I'm a die hard Strat player and although I like to play and often do play other types of guitar I always come back to the Strat for gigs. It just works for me. Lately I've had this little voice in my head gnawing away at me telling me that I should dig out my old Epiphone Les Paul. Well, Sunday I broke down and took it out. I played it around the house for a while then decided after 5 years it could finally have some strings. I changed and stretched the strings, polished the guitar then put it in my gig bag to take to our Sunday gig at the ski area. I thought maybe I'd pull it out for a song or two and mailny play my Strat.

Got there, got set up and watched the hockey game and then hit the stage right when the game was over. My guitar was wet from all the people in the room. Condensation on everything. I knew it was going to be tough to play. I looked at my Strat and knew that it is already tough to play. That's how Strats are. I decided I'd give the Epi a chance through my Bugerra V22. I don't like LPs generally because I haven't gotten clean rhythm sounds and find the controls to not be as ergonomic as the Strat. I strapped in not knowing what it was going to sound like.

The first two songs were in concert style. Packed room full of rowdy people ready to be entertained. We rocked hard starting with Going Down then right into My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Momma. OH MY GAWD! The Les Paul slayed! I couldn't believe the tone. Bare in mind that until this point I had never played it through the V22. It was perfect. Tone was to die for - sustain for days - the volume and tone controls really worked. The other guys in the band looked at me for the first two songs like "dude, what's going on with you? Put out the fire before we all ignite." They loved the sound as well. They could hear me better too. It was a win win situation.

Needless to say that taking this chance may have just changed the rules on how I play the game from this point on.

Here is the guitar I used. It has a carved top and I installed the Ibanez AH1 and AH2 pickups. Slinky action with 10s and vintage like tones that are smooth and full. This guitar is actually lighter than a couple of my Strats and my other Les Paul.