Your favorite guitar that you own

[dbat69]

I do like Tokai guitars although I'm not usually a brand junkie or go for the name, because of which manufacturer it is.  But they make a good instrument at reasonable prices which challenge the "big name" brands they are imaged on.

One day I will hopefully get a very good Tokai LP, which I hope will play as well as my V - I'll be a little piggie in brown stuff if I can

Ohh and by the way Mark, I like your LPs and also Surgeon's too

[negativefx]

Heath,

I hate to inform you that I replaced the HH pickguard on the strat... here's what it looks like with a set of Abbys and an anodized pg:



I have enough HH guitars laying around... needed an SSS setup!  I wired it so I get tone control when in bridge or bridge+mid.  Why it's not wired like that from the factory is beyond me.

[tjdracz]

negativefx wrote

Heath,

I hate to inform you that I replaced the HH pickguard on the strat... here's what it looks like with a set of Abbys and an anodized pg:



I have enough HH guitars laying around... needed an SSS setup!  I wired it so I get tone control when in bridge or bridge+mid.  Why it's not wired like that from the factory is beyond me.

Lovely strat, I love that white/anodized look :)

One thing I can recommend to you and what I did to my strat, is to wire it the G&L way. I had it wired like you with tone in bridge and bridge+mid, then I had master volume, tone and killswitch but then I got to G&L wiring and it's here to stay.
Basically, you've got separate Bass and Treble controls, master volume and a switch to add neck pickup  to any config (you can use toggle, I've just opted for push-pull pot).
You get 7 pickup combos (that bridge+neck does sound great for rhythm) and tone controls that you will actually actively use and tweak. With my previous configs, I don't think I've ever touched the tone, it was either fully on or fully off if I wanted some woman tone/

[Neil mcNasty]

Kay K-161 Thin-Blade
The reissue of the guitar used by Lightning Hopkins on his Dirty Blues album.
No other guitar sounds like this, and it's an amazing player!
The pickups almost has it's own overdrive/crunch when you dig in.
Neck pickup is fat and creamy with loads of low end, and the bridge pickup has a very box-like sound that gives you that amazing lofi blues sound that is almost impossible to recreate with any other instrument.
After I bought this, I have hardly touched any of my other guitars. It's way too fun to play!

When paired with my 62-model Telrad amp (Norwegian built rarety) it sound absolutly amazing.

[Heath]

negativefx wrote

Heath,

I hate to inform you that I replaced the HH pickguard on the strat... here's what it looks like with a set of Abbys and an anodized pg:



I have enough HH guitars laying around... needed an SSS setup!  I wired it so I get tone control when in bridge or bridge+mid.  Why it's not wired like that from the factory is beyond me.

Heh, I totally understand that.  Everyone (with multiple guitars) ought to have a somewhat classic Strat setup (and a somewhat classic Tele setup, in my opinion).  I don't currently have a HH strat so I am going to unashamedly steal the shit out of that guitar's previous style. :D  The white with gold anodized pickguard is absolutely classic, though, so you definitely still have a beauty there.

tjdracz wrote

One thing I can recommend to you and what I did to my strat, is to wire it the G&L way. I had it wired like you with tone in bridge and bridge+mid, then I had master volume, tone and killswitch but then I got to G&L wiring and it's here to stay.

Ha!  Do you by any chance follow Joe Gore's Tonefiend blog?  Just last night/this morning I did the G&L wiring bit to a little offset Silvertone I had sitting around with three knobs (was the perfect guinea-pig guitar for this).  I really like it.  

I'm sort of a caveman about these things and my first electric guitars that I really learned on were a Yamaha and Ibanez, both of which had a master volume and master tone, that's it, so I learned 2 knobs and have never since really liked the idea of much more than that.  I love Les Pauls but I'd be screwed if I needed to make an quick adjustment to Vol or Tone live on stage... "Okay... let's see... I have a 1 in 4 chance of turning the correct knob..."  I can definitely deal with 3 knobs with the G&L setup.

BTW, I have a lipstick tube guitar with an active preamp (Gain, Bass, Treble, Mid, sounds stupidly good) and about 5 minutes after playing I'm right back to "Dammit.. which knob does what!?"  I'm on the verge of using a label maker on the damn thing.

Keep in mind, I could very well be brain damaged, so take this all with a grain or two of salt.

Oh, and just to keep the guitar pimping going, here's something that showed up i the mail unexpectedly Friday:




It's a Peavy Composer Guitalele.  I've been known to goof around on a Ukulele from time to time but mine is a very cheap (but fun) little black Mahalo Uke that doesn't stay in tune very well.  Seems someone in my family heard about this and, holy cannoli, nice Friday surprise!  

This weird little thing is about the size of a Ukelele, but it's 6 strings and, unlike a 6-string Ukelele, it's got 6 metal wound strings and 6 gut/nylon strings and is tuned like a normal 6 string guitar, except A to A instead of E to E.  Fun to play except that my sasquatch fingers have trouble making standard chords right up against the nut because there's not much room.  The F barre chord is extra bitchy to make on this thing.

