NGD: It's my birthday and I'll buy if I want to [Pink Les Paul Muse]

[Embenny]

I also like the clear knobs, but see how they need to go. If you can find something with a set screw in the same colour as the pickup surrounds/binding then I think that'll look sharp

I have been debating black knobs and black pickup rings, because the cream rings are much darker cream than the binding. I feel like the odds of finding cream knobs that match either the binding or pickup rings will be low, and three shades of cream is too many. Black is much easier to match.

Or I might do chrome knobs to match the hardware. Maybe even chrome Telecaster style knobs, because I enjoy how this guitar already flouts Les Paul conventions, so I don't care about the choices "only" being speed knobs vs bell/tophat or whatever they call those.

Yeah, if the knobs are loose, then that's no good. I must have missed that detail. I have a pretty low tolerance ( ) for split shaft pots anymore. I've busted a few too many pots open when trying to push on a supposedly correct spec knob.

Yeah, the only reason I'm in a rush to replace them is that they literally can't operate the push-pulls. They turn the pots just fine, but with no set screws, it'll be finicky trying to get them any better than they are now.

And I don't want to replace all the pots right off the bat, because that's a lot of wiring and a fair bit of expense if I want to keep all three push/pulls, and eliminating those would feel kinda bad, as though I'm spending time and effort downgrading the guitar. The pots seem to function just fine, I simply need knobs that don't pull straight off the guitar every time I want to test the coil splits or phase switch

[LVC]

How about some of these?

[shigginpit]

Ibanez suregrip knobs look les paul-ish, they have a grippy band around them to facilitate easier engagement of push pull pots. Looks like the part numbers are 4KB3XA0011 / 4KB3XA0012 , don't know if they come in clear though.



upon further investigation, this appears to be the full range of suregrip knobs, the part numbers all seem to only differ by single numeric position end digits.

[Biloxide]

Reflectors knobs in gold et puis c'est tout!!!

[Embenny]

How about some of these?

Those are making me very, very hungry. They look great, but not 100% sure they fit a sparkly pink and black guitar. They look like they'd suit something more retro like a Harmony better (and mine already has cupcakes knobs, just without the line).

Ibanez suregrip knobs look les paul-ish, they have a grippy band around them to facilitate easier engagement of push pull pots.

Those black ones look like good candidates if I decide to go with black plastics, thanks!

A new challenger has also entered the arena. I discovered a local supplier that has these for 99 cents each. They're chrome-topped Marshall knobs. They use set screws, and are the same diameter at the base as the current speed knobs, but taper narrower and are a bit shorter, too. Look nice and grippy for pulling, too.



It kinda makes me chuckle because of the "Les Paul and Marshall" cliché. I use digital amps (heresy #1), and this LP is lightweight and sparkly pink (heresy #2), so putting amp knobs on it (heresy #3) would be like, "See, TGP? You say it's all about Les Pauls and Marshalls. I'm listening!"

Reflectors knobs in gold et puis c'est tout!!!

Trop traditionnel! Il pourrait être confondu avec un '59 Burst

[ThePearDream]

I just got a pair of these chrome cupcake knobs, and they are very nice quality (though smaller then typical Gibson knobs).



I really like the different black Ibanez knobs upthread. PRS lampshades are neat looking too.

[sciuri]

Happy birthday, and happy NGD!

I'm a fan of the "Inspired By Gibson" generation of Epiphone Les Pauls. Like you've expressed, I'm also ambivalent about Les Pauls and many of the bands often associated with them, but I do enjoy the scale length, playability, and sustain. I also can't bring myself to spend Gibson Les Paul Standard kind of money if I'm not 100% into a guitar. So my compromise was an Epiphone Les Paul Modern in faded pelham blue, which I think is probably not too far off from the Muse series. It has survived a couple of purges and definitely scratches the Les Paul itch for me.

I also like the clear knobs! I imagine you could get clear replacement knobs, but if you're looking for something a little different (to further separate it from traditional Les Paul territory), here's a shout out to Knob Head PDX. Some of the knob shapes might be slightly smaller than stock, but they do custom orders and have been great to work with!

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[Embenny]

Happy birthday, and happy NGD!

