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Les vs. HB Special


Guest slim

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Posted

I've got a Korina P90 Artist, and I love the thing. But a buddy of mine lent me his 77 LP Standard. I played the thing all weekend, and I'm in love with it. The Artist is nice and light and I love the tones and dirty, ranuchy sounds of the P90s (I play a lot of early Aerosmith and late 70's stuff), but something about that LP. The weight, the action was SO fast, just a real nice experience. Different, but nice. Anyways, anyone care to comment on the similarities of a HB Special and a LP? If they're close, I'd go for the Hamer of course. There is a sweet 81 Special on on ebay right now, but the guy is asking over $1000. Seems very high for one as beat as that appears to be.

Thanks,

Slim.

PS. Cool place by the way. Stumbled on to it this weekend.

Posted

If you want more of an LP vibe you should probably head toward a Monaco Elite or a Studio/Studio Custom rather than a Special.

The P-90 Artist like you have is very cool too! Need to get me one of those. :D

Posted

Baddmann, I PM'd you.

Mr. Happy, can you elaborate on the difference between the feel of the Studio vs. a special?

Baddmann has let me know he has a sweet Sunburst he is selling. I'm working the details with the CFO, er...wife.

I really like the low/faster action, sustain and just the solidness of the LP that the Korina/Artist doesnt have. It's a different animal, and I want them both! I'm hoping I can get that LP vibe from a Hamer.

Thanks,

Slim

Posted

FWIW - I've owned two "real" LPs and a nice Heritage H-150CM, and think my '93 Special FM beats them hands down. It's a very rude (in a good way) guitar that really wants to rock.

If I want smoother humbucker sounds, my Artist Custom gets the nod.

Posted

Slim,

If you are really jonesing for a Les Paul, get a Les Paul. A few years ago I sold my last Les Paul to fund some more Hamers, and after a while I missed the tone of the LP. A few weeks ago I got a great deal on a '58 Historic RI which is everything a great LP should be...lightweight, fat neck, killer tone, nice playability. It has more bottom end than any of the Hamers I have owned. It also hits the front end of my amps harder and has more sustain. It is a totally different guitar than the double-cut Hamers.

With that said, I still love Hamer guitars, and I am working on adding a nice Artist to my collection. With Hamers, you do get great build quality, killer flame maple tops, and superb playability. My favorite right now is a '95 Special FM with Rios-it has a nice fat honking tone to it and it plays easier then any guitar I've owned, aside from a wrap-tail Hamer Studio. I can string these guitars with 11s and they feel like 9s when you bend 'em.

Posted

My own personal opinion is that it's hard to get the LP sound from a double cut guitar. My old Monaco Elite sounded like God's Own Les Paul. Great bottom end.

HHB says the Monaco Elite that Phoenix is selling (which is probably quite pricey because it's an optioned-out custom model) sounds phenomenal.

Posted

that elite is amazing, it really is, also will be high dollar, but if your looking for a gasender, Steve's Monaco elite is it. one thing I find is that a good LP has a quasi-parametric EQ thing going on, one frequency cut so that the ones near it seem pronounced, live Zep has that "quark(thats quack meets bark)" as does most early ZZ Top and Free, the elite is a smoother tone , close to the LP but fuller frequency ( no quark). I've never tried a standard elite but Gwayne has a sweet one that sounded great when we played at low volume, I'm spoiled that I've only really messed w/ Steve's

elitefull.jpg

Posted

yeah ive got a 95 hamer studio with s.d. custom 5 in bridge s.d.59 neck and ive just aquired a 2004 gibson lp classic.immediately changed the lp p.u,s to dimarzio paf classics(the origonal gibson ceramic 500t and 496r were awful).the gibson has a lot more bottom end and sustain than the hamer although the quality of the hamer is far superior to the gibson.2 different beasts altogether

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