[Heath]

Neil mcNasty wrote

Kay K-161 Thin-Blade

Every time I think I have enough guitars... THEY PULL ME RIGHT BACK IN!

Yep, I absolutely want that guitar.  Everything about that is class.

[rocket88]

heath, you should know this. you NEVER have enough guitars..

[Chris60601]

LOL - goes with pedals and the parts that build em too!!

I have 2 - the first is my Strat. Lots of work done on this. Seymour D. pickups, DiMarzio 500k pots and 5 position switch, locking tuners, and replaced the white pick guard and tinned the pickup sockets.

The second, my V - just changed the tuners to Grovers - all else is stock.

[dbat69]

I'll second that - and that GAS is addictive

[inefficiency]

I've had a bunch of guitars over the years and I just keep coming back to the same one.

I got this J-Custom about 8 years ago or something like that before they changed the way the whole "Team J-Craft" thing works and I think it's a far superior instrument in a few ways to most of the newer ones.
I never knew before, but apparently this is a limited edition colour and they're quite rare.

I just can't play any other neck anymore because I'm so used to it.

I'm cheating a little here because this isn't my one, just one exactly the same. I nicked the picture. It's late at night and I don't fancy getting the camera out right now.

[Chris60601]

Sweet axe, inefficiency! Ibanez have come a long, long way from the days of Les Paul copies!
I so love the Millennium Bass series too!

Cheers
Chris

[inefficiency]

Yeah, I'm a big fan of them.

To be honest; if I was going to get a Les Paul or something, I would probably try for an old lawsuit Ibanez. I kinda like the vibe of that sort of thing.

That RG is just awesome to play though. You can coax pretty much any sound you need out of that pickup combo (tonezone/blue velvet/air norton) and the neck just suits me perfectly. It helps that the blue is pretty too!

My most played guitar, however, is probably the cheapest. It's my kickabout guitar that I leave lying around my house. It's a cheapo explorer copy made of Sapele and although the hardware sucks, it looks awesome. I think new it probably cost around £250, but I got it from a friend who won it in a raffle - it only cost me £60!

[Muadzin]

This was my ultimate favorite guitar


A late 80's MIJ Fender Strat. At the time (late 80's) almost impossible to find because Strats with large 70's CBS headstocks were either rare as dirt or the people who owned music stores at that time were completely incompetent in knowing how to order them. I swear, I ordered a Fender Strat with large head stock in the 80's and got one with a standard one. God bless the internet so we no longer need their incompetence.

Anyway, I finally managed to find not one, but two. Virtually indentical, except I painted one black, as I really digged an all black Strat back then, but Tuco somehow became my favorite. Upgrades included a DiMarzio single coil sized humbucker with coil splitter (never used that though), a push button kill switch for Radiohead style kill switching, a Les Paul style kill switch for Tom Morello sounds in the lower horn,  a pair of Lace Sensors for the neck and middle pickups. Can't remember which ones but they were high end models, not one of those colored ones. God did I love that guitar. Didn't use it much live, but it was my go grab guitar at home when I was at home. I was going to take that one with me into the grave. Together with my Fender Twin Reverb amp.

In hindsight I should have left Tuco at home.



This is the last picture I have of me rocking Tuco. We did a gig at the end of the season, we all went home afterwards, then we sort of disbanded for the summer vacation and when it was time to get the band back together again after two months and I started to unpack my gear, that was when I realized that Tuco was missing.

[negativefx]

Hey, if you (or anyone here) are interested, I could sell you the loaded pickguard with the Seymour Duncan HH pickups for a good price.  It's going into a box on a shelf in the basement otherwise.  I don't know which model pickups they are, but they have their resistances marked:  Neck is 7.42k and Bridge is 16.93k.  Standard Fender tone caps (333J polys) and a 3-way blade switch.  If it matters, it was wired at the Corona plant by a master builder.  You would of course have to take a router to the body of your guitar if it's currently routed for SSS.

[JaviCAP]

Had no real intention, but my way crossed with this beauty.... and had to take her home :P

[dbat69]

Javi, you've got me droolin'.  She is a beauty. And in tobacco sunburst, my favorite
One day when I win the Lottery .. 'til then I will keep dreaming

[JaviCAP]

It's been really "cheap", just €1200, a nice score, so I had no chance...

[inefficiency]

Muadzin, that story about unpacking your gear is fucking tragic....

[jaredcohen]

A frigging $100 Squier Affinity Telecaster.  It pisses me off every time I pick it up.  I have much nicer guitars, that I spent much, much, more money on.  And that damn piece of shit is my favorite thing to play.  Put on some $40 tuners, put in GFS pickups (and upgraded switch & pots), and drilled the bridge to take better saddles, and I swear it's the best sounding guitar I own.

Anyway... that was more me needing to vent than anything else. Your guys' guitars are all beautiful!

[Chris60601]

Now THAT is a lovely hunk of wood! I would love the tab-bust on a nice ES 335/55. That would be my dream guitar if I could have anything just given to me