George's Guitar Emporium

[Tom Servo]

Figured I'd restart the thread.

However, my question I think is more guitar related. I finally got tired of my strings breaking all the damn time, so I picked up some 10s rather than some 9s. Specifically, I got some Ernie Ball Cobalts and then some D'Addario strings, since everyone told me how great they are. So far they're okay, but I'm noticing two things that I didn't seem to get with the 9's:

1) When I retune the low E string, it throws all the other strings off. If I detune to D from E, for instance, all the other strings go sharp. Goes the other way if I tighten the low E back up to E from D. Makes changing tunings a tremendous pain in the ass. Is this normal, or is it because it's a cheap guitar with a crappy neck? Is this something I can make it stop doing so much?

2) I'm noticing that the game always says I miss any harmonic on the 7th fret. Seems to pick up 12th and 5th just fine, but 7th never registers. I'm assuming that this means I need to fiddle with the intonation, but I wanted to make sure before I start doing something stupid.

[George]

Tom, you wrench on bikes, right? If so, setting up a guitar isn't a big deal. Sure, the tolerances are tighter but adjustments are adjustments.

I've been assembling and setting up Fender-style (bolt-on-neck) guitars and basses from parts as a sometimes hobby for fun and the occasional tiny profit for years. It's not rocket surgery but like anything else, it takes time and practice.

Suggestion: get one of Dan Erlewine's books about how to set up guitars. Short of refretting or cutting and slotting a new bone nut (which your guitar probably needs - most do IMO, even 'spensive ones), you can do just about everything yourself without specialized tools beyond a set of allen wrenches and a soldering iron. Nut slots require expensive files and lots of experience using them, so I pay a pro to do that. And I mean a professional guitar tech, not a kid at Guitar Center. More on that later if you wish.

You say you're breaking strings. Where? At the saddles? At the nut? Always the same string(s), or do they all let go when you start your Pete Townshend windmilling?

"When I retune the low E string, it throws all the other strings off. If I detune to D from E, for instance, all the other strings go sharp."

I'm guessing you're playing a Strat or similar with a vibrato bridge. If not, I'll be very surprised, but if not I have some tips there if your truss rod is so loose that your neck is like wet spaghetti. If you're playing a Strat-style, this is really easy to fix. Try this test: Plug in and turn up (or do this in a quiet room). Finger a note on any string in the middle of the neck - I don't mean a middle string, necessarily, but at the middle frets - somewhere around the 12th is fine. Any string. We'll call this String #1.

You're not going to pluck this string, but you are going to bend it with your left hand (assuming you play right-handed) here in a second. Now pluck any other string and let it ring. Let that note ring and sustain while bending String #1. Bend it up a whole step (two frets) if you can. While doing this, listen to the string that you plucked that is ringing. Does that string change pitch? I betcha it does on your Strat.

(Boy, will I be humbled if you have a fixed bridge. But that's okay.)

Let me know what kind of guitar you have, the kind of bridge, and the result of this experiment, and I'll be glad to help at whatever level of verbosity you'd like.

For your question number 2, when you play the 7th fret harmonic when you're not hooked up to Rocksmith, does it sound nice and loud like the 5th and 12th fret harmonics do? If so, it's the game and not your guitar. I've only heard about Rocksmith so I can't help there but it's either your technique or however Rocksmith picks up the notes you play.

Harmonics have nothing to do with intonation. Okay, if you're trying to play a melody with harmonics on multiple strings, of course you want them in tune, but in terms of making them sound at the 7th fret, they should do that just fine at whatever pitch the string is tuned to, unless your intonation is so incredibly far off that the guitar always sounds out of tune when you play anything - not just harmonics.

[animalica]

110

Last year I bought a bass because 4 thick strings are easier to handle than six thin strings.
Until a few days ago I had no time to try it out but now it`s much easier. :)

Next week my retraining starts and I will also take the bass with me.

This afternoon I will buy a used 32" LCD so I can play, work with my laptop and watch tv.
Only need to find a cheap used compact stereo so I can play Rocksmith 2014 lag free.

[Tom Servo]

Wow, George, thanks for all of that! You are correct, it's a Squier bullet, so strat style. When I'm breaking strings, it's almost always up at the bridge. It's generally the high E or B string, though occasionally it's D. It just seems to happen here and there, it doesn't seem to be specifically related to trying to rock particularly hard (last time was during the single-note part of Radiohead's "High and Dry", which is not a particularly crazy song by any means.

The 7th fret harmonic rings out nice and loud. I'm thinking that it might not be ringing out with quite the right tone, so RS isn't detecting that I'm playing it right. I do know that RS is "hearing" it, it's aware that there's a noise, I think it just thinks it's the wrong noise. This did not used to be an issue with the 9s. As is, it basically thinks that I'm completely useless at playing the beginning of Jeremy. Maybe I should put 9s on it again next time I change the strings and see if that fixes that.

As far as the bone nut, how often does that need to be replaced? It's a shitty guitar, but it's also only about two years old.

Not entirely certain what type of bridge, but it looks basically identical to this one: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D71W3OUeEEc/TlH6qfeThjI/AAAAAAAAAr8/IEPunyZGgNY/s1600/6-point-trem.jpg

I'll do the test you mentioned later on today, I'm not near the guitar at the moment, and I'll let you know how that goes. Thanks for your help!

[Tom Servo]

Did the experiment and you're totally right. I don't know that I followed instructions exactly, but I bent the low E a full step around the 12th fret after picking the B string. The tone changed probably a good half step.

[George]

Cool. Now grab a small phillips screwdriver and remove the six screws holding the plastic plate to the back of the guitar. I like to put the screws and the plate in a zip-lock baggie so I don't lose them while I'm setting up a Strat.

Behold three springs (you might have as many as five, but you probably have three) going from the "block" of the bridge (where you insert strings) to the "claw" that is screwed into the body on the other side of the rectangular cavity in the guitar body.

Keeping a Strat-style guitar in tune is a delicate balance of strings vs. springs. That's why this happens:


When I retune the low E string, it throws all the other strings off. If I detune to D from E, for instance, all the other strings go sharp. Goes the other way if I tighten the low E back up to E from D.

I'm in the process of writing more about this. The good news is you don't have any problems that millions of Strat owners haven't had to learn about before.

While I type about guitar setups instead of working much on this lazy Friday morning in a nearly abandoned office, here is some reading for you:

http://www.fender.com/support/articles/fender-guitar-setup-guide/

[George]

When I'm breaking strings, it's almost always up at the bridge. It's generally the high E or B string, though occasionally it's D.

This is usually a bigger problem with Gibson-style guitars with Tune-O-Matic bridges. Here’s a pic. See how the saddles are pointy triangles with a sharp edge where the strings rest? Ouch.

http://www.epiphone.com/press/P_TuneOMatic.jpg

These saddles can saw right through a string as you play and the string vibrates and moves around on the saddle. Consider that when you bend strings (or even grip them to make a chord), the string slides forward on the saddle and when you release, they slide back. That string movement at the saddle isn’t really visible to the eye, but it happens, and it weakens the string where the rubbing occurs. Also, strings stretch as they age. This is why when you re-string your guitar, it’s hard to keep in tune for a while until the strings stretch out and “settle in”.

Of course Gibson saddles work just fine when properly set up, but I thought a picture of those saddles might illustrate the point (“point” – get it? I crack myself up!) better than when you have on your Strat. Stratocaster bridges have kinder, gentler saddles with a nice curve for the string to rest on, so theoretically they shouldn’t cause string breakage as often, but as you know, it can happen.

I suggest the next time you change strings or one breaks, take some very fine sandpaper and lightly sand the part of each saddle that the string rests on. You don’t need to go crazy here and blitz all the chrome off the saddles, but just make sure there are no burrs from the manufacturing process. These things are most likely stamped out at high speed in some Chinese factory and they might not all be as smooth as glass. Make sure they’re as smooth as can be and that, hopefully, will stop the strings from breaking at the saddles.

You’ll still break one every once in a while, especially if you leave them on a long time. Metal fatigues from wear and eventually the thinner strings (especially the unwound E, B, and G strings) will pop if they get ancient, or if you play with metal fingerpicks, or if you’re a wildman on stage. Personal body chemistry (the acid in your skin/sweat) can play a role too, but string breakage should be very rare when the guitar is properly “set up”.

More to follow...

[George]

Not entirely certain what type of bridge…

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D71W3OUeEEc/TlH6qfeThjI/AAAAAAAAAr8/IEPunyZGgNY/s1600/6-point-trem.jpg

That’s called a “vintage-style Strat bridge”. What makes it vintage-style? Six screws attaching the front of the bridge to the body (these are what the bridge pivots on when you use the bar) and thin, stamped steel saddles.

For comparison, and just to increase your guitar vocabulary, here’s a “modern-style Strat bridge”.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jCSjF_yQVz4/Tj-gIJGkLNI/AAAAAAAAAqc/XV19aqk7Ywg/s1600/finished.JPG

Note the modern bridges have two screws as pivot points and block saddles. There are many variations on both these bridge designs. Just like with bicycle parts, everyone is trying to build a better mousetrap, but these are the two basic styles of Strat bridges to use as a standard for comparison.

Don’t worry about vintage vs. modern – both have their pros and cons, depending on who you ask. Your bridge is perfectly fine and is the very same one used by everyone from Buddy Holly to Jimi Hendrix to Stevie Ray Vaughan to millions of players still today (including me, not that that matters).

Notice in that picture of the modern style bridge the back of the bridge is “floating” above the body. That’s important, and I’m going to talk more about that later.

[Tom Servo]

Heh, well, now that I look at that, the modern does look more like mine. Not sure that mine's floating though, that's not something I've noticed. Will take a picture of the actual bridge later.

I think I need to track down some sandpaper. I do most of my playing on weekend mornings, usually an hour or two. Then I don't do a lot during the week, sadly. Despite that, I've had times where I break a string every weekend. That seems excessive. On average, I'd say I break a string at least once every three weeks. Hoping I can stop doing that.

Thanks for writing all this up!

[George]

Sure thing! It's fun to write. Don't take a pic of the bridge just for my benefit - the type of saddles or number of pivot screws don't really matter in terms of setting it up for what you need. I started writing a bunch of stuff about nuts and how critical they are for a good setup and will hopefully be able to post that later. I do have to do some work at times, sadly.

About floating bridges: I hope you’ve taken off the back plate and have seen the block, spring, and claw relationship. If you’re going to be drop tuning your low E string frequently, I recommend you tighten the claw further into the body to pull the back of the bridge down so it’s flush with the body. This is called “decking” the bridge. Done correctly, this will let you push down on the whammy bar but not pull up. In addition to tighening the claw, you can also add more springs (up to five) to have even more tension. I have several extra and would be happy to put them in an envelope and mail them to you if want some extras.

Here’s how to tell if you have decked the bridge enough to keep it in tune but not so much that you can never use the whammy bar - unless you don’t want to use the bar at all. You’ll probably want to be plugged into a good tuner for this. You won’t need an amp.

Tune the guitar – all strings. Now detune the low E to D and check tuning of all strings. The five you didn’t change should be exactly in tune as they were before. Now bring the low D back up to E. Again, nothing should change. Can you still press down on the bar when you want to? That’s about right. If it's too loose, either screw the claw farther into the body and/or add springs. Too tight? Do the reverse.

Another test is this awesome-sounding but super-easy country lick. This is one reason that Telecasters are popular among country players – the fixed bridge lets you play multiple strings while bending one (or more) without having the unbent strings them all go flat. Try this on a Strat with a floating bridge and it will go flat and sound awful. But if you have a Tele or a decked Strat bridge (or a Les Paul, etc.), the E and B strings will not go flat when you bend the G string here. Let all notes ring as you play this:

E-------12--------------------------------------------------
B--------------12-------------------------------------------
G-----------------------11 (bend to 13)-----------------
D-------------------------------------------------------------
A-------------------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------------

You can also play that as a chord instead of an arpeggio if you like. I used this all the time, all over the neck. The note on the high E string is your chord.

To verify this with your tuner, pluck either the E or B string so you can watch the tuner to see if they go flat as you bend the G string. Once you can play licks like this all over the neck AND detune your E string when necessary AND press down on the bar when necessary, it’s decked “just right” – not too tight and not too loose.

Personal opinion on whammy bar guitars: I play Telecasters primarily and use a bar maybe once a year when I pick up whatever cheap Strat I’ve scored recently in a craigslist trade – I’ve gotten a couple Squiers recently by trading for cheap effects pedals, but that’s another story.

IMO, whammy bars are great for Eddie Van Halen style playing (he uses a Floyd Rose, which is different animal than what’s on your Strat) and of course for surf music but uncessary for 99.9% of other guitar playing - but that’s just me. I realize whammy bars (or “talent levers”, as they are sometimes sarcastically referred to) are a powerful inducement when shopping – I mean, why buy less when you can have more? But, like everything else, there are tradeoffs, and what you lose with a whammy bar is tuning stability…or perhaps better said: tuning stability without knowing a lot about how to keep a Strat in tune. That’s not my opinion – that’s fact.

Oh, and does your whammy bar wobble when you screw it in? Wrap a few turns of teflon tape (in the plumbing aisle at the hardware store for a buck or less for a roll) around the threads of the bar before you screw it in.

Better yet, deck your bridge and toss that bar in the guitar case until you’ve learned more about playing guitar and staying in tune.

Final suggestion, just for fun: once, before you deck your bridge forever and throw that bar in the trash, try this: Crank up your amp. Switch to the highest gain channel you have or step on your overdrive/distortion pedal. Turn the volume knob on the guitar down about halfway. “Dump” the bar, meaning press it down almost to the body of the guitar and grab a couple of your favorite harmonics, like maybe the high E and B strings on the 12th fret, since they’re easy and loud. While smoothly rolling the volume knob up with your pinky, slowly pull the bar up from the strings and just past what was “normal” and maybe just a little higher. Wiggle it a bit and listen to the screamy goodness! Van Halen tribute band, here you come!

Okay, now get rid of that bar. It’ll cause you nothing but trouble.

Next up: All about nuts!

[FaultyMario]

Man, I :heart: you, George. Thanks for taking the time.

[Tom Servo]

Dude, that's awesome. Keep it coming!

And for the record, I have never, ever used the whammy bar. Looks like my next guitar will not have one.

[George]

Thanks guys. We had a Go Broncos pre-playoff game potluck lunch today that has sort of turned into a rare day of goofing off for everyone, so I've had some time to write down a bunch of stuff that comes from 25+ years of playing guitar and bass and, more importantly, probably 15 years of hanging out at guitar forums and talking about guitars and amps and effects, telling drummer jokes, and so forth. Hopefully I'll be able to finish my Nut Manifesto before quitting time!

[Tom Servo]

*quickly hides his drumkit*

[George]

How can you tell when a drummer is at your door?

The knocking speeds up. :D

[Random]

:finger:

[George]

As far as the bone nut, how often does that need to be replaced? It's a shitty guitar, but it's also only about two years old.

Nuts sometimes MUST be replaced, such as plastic ones that sometimes crack when they get old, or if you drop the guitar or whatever. But it’s not really a maintenance item – it’s a matter of having one with proper nut slots installed once and then forgetting about it for many years, and theoretically for the life of the guitar…or of the neck, if you’re like me and swap parts around and buy/sell parts instead of whole guitars.

All caps indicate yelling, right? Okay. Listen up:

THE NUT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A GUITAR SETUP!

Until I learned about nuts, I would meticulously set the action and intonation on guitars but sometimes they just wouldn’t sound right…or they’d sound great playing a barre chord at the 10th fret but some open chords in the first position would sound funky, even with every string properly tuned and intonated.

Another symptom of lousy nuts is when you have two guitars in a band and things just sound wrong at times. Let’s say both have every string tuned and intonated, but whenever they both hit the same chord, sumthin’ jest ain’t right. Add a bass player with the same problem and it can be really bad, even though all players insist that they are in tune – and they probably are, especially their open strings. But when you get that “why do we still sound out of tune when we play together?” thing, it often means one or more instruments in this band have nut slots that need some attention. If all instruments have the intonation set correctly and the action is reasonably sane and the players are fretting all the notes correctly, the problem is almost always somebody’s nut slots.

The nut has tiny little slots with tolerances of thousandths of an inch for optimum performance. But, like most things, these are cranked out as quickly as possible in factories. Hopefully a real human gives them the once-over and makes sure each slot is properly spaced, is the correct depth and width, and is perfectly smooth. Theoretically at least, the cheaper the guitar, the more likely the nut is not perfect. If it’s really bad, you have an unplayable guitar, but most are just good enough that people can play their guitars “out of the box” and they’re okay.

But if you want to go from okay to great, here’s what you need to know. There are three main ways that a nut can be less than ideal. The second two points below are VERY important.

1. Nut slots not evenly spaced.

Not a huge problem, usually, although sometimes a nut slot can be too close or too far from the edge of the fingerboard, and it’s possible to have some strings closer together than others. This is usually not a big deal, but something to be aware of. And then there are graduated or compensated nut slots, which are spaced with the thicker strings farther apart than the thinner ones. I have one like this, made by a pro guitar tech. Can I tell a difference? Not really, but I know it’s there. It’s one of those really tiny things that obsessive enthusiasts get into. Not all that important, but something to discuss with your tech if you ever have a nut made from scratch for your guitar. Better yet – if your tech brings it up before you do, you might have found a good guitar tech who really cares rather than one who “phones it in”.

2. Nut slots the wrong size and/or not smooth.

Ever tune up a set of new strings and hear a PING at the nut as a string suddenly gets yanked through the nut slot, like a rubber band snapping (but not breaking)? That’s the string getting pinched in the nut slot before the hand turning the tuning machine finally causes it to quit stalling and come through NOW.

Assuming the nut slot hasn’t been cut at some crazy angle, what’s happening is the string is either too fat for the slot, or there’s a tiny burr or rough edge in the slot and the string is getting caught in there – or some combination of these two.

If anything about the nut slot prevents a string from sliding smoothly through, you will have tuning problems. And it’s not just that ping when you tune up. Consider that, like at the saddles, the strings don’t just sit there in the nut slots and never move. Any time you fret a note, you cause the string to get pulled through the slot a little at the string stretches down to the fingerboard and nestles up against a fret. And if you’re bending strings or using the whammy bar, the strings are certainly moving back and forth through the nut slots. Sure, it’s a tiny movement, but it’s there. This is why your Strat (maybe not YOUR Strat, but a lot of ‘em) go out of tune when the whammy bar is used.

