Guitar talk

[mirosol]

I've been having this conversation on various posts around the blog, so ti think this should be nice to have here too.

This week - i got my new super beautiful piece of wood. Schecter Ultra III in wine red. Just awesome. With very high quality components and very high build quality - this one is currently my best guitar.
+m

[Geiri]

It sure looks great!

[IvIark]

Schecter certainly seem to do some nice guitars.  The guitars my wife currently wants me to get rid of are:

Gibson Les Paul Standard, bought new in 1988 and is a great guitar

Ibanez RG770FM.  Transparent blue flame maple with great bridge and pickups.  The first thing I pick up if I play Maiden or similar!

Fender Lite Ash Stratocaster.  I'm more of a humbucker guy but I do love this for rhythm playing sometimes.  I would still like to swap out the bridge pickup though for something more suitable for my usual music.

Hohner G3T.  You'll either love it or hate it, but it's by far my most used guitar.  I swapped all the pickups, a SD Lil59 in neck and middle and a Duncan Distortion in the bridge, and each pickup has its own toggle to turn it on, off or coil tap.  The Steinberger bridge is the best I've used, and I love the fact that it can be locked solid to give you essentally a fixed bridge guitar if you prefer.  

BC Rich Neck Thru Mockingbird - I bought this as a fixed bridge alternative to my Les Paul and it's a really great sounding guitar if you can live with the more extreme look.  The top horn really hurts your ribs if you play it sat down though.  I blinged this up with an Alnico Pro II in the neck, and Full Shred in the bridge.  I also added switching to coil tap and reverse phase each pickup.

Jackson PS4 - Older Japanese made model, and a good solid alternative to the Ibanez for when I'm copying Adrian Smith

Ibanez PC300CENT Electro Acoustic - I had to have an acoustic and this is a nice sounding guitar.

[Vince]

I've been collecting the pennies and am on the verge of purchasing a Gibson Les Paul Standard Traditional.  The traditional's are made to the spec of old Les Pauls so have the weight, fat necks 57 pups etc... I have a n SG and a fender strat but this will finish off nicely. Plus it is an investment too, something to leave my son etc... well that's my excuse anyway... ;)

[mirosol]

Haha.. Maybe i should list the whole hog:

- Schecter Ultra III as described above

- Washburn HB35, High quality clone of es335. In original, slightly worn condition. From '93. I'm thinking about selling it. If someone should pay ~500€ for it, it would be gone. I haven't played it for over two years. Last longer strech was the minitour with Versus All in autumn 2010 (in finnish, no subs, sorry - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yde0eINo27Y)

- Tanglewood Supersix, surf monster with bigsby. About a year ago i swapped the poor pups for SD custom shop strat set. Installed Graphtecs pieces too. Amazing piece of wood. I'm currently wondering if i should pay a professional to redo the frets. I play with this every single day.

- Tokai ATE33, cheapo-china-tokai-tele. Just perfect woodwork. Electronics and hardware were crap, so i swapped the bridge pickup for SD custom shop Stack for Tele, tail for through-body schaller and graphtecs. Has been my main guitar for my main band - until i got that schecter this week.

- LTD Viper-50. Reasonable guitar. Good choice for the price. My main guitar for playing crust punk. With just Graphtecs, i don't have to mind about scratching or denting it. Good thing to have.

- 2x Telecasters that i built myself from cheap kits. Other with Dr. Parts neck, SD pups, schalled bridge with graphtecs and gotoh machine heads. That used to be my main guitar until i got that Tokai. Other of these i built for my missus as a christmas/birthday gift. It's more like a decorative item, though it's almost playable.

- Epipohone SG Junior. Piece of crap. Not worth it. I'm getting rid of it.

- Soviet manufactured weird guitar. Got it from a frind who named it "Electric Lenin". Nearly unplayable, but the body model is something like a hybrid of strat and sg. Weird thing. I was planning on copying that body and building a guitar to that spec.. Let's see. One of those projects that i don't think i'll finish. Ever.

- Yamaha dreadnought acoustic. Too loud for apartment building. Perfect summerhouse guitar.

- Startone classical acoustic. One of these i got so i don't have to worry. Playable. The one i take with me wherever i go and it is summer.

- Finnish handcrafted 6 string banjo from '40s. Needs some neck work. I'll get on it someday. (Probably never:))

- Brandless Jazz Bass clone from '80s.

- Squier Precision Bass. Decent. Bad pups. 00's china production. Ok, considering that i paid 50€ for it.

I really don't want to think about the ones i've sold over the years. Every one of those still hurt a lot. Latest that i sold was Epiphone acoustic - the Everly Brothers signature. I got reasonable amount of money for it, but still it hurts.

In addition of those - I have some projects that i build forward every now and then.

I'm quite happy with the current selection.
+m

[Milkit]

So are you selling these buddy, or is it just that the mrs wants you to, but you have no intention of doing such a crazy thing?

I would love a Gibson Les Paul.  I have a faded V, which is waiting for some new pickups to arrive from Dawsons, yeah Dawsons, can you believe that they were the cheapest around for them?  Set of SD hot rodded HB's.  I now have an SG std too (2nd hand) which is amazing, got rid of my SG special, wasn't cutting the mustard for me.

I had a massive collection cull in the summer & used the cash to buy a PRS custom 22, which is just tops!  Far too nice a guitar for me to have but......

It's not a 10 top or anything, but is pure sublimity.

And yet I still play/gig with my US Peavey reactor tele type with the Kent Armstrong SC sized HB in the bridge, I effin well love that guitar, so comfy to play & sounds fantastic!

