The History of Tom DeLonge's Gibson Les Paul!

In today's special episode I'll be talking with a very special guest about the History of Tom DeLonge's Les Paul!
-
Join the discord! / discord
-
If you haven't already don't forget to follow us on Instagram! We're more than happy to answer any questions you might have or if you have any video recommendations! / gear.182
-
Shout out to David Sully for letting us use one of his tracks for the video!
Song used: “Don’t always dream for better endings” for the intro & outro!
EP HERE!!! • Don't Always Dream For...
Check out his stuff on:
Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/0wsV4...
Apple Music: / david-sully
Instagram: / davidsullymusic
KZbin: • Don't Always Dream For...

[@chrisb8193]

I was just watching an interview Tom did with GC years ago and he states in it that before he got his signature guitar from Gibson he never used his own guitars to record on records because they “didn’t sound as good”. He even mentions Jerry Finn in the interview and states he used his because he had “so many rad guitars”. Based on this it seems doubtful he used any of his own LPs on Enema but anythings possible. I’ve heard people state he used primarily a Gibson Les Paul (probably one owned by Jerry) as well as a Fender Telecaster with P90’s for the record. I think if you listen to Enema, certain songs definitely jump out as sounding more Fender-y with that P90 sound (Dumpweed, Going Away to College), but there’s some tracks that definetly have that darker, more aggressive-sounding LP thing going on. I’m such a nerd I now listen to the album partially to try and guess what guitars were used where lol. Hope someone finds this interesting, great channel btw.👍

[@troyharkcom6441]

Always thought most of it sounded like a p90 too. Especially the palm muting

[@chrisb8193]

@@troyharkcom6441 Honestly, I own 6 different electric guitars and I can get all of them to sound shockingly close just by EQ-ing (even ones with single coils). The secret is a Marshall amp. I have a cheap-ass Code 50 that has a surprisingly good JCM 800-emulation built-in to it. Any 80’s-to present Marshall will get you close. Its all about the amp.

[@diddyfaplord]

Tom is also married to Chris Cote’s ex-wife. They started seeing eachother around the time Chris sold that Les Paul Tom gave him. Coincidence? I think not.

[@Julianuribe23]

How do you know that's his ex wife lol

[@diddyfaplord]

@@Julianuribe23 it’s well documented, there are pictures and she has kids with Chris Cote. She separated from Chris the same time Tom separated from his ex-wife.

[@Travis-guy-247]

Perhaps she was a groupie in the 2000s who always wanted Tom but settled for Chris? Played the long game 👀

[@kiddowntheblock7]

Wow had no idea

[@andersonkyle]

Another great episode 👏. Thanks again to Dave for sharing all your knowledge 🙌.

[@jimiknuckles5845]

I'd like to see those enema studio pics. You guys forgot to mention tom used lady luck in their american pie cameo.

[@nurk_barry]

I’ve been watching John of LittleRedGuitars for a few years, awesome channel and awesome dude. I love that you guys set this interview up and we get to hear a properly curated version of events from all of the info that’s been available online.

[@Popskull_666]

Why does he keep saying "there isn't anything special about these guitars" when it's clear that both les pauls were modded with an invader pickup , the switch was routed to the bottom to make it a 1 master volume/tone and the machine heads were changed. Those mod's are pretty significant

[@nicofreako182]

Awesome video! 🎉

[@vtwelve2453]

Great episode. Hope Tom's red sticker squier or Mark's hondo bass gets featured in the future. More power!

[@jericoanjelo6410]

Another amazing episode ❤️

[@pasi8800]

As soon as I saw what the episode is about, I was hoping you'd mention Jon aka littleredguitars! I'm subscribed to him since 2011 and lost my mind when he got the guitar. Would have been cool to have him on the show.

[@davidjohnsully]

Great episode chaps

[@182newspod]

Enjoyed this, thanks for the shoutouts! 🤘🏻🐇

[@Gear182]

Need to still get you on one to talk about yours!

[@samuelpaterson3303]

Interesting stuff. Thanks guys.

[@Gear182]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Cash_Lovell]

The majority of the dude ranch - Enema timeline (the info I already knew) dude Ranch was Recorded with the Sticker Strat and a Marshall JCM8/900, than right before the main dude ranch tour he was given 2 les Paul standards (Wine Red/ Billabong, and Ebony/ Lady Sticker) and used those for the most part and than in 1999 received the 1st prototype Strat with the Trem and The Selector hole, and used the billabong to record some of Enema and the rest was used with a custom shop strat, he apparantly gave the les Paul to somebody he was on tour with (don’t remember who) and Who later sold it to Jon Poulin (Littleredguitars) who later sold it as well

[@diddyfaplord]

You don’t know what guitars he used to record Enema with. As discussed in the video, it’s all hearsay. It’s very unlikely he used a custom shop strat at all for recording

[@Cash_Lovell]

@@diddyfaplord he had one of the prototypes Pryor to the recording, he only got the ones he used for the tour after the album was released

[@diddyfaplord]

@@Cash_Lovell proof? And even still, just because he had that guitar doesn’t mean he recorded with it. Tom has said several times he never recorded with his own guitar when they were with Jerry Finn. Quit making shit up and spouting it out as fact

[@Cash_Lovell]

@@diddyfaplord I didn’t say it as a fact, I was stating what I had heard beforehand didn’t say it was true, your getting mad over something that doesnt matter, I may be wrong and that’s fine, but you don’t get to come in here and be a dick

[@raymon8044]

A couple of years ago Mark posted something on one of his socials about how he found an old notebook with notes of what they brought to record Enema. From what I remember, it mentioned one of Toms Les Pauls he used on tour. The CS Strat came in when they already recorded alot of the stuff. They used alot of Jerry Finn's stuff aswell, so who knows what was used for what.

