70’s Gibson The Paul with Dimarzio Super Distortion Pickups

Used price range: $800-$1200
One Sentence Summary: “Gibson: Finding ‘The Paul.’”

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This is one of those 70’s Gibson guitar that you don’t find often because they hidden in people’s collections. This was a guitar that throughout my guitar playing years that I wanted to have, especially the earlier model with the walnut body and ebony fretboard. So when I found one in a local music store, I jumped at the opportunity to play it. The one I found had two Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups installed, but after playing it, I have since changed my mind, as why, I’ll explain below.

 

Neck feel:

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This was my main reason for not wanting to get the guitar after playing it is because the neck didn’t connect with my hands. The fretboard is near exact in feel and width to my 1999 SG Special Limited Edition with an Ebony fretboard. The neck, however, wasn’t a thick neck, like the 50’s Rounded Profile on my SG, to make up for its skinny in width fretboard. It had a small V-like neck. It didn’t have the shoulder deepness on the neck like a Gibson 60’s Profile. Because of the small neck and satin finish on the neck, it felt easily breakable while holding it.
The fret access on this was very good. Much like an SG neck joint, it was close to its skinny body and made it easier to hit the 22nd fret on the low E string.

Fret Work:

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The fretboard on this guitar was, as stated earlier, near exact to the Ebony fretboard and frets on my SG. The action was average low around 1-2mm off the fretboard, and didn’t suffer from severe fret buzz. The ebony fretboard made it easy to fret down on, making legatos and fast playing happen easily. However, when bending and doing vibratos, the frets felt scratchy.
While two hand tapping on clean the guitar performed excellently because of the high quality Ebony fretboard. Legatos and trills were fast like a shred guitar on this thing. When sliding up and down the fretboard the fret ends didn’t feel like a bother. Finally, the guitar didn’t fret out with big bending.

Sound:

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The Dimarzio Distortion is what it is, It will sound similar if not the same no matter what guitar you put it in. The neck Distortion pickup even had the same tone set but warmer than its bridge counterpart. You get that 80’s Metal clean and distortion tone no matter how you put it. The pinch harmonics were extravagant and had a lot of sustain, I love them, but I feel they held the guitar back a bit tone wise. I expected more tone with the walnut body it had.
Because of the pickup combination, they sound near the same as the Epiphone Ace Frehley model Les Paul that I played next to it, the only differences was that The Paul had more output on the bridge pickup while the neck pickup on The Paul was a little cleaner sounding and Dimarzios on The Paul overall had a bit more flare.

Finish:

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There wasn’t much of a finish on the guitar, it was a satin finish all across the guitar. The neck felt faster because of the satin neck, but it felt delicate, it’s not something I would be swinging around on stage without fear of the headstock or neck breaking. It didn’t feel like it had enough reinforcement without the thicker finish you usually get from Gibson. I could see why a lot of these stay in their cases, not because they’re bad players, but because they’re more meant to be collector guitars.

In Conclusion:

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Guitar Level: Pro (in current setup)
Best Fit: Studio/Collector/Home Player guitar
Best for Rhythm or Lead: This guitar could fit either real easily.
Has Value for studio use: In the current setup with Dimarzio pickups, if you’re comfortable with the smaller neck, Yes. Even though, stock, you don’t get more than the standard Les Paul options, with Dimarzio pickups you can create all the tone hacks that you want. The pickups in combination with this guitar will sound clear, clean or under Distortion, and fit the best when you’re trying to recreate 80’s Metal tone or the lower tuning Metal of today.

 

Worth the Price?

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Yes, It’s a rare collector guitar that’s pleasing to play, and sounds maybe even better with the Dimarzios than stock, but I told you why I didn’t want to buy it. For me it was a no because, I can’t stand having a guitar that I don’t like playing. The neck wasn’t right for me and would affect how often I’d pick it up, I wouldn’t spend $800 for something I couldn’t feel comfortable playing.
But there’s the lesson, sometimes because you have an ideal guitar from a webpage standpoint, it doesn’t mean it’s actually the ideal guitar for you.
Bluntly, GO PLAY AS MANY GUITARS AS YOU CAN!