Today on Cryptic Mass Guitar, we do a comparison between two Gibson custom 1957 Les Paul’s. So, we have a VOS 1957 dark back gold top here against a 1957 Les Paul custom two pickup ultra light aged Murphy Lab. Very quickly, it’s important that you don’t use YouTube videos as the sole deciding factor as to why you’re buying a guitar. Make sure you try it out while you’re in the store before you buy it, especially at these price ranges here. Uh, and while you’re at it, try out some other guitars because really that’s why I ended up falling in love with a 1963 Les Paul Custom and a 1968 Les Paul Custom, which I’m still waiting for. So, in this comparison here, I do have it like I normally do. So, five sound samples and five different tunings with five different amps. The last one, don’t worry, is still going to be the full-on metal sound sample. But after that, I’m actually going to play without any drums, single tracked and clean. So, you can actually hear a little more uh of the potential differences between both of these [Music] [Music] guitars. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. [Music] So, that’s it for all of the five different sound samples that have drum tracks with them and are double tracked. So, I’m going to do something that I don’t normally do, and I think I’m I’m going to start including it in these type of comparisons here. Um, and that’s just playing both of the guitars clean with no drums and they’re definitely single track. Um, this channel is, especially my stuff is all geared towards recording. So that’s why you’re always hearing it stereotacted rather than single tracked. And also when I single track, I tend to noodle a lot and forget that there’s a camera in front of me. I just start enjoying the guitar. So that that’s really why you start seeing, you know, you’re you’re seeing a lot of double track stuff from me. So, here’s both of these guitars with all three pickup positions uh in clean with two different samples. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. All [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] right. [Music] That’s beautiful. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] Yeah. [Laughter] [Music] [Music] Okay, so we’ve heard five different sound samples that are uh double tracked with drums and then we’ve heard the single tracked with no drums uh comparison. So, what I finally want to do here before I talk about the specs and my thoughts on both of these guitars is just play them acoustically. I’m just going to play a chord and we’ll go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I am using a crappy lapel microphone. Usually, it does pick up differences between both of them. [Music] [Music] Okay, so that’s it for all of the playing. Uh, so hopefully you’re able to hear some acoustic difference. So I’ll talk really quickly about the spec differences here. Um, I will note really quick that this is a VOS, so vintage original sheen. Don’t sue me. I know you want to type in vintage original specification. Gibson holds the trademark for it. But the new Gibson uh starting in 2019, I believe could have been late 2018, they actually changed what VOS meant. And it’s just to differentiate um the regular um reissue finish. So that vintage patina finish versus the Murphy Labs. So don’t shoot the messenger even though you’re already typing. I know. Jeez, I don’t understand people. It is vintage original specification. Yeah. So, VOS versus Light Murphy Lab. Now, this is a 2022. Uh, even though I did get it new, no one would buy it at the price that it was listed. I guess $11,000 is a lot of pe a lot of money for a lot of people, including myself. I’m going to throw up over that price. Um, but nowadays I guess the Murphy Labs are like the ultra light Murphy Labs are like pretty heavy cuz the um the 1963 Les Paul uh in white that I got. Oh, she’s a beautiful thing. But man, those everything’s deep. Everything’s deep. Um, so it is important to kind of notice or to note that. So, like with the Murphy Labs, it’s really with the heavier stuff, they really get to roll the fret um the fretboard just a little more like on the binding going into the fretboard a little more. Uh with the ultra light, there’s a little bit of it. So, you can feel like the tiniest amount of a difference uh in the rolling of the fretboard, but it it is just important to note. So, if you’re noting like there’s some lines in this guitar, maybe if it if the light hit it the right way, that’s why. That also means the finish here is the vintage patina uh nitroc cellulose finish whereas this is the Murphy Lab nitroc cellulose finish. So that means this is going to age more than this will age. Um it’s going to take a long time for this to age. It will eventually which checking on gold tops is really cool to some people uh me. Um whereas this is just going to like ever so slightly uh age a little more than this one here. Now it’s a 1957. So this is a mahogany body. There is no maple top here. This is a mahogany body with a two-piece maple top. Um both of these obviously on the front are solid colors. on the back of the custom here, solid color, and the neck solid color. Whereas the gold top is actually a dark back. So, this is actually uh not a solid color. You can actually see the wood grain here. Uh if you’re looking uh you can actually see it. So, that does change things a little more. Uh gives it a little bit more of an open sound, if that makes any sense to anybody. um it with that kind of stuff. So with the maple versus the mahogany, this does seem to be a little midforward. This does seem to have a little