Introducing the Les Paul Push Tone

[David Schwab]

Pickup testing guitar anyone?

Complete with on board buffer...

Les Paul Push Tone (http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Divisions/Gibson%20USA/Products/GOTM/LesPaulPush%2Dtone/)

The ability to change pickups by simply unhooking them and pushing them out of the guitar represents a huge—and extremely practical—innovation for guitarists. Gibson USA is proud to introduce the new Les Paul Push Tone—Guitar of the Month for May 2008. Changing pickups has never been easier.

A new Gibson-designed system allows players to push the pickups out of the guitar, disconnect the wire clips, and plug in a new set of pickups in a matter of minutes. The new Les Paul Push Tone comes with two sets of Gibson pickups—a set of Burstbucker Pros and a set of P-94s. Go from the vintage humbucker tone of Gibson’s legendary Burstbuckers, to the punchy and sweet tone of the humbucker-size, single-coil P-94s—or mix and match the two for a broad selection of tonal combinations.

The electronics of the Les Paul Push Tone offer a high-fidelity boost with the addition of Gibson-designed, 24K gold-plated potentiometers manufactured by Bourns—one of the world’s leading makers of electronic components for guitars. A newly designed output jack from Neutrik—renowned makers of audio and video connectors—locks your guitar cord in place, preventing the unexpected loss of connection.

The body is solid mahogany with a beautiful AAA figured maple top, an Antique Natural finish, and a matched bridge and tailpiece set from TonePros. The neck is one-piece mahogany with Gibson’s traditional ’50s rounded profile, an ebony fingerboard with maple fretboard inlays unique only to the Les Paul Push Tone, and locking Grover tuners. The new Les Paul Push Tone comes with a custom Guitar of the Month case from Gibson USA.

[Possum]

how the heck do those pickups come out? I'm assuming they are stock pickups with legs? They don't show how it works at all I can see. They sure are coming out with some strange stuff lately, the Robo guitar being the strangest of alll...

[David Schwab]

They must pop out the back. I'm assuming they mount to some kind of contraption.

They sure are coming out with some gimmicky stuff.

They have a lot of weird recent patents on signal processing and stuff.

[Possum]

Thats probably why there is no picture of the back of the guitar, afraid they'd scare off buyers with something thats probably very un-Les Paul...

[spud1950]

Check out this eBay auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290225273889

Also, have a look at this.

http://www.bostonguitar.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=BGWI&Category_Code=EG-MERC

[David King]

What's new about neutrik locking jacks?? I've been using those for 20 years now. The bridge pickup is tilted way back like there's something wrong with the mounting system.

[madialex]

Ok, what? Is David and Possum both night owls now? I knew possum was but now David?? I am up cuz I gotta get ready for work...:p;)

[Possum]

I think I must be the worst nite owl I ever met, except for one other guy on the planet earth. The sun is coming up so its time for me to go to bed :-)

[Sweetfinger]

I think I must be the worst nite owl I ever met, except for one other guy on the planet earth. The sun is coming up so its time for me to go to bed :-)

I AM that guy! I do my grocery shopping at 3:30 in the morning.

[Mark Hammer]

They must pop out the back. I'm assuming they mount to some kind of contraption.

They sure are coming out with some gimmicky stuff.

They have a lot of weird recent patents on signal processing and stuff.
If the intent is to facilitate quick changeover, then loosening and retuning the strings would have to be part of the equation. The only way around that is rear-mounting.

Certainly makes for a cleaner look. I gather the springs would go between the ickup and the top, rather than underneath the pickups.

[David Schwab]

Ok, what? Is David and Possum both night owls now? I knew possum was but now David?? I am up cuz I gotta get ready for work...:p;)

I work from 10 PM to 6 AM at my "day" job. So I was at work when I posted that. ;)

So I beat everyone here for Night Owl status. :D

[David Schwab]

If the intent is to facilitate quick changeover, then loosening and retuning the strings would have to be part of the equation. The only way around that is rear-mounting.

