Rightio, my cynical, disbelieving friends... the LC-440, courtesy of the big man in Roma; but before I show you the guitar, I shall blather on about my impressions of this rather lovely thing....
Typical LP feel on the shoulder, i.e. bloody heavy - 4.4kg, to be precise (that's a whisker over 9lbs for you Luddites in North America!) - and, if you're used to strat type guitars, i.e. those with a top horn, it feels a little odd but you get used to it quite easily. The action on this when I got it was lower than a snakes' nuts so there was a little buzziness happening - soon fixed - but dear, oh, dear; what a muscular sounding instrument - for lack of a better word! It is a very polite sound; it doesn't grab you by the ears for a little sonic assault like the raider II or Corsair Avenger, but oh, my; it really sounds like a Les Paul should - not outrageously loud but giving the impression that it will deliver quite a bit more than you bargained for should you be tempted to wind the amp up a little.
So I did.
Just lovely; I have had a downer on LPs that dates to my late teens when I had one that supposed to be the second coming but was not even roughly good to my ears at the time! I feel I must have grown up a bit since then as the sound this makes is quite different to anything I've got here and that has got to be down to the mahogany body with the carved cap. I don't know what the cap is made from but it sho' is purty!!
To my shame, I played the "Sweet child.." riff many, many times and laid into some Free and LZ with gusto... my VA900, and other H/B guitars will do this sound to a degree but not quite, you know?!
The middle pickup adds a dimension not available otherwise and is accessed by the switch beneath the control knobs...
So... here we go...
... usual watery backdrop. The sky was a little overcast so not as bright as I'd've liked...
...note the little pointers. I shall do something with them; not sure what yet. Paint 'em gold??
Plating's worn off the pickup covers.
Note the red wires I'm indicating; they are not connected to anything so I'm guessing they are for coil splitting?
The engine room.
reduced to its components. You quivering with fear yet, Don?!
carved top quite evident
... a piece of white paper behind the cavity shows what's going on.
It can be seen in the control cavity as well.
How's this for serendipity; as I was taking this one, I realised that our very own Squidhead was playing on the iPod!!
So there we go, chaps and chappesses; this thing is gonna get cleaned within an inch of its silly life and then I shall decide what to do about the machine heads - they're pants, they really are! - and the frets which are very very low and quite flat. Probably not quite enough meat left for another dressing but that's a wee way down the track yet... more later as I progress...
John