When the nut slots are the correct size and smoothness inside, your guitar will stay in tune longer. Ever hear those guys who boast about their guitars never going out of tune? You know that guy. “Hey man, I got home from the jam and put the guitar in its stand. I just picked it up after two weeks of not playing it, and it was still in tune!” Chances are, his nut slots are smoove as buttah! (and there weren’t a lot of temperature and humidity variation in those two weeks)

[George]

3. Nut slots too high (or too low).

If they’re too low, you probably know about it already. Maybe a string is touching the first fret and you’re getting a weird buzz or a “dead note” that doesn’t ring. That’s pretty easy for anyone to diagnose and see with your bare eyes.

But nut slots too high? Ah, now were getting into the real zen of guitar setups. Guys, I played guitar for 20 years – and was a gigging bass player in wekeend cover bands for most of that time - before I figured this out and it makes ALL the difference in making a good guitar into a great one.

If the nut slots are too high (or if you’ve installed strings that are too fat for the slots), here’s what you’ll experience. This can be a problem that only a strobe tuner can detect or it can be a problem that makes chords sound sour when you play them.

To check for too-high nut slots, first make sure your saddles are adjusted correctly, so that the fretted note at the 12th fret is exactly in tune with the open string. Some guys like to intonate to the 12th fret harmonic, but I like the 12th fret note. Ask ten guitarists and get ten different answers on this. Whichever you choose (and ideally both should be almost dead-on perfect to the open string), make sure all six strings are intonated properly and the saddle height and truss rod are set pretty much how you like them.

With you tuner plugged in and when you’re sure the 12th fret intonation is right, start fretting notes on each string. Play it like this on every string: Open string (check tuning). First fret (check tuning). Second fret (check tuning), and so on.

If the nut slots are too high, the open string can be in tune and the 12th fret intonation can be dead on, but the notes at the lowest frets will be sharp. That’s because the string has to stretch farther down until it touches the fret than it should, so it’s almost as if you’re bending the note sharp. Again, we’re talking tiny measurements here, but the can make a difference.

This sharpness at the low frets usually fixes itself at around the fifth fret, and certainly by the seventh, so your barre chords up the neck can sound great but your open chords can be way off – certainly enough to notice just with your ear – no fancy electronic tuner needed.

I find this problem usually occurs on the thicker strings, so when you play an open G chord like this…

E----------------3----------------------------------------------------
B----------------3 (or leave open; your choice)------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------2----------------------------------------------------
E-----------------3----------------------------------------------------

…the low G note at the third fret can be sharp and it will make this chord sound like crap. Another good chord to check is a F barre chord at the first fret. A sharp low F note will make it sound like mud. But any notes that are sharp will cause the chord to be out of tune. Maybe the low notes are just more noticeable? Maybe.

It’s a really common problem, too. Have a Snark or other clip-on tuner (or a good ear)? Try this sometime: go to your local Guitar Center or whoever stocks a lot of guitars. Try ten different guitars at random while you’re there - cheapies, mid-range, expensive, acoustic or electric, guitar or bass; any brands you wish. Clip on your tuner, give guitar a quick tune and intonation check, and then check the tuning of the notes at the low frets, especially on the thicker strings. You will be surprised at how many have high nut slots.

Some higher-end guitar companies (specifically Martin) even have a policy about this. To paraphrase: “We ship guitars with the nut slots slightly high to allow for fine-tuning by our dealers for your specific needs”, or words to that effect.

Is it worth paying a guy to install a new nut on a Squier Bullet? That’s your call, but I’d think not for a NEW nut. Often, a good tech can fix this problem on the stock plastic nut with a couple swipes with a nut files in each slot to get them down to the right height and also polish them while he’s at it, without charging much more (if anything at all) over the cost of a basic guitar setup.

I paid US$60 about five years ago for a made-from-scratch bone nut on my favorite Telecaster neck and the results were (and still are) heavenly. The neck plays beautifully, the action is nice and low at the lower frets, bent notes come right back in tune every time (and I have a B-Bender on this guitar, too). It was worth every penny and then some. I just brought him the guitar and two packs of my favorite strings and he did the rest. About 15-20 years ago, I had the plastic nuts on two Fender basses replaced with graphite nuts after one of them cracked in the middle. I took it to a pro tech back in Charlotte and I think I maybe paid $100 for the pair. So it's not the cheapest thing you can do but, wow, it can really make a difference on a guitar you love and intend to keep.

I’d suggest just living with the problem (if you even have a problem, Tom – you didn’t mention it) if it’s not too bad with a Squier Bullet, but it’s good to know why things sound odd at certain frets, if they do.

So how do you find a good guitar tech to make a nut for your guitar? Word of mouth, guitar forums, the craigslist Musicians section, etc. I used craigslist when we moved to the Denver area and posted an ad without my phone number or personal email but just the anonymous CL email link. Ask something like, “who’s the best guitar tech to make a nut for my Strat” or whatever and sit back and watch for replies. Hopefully you’ll get enough of them to see a consensus about who to go to (and who to avoid).

The guy you’re probably looking for is one with a long grey pony tail, perhaps a slightly surly disposition, and – most importantly – a calendar that’s full of repairs so he can’t get to yours for a week or a month or more. I think I waited two months for mine on the Tele. The guy would schedule a bunch of nut jobs all in one week and bang ‘em out, one after the other. The next week he’d do neck resets and belly jobs on old Martins. And so forth. I waited until the day he told me to bring in the guitar and it was ready the next day.

Tom, if you live in/around LA, you probably have some of the finest guitar techs in the world in your neighborhood, second only to Nashville and maybe NYC. Finding a good one shouldn’t be hard, if you ever need one.

And with that, gents, I’m going home. It’s after 5:00 on a Friday afternoon!

Next chapter (a short one): Checking and adjusting neck alignment on bolt-on guitars. It’s so easy, even Random can do it.

[Random]

Off topic a bit: George, you'd have a good time talking with one of the geologists in my office. He was a finish/assembly guy in SLO for Ernie Ball before he went back to school and got his geology degree. :)

[lostnight]

I'm really bummed that there's no drumming in Bandfuse. I was hoping that it would be the Rock Band to the old Guitar Hero - we'd be able to throw together an entire band to play along. Which platforms is it out for?

Xbox 360 and PS3. I paid 68$ for it on Monday, and this weekend it's on sale through Gamestop for 39$ with the cable. D'oh!!

I did buy a microphone yesterday after work for 9.99. I'm not a singer at all, but I had fun trying to sing some songs, like Breakin' the Law. Then there are background tracks you can make your own songs to, and I tried making one up. The tv show It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia had a musical episode called Day Man. I used that, and changed the lyrics to Day Girl, because I heard a friend who bar tends tell a customer she is the day girl, so I instantly started sing Day Girl to her. I recorded my Bandfuse version with my Kindle, and showed it to some friends at the bar. Very awful, but funny. I started laughing when my dog was barking at my singing.

You can have 50 song saves that you performed on. I'm not sure if the is a way to sing on a track, save it, and use it to play guitar on. That sounds like a ton of fun, not sure if it can be done though. Can you do that on fake guitar games like Rock Band? If so, I might pick that up, I still have my GH "guitar" in my basement somewhere.

[Tom Servo]

I definitely have the "ping" issue, though I figured that was due to the little metal guys that hold the strings in place halfway between the nut and the tuning pegs. Only the high strings do it, the low three don't. Other than that, open chords all sound pretty good on the guitar. I did have it set up at a local shop that has a pretty good reputation. I have a feeling it really just wouldn't be worth it to do much to the nut on this one - it doesn't sound bad to me and given that I want to upgrade the guitar soon, I just don't see the point of spending that kind of money on it.

[George]

...open chords all sound pretty good on the guitar. I did have it set up at a local shop that has a pretty good reputation.

In that case, you're golden! Deck the bridge by tightening the claw for so it doesn't freak out when you go to Drop D tuning and you're done!

I was assuming the worst, as if you had bought the guitar in a box on the shelf at Wal-Mart or something, and it was a basket case. And that's not a crack on Squier Bullets - I love cheap guitars and have owned at least three Squiers before, have one Squier Strat currently (all these from various craigslist trades), and a Squier Vintage Modified Bass VI is about the only instrument currently on my "want list".

For what it's worth, I paid $5.23 (including tax) for my last guitar - a First Act Telecaster-style guitar at a thrift shop. It plays great after my basic setup, the nut is just fine, and I even took it to a jam session with friends who know guitars recently and it got high praise...for the price. I left the $4.99 price tag on the back and showed it to everyone who had the patience to put up my my boasting about it.

I wouldn't presume to inflict my preference for guitars on anyone else, since they are such a personal choice, but you might browse www.tdpri.com if the idea of owning a Telecaster doesn't completely turn you off.

And, BTW, one of my minor motivations in typing all this, Tom, was to repay a bit of your kindness and support in the bicycle thread at our last hangout. You were very patient and helpful with me when I described parts of a bike as "um, those round black things that you have to pump up with air. What are them thangs called again?" and so on.

Oh, and speaking of proper nomenclature, "the little metal guys that hold the strings in place halfway between the nut and the tuning pegs" are called string trees. Make sure they're straight (perpendicular to the strings) and the really hardcore Strat setup guys would recommend applying a dab of Chap-Stick from the tip of a toothpick underneath where the strings touch the trees as lubricant. The idea is to prevent anything that will cause a string to "hang up" and therefore get out of tune.

[Rob]

George, for fuck's sake start a general guitar thread in the pit stop. This stuff is too useful to newer players who may not care about Rocksmith.

We could post pics of our weapons of choice too! (I'm also packing a Tele in the arsenal, as every guitarist should)

I'm a 20+ year player and your explanations are worded better than I could manage.

[George]

Okay, Rob! I knew you played but didn't know the particulars. Would love to see your gear and talk guitars with you and everyone else who's interested.

But before I/we do, what says Random about deleting/merging/moving the relevant info from here into a new thread in the Pit Stop?

P.S. How can you tell if a stage is level?

If the drummer is drooling out of both sides of his mouth.

[Random]

If we're taking inventory, I own two guitars (note that I didn't write that I play them...):

1) a 4-string MIM Jazz bass (in "Midnight Wine (http://www.amazon.com/Fender-Standard-Jazz-Bass-Midnight/dp/B0002KZW1K)" color), totally stock other than a "Police Line Do Not Cross" strap that a friend gave me. The color actually matches my drum set pretty well, which was totally not planned.
2) a 6-string acoustic guitar "Franciscan" Model 6900, made in Korea, worth tens of dollars (maybe)! Looks just like this one. (http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-FRANCISCAN-ACOUSTIC-GUITAR-MODEL-6900-MADE-IN-KOREA-/310774439312)

[George]

Thanks for the move the Pit Stop, Random.

I remember when you bought that bass and posted about it many years ago. Gorgeous color! My #1 bass is the same color, although faded a bit since it's 28 or 29 years old as of this writing. Eventually I'll get around to posting some pics but for now I figure I've run my mouth enough in here.

I should probably go delete all my posts in the Rocksmith thread in The Arcade so as not to scare away those who want to talk about the video game instead of gear talk. I suppose I'll get around to that, but right now I'm getting sleepy and figure I should go to b

[Random]

I'll clean up the other thread.

[Tom Servo]

So, it looks like all the strings play the same note on the 12th fret that they do open. Decking the bridge appears to have fixed the tuning issue, and the 7th fret harmonics are showing up just fine. So far, so good, the guitar is playing great!

[George]

The bridged fixed the harmonics problem in Rocksmith too? Great. Sounds like you're done until the desire for different/more guitars becomes overwhelming, if it ever does.


We could post pics of our weapons of choice too! (I'm also packing a Tele in the arsenal, as every guitarist should)

I'll start. Here's my latest acquisition, with price tag and receipt. I don't usually go to thrift shops but one opened near our house in an old Circuit City store and I stopped in one day after work to check the place out. In a back corner they have electronics, like TVs and VCRs and stereo gear and then there was this, just lying on a table with no strings but otherwise appearing to be a perfectly good guitar. And it is! The brand is First Act, which I believe are among the absolute cheapest guitars sold at stores like Wal-Mart.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Picture777_zpsc99cb04d.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Picture792_zps05017317.jpg

You can see someone had written the fret numbers on the side of the neck. I was able to scrub most of that off but you can still see them a little. I don't mind at all.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Picture776_zps77fa6b33.jpg

Cleaned and restrung and ready to take out to a jam (which I did). Nice guitar for five bucks, and it occurred to me as I was putting on a set of strings that the strings cost as much as the guitar.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/209f0f60-f82e-474e-8528-6ee8ee344289_zpse298f9c4.jpg

[Rob]

I haven't taken any decent pics of the family yet, but my next purchase just let itself be known.

The carved top Telecaster shaped 7 string at 7:28 in this vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5HXCrBGmfs

I already own two other Chapmans and the bang-for-buck is really high. Build quality is rock solid too.

[George]

7-string? Wow. And hey, why not? Very cool.

I recognize that guy from this video, where he and another guy are demoing what I want to buy next - the Squier Bass VI that is retailing for under US$400. Apparently, with some rare exceptions (all the boasters on YouTube), these haven't reached this continent in any significant numbers yet. None has appeared at my two local Guitar Center stores.

Here are two guys having too much fun with two Bass VIs for way too long.

Hmmm...can't figure out how to make YouTube tags work here. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1oSM1jbLJU

[Rob]

That'd be Rob Chapman and Lee Anderton. Chappers is a touring/recording professional musician owns Chapman Guitars and Lee is the main owner of a large, independent and family run music store just up the road from me (Anderton's in Guildford). Their demo vids are sometimes a bit overly positive (gotta shift units) but you always get a sense that they aren't lying and generally put whatever they are playing through its paces. Usually with some amusing banter too.

I actually rather like that First Act Tele-looking thing. Especially the headstock design. What do the pickups sound like? In my experience, they are the worst bit of a cheap guitar. Also, whilst First Act are mainly super beginner level instruments, they make (or made recently) high end signature models for various guitarists; Brent Hinds of Mastodon and Pete Koller of Sick Of It All had them.

[George]

I've heard that First Act has a custom shop in Boston or somewhere and they make high-end guitars, but their department store line is the cheapest of the cheap. That's an interesting business model, but I guess not everyone can be or wants to be Fender/Squier or Gibson/Epiphone with a full range of guitars from $99 to $5000 and every price point in between.

The pickups sound just fine clean (which is how I play the vast majority of the time), but when I took it to a jam and passed it around, a guy plugged it into his rig and stepped on some kind of a dirt box and it was just a mess of squealing feedback, and not the good kind. Imagine an AM radio played through a fuzzbox. The odd thing is each pickup appears to only have one wire coming from it, and the wiring under the control plate looks nothing like a typical Tele setup. There are just a couple wires instead of the typical "bowl of spaghetti" under there. I can only guess the + and - wires are wrapped into one, but it looks odd. Somewhere I have pics of this but can't find them at the moment.

The headstock does have a cool shape, but I don't like that it tilts back, which makes behind the nut bends virtually impossible.

The neat thing about having a $5 guitar is it's the perfect guitar for a kid to learn on - plays fine, stays in tune pretty well, and Dad won't worry if they drop it or bang the headstock into the wall or something.

Maybe someday I'll swap pickups. I have a few in my parts box, and there's always GFS, the king of cheap pickups, but it's really not worth the effort at this time.

Link to GFS, my favorite inexpensive pickup supplier: http://www.guitarfetish.com/

And for the good stuff and genuine Fender parts, this guy is tops in the USA, in my experience: www.angela.com

Edited to add: in looking for "under the hood" pictures of the First Act, I found this. The first thing I do when I get a grimy old guitar is yank the neck and polish the frets with 0000 steel wool. Masking a maple fingerboard is a must, or the steel wool will remove the finish from the maple. I use light-tack painter's tape for this. DO NOT use regular masking tape or you risk pulling off chunks of the finish when you remove the tape, especially with MIM (Made In Mexico) Fenders from the '90s. You probably don't need to ask to know how I learned this.

With a rosewood fingerboard, you don't need to mask because rosewood fingerboards are almost never finished (Rickenbacker is the only exception I can think of) and the 0000 steel wool will polish the wood and remove whatever finger funk is stuck to the board.

This prior to taking it outside to polish the frets. Polishing them not only makes them look great but helps with bending notes more smoothly, if you've got a really nasty neck with years of caked-on sweat, spilled beer, and who knows what else on there.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Frets_zps0cf7cfcc.jpg

[Random]

Embedding videos: Click the filmstrip icon and paste in the URL. Works for youtube, hulu, vimeo, and a few others. :) For some reason typing out the tag doesn't work--will look into it.

On-topic example: my friend demoing his first home-built bass:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjNA7oQqyQM

[lostnight]

Back in early December, I the guitar I bought from a pawn shop was also a First Act. It seems pretty decent for the price, but what do I know. The amp is a little 15 watt Behringer.

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n174/lostnight/1454905_10201129981912786_1233741764_n.jpg (http://s112.photobucket.com/user/lostnight/media/1454905_10201129981912786_1233741764_n.jpg.html)

Since then I've caught guitar fever, and bought a new guitar, an Epiphone 1966 G-400 in Silverburst. I love it so far. I still use both guitars when playing Rocksmith. I have the First Act tuned to play Alice In Chains and some other artists. Pretty much everything else I use the Epiphone.

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n174/lostnight/e2d107a8-09a9-4fdf-b4ec-c5e926b59043.jpg (http://s112.photobucket.com/user/lostnight/media/e2d107a8-09a9-4fdf-b4ec-c5e926b59043.jpg.html)

[lostnight]

I still craved more, so I went amp shopping. After searching online and watching videos, I really felt like the Line 6 Spider IV 75 appealed to me. It has s tons of presets including guitar tones from actual songs, and a bunch of effects, and also an LED screen. I went to guitar Center to buy one, but they were out of that model. They did have a Peavey Vypyr 3 100 watt amp with many similar features to that Line 6, and at the same price. I ended up buying that. I think it is a lot more amp that I will ever need unless I end up getting way way better at the guitar than I think I am capable of getting. It is a to of fun. When I'm not playing Rocksmith (or Bandfuse) I practice my scales and chords with the amp, constantly switching the tones and effects. It makes practice that much more fun. I'll also play Rocksmith, unplug the guitar from the Xbox and plug it into the amp and start a song so I know what notes to hit, that has been fun to. I'm happy with my investments, I think they'll keep me playing for a long time.
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n174/lostnight/securedownload1amp.jpg (http://s112.photobucket.com/user/lostnight/media/securedownload1amp.jpg.html)

[George]

Great stuff there Lostnight. A Strat and a SG will cover just about any tones you're likely to need.

