Q: Is a Les Paul a good beginner guitar?

A: First, I should say I generally think it’s better for beginners to start on acoustic guitars. Whether you follow this advice or not, when you are ready to purchase your first electric guitar, a Les Paul style guitar is a good choice. It is a rather heavy, unbalanced guitar, but if it isn't uncomfortable for you, you will probably like using a Les Paul style guitar.

Les Paul style guitars produce beautiful sounds!  And if you get one that has a coil cut switch, it can also sound like a Fender!  Also, they are easy to play, because they have a shorter scale neck (24.75”, as compared to 25.5″ for Fenders and many others), which makes the fretboard easier to navigate for a beginner, because it results in less string tension for easier bends, and shorter reaches for some of those really stretchy chords.  Also, the fretboard radius is larger, meaning flatter, than Fenders, which makes it easier to form barre chords. Finally, the lack of a vibrato tailpiece is a definite plus for a beginner. 

On the downside, the headstock can be a problem for beginners, unless they are very careful. Les Paul style guitars have a nasty habit of breaking off headstocks on impact, because of the angle of the headstock and the weight of the body.  So NEVER lean a Les Paul style guitar against a wall or chair, and NEVER leave it on a stand in an area where someone will accidentally run into it and knock it over.

The Les Paul is a classic design. It’s good to grow around a classic design, as you'll probably be playing a variant of the Les Paul your entire playing career.  It’s a guitar you could and probably will use for the rest of your life.

Note that I have used the words "Les Paul style", not "Gibson Les Paul."  If there is such a thing as a category called ‘beginner guitar’, then nothing with the word ‘Gibson’ in it is in that category.  Gibson makes high-priced instruments aimed at professionals, which are also purchased by wealthy amateurs. But they are not instruments for beginners. Giving a beginner a high-priced instrument makes the student more nervous to constantly play it, take it with them wherever they go, and gig with it.  Never give a beginner an instrument that you'd have a heart attack if it got scratched or dinged up or broken or stolen.

My advice for a beginner is to get an inexpensive Les Paul style guitar that holds its tuning, has a reasonably consistent and playable action, a decent quality neck, frets in decent condition, and doesn’t crackle too much. There are some Les Paul clones that check all those boxes.  One of them is actually made by a subsidiary company owned by Gibson, called Epiphone.  They make excellent Les Paul clones, and they even have the words "Les Paul" on them!  They are not bad guitars at all.  But there are other Les Paul clones that are less expensive and just as good as Epiphones.  My personal recommendation is the Xaviere XV-500 & XV-510 guitars sold by guitarfetish.com.

These are fantastic guitars for an unbeatable price.

Then the important part: after you buy your electric guitar, practice it all you can. Buy a tiny amp with a headphone jack and take it everywhere.  Be the girl or guy who is always playing the guitar.  Practice, practice, practice.  Play, play, play.

Q: Why do so many people dislike Agile branded electric guitars?

A: I own an Agile AL-3200MCC and it’s one of the nicest electric guitars I’ve ever played. Solid mahogany body with 3/4″ solid maple top, super strong 5 piece maple/walnut through-body neck with compound neck radius, ebony fretboard with hand-filed jumbo frets, dual-action truss rod, 18:1 Grover tuners, Graph Tech bridge, Tusq nut, built in coil cuts, beautiful fit and finish, real mother of pearl and abalone, triple binding all the way around, great tone, excellent sustain, back-of-body contour, more comfortable to play than any Gibson, made in South Korea, for $500. What’s not to like???

My only theory is that the negativity must be sour grapes from people who spent more and got less.

Q:  Is the Gibson Les Paul Better than the Fender Stratocaster?

Answer by Martin Turner (Irv agrees):  The Stratocaster and the Les Paul helped to define the sound of rock and pop music since the 1960s. For the Les Paul sound, a Les Paul is far better than a Stratocaster. For the Strat sound, a Stratocaster is better.

There are actually many guitars out there that can sound like either, or a mixture of both. Some other guitars sound better than either of them. The two guitars are archetypes, heritage guitars.

