Guitars...a "best of" approach

gball said:
Same here. But, I learned to play on a Les Paul and played one exclusively for the first decade of my guitar life, so the controls on them are telepathic to me - I never even think about them. When I play other guitars it takes me a bit to adjust to the controls, I'm always looking for the pickup selector where it is on an LP.

As far as "best of" I'm not really sure. I kind of like having different guitars for different purposes because they force me to play and think differently. Les Paul's are like an extension of my body at this point and I feel and play the best with one, but it can become a crutch in a way, so I like to force myself to pick up my Tele or PRS or one of the others and sometimes that creates a situation where I play a certain way or get a certain sound out of it that I likely wouldn't have created with the Les Paul. So, I don't think there is one amalgam of different design elements and parts that is my ideal. It'd certainly be based on the Les Paul if there were because nothing else is as comfortable for me, but I think I'd prefer to just keep using different ones for different reasons.
Click to expand...

I learned to play on a one pickup, 1959 Silvertone with sky-high action and no selector switch.

1450 & Amp.jpeg

After that, almost anything felt like an improvement.

Of all my guitars over the years, the 2005 Schecter C1 Hellraiser is the only one that played perfectly right off the hanger....I see lots of guitars that I like, or that I think are cool, but the Schecter has earned me more money than any other guitar with zero invested other than straings and straplocks.

No, I do not like the 25.5" scale or the silly 3 keys on each side, but I am willing to live with that....

Hellraiser.jpg

Of course, I still have the old 1987 Squirecaster and probably always will, but it's beat up pretty bad after 29 years of gigging...

1987 Squire H-S-S.jpg


The Destroyer is a sentimental guitar, reminiscent of my past, but it is an absolutely incredible player. That was totally unexpected.

DT555 At Home.jpg
 
gball said:
I bet that Destroyer rips! Every one of the original Destroyers and Icemen that have I played were awesome.
Click to expand...

It's crazy...in once respect, the neck is thinner than I like, but it's also wider and it just really plays fast. After a fret level, it's just amazing....I haven't been this happy and excited about a guitar in a long time!!!!

It was built from original Ibanez blueprints...
 
Adrian,
I think you should get rid of those tone sucking needless dials
on that guitar too. You can adjust the volume with picking
dynamics and adjust the tone by picking closer or further
away from the bridge. Wire that dog ear right to the
output jack and let it live up to its true potential.

...and no, I'm not kidding this time.
 
jah, you betcha... Best of the best you say?
Whole bass_4x.jpg
1966 Fender Jazz Bass
I bought this from a guy in 1972, we were both desperate, I offered him a hundred
bucks... showed him the cash and he took it. I've been playing it ever since. This one's been
from Tallahassee to Talkeetna, and from Rockland, Maine to Santa Cruz. I know I've made
hundreds of dollars playing this bass over all these years.
This one's almost all stock, and no one has made a better one IMHO. I've played other
basses but none that I like as well as this. This is something Old Leo got right the
first time. So was the Precision Bass, but this is an actual improvement of that classic.
Stock tuners, Stock nut, Stock frets, Stock pickups, only the pots have been replaced due
to overworn condition... and I stripped the Sunburst off, removing $10,000 from the
value of this instrument. This is without doubt the best bass for any style of music.
All others are merely imitations. Except for the five and six string behemoths... those have
taken the art of bass playing into new dimensions. But this old warhorse can do almost anything
those battleships can do. IMHO: If you can't do it with four, you probably can't do it with six.
Sluggo-BFG@100.jpg
Same bass, but during my radical period where I thought the instrument looked better naked.
I put black nails in the screw holes. At the time, it did look better naked. But I never threw away the
old metal p'up covers or the pick guard. Eventually, I decided it looked better as designed, so I found
the parts and put them back on. And it does.
 
HAHA having seen your Jazz bass a bunch of times Col, it just dawned on me, it if 2 years younger than I am. I still love seeing it. Maybe one day I will pick up another J bass.
 
Now in spite of what I said about six strings, I wasn't talking about guitars.
I don't get on with four string guitars or ukuleles.

I like six thin strings, even if I only have four fingers.
And to answer the OP's question, which seemed to be about assembling a guitar out of all the best
equipment that the owner could buy or make here's my predictable entry (of course)...
IMG_1097@100.jpg
2007 Gibson SG faded special
Tone Pros Black tuners... D'Addario 11s
IMG_1109@100.jpg
Ebony Truss rod cover with abalone and MOP inlay by Scot Swirski www.acmesupergenius.com
Buzz Feiten shelf nut
Body Upper Bout@100.jpg
Gibson '57 Classic and Classic + pickups, DiMarzio Black covers, Tone Pros bridge and tailpiece, Wiring harness by Martin SixString
hand carved walnut pick guard made by me...
controls@100.jpg
Hand carved ebony switch washer made by me, Allparts 0-11 knobs for the volume controls...
control cover@100.jpg
Hand carved Walnut control cavity cover made by me. Nothing but the best for my baby...
This instrument is the best guitar of any kind that I have ever played. Right in the store it
was stunning. I've been making small improvements one by one over the last nine years, and
this guitar has rewarded me by maintaining her place as the Queen of my music room all this
time. I have brought home other guitars, but they are only handmaidens to the Queen.
I named her Luna, because her cutaways made me mindful of the phases of the Moon.
M-O-O-N: that spells SG Special.
 
Last edited:
Col Mustard said:
jah, you betcha... Best of the best you say?
View attachment 8908
1966 Fender Jazz Bass
I bought this from a guy in 1972, we were both desperate, I offered him a hundred
bucks... showed him the cash and he took it. I've been playing it ever since. This one's been
from Tallahassee to Talkeetna, and from Rockland, Maine to Santa Cruz. I know I've made
hundreds of dollars playing this bass over all these years.
This one's almost all stock, and no one has made a better one IMHO. I've played other
basses but none that I like as well as this. This is something Old Leo got right the
first time. So was the Precision Bass, but this is an actual improvement of that classic.
Stock tuners, Stock nut, Stock frets, Stock pickups, only the pots have been replaced due
to overworn condition... and I stripped the Sunburst off, removing $10,000 from the
value of this instrument. This is without doubt the best bass for any style of music.
All others are merely imitations. Except for the five and six string behemoths... those have
taken the art of bass playing into new dimensions. But this old warhorse can do almost anything
those battleships can do. IMHO: If you can't do it with four, you probably can't do it with six.
View attachment 8909
Same bass, but during my radical period where I thought the instrument looked better naked.
I put black nails in the screw holes. At the time, it did look better naked. But I never threw away the
old metal p'up covers or the pick guard. Eventually, I decided it looked better as designed, so I found
the parts and put them back on. And it does.
Click to expand...
It is good to be malleable. Life is more fun.
 
I have a lot of nice guitars but the guitar's that fit ergonomically well stand out from the rest. My 2005 Fender FSR MIM Stratocaster in Electron Blue is a near perfect guitar. It has a dulled satin finish on the neck, stock full size pots, switch and pickups. It has a new Fender big block tremolo and new Fender/Ping tuners. It plays and sounds fantastic!

20161208_212301.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top