[@Boedak_LILIANA182]

Hi man, do u have videos of what guitar and amp did Tom use for every album?

[@studioruangsvara]

I saw on the documentary Tom use a Les Paul when he record Feeling This, doing the Intro part. but i cant tell which Les Paul cos someone made the video to black and white.

[@Travis-guy-247]

I don't blame Tom for moving the pickup selector to the knob position. I can't count how many times I've been vigorously strumming on my Les Paul in the bridge pickup position, and then knocked the selector switch into the neck position. I bet Tom did it a few times which is what caused him to move it. He mentioned when talking about the simplicity of his signature Strat that there are "no knobs or switches you can knock accidentally", and I bet he was talking about the Les Paul.

[@mikeheroes5451]

Let’s face the music. That’s sign of a bad unfocused player. The entire idea of the switch being there is so you can trigger it mid strum.

[@Travis-guy-247]

@@mikeheroes5451 Much like Tom was back in the day then 😂😂 He was horrendously unfocused and always hitting the wrong notes.

[@mikeheroes5451]

@@Travis-guy-247 yea I know they were always drunk and high and could care less. Other than being lucky and around at the right time, that probably played a major part in their success because the majority of people can always relate to being average and getting fucked up. Tom is a marketing genius. Write easy songs to play, sell a guitar with simplistic basic functions, make a shit ton of money. Make several clothing labels, only wear my own brands so all the wannabe fans will buy it. Sell my used old gear that probably needed replacement parts such as new tubes in the heavily used amp heads for 3x what they actually cost because the fans are willing to pay. Except I don’t think anyone ever paid the 10k he was asking for one of the surf green Mexican made strats. Nobody was that dumb. Especially when he has a warehouse full of them and fender reproducing endless reissues which are even worse in quality. Can’t wait to see what he sells his massive Gibson collection for. I’m sure that day will come. He’s most definitely a better business man than a musician.

[@carltonlong1985]

@@mikeheroes5451I think that surf green fender he had for sale for 10k was a prototype. Maybe that justified the high price tag. Maybe Tom is low on cash often. I could be wrong, who knows.

[@mikeheroes5451]

@@carltonlong1985 Tom Delonge low on cash? Are you out of ur mind. Blink is mega millions.

[@REPARTOEM]

You should contact in some way Tom Delonge and get all of those information, maybe do with him an interview about those guitars, and all this unknown answers and stuff will be revealed for ever. I remember I start discovered that things when I was a huge fan of early Blink...at that time, we fans asked ourselves such questions, but the web was not yet so rich, there were also just few images of less resolution. Now I notice that even then in the early 2000's we all had the same wishes, even though these guitars were not as iconic as they say today and he is already making excellent copies and making a collecting business for fans out of it. For this to begin even then, the universe would open up to us. Thanks, I'm only bringing back memories from my boring childhood when there wasn't so much informations. Especially since we didn't have much available here from Europe. You had to have a lot of money to buy a first series humbucker tom delonge guitar, and that's if you got one at all you were lucky. Just thinking about these guitars was fun, or just having them or making them with the same decals. Greetings from Slovenia

[@lauwolf8818]

Tom had two Les Pauls (one black and one wine red), or was it just one? 🤔 Great Video!

[@MrWalkerDrums]

Slightly off topic, but can someone tell me what amp is in the flight case with the Sticker Strat on tour? It's definitely an old red-knob Fender but I cant quite make out the model. I have owned and played an old Fender red-knob Power Chorus for years so if it turns out Tom used to play the same, that would be cool.

[@DrummingMoose]

Tom used several amps with the Sticker Strat during its run (94-97). You’re probably thinking of either the Fender Princeton Chorus (used on the first three demos) or the Fender M80 (used live 93-94); both of those amps predate the Sticker Strat. Hope this helps!

[@iamkmark]

Great video! One minor correction - when Jon (littleredguitars2) owned Lady Luck, he made a demo video, and both the stock neck pickup and switch were still fully functional. Likewise, when Ryan (182 News) demoed Arnette, the stock neck pickup and switch were working there, as well. I'm guessing Billabong was wired identically to the other two Les Pauls, too. While it's unlikely Tom used the neck pickup much, I thought it was worth mentioning that it still worked after removing the three other knobs and relocating the toggle switch.

[@Gear182]

Thanks! I’ll re watch em

[@pprkuts]

Tom actually kind of talks about what he used to record Dude Ranch in his Ernie Ball special (a strat).

[@kolbytatom1334]

It was confirmed that eots was tracked using that tele and a prs, Exclusively.

[@diddyfaplord]

Where and from whom was that ever confirmed?

[@kolbytatom1334]

@@diddyfaplord Tom

[@diddyfaplord]

@@kolbytatom1334 proof? You’re making shit up, he has never said this you doofus

[@justinroconnell]

link?

[@seanverso6712]

I herd they got booed off stage in Australian first few shows

[@Gear182]

Haha oh wow

[@mikeheroes5451]

I don’t understand the whole wanna look exactly like him. That’s a kids mentality you should grow out of. Like when I spend big money on a guitar, sure maybe I take ideas from influences but not make an exact replica