I'm a big fan of amps like the Vyper for home use, too. I bought a Fender G-DEC when they came out in 2005 and it was some of the best money I've ever spent. Having a ton of tones and effects to mess around with at home is a lot of fun.

Another highly recommended piece of gear for home use is a looper pedal. A typical use is recording a chord progression and then soloing over it. I use an older Boss RC-2 but the guitar forum guys say this is the best for inexpensive and ultra-simple: http://www.tcelectronic.com/ditto-looper/. Google "ditto looper" for more info.

[Rob]

George, I take it you are aware iPad apps like BIAS and Jamup Pro?

[George]

No, I'm not. Please enlighten me if you wish. I'd love to know if I'm missing some cool stuff.

I have Garageband on my iPad 2 but that's the only app I've downloaded so far. I really like Garageband and have only scratched the surface of what it can do. On my want list is a MIDI keyboard controller. Playing keyboard on the iPad's touch-screen is cool and possibly effective for home recording if one is careful, but I want to take it out and jam with it.

We always have a drummer or two, at least one bass player (as opposed to a guitar player taking a turn on bass, which is often just fine but not always the same thing as a bass player, if you know what I mean) and two to four (and sometimes more!) guitar players, but no keyboard players. I'd love to sit on the couch in the jam room with one of these on my lap, plugged into a guitar amp, and add some Classic Rock Organ here and there. Not necessarily this exact product, but something along these lines.

The problem with keyboards is you surely get what you pay for, or perhaps better said - you don't get what you don't pay for, so cheapies like this one feel flimsy. This is the Line 6, which costs US$149 online right now. I think I'll have to spend more to get something that feels right and that my kids can learn on without having the crummiest one available. I think they'd be more receptive to playing keys through an iPad than learning on our piano, which currently needs tuning - something I keep putting off paying someone to do.

http://static.musiciansfriend.com/derivates/18/001/717/397/DV016_Jpg_Large_H81409_black.jpg

[Rob]

Jamup is a sweet multi amp and effects modeller. A virtual FX chain. Simply plug in and go. It gets a little spendy with a large amount of IAP content (I've bought it all...) but it's worth it. Better than Amplitube, Ampkit and the built in amps in GB.

BIAS is something even better. A virtual amp construction kit. Choose pre-amp and power tubes, tone stacks, cab emulation, biasing, drive profile plus a ton of EQ parameters. When you're happy, either play it there or touch a button and import it into Jamup where you can add in your FX.

This combo of apps has rendered my Pod X3 obsolete. I barely even use my Guitar Rig, Amplitube and Revalver software anymore.

Add in the Audiobus app and you can live record the whole shebang into your iPad DAW of choice, including GB.

[George]

Ahhh...I just figured out how change the forum settings so a new page isn't being created every two or three posts, it seemed. MUCH better now.

Thanks Rob. Wow - you can pick your TUBES?! Not that I know one tube from another, but that's amazing detail. It seemed like just yesterday that the Pods and similar modelers came out and we were all stunned that you could go from a Fender amp tone to a Marshall sound by just turning a knob. I can imagine how an iPad can replace a room full of gear. When I first saw GB, that was my first thought: I'll be rich from selling all the gear that never leaves my house! Well, considering my gear, I wouldn't be rich, but maybe I could buy another First Act guitar at the thrift shop with the proceeds from craigslist sales.

I assume you need an interface like the iRig or the Apogee Jam to use the apps you mentioned. I might get there eventually, but for now I'm quite content with the amp and effects models in my Fender G-DEC (1st generation) plugged into a Fostex MR-8 recorder. I realize the G-DEC probably is nowhere near "state of the art" anymore, but the amp models and effects sound as good to me as they ever did, because I don't know the difference.

I just found this pic of a Fostex MR-8 online. This isn't my pic, but my setup looks a little like this, only with different things plugged into it a little mixing board as well.

http://e-lectronics.net/images/images_big/audio/MR8_5.jpg

Feel free to laugh at this "old" technology, but it's so much better than the 4-track cassette recorder and microphone pointed at an amp that I used for so many years. Eventually I'll dig deeper into the iPad as time allows, and I can certianly see getting a newer desktop Mac when I need another computer. I still have a Macintosh PowerPerforma running System 8, but I can hardly run Garageband on that.

The iPad seems awesome but I'd want a keyboard and mouse and large monitor for doing any serious computer-based recording. Even trying to change the length of a recording in Garageband with my fingers on the screen is difficult. I can't imagine trying to accurately sync up loops or edit in the middle of a recording, such as punching in, on the iPad screen.

The Fostex is really simple and I can plug it into my PC via USB and drag and drop .WAV files from the recorder to the PC, and then delete them from the Fostex from the PC. I'm sure that's all just as easy with an iPad and a Mac, but what I have is more than sufficient for my limited time and crappy music that I only record for my own enjoyment. It's not like I'm not doing demos or anything.

[George]

Was just looking around in my Photobucket account for a pic of my home setup and found this. This is often how I buy guitars...like the Johnny Cash song, I get 'em once piece at a time.

A friend wanted to give me these two Tele bodies, but I made him take $20 for the pair so I wouldn't feel like a thief, and so he couldn't call me at 4:00 some morning for bail money because I owed him a favor.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/1082012andprior325.jpg

Both are non-Fender bodies, brand unknown, and toploaders (meaning the strings don't go through the bodies). I dig toploaders because they feel so "slinky" for crazy bending and you can slap on a Hipshot B-Bender in about two minutes without removing the bridge and drilling it. The thinline (hollow) Tele body with neck and some other parts is my main guitar right now. It's paired up with a MIJ (Made in Japan) Fender Telecaster neck from a Jerry Donahue signature Telecaster from the '90s, hence the "JD" initials at the end of the headstock, and that chrome thing on the other end is a B-Bender. Pickups are a GFS lipstick Tele in the bridge and a GFS Dream 90 in the neck. This is the Tele neck I mentioned early with the bone nut. I've had this neck for probably 15 years, and has threaded inserts in the heel and attaches with allen-head machine bolts insted of the usual wood screws. The action is super low and it stays it tune no matter how badly I bend the strings in my lousy attempts to sound like a pedal steel player. The neck is a fat V-shape in back and the fingerboard radius is 7.25" (really round, super comfortable). The frets are tiny, just like how they made 'em in the old days.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC017401.jpg

The funny thing is black is my least favorite color for just about everything (except maybe tires). I don't like black guitars, black clothes, black cars, etc. but at one time I owned four and a half black guitars. I think I still have three and a half black ones. The "half" is the double-bound body pictured above, which I have yet to do anything with. I keep meaning to put it up for trade on craigslist and see what I'm offered - maybe someone will trade a pedal or something for it. I always like to offer gear for trade instead of for sale. I've gotten some amazing deals that way...or at least I've thought so. The best trades are the ones where both parties are thinking "I am screwing this guy SO hard on this deal. What a fool he is!" I'll probably tell you guys about some of them eventually, like how I got my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp for $75 cash plus some gear I thought was best put in the trash can, but that someone actually wanted.

Still looking at Photobucket, I see I still have a bunch of pics of a Strat restoration online, if anyone's interested. I'll post them eventually and the story of how I got this beat to hell Strat in a craigslist trade for a pedal I had paid $15 for on CL years before and never used.

But first, some Johnny Cash and his tale of the Psychobilly Caddilac:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWHniL8MyMM&noredirect=1

[Rob]

Correct. You need a guitar interface but there are loads coming out now. I have a few, AmpkitLink, Apogee Jam, Alesis IODock and a Jamplug on the way. The Apogee Jam is probably the best deal (or soon will be given they have just launched a 96K version so there should be a good few showing up on eBay) as it's a fully digital dock connector type made by a solid company.

In the interim, 20 bucks should get you an irig or Jamplug. Audiobus is invaluable as it allows you to route audio between compatible apps. Think virtual patchbay.

As for loopers, Loopy HD is fantastic.

[Rob]

In lieu of pictures, this is the 7 I've got coming. Mine won't have the black back and sides though, it'll be all natural. http://www.andertons.co.uk/solid-body-electric-guitars/pid32050/cid671/chapman-ml7t-7-string-electric-guitar.asp

[George]

That's neat! You could land a gig in a country band easily with that "Tele". We just need to get you some snap-button western shirts and a belt buckle the size of a dinner plate and you'll be good to go!

[Random]

Same Chapman as the Chapman Stick?

[George]

Nah, that's Emmett Chapman.

Funny but true story: back in the mid '90s just as the world wide web was getting going, there were email digests for various interests. These probalby started long before the mid '90s, but that's when I learned of them. This was around the time I was learning how to dial into the nevada.edu BBS with my 2600 baud modem and a Mac running System 7 to download guitar and bass tab, and a lot of that very same tab is still floating around today on modern tab websites.

Anyway, there was (and may still be) a great email digests for bassists called The Bottom Line. It worked like forums do, except if you replied to something you read today, you wouldn't see it until tomorrow's digest came out. But that was AMAZING to me at the time, and so much better than waiting for next month's Bass Player magazine to hit the newsstands. Many bassists were/are interested in Chapman Sticks because they play in the bass frequency range.

Emmett Chapman, or someone pretending to be him, used to correct people (just regular joes on the internet) not to call it a "stick" but to always write "Chapman Stick" with capital letters AND either the R in a circle for registered trademark or the little TM superscript for trademark at the end. I forget which symbol he wanted us to use, and it doesn't matter, but that just seemed so strange to me that a guy would go that far. I could see writing a letter to a magazine that screwed up your company's name and/or product, but these were just guys talking as we are here.

-end of bizarre and pointless reminiscing...for now-

[Random]

The Bottom Line on google groups: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/the-bottom-line :)

I get (got) most of my bass talk at talkbass.com and the Harmony Central bass forum (http://www.harmonycentral.com/t5/Bass-Forum/bd-p/acapella-17).

[Random]

Popped onto youtube to see if any of wagsboy's Chpaman Stick(R) (:p) stuff was online. Didn't find it, but I did find a couple clips of he and Jan doing a coffee house gig.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1PpaclNB6Y

[Rob]

Same Chapman as the Chapman Stick?

Nah, completely different. I saw a guy busking at Pier 39 in 2010 with a Stick. Mesmerising oddball technique.

[Random]

Watching clips of Tony Levin play stick (:p) with the Dream Theater guys is fun.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edqH0ofRQrM

[George]

Here's the pic I was looking for earlier of my recording setup. This was a few years back but the key components were already there:

G-DEC used as a preamp. Headphone out jack goes to mixing board.

Yamaha PB-1 bass preamp. Rackmount. Japanese '80s quality. Gigged all over with this in a rack with a power amp and rackmount tuner as was all the rage in the '80s and early '90s. I was still hauling a rack up until my last gig back east in 2002 or 2003. Line out goes to mixing board.

Boss DR-3 drum machine. Goes to mixing board.

El-Cheapo Yamaha keyboard from the early '90s. Goes to mixing board.

Mixing board output goes to a Boss RC-2 Loop Station pedal, then back to the board. One board out goes into the Fender "RAD Bass" 25W 1x10 combo amp, into the Aux In RCA jacks. This is my monitor. Occasionally I have used the preamp side of this with an Ovation acoustic/electric and the Effects Send going to the mixer also, but I think I was just trying to see how much crap I could get tangled up when I went that far.

The other board out goes to the Fostex recorder. Sometimes I just hit Record and start jamming. Sometimes I get some cool stuff to listen to later at work or wherever but most of it is junk and way too long. Using a looper tends to make for long songs, since the looper never gets tired or needs a beer break, and on those rare occasions when I get my Jimi Ray Clapton mojo workin', well...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/IMG_1431.jpg

I have since added more shelves in this area and run all the wires behind them in notches I cut near the back corner. Here's a pic from, oh, I dunno...maybe a year ago or so.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC01672.jpg

I hang a bass on one side and guitars on the other. This helps prevent getting cables crossed when I do "live looping" with multiple instruments. Since I have everything plugged in and "live" at the same time, I can switch between guitar and bass without stopping and unplugging stuff, and I have the keyboard mounted at the perfect height for me to stand and play it with a guitar or bass strapped on.

Here’s the guy who inspired this setup. I have maybe 1% of this guy’s talent, but the concept of multi-instrument live looping is the same. And, if anyone wonders what a B-Bender does, check out his guitar solo that starts at 5:45. His is an internal mechanism, so you don’t see the chrome thing on the end like mine, but they do the same thing – raise the B string a whole step to C# without affecting the other five strings. I’m not a country player specifically, but I love to play country licks over rock tunes, like the early ‘70s Southern California laid-back country-rock-folk bands – Eagles, The Byrds (with a different lineup from their ‘60s heyday), CSN and sometimes Y, the Dead, etc. Heck, even the Rolling Stones had a country-ish thing going for a while.

Being able to go down to the basement, turn on two power strips and have everything power up and on, and be able to grab a guitar and do something like the video below when we had very young twins was wonderful. I didn’t leave the house to go play music for at least three years after they were born, and a setup like this let me feel like I was playing with a band again, but in my own house, usually after everyone went to bed.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6U3-1oXHPo

[George]

Watching clips of Tony Levin play stick (:p) with the Dream Theater guys is fun.

Just saw Mr. Chapman running out to his car. Said he was heading for Davis, and boy, was he pissed!

I forgot that Wags played the Stick. I have his and Jan's album on CD from when I ordered a Hipshot Bass X-tender key from his store, gosh - ten years ago, at least. I should bring it into work tomorrow and listen to it.

[George]

I actually rather like that First Act Tele-looking thing. Especially the headstock design. What do the pickups sound like? In my experience, they are the worst bit of a cheap guitar.

Found the pics of "under the hood" of the First Act. As mentioned earlier, there appears to only be one wire instead of the usual two for each pickup. There must be two in there, but I've never seen them both encased into one like this.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC02859_zpsd56aac33.jpg

There is a brass base plate on the bottom of the Tele bridge pickup, which even Fender doesn't include on their cheaper models (MIM Standard Telecaster, most notably). I was surprised to see this.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC02857_zps9e1b3dcf.jpg

The wiring under the control plate is just as odd. Normally there is a lot more wiring stuffed under here.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC02853_zps09830f9d.jpg

The hardware is decent, although probably made of the cheapest Chinese pot metal available. The knobs look great but are actually plastic!

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC02855_zps4a498c34.jpg

Of course I left the price tag on the back. I really wish it was on the front, perhaps on the pickguard under the strings. It's the kind that is perforated so it will tear if someone tries to switch price tags in the store, so I'm leaving it alone.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC02866_zpse0c5d353.jpg

[novicius]

Hair dryer and razor blade? Lift it from the front, put it on the back? :D

(Or just go back and ask the store to replicate the tag. ;) )

[Conman]

You may can steam the glue off the back of the tag and then reattach to the front.

[George]

(Or just go back and ask the store to replicate the tag.

Would you believe I actually thought about doing that? It's not worth the hassle, but I did consider it. I figure if/when my kids get insterested in guitars, this will be theirs and I'll probably want to take it off then. You know how kids are - "Daddy, this is a cheap guitar. I want an expensive one! They aren't old enough yet to grasp this concept, but we have some 7 and 8-year olds in the neighborhood and I know those kids wouldn't like a price tag on anything showing how cheap it was.

[Conman]

George, guide me through lowering the action on a Epi Les Paul. It plays well enough and seems to be alright in every other area, but on the higher frets it seems the strings are a mile above the fretboard.

[George]

I'll try a short answer for a change, but as I'm sure you can tell by the average length of my posts in this thread, I can add more if this simple adjustment doesn't do the trick.

1. Optional, but suggested: detune the strings a bit so they aren't pressing down so hard on the bridge. This will make it easier to adjust.

2. Your bridge sits on two threaded thumbwheels as pictured below. Turning the thumbwheels makes them and the bridge (and the strings) raise and lower relative to the guitar body and the fingerboard. If the threaded posts sticking up out of the guitar body want to turn instead of the thumbwheels, insert a screwdriver at the top of the posts to hold them in place.

http://www.epiphone.com/press/P_TuneOMatic.jpg

3. Tune back up. Check action. Re-adjust as necessary. You can also adjust just one side or the other in case your bass strings are too high and your treble strings are too low, for example.

4. Turn amp up to 11 and RAWK!

Fun factiod: This style of bridge is called a Tune-O-Matic bridge, or TOM in internet guitar forum shorthand.

[Conman]

Thanks, that helps. I was doing some reading as well and it says 2mm at the 12th fret. I think I'm pretty close to that now. Low E and A has a buzz only on the 14th fret, but not bad. Any ideas?

[Rob]

A buzz on 14th fret isn't something the truss rod can help with. I would usually raise the action at the bridge thumbwheel and get used to it. It's probably a nut issue in the long run. I have learned to play around most issues with shitty guitars...these days, I don't buy them in the first place...

[Conman]

I raised the thumbwheel a bit and will just live with the little it does it. I see a teeeeny tiny gap on that end of the 14th fret, may be the fret a little high.

[George]

I agree with Rob...except the part about shitty guitars. 8^)

It's possible you have a high fret and that's what's causing the buzz. Or a low fret nearby. Or some combination of the two.

A good guitar tech can do what's called a "level and polish" and get your frets right. But if this isn't a really big deal, I'd suggest just what Rob did:

You might be able to sneak the bass side thumbwheel up just a smidgen and eliminate this problem. There is a limit to how low action can be, and I tend to keep the action relatively higher as the strings get thicker. The fat E and A need more room to vibrate without buzzing than the skinnier strings do.

When Rob says he "plays around" any issues, he's most likely saying that you can play the same notes/riffs/chords starting at the 9th fret on the A string as at the 14th fret on the low E string.

[lostnight]

Great stuff there Lostnight. A Strat and a SG will cover just about any tones you're likely to need.

I'm a big fan of amps like the Vyper for home use, too. I bought a Fender G-DEC when they came out in 2005 and it was some of the best money I've ever spent. Having a ton of tones and effects to mess around with at home is a lot of fun.

Another highly recommended piece of gear for home use is a looper pedal. A typical use is recording a chord progression and then soloing over it. I use an older Boss RC-2 but the guitar forum guys say this is the best for inexpensive and ultra-simple: http://www.tcelectronic.com/ditto-looper/. Google "ditto looper" for more info.