I'm a fan of the "Inspired By Gibson" generation of Epiphone Les Pauls. Like you've expressed, I'm also ambivalent about Les Pauls and many of the bands often associated with them, but I do enjoy the scale length, playability, and sustain. I also can't bring myself to spend Gibson Les Paul Standard kind of money if I'm not 100% into a guitar. So my compromise was an Epiphone Les Paul Modern in faded pelham blue, which I think is probably not too far off from the Muse series. It has survived a couple of purges and definitely scratches the Les Paul itch for me.

Thanks!

Yeah, the Les Paul Modern is not terribly far off the Muse specs, but a little different (and more upscale). Different neck profile, the modern neck heel carve, full thickness body but "ultra modern" weight relief pattern, ebony fretboard, locking Grovers, and the slightly hotter/thicker "ProBucker" pickups.

Probably significantly better at "being a Les Paul" than the Muse, with a thicker body, thicker pickups, and therefore more useful coil splits and whatnot. Slightly more traditional finishes, but still more interesting ones than you usually see on Gibsons. I'm really glad you've bonded with yours! I can totally believe that it would be an awesome guitar after discovering how good this Muse is.

I wish I liked more guitars from the new "Inspired By" lineup, since I now believe they are great guitars (or can be, if you can audition a few). I love Flying Vs, but all the Epis are based on the '58 shape, which I find balances more awkwardly than the '67. The strap button is a full 1.5 frets closer to the bridge. I had a slightly older MIC one that I took in on a trade and let go despite having an amazing neck. It just felt too awkward on a strap compared to the '67-shaped ones I've owned.

The Firebird would be high on my list to try if they made it in a fun colour and/or fixed the headstock. It's completely the wrong size and shape, and one of the tuners is so far outside the nut slot is actually splays the string path outward. If the headstock was a proper shape, I might even grab a sunburst and refinish it. Used prices on Firebirds have gone absolutely nuts since Gibson quietly discontinued them during their bankruptcy. I see people asking $2500+ CAD for sunburst ones with the regular tuners now.

I just got a pair of these chrome cupcake knobs, and they are very nice quality (though smaller then typical Gibson knobs).

I really like the different black Ibanez knobs upthread. PRS lampshades are neat looking too.

Those look really good! What are you putting them on? They're solid brass - how much weight do you think 4 of those bad boys would add to the guitar?

[ThePearDream]

I just got a pair of these chrome cupcake knobs, and they are very nice quality (though smaller then typical Gibson knobs).

I really like the different black Ibanez knobs upthread. PRS lampshades are neat looking too.

Those look really good! What are you putting them on? They're solid brass - how much weight do you think 4 of those bad boys would add to the guitar?

I did a refresh to my Apollo prototype.

They aren't super heavy, probably a similar weight as a tele or Gretsch knob.

[Maggieo]

Happy belated birthday, Mike!! I pretty much knew you were going to get that LP. There were...vibes.

Tele knobs would look rad, IMO. Maybe black ones?

[Embenny]

I did a refresh to my Apollo prototype.

They aren't super heavy, probably a similar weight as a tele or Gretsch knob.

That looks amazing! I liked the guitar to begin with, but those knobs are perfect for it. I like that they're familiar in the sense of having similar design elements to several "typical" guitar knobs, but unique enough to stand out to guitar geeks. The perfect fit for an original design like your Apollo. It always looks off to be when someone designs a unique body shape and then does something like stick a stock Tele plate, knobs and switch on it.

Happy belated birthday, Mike!! I pretty much knew you were going to get that LP. There were...vibes.

Tele knobs would look rad, IMO. Maybe black ones?

Thanks, Maggie!

Black Tele knobs were actually one of my first thoughts, so great minds and all that.

The only question is whether black knobs would look better with black pickup rings as well. I do like the contrast between the pink and cream, but my need for colour coordination is somewhat inflamed by how much darker cream the rings are than the binding.

The edge of the binding is pure white, and where the finish lies overtop, it's more of a parchment. So I'm considering either getting white pickup rings (+/- a little tea stain job to darken as needed), or black ones.

I'm kinda worried that black pickup rings and black knobs would push it into sort of a "trying too hard to be heavy metal" direction.

Maybe black knobs and keeping the current rings would be nice? Or putting chrome rings overtop the cream like on the "high performance" models from a few years ago.

