Paul's Guitar vs. Korina G&L ASAT Deluxe shoot-out

[yowhatsshakin]

James of the Seattle Guitar Store had Paul Reed Smith over this evening to give a presentation. It was a very enjoyable evening. You have to know that as far as set neck electric guitars are concerned I certainly always reach for one of my PRS's in the collection.

But what is the relevance for the G&L Forum you may ask? Well, the evening for a large part was a shoot-out involving 3 guitars Paul brought with him: a Tony McManus Signature Angelus, a Brent Mason Signature bolt-on, and one of Paul's Guitars, a set-neck tone monster (which actually belongs to his wife). The game is that after having demoed each guitar he will ask to get the best acoustic/bolt-on/set-neck guitar available in the store after which he will play the same licks on both, changing instruments as fast as possible so one can hear differences. The Angelus went up against a Taylor 816, the Brent Mason against a Tom Anderson 'The Classic ' Strat model, and Paul's Guitar against a G&L Korina ASAT Deluxe prototype. Each of these guitars was picked by James and I can tell you he picked some good ones although IMHO the Angelus and Brent Mason slightly beat out their competition.

The choice of the Deluxe was somewhat surprising though since it is also a bolt-on whereas, as stated before, Paul's Guitar is set-neck. But boy, at least to me from the bleachers it seemed that Mr. Smith was mightily impressed with the G&L and played for a comparatively long time on the Deluxe. Again IMHO (but Jeff Marshall and/or James may pipe in on this one too), it held up very well against one of the best guitars in the business and would call it a tie.

Same could not be said about the Orange Tiny Terror that went up against and was no match for the PRS Duane Allman/Jimi Hendrix Marshall clone in the amp shoot-out ...

- Jos

P.S. Was nice to meet up with Jeff and thanks again James!

[Elwood]

Where was I ?? -( I was playing a Skyhawk across the sound by my lonesome self)
...that sounds like a blast !

elwood
[crawls back into his hole]

edit:...now I see there is a facebook rsvp link on the store site.
I don't support FB anymore, I just signed up for the newletter so hopefully I'll see you all at the next event there.
( It'll be nice as folks don't go to FB as a default communication device )

[yowhatsshakin]

edit:...now I see there is a facebook rsvp link on the store site.
I don't support FB anymore, I just signed up for the newletter so hopefully I'll see you all at the next event there.
( It'll be nice as folks don't go to FB as a default communication device )

+1 here. To have to RSVP through FB did not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling either. Only excuse I have is that I need an FB account for my work. Lame but true ...

- Jos

[Fumble fingers]

so the Korina sounded as good as Pauls guitar from your seat ?? ..... I assume Pauls has the short scale length along with set neck ??.... cool none the less , glad to hear G & L humbuckers kick some hiny


so the tiny orange didn't do good against the PRS amp or the other way ??

[jeffmarshall67]

I arrived a half hour before his clinic ended, and missed the shootout.....so I will agree with Jos in spirit! I assume the deluxe has the new alnicos which sound great. I really enjoyed seeing a CEO of a company enjoying geeking out with the rest of us. I heard he even tweaked a couple guitars for people during the day. Thanks to James for throwing a successful shindig. Was great to meet you Jos, let's get the g&l geeks to take over his shop soon! Would love a Will Ray/g&l party!

[Craig]

I arrived a half hour before his clinic ended, and missed the shootout.....so I will agree with Jos in spirit! I assume the deluxe has the new alnicos which sound great. I really enjoyed seeing a CEO of a company enjoying geeking out with the rest of us. I heard he even tweaked a couple guitars for people during the day. Thanks to James for throwing a successful shindig. Was great to meet you Jos, let's get the g&l geeks to take over his shop soon! Would love a Will Ray/g&l party!

AFAiK, the Korina ASAT Deluxe II prototypes all have Seymour Duncan pickups in them.
Maybe Jos can confirm which pickups were in the prototype that Paul played.

BTW, I have an ASAT Deluxe SH (2000) which came with Duncans and Paul Gagon give me a set of his early version G&L Alnico humbucker, which I
had Dean install. We definitely like Paul's pickups much better than the Duncans.

[jeffmarshall67]

Thanks Craig, the LE2 I have isn't one with humbuckers so I wasn't sure. I have nothing against a good set of seymour duncans, lots of great music has been made on them over the years.

[yowhatsshakin]

AFAiK, the Korina ASAT Deluxe II prototypes all have Seymour Duncan pickups in them.
Maybe Jos can confirm which pickups were in the prototype that Paul played.

The guitar used was CLF065956 from the G&L prototypes page with a SD '59 (SH-1) bridge and JB (TB-4) neck pickup with chrome covers. Paul specifically queried whether these were SD pups and, when affirmed, took that as the explanation for the amounts of mids he was hearing.

Paul's Guitar is a 22-fret 25" scale model with his new-fabgled narrow-field pups. Here is the spec sheet on that one.

Jeff, we should encourage James to organize an G&L event here in the Pacific Northwest. If that involves Mr. Ray dropping by, all the better!

- Jos

[blargfromouterspace]

That's a really cool way to show off some guitars. Sounds like a great guitar-geek night out!

Can't say I'm surprised by the result of the amp shoot-out at all - those two amps aren't even in the same ball-park

[Fumble fingers]

thanks for the spec's Jos , John's guitar is a real bad boy ... but that says a lot for the Korina !! , I had a Korina in hand a few weeks ago but it was not plugged in , wish I would have plugged it in now

[sirmyghin]

Neat stuff.

I will chime in and say I absolutely loved the bridge pickup in Paul's guitar when I played one. Something about picking up a guitar and just playing what it does well and it made me do some very interesting things. It has a rather different feel than what you might be used to.

[Theguitarstore]

What a great day that was having Paul in my house for the day. Thanks to Jeff and Jos for coming. Sorry my smoke signalling was not good enough for you Elwood. I will do better in the future. Paul is defiantly a guitar geek of the highest order.
As for the shoot out I thought the korina held up very well as a humbuckered Leo guitar against a hot rod. Paul told me that he has been doing this across the country and the G&L guitars have been the best guitars he has been handed by shops. He noted that he asks for the best single coil in the shop and is usual handed a G&l before a Fender. The orange was an OR50 and the HX/DA was miles above in tonal quality. I was unaware one of my staff moved the OR100 away that I had there earlier. Still not a fair fight. The prs amps are ridiculously clean in signal path.
Paul did a very cool thing. He played with a fuzz pedal built by one of my guys. He offered some advice the he and Blake bent the circuit there in the store. A ground buzz left it and Paul bought it from Blake. He is still floating around the shop. I sold him a 64 pro amp that may be the basis of the next amp they build....

Anyhow my next event will be on the 20th when Ed Bond of Halcyon brings his acoustics. A small builder from Vancouver, BC.

I would love to do a Will Ray clinic! Maybe when Jeff Marshall and I go to the factory in August we can talk to the guys about it..

[Elwood]

I'll look up in the sky that way a bit more often also.

thanks for thinking of me ( and any other NW hermits ),

elwood