interpolgearpage

[interpolgearpage]

Paul's Les Paul Custom and It's Mysteries

in my previous post, i said we'd probably never know what pickups paul had in his les paul custom, his main guitar. this didnt sit right with me, so i did some more digging. heres a detailed look into the research i did, as well as my guess as to what pickups he has in his les paul. enjoy.

[the image that made me know the pickups. will refer to this later in the post.]

before i say outright what pickups he has, we need to set somethings straight. paul got his FIRST les paul custom as part of a trade in high school, and from the earliest pics of paul i can find, it was completely stock. no mods [at least that i can see], and im pretty sure its his. like 99% sure. it has keystone tuners like his custom had, and those are reminiscent of 70s/80s models of customs. seeing as this photo of him [1] seems to be from 2000-2002. if this les paul was a rental, paul would probably had a les paul custom rented from a store for the show, and played a more recent one, unless he specifically asked for a 70s/80s model, which i find unlikely. if we go under the assumption that this guitar is his, we can see what mods hes done to it.

[1. note the speed knobs, and tuners.]

while paul later got another 70s/80s les paul custom for touring, im going to focus on this "speed knob" les paul. i call it this because his secondary les paul has top hat knobs. lets go!

paul [or his tech] has taken the pickup covers off, and installed a black abr-1 bridge. in photos of paul with this guitar, we can see that the original thumb wheels are still in the guitar, and are still as gold as ever! [2] this implies that paul replaced the bridge himself, and didnt know how or didnt want to go through the trouble of taking out the thumb screws and hammering new ones in, and i dont blame him. he also has strap locks on them, either dunlop or schaller SECURITY locks, not the more popular s-locks.

pauls other les paul, the one with the top hat knobs, also has these mods, however the bridge has NOT retained its original thumb wheels, and is instead all black. as this guitar was most likely acquired as a back-up on tour, it seems likely that he handed it to his tech and asked for a black bridge, and it was done "correctly". this guitar has since been modded even more. it now sports no pickguard [as of 2015] and has speed knobs, though ill still refer to it as top hat. it also has a black tip on its pickup selector switch. this guitar may have had its guard re-installed and used now-a-days, but it seems more likely that it lives its life as a seldom used backup. [3]

[2. note the bits of gold on either side of the bridge. old thumb screws!]

[3. black tip, all black bridge, no guard, and speed knobs.]

given that pauls les paul was made in the 70s/80s, we can assume that it dons one of three types of pickups. either 1: chris shaw designed "shawbuckers" [not the fender shawbuckers, gibson has him in the 80s], which are a recreation of the original gibson PAF pickups. 2: t-top pickups, which happen to be the same type of pickup used in the les paul rivers cuomo of weezer used on pinkerton, or 3: bill lawrence "the original" humbuckers.

the top hat les paul has... drumroll please...

SHAWBUCKERS!!!

as we can see in [1], the pickups in top hat have the same holes as [4], indicative that they are FOR SURE shawbuckers. the speed knob les paul however....

[4]

the pickups in pauls main guitar, speed knobs, are most likely bill lawrence "the original" pickups. i say this because they dont have the shawbucker holes, and dont have screw holes in between the farthest pole pieces in t-top pickups [5]. best closeup of this guitar at [6]. picture of bill lawrence pickups at [7].

[5. not the screw holes in between pole pieces.]

[6. insane that i found this picture. no screw holes in sight. keep in mind while looking at [7]]

[7. pretty similar, right? at least the neck pickup...]

so, while writing, i found [6]. amazing photo from an interview with interpol [a paywalled one too, lucky i snabbed that pic before the pop-up told me i had to pay], but the neck pick up is undeniably different that the bridge pickup. in an earlier photo of this guitar, however, we can see that they have the same pickups [8]. seeing as [6] is from february 4th 2025, we can assume that after maybe 50 years, the pickup needed replacing, not to mention the cracked pickup ring.

[8. really zoom in on the pickups and see that they are both smooth and identical.]

Conclusion

basically, pauls backup and touring les paul had shawbuckers, while his recording and main guitar had bill lawrence "the original" pickups.[hb-r and hb-l]. these can be found for AT MOST $400. WAY TOO MUCH! im hoping to find a clone or something, so if anyone has info, please message me. for now, bill has said he made the pickups as a bassier '57 classic, so if you REALLY need that tone RIGHT NOW, get a pair of '57 classics and turn up the bass on an eq pedal.

now, for some fun! i've done some research into pauls pedals, so should i continue with paul gear, or move to daniels guitars? im not sure, so you guys decide. toodles!

