So 80's

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Never had anything too visually loud back in the 80s. My main workhorse Floydcaster was black, though I had another in candy tangerine (which by now has faded nearly to bronze - almost wishing I'd had it made with poly finish rather than nitro.) I was using my korina Moderne in '82 but, while cool and weird, it wasn't flashy in the same definitively-80s way as the shred sticks.

I did have one of these though:
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Trident said:
o_O
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Kramer "The Duke." Aluminum neck with a fast, slick resin fretboard. Good sounding guitar; it came stock with DiMarzio Super IIs and I kept mine stock, unlike the one in the picture. It had two serious design flaws though.

First, it was extremely temperature-sensitive. The aluminum would expand when it warmed up. I could only use it for the first couple of songs in a set, then the lights would made it go sharp and the stage tech would need to retune it for our singer to use once in a while mid-set. After the set was over it'd cool down and go flat - especially if it was in a drafty location. Utterly hopeless playing it outdoors in the sunshine. And if the aluminum was cold it was miserable to play; it'd chill your hand in no time.

Second, the ball-end string anchor at the head was attached with a single hex screw in the center. This made it simple to remove if you had to, but if you bumped the end on anything while playing, it could wreck the tuning. The strings on the side you bumped would go flat and the ones on the other side would go sharp, and there was no tweaking a string or two and getting it close - the anchor had to be straightened and the guitar retuned. You couldn't even finish out a song, you just had to put it down and use another axe.

I sold the Duke after a few years of not using it anymore. But the thing was odd enough that sometimes I wish I'd kept it.
 
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Yep. I've sold some nice instruments. And amps - I sold the blackface Bassman from my studio when I closed the business, along with my JCM800 and a couple of others. But I regretted selling the Bassman literally within minutes of it going out the door. It was years before I got another.

The guitar I miss most actually wasn't one I sold. It was a '56 Black Beauty reissue that I bought new in '74. Had the staple neck pickup, incredible sounding guitar. Super heavy but at the time I was young and had no problem with that. It was stolen a few years later by a junkie we'd allowed to stay over at our house, who likely sold it for next to nothing. It'd be reasonably valuable today.

On the bright side, at least I'm not kicking myself for selling it...
 
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