Your Guitar.

[puros_bran]

I'm a marginal at best guitar beginner.. I have been for 20-25 years. I just never had the time for practicing. I can strum a few chords and if it's slow can pick a little but I do not consider myself a guitarist.
 I was a guitar collector at one point. Down through the years I divested myself of every guitar I owned...or so I thought.

 Some months back the last two guitars I own came home from a decade long loan. A Quilted Maple Dean Exhibition with Abalone binding and inlays, DiMarzio pick up, etc etc.  sweet sweet little rig.  I immediately gifted it away to an aspiring star wanting to learn, I hope she loves it more than I ever could.  The other is an incredible Epiphone  AJ-15.. It should have a Gibson tag on it.  It's not Jesus level but it is St John level.  Lol.  (For you secular boys John called himself 'the disciple that Jesus loved..Jesus loves my guitar)

I have a little business I've been trying to get off the ground. It involves buying lots off eBay and busting them up for solo sale.  It's long and tedious and most times there isn't much meat left on the bone.. But I have managed to pay the electric two months in a row doing it.  

I told you that to tell you this.  I was browsing my normal category in eBay and everything was 45min-2hours from ending so I did a little window shopping. I stumbled across a twin pack of  D'Addario Stings with a Capo. $11 & free shipping.. Okay.  It's not going to help pay the light bill but maybe it will preoccupy my soul.  Besides, where do you think Blues came from.  Lol.   So Saturday I should be strung up.. Not the way some of you wish but that's a different story.  You never know, with time, depression, and Percocet I might actually get somewhere this go around.
I will post a pic when the strings get here.

Okay, the request and the post rules.. Share your guitar. Tell us about it.. Where did you get it? What's cool about it? Etc?
 If you have dozens of them let me see your favorite or your most played or whatever.   You can post as many as you wish but they must be in individual post and you gotta tell us a story.  

Go.

 

[Richard Burley]

Never had me a guitar. Had ta get da broads anudder way.

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[Puff Daddy]

Got my first guitar as a kid, had several over the years - BC Rich, Ibanez, Yamaha, and a few others. Even had a bass for a short time. I haven't owned a guitar for 20 years though. Been meaning to get one, never got around to it, too many other things on the list.

 

[Brewdude]

I've been puzzling over this reply, since I don't have one favorite guitar. However, on the basis of what gets played the most it would have to be my Tama acoustic. It's a Dreadnought body, and a direct knockoff of a Martin D28. From a distance the resemblance is remarkable, apart from the name on the headstock.

I got this back around '72 from the music store I was teaching in. Paid something like $250. And it's always been my go-to acoustic for all these years.

I have it set up with heavy gauge D'Addario phosphor bronze (.014-.059) but tuned down a whole step. It doesn't buzz and the action is softer than you'd think, even with the fatter strings. I just capo it if I want standard tuning. Had medium gauge on it initially, but went to the heavy gauge sometime in the 80's when I started tuning down.

It's been re-fretted twice now since the heavy strings do chew up the frets, and I play it a lot. It has great projection and volume and plenty of low end as you'd imagine from the heavy strings.

A few years after I got it, a buddy bought a new Martin D28 and loaned it to me for a while since he didn't play much. So I had a chance to see how these differed from one another since the Tama was a copy of the D28.

The Martin was nice enough and the neck and body were essentially identical. Tama must have reverse engineered every feature. Yet the Martin was far more delicate in sound - that is much less overall volume and more emphasis on the high end. And I was using mediums back then and that's what the Martin was set up with as well.

I enjoyed playing the D28 and had it for a couple months as it turned out. So really got a chance to see what it had. But have to admit that I wasn't overly impressed when I compared it to the Tama.

And the difference in price was of course off the charts. Don't clearly remember what my bud paid for his D28 but it might have been something like $1700- $1800. And this was about '73, so that was quite expensive back then.

I've played a good few new Martins since then and frankly they don't speak to me, despite their reputation. And yes of course I understand how the wood matures and opens up over the years. Equally, if the guitar doesn't grab me initially then that's all she wrote.