The nice thing is that I have both chrome and black rings lying around, so maybe I'll play dress up with it and make a poll.

I've also decided to at least try out the black and chrome Marshall knobs. They're 99 cents (CAD, even) each and I need to order some parts from that supplier for another guitar anyway, so it's a harmless $4 experiment. I figure at worst that it'll convince me whether I want black or chrome knobs, and bigger (Ibanez/speed) or smaller (Tele) ones anyway.

[shigginpit]

I figure at worst that it'll convince me whether I want black or chrome knobs, and bigger (Ibanez/speed) or smaller (Tele) ones anyway.

To add more confusion to the fray, I saw something recently which I thought was super bad ass. I don't know where the guy gets them (you'd have to google a bit) but the guy who sells parts under the name "tricked out guitar / real life relics" has this oversized knurled tele knob which is pretty much the coolest tele style knob I've ever seen. He has priced it accordingly, which is why I say it would be best to figure out his source rather than pay the inflated relic'd price.





Maybe the diameter of Les Paul knobs isn't your thing to begin with, but this is kind of the perfect hybrid between the appearance of a tele knob and the sizing of a Gibson knob. You'd need adapter sleeves for anything with a set screw but I think this is kinda awesome.

He has it listed under "Aged Nickel Oversized Dome Knob".

[patski]

Happy (belated) birthday Mike! And that is one very freakin' cool pink LP!

[Embenny]

Those are pretty cool, if I found the un-aged ones I'd definitely take a closer look.

Happy (belated) birthday Mike! And that is one very freakin' cool pink LP!

Thanks! I'm quite enamored with it.

Took me a while to get it on the bench for a cleanup/tuneup because I just kept playing it, even with the super dead original strings.

Got the "Made in China" and "QC" stickers off, gave it a nice thorough cleaning, conditioned the fretboard and polished the frets. Also tried gently prying the pot halves apart a touch to tighten up the knobs, which seems to have worked. So at least the push-pulls are usable for now. We'll see if they work loose again - I'm not confident this was any kind of definitive fix.

I still need to do the shielding job in the control cavities, and whenever I do that, I'll be adding some resistors to the coil split switches to turn them into partial splits. It's just such a bright guitar to begin with that the full splits are not a useful tone. Watched some demos on YT and might go with around 10k on the bridge and somewhere from 2-5k on the neck. Could always hook up some alligator clips to audition different values, since it's rear-routed. I'm not used to guitars that can be strung up while still working on the wiring.

Here's a shot of how the finish looks in interior lighting:



And a before/during/after cleaning and conditioning the fretboard:





And here's the shot I promised of the finish blemish on the binding at the 7th fret:



Still wish it was on the treble side where I'd never see it, but it's really not the end of the world. Got me a decent discount, after all.

But overall, I still kinda can't believe how good this thing is for the money. The weight it perfect, the finish looks amazing, it plays great, and it sounds so good that I'm not even considering changing the pickups.

Even though I've owned multiple HH Gibsons, there's something going on with this one that is just plain different from the others. Is it because of the chambering? Is it the okoume/maple? Is it the ergonomics? Not sure, but there's a lot of stuff that sounds "right" on it that's never sounded this way on any of my other guitars.

For the first time, I think I "get" Les Pauls. In retrospect, it was probably the overwound pickups and 300k pots that were kneecaping all the models I tried in the early 2000s. If they had had sub-8k PAFs and 500k pots like this one, maybe I'd have ended up conceptualizing the Les Paul as something other than a muddy high gain guitar.

But this thing? Bright and chimey in comparison. Still plenty thick compared to my Fenders, but bright enough for me to be happy with the clean tone - much more so than the ES-335 with Burstbuckers that I recently had and let go. Pretty sure that one had the 300k pots - my understanding is that they basically only stopped doing that around when they went bankrupt.

[shigginpit]

Looking at the latest pictures, I like the clear knobs. If the push/pull works better after having tightened the pot nuts, I'd probably stick with what you have. I'd like to see this with a Les Paul triangle pickguard in the same color as the humbucker rings, I always liked the "Les Paul Standard" look of those.

It is unfortunate about that floor stand rub on the binding but not much you can really do about it. Can you actually feel it or is it just cosmetic?