Thanks, I',m loving everything so far. I might wait till around St Patricks day before I get something like the Ditto, but I bookmarked their page, I'm interested.

[matt s]

Hi George (and everyone else), do you have any experience with the ever-lovely Ibanez Pro Rock'r Bridge? If you did, you'd know why they gave up on that line and went more Floyd Rose-like in design. I ask because I got a nice DT350 off of ebay a couple of years ago now and I wanted to set the intonation and tune it up but it ended up in general failure for me when I messed with it. I have experience with floating bridges, but this just left me baffled in how it would be nowhere near in tune while also pulling the bridge up away from the body. Maybe losing power for a couple of days on the day I messed with it didn't help , but I'd like to make good on tossing down money on something that just sits in its case.
Replacement bridges are almost out of the question for me because of the difference in the routed part of the body for the bridge. To replace it requires a lot of work filling in part of the current route and drilling new holes for the posts and... it drives me crazy. Maybe it is destined to sit there and look nice.

[Rob]

I lost my patience with floating bridges last century. I had several cheap superstrat type guitars with horrible licensed Floyd trems and they were never really viable. Last year I got my ML-1 which has a Wilkinson vintage style trem, I set it for dives only. This lasted about a week before I got annoyed with it and locked it back flush with the body. Hardtails only for me.

[George]

My only experience with trems/vibratos/whammy bars/talent levers/kickstands is on Strats. I live with them (by setting them for dives only, like Rob) but they aren't my first choice and I know nothing about full floaters like what Ibanez uses.

Maybe there's an online guide to that particular bridge?

[matt s]

My only experience with trems/vibratos/whammy bars/talent levers/kickstands is on Strats. I live with them (by setting them for dives only, like Rob) but they aren't my first choice and I know nothing about full floaters like what Ibanez uses.

Maybe there's an online guide to that particular bridge?
I have found what amounts to a scanned informational page (like this (http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4090/4979655718_6fddaff854_b.jpg)) about it but not much else. Most of my searching turned up people complaining about the frailty of the saddles and really the whole design in general. It was a bridge that was produced for around 1 year (they came on '84 and '85 models I believe) before they came out with the first generation of their current line of floating bridges. I should probably just block it off and call it a day if I ever really want to play it.

[George]

^ That probably wouldn't hurt anything. It sounds like you have the Betamax of locking vibrato systems.

How about some airing of old projects and craigslist success stories?

One Saturday morning I went to craigslist looking for a cheap gig bag for a guitar I had assembled. I searched for gig bag and found an ad for a Squier Strat Pack (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/squier-affinity-stratocaster-electric-guitar-pack-w-10g-amplifier) AND a nice Road Runner gig bag (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/road-runner-roadster-electric-e-guitar-gig-bag), all for $50. As you can see from the link, the gig bag sells for $50 new, so I figured this was a smokin' deal.

The seller claimed to be nearby, so I called and minutes later was on my way and found everything as expected: guitar like new, horribly out of tune, and some beginner songbooks, a couple cables, a cheap tuner, a little amp, and a perfectly nice gig bag, which I knew I'd keep. I figured I'd trade away the guitar and the amp eventually in some future CL deal, and I was right.

I don't have a "before" picture, but here's what I did to the guitar before trading it away for a Boss Blues Driver pedal. Yep, that's right, I traded a Squier Strat for a pedal. I've done it the other way around also.

We've talked in this thread already about Strat bridges and Hipshot B-Benders (at least I have) and here is a bit more of both. I figured I'd try putting a Hipshot on the Strat.

Trying to line up the Hipshot with the body. It turns out that Strat bodies (at least some Squier Strat bodies) have a lower curve that isn't exactly equal like a Telecaster body. So the Hipshot wanted to go on at an angle.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC00182.jpg

Here you can see what I did to the bridge: I drilled three holes to mount slotted steel Telecaster saddles where the six Strat saddles had been, and I used the hole that used to be for the B-string saddle intonation screw to run the B-string through as it comes from the bender.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/2.jpg

I put a star washer on one of the side screws to get it to sit straight on the body.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC01664.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC01663.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC01662.jpg

The neat thing about a Hipshot on a Strat is you can set the bridge flat on the body but loose enough to press the bar down to whammy all six strings and you can bend the B-string up for country licks. Sure, in that case the B string is going sharp while the other five are going flat with the bar depressed, but it sounded right to me, as infrequently as I use a bar. I shake it at the end of songs and during the Cinnamon Girl one-note-solo but that's about all.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC01661.jpg

[George]

So as I was enjoying my nice shiny Squier Strat I put up a "for trade" ad on CL and listed some odds and ends, as I do from time to time. One was an old (ancient?) Schaller Fuschweller volume pedal, made in Germany. I had paid $15 for it a couple of years prior and almost never used it.

A guy emailed me and offered me a Squier Strat for the volume pedal. I talked to him on the phone and he said the guitar was excellent for playing metal (a Strat with single coils for the metalz? Huh?) and that the neck had “broken off” after his dog knocked the guitar off a stand. Umm…yeah. But trading a guitar for a pedal? Who does that? So naturally I made the deal.

The neck had in fact been rather suddenly removed from the body (a Pete Townshendesque on-stage smash-a-thon is my guess), but there were no chunks of wood missing, just some stripped screw holes in the neck. This was an easy fix for my son. He sanded the finish off golf tees (hard maple!) and glued them in as dowels and then redrilled the neck. It's a solid repair.

Okay, I helped him a little with the drilling.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/1082012andprior308.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/1082012andprior417.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/1082012andprior419.jpg

I understand stripped neck holes. But how do you strip out the strap button holes, too?! Bizarre.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/1082012andprior314.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/1082012andprior315.jpg

The body was a true work of art – total filth and grime everywhere. Note neck screws still in body and the white spot under one missing tone knob. This pickguard used to be white!

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/1082012andprior275.jpg

Here’s a comparison of two of the same guitar – one new and one about as well-used as they come.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/1082012andprior273.jpg

The neck, however, is in really nice shape. I can’t believe the body is so beat but the frets show very little wear. And this neck has a nice amber color compared to the too-white and too-new other one. Of course the frets and unfinished rosewood fingerboard got the 0000 steel wool treatment.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/1082012andprior306.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/1082012andprior277.jpg

This is some serious filth!

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/1082012andprior287.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/1082012andprior280.jpg

Check out the pick marks on the body and green pick residue on the pickguard. I bet this guy did play metal, and he’s right that the pickups are good for that. They don’t sound very “Stratty” but do rock pretty well.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/1082012andprior288.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/1082012andprior313.jpg

All done, with a nice new white Tone knob added. The bar is set to go down but not up. It plays well and stays in tune, but it’s not anything I really love...mostly because it doesn't sound like a Strat. It sounds like a generic electric guitar, and that's okay, but a long-term keeper. It’s next to go on CL when I get around to posting another bunch of odds and ends for trade.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/DSC02151.jpg

[Rob]

On the one hand....well done.

On the other....there's no fucking way I'd spend that much effort on a hundred dollar guitar. Nope.

[matt s]

Yeah, don't know that I would mess with it either, but I can't say you didn't make it look better than it was. Nice job cleaning it up and putting it back together.

Decided to tackle trying to get things right with my Ibanez yesterday. It took a lot of screwing around just to get it to be somewhat close to being in tune and now the claw for the springs is a few turns back from where it was. I expect it to go out of tune as the springs settle after being stretched, but at least I finally did it. It still has a problem with the first three frets being somewhat off (I believe they are flat), but I figured I'd take it one thing at a time given how long I have been sitting on this.

So here's some pics of the guitar in question and a close-up of the lovely bridge from my phone's camera:
205 206

[George]

I love that '80s green above! ^^^

I don't only play $5 and $15 piece-o-crap guitars...sometimes I play oddball 1980s Japanese Fender basses at our regular Sunday afternoon jam sessions. The guy playing bass in the third pic below isn't me, but the first two are. These pictures were taken today.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachments/us-member-clubs/217160d1390793170-colorado-mile-high-tele-club-2014-jam-010-jpg

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachments/us-member-clubs/217156d1390793124-colorado-mile-high-tele-club-2014-jam-002-jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Picture1376_zps12c97f75.jpg

[8400RPM]

Lovin this thread and all your great tips George. I've been playing guitar for the past 25 years or so and started getting more into setups and minor cleaning/repair work the last couple of years so great to get some new ideas. It's fun to find something cheap and and a little banged up on Craigslist and get her back in playing shape.

I had just a couple of guitars for years and then in the last few years I've gone a bit nuts and my stable went up to 19 guitars. I've sold a few and now I'm down to 14 or so I think now. I'll have to post some of 'em up soon.

[Rob]

Candy mint green AND a pink strap? I'm sure there are some laws being broken there.

Interesting looking bass too, what model is it?

[George]

...in the last few years I've gone a bit nuts and my stable went up to 19 guitars. I've sold a few and now I'm down to 14 or so I think now. I'll have to post some of 'em up soon.

Please do! Would love to see them.

Yes, Rob, I was certainly breaking some fashion laws yesterday. I pulled that one out of the case yesterday morning and grabbed a faded old pink suede strap instead of my usual conservative leather. This bass doesn't get out of the house very often since it's in such great shape, so I figured I'd go gaudy.

Sharp-eyed readers might notice red rubber washers used as strap-locks in the pics above Those are from bottles of Grolsch beer and work great to lock straps on, if your strap isn't too thick. There's the handy gear tip of the day.

The bass is a Fender Performer Bass, made in '85 and/or '86 in Japan. There aren't many of them around. I've never seen one in person except for the three I own.

Gran Turismo forum connection: I purchased the Hipshot Bass X-tender (a drop D-tuner on the E string tuner) from Wagsboy's music store.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/IMG_0998_zpsb3fcf2c7.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/IMG_1007_zps0ef381a0.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/IMG_1003_zpsbd021e7b.jpg

I recently found a box of old photos and letters that my wife and I packed up before our move to Colorado in December 2004. I've scanned a few but still have tons left to go though, like this one, from the late '90s doing the "we're serious and wear all black" modern rock thing. These guys made me realize it's much more fun to play music with good friends rather than joining a band just because they played a lot of gigs. I still have this pair of black jeans but am probably too fat for them now. More importantly, this is still my favorite bass since I bought it in 1990. Having a couple of spares is delightful.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/mojo5_zps94f4a9aa.jpg

[Rob]

Slightly dodgy headstock aside, I dig the shape of that bass.

[Random]

Gran Turismo forum connection: I purchased the Hipshot Bass X-tender (a drop D-tuner on the E string tuner) from Wagsboy's music store.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/mojo5_zps94f4a9aa.jpg

Aside from the 80s-tastic "techno" shape and S (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Stuart_Hamm_Kings_of_Sleep.jpg)tu Hamm godliness, (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Stuart_Hamm_Kings_of_Sleep.jpg) the thing I always liked about the Kubicki Ex-Factors was the built in drop-D flipper.
http://www.kubicki.com/images/catolog/exfactorblk.png

[George]

Loved the look of those Kubicki basses in the '80s/'90s. Hardly ever see them these days but the D-tuner design is sheer genius on this instrument. Trivial tidbit: Stu Hamm's signature Fender basses, these had a 32" scale (not counting the extra frets for D# and D.)

I can only remember two other guys who played these. IIRC, one was a muscular guy who wore sleeveless shirts with some '80s power-ballad band and the other was some guy in a local cover band in Charlotte in the early '90s, I think - about the time I was starting to play out in bars on weekends.

They were expensive, too. Don't remember how much but priced like a professional instrument for sure. Had to have run $1000 or more when new.

This is as close as I ever got to that design - not very, but the bridges are similar. This is not my pic but I had one just like this for a while. I remember carrying it behind the bench seat in my little standard-cab pickup truck - a full-size Fender is a big hard case wouldn't fit back there with the seat all the way back. MIK (Made In Korea) Hohner B2 bass, licensed by Steinberger. I remember breaking even on this one - I bought it used and sold it for what I paid.

http://www.soundland.de/catalog/images/products/tn//30050986-1000x1000.jpg

[Random]

Yeah, the slightly shorter scale length is a nice feature for peeps like me with wee little hands. :D ...Another line on the "won the lottery" shopping list. ;)

[Rob]

Teflon or Roller type string trees? I have the vintage bent metal type ones on both guitars with straight headstocks (Tele, ML-1) and the tuning on the tree'd strings is always a bit dicey when bending so am considering upgrades.

[Random]

Just in case anyone besides me was scratching their head about how to hang a headstock-less guitar like the Ex-Factor on the wall:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Guitar-Hanger-Wall-Mount-Display-for-Parker-Fly-guitars-FREE-SHIPPING-/171225330551?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item27ddd33377

[George]

Teflon or Roller type string trees? I have the vintage bent metal type ones on both guitars with straight headstocks (Tele, ML-1) and the tuning on the tree'd strings is always a bit dicey when bending so am considering upgrades.

I think your strings are binding in the nut slots, not at the trees, but I guess anything is possible. The guys in the B-Bender subforum at the Telecaster page talk about lubrication, however. Some guys use Big Bends Nut Sauce at the saddle, nut, and tree. Others use graphite from a pencil and others use Chap-Stick applied with a toothpick. I’m sure there’s a variety of other home remedies too.

I don’t do any of that but that’s not because I disagree; it’s just that I haven’t had a problem with this that was so bad I had to start trying stuff to fix it. But I maintain that your nut slots not being perfectly smooth and the right size for your string gauges could be the culprit.

Speaking of string trees and choosing them, I had never given much thought to string tree height in the past. I usually use whatever string tree(s) come with a neck and don’t worry about it, but I recently bought the neck from a Fender Baritone Tele and it came without tuners or a string tree. I read some reviews of the guitar the neck came from and some complained that the string tree – the vintage bent metal type – was screwed down flat against the headstock with no spacer underneath so the two highest strings were pulled down too far, which created sharp break angles, tuning problems, and looked bad, too.

I used a Fender American Standard string tree (and tuners) which left the strings up high and also have the smallest possible contact area with the string. These trees have a pin or a peg on the bottom that fits into a tiny hole in the American Standard headstocks to keep the trees from turning. As this headstock didn’t have that hole (and I surely wasn’t going to drill one), I filed the peg off the bottom quite easily with a file while holding it in pliers, and then smoothed it off with fine sandpaper so it wouldn’t scratch the headstock on this like-new-condition neck.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Baritone_tuners_zps3da80f8a.jpg

But the most “stay-in-tune” guitar I own is my main Tele with the early-style round string tree. The strings ride in two channels the length of their path across the circle (a “chord” I believe, in geometry?) so they’re rubbing the whole distance, as compared to the just-barely-touching AmStd tree pictured above. This is the neck I had the bone nut made for. I’m a country-style bendin’ fool and it stays in tune.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/JDHeadstock_zps571622fe.jpg

[Rob]

I lube the bind points with petroleum jelly. Graphite didn't do shit. My SG has a minor nut bind on the g and b strings and makes the telltale clink noise on tuning but the other two are silent, just sketchy after bends.

[George]

For Rob & Random, from the Rocksmith thread recently, and on craigslist in Denver today:

8 String Guitar - Jackson Dinky Beautiful! - $349 (http://denver.craigslist.org/msg/4277231515.html)

http://images.craigslist.org/00f0f_5RUdlWMLktw_600x450.jpg

And something I've had my eye on for a while, but can't really justify unless I sell some other guitars and parts. You guys get it, I'm sure, but I've had people say, "Wait, you buy necks and bodies separately? How does that work?"

This is only a fair deal, IMO - nothing wrong with that - but not a smokin' hot, unbelievably cheap deal or I'd have it already.

Genuine Fender Telecaster Body (2012) in Olympic White - $160 (http://denver.craigslist.org/msg/4317173596.html)

http://images.craigslist.org/00404_5i2MASL47sZ_600x450.jpg

[George]

I recently found a box of old photos and letters that my wife and I packed up before our move to Colorado in December 2004. I've scanned a few but still have tons left to go though

Still finding some interesting (to me) guitar-related stuff. This was my bass rig in the mid '90s when I had a most excellent '80s-style rack, a fretless, and an acoustic bass. HAD to have an acoustic at the height of MTV Unplugged! Later I got down to a more reasonable 4-space rack pictured below. Cabinets were a 2x10 and a 1x18. Later I found just the 2x10 alone was more than enough for most places but back then louder was better.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/PIC00006_zps283e5bcf.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/bassamprack_zps07377fab.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/craigslist/Tidyrackwiring.jpg

Rack bag:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/craigslist/DSC01683.jpg

Here's the same bass stack used as a table in my basement guitar room, before I installed shelves on the walls. I did build that shelf that the amps are on, though. Was (and still am) pretty proud of that. I made it wide enough for rack gear and tall enough to hold the smaller amps I had at the time.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/basement2_zps1c789245.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/ampshelf_zps0b6a3ae0.jpg?549

Above I have a Hafler T2 tube preamp going into a 1980 Fender Champ 6-watt tube amp. I could plug into the amp directly for clean but plugging into the preamp first gave me two channels of gain, from a little to the crunch of the metal godz and that violin-like single note sustain. Not my thing, usually, but fun sometimes.

Below I was using a Crate Power Block amp and two rear speakers from a home theatre setup as my monitors for recording. High-teck redneck, that's me.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/basement1_zps5feb0d9a.jpg

The cinderblock wall in the first pic above reminds me of where that pic was taken. I was in a cover band for five or six years with the same bunch of guys. The singer (now my brother-in-law, but that's another story) worked in a office/warehouse building. They had about 100 employees but he was one of the first four or five guys had been there since the business started, so he commandeered an empty, locking storage closet for us to stash our gear.

There was room for my bass stack, two Marshall half-stacks, our PA (for vocals only, with amps like that!), and the drummer's kit. We rehearsed/jammed twice a week in the evenings when the business was closed. We never left any guitars there, but I think the day of this picture I took all my basses (at the time) over for a family photo (with a film camera, of course).

In hot weather, we'd roll up all the garage doors in the warehouse, turn on giant cooling fans, and blast rock music out into the parking lot. Sometimes friends would come by and hang out for a while. It was a nicer practice place than most bands could dream of. We were VERY lucky.

My buddy Dave mugging for the camera in the warehouse. In the foreground, you can see our singer's Music Stand Of Shame. We used to tease him that real singers don't need the lyrics written down! (he didn't use it at gigs, of course)

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/dave_zps8a858159.jpg

Jam session long ago, back in NC. Probably early 2000s. Me on bass.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/jammin2_zps2a3eead6.jpg

And in the other room.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/kitchencrowd1_zpsaefed8cb.jpg

Note Djembe player drinking beer above takes shirt off below. Party foul!

