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Tomás' Tall and Twisting Tune
Inspired by the Guitars of MLT, I’ve done a mod to my Les Paul. Angelo has been so thorough in his research that it has made me pay closer attention.
Before MLT, I only knew of the Bigsby tremolo, the Fenders and the Floyd Rose. I have a Strat and a Les Paul that I use as my lead guitars for soloing. The Strat has the advantage of the factory tremolo, so I would pick it up if I was going to use the tremolo. However on a particular song I wanted the Les Paul and the tremolo. I really don’t want to drill any holes into it, so did some research.
Given that Lisa uses a Duesenberg tremolo, which I didn’t know about until she mentioned it, I researched it and found that there is a Duesenberg “Les Trem II” that fits in the place of a fixed tail piece with out any further mods.
Here’s my Les Paul before.
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11 Replies
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I bought the Les Trem on Reverb, and it came from Germany. I have to say that the install was as easy as they said. Easier that assembling an Ikea chair! ?
Here it is installed
I have to say that it plays very smoothly and has lots of room to fine tune the position of the arm, which was a pleasant surprise.
Any of you guys out there have used a Duesenberg tremolo? Any thoughts on it?
Until next!
Tomás
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Nice looking guitar Tomás. And well done with that tremolo!
Looks like you’ve given it a paint job too!
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The Gibson Les Paul is considered one of the best guitars of all time, but I am sure you already knew that 🙂 Do you prefer the standard solid body or chambered hollow, or semi-hollow body guitars in general? Do you get more volume and richer tone out of a chambered electric guitar, like the Duo Jet?
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Thanks Howard. No mystery installing the tremolo, and it looks good too! Been playing a bit and it’s great, I like the trem more than the others.
I didn’t do anything to the finish. It’s just that when I took the first picture I had good lighting and in the new one it’s the low light of the room. Looks a lot more red in the first picture, doesn’t it? I guess the actual color is somewhere in between. It’s a “Tobacco Sunburst” in a satin finish. It’s not a glossy finish and feels very much like bare wood, which I like.
This was a limited run of Gibson’s “Classic” model with a few unusual things like the old time logo.
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Hi Jung. This Les Paul has chambered so it’s very light, just over 7 lbs. When I bought in in 2007, I was trying a whole bunch of Les Pauls, and the heaviness was putting me off a bit, until they brought out this one. I felt that I had hit the jackpot. I don’t like flashy new, I like old and classic, and this was it. Also it sounded much better than the others I had tried. I didn’t put it down until I was home, I didn’t want anybody else grabbing it! ?
I had this idea that a chambered guitar would have less sustain compared to a fully solid body, but this guitar proved to me that it’s not the case. Interestingly enough, these have not come up for sale at all until a couple did earlier this year, and they’ve definitively appreciated in value quite a bit, so I’m happy about that, and I understand why. Though I’m not selling! ?
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Tomas, that Les Paul sounds like a true gem, and a nice light one to your liking. Sounds like the perfect “Baby Mine”! Thanks for sharing the story around it.
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Hi Thomas, with the long list of great artists that use the Dusenberg (which unfortunately does not include the most beloved of all, if you see who I’m talking about)
https://duesenberg.de/en/guitars/starplayer-tv
personnaly I woul have gone for this:
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Angelo, I’ve got much to learn. I did not know about the vibramate, and that’s something to keep in mind. I do have that Bigsby on my Gibson ES300, so I’m happy with the the Duesenberg.
I went through the artists, and it’s clear that they could get a boost from the Twins, the question is do the Twins want to, and what would they get in return, right?
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Well, Tomás, personally I don’t know how the Twins could benefit, but you never know. It would have to be a collaboration in their interests of course. With John Sebastion, there was an obvious connection. I don’t think Bob Dylan would be a good match (good for marketing purposes though). Donovan would be a better fit.
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Hi Tómas, your “Les Paul” looks cool with his Duesenberg. The tremolo is much more discreet and it respects better the aspect of the “Les Paul” which in 99% of the cases is always naked, without any tremolo. But what do I see behind your Les Paul??, a G6122-62 and a Tele GH edition? Would you be a George Harrison fan too?
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A teeny bit fan of George… just a bit… would you believe me an average fan?? … ?
Yes, big fan.
It’s a 1964 Chet Atkins. At first I thought the bridge pickup was switched out, but on inspection it’s all original with the soldering all intact. It’s all original except for the bridge. It’s in great shape, including the binding, which is rare at this age. Sounds great too.
The Tele is a 2017 George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster. The difference with the Custom shop is that this one is chambered, which makes it much lighter. And the price, other than that it’s the same and I love it. Play it all the time.
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