There are some crucial differences which make each of them them better in certain ways:

Les Paul has a shorter scale length, for a deeper sound and easier bending, Strat has a longer scale length for a brighter sound and strings that return more quickly, perhaps for faster playing.

Les Pauls have a thicker, heavier neck, at least on some models. Strats have a thinner neck. I always feel that you play ‘on’ a Strat neck, but ‘into’ a Les Paul neck.

Strats have bright, clear, single-coil pickups. Les Pauls have deep, humbucking pickups with a warm, powerful sound.

Strats have three pickups, Les Pauls have two. But Les Pauls have a tone control and a volume control for each pickup, and they work a little better. The bridge pickup on the Strat is harder to work with, which has led to many signature sounds developed.

Strats have a tremolo arm, Les Pauls are heavier and have longer natural sustain.

Strats have good access right up the neck on both sides, but they have a bolt-on neck, so there’s a place you have to work around. Les Pauls have a glued-on neck, with less of a heel, but less access from both sides.

There are many other guitars which do the Les Paul's job better than the originals, in the sense that they also come equipped with coil-splitting so that they can get the ‘Strat’ sound. Actually, current Les Pauls, unless you are buying a complete reissue, also come with coil splitting and even phase splitting. But they still never feel and look like Strats.

Strats are generally thought of as more ergonomic than classic Les Pauls.

As an object of desire, a Gibson Les Paul has more work on it, and is a ‘better piece of furniture’. But, then, they cost twice as much.

It’s your money. Make a choice and enjoy.

Are modeling guitar amplifiers now so good that you don't need to deal with tube amplifiers anymore?

A: The answer to your question is: it depends on how picky you are. How much of a “purist” you are. Most gigging guitarists now use modeling amps for live performance. That is because they can get a much greater variety of sounds, programmable with memorized settings for each song in the set list, with MUCH more reliability, less weight, and fewer amperes of stage power. The sound is maybe 80–90% as good as a tube amp, but frankly it sounds nearly as good as a tube amp by the time you stick a mic on it and run it through a PA system. Of course, not all modeling amps are equal. Some sound like crap. But the good ones are decent, and getting better with every generation. Personally, I am delighted to have an amp that weighs half as much, and since I made the switch I’ve never once had a failure from a tube crapping out before or during the gig. I love having 20 different amplifiers plus more than a dozen stomp boxes for a little more than $300. But if you are the type who can hear the difference between a carbon resistor versus a metal one, or between a battery versus a wall wart for powering your effects, or the difference between one brand of 6L6GC versus another, you won’t be happy with a modeling amp… yet.

 Q: How do you do a natural finish on a guitar body? Do you just spray the wood with polyurethane?

A: My personal favorite is to use Tru Oil. It is easy to work with. It is not really an oil, it is a really excellent varnish. TruOil is marketed for gun stocks, but wood is wood. It works fantastic on guitars. There are threads and articles online about how to apply it. I researched online and followed the directions and refinished my Taylor GS Mini with it, and it’s gorgeous. Google “Tru Oil guitar”, select photos, and you’ll find some stunning guitars finished with Tru Oil. It is much easier to use than polyurethane or lacquer. Just apply a very thin layer at a time with a cotton cloth. It takes a few days to do because each layer is so thin and you have to let each layer dry before the next coat, but it’s worth it. No runs, no problems. For an acoustic guitar I would not use more than 3 layers to avoid changing the tone. On an electric, use as many coats as you want until you love the look.

Q: Is it true that semi hollow electric guitars don’t sound much different from solid body guitars when using a lot of gain/distortion?

A: It all depends on how sensitive your ears are, and how picky you are. I can hear the difference, and in my opinion it is significant. The solid body has a lot more sustain, and more overtones. I can also hear the difference between Fender style single coil pickups versus humbuckers versus P-90s. I can hear the difference between an aftermarket solid body bridge assembly versus a stock Fender bridge. I can hear the difference between steel versus nickel strings, and roundcore versus hexcore string cores, and coated versus uncoated strings. With or without distortion. Others with better ears than mine can hear the difference between different types of hardwood in solid body guitars… I can’t. I know a guy who can hear the difference between a 9V carbon battery versus a 9V wal-wart in his effects pedals, and one brand of tube versus another brand in his amps. I used to think he was nuts, but I don’t anymore. I think he can hear it, and it matters to him. Bottom line: try a side by side comparison with a solid body guitar and a semi hollow guitar and see if you can hear the difference.