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/jammin5_zps07aa5f17.jpg

In that pic above, my Carvin 2x10 bass cab was sitting on top of a Fender Hot Rod Deville, I think - a 4x10 combo with way too much power for this house! I remember the guy who owned it, Chad, had the first looper pedal I had ever seen and he would do some solo stuff while the rest of us were on break that was pretty cool. I didn't get a looper for many more years but am glad I finally did to mess around with at home.

Finally, a shirted drummer appears. There was a guy (the host) playing the kit too.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/jamminwsean_zpsc8f04822.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/jammin1_zps1e5b8153.jpg

That jam session went on for at least two years before I moved away. It was a pretty regular Thursday night jam and different combinations of guys would show up and we played everything from grunge rock to Grateful Dead jams to jazz (well, some of the guys played jazz and some of us fumbled through it pretty badly). How the neighbors never called the cops was beyond me. It was loud and the house reeked of, well, you can guess with that many musicians around. The best excuse for not making it on any given Thursday, and I was proud at the time to be able to use this several times, was, "Sorry, can't make it. Have a gig tonight with my band." It was a great melting pot of local musicians, from cover band guys to serious jazzers to hippie jammers and I almost forgot...there was a keg-er-ator in a closet out back and the host was a bit of a beer snob, so it was always something exotic instead of Busch or whatever was cheap.

Hope you guys don't mind my strolls down memory lane in here. I might not have done this had Random not made it MY thread!

[George]

Another view of my basement guitar room. Here I'm up to two shelves, but the dreaded guest bed is now in this room. We were either new parents or soon to be because we changed our upstairs guest room to the kids' nursery and the bed stole what had been a great jam room. I'd rather have a drum kit and a Hammond than a bed in there!

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Basementsetup.jpg

My first "parts-caster" Telecaster in 1999, I think. MIJ JD Tele neck (same one I still use), MIM Standard Tele body, mint green pickguard from Stew-Mac, '52 Reissue bridge, stock MIM Standard Tele pickups at this point, I think, and I might have had a four-way-switch by then.

Looks like at this point I hadn't yet discovered my super-secret tone mod for Teles - using a Strat switch tip!

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/10-1-2005-16_zpsa7c8d688.jpg

Groovy allen-head machine bolts go into threaded inserts in the neck for maximum swapability!

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Allenheadneckbolts2_zpsd81db8c8.jpg

Same sunburst body with a different neck and set up as an Esquire - one bridge pickup, volume, tone, and a 3-way switch with the "Eldred Mod", which gives a "quack tone" in the forward position, instead of the "preset bassy setting" that Leo Fender thought would let Esquire players cover bass lines and the "deep rhythm" style of the early 50s.

The other is a MIM Standard Strat with a Chandler Tele neck. I ended up selling the body to a friend and he bought a Strat neck on eBay for it.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/EsquireampStrat_zps4aa73c8d.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/ChandlerneckonaStrat_zps56bd9f80.jpg

The one on the floor is the JD neck on an ash MIM Nashville Telecaster body. It's called a Nashville Tele because it comes with three pickups instead of two and therefore has a "swimming pool" route under the pickguard so one can install extra pickups, two humbuckers, or whatever else will fit. The extra wire coming from the neck pickup shows this had a four-way switch at the time.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/untitled.jpg

Holy neck and pickguard swaps, GuitarMan! Now the Esquire has a rosewood neck and black pickguard.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/rosewoodboardEsquire2.jpg

Nashville with Hipshot B-Bender and Yamaha 12-string

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/IMG_2883_zpsd3e43619.jpg

12-string looks black in that photo but is actually translucent blue.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/IMG_2879_zpsb0fde8ae.jpg

JD neck on black Thinline body and Nashville body now has a baritone neck with a 27" scale, tuned B to B.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Bend_amp_Clank_zps11bbbb5e.jpg

Jam session in Loveland Colorado in around 2011. I'm not in this picture, but my bass is.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC01287.jpg

My friend Wayne, now deceased.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/StudioPlayer1.png

[Random]

:toast:

[George]

I gave my son his first impromptu guitar lesson last night when he came down to the basement and asked to play.

I tuned the First Act to Open D tuning so he could strum a chord without having to fret any notes, and he could make different chords by barring across all strings at any fret.

Here you can see him playing with his thumb over the top like Richie Havens.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC03425_zps939d1018.jpg

He found the volume knob right away...and the one on the amp too.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC03426_zps2c2f70e2.jpg

Then we worked on other fundamentals, such as the Pete Townshend windmill...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC03418_zps9c68ba5a.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC03417_zpsbca9063b.jpg

...and the Chuck Berry duckwalk.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC03419_zps7b5aecba.jpg

Glad he has shown an interest. The last time he was about three years old and obviously not ready yet. There's another story there I might show & tell sometime.

[lostnight]

He I am rockin' out,lol. Holy fat face! Got me motivated to start going back to the gym.:eek:
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n174/lostnight/5302853a-ff6f-4f17-9ae0-5a52720a7356.jpg (http://s112.photobucket.com/user/lostnight/media/5302853a-ff6f-4f17-9ae0-5a52720a7356.jpg.html)

[FaultyMario]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t1/1620642_784560551572910_1050798304_n.jpg

[George]

I bet this guy's wife was pretty angry when she got home from a weekend away.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll92/IPLAYLOUDGUITARS/TeleTable_zps8204e6fd.jpg

[Tom Servo]

299So, this is my new one. Got it on clearance as it was missing a tone knob, just slapped an extra volume one on there. Not sure it's the most amazing guitar, but it sure seems to play better than my old bullet squier.

[Rob]

Epi Les Pauls aren't bad. They vary in quality year on year, it seems... But never seem to be bad.

Keith Oh just spent a bunch of dollars almost completely remanufacturing his late 90s sunburst model.

[Tom Servo]

I had a ton of people recommend the LP-100. Ended up going for a bit fancier one. So far, happy with it.

[Yw-slayer]

I HAVE A GIBSON LES PAUL* MY STANDPOINT IS ABOVE YOU

















* - Les Paul Studio trollolololololol

[George]

Great guitar, Tom. Congrats. Epi LPs are AWESOME VALUE! I like the silver hardware too. I see a lot of Epis with gold hardware. My experience with gold hardware is the gold tends to rub off in places (tuning machine heads, top of pickups - parts you touch) and it gets old and dirty-looking. Silver hardware can tarnish too but it takes a long time and it doesn't change color.

(We have that same lamp, too - four square/cubical frosted glass uh..."bulb covering things", right? They're not really lampshades but they kinda do the same thing)

Going to a jam this afternoon. Will probably snap a couple of pictures and post them here later.

[Tom Servo]

Hah, yep, that lamp gets almost horrifically bright if we let it.

[George]

Foot dimmer switch, right?

Wait...we cannot be talking about home furnishings in a guitar thread! It's a rule or something, I'm sure.


Got it on clearance as it was missing a tone knob, just slapped an extra volume one on there.

Tone/Volume Knob story #1 of 2:

In an old guitar magazine interview I read long ago, Eddie Van Halen, the pioneer of the one knob/one pickup setup in the rock world, said something like this...not an exact quote, of course, but from the best of my memory: "Yeah, there's a volume knob and that's all. But the knob says TONE, because when I turn it up, I get great tone."

[Tom Servo]

Yep, foot dimmer switch, and now we can stop talking about the lamp ;)

I guess the strings that were on the guitar were very old. After playing for a bit, my fingers were black. I put new strings on the next day, and holy crap...I know it's not the most amazing guitar ever, but it sounds so much better than my old one. The tuners feel so much nicer too, and it holds the tune so much better. Happy with my upgrade.

[Rob]

Try GHS Fast Fret. I've been using it for 9 months or so now and it dramatically lengthens the lifespan of your strings and makes even the shittiest old wires feel slick and new.

It's basically just a light mineral oil in a convenient applicator.

[Tom Servo]

Hell, right now I'm just looking forward to my strings lasting more than a few weeks without breaking.

[George]

I'm an official Fast Fret Scoffer, but I know lots of guys who swear by it.

No pics of yetserday's jam were taken but karma or pay-it-forward or clean livin' or whatever you want to call it reared its head after the jam. I brought a pickguard for a Nashville Tele (3-pickup model) that I got in some long-ago trade. I gave it to a guy who has a Nashville already, but with a pickguard of a different color so he can play "dress up" with his guitar if he ever wants to. I figured it was more fun to give it away than to put it on craigslist for $10 or $15 and hope. It's somewhat of an obscure thing to sell on CL.

Our host overheard this and complained about a Squier Strat neck he had replaced with a Warmoth neck. He said he's had it on CL for a month at $50 and had no takers, so he gave it to me. Very cool, and he'll get something from me in return. Don't know what yet, but something for sure. It's Made in Indonesia and seems okay...especially for the price!

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC03450_zpsed705111.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC03455_zpsf0516c29.jpg

[Rob]

I'm an official Fast Fret Scoffer, but I know lots of guys who swear by it.

That'll likely be the dudes with a mild nickel allergy like I seem to have. Before using FF I'd get redness and weird tiny air-blisters on my fingertips if I played for any substantial period. I'd either have to keep my hours down or play intermittently to give my fingers a chance to recover. Being oil, FF pretty much insulates my skin from the string to the point where I'm no longer getting a reaction. The slick feeling and string life is a bonus.

[George]

The guy wearing a Who shirt in the pic I posted earlier used to pull out a can of FF, slather it all over his strings and then toss it over to the other guitarist who'd do that same on his Jackson. I used to tease them about having to lube up to play music, but if it works, it works.

I'm glad to have a new project brewing with that Strat neck. I'm thinking pink for my daughter, like maybe this:

http://www.themusiczoo.com/images/4-21-11/Fender_Custom_Shop_60_Stratocaster_CC_Shell_Pink_R 58531_1.jpg

This wouldn't be a deal like, "Look, honey. Daddy built you a guitar."

No. We would just happen to have a pink Strat in the house, should she ever get interested.

Or, I might just grab whatever's cheap on craigslist. Here's one that's up today, but IMO this is a $35 body maybe - not a $70 one.

I'll be watching CL for sure.

Antique white strat guitar body - $70 (http://denver.craigslist.org/msg/4334341649.html)

http://images.craigslist.org/00p0p_jiArvq2kXe0_600x450.jpg

[George]

Purchased at Guitar Center on my lunch break today: tuning machines for the Strat neck, and a neck plate and neck bolts. I'll bring you guys along on this build with pics if you like.

Was tempted at first when I saw this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2005-FENDER-SQUIER-STANDARD-STRAT-COMPLETE-LOADED-BODY-SIENNA-CHERRY-BURST-/201044158210?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item2ecf2a6702#ht_629wt_918

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/ODY4WDcwMA==/z/4ywAAOxyGwNTD7~k/$_57.JPG

Check this out - screwdriver access holes to adjust the claw without removing the back plate. Genius!

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTU4WDY2OA==/z/W9cAAOxy4fVTD7~p/$_57.JPG

For all I know, they're all like that now, but I don't obsessively follow new Stratocaster technology.

Groovy pickguard below!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pickguard-4-Fender-Strat-Stratocaster-Little-Green-Men/320824820228?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.RVI%26ao%3D1%2 6asc%3D20131017132637%26meid%3D5163757045915040003 %26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D20131017132637%26rk%3D3%26 rkt%3D4%26sd%3D251442722135#ht_2176wt_681

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MzMwWDQzMg==/$(KGrHqF,!p8E63ZwgZ(3BPBl0!qC9g~~60_12.JPG

Oooh, I'd love to do something like this, with matching pickup covers! Incredible.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pickup-Toppers-4-Greasy-Groove-Graphic-Strat-Pickguards-/220926713228?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item3370421d8c#ht_2198wt_702

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTExWDU3Ng==/$(KGrHqF,!jEE7b0yUywsBPBlzfP4(g~~60_3.JPG

[matt s]

Those pickguards remind me of old pinball machines for some reason.

[George]

There's a pinball pickguard too...just the thing for playing Pinball Wizard by The Who.

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MzMwWDQzMg==/$(KGrHqR,!lgE7HCkP)rrBPBmJtUbw!~~60_12.JPG

Someone should make one that lights up and blinks while you play.

[George]

Up early this Sunday morning and cleaning up our "multi-purpose" room in the basement. I like to think of it as my music room, but it's also our guest room and the room that tends to collect clutter, too. I was organizing my guitar gear and just lined up some stuff here up to see what fits - surely not a permanent guitar even if I ever assemble it like this, but a fun possibility.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC03464_zps83338c85.jpg

That's a black double-bound Tele body of unknown manufacture; definitely not Fender or Squier. I've had it a couple/few years now, I guess. Fender Esquire pickguard, gold control plate (was a freebie; I generally don't go for gold hardware), a Fender Telecaster bridge cover, and the new-to-me Squier Stratocaster neck.

[George]

I don't know which is the worst here - the price, the pics, or the description, but they all add up to one funny and sad CL ad.

Squier Stratocaster ORIGINAL COUNTOUR BODY - $800 (http://denver.craigslist.org/msg/4338190723.html)

Selling my Squier Stratocaster ORIGINAL CONTOUR BODY Electric Guitar!!!
They don't make these anymore.

http://images.craigslist.org/00101_3Ib02uxxOjf_600x450.jpg
http://images.craigslist.org/00n0n_j0bTvs3kYO_600x450.jpg

[George]

How about this:

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTExWDU3Ng==/$(KGrHqF,!jEE7b0yUywsBPBlzfP4(g~~60_3.JPG

Plus THIS!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2013-Fender-Standard-SWIRL-Stratocaster-BODY-HARDWARE-Strat-Marbled-Blue-/191031587624?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item2c7a5eb328#ht_1952wt_986

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzY4WDEwMjQ=/z/LHcAAOxycmBS0D9N/$_57.JPG

[FaultyMario]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Robert_Fripp.jpg


I love the glowing TCs in this photo. That is all.

[George]

On the way to me for the princely sum of $20 (including shipping) from an internet guitar forum, for use with the free Squier Strat neck I have:


The body is actually nice IMHO, not ugly at all. Straight forward strat copy, the finish is good. I'm pretty sure Fender/Squier parts will fit. I placed a MIM pickguard over it and almost all of the holes lined up. There is also most of the trem bridge on it, missing only the six screws and one saddle spring.

Heck, if they're that easy to come by (and apparently they are), I think I'll swap out the ugly and beat-up heavy black body on this one, eventually.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Squier%20Strat/DSC02151.jpg

And there's hours...well, maybe minutes of entertainment here:

Stratocaster pickguard chooser Flash thingy (http://www.greasygroove.com/Strat%20PGuard%20Flash/Strat%20PGuard%20Flash.swf)

[Rob]

Black strat? Mirror pickguard.

I tried a Tele with the ashtray bridge cover once and hated it. I never realised just how much I use my right palm for controlling the strings until it was taken away from me.

Got an email from UPS last night. My ML7-T will be here Monday. I took the day off work. Then it's Drop A riffing all day.

Thinking of splashing out on some Seymour Duncan Black Winters for it...

[George]

Black strat? Mirror pickguard.

Eww. No. Better solution: get rid of black Strat. They keep haunting me with their incredible availability but I shall have no more! No longer will I stumble through life being handed practically free Strats because guys like Tom Servo have seen the light and moved to Les Pauls or Telecasters.

Ah, but then again...along the lines of French guy in an early Simpsons episode saying "my children need wine"...my children need guitars, don't they?


I tried a Tele with the ashtray bridge cover once and hated it. I never realised just how much I use my right palm for controlling the strings until it was taken away from me.

Got an email from UPS last night. My ML7-T will be here Monday. I took the day off work. Then it's Drop A riffing all day.

Rob, you inspired me to pull out my 27" scale Baritone Telecaster with ashtray bridge cover and do some Drop B riffing this morning. Note the bridge cover is on the amp where it belongs instead of on the guitar. Indulge us with a picture of your new beast when it arrives if you please.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Picture1495_zpsbd9955c1.jpg

That red pedal is a Boss RC-2 Loop Station - a band in a box if ever there was one. Everyone reading this has a looper by now, right? If not, you need one. The amp is a 1982 (I think) Peavey Special 130. Like all Made In Mississippi Peavey amps, I'm certain it will outlast me and probably my children too. It's solid state and has headroom like a bass amp. It's a good companion for a twangy Tele on the bridge pickup, picked hard back by the bridge - can't do that with the ashtray cover on, for sure.

It's impossible to say this without sounding boastful, but I had to go looking for the baritone this morning. It wasn't where I expected it to be (in a bass gig bag) but along the way I found this old friend. I have a couple "case queens" that are safely stashed away for years at a time. They're not particularly valuable but are fairly rare. This is one. Note this thread displayed on iPad on floor, just because I'm an ultra-nerd.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/Picture1492_zpsf143b06a.jpg


Thinking of splashing out on some Seymour Duncan Black Winters for it...

The true guitar connoisseur has modifications planned for the next guitar before it has even arrived. :D

[George]

Late-breaking spy photos of the current Strat contingent from George's Man Cave.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC03493_zps4239b447.jpg

If that shows up upside down, I don't know what to say. I shot it normally but Photobucket likes to randomly rotate my pics and ignore what I do in Edit - Rotate - Save And Replace Original.

What color pickguard do you guys like on a Refrigerator White body with a medium-darkness rosewood fingerboard and slightly yellowish tint on the maple headstock and back of the neck?

While I like those '50s Sci-Fi ones, I don't think they'll work as well on a white-as-an-appliance body.

[Rob]

This extra scale, width and string are making me feel all ham-fisted and clumsy. I'm having to think through chord shapes and mentally transpose them every time. It's like relearning from scratch....

[George]

I had the same deal with mental transposing on-the-fly with my B-B baritone. Seems like the same instrument, but almost isn't.

How 'bout you relearn from scratch how to use your camera and show us what's making your brain hurt and your fingers not work like they used to? :D

[Conman]

That Peavey amp is awesome, made in an era when Peavey was really a Mississippi company. One of the more under rated amp companies out there IMO.

