Collection McCarty for 5 minutes that is

big congratz on the recent acquisitions! Enjoy them in good health and please, post more clips when your able

[bilbal]

Great tones from both guitars.

[GuitarsFromMars]

Me likey.

Merry Christmas, Kingsleyd...

[saltydogg]

Hey kingsleyd,
EL34's or 6L6's in the Carol Ann? Just curious.

Thanks.

Edit: Fantastic chops and recording. Sounds very professional. (I think I mentioned that in the CA thread)

[Mark Robinson]

Both guitars, the amp, and you, all sound fantastic. There is a great spacious clarity to the Roukangas, but the dirty sound of Amber is archetypical, love that extended pick attack.

[kingsleyd]

Thanks, guys! The Carol-Ann is a 50W version with 6L6s. Its original owner was Eric Johnson. When Eric owned the amp, it was a 100W EL-34 that only sounded good at Eric's stage levels, which is to say punishingly loud. Alan worked on it a couple of times to make it suit me better, and now it's pretty much a straight up current version of the OD2.

BTW, the room mic is another "famous owner" piece -- it's a U87 that I bought from Paul Reed Smith. Ha!

[Billion81]

Dude- The Les Paul sounds insane. Really good chord comps!!!

[Carol-AnnAmps]

Originally Posted by Billion81

Dude- The Les Paul sounds insane. Really good chord comps!!!

Kingsley is a great player and just an all round good human being too. I always enjoy his visits here. We have quite different playing styles, but I enjoy listening to him play.