[Madferret]

The main guitar I use these days is a 52 reissue Telecaster, I've never been one for spending a lot on guitars, mainly because I suck at playing them :), but I've always wanted a Tele for some reason and when I got enough money together I tried a bunch of them out and this one just felt right.  I've also got an SG copy and a Les Paul copy, the Les Paul was bought from Dawson's so I call it the Les Dawson Standard as it always sounds out of tune (I guess the joke's lost if you don't know who Les Dawson is).

The only acoustic I've got is an old Yamaha FG-280 that my dad bought second hand when he turned 21, it's a really nice guitar that sounds great considering how old and beat up it is.

[alltrax74]

I started building my own guitars about 2 years ago and really got into it since then.
I still have a factory strat and a pre CBS mustang, but sold all my other serie instruments.
Lately I finished an ES 335 and an Explorer Pro, and I'm on my way to building an LP Standard

[Vince]

Well I've just scored a Gibson Les Paul Traditional in mint condition for £965!! heritage cherry sunburst..
All paperwork etc... Feel like a child all over again

[agitprop]

Okay, don't laugh, but I started playing guitar 4 years ago, at 41 years old, and I own 25 guitars.

In my GAS defense, I have managed to get decent enough to pass the audition and be admitted back into college, as a full-time music-major (was a lawyer and dotcom-founder before).

Some of the better pieces:

1954 Telecaster (got with the 1954 Fender Pro it amp was originally bought with)
1966 SG Jr.
1969 SG Special
1967 ES-175D
1967 Rickenbacker 366 "convertible" 12-string
Collins 360 custom
Crook Custom Paisley Tele
Early G&L Legacy
Early G&L ASAT
Fender Johnny Marr Jaguar
Moog EM-1, with MIDI
Taylor GC8
Musicman Albert Lee (Ball Family Reserve)
Rickenbacker 330
Les Paul Robot - Limited Edition
Ibenez JEM7V Steve Vai
Teisco Spectrum 5

[Jon the Art Guy]

I like screwball single-cuts. Most of Godin's singlecuts, the Schecter Solo and Ultra SC series, The Epiphone Nighthawk reissue, the Vox SCC-33, etc etc. Telecasters all rule too. There's a design out there for an offset-body telecaster that I drool about. One of these days when I have a little money, I'll build one. Maybe I can get a hold of the Vox p90/rail pickups from the 33 and 55 series and mount em.

[Deric]

settled on the two I always loved best and got rid of the rest hah.
61 tribute gibson sg and a 82 tokai (matsumoku) p-bass. have had the bass for close to 16 years now, and I love it like a son!

[JaviCAP]

Well, I have right now "just" 4 guitars and a bass :P Many have come, and many were gone the same way.

My "final selection":

-Les Paul Custom alpine white. My Queen, enough said :P

-Stratocaster MIM heavily modded. Not a single coil fan, but a strato is a must in my opinion. Alnico V pickups and calaham's block . Sounds great,  but get tired of this sound very soon.

- Ibanez Artcore AF75. Cheap and fine sounding hollow body guitar, great, for about 400 euros you can't ask for more.

- BC Rich Mockigbird Special X in tobacco burst. I don't like the bc rich "heavy" guitars: warlock, v's and so on, but the Mockingbird is something different. Not so radical design and a sound that when I first tried one, reminded me a lot to the classical les paul. Being the Special X series features  and components incredible, just could no resist the temptation to get one when Nige from Craig's Music LTD offered me one for about 300 bucks. Impresive guitar and a really Les Paul backup.

BR

[IvIark]

Vince wrote

Well I've just scored a Gibson Les Paul Traditional in mint condition for £965!! heritage cherry sunburst..
All paperwork etc... Feel like a child all over again

Awesome, enjoy it mate

[IvIark]

agitprop wrote

Okay, don't laugh, but I started playing guitar 4 years ago, at 41 years old, and I own 25 guitars.

In my GAS defense, I have managed to get decent enough to pass the audition and be admitted back into college, as a full-time music-major (was a lawyer and dotcom-founder before).

Some of the better pieces:

1954 Telecaster (got with the 1954 Fender Pro it amp was originally bought with)
1966 SG Jr.
1969 SG Special
1967 ES-175D
1967 Rickenbacker 366 "convertible" 12-string
Collins 360 custom
Crook Custom Paisley Tele
Early G&L Legacy
Early G&L ASAT
Fender Johnny Marr Jaguar
Moog EM-1, with MIDI
Taylor GC8
Musicman Albert Lee (Ball Family Reserve)
Rickenbacker 330
Les Paul Robot - Limited Edition
Ibenez JEM7V Steve Vai
Teisco Spectrum 5

[jalmonsalmon]

 I Have been playing guitar since the early 80's and have lost some nice gibsons, however currently I have
1968 SG Standard
1968 SG Special
2001 McInturff Polaris Pro
and a 2000 MIM Fender Stratocaster Deluxe
The McInturff is far above all of my gibsons and strat as far as playing goes. It is solid like a good Les Paul Custom but not as heavy.
My SGs are pretty nice but I don't gig those, they are too old and valuable so at the moment I am on the hunt for a Les Paul Traditional or one of those nice 2013 61 RI SG Standards to use as my main gibbys...
I love the strat too but I need to get something better than the MIM Strat.. it is ok but I have played better!

Yeah those Schecter's are pretty sweet guitars, I have played a few at guitar center that played nice.

[Dave]

I have one and only one, a homemade fender jazzmaster copy, does everything i want and nothing i dont.
Thanks
Dave

[Dave]

My home made jazzy

[alex.s]

That's a beauty Dave!

I too am a Jazzmaster user, I have a CIJ olympic white one.
Other guitars are an Epiphone Casino and an Teisco shaped after an SG.
Would love to get myself a 12 string and a tele at some point.

[Vince]

Well my Les Paul traditional arrived today. Anyone want to buy an SG? lol