Song Rig

Tiger Rag

Les Paul · Les Paul Trio · 1945

Tone Overview

What Makes This Sound Unique

Pre-electric Les Paul — this 1945 trio recording shows his jazz guitar roots before the multitrack experiments. A clean, swinging archtop tone deeply influenced by Django Reinhardt, played at astonishing speed. The hollow-body resonance and no amplification processing creates a very direct, natural sound.

Signal Chain

1Epiphone Broadway archtop (acoustic/electric)
2Early small tube amplifier (Fender-type, late 1940s)
3No effects — pure direct guitar tone

Amp Settings

Gain / Volume1

Bass4

Mid5

Treble7

The earliest Les Paul recordings use a near-flat amp EQ with the treble slightly elevated to help the pick attack cut through the rhythm section. The pickup on the Epiphone archtop had a bright, glassy character different from the humbuckers Paul would later develop for Gibson.

Technique

How to Play It

Breakneck single-note speed with jazz vocabulary — Tiger Rag was a Dixieland showpiece that Paul adapted as a virtuosic guitar showcase. His right-hand economy picking and left-hand position shifts predate the speed techniques of later rock and metal players by decades.

Budget Alternative

Achievable With

Hollow-body archtop (Ibanez AF75, Gibson ES-125) → very clean small tube amp → practice alternate picking. Paul's speed at this tempo was remarkable for any era — the technique is the bottleneck, not the gear.

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