There's also something about the neck profile I'm not comfortable with. Hard to say exactly what, but don't see myself as getting in a Martin anytime soon. In fact the neck profile of my Tama and Gibson acoustics are more to my preference.

I also have an '03 Hummingbird (wanted a 60's 'bird but the prices on vintage axes is outta control). Nice enough and love the neck, but she's a prissy lil' bitch in many ways. Too much to go into now. But I do rather like her....or it!

:cat:


Cheers,

RR

 

[huffelpuff]

Well let's see over the years I've had a few acoustics. Had hell finding one with a neck big enough for my fat fingers. Ended up with a D-28 knock off that I did ok with but I got rid of it 25 years ago. Ended up finding an old Fender Telecaster in a garage recently. Poor thing was beat to hell. Someone had sprayed it white and then John Deere green over it in a sunburst pattern on the back. The front was just solid puke green. They had tried to smash the thing my guess is on stage which didn't work out that well. The neck was broken and wires to the upper pickup got knocked off. Also the amp jack area was scorched pretty badly. I've been slowly restoring it. It has a beautiful blond finish under all the nasty paint. Just wish they hadn't screwed it to a wall at some point. Don't think there's anyway to fix those holes without making it worse.

 

[puros_bran]

A new Swamp Ash body at Warmoth is $175.

I've considered building one the way I want it if/when the finances get figured out.

 

[huffelpuff]

Electrics are interesting. My son has a Peavy Strat copy that sounds just amazing. I don't think I'll ever figure out what makes one sound great and the next like crap.

 

[puros_bran]

I'll never be good enough to take advantage of a great guitar.. But I can tell you the difference between a good one and a bad one.  

You know what pisses me off?  Well, in the musical world anyway...

Dude: "I want to learn to play guitar."
Salesman: "Here is our made in China deluxe special limited edition craptar, it featured Muddy pickups, special Never in Tune tuners, and an action so high you can touch the stars".
Dude hears he'll be a star,sounding like Muddy Waters, and never have to tune a guitar. "oh wow, cool, hook me up dude!"
Three months later...
Dude: "I suck at guitar, it's so hard, I can't even keep one in tune much less make it sound good."

Junk guitars have caused more broken dreams than Simon Cowell.
I'm not saying everyone needs a (insert excessively priced overrated guitar) but everyone needs at least an Epiphone level of quality...and not their junk models. (Yes I know the snob turns his nose up at those lesser beings playing epiphones, and yes some of their humbuckers have been a crap shoot...but all in all its not a bad place to start)

 

[huffelpuff]

Too true. You use crappy components you don't really have much of a chance. Kinda like pipes now and then you come across a basket pipe that will out perform high dollar pipes but the odds increase with only slightly more invested.

 

[mark]

In 1967 a Chicago based electronics company advertised Kay electric guitars for $69.99. Three weeks later I had a Strat copy and proceeded to bang away plugged into an old tube radio.  I made progress learning chords with some help and found a few guys in school to play with and learned a lot. Found a 50 watt Ampeg amp for $50 at a yard sale,
enlisted my cousin for some lessons and a couple years later wound up playing school dances with the guys. Wrecked my motorcycle splintering knuckles on my left hand ending my playing days.

In 1998 I called "bullshit" on myself and bought a left handed Fender Strat and started learning all over again, not an easy thing with everything backwards. I had the tremelo blocked when the guitar shop set it up, one less tuning problem to worry about. The stock pickups are plenty hot and I'm using light gauge GHS Boomers. Recently started
learning slide but can't get my head wrapped around all the alternate tunings. Getting old I guess.

Life constantly gets in the way of practicing, but I'm still plugging away.

 

[Vito]

<table><tr><td>My favorite guitar is the one I happen to be playing. I mix 'em up and pick whichever one I feel like playing at the time, so the concept of "favorite" is kinda off my radar.

Nevertheless, I'm prolly just like everyone else; all of my guitars are special to me in one way or another. Right now I'm diggin' my custom baritone Stratocaster. Here's the story.

I love twang. I especially love classic Fender twang; that's why I own two Strats and a Tele.