Certainly makes for a cleaner look. I gather the springs would go between the ickup and the top, rather than underneath the pickups.

It's a good idea, but I wonder how well it will do commercially.

It's certainly not the first time I was done. I remember seeing a guitar back in the 80's when I was at American Showster that had interchangeable pickups that popped out the back. I think it used JB Player pickups... remember those?

I like the way it looks with no pickup rings.

[jack briggs]

Gibson did this a decade or more ago for a certain number of their dealers to demo various pickups in stores. I saw one about 10 yrs. ago at a local Gibson dealer with several of the pickup "blocks" that fit in from the back. It was more rough-cut looking than the one they're making now, but basically the same idea.

Nothing new.

[Peter Naglitsch]

Johan Lundgren (www.lundgren.se) has a similar guitar for showcasing his entire range of pickups. I stood shoulder to shoulder with him at a local guitar trade show last November (really great guy). In his version the pickups slide in from above. He usually get quite a few offers to buy that particular guitar during shows...

And I also remember that LP that Gibson gave to the bigger shops for showcasing different pickups. Very crude wood work, but a nice idea.

[SkinnyWire]

Thats probably why there is no picture of the back of the guitar, afraid they'd scare off buyers with something thats probably very un-Les Paul...

Click on the "360" to see the back of the guitar.

[chevalij]

Ah, that makes sense. Why the clear cover plate? Just so you can make sure the pots are still there? It's like those lucite Strats they used to make, or the see through Macs that were out about 10 years ago.

[David Schwab]

Ah, that makes sense. Why the clear cover plate? Just so you can make sure the pots are still there?

Gibson's been doing that lately.. same with the Robot Guitar, and that awful raw looking LP.

Maybe they think it's edgy showing the guts.. or "look at us... we gots them new fangled battery circuits in dem geetars"

Gibson never quite gets some things... remember the RD Artist guitars? Why on earth would you want a compressor on the neck and an expander on the bridge pickup? I would have wanted an option to choose!

They start with a good idea and then pull a Microsoft and show a total lack of taste and end up with some clunky execution.

I guess after they spent the last decade buying up things like Opcode and Steinberger, and then screwing those products up, they want to try their own hand at something "modern". When I first heard about the Robot Guitar I wondered what it did... tune itself? That's a big waste of technology if you ask me.

[chevalij]

Gibson's been doing that lately.. same with the Robot Guitar, and that awful raw looking LP.

Do you mean the one that looks like it never made it to the finishing department? If so, I've seen it up close and it's ugly as sin. Actually looks like it's poorly made with 2 X 4' and glue.

[David Schwab]

Do you mean the one that looks like it never made it to the finishing department? If so, I've seen it up close and it's ugly as sin. Actually looks like it's poorly made with 2 X 4' and glue.

Yeah, the BFG (http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/divisions/gibson%20usa/products/lespaul/bfglimited/). Not only did it not make it to the finishing department, but it never made it to the sanding department! No binding, no fret markers, no pickup rings, crappy looking wood knobs.

The top is pretty much right off the CNC router with a little rough sanding.

[Paul P]

Why the clear cover plate?

Well, if you're going to have "24K gold-plated potentiometers" it would be
kind of dumb to have them hidden :).

Paul P

[Djinn Guitars]

Didin't Dan Armstrong/Ampeg do that almost exactly 40 years ago on the lucite guitars and basses? Well, Dan's slid in so I guess that would be a slide tone huh?

