Question armada VS les paul

[tristan klein]

boys,

I spent a few years playing gibson only before coming back to music man.
in the meantime, the album I recorded for grooveyard records was done 100% with a PRS singlecut.

I had to play the les paul to demo an amp a few days ago and it still sounds great ( it' loaded with EMG's 57 /66 as I have an artist deal ) BUT..after 6 months on my two luke's, my left hand is a bit painful because of the gibson neck.. that means I would have to return to the les paul slowly and play it everyday to get used to it.

this is not what I want.

I want the confort of a music man neck BUT the big sound of a les paul.

I have a wonderful PRS P22 artist package here but I don't like the pick ups. I kept a few relations inside PRS but I know they won't have the capacity to send me anything ( I'm not santana...)

I'd like to know if some of you guys could compare a GOOD les paul (mine is a 59VOS ) to the armada.
and I would be very happy if you could show me your armada's !

Aymeric who is the most succesful MM french endorsee and clinician told me that the armada was fantastic...

I don't find those guitars here in france, I don't want to buy in germany, so the only solution to get it would probably to get a new artist deal from music man but I l know I have a long way to show my loyalty to Big Poppa.

SO : give me your opinions, show me your guitars, thanks

 

[agt]

I've played numerous Les Pauls, but I have never owned one and thus have not had the opportunity to become intimately familiar with the playability of any one of them. My experiences suggest that there is a wide range of neck sizes and quality control tolerances.

I own an Armada. Amazing feel, tone and construction. As with all EBMMs, consistency and quality control are not issues to be concerned with. The neck is HUGE IMHO. Bigger than any other EBMM I own and bigger than my PRS McCarty from the 90s. As big as the bigger Les Paul necks from memory. The shorter scale somewhat offsets the girth of the neck, at least for me. I do not have large hands, so for certain things (e.g. wrapping the thumb over the neck to fret notes on the 5th and 6th strings) it does not work for me. For everything else, which is 90%+ of my playing, it is nothing short of awesome. And the TONE. But the feel of a Luke's smaller neck it will not have.

 

[tristan klein]

thanks for your feedback agt ! sounds good to me !

 

[Flash Gordon]

As a man with small hands, having owned a Les Paul, Luke, Axis, Silos, ALs... And having tried an Armada...

I found the Armada to have the widest, chunkiest neck. I put it down after 3 minutes, perhaps less! If you seek Les Paul sound, find yourself an EBMM with a hard tail and a Mahogany body or a BFR (Mahogany tone block). A Roasted Maple neck is a bonus IMHO. A 20th Anniversary Silo hardtail was my answer.

Good luck with your search!

 

[tristan klein]

Thank you !