Les Paul Custom

A Les Paul Custom... swimming pool?

It all started innocently enough.

When he entered Aqua-Tech's headquarters at 1065 Dugald Rd. last year, Garry McBurney was in the market for a hot tub.

When he walked out some time later, he'd decided he wanted a swimming pool. But not just any pool.

"It was a bit of an accident -- I went in looking for a hot tub, but things somehow went from that to me looking at a bunch of swimming pool designs," recalled McBurney, head of MX Renovations.

"Most of the designs were a bit generic, so I gave some thought to what would work for me. Eventually, I came back with a guitar design."

That's when things got interesting, he said.

"I took my idea to Joe Urmos, who heads up Aqua-Tech's design team. When I first showed it to him, I could see him thinking, 'Is this guy serious?' He was very respectful and kind of humoured me. But he saw that I was serious, so he said he'd do his best to see what he could do."

What McBurney -- an ardent guitar collector -- wanted was not just a guitar-shaped pool, but a replica of one of his favourite instruments, a Les Paul Custom.

Urmos said that while it took some time to wrap his head around the concept, he eventually concluded it was possible to pull off.

"Basically, we can do any shape or size of pool, but it's the first time someone had come to me with a design that intricate and involved. What Garry wanted to do was definitely something very different, but we felt we were up to the challenge."

Aqua-Tech's co-owner, Glen McGillivray, said McBurney's guitar pool is likely the most labour-intensive projects the company has undertaken. The pool was not a project that could be completed in a week or two. It took roughly six to eight weeks to plan and another six to eight weeks to build.

"For example, the pool liner was made with a special vinyl ink for the guitar strings," he said. "And at the end of the pool, grey concrete was poured to mimic the guitar's tuning pegs. It took a ton of planning, something that was made so much easier by the amazing computer program Joe uses to design pools."

"It's called Pool Studio," said Urmos of the sophisticated imaging program. "Essentially, we took the dimensions of the guitar and built the pool proportionally to it. To get all the details just right, we stenciled the liner so we could exactly replicate the guitar strings and tuning pegs. The three-dimensional program really helped out staff and the owners visualize the final product.

My Epi Les Paul Custom + Fender Mustang II - My Les Paul Forums

I have an Epi LP Standard with the Mustang II and I have no complaints with the sound for what I play... but from what I've seen of the distortion on this amp, if you're looking for a Metallica sound, this amp alone is not going to give it to you. Have you connected the amp to the computer? Many more presets available through the "Fuse" software and maybe there's something in there that will help. I owned a Mustang II for a week and sold it to a friend. I found that the factory presets were terrible. This seems to be a common complaint in reviews I've read of the amp. It takes a bit of time and tweaking using the FUSE software to get the best out of it. That is the main reason I sold it to a friend who loves using computer audio programs and has the patience I lack. He really likes it and can get some really nice tone out of it with his G-400 after creating new presets. I have a Mustang I which is only 20 amps through an 8" speaker. I use the '65 Twin Reverb setting almost exclusively and get a great clean sound this way. I use stomp boxes for effects. This was a B-Day present and I like it but don't dare sell it for fear of hurting someones feelings. I've found since I got it that even though I like it, I prefer the Peavey VYPYR series. I think you should be able to get a good sound from it so maybe there is another problem. Like SexyGibson suggests, I'd try it through some other amps to see. It sure can't hurt. Make sure you connect it to your computer and load the latest firmware update to the amp from the Fender website. This helps a lot of issues, plus to get to all the setting possible with the Mustang I or II, you need to use the fuse software. This will allow you to also easily make changes to the presets that exist and make it more to your liking. There are a lot of the presets that come with the amp that I just don't like and think sound bad, but I changed them around to give me what I want. You could also have a friend that has a guitar to bring over and play through the amp, just to make sure your guitar is fine. Could be a bad speaker, if it sounds like a speaker is blown, but the presets that came with the amp, I really did not like many except a few and I get 100 preset on the Mustang III, where the Mustang II only has 24 presets. The Mustang is a nice amp...for some applications. It's, apparently, not for you. You're not going to get the crisp, clear bite of Kirk Hammond, or that Slash squeal from the mustang.

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