[interpolgearpage]

Paul Banks guitars [and their history]

Paul Banks is the lead singer and guitarist of interpol. while the other guitarist, Daniel Kessler, is the main source of structure in many of interpols songs, i feel like what paul brings to the table is pretty substantial, and can definitely affect the mood of the song.

[paul playing his favorite guitar, his les paul custom.]

Gibson Les Paul Custom

"It’s been my setup since day one and it’s all I pretty much use to this day.” -Paul Banks, via music radar

paul banks received this guitar in high school, so from around 1992 to 1996. seeing as he got the guitar from a friend, we don't know the exact origin. however, he has said he got it in a trade. "I happened upon my Les Paul, which also suited me because I'm a big Neil Young fan. But that came about from a trade, or I got it for a song, from a good friend of mine in high school." whatever the case, i don't think we'll know what pickups were in it anytime soon. there are a couple of mods done to the instrument, which i'll go over now. his MAIN les paul in the earlier days had a black ABR style bridge, in exchange for a gold one. the pickup cover were removed as well, and he added dunlop straplocks. these mods carry over to his modern era les paul, a guitar he started using (live at least) around 2005-2007, and uses to this day. the main differentiating factor between these guitars is the choice of knob. pauls earlier les paul has black top hat knobs [1], while his newer one sports black speed knobs [2]. we know that these are different guitars, because we can see both of them in the same picture [3].

[1. note the absence of pickup covers, and straplocks. black bridge, and top hat knobs.]

[1. same guitar, though pre-straplock.]

[2. note the speed knobs.]

[3. two guitars, the one in the background has top hat knobs. ]

Fender Jaguar

"The Jaguar actually came about specifically within Interpol because I had written a part in which I wanted whammy, and I don't like Les Pauls with Bigsbys."

Paul Banks got this for a song he wanted a tremolo bar on, most likely No I in Threesome. the guitar is a Fender American Vintage Re-issue 1962 Jaguar, in black. paul hasnt done too many mods to this instrument, though their are a few changes, most importantly, the pickup swap. he changed the stock jaguar pickups to seymour duncan hot rails sometime after recording our love to admire [1]. while this definitely changed the sound a lot, this was after OLTA, so i wont bother finding dates, as the songs the jaguar was likely used on wouldve been the stock single coils. next up, the pickguard. the american vintage jags in black came with a tortoise shell pickguard, but pauls has a black one. what gives? well, seeing as carlos' jazz bass came with a white guard, but that was switched to black, its not outlandish to believe that this was done by paul or his tech, to give the jag a darker look. paul also put tape on the guitars lower horns control switches, most likely to stop his hand from accidently hitting the switches, and changing his sound mid song [2]. he also had black pickup covers put on the pickups.

[before the pickup swap]

[1,2. hot rails as well as tape.}

Intermission

if you ask me, pauls les paul custom and jaguar are the two guitars youd definitively need to get his sound, and also the two guitars HE uses to get his sound. but what other guitars has paul used with interpol? lets see.

Les Paul Deluxe

used during the TOTBL era, this guitar is sort of a mystery. for one, he didnt seem to favor it for certain songs, using his les paul custom and deluxe interchangeably for many songs, even playing full shows with his deluxe. secondly, from what ive seen, this instrument was NOT used after the TOTBL era. its probable that this instrument was either used on a few songs from TOTBL, and brought along on tour as a backup that paul just happened to really like and play alot, or it was rented for shows over seas. either way, its an interesting case.

[the mysterious gold top deluxe. wonder what song hes playing here?]

Flying V

paul has stated that he thinks the flying v is the coolest looking guitar out there. to each their own, i guess. that doesnt matter, what matters is that he played this instrument in the barricade music video. he used this guitar at the end of the OLTA era, during the self titled era, and has rarely been seen with it after that.

[paul with his v]

Conclusion

there is one more guitar i didnt bring up, so ill do it here now, and its his dave murray strat. he hasnt used it live with interpol, though it is seen in behind the scenes footage of el pintor. anyways, leave a comment if youd like me to cook up a list of what guitars i think were used on each song! i hope you enjoyed reading this, next up i think ill go over his amps and other equipment. till next time.

[Paul Banks.]

[interpolgearpage]

my old account.

this account is owned by the owner of the page @ourloveforgear. i've lost access to that account.

i will continue to post interpol related things on this page going forward. i may repost the single post i made on that other account on this page. i might remake it. who knows. thanks.