[George]

Yep. Everyone knows someone with a story of a Peavey amp that fell out of a tour van and tumbled down the highway but still worked at the gig that night, and still works today. They have always been a great value for the money, and especially now when a 30+ year old large SS amp is worth almost nothing to most guitarists who insist on tube amps on stage. The problem is these work so well that you almost can't afford not to keep one around the house in case a friend drops by or if your tube amp is in the shop and you get called to come jam or sub at a gig. A lot of amp snobs look down their noses at Peavey gear but I was in the right place at the right time to grab this one and I have no regrets.

That said, I've come this close to putting it on CL for $150 and seeing what happens, especially when something else has caught my eye and I'm scrounging in the couch cushions for spare change to fund my guitar habit, but I've always thought better of it. It can do loud very well but the neat thing is it also sounds fine turned way, way down at home at what I think of as "TV-watching volume" or even less. Not all tube amps can do loud and quiet well - my Hot Rod Deluxe can do it but just barely - that one has a hair-trigger volume knob that goes from silent to waking the neighbors two blocks away with the tiniest pressure. From 2 to 10 on the volume dial there's not a lot of increase (that the human ear can withstand, anway) but from 0 to 2 is the difference between a picnic at a quiet lake vs. a monster truck rally in an indoor stadium.

My wife was asleep upstairs when I was playing the baritone the early weekend morning when I snapped that pic, if that gives you any idea of quiet. I wasn't wearing headphones.

But because I've often thought of dumping this amp, I have craigslist-ready pics in my Photobucket. Here she is. A previous owner installed the Fender speaker (for better clean tones, he claimed) and I fabricated and installed the back covers since the originals disappeared long ago, I assume. I also cleaned out the dust and crud and old spider webs that are always found in old amps. It looks perfect except for some honest tarnish on metal hardware and the missing bottom of the Y in the Peavey logo.

That's the original (or at least an original) footswitch to change from clean to lead channel and to turn the very nice spring reverb on and off. The lead channel has a parametric EQ and an okay overdrive tone, I suppose. I don't use the lead channel much so I haven't heard what it can do in a long time.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/craigslist/IMG_3854.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/craigslist/IMG_3857.jpg

Later I'll show you guys my awesome custom amp cover that I use to keep it the dust off it and my childrens' hands off the controls. It's the grooviest!

Edited to add: I've been on the internet for guitar-related interests since Compuserve was the hip new thing and AOL 3.5" floppies were starting to appear in everyone's snailmail boxes. In that time I have read countless testimonials from guys who say they needed a part for a Peavey product, like maybe a knob that fell off or a schematic for a local tech to do a tune-up or whatever. The common story is they called Peavey down in Meridian MS and got a live human on the phone who was more than happy to put whatever was needed into that afternoon's mail at no charge.

Apparently Hartley Peavey was a huge Leo Fender fan and built his products and company in a similar way. I read an interview with him in a magazine once in which he said something like this - obviously not an exact quote but what I remember:

"My biggest mistake was charging a fair price for our products instaead of the higher prices Fender and others wer charging. I think that made people think of them as cheap instead of good. But you can see what working musicians think of our gear; just look on any stage."

Apparently Hurrican Katrina did a number on the Peavey factory and now a lot of their stuff is made in China. I don't know that I'd be nearly as interested in a Chinese Peavey anything, but their old Made In America stuff will be around for a very long time.

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAy/$(KGrHqJ,!qgF!KzLg1MPBQP8R67eew~~60_57.JPG

[George]

My cousin in the Coast Guard (stationed in Florida) spent the night at our house last night. He's out here soaking up the best skiing of the year in late March/early April as he has been doing for a few years now.

We played some guitar last night. Fun stuff.

And right now I'm waiting to hear back from this craigslist seller to finish up the white Parts-o-caster.

Even the cheapest single pickups cost $25 each. This is a smokin' deal considering all these parts for $25, and they appear factory soldered. Often guys just unsolder the two wires that go to the jack and the ground and remove the whole assembly intact. That will save me a bunch of time, and I can always put in some better pickups later.

Fender MIM Stratocaster Loaded Pick-Guard vintage coloring - $25 (http://denver.craigslist.org/msg/4377534520.html)

http://images.craigslist.org/00i0i_1J88QgIhR4a_600x450.jpg

By comparison, I could pay two hundred dollars more, and I might if I were building myself a Really Nice Guitar as I've done before but this one is going to be an "Extra Strat? Yeah, I have one around here somewhere..." and/or another guitar for my kids.

Rio Grande Pickguard Assembly - $225 (http://denver.craigslist.org/msg/4397857755.html)

http://images.craigslist.org/00W0W_c2sZonQj5xU_600x450.jpg

I also have one of these on the shelf ready to drop in:

http://www.guitarfetish.com/105mm-Chrome-Spaced-Import-Made-in-Mexico-BRASS-BLOCK_p_1158.html

http://www.guitarfetish.com/assets/images/products/tremolos/D74.jpg

I also have a set of these ready to go...

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Fender-Vintage-Style-Strat-Tele-Machine-Heads-Set-of-6-100213740-i1130084.gc

http://images.guitarcenter.com/products/optionLarge/Fender/DV016_Jpg_Large_361332.jpg

I think I have everything else:

Neck
Nut
String Tree (think I'll file down the peg from the bottom of a Fender American Standard Strat/Tele as I explained here earlier)
Strings
Neck screws & "F" neck plate
Strap button & screws
Pickguard screws
Jack & jack plate

That should be it, except for some Mojo. Then I'll be able to do like this guy. If you guys every get bored and want to laugh your ass off while hearing tremendous riffage and crazy singing, check out Phil X doing used gear demos on YouTube.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEfjb2DCoXY

[George]

Saturday morning guitar update: I missed the MIM Strat pickguard assembly I posted above. Clever seller - I sent a second request email this morning and a few minutes later the ad was gone. Okay, I got the message, and that's probably how I would have handled it too, had I forgotten to remove the ad.

I have readjusted my sights to the black loaded pickguard in the middle of the table in this ad. All this crap looks a lot like the stuff I have. Would love to pick through this pile. Email sent!

Misc Guitar Gear (http://denver.craigslist.org/msg/4380124172.html)

http://images.craigslist.org/00N0N_ahIJnF1zSp6_600x450.jpg

[George]

Well, the folks with the ad above haven't bothered to answer me yet, so I'll take that as a sign that I should get some decent pickups for the white Strat instead of someone else's cheap cast-offs.

I also think, after reading the ad again, that they want to sell all that stuff as a lot and don't want to let people pick out the good stuff and leave them with the junk no one wants.

I installed new Fender tuners - good quality ones that should last me forever and can be moved to different necks - on the Squier neck this weekened. I didn't think I'd have time but my son had a friend over and they were playing in the living room for a couple hours, while my wife and daughter were out doing girl stuff. I needed to stay nearby, yet out of the way, so I grabbed my stuff from the basement and did some guitar work while keeping an eye or at least and ear on the boys from the kitchen.

The size of the tuner holes drilled in various factories around the world can vary slightly, as can tuners of different types and brands. I needed to enlarge these holes just slightly to be able to install the bushings, which are a tight fit even when you have properly matching pieces. I reamed out the holes slightly using a reamer recommended on a guitar forum - a General # 130 available at my local hardware store.

Sorry if a couple of the pics above show upside down. Photobucket likes to rotate my photos for some reason and then ignores what I do in Edit / Rotate / Save and Replace Original. Or maybe it just takes a while; I don't know. Sometimes I attempt to fix them and it doesn't work until a day or two later. Oh well, like craigslist, it may be imperfect but it is free so I'm not complaining (much).

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC03535_zpsdc5f7ef7.jpg

Installed bushings:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC03537_zps4fba24db.jpg

And installed tuners. Didn't get to the string tree yesterday but that's easy enough whenever I get around to it.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC03539_zps8d109d57.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC03540_zps6496ff94.jpg

[George]

Saw this neat little amp on CL today. It's too far away and I'm saving my fun money for Strat parts, but it's an awesome deal for $25.

If any of you guys are into playing "clean" electric guitar, you can do a lot worse than a solid-state Fender or similar amp with spring reverb. Aux-in jacks and headphone out are nice to have around the house as well. If nothing else, you can haul it out to the garage or back yard and plug a mp3 player into it - instant stereo system wherever you can run an extension cord.

Sweet little practice amp - INEXPENSIVE - $25 (http://denver.craigslist.org/msg/4425517991.html)

http://images.craigslist.org/00W0W_2O9kAEBB8k0_600x450.jpg

Another favorite is the Princeton 65 - these things sound great clean, or with non-OD pedals, like tremolo, delay, slap-back, etc. A friend has one of these and it sounds gorgeous on a single-coil neck pickup. He just walks in to the jam and sets down this tiny but LOUD amp with no pedals and sounds fantastic.

http://www.sanyo-densi.com/dai2/fender_princeton65_001.jpg

Considering buying some GFS lipstick pickups like this cat has. Come to think of it, this is what my white Strat could look like when finished.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2wSxycu1c4

[lostnight]

It sounded clean and nice, I'm more into dirty. My Peavey Vypyr 3 has some good clean settings. It's way more amp than I need, I barely touch the volume knob is it goes from quiet to loud in a big hurry. 25% volume would likely get people complaining I think. It does have a wide range of effects and styles, including some good metal, but I can't quite get it to cross over completely to the dark side with my Epiphone, not that I spend a ton of time there but I find it fun to screw around there for a while.

So I was going to ask you if I should pop for a cheap death metal guitar like a BC Rich Warlock, or instead buy a pedal. But I did youtube research and found my answer. Just ordered a Digitech Metal Master pedal and a 9v adaptor.

[George]

They keep haunting me with their incredible availability but I shall have no more! No longer will I stumble through life being handed practically free Strats...

Went to a jam yesterday and brought home another free Strat body. This one is homemade and painted candy apple red - a real candy apple red with a glittery base coat under the red. The guy who built this builds Fender style guitars from scratch and gave me this with the condition that I wouldn't say who made it because it's one of his first efforts and not quite perfect, yet ideal for a guy like me to use for a fun, low-budget Strat.

I need to break out the soldering iron and finally finish a Strat or two one of these days.

What are the other guitarists around here up to?

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/craigslistuser/DSC03825_zps567d7b1e.jpg

[George]

I like this, found around the web...

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h156/tvvoodoo/psychocaster/backplate_zps538b13ad.jpg

[George]

I really, REALLY want one of these. They have just gone into production, apparently, and look like they'll run around $220 at first. I'll grab one someday when the price comes down, and/or when they're available used.

(Meanwhile, I cheerfully accept donations)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98u-MDTKAWU&feature=player_embedded

[George]

Congrats to Tom Servo for getting his own signature model - the Servo Bender:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSQ9Dg65EFo


here is an album of the build with more info if anyone is interested http://imgur.com/a/a0ZlW

[shakes]

I knew we had a guitar thread going....

I had originally planned on spending part of my income tax refund on something else, but I decided to pick up one of these instead http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/line-6-amplifi-150-150w-modeling-guitar-amp I've wanted to replace my current amp for a long time and finally I pulled the trigger. You can link it via bluetooth to an Apple or Android device and with the app on your device create almost any sound you want. Basically, your tablet becomes a rack mount effects processor. You can also jam along with any mp3s you've got, through the amp. It'll even reccommend what effects to use based on the track you're listening to. Its not quite the same as messing around with a big long chain of foot pedals, but it's a hell of a lot more cost-effective and way easier to transport.

[George]

Very cool, shakes! That thing looks nice enough to put in the living room with the good furniture. :up:

And it looks like it could also be a home stereo to stream tunes via bluetooth when you're not playing guitar through it.

I need to learn more, as something like this could be a problem-solver for me in a couple of ways. Thanks for posting about this.

[shakes]

A number of the reviews I read were by people who were buying it to use as a bluetooth speaker first and an amp second. I don't know if its good enough to replace a stereo, but its definitely going to sound way nicer and way louder than any of the other portable bluetooth speakers I've seen.

[Random]

A friend of mine tests out a $299 "Sterling by Music Man SUB Ray4" 4-string bass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtHiltZH6a4

[George]

Hey, how'd I miss this thread getting bumped up top?

^^ He's made an appearance here before, right? He's quite the player.

"Cheap" guitars (and basses, of course) just seem to be getting better and better.

I should probably post an update or two about my guitar-related foolishness since I last posted in here, but I think I stopped when it seemed like all I was doing was bragging about my many cheap-ass guitars, and nobody wants to read that...not even me.

Bicycles and Grand Theft Auto V have taken a toll on the time I spend playing and messing with guitars, but they haven't entirely eliminated the enjoyment I get from making music - at least not yet.

[Random]

Yeah, I think I bragged on his "homebuilt" (from parts) bass previously. :)

He's one of those people that just gets​ music.

[George]

Is anyone here using GarageBand for home recording?

I know there's a ton of info on the web about it, but just wondering if any of you guys whom I know and whose opinions I trust and enjoy had any comments, pro or con.

I have GB on iPad, but it seems like more like a little entertainment toy sort of thing than an actual way to record multi-track songs, as compared to an iMac with a big screen and lots of USB ports to plug stuff into. My bank account is wincing at the thought of it, but from watching a bunch of GB videos on YT today, I'm starting to think an iMac might be a great, if shockingly expensive, purchase for me (and our kids with regard to their musical development...but mostly me, to be honest).

[George]

Another quick point: those who care know that there's a "Fender sound" and a "Gibson sound" with regard to electric guitars. Sure, there's a lot of overlap between the two, but as a generality, that's a true statement. I, obviously to anyone who has read this thread, love Fender-style guitars and enjoy humorously poking fun at crappy old Gibsons in a friendly Ford vs. Chevy kind of way.

Fans of that Fender sound, step this way please, for all your music streaming needs: www.surfrockradio.com I've been playing that a lot in my office at work lately and has me reaching for a guitar when I get home from work more than I used to, when time allows.

If you don't immediately hear what I mean when you first tune in, give it some time. Right now (Saturday afternoon/evening), for example, they seem to be playing a bunch of '50s doo-wop that isn't representative of the surf/spy/space instrumentals they usually play.

[George]

Guitarist roll call! Who is still pickin' & grinnin'?

I've been drawn back to music by our kids. One is taking drum lessons and loves AC/DC (Marvel movies had a lot to do with that, I think). The other plays clarinet in the school band and is very interested in guitar. So far she knows the names of all the strings and a handful of chords. The last time we sat down to play we worked on movable E and A-shaped barre chords. From clarinet, she knows some theory, such as how there are no half-steps between B & C and E & F. Stuff like that helps.

I've been going through and cleaning out a bunch of stuff I've had stored away for years in the basement. Found some cool stuff I haven't seen in a long time and and have gotten rid of some other stuff, including giving a Strat-style body and a Telecaster-type body to my local thrift/charity store mixed in with some other household stuff. Seems weird but it was easier than trying to sell used, off-brand, oddball parts that friends gave me because things didn't quite line up right with Fender-spec parts. It was better than throwing them away, I figure. I still have the unknown-brand (but not Fender) white Strat body I mentioned above, back in 2014, and I hope to get it put together one of these days.

Here's a guy I like to watch on YouTube. His videos are lessons for people who can already play and can recognize what chords and notes are being played without him stopping to explain "This is a D minor chord. Put your fingers here, here, and here" and so forth.

Old channel, now dormant but tons of great classic rock content:

https://www.youtube.com/user/privettricker

Current channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA6bULZXVv6kC5J6vpGBdDQ

And, just for grins, here's the ever-cheesy Johnny Falstaff demoing my favorite guitar accessory - the Hipshot B-Bender. Skip to about 1:38 for the music.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkg0Gdz-0Mk

[Tom Servo]

Still playing, still not anywhere near as good as I'd like to be, but that's mostly because I'm not disciplined about my practicing. Slowly getting better with each passing day though, and most of the time the wife can tell what song I'm trying to play when she hears it.

[George]

Ah, I bet you're better than that as long as you've been at it.

Surprise her with this song! :)



:assclown:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0XzFYChv18

[Tom Servo]

:thppt:

[George]

Went down a rabbit hole and found this. I knew Conan played, but...WOW!

Skip to 1:15 if you want to skip the pre-game chatter and find out who rocks harder.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUEOtxd_evI

[Tom Servo]

I was on Reddit the other day, browsing the Los Angeles subreddit and the top in-line ad was something like "If you're sexually active, you should get tested for STD's, and here's how to do that easily!" Then I went to the Rocksmith subreddit, where all us old people who never learned to play before middle age, and the ad changed to "Losing your hair? Try this!"

WTF.

[George]

Haven't noticed the hair loss ads, but I keep seeing that ad with the two girls.

I suppose classical, jazz, and folk/country guitar are here to stay, but I think rock guitar has become an old folks' hobby, just as clarinets went out of style as lead instruments in bands once rock and roll became popular. My son has been taking drum lessons at a guitar store and I've noticed all the guys checking out guitars on Saturdays are the same guys I've always seen in guitar stores, but the average age seems twenty years older than it was twenty years ago. It's old guys and their children now, with few customers in their twenties and thirties, at least based on my casual observations in my area. It's probably different in LA, Nashville, NYC, etc.

Fun factoid: both Pete Townshend and Eddie Van Halen had fathers who were professional clarinetists. There are probably many more examples but those are two I know of. My wife's father - at least a half a generation older than Baby Boomers - played clarinet as well, and now our daughter does too. Maybe she'll ride the wave of popularity when they become the hot new thing again in 2035.

Here's a cool cover tune from one of my all-time favorite albums. The clarinetist is Alex and Eddie's father Jan Van Halen.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkxqcWhym9U

Edited to add: there are some funny quotes allegedly from Dave and Eddie about the recording of this song at the Wikipedia page for the Diver Down album here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diver_Down

[Tom Servo]

I remember reading a couple of years ago that music shops are in trouble because kids just aren't buying guitars anymore. A lot of popular music is basically electronic, and there just aren't that many guitar gods outside of the metal scene, which was always a niche genre anyway.

[Tom Servo]

Email from Sweetwater telling me that the PRS I've always wanted is now more affordable! Turns out it's because they'll happily let you pay for it over 48 months, it's still like $4k for the one I liked.

[George]

Which one do you like? I was just checking them out and saw the 0% interest offer.

I have "The PRS Guitar Book" from probably 20 years ago that my wife's aunt gave me for Christmas one year. I don't think I've ever touched a PRS guitar but they sure look nice.

Speaking of Sweetwater, with local guitar stores closed, I just ordered this from them: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/NSMicroClip2PK--daddario-planet-waves-pw-ct-12tp-ns-micro-tuner-2-pack. They're here and they look cool but I haven't tried them yet. I wanted everyone in the family to have his or her own tuner. These look like evolutions from the Snark design. We have two Snarks but they eat batteries like crazy if you don't remove the batteries in between uses and the rubber feet that grip the headstock sometimes fall off.

