play it again El Degas

[GilpinHippy]

It's 2011 now, this was drooled over by me after seeing it hanging on my friends wall in 2000, I swapped him a nice new Gibson for it

ElDegas.JPG

. Seeing it made me want to pick it up, feeling it made me feel good, feeling good made me play... I am in love with this guitar!

[charles]

Ooo, that's pretty

[GilpinHippy]

Thanks. It's got low action for a "easy slutty" feel, it really draws something from the player. Does it have any telltale signs on what /where it is from? the lil switch on it really boosts the pickups for a really nice "full room" sound

IMG_4361.jpg

... so then, would you say the "lil switch" is original, or something that someone had and was crafty in placing it in there?

[charles]

Most likely MIJ (Made in Japan) with Dimarzio pickups. I can't quite see the pickups but the style of the post heads tells you what you have. If both sets of post heads are hex-style, that's a Super Distortion. If there is a row of screw-style and a row of flat, that's a PAF.

[Barry]

...the lil switch on it really boosts the pickups for a really nice "full room" sound...so then, would you say the "lil switch" is original, or something that someone had and was crafty in placing it in there?

Beautiful guitar, really love this colour/trim combination!
As for that mini toggle switch, many MIJ guitars from the early 80's had active boost circuits as part of the design, but you almost never see them on LP models. If this is in fact an active boost, it would likely be a modification.

Are you sure that it is "boosting" the output and not just changing the tone? You may simply have a coil cut/split switch there. A simple way to check is to look inside the control cavity. If there is a 9-volt battery it's a boost circuit, otherwise you are simply switching between full humbucker and single coil mode. I personally don't like a coil cut on an LP.

[charles]

Thanks for updating the photo.

The pickups are Dimarzios - Super Distortion in the bridge position, PAF inthe neck.

The mini toggle is original. El Degas did this a lot. It's either a coil split or a phase switch (i'm not electronically minded enough to know the difference ). I had a model like this in Tobacco burst and the pickup combo with the mini toggle was my favorite configuration of any of my Les Pauls. It was very painful to sell that guitar.

[GilpinHippy]

Thanks for updating the photo.

The pickups are Dimarzios - Super Distortion in the bridge position, PAF inthe neck.

The mini toggle is original. El Degas did this a lot. It's either a coil split or a phase switch (i'm not electronically minded enough to know the difference ). I had a model like this in Tobacco burst and the pickup combo with the mini toggle was my favorite configuration of any of my Les Pauls. It was very painful to sell that guitar.

I can totally understand that pain! There is no way I would part with mine, there would have to be one hell of a revelation in my mind to part with it!

[charles]

It's OK, I have a few others to keep me company.