Make that three Strats, onna counta I've always wanted a baritone twang machine, but I've never really found one that had everything I wanted.

So I built one.

The body is a Fender Deluxe Player's Strat (MIM) with Fender Noiseless pickups. They're single coil, but with almost no hum/buzz. The Deluxe Player's Strat has the little toggle switch down between the two Tone knobs. When the switch is off (up), the 5-position blade switch has normal Strat pickup combinations (B, B+M, M, M+N, N). When the switch is on (down), position 4 gives all three pickups, and position 5 gives the classic Telecaster combination (B+N). So, the guitar has the two cool sounds missing from the typical Strat set-up.

The neck is a custom Warmoth baritone neck, built to my specs. I finished it with lacquer, mounted the hardware, slapped it onto the body, and...ZAH!!! — the Bari-Strat was born.

The guitar is an incredible tone machine. Overall, I'd say it has the best clean twang sound of any electric guitar I've ever played, and that includes my '68 Tele, '63 L-series Strat, and 60th Anniversary Deluxe Player's Strat. There's something about the heavier strings plus the specific Noiseless pickups on that body that gives the guitar massive tone and phenomenal sustain.

It sounds great through a Matchless DC-30, but for classic twang it sounds best through my old blonde Fender Tremolux, or my custom-modded blackface '65 Vibro-Champ.

One of these days, if I ever get a round tuit, I wanna do a deep multi-sampling of the Bari-Strat so I can use it in Kontakt, or SampleTank, or EXS, or maybe even Omnisphere. If there's a good baritone guitar sample library, I haven't heard it yet. And a library built on this Bari-Strat would be...well, it's hard to imagine one better than that.

p.s. Photo not staged. I didn't even notice that the kitty was in the frame until after I snapped the photo. The little ham... :mrgreen:
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[puros_bran]

My new Gibson SG.  As some of you know I was awarded SSDI.  I spent some of it on this.  I really wanted a Telecaster, but I'm pretty frugal, so you know this was a deal. This was shipped to the door $300 cheaper than I could find it anywhere, and it included the case, strap locks, pics, two packs of Gibson strings, and a decent strap.

It just showed up today so naturally I'm still in the total infatuation stage.  If this becomes the new past time I'll get a telecaster next. Lol

image posting

 

[Vito]

Awesome axe, pb!

So, when do we get to hear some pb tunage? :?: :?: :?:

 

[Brewdude]

Looks great peeb. Hope it gives you many hours of pleasure.

Used to be in several bands where the other guitarist played SG's. For some reason I just couldn't warm up to them. Think it was something about the long scale neck. But they sure sounded great.

Pair that bad boy up with a Marshall and let 'er rip!

:tongue:


Cheers,

RR

 

[puros_bran]

Here Vito.. Find me a label already, sheeesh.. I figure I've got Angus Young and Derek Trucks both whooped. The real deal from Barbourville! Lol
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ekh38jxo2Bg" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" allowfullscreen ></iframe>


Brew I purchased a Peavey VIP 2. I can get close enough to Marshall, or Fender, or VOX, or Peavey..lol.   I have no intention of ever actually playing anywhere where it would matter.  I'm not necessarily dreaming of fame and fortune. I'm just trying to fill the time I have left doing something besides being a crybaby.

 

[Vito]

Whoa, dude! That's way too hip for the room, but I can work with it. If Zappa were still around, we could prolly get you signed on Barking Pumpkin Records. I guess you'll just have to go indie. I wanna be your producer. 8)

 

[Brewdude]

Nothing like a new axe to get the creative juices flowing!

Looking forward to your next vid peeb!

8)



Cheers,

RR

 

[mark]

For some reason I can't watch videos on this site anymore, but I had to hear that SG scream. Had to set the browser to incognito to view it.


The tune was familiar, but that mug, OMG :shock: :shock: :shock:

Great guitar, have a ball.

 

[puros_bran]

Lol.. Derek Trucks I'm not.

 

[Idlefellow]

Three of my favorites; '92 Gibson J-200, '78 Guild F212XL, '77 Martin HD-28...