When the package arrived, it contained a catalog and a little bag of candy! My daughter came through the room as I was opening the box, grabbed the catalog and the Atomic FireBalls and disappeared before I knew what was happening. Dang. I can't remember the last time I had an Atomic FireBall. :(

[Tom Servo]

I was rather partial to this one

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CU4P10PTTGV8--prs-custom-24-piezo-10-top-trampas-green-with-pattern-thin-neck

I think I've had much better luck with the Snark than you have. I don't think I've ever replaced the battery and it hangs on tenaciously to my guitar. I forgot they send candy, I like that touch but could do without the cold calls to my phone.

[George]

Love the color, and not just saying that to be polite. There aren't enough green guitars.

Hopefully my $20 purchase won't get me on the High Rollers calling list. Buy that PRS and you'll probably be promoted to the Dentist List.

I got my Snark when I was playing guitar in a neighborhood Dad Band for a few months about seven or eight years ago, now that I think about how long ago that was. It went through a couple batteries so quickly that I bought a little tupperware-style box to store it and a few new batteries, still in their packaging, all together. When I was done playing, I'd pull the old battery and drop it in the little box with everything else. It seemed to me the battery was "on" all the time if inserted in the tuner, even if the tuner appeared to be off. Keeping the battery out when not in use solved the problem.

Other than battery consumption, the Snark is fantastic. A bunch of acoustic players can sit in the same room and tune up at the same time without worrying about everyone else's noise. No more "Gimme an A!" cries from across the room, as long as everyone is similarly equipped.

Before the Snark, I used one of these since around 1990 when I bought my first "real" guitar. It has a mic for home/acoustic use and 1/4" mono input and output jacks on the sides. I would set it on top of my bass amp when playing with bands - it worked great and everyone had one back then, it seemed.

I bet I haven't used the Sabine once since I got a Snark.

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.reverb.com%2Fimage%2Fuploa d%2Fs--u3Po7NhU--%2Fa_exif%2Cc_limit%2Ce_unsharp_mask%3A80%2Cf_auto %2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_south%2Ch_620%2Cq_90%2Cw_620 %2Fv1526944302%2Ft7vud2yckdxmxzqgwvil.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

[George]

I've had a hard time staying interested in guitars in recent years but I still get the itch now and then. Anyone else still pickin' and grinnin'?

My latest project crawls slowly onward.



http://images.craigslist.org/00W0W_c2sZonQj5xU_600x450.jpg

I also have one of these on the shelf ready to drop in:

http://www.guitarfetish.com/105mm-Chrome-Spaced-Import-Made-in-Mexico-BRASS-BLOCK_p_1158.html

http://www.guitarfetish.com/assets/images/products/tremolos/D74.jpg



Eight years later, I installed that extra-heavy brass block and other parts I've had for years into yet another "Cheapo-caster" that I stumbled into.

https://i.postimg.cc/fy0GfCsZ/IMG-9058.jpg

Here I'm lining up the neck before drilling mounting holes.

https://i.postimg.cc/QVGR47N7/IMG-9057.jpg

No, I don't have a drill press but I do have some experience with this and plenty of glue and toothpicks. I hope the real woodworkers around here don't hurt themselves from laughing too hard at this.

https://i.postimg.cc/hGXRGcYf/IMG-8951.jpg

The darker neck is one I showed you guys years ago in this very thread. It's currently sitting in a box of stuff to donate to the thrift shop but it's been there before and has never quite gone away.

Here it is this morning - I'm re-doing one hole but that should do the trick. This is a neck from a decent (not the cheapest) Squier Stratocaster that a friend gave me years ago. I've given away two crappy non-Fender, non-Squier Strat bodies because the holes in those bodies didn't line up with this Squier neck, but then they didn't line up with this body from a Squier Classic Vibe '60s Strat either, so I got to drillin'.

https://i.postimg.cc/25GLCdPz/IMG-9064.jpg

Maybe it'll be finished in a few more years.

[Tom Servo]

I'm not playing as much as I used to, which I notice every time I do go to play.

I'm still sitting on a straplok kit my brother in law got me back in June. I keep being too nervous to drill into the guitar body to install them, but I guess I have to get over that at some point.

I also want to install some new tuners on my el-cheapo Strat, but that's yet another project that's just sorta sat around.

Otherwise, my parents' new neighbor works at Taylor and has offered me a tour when covid calms down. I'm looking forward to that.

[George]

I've installed Schaller straplocks before. IIRC, their bolts are slightly thicker and longer than stock ones, so you're just enlarging the existing holes slightly. I still have them on a couple instruments.

I hope you get a chance to see how Taylors are made. I dragged my lovely bride to the Carvin factory in Escondido in the summer of '97 and hoped to get a tour, but we got there too late in the afternoon. I had been getting their catalogs in the mail for years and, back then, anytime I was in a new city, I wanted to visit guitar stores.

[Tom Servo]

Next time you're in LA, you should hit up McCabe's, it's just down the street from the Mexican place we took you to. One of the better known guitar shops in the city.

[MR2 Fan]

hi guys, I just bought an electric guitar from my co-worker on Friday with amp and accessories for $80....after learning more about it, found that it's probably worth around what I paid for it or less (aka really crap)...so I sold it to another co-worker and have a nicer one on order:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JZ9GVXY?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Yes it's a cheapo starter one but I have a good Fender amp and this can be upgraded with authentic parts if I want to upgrade later on.

I'm learning a lot in the past few days and will read through this thread for more info...but might have stupid questions later.

[Tom Servo]

Based on the price point and the design, I have a feeling you'll have a very similar experience with that as I did with my Fender Squier. It's a perfectly serviceable guitar, and if you stick with playing, it'll make you appreciate the bits on a nicer guitar when you decide to upgrade.

Just hopefully you don't get the one thing that really bugged me about the Squier - the saddles on the bridge had some burrs on them and made strings break way too easily.

[MR2 Fan]

Based on the price point and the design, I have a feeling you'll have a very similar experience with that as I did with my Fender Squier. It's a perfectly serviceable guitar, and if you stick with playing, it'll make you appreciate the bits on a nicer guitar when you decide to upgrade.

Just hopefully you don't get the one thing that really bugged me about the Squier - the saddles on the bridge had some burrs on them and made strings break way too easily.

:up:

[MR2 Fan]

If anyone cares about the guitar I bought and re-sold quickly. It's a "First Act" and didn't have a lot of positive features.

Anyway, things I've learned since owning it and watching lots of videos...string size has a lot to do with bending ease but I'm guessing that also makes them more prone to breaking. I swapped the strings with D'Addario XL 10-46 and that was fine...thinking I want to try some 9 or 8 gauge next. I do like that the strings are color coded. I think the Ernie Ball ones aren't? I want to try those but prefer color coded.

Fingers hurt but that's apparently normal. I had a LOT of issues with pushing down enough for the frets of that guitar to make actual notes which I think was an issue with how the guitar was built, will see how the other one is.

The neck side was also quite heavy, so it wasn't easy to play while sitting down without using a strap to hold the guitar up and it was easier for me to stand up and play it.

https://www.venturi3d.com/firstact.jpg

[Tom Servo]

Oh yeah, from what I gather First Act is notoriously bad.

It's definitely normal that the strings, especially the high ones, are going to hurt like hell to start, especially when bending or sliding. You have to build up callouses on your fingertips, at which point it really won't bother you at all, but it'll take weeks for that to really kick in.

And those are the same strings I use, I really like the D'addario ones and have thought about going down to 9s from the 10s I currently use (but I have a lot of extra sets of 10s right now, so I still have to burn through those). It really does come down to personal preference though, Ernie Ball make perfectly good strings too.

[MR2 Fan]

Yeah I'm prepared for building up callouses as I'm really enjoying things so far even with this crappy guitar I had....my new one comes in Thursday, can't wait.

I was getting decent at doing some Black Sabbath Iron Man riffs and Seven Nation Army so far...the easy stuff

[FaultyMario]

What would be a better kids' learner size a Junior or a 3/4 guitar?

I'm eyeing up the Yamaha APX.

[MR2 Fan]

Not that I know the answer, but would probably help to know the age of the kid

[FaultyMario]

I think they're both different names for 36 inch guitars.

[Fiat500]

Angus Young is 157 centimeters tall.
Just get an SG. 😉

We have an Epiphone SG, it's very light and the quality is decent.

[George]

What would be a better kids' learner size a Junior or a 3/4 guitar?

Personal opinion only, your mileage may vary, and all that jazz, but I say full-size guitar with a capo to make the scale length (reach) shorter if necessary. And a clip-on tuner. A full-size guitar should sound better and won't necessarily need to be replaced.

I also think you can't go wrong with Yamaha anything. I bought my daughter one of these a few years ago. All-wood with a solid top. It's a fine guitar for anyone, not just a beginner.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FG800--yamaha-fg800-dreadnought-natural

This one will have a smaller body that smaller players might be more comfortable with...or anyone, really. I had a cheap guitar with a concert body once and remember it being really comfortable to have on my lap as compared to a dreadnought like the one above. All things being equal, it won't be as loud as a guitar with a larger body.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FS820NT--yamaha-fs820-concert-natural


I'm eyeing up the Yamaha APX.

This Yamaha fan approves. The built-in tuner would be very useful.

Good luck!

[FaultyMario]

This Yamaha fan approves.

I like their overall QC consistency across all products lines. One of the things that I hate about Fender, for example, is that you have to be aware which factory the thing came from.

[Fiat500]

Ah, you were looking for an acoustic guitar, of course. Disregard my previous input.

Won't something with nylon strings be better for a beginner though?

[George]

I like their overall QC consistency across all products lines.

Yup. I always thought they should make cars.


Won't something with nylon strings be better for a beginner though?

Another option is silk & steel strings. They have a lower tension than your typical bronze and/or steel strings and they sound good, too. Unlike nylon strings, you can put them on any guitar that accepts ball-end strings.

https://www.daddario.com/products/guitar/acoustic-guitar/silk-and-steel/ej40-silk-steel-folk-guitar-11-47/

[Fiat500]

Cool, hadn't heard about those. 👍

Also, this thread is awesome.

[MR2 Fan]

So, um...ever start something new and you're using really low quality equipment and you just SUCK at it, and you think "it can't be THIS difficult for normal people can it?"....then you decide to upgrade and suddenly you realize it was the equipment the whole time.

Anyway, my new Monoprice Indio Cali Classic HSS came in and OMG it's LIGHTYEARS better than that P.O.S. First Act....I almost feel bad for selling that one to my other co-worker (it's ok she isn't going to do anything professional with it, just wanted it for fun and I gave it to her cheap because I can't with good integrity sell that crap for a higher price).

The First Act guitar I couldn't get any strings to push down far enough because the frets were too high or something. This guitar it's a BREEZE!! It's going to be way more fun now.

So I did "upgrade" the knobs from the stock white with gold lettering to official Fender black with white lettering. I think it looks better.

https://www.venturi3d.com/indio.jpg

[George]

Looks great!


So I did "upgrade" the knobs from the stock white with gold lettering to official Fender black with white lettering. I think it looks better.

And so it begins. Pretty soon you'll have a small box of guitar parts.

And then a larger one. And some tools...

Enjoy.

[MR2 Fan]

:hard:

[Crazed_Insanity]

Pretty soon, we'll be playing with 3D printed guitars!!! :hard:

[MR2 Fan]

3D printed guitars are a thing but I'm taking a bit of a break from 3D printing stuff (I know, shocking!)...I will get back into it shortly with some new stuff coming out.

[MR2 Fan]

I went a bit overboard with buying mods to my new guitar. I know that putting things on could make it worse if things aren't good quality....I'll probably pick up another guitar to keep as stock. I think it's just one of those things I always like making things my own and this is way cheaper than car mods!

I got an idea on what I want the guitar to look like in addition to learning how to play well. I also got Rocksmith (2014 Edition Remastered) and it's really good so far.

[MR2 Fan]

ok, here's before/after my guitar after some mods.
http://venturi3d.com/indio2.jpg




WARNING: Pickguards for fenders do NOT fit without a lot of modifications to this Monoprice Indio guitar, so my plan to make this a dual humbucker setup have not succeeded, I kept it as HSS. I was also hoping to get a matte black pickguard that would work but couldn't get one to fit (talking screw holes and under the neck just not fitting)

I'll probably just buy a nicer Ibanez or something down the line.

[George]

Nice!


Pickguards for fenders do NOT fit without a lot of modifications to this Monoprice Indio guitar

Nor do all Fender/Squier/other pickguards exactly fit all Fender/Squier guitars.


One of the things that I hate about Fender, for example, is that you have to be aware which factory the thing came from.

[MR2 Fan]

ah, good to know...although...odd

[Tom Servo]

Heh, I planned to make a project of replacing the god-awful tuners on my Fender, then really struggled to find out the measurements. It was like "Fenders have this measurement unless they're made in China, then they have this measurement, unless it was between 2011 and 2014, in which case it's this measurement, unless "Jeff Waz Here" is scrawled somewhere on the back of the neck, in which case it's this other measurement entirely." I gave up pretty quick after that.

[George]

Heh, I planned to make a project of replacing the god-awful tuners on my Fender, then really struggled to find out the measurements. It was like "Fenders have this measurement unless they're made in China, then they have this measurement, unless it was between 2011 and 2014, in which case it's this measurement, unless "Jeff Waz Here" is scrawled somewhere on the back of the neck, in which case it's this other measurement entirely." I gave up pretty quick after that.

Very true. Between multiple factories around the world, vintage-style parts vs. modern-style parts, and that guy Jeff screwing up everything he touches, sometimes things just don't fit. It's another way that bicycles and guitars remind me so much of each other - you can do a lot of work by yourself with simple tools but sometimes things just aren't compatible.

I've had good luck in matching bodies and necks previously, but I cannot make the Squier neck a friend gave me fit the blue Squier Strat body properly. It fits fine just holding it in place, but once I screw it on, but there's a gap under the bass side of the neck that I can't figure out - it's like it just won't tighten down all the way.

https://i.postimg.cc/cLDs98SF/IMG-0967.jpg

The red thing is a Grolsch straplock. :cool:

Perhaps I drilled one or more holes at a slight angle, despite being as careful as I could. But a hand-held drill is not a drill press, so I shouldn't be surprised. Remove it and re-drill it yet again? I think not.

And it could work the way it is...the gap is probably 1/16" or less, but I'd rather have it RIGHT, especially as my daughter becomes more and more interested in guitar. She asked for an amp for Christmas, and I'm thinking finishing this Strat will be like another Christmas gift, except it's not. With two kids, we always have to think about keeping gifts "even" in terms of quantity and value. This is a good way to give her something without really giving her anything. It belongs to the family, and anyone is welcome to play it. I have yet to sit down and go through all my guitars, basses, and amps with the kids, so who's to say what's there and what's not. Son says he's not interested in guitar, only drums, but I didn't get serious about guitar until I was 22, so I'm not pushing him into it. If he wants to, he will. If not, fine.

I don't know if I told you guys she stole my Telecaster, but she did...and that's why she wants an amp now. I found it in its gig bag in her room next to her acoustic. I couldn't have been more pleased that she snuck it out of the basement without saying anything. :D She says it's easier to play than her Yamaha acoustic, which of course almost any electric guitar would be, but it's too quiet unplugged.

Anyway, back to the story here...last Friday, I ordered a Squier Classic Vibe '60s neck with vintage-style tuners, Squier neck plate, and neck screws in brand new/never used condition from eBay for $177.44 including shipping. That is CHEAP, especially considering the cost of everything else these days.

Just wanted to mention that if anyone's looking for parts. Sure, Fender stuff costs more but I still think what I see on eBay is pretty reasonable these days, or maybe it's just that I don't have to plan ahead and save up for three months to get $177.44 anymore.

The Squier Classic Vibe series gets great reviews at guitar forums, which is why I went with that instead of any other Squier part. The loaded body was from a CV 60s also, and both apparently made in Indonesia, so hopefully they'll match right up. If it does, it will be the nicest Strat I've ever owned. I've had a few over the years but they were all low-end Squiers, such as the ones that come in starter packs with a tiny amp and a book of chords for $149 or whatever. And I realize a higher-end Squier is still a cheap guitar to most folks, but with a good setup, I bet it'll be fine. I can do everything myself except making a new nut (and drilling neck holes!), but I bet I can find a decent guitar tech somewhere in the area. The last guy who made a nut for me worked for an acoustic store that closed probably ten years ago and I've forgotten his name, or I'd try to find him again.

Now let's hope this Arctic Blast we're having won't delay the UPS man too much. The neck is supposed to be here tomorrow.

[Tom Servo]

I saw some footage of Gary Holt playing this guitar. I want it.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/14-06-08_RiP_Slayer_Gary_Holt_1.JPG/800px-14-06-08_RiP_Slayer_Gary_Holt_1.JPG

[George]

^ That guitar looks like he won a few bar fights with it.

Or maybe he used it on stage like Keith Richards. This clip has been a long-time favorite over at the Telecaster forum :lol:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv1bM0pp_o4

[George]

I think the blue Squier Stratocaster is done now, minus some final setup details.

Here's a quick picture from this morning with the new neck. It fits just right and feels good.

https://i.postimg.cc/dqYJL0P1/IMG-1021.jpg

A couple more pictures and details for guitar nerds are below.



So this model guitar (https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/StratCV60LBL--squier-classic-vibe-60s-stratocaster-lake-placid-blue) is what I have ended up assembling, with an aftermarket heavy brass bridge block replacing the smaller and lighter stock one made out of who knows what, only because I already had one.

I was surprised to learn that the Squier Classic Vibe series come with bone nuts. Even better, these slots aren't too high, which throws off intonation at the lower frets even if the saddles are set correctly.

The new neck is in the middle. It's a little darker and it has tan-colored dots on the side of the fingerboard instead of white plastic ones, to resemble the clay dots Fender used in the 1960s on the side and front rosewood fingerboards. I imagine they would be harder to see on a dark stage, but they look cool. I like the wooden truss rod hole surround better than the black plastic one.

https://i.postimg.cc/v8hLJTrN/IMG-0992.jpg

The new neck has no skunk stripe. In the 1960s, Fender guitars with one-piece maple necks (and therefore maple fingerboards) had the skunk stripe to fill the hole routed out for the truss rod. Fender put truss rods in from the top on necks that had rosewood fingerboards and glued the fingerboards on afterwards. That's not necessarily how it works anymore, apparently, but this is model is supposed to look like one from the '60s.

https://i.postimg.cc/VvKqnZs8/IMG-0998.jpg

So everything was just perfect, right?

