chilipeppermaniac
Ambassador of Decibels
Yup, itsa player. Very nice 9 lb baby.
Which guitar do you pick up first after you've been away?
- Thread starter Kerry Brown
- Start date
Yup, itsa player. Very nice 9 lb baby.
ivan H
Ambassador of Tubes & Grooves
Yes, exactly. Has the swimming pool type pickup route & the normal 1 volume, 2 tone & 5 way switch route. It was a pawn shop find, SSS configuration & someone has removed the headstock logo & badly applied a Fender Stratocaster transfer
The pawn shop was honest & listed it as a Squier. The tuners had been replaced with Gotoh's (non locking), the single mounting screw fitted into the lower holes left from the original tuners makes the tuner keys angled towards the end of the headstock, though they still function properly. I really don't know what made me pick it up & try it. Without realizing how well it played I never would have bought it, even though it was REALLY cheap. And yes, I agree with Kerry about nothing to fiddle with, though I do fit the bar for a few dive bombs occasionally. Cheers
You're such a tease... Wease...
More info... Pretty please...
It's a 2000 24 fret Les Paul Standard with a classic 57 in the neck and Iommi in the bridge. They only made these for a few years, it was suppose to be competition for PRS. It's really a great guitar!!
Tony M.
Ambassador
chilipeppermaniac
Ambassador of Decibels
Tony, I am surmising you sold that one?
How do those belly cuts feel? I never actually saw or held one of these 24 fret ones so I have no clue.
I did own 2 PRS 24 fret Santana guitars. These were too nice and too expensive for me, darnit.
How do those belly cuts feel? I never actually saw or held one of these 24 fret ones so I have no clue.
I did own 2 PRS 24 fret Santana guitars. These were too nice and too expensive for me, darnit.
Col Mustard
Ambassador of Perseverance
Here's the guitar corner of my living room, so I guess (as usual) I don't limit myself to just one...
I have a woman come to clean every two weeks, and that gets me to put things away and
clear the decks, so these are the first two I got back out and set up. Martin XC1T and Epiphone ES-339
...two "low end" instruments that are set up perfectly and sound great.
Handmaidens to the Queen... I'm still having a torrid love affair with the P-90s in this Epiphone.
She sounds really good through the Orange Micro Terror and TC Electronics HOF reverb...
Rose Pickups "Eden" P-90s. Plenty of tone control on board, I don't seem to use the EQ pedal
except as a clean boost, sometimes with a mid hump, or a notch, depending on how I'm feeling.
The Martin is just a work horse, easy to play, lighter than my trusty olde dread, an even sweet tone
all her own. She goes fearlessly where her high class sisters fear to tread. Blazing hot stages that
melt the velcro on yer pedal board, or bitter cold nights where the ice forms in yer mustache while
you pump fuel, stomping in crunchy snow. The XC1T has no name, she's just #9.
But sooner or later, I get this one out. Like Biddlin and his 5 Moons, this is the one that calls to
me from her case. This one's got my Oath... I may dally with one of her handmaidens, but when
she calls, I rise to it. And she rewards me every time. Sometimes I dream I'm playing her, and
wake up with a tune in my head. Luna, the Queen, here she is getting a full treatment from
her loyal consort, like she was Cleopatra or somethin.
I have a woman come to clean every two weeks, and that gets me to put things away and
clear the decks, so these are the first two I got back out and set up. Martin XC1T and Epiphone ES-339
...two "low end" instruments that are set up perfectly and sound great.
Handmaidens to the Queen... I'm still having a torrid love affair with the P-90s in this Epiphone.
She sounds really good through the Orange Micro Terror and TC Electronics HOF reverb...
Rose Pickups "Eden" P-90s. Plenty of tone control on board, I don't seem to use the EQ pedal
except as a clean boost, sometimes with a mid hump, or a notch, depending on how I'm feeling.
The Martin is just a work horse, easy to play, lighter than my trusty olde dread, an even sweet tone
all her own. She goes fearlessly where her high class sisters fear to tread. Blazing hot stages that
melt the velcro on yer pedal board, or bitter cold nights where the ice forms in yer mustache while
you pump fuel, stomping in crunchy snow. The XC1T has no name, she's just #9.
But sooner or later, I get this one out. Like Biddlin and his 5 Moons, this is the one that calls to
me from her case. This one's got my Oath... I may dally with one of her handmaidens, but when
she calls, I rise to it. And she rewards me every time. Sometimes I dream I'm playing her, and
wake up with a tune in my head. Luna, the Queen, here she is getting a full treatment from
her loyal consort, like she was Cleopatra or somethin.
B
Biddlin
Guest
I am a pragmatist, most of the time. When I've played out the last few times, my unnamed LPMM has been the main axe. I played a fashion show recently where my N-225 provided the background vamps. They are both exceptionally fine playing guitars. Like the colonel says though, Five Moons is the one who calls to me in my deep subconscious. It is the guitar that I am most likely to be playing when a new song idea pops into my head. It is also the one that I can play without thinking, we are just that simpatico.
Col Mustard
Ambassador of Perseverance
Every time I see that N-225, the wow factor rises out of it.
And there's a lot to be said for a scruffy Les Paul, perfect for less than perfect venues
where guitar rustlers lurk. My step daughter's Epi Les Paul special ll is one such
instrument, it's a whole lot more guitar than it looks like, and so can do the job
without attracting the attention of the criminal element.
Grover tuners, Tusq nut, Gibson 490 p'ups, Tone Pros bridge and tail,
alpha 500k pots, switchcraft jack and toggle.
