So with 2 of my 594's in the shop, and 1 in CA, only two 594's at home for the last 2 nights. Only 2? How am I surviving?!?
That gave me an opportunity to spend some quality time with the Metallic Green one.
First, the back story on that one. Earlier this summer Kevin/bostonguitar and I were sparring posting pics of Metallic Green Aged Les Pauls on Facebook.
Damon Johnson (of Brother Cane fame) has a very cool one, and Gibson made some after his that they posted on Facebook.
Shortly after that, not too long after the Core 594's started shipping, the Metallic Green one showed up at Brian's Guitars, and I almost fell out of my chair! I bought it immediately, I couldn't risk thinking about it and having it disappear. After obsessing with Kevin about the Les Paul on Facebook for a while, how weird that a 594, my new favorite model, shows up in almost exactly the same look and vibe?!?
It plays and sounds great! Not too rough on the eyes, either!
Funny thing is, Damon calls his "The Green Manalishi", after Peter Green's early Fleetwood Mac song. I didn't even know what that meant a couple of months ago. Now I am into a big Peter Green phase, have read a biography on him, found that BBC documentary on him online, and collected about every Peter Green John Mayall and early Fleetwood Mac album and compilation I can find, wow, love his playing. Did I first look into him based on the name of Damon's guitar a couple of months ago, and looking into the history of that? Honestly, I don't even remember, but to me it is weird and cool, considering I was just rocking out some "Oh Well Part I" riffs on it tonight!
This is the one I recently put High Wind Lollars in. After some playing time with it over the weekend and the last couple of days with those pickups, all I can say is WOW!! Great combination, those pickups in the 594. Those are hot PAF's similar to 5909's in output, and they sound great! That is about as hot as I go on pickups. Sounds great through my Yamaha THR-100HD, the Bogner Helios (which I just traded towards the Violet Blue Burst Brian's WL 594, since I have a Citizen Gain CSR coming in soon), and the Tone King Sky King with a Friedman BE-OD in front of it. (That pedal is sick, all of the Friedman tones in a pedal for $199, the steal of the century!)
Sounds significantly different than a 594 with stock 5815 LT pickups. More so Hard Rock versus Vintage Rock. Still does the Vintage thing very well with less gain and rolling off the guitar volume. (And of course does heavier rock and metal nicely with the BE-OD.) If I were headed to a gig right now, I probably would pick this one for versatility's sake. I may have a gig with the old band before the end of the year, we will see if this one gets the nod when the time comes! (It sure has the stage presence!)
Cool that Brian G is doing an Opaque Wood Library run of 594's inspired by this one and that Purple SC he had.
I am glad to have the good fortune to be able to have a few of these awesome 594's, and play around with trying different pickups in them, to mix it up a bit. I still totally love the stock 5815 LT's the best, KILLER pickups and a part of the magic of the 594 model, but still cool to try other pickups in this great model.
Success with this one with the High Wind Lollars! Tone report on the ThroBak PG-102's in the Vintage Sunburst coming soon...