Well...not quite.

I noticed the low E string tuning peg had some play in it. It wobbled slightly.

If you look very closely at the bottom of the E string tuner below (on the darker neck), you can see the "box" is rotated just a tiny bit counter-clockwise compared to the other tuners. I think the top of the low E string tuner got hit. Maybe someone with the guitar strapped on turned and something with it. You can see the tuner shaft isn't parallel with the others also.

https://i.postimg.cc/x8W9qnrN/IMG-0993.jpg

Looks like it was hit so hard that it actually enlarged the screw hole between tuners.

https://i.postimg.cc/285FrYT8/IMG-1005.jpg

Time to break out the toothpicks and wood glue again. Sigh...

https://i.postimg.cc/sD0P2L0P/IMG-1006.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/qqJctHTw/IMG-1007.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/FHMjyLv7/IMG-1008.jpg

The tuner "box" is still bent, but now it is firmly mounted to the neck again. It feels solid, like it should, so that tells me the wobble was due to the enlarged screw hole and not because the gear & post inside the box are damaged.

After that, I went outside and polished the frets and fingerboard with 0000 steel wool, so the wood and metal were shiny and new again. I screwed the neck on, installed strings, and then "played them in" by playing it for a while and trying to remember what I used to know how to play. It was still in tune when I came downstairs this morning, which is always a good sign.

The bridge claw is screwed in just tight enough so the bridge doesn't move. I have a whammy bar/talent lever/kickstand but haven't installed it. The rear cover is still off so I can mess around with it when I do an intonation and pickup setup (pickups look really high) and maybe float the bridge a little bit at that time. It has D'addario XL 9-42 strings.

Funny that this all started with a guy I used to jam with giving me a Squier neck and another guy giving me a body he made himself. I don't know what I thought I'd end up with (which is part of the fun with these projects), but a specific Squier guitar that I could buy at a store wasn't it. That's not a complaint, though; I like this guitar a lot and I haven't even plugged it in yet.

[Random]

:up:

[MR2 Fan]

:up:

[Tom Servo]

That is awfully pretty

[Fiat500]

J. Mascis plays a cardboard Strat (video in link)

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/j-mascis-cardboard-strat-shred

[George]

^ Saying a guitar or an amp "sounds like cardboard" used to be quite the insult. I watched the videos at that link when first posted. Cool stuff.

[George]

Yesterday, I posted a long and rambling late-night post but deleted it. Here's a shorter version.

That blue Squier Strat is great. It stays in tune beautifully, and so far that slightly bent low E string tuner is holding tight. I attribute the tuning stability to having the bridge claw tightened just enough (but no more) so the bridge doesn't move, even when bending strings. Once I get my old Telecaster up and running again, I think I'll float the Strat's bridge slightly and then we'll see how good the nut slots are with some dive-bombs and such. If they're not smooth and the right size, the strings will bind and it'll go out of tune. I'll get a pro setup if so. It sounds plenty "Stratty", unlike some even cheaper Squier Strats I've had in the past that just sounded like generic electric guitars but without the "quack" of a Strat.

I used to own a Yamaha RBX260F fretless bass in the '90s and played it on songs such as Pearl Jam's "Alive" in bands, when I bothered to bring two basses. I posted it below just to show the sound of a fretless. I remember "Alive" as a pretty simple four-chord song but I've been away from playing guitar and bass so long that it looks impressive now to watch someone play it. I do remember the cool outro (starting around 5:30), which is just as easy on a fretted bass, but you have to bend the notes instead of sliding them.

Anyway, after staring at this thing on craigslist for the last month or so, and telling myself, "you do NOT need this!", I bought it yesterday. Seller says it's a 1987 model, which is believable. I would have guessed early/mid-'90s, but it doesn't matter.

These are the seller's pictures.

https://i.postimg.cc/1RNNvPHc/01010-8-Vco0-Tk9-Pirz-0l-M0t2-1200x900.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/bNwfzYB1/00-O0-O-j-Hm-V3n-VRh-H3z-0l-M0t2-1200x900.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/pVZtb5q2/00-J0-J-2ypw-DRCFU02z-0-CI0t2-1200x900.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/RZMyBwMM/01414-7-Xx-G09z-RZg-Yz-0l-M0t2-1200x900.jpg

I'll bring you guys along with a photo or two as I adjust the neck and saddles, if anyone's interested. Notice, in the first picture, the spacing of the E and G strings compared to the edges of the fingerboard at the highest "frets". The G string it too close to the edge, which is a very common problem with bolt-on necks. That's a simple neck alignment that only takes a phillips screwdriver to do, and I can see there's enough of a gap between the neck and body to make that quick and easy...or, at least, I hope so.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YwZ4jFLBP4

[Tom Servo]

I saw that post, I enjoyed it :)

I don't think I could ever do fretless anything. I still have no idea how my mom could play the violin, I have a hard enough time getting my fingers in nearly the right place when frets are involved.

[George]

As I recall, I'd look down for position changes when I had to move my left hand. If playing a simple song that's perhaps G, C, D; I'd look for the G, and then of course be able to feel where the C note was, and glance back down when it was time to move up to D. I'm talking about just root notes on the low strings of a bass as an example. And then little riffs or runs over each chord where you're only reaching up two or three frets sort of fall where they should from muscle memory. And, or course, open strings will be in tune. I don't have the ears and/or constant practice to play an unlined fretless like the guy in the video above, but I think anyone who plays a fretless stringed instrument (or a trombone) on a regular basis just gets used to it, especially when playing with other people so there's other music to play along with.

My daughter plays in the high school band/orchestra. They have at least two upright basses (bass violins) that I've seen at performances. At least one of them has taped lines across the fingerboards, like white medical tape or something, to show where the notes are. They're not even trying to hide it. :lol:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEnd3Szjf6c

[George]

Notice, in the first picture, the spacing of the E and G strings compared to the edges of the fingerboard at the highest "frets". The G string it too close to the edge, which is a very common problem with bolt-on necks. That's a simple neck alignment that only takes a phillips screwdriver to do, and I can see there's enough of a gap between the neck and body to make that quick and easy...or, at least, I hope so.

It was just that easy. :up:

I loosened the neck bolts a full turn or two and then pulled the neck toward the low E string. Once it moved over to where I needed it to be, I set the bass on the carpeted floor on the treble side of the body, so the G-string edge of headstock was touching the floor also. Continuing to press down with my right hand (and most of my body weight) to push the neck toward the E string side, I carefully tightened the neck screws with a large Phillips screwdriver in my left hand. This is when one must take great care not to strip the screw heads. Notice the string spacing of the E and G strings compared to the edges of the fingerboard at the highest "frets" now. This is the kind of thing you might see on any guitar or bass with a bolt-on neck.

Before (seller's photo):

https://i.postimg.cc/1RNNvPHc/01010-8-Vco0-Tk9-Pirz-0l-M0t2-1200x900.jpg

After:

https://i.postimg.cc/xCd7kQb7/38-D93546-3559-459-B-9602-60-C4-E10069-CE.jpg

Next up is the saddle adjustments to get the intonation at the 12th fret line set, as if it were a fretted instrument. I'll need all the help I can get to play this thing in tune, and there's no reason not to set up the saddles correctly. I'm surprised they weren't already. The photo below is my first fretless, which I sold several years ago on craigslist. Notice the typical low-to-high arrangement of the saddles from E to G. The red one looks like the E, A, and D string saddles all need to be pulled back a bit, but of course a tuner will tell the tale. I'll also raise the action a bit. The action on this thing is so low it's difficult to play without buzzing. Then, I should be done, except for maybe finding a cool strap.

https://i.postimg.cc/pV3WtGwx/IMG-0684.jpg

This is also an interesting comparison of pictures from an early, average digital camera to a modern iPhone...or at least I assume that was digital. I didn't used to take such frivolous pictures when I paying for film and development.

I also ordered a truss rod wrench (https://www.allparts.com/collections/truss-rod-wrenches/products/lt-4958-8mm-box-truss-rod-wrench) for this bass today. The neck looks to have just barely enough relief to play well once I raise the saddles, but it's something that should remain with the instrument. Fenders use regular hex wrenches, but these Yamahas have a truss rod nut in a cavity at the heel. I may get a gig bag for it as well before I call it done.

[FaultyMario]

Yawch, how do ya feel about Ovations?

[George]

Who, me?

I've known a few Ovations and I like 'em.

I used to play guitar with a guy I worked with the very early nineties. He had an Ovation Custom Balladeer with the deep bowl that he said was from the 1970s. It was really nice. Ebony fingerboard with fancy inlays. Good sound.

My wife's Ovation Celebrity [a lower-end model] currently lives on a stand next to our her piano. It's a sturdy thing that shouldn't get a "Colorado crack" as two of our east-coast wooden acoustics did over the years after being moved to this dry climate. It stays in tune for the most part. I pick it up at least monthly to stay in practice :lol: and it usually doesn't need much adjustment. It has a preamp and tuner and takes a 9-volt battery.

https://i.postimg.cc/9fgTgP5Q/IMG-1278.jpg

It occurs to me that it's twenty or more years old. I haven't touched a new one in decades, so I don't know their current quality.

I had a roommate for a year or so in around 1993 who had a Celebrity also. Same thing. Inexpensive, durable, fun to play. The shallow-bowl (or shallow-back) models won't ever compare with a solid wood acoustic in terms of volume or a great rich sound, but they sound okay plugged in.

The round-back bodies don't balance on one's lap like a traditional acoustic, either. They're slippery and you kind of have to hang on to them when they're on your lap so they don't get away, but fine to play with a strap standing up. Keep that strap on when seated, too. They have smaller necks that feel more like an electric guitar neck, it has often been said. They also have string-through bridges, so you don't need to mess with bridge pins. More than one woman has told me they feel better to play while seated than traditional acoustic guitars with hard corners in the back that don't seem to bother guys as much. Pardon the sexist comment, if it is, but I think it's worth mentioning.

My cousin had one, and probably still does. It may have been a Celebrity also. She lived on a houseboat at a time, if that says anything about their ruggedness and tendency to stay in tune regardless of the weather.

This is the one you need.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8QZieNVtGY

[George]

I have wanted a Fender Bass VI for decades, but mostly as a passing fancy.

For the longest time, you could only buy an old one for $$$$ or a Fender Custom Shop model for at least as much as a vintage one.

Then a couple more affordable (but still expensive!) Bass VI models came along - one with a three-way switch like a Strat instead of the four "button" switches they normally had, and one from Fender Japan that had the usual controls. Apparently one of the four buttons is a low-cut filter, which I've heard called a "strangle switch". It cuts bass frequencies so it's more trebly and twangy for lead guitar-type playing such as you hear in spaghetti westerns.

In the last few years, Fender has been selling a Squier Classic Vibe Bass VI for around $500 new. Saw one on craigslist once asking $400 and had that funny nervous feeling of wanting something for a few days until it sold. But, apparently the low E string on the Squier can't be properly intonated because the stock saddle won't go back far enough. So, guys are buying aftermarket ones or Fender Mustang (I think) bridges for that to fix the problem. While I love to tinker with guitars, I never thought buying a brand new one that needs immediate parts changes is a good idea. The block inlays on the Squiers are ugly (to my eye) also - that's a Gibson thing. Fenders have dots.

I've never seen one in a store to examine and try out in person, so this is all academic anyway.

Well, finally getting to the point, I just learned Fender is releasing a new Bass VI model that's made in Mexico. Time (and guys on internet forums and YouTube) will tell if a decent model or one to avoid. I could see perhaps picking up a used one once the newness wears off to the kind of guitarists who are always buying and selling gear. List price is $1400, apparently, which is way more than I could or would spend on one, but it's nice to see a new Fender Bass VI again, even if only as an interested observer instead of an eager customer.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jqeQKVYMEY

[Random]

Are these baritone guitars or actual basses? :?

Geddy Lee says Fenders can have block inlays. ;)

4183

[Fiat500]

I always love when this thread resurfaces. 🙂

The Bass VI is a regular bass, with 6 strings, fwiu.

Funny, I was re-watching Get Back last night, because it's nice to virtually hang with The Beatles every now and then, and Lennon was playing a Bass VI. Let it Be, maybe? McCartney was playing the piano.

[George]

Nobody likes Geddy Lee. :p


Are these baritone guitars...

They can be.

The capo at the fifth fret makes it like a baritone tuned down a full step to A.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5GcMJMfzrM

Dude needs to get his hat brim steamed and lined up, but that's a topic for The Haberdashery Thread.


...or actual basses?

Sometimes.

And it starts with a Beatles bassline. :up:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqz_FuZ2iFo

It might qualify as a "hybrid guitar."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc5dxXXQ7DA


I always love when this thread resurfaces.

:up:

But don't wait for me. Step right up. What are you pickin' on these days?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmG8N3WND8Y

[FaultyMario]

Time (and guys on internet forums and YouTube) will tell if a decent model or one to avoid.

Funny you should say that. Just the other day Rick Beato interviewed the new Pantera lineup and Zakk Wylde was nerding out so much that he mentioned that sometimes, to get his Dimebag sound just right, He watches Ola Englund's tutorials.

[Random]

I guess I need to see one in person to get the scale and proportions. The small tuners all lined up on one side of the headstock is messing with my brain, for some reason.

[Fiat500]

What are you pickin' on these days?


I'm not the chief picker in the family. I've always loved guitars, and know a few basics and some tricks, but I can't really say that I play the guitar. I can sit for hours and just make sounds or fool around with effects on the amp, but there's no method or system or skill to it.
My son has become quite the guitar hero, though. I guess I knew just enough to make him want to be better than me, and he's taken it from there. I seem to have passed on my guitar fetish as well.

4184

This is my 1975 Ibanez lawsuit era Gibson copy. Were they called Artcore back then? I don't remember.
I bought it off a friend back around 1990, I think, together with a Roland amp. 15 watts, I think, and with a bunch of digital effects that you can have a lot of fun with. It has a varitone switch and a stereo jack out.
He's adopted it, of course, and it's been his stand-in for a Hagström Viking during the Elvis obsession he's had since the movie came out a while ago.

I didn't get good pictures of the rest of the fleet, but the newest addition is a Tim Henson electric nylon Ibanez that he absolutely craved, an acoustic steel string Ibanez that's just beautiful, his Fender Meteora, the Epiphone SG that was cheap but plays well, and I even think the G string stays in tune these days, the red Squier Strat that was his first own electric, and he wanted it that colour because he was a fan of Jack White at the time.
Then there's the Epiphone LP Jr that came with Rocksmith, and another LP Special (black w. flames) that was laying around the house of some friends of ours, sans tuners and strings. It's playable now, but residing with a friend of my son's who wants to learn how to play.
Plus there's a Squier PJ Bass.

Here he is with his 12 string Harley Benton (surprisingly good quality for the price!) performing Wish You Were Here with the rest of the school band and some of the music teachers:


https://youtu.be/YmnSrSLmvFk?si=w3k5jWrIM2msyGrq

[George]

Super cool! Thanks for sharing that. Your son plays very well. Looks like he has long fingers to get the thumb up and over the top like that on a wide 12-string neck.

Bass player needs a Bass VI, though. :p

Sorry, I'll stop eventually, once something else catches my eye that I don't need either. :lol:

I'm not a student of Ibanez history, but I want to say I didn't start seeing the Artcore label until the '90s on their jazzboxes. Maybe they were all just plain old Ibanez before they had so many different offerings that they could start making up "sub-brands" such as SDGR (Soundgear, I've always assumed) for some of their basses.

Yours looks like just the ticket to get that Sweaty Teddy sound. :)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmuYqESco7M

[Fiat500]

I had to google, seems Ibanez didn't introduce Artcore until 2002, I'm probably confused because I see similar-looking Artcore guitars in ads all the time.
I'll have a proper look at the stickers once I get home.

This is him with his Meteora a little over a year ago, around June '22 I think:


https://youtu.be/ttq4AQ3rO2I?si=tLRtuznEL_E21ZS2

A little shakey at times, and if he and the bass player (sorry, no Bass VI!) look like they just strolled in from the great outdoors, it's because they just strolled in from the great outdoors- their class was spending the night outside, and they took time out to play during this concert. But those looks at the end, when they realise they just did something that was pretty good, make you understand why it's cool to be in a band.
There's a bunch of other stuff on my youtube channel, some of it from years back, if there's interest.

[Fiat500]

And here are some more.
A Fender, Squiers, Epiphones and Ibanezes.
The Ibanez on the right is an AE 245-NT. It's a lovely piece of craftsmanship with the inlays on the fretboard. It's not just for looks though, he tried it in the shop first, and loved how it played.

4185
4186

(I hope the goddamn orientation is correct this time)

Not (yet) pictured: the 12 string Harley Benton and his trusty old Cort.
The Cort is another case of trying a guitar in a shop and loving how it played, despite Fenders, Gibsons, Martins and Takamines being on display. My wallet breathed a sigh of relief.

Speaking of Harley Bentons, the bass in the previous video is HB, and their band teacher (who plays bass on Wish You Were Here) was surprised to hear the price, and thought it played like a bass 4 or 5 times as expensive.

[Fiat500]

As for the older Ibanez, turns out it is a '76, not a '75, and from what I can find, the model was just called Ibanez 2457.

[George]

That's a great collection. The Ibanez nylon-string is very cool.

I had to look up what a Fender Meteora is, as I haven't kept up with Fender's offerings. There used to be a pretty thick catalog/magazine called Fender Frontline that came out about twice a year. It was free at guitar shops and for years I collected them. I still have a bunch of them on a bookshelf. Since those went away, I don't really know Fender's lineup outside of vintage-spec instruments.

All that young man needs now is a black top hat and some sunglasses. :)

[Fiat500]

Hah, and since they played in a church, he could have just gone outside and continued playing afterwards...

4194

Minus the cigarette, of course. He's too smart for that.
He did want a yellow Les Paul for a while after practising Sweet Child of Mine, we still don't have a proper LP.

I had to ask him how he happened to fall in love with the Meteora. Turns out it was after I showed him a picture of it, and he liked it.

He came across the nylon Ibanez all by himself though, like kids do these days.

Who wouldn't want to be this cool?


https://youtu.be/DSBBEDAGOTc?si=YS28l7bajxRCruJJ