Les Paul inquiry

[captdg]

I came across a vid on you tube of Tommy Shaw playing a Les Paul that had something I have never seen. It had the regular treble/rhythm switch at the top but at the bottom it had two knobs and underneath that it had three toggle switches..Was this standard from the factory or custom built, plus what did those switches do?

Thanks
DG

 

[jfine]

Hard telling without a pic, but it sounds like it could be a Les Paul Artist, a short-lived variant that used the active electronics from the RD Artist. They were made for a short time in the early '80's--they didn't sell very well, and they're pretty scarce today. One of the switches activated compression, another activated expansion (exaggerated pick attack with less sustain, sort of the opposite of compression), and the third was a bright switch. The electronics package in those was designed by Bob Moog--yep, the synthesizer guy, as Gibson's parent company, Norlin, also owned Moog.