Q: Can a PA speaker be used as a guitar amp?

A: For acoustic guitar, yes, absolutely! For electric guitar, NO!!!!… UNLESS you are using a pedalboard that imitates a tube amp.

The goal with acoustic guitar is simply to amplify the natural sound of the guitar without changing it at all. That’s what PA’s do. In contrast, the goal of an electric guitar amp is to CHANGE the sound. Tubes don’t just amplify; they add harmonics, add distortion, and compress the sound in very interesting and complex ways. If you plug an electric guitar straight into a PA, it will sound like crap. If you first run the signal through a quality digital board that models a tube amp (NOT a simple stomp box!!!), then all that stuff will be done by the board and then the goal of the amp will be the same as with acoustic guitar: to amplify the sound without changing it at all. In that case, yes a PA will work. In fact, it will work far better than a guitar amp. (You don’t want to do that tube amp modeling stuff twice!)

Q: Why is a different amplifier needed for a bass guitar, acoustic guitar, and an electric guitar?

A: Good question. The answer is: because the purposes of those three amplifiers are very different from each other. All amps make the sound louder, but the other things they do are different.

For an acoustic guitar, the purpose of the amp is to make the sound louder, and that is all. You do NOT want to change the sound in any way. The best amp for an acoustic guitar is the amp that changes the sound the least. For this reason, you really don’t need an acoustic guitar amp to perform. Just plug straight into the PA system and you’ll sound great. That’s because a PA system has exactly the same objective as an acoustic guitar amp: make it louder without changing the sound. So, if you plan to perform in places where there is no PA system, then just buy a PA system instead of an acoustic guitar amp! (For example, Sam’s Club generally has an ION brand 500W powered speaker with a 15″ woofer and horn with a tripod stand, two inputs, simple EQ, reverb effect, wheels, and airport style extending handle for around $200. It’s not the best PA in the world, but it’s cheaper and far more powerful than an acoustic guitar amp, and you can plug in a microphone, too. It even has bluetooth to play music from your phone.)

In contrast, for an electric guitar, the primary purpose of the amp is to CHANGE the sound. If you plug an electric guitar into a PA system (or acoustic guitar amp), it will sound HORRIBLE. That’s because electric guitars sound like crap until you change the sound. The tube circuits (or digital modeling of tube circuits) in an electric guitar amp add harmonics, increase sustain, compress the sound, add distortion, and shape the frequency response in very sophisticated and amazing ways. In fact, the amp is arguably as important as the guitar, because differences between various electric guitar amps actually have as much effect on the electric guitar sound as do differences between various brands and models of electric guitars.
For a bass guitar, the primary purpose of the amp is to make the sound really, really loud. Yes a good bass amp and cabinet does improve the sound of a bass somewhat, but the main difference for a bass amp is it takes FAR more power to make low frequencies loud than it takes to make midrange frequencies loud. Whereas a 50–100W amp is generally plenty for an electric guitar, 400–1000W amps are the norm for bass guitars.  And, of course, the speakers and cabinet are VERY different from those of guitar amps.

For a bass guitar, the primary purpose of the amp is to make the sound really, really loud. Yes a good bass amp and cabinet does improve the sound of a bass somewhat, but the main difference for a bass amp is it takes FAR more power to make low frequencies loud than it takes to make midrange frequencies loud. Whereas a 50–100W amp is generally plenty for an electric guitar, 400–1000W amps are the norm for bass guitars.  And, of course, the speakers and cabinet are VERY different from those of guitar amps.

Interesting Response:

I remember when I was 14 in the 1980s and got my first cheap guitar amp and wondered why I sounded like crap. “This doesn't sound like all my guitar heroes” I thought…. It was a transistor amp designed to make an instrument louder rather than sound ‘better’.

