My Epiphone Les Paul Custom

The lazy days of summer still have a hold on me! Since my last post, I haven't done anything new on the guitar, except rotate guitars again. This time, I am using my Epiphone Les Paul Custom. It is a 1995 made in Korea model that I bought almost a year ago through Craigslist. It is everything a Les Paul should be: a true Rock machine in every way!

I have been practicing my usual routine with my LP, just like I was practicing with my Epi Dot before I put it away. The main differences between the Dot and the LP physically are the size and weight. The Dot is a bigger bodied guitar, but because the Dot is semi-hollow, the LP is a lot heavier. The weight does not bother me because I usually play sitting down, but I do have to re-adjust to having a regular-sized guitar body on my lap as opposed to the bigger body of the Dot. As for the sound, I have always considered the LP to be on one end of the extreme in tone (with the Telecaster being at the other end). I consider all of my guitars to have what I call a 'middle of the road' tone, except for my LP and my Tele-style guitar. Because of this, I always end up tinkering with my effects devices more when I use my LP than when I use my other guitars (I haven't used effects with my Tele-style guitar yet).

Last night I spent some time playing my LP through my new Vox DA5 for the first time. I found that the DA5 settings I was using with my Jet King and my Dot had to be adjusted to work well with my LP, but that was to be expected. One thing for sure: The LP sounded great after I got everything adjusted! Now it's time to go play some more!

Playing with my toys and the need to catch up!

I have to admit, I haven't played my guitar in about five days! I think the lazy days of summer are getting to me. This is also the reason I had not posted anything here sooner. The last time I played, I was trying to reproduce some of my favorite settings from my DigiTech RP50 modeling guitar processor on my new Vox DA5 amp. So far, I have been able to reproduce all of my favorites on my DA5. The only real difference is that I can save settings on the RP50. It has 40 user preset locations where I can save settings. The DA5 doesn't have the capability to save settings, but it is easy enough to dial in my settings, so it is really not a problem. I use a pre-printed form that came in the DA5 manual to record my various settings. Once on paper, all I have to do is dial in any setting I want. It may seem easier to have a setting saved and just go to it instead of having to dial it in every time, but I see benefits in both methods. On the RP50, once a setting is saved in a specific location, I have to know where that particular setting is, so I have to use a chart for reference. On the DA5, I use the pre-printed form I mentioned above. I don't mind dialing in a setting because it gives me a chance to experiment with that setting whenever I dial it in. On an RP50 setting, I tend to just go to it and use it as it was originally saved. It comes down to convenience versus creativity for me when using my RP50 and my DA5 to get a desired sound, but I love both of these devices.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have some guitar practicing and playing to catch up with!