[JGundry]

Considering it's a Gibson the street price is not so bad. Although it is way too expensive. But it does seem like a unique tool for the pickup maker as far as humbuckers are concerned. They are limiting the run to 1000. Those probably won't sell. Musician's Friend will probably have it in their clearance center in a year. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and get one now. If it makes swapping test pickups a breeze it will be worth it in the long run. It looks decent and it's chambered so you won't break you back if you gig with it. It might just be one of those items that in three years you kick yourself for not buying because it is out of production and hard to find. If they really do limit the production to 1000 it should hold it's value. I mean there is like 1,000,000 pickup winders out there who want one of theses things right?:)

[David Schwab]

Didin't Dan Armstrong/Ampeg do that almost exactly 40 years ago on the lucite guitars and basses? Well, Dan's slid in so I guess that would be a slide tone huh?

And they make it again!

The original had Bill Lawrence pickups, this one has Kent Armstrong, which is apropos.

I always wanted one of these.

http://ampeg.com/products/daplexi/ada6/index.html

http://ampeg.com/products/daplexi/ada6/images/ADAG_LG.jpg

[WolfeMacleod]

Also, have a look at this.

http://www.bostonguitar.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=BGWI&Category_Code=EG-MERC

I have a Mercurio guitar.

Way cool. Very well thought out.

[Ruel]

Gibson's been doing that lately.. same with the Robot Guitar, and that awful raw looking LP.

Maybe they think it's edgy showing the guts.. or "look at us... we gots them new fangled battery circuits in dem geetars"

Gibson never quite gets some things... remember the RD Artist guitars? Why on earth would you want a compressor on the neck and an expander on the bridge pickup? I would have wanted an option to choose!

They start with a good idea and then pull a Microsoft and show a total lack of taste and end up with some clunky execution.

I guess after they spent the last decade buying up things like Opcode and Steinberger, and then screwing those products up, they want to try their own hand at something "modern". When I first heard about the Robot Guitar I wondered what it did... tune itself? That's a big waste of technology if you ask me.

It could be worse, David. It might play by itself!

[David Schwab]

It could be worse, David. It might play by itself!

They already have that! ;)

http://www.guitarherogame.com/gh2/buynow.php

[Mark Hammer]

For any dealer who wishes to be able to demonstrate different pickups to customers, the biggest barrier to being able to compare tones is that the pickups are never found in otherwise identical guitars (these pickups in an Epi LP, those ones in a Ibanez, etc). Assuming one can replace the pickups to try them in an identical guitar, the barrier there is that time erodes the auditory memory and makes comparison difficult. This system allows for the speed of interchange that permits more valid comparison between pickups.

[David Schwab]

My only two concerns with the Gibson system is that the pickups are not angled parallel to the strings, and I'd worry about the stability of the neck with a hole cut through the body like that. The LP neck tenon was never its strongest point. Maybe they designed it differently.

But it is a cool idea.

[kevinT]

Gibson's marketing and research team must be on the ball because, to me, this guitar shows that they are hip on the current trends of pickup swaping and how important tone is to folks these days and their quest for it...Maybe we're experienceing a Tone Renaissance of sorts.

On Duncan's forum, almost every other thread asks the question or talks about how a particular magnet sounds after removing the stock mag and replacing it with a new one.

I bet Gibson's next big release is a pickup that is designed so that folks can easily swap the magnets while keeping the pickup in the guitar. :D

Hey,... what about a pickup in which you can do tone modeling (like amps). To have the ability to dial in specs and have a pickup sound like the particular specs that you give it.

[David Schwab]

Gibson's marketing and research team must be on the ball because, to me, this guitar shows that they are hip on the current trends of pickup swaping and how important tone is to folks these days and their quest for it...Maybe we're experienceing a Tone Renaissance of sorts.

On Duncan's forum, almost every other thread asks the question or talks about how a particular magnet sounds after removing the stock mag and replacing it with a new one.

That reminds me of similar talk over at TalkBass where people swap basses and pickups left and right looking for... something.

I can't believe how many basses some of these people have owed. To me it was always I try it out, and I like it or I don't. I don't end up buying something I'm going to sell a month later.

The unfortunate part is people are putting too much emphases on gear. Good gear is important, but it wont make you something you aren't. If you can't get a good tone from any given instrument, something is wrong!