Irv's response to Response:

You are not alone.  Most of the amps of the 1980s were complete garbage.  I played with a guy back then that had a fairly expensive Yamaha amp.  He spent all sorts of money on pedals and he even bought a Tom Scholz “Rockman”, and it still sounded like crap.  It was loud, but it had no musicality.  It was sad but common that you could buy a brand name amp that bore no resemblance other than its looks to the amps of those same brands being used by all the famous bands.  Solid state was supposed to be so cool.  And it was, for PA systems.  Not for guitar amps.  All those old solid state amps had “gain” knobs that would overdrive the transistors.  When tubes are overdriven, magic happens.  But when transistors are overdriven it sounds “like crap” as you said.  It wasn’t until 2nd generation digital modeling amps came out about five years ago that you could buy an inexpensive non-tube amp that sounded decent.

Q: If electric guitars produce sound via magnetic oscillations, how come different guitars have different timbres?

A: This is a great question!

One reason is that different body woods and bridge materials and bridge designs vibrate differently from each other, and those vibrations feed back to the strings, changing the pattern of the actual oscillation of the string, which creates a different waveform in the pickup. (Differences in these same factors also suck up different amounts of vibrating energy from the string, which also creates differences in the length of sustain.)

A second reason is that different guitar players use different brands and models of strings with different alloys that vibrate very differently from each other. Both of these two factors actually result in the string itself vibrating differently from one guitar to another.

A third reason is that different guitars place the pickups in different places along the vibrating string. Because the string vibrates very differently at various places along its length, this results in big differences in the tone.

Finally, the biggest difference between guitars is that different brands and models of electromagnetic pickups have different strengths and shapes of magnets and wire diameters and number of windings and single/dual pole designs that make the electrons in the wire respond to the vibrating string in very different ways, and thus into VERY different waveforms. Both of these two factors have nothing to do with how the string itself vibrates, but rather how the pickups translate that vibration into a complex alternating current waveform.

Having said that, I must add that the brand and model of guitar amp, and the settings chosen on that amp, also make a huge difference in the timbre of the instrument.

Here is another excellent answer to the question that goes into much more depth, by Robert Smith:

It IS a fun question, and brings to light some of the reasons that an electric guitar is a supremely expressive instrument (vs say, a piano, which is far more limited in the timbres it can create). First off, to clarify, the pickup (which is a magnetic transducer that transforms one form of energy: vibration to another: electrical impulses) works like this: The string, vibrating, drags the magnetic field back and forth across the winds of the pickup, creating an electrical current in the wire. The shape and strength of the magnetic field (determined by iron content in the string, distance of the string from the magnet, and type and structure of the magnet and pole pieces that focus the field) and the type of winding (wire gauge, number of winds, shape of the coil, way the wire is wound on the core) determine what frequencies will be emphasized and what won’t. In fact, the pickup (an inductor) in combination with the controls (usually including a capacitor and resistors) form a resonant low pass filter. Essentially the same technology as a wah! And that filter’s resonance and resonant peak will affect what frequencies are emphasized and reduced. As an example, a Strat (single coil) pickup which has a resonant peak at a high frequency is much brighter than a Les Paul (humbucker/dual coil) pickup, which has a peak at a lower frequency.

We have a string vibrating… It has a number of nodes along its length that correspond with the harmonics of the fundamental tone: the octave, octave and a 5th, two octaves etc. Depending where and how you pluck the string, you can increase or decrease the balance of harmonics. The most extreme form of this is pinch harmonics where, by choosing location carefully and holding the pick just right you can bring out the octave or octave and a 5th notes exclusively.

Remember that the actual engine is the magnetic field moving back and forth across the coil? When you pluck the string, it vibrates in a complex, 3 dimensional way. It’s generally most sensitive to waves propagating ALONG the string, less to waves moving parallel to the guitar surface and least to waves perpendicular to the surface. Choosing pick material, and how you pluck the string will change the shape of this vibration and the ensuing timbre. This is one of the things that distinguishes great tone creators, like Jeff Beck, from the average guitar player like me: decades of figuring out HOW to get the exact timbre he wants.