bit more um resonance to it, but this still sounds deep. This I don’t know if I can say anything for another couple of months, but it’s given my 1958 a run for its money. That’s for damn sure. Both also have the chunky C neck profile. They’re one piece mahogany necks. Um the the custom here I I think it’s just because it’s a solid color. It it’s like maybe a millimeter half a millimeter thicker than the um the gold top here. Both guitars also have bound fretboards. The 1957 is rosewood, a dark rosewood. Whereas the um Les Paul custom here is an ebony fretboard. Cellulose nitrate trapezoid inlays on the gold top. Whereas we have mother of pearl 50s authentic block inlays. Everything is bound on the LesPaul custom. The back is bound and the headstock is bound. So that’s a big difference here between the um 1957. The headstock is also a little bigger. It might be might be a little more similar to like an SG style headstock, but I could be absolutely crazy. Um and it’s just from the look of things here. We have the inlaid Gibson logos on both of these guitars here. silkcreened less Paul model logo uh on the gold top and then we have the split diamond inlaid logo um on the uh Les Paul custom. We also have LesPaul custom engraved on the truss rod cover. Both tuners are clucons. However, we have the vintage deluxe on the gold top, whereas we have waffle backs, which I’ve wanted in my whole life uh on the LesPaul custom pickups. Same same custom buckers. The uh bridges are same same ABR1 drilled directly into the body. And um yeah, we have nickel hardware on the gold top whereas we have gold hardware on the Les Paul custom. So that’s enough about talking about the specs here. Um, so my thoughts here, uh, between both of these guitars, before I got the LesPaul custom here, I’d always say, uh, my favorite would be my 1958, my 195, then followed by either my 1957 or my 1959 or 1960, depending on the day of the week. But the Les Paul custom, I’ve wanted this my entire life. Uh my entire guitar life since I was first allowed to have a catalog in Music Stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia. So, um please take note of that. So, if you’re looking for like, you know, like, oh, maybe I’ll go with what this goofball’s decision here is on which one he likes more, don’t do that. Do what? Go to the store and play it. Um, but I I do have to note I’m still in the honeymoon phase of the guitar that I’ve wanted uh for 30 years. Um, but apart from that, um, the Les Paul custom in comparison to the gold top. So, the gold top, like I said, has has the the two-piece uh maple top, and the back is not a solid color. Um, it’s just a darker like I don’t think I don’t know if this is analin dye. Off the top of my head, I don’t think it is. Unless it’s like super dark analin die. I think it’s a different dye than uh the dyes that are on the um 58, 59, and and 60s, sorry. and of course the uh SGS. But uh that setup here, the fact that it’s a solid color and then it’s not a solid color on the back and the fact that it it’s a maple top rather than full mahogany will change things acoustically and then um it can change things a little bit when it comes to playing them electrically. Electrically. So to put it like very bluntly, it just feels like there’s a little more give in the gold top here. So if I’m playing, I it comes across like I’m feeling a little more resonance, a little more of that low end um in comparison to the uh less Paul custom. So when like that will translate into u like obviously chords, but it will also translate into when I’m playing leads. So you can feel a little more give when you’re playing it and you’re feeling a little more of that low end. With the less Paul custom here, it retains a lot of that deep feel like it it’s there’s not as much resonance. But the only way that I can put it is the low mids on this thing and in conjunction with the like overall presence uh like the mids and the top end uh of this guitar. It’s just it’s really unrivaled. And I can’t wait for my 1968 Les Paul custom to come in because that is going to just I don’t know if it’s going to be um something weird going on into my brain because that also has like a 14 degree um headstock angle whereas this has a 17. So, but it it’s going to be nice to be able to see um how much of the just complete mahogany versus uh maple and the solid color on, you know, all around uh is going to play as a factor because until I get that 1968 and I’m able to play my guitars back to back, I think that’s really going to be where I’m going to be able to see a lot of the diff or, you know, feel a lot of the differences and be able to give um a better personal perspective on that. But both of these guitars, oh my god, I am like I’m absolutely floored that I own these. Um, and they’re just they’re absolutely incredible. And this here I’ve owned for almost a year. This I’ve owned for like two weeks. Um, but the they’re absolutely phenomenal guitars. Um, the high glue construction. Um the single piece lightweight mahogany here and the single piece body. Uh it it’s just really really hard to beat. Uh at least for me. I just find that I I feel it a lot more when I’m playing with these guitars. And I really wish I I I I didn’t because it’d be absolutely lovely uh to not have to pay the prices for the guitars. But yeah, I If you ask me, I I seem to bond a little more with the Les Paul custom, but I could still be in that honeymoon phase. But the 1957 has always jumped out at me as um just a guitar I want to grab all the time. Thanks for watching.
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