And there's a lot to be said for a scruffy Les Paul, perfect for less than perfect venues
where guitar rustlers lurk. My step daughter's Epi Les Paul special ll is one such
instrument, it's a whole lot more guitar than it looks like, and so can do the job
without attracting the attention of the criminal element.
Grover tuners, Tusq nut, Gibson 490 p'ups, Tone Pros bridge and tail,
alpha 500k pots, switchcraft jack and toggle.
OP
Kerry Brown
Ambassador of the Great Northern Bar Jams
That is a problem with really nice guitars. I get my most enjoyment from jamming with other players. I'm afraid to take my nicer guitars to some of the jams
I spend the whole night worrying about my guitar. I usually take an amp so it's at least two trips in and out of the jam. At some point the guitar will be out of my sight. Then there is drunks asking to play your guitar or just getting on stage and then falling over. I've had my amp knocked over, drunks picking up my guitar off the stand when I'm sitting out for a break. etc. etc. It's great to have what looks like a beater guitar that plays and sounds great for times like that. Then there is the ego boost when other players tell you they can't believe how good you make that old beater sound. Little do they know.
This one, now that its back from being out on loan to a friend....
Goldmember
Ambassador of Golden Yoo-Hoos
Does anyone pick up one of these first after they've been away?
Col Mustard
Ambassador of Perseverance
I'm afraid to take my nicer guitars to some of the jams
It's great to have what looks like a beater guitar that plays and sounds great for times like that. Then there is the ego boost when other players tell you they can't believe how good you make that old beater sound. Little do they know.
I've learned this the hard way of course. When I think back, it seems like a wonder that I survived, some of
the places I've been. If you're Canadian, you might like to read Garnet Rogers' book "Night Drive."
He and Stan Rogers spent years on the road together, playing on the folk circuit when they could, but also
taking other dicier gigs in some seamy dives. Garnet's a rare story teller, and I imagine you'd enjoy it.
Garnet's one of those guys who can play fiddle or guitar and make a strong man weep. And then he finishes
his song and makes a strong man laugh his arse off with his wit and story teller's art.
Garnet Rogers: "Night Drive"- the story of Stan Rogers and the rock and roll struggles of a folk trio.
Come to think of it, any of us might enjoy Garnet's book, whether Canadian or not, and whether or not
you've ever heard of the "folk circuit." I regard him as a friend, but he's a hell of a musician, and drives
a Volvo with 750,000 miles on it. He doesn't fly, since his brother Stan died on an Air Canada flight that caught
fire in mid-air on the way back from the Kerrville festival in Texas. The heroic pilot managed to land the plane
and save many of the passengers, but some (including Stan) died from the smoke. Garnet wasn't on that flight
...just by luck or something. He doesn't fly any more. I've talked with him about it, and he knows in his head
that driving is infinitely more dangerous... but he's made up his mind and that's it.
But anyway, having a guitar that didn't cost thousands, and having it be able to sound and play as well
as one that did... that's a real pleasure for me. Sometimes I'll put the floozy right next to the Queen, and
play them side by side just to get an idea of what it's all about.
My Luna never minds being set next to her handmaidens... she's regally unconcerned
that anyone might think her handmaidens were lovely in their own right. She can kick their arses any night, she's a Chess Queen, the
MVP... no doubts. But there are places I would NOT take her.
This is my #1... She's actually an 'inexpensive' Gibson, but has all the elegance and grace expected from that
legendary brand, with none of the unnecessary decorations. People in the audience regard her with awe, which
is mostly inspired by other (famous) players who paid three to eight thousand USD for their Gibsons. Or who got
one supposedly worth that much FREE, because they were so fruckin' famous. I'll never be famous, or rich,
so I've learned to measure wealth by other means than money. This is one of those ways. *grins
Having what looks like a "cheap guitar' that actually sounds and plays great...
...to me there's a cool factor to that. That's one of the motivating drives behind my
enjoyment of modding Epiphones. The extremely plebeian Epiphone Les Paul Special ll that I
posted above was my first essay into the craft. I nailed it, with a few 'learning experiences"
that I was able to disguise effectively. *smiles
But the Special ll has excellent tone, and her neck and frets are good, and she plays and feels
as well as a 9 pound guitar can. Great sustain... the Gibson 490 p'ups sound better in the Epi than
they ever did in the SG above. And they sounded good in Luna. Just not good enough for my Queen.
And she's the first guitar I think about after I've been on the road for some time without her.
Even if I pick up that Epiphone trollop, the blonde/black trashy/elegant guitar with the antique P-90 p'ups...
The one with the bell-like tone in the neck p'up, and the gritty rock an roll tone in the bridge...
*laughs... Are we having fun yet?
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Seamy...I've played clubs in Texas that strung chicken wire in front of the bandstand so the bottles didn't hit you...bikers would ride their Harley's in and spin donuts on the dance floor....tough places to play...like The Pink Panther Club in South San Antonio back in the 1980's....
B
Biddlin
Guest
My favorite place to show off, both my licks and guitars is the neighborhood crappy bar. That's where they play blues around here. There are no extant bars as crappy as those I relied on for trade in the late 60s and 70s. My longtime friend and frequent roadie, Mitch the bear Baker was 6' 7" 320 pounds of love and protection in joints from Oakland to Orlando, once taking a knife in the arm protecting my guitar. The worst place I've played in the last 25 years is better than the usual bar gigs back then. The Bucket of Blood. in Rantoul and The Yolo Club in West Sacramento are my two worst/favorite memories of my road days.