Where the pickup is located in relation to the harmonics will also make a difference. Close to the 12th fret (the octave) it will tend to emphasize lower harmonics and be heard as warm or dull. Close to the bridge, there will be a much higher proportion of higher harmonics and it will be heard as bright (although generally lower output for the same pickup structure due to less string movement).

Since the pickup structure acts like a low pass filter, there are other lessons we can learn about guitar tone. In essence, all the other stuff around the string on a guitar (and in fact, the structure of the string) act as comb filters for the sound of the guitar. The bridge, nut, wood of the neck, fret shape and material, body wood, neck attachment method, tuners, weight distribution all absorb or reflect the energy generated by the string, creating complex envelopes for each of the harmonics of a note… filtering out some of them quickly and others sustaining longer. Pluck a string and just listen as it fades-you’ll hear the pitch and timbre change (which is why accurate tuners are a mixed blessing-do you tune so the attack is perfect and the sustain is a little flat, or vice versa?). What’s funny is that many guitarists would like to be able to generalize (for example, “A maple guitar is much brighter than a mahogany one.”) But all these factors of construction and wood not only means that any given guitar sounds the way it does is independent of materials, but it’s really hard for a builder to predict how a guitar is going to sound while putting it together!

The amp also acts as a frequency filter, and can emphasize or de-emphasize particular harmonics that are already present (brighter or darker for instance). And a good amp also includes stages that are resonant filters as well, adding new harmonics. The result is that the guitar and the amp are both VERY complex filters, harmonic generators, compressors and amplifiers - all working together to create an idiosyncratic and very flexible and expressive output.

Q: How many minutes do I need to warm up a Fender '65 Princeton Reverb Reissue before I can start playing?

Answer by Keith Morrison (Irv partially disagrees): To get the best life out of your tubes turn on power switch for 20 seconds then turn on standby and you are ready. Reverse for shutdown.

Irv's Response to Keith Morrison's Answer:

Keith Morrison’s answer has three points that need clarification.

First, your amp doesn’t have a standby switch. Keep reading to find out why.

Second, for a vintage amp that has a standby switch, the wording used by Mr. Morrison “then turn on standby” is unclear because it’s actually backwards.  The word “Standby” by definition means the amp is on, but is not making sound.  When the standby switch is down and there’s no sound, the unit is ON standby. When the switch is up and there is sound, the unit is OFF standby and is therefore active and ready to play.  So the proper procedure is to turn the power switch ON (up) with the standby switch ON STANDBY (down, which means there is NO sound) for 20–30 seconds, then turn the standby switch OFF OF STANDBY (up).

Third, there is no need to “reverse for shutdown.” When you are done playing, just turn off the power.

Power tubes do need to warm up before high DC voltage is sent to them and you start playing. If you have a standby switch, use it for 20-30 seconds (or longer… there’s no danger in longer) after you turn the power on. This turns on the tube’s low voltage heaters without sending high DC voltage to the tubes. Then flip the standby switch to take the amp OFF of standby, and this will send the high DC voltage to the tubes and the amp is ready for you to play.

If you don’t have a standby switch and your amp is not vintage, (which is the case with your amp) then your amp has an automatic circuit that doesn’t allow high DC voltage to go to the tubes until they are warmed up. Either way, the point is that you’ll DRASTICALLY shorten the life of the tube by running the tube before it is warmed up.

But there is no danger in shutting off power to the amp when you are done! That’s nonsense.  Just turn off the power switch.  (I always also turn the standby switch to the “on standby” position, so it will be in the right position the next time I use the amp.)

To specifically answer your question about your specific amp, as soon as it is warmed up, it is ready play! It will sound fine. You don’t need to wait longer than the amp automatically waits. There is no harm, but there is also no benefit, in waiting longer. It’s like “warming up your car” in the morning. Driving the car will get it to operating temperature faster than idling in the driveway. Same with a warmed up amp. If you subscribe to the theory that the tubes will sound better when the plates are hotter than the warmers will get them, just play. They’ll get hot quickly enough.