Linking the amp and pedal build threads so they can be found in the future:
Linking the amp and pedal build threads so they can be found in the future:
In reply to BlueInGreen44:
I was about to pull the trigger, but they are sold out. I'll have to keep an eye out for one of these, because they are seriously cool.
What I have done on my 5E3 clone project so far...
The head cabinet needs gap filler and sanding, but it's getting there.
In reply to paranoid_android74:
That looks great!
Nice stuff.
New Amp Day!
My SVT-7 Pro started failing on me, so I need a new "tour" rig. Enter the Orange OB1-500. This thing is different, but awesome.
Hooked it up to my A/B switch and set off the seismometer.
In reply to Gimp:
I came for the sweet new Orange head, but stayed for the SVT Classic and 8x10 bass cab. Basically my dream rig on either side of that drum kit. 
Built me own A-B pedal because I wanted one. It's been interesting hopping between the two tube amps, they have radically different sounds. Some of that could be the 4x12 cab plugged into one vs the 12" speaker in the other, of course.
I live in a really small house. In that really small house is a really small room that we've dubbed the Retro Room. It's a catch-all for all my vintage video game stuff and old collectibles, and it's been my stringed instrument practice room for some time now. While I have bigger amps where my drums are set up, this one has a little 10-watt Marshall bedroom amp and a few guitars strewn about. It was getting so bad that I was literally tripping over them.
Not anymore. I bought one of those cheap multi-stands on Amazon, and set it up in there. Here's the result:
This particullar one was around $30 and holds 7 guitars (I wedged one more in between the couch and the stand). While I would definitely not recommend this for stage duty, it kicks butt here against the wall!
I'm also chasing some lady on Facebook Marketplace for a new toy, but I'm not expecting to get it; there's someone in line in front of me and the price is too good. If I do, I'll post about it. It's on my "I've always wanted one of those" list. 
I need to check in on this thread way more often.
Haven't had time to play my guitars much lately, but have been rediscovering bass, switching between a Hofner clone, a Gretsch Jr Jet, and my fretless Jazz. I had forgotten how much fun bass is.
So, here's the "new toy" I missed out on: 
Some lady a few towns over from me had "a couple old guitars" for $100 each. One of them was this Peavey T-40 bass.
These are highly sought after these days and usually trade hands for $500-800, and this one is the best color they offered them in. I played one recently and while it was as heavy as a slab of granite, it was a tone monster and sounded incredible. These were built back when Peavey built mostly everything in the USA, and the build quality is great.
But, even though I pleaded with the lady, she said I was second in line and sold it after holding it for a week for some lucky stiff. It's probably for the best.
On a related note, I recently picked up this Peavey fretless bass--with original case and everything--for $199 from our local shop.
In reply to David S. Wallens:
I LOVE the Foundations. There is one of those, with frets and in rougher shape, for $179 with the original case at my local Music Go Round.
http://www.musicgoroundboston.com/p/750908/used-peavey-foundation-4-string-usa-bass-guitar-sunburst
I fought the urge hard to go get that one when it popped up. I'm waiting for a different one.
The first "good" bass I ever played was a white 1994ish Foundation that a friend bought when he upgraded from a Samick P-Bass (which coincidentally, became my 1st bass). When I picked that thing up the day he brought it to a friend's place to jam, I felt like I immediately could play anything. That was probably the moment when I knew I'd be playing bass in addition to the drums.
If I ever see a white early 90's Foundation in nice shape locally, my wallet's in trouble.
Spent this weekend upgrading my first amp build from like 1995. If I remember correctly when I built it I was making like $600 a month working at a computer shop so money was tight and most of it was scavenged from old monitors and vintage thrift store reel to reel players
The eyelet board was a piece of gasket material I got from a mechanic friend. The turrets were motherboard standoffs from old PC/AT 286 cases just tuffed into holes, not even held in with nuts. I can't believe it ever worked or has since then.
A friend had let me sit in on an interview with Fugazi whilst they were in our town on tour. After the interview I was quizzing Guy and Ian on their amps and they told me about the person who worked on and modded their Marshalls. I found his number and called him up. He was pretty standoffish at first wondering why a random dude from the other end of the continent was calling him until I mentioned Guy and Ian told me to talk to him. He warmed right up and asked me what I had in mind. I told him what transformers I had to work with and he asked for my address. A few weeks later I received some photocopies of hand drawn schematics and layouts for this amp with a price list for some of the parts. Man that was back when you had to write a letter and include a check for things like that. I eventually got the stuff and made it somehow work.
It got a new micarta eyelet board, ceramic sockets, a large classic tone output transformer. I switched it from the 5F2 princeton to the slightly later 5F2a circuit and put in high and low inputs. It is now running a single ended EL34 output tube biased at 14.6 watts.
Tony Sestito wrote: So, here's the "new toy" I missed out on:
Seriously??? (On the price) I considered selling mine (which I got for free) a few years ago, and $100-$200 seemed to be the going rate.
You're right though. The thing is a BEAST. Though my back would always hurt after a show. They are HEAVY!!!
In reply to poopshovel again:
Yeah, people finally figured out that the US-built Peaveys are good. Around here, I used to be able to find these, Furys, Patriots, Foundations, etc for dirt cheap up until a couple years ago. Suddenly, they all shot up in price, with the T-20's and T-40's leading the charge. The guitars seem to be cheaper, except for the pointy/shredder guitars.
And done! The bastard lives again.
What a bruiser! Thick meaty midrange that EL34's are famous for, high end chime that I was not expecting. No overdrive pedal needed with this one. It's got grit for days. Not sure how else to describe it. Tweed Fender with a definite Marshall and Vox edge thrown in. Baby bassman AC15 mashup?
Whatever it is, is a very good combo.
I put the cocktail kit up on Craigslist this afternoon and had a call within 15 minutes. Let's hope the sale is easy
That must have been the best Craigslist transaction ever. A well dressed business man looking gentleman arrived on schedule, chatted a bit about guitars and drums and handed over the full asking price with a smile.
I will get some pics of the Mapex pro M and Gretsch Catalina club kits that replaced the cocktail set up soon. I still need to finish setting them up and let Bianca decide which is the keeper.
I've decided to spent some of my off-the-clock time away from home a bit more productively than on Internet forums, and to switch off the IT part of the brain I figured I'd use that to get back to playing guitar again. Which clearly meant adding to the collection, right?
I wandered into Guitar Center (yeah, I know, but I didn't want to deal with CL flakes, and their used prices aren't too bad) to find something that I really liked feel-wise. And I couldn't. Until I saw something dark pulling me into a corner...
Like, black. With black pickups. And, err, seven strings? WTBerkeley? I can't even play six...
But it felt just right.
Anyway, thanks to a local ordinance I couldn't walk out with the guitar immediately (they have to keep used instruments in the store for 30 days before they're allowed to let them walk out again - weird rule in SF/Silicon Valley) but I now have a Sterling by Music Man JP70 on layaway that I can pick up on September 1st. Can't wait.
And still no guitar, but another GC is a bit more than a mile from my client in SF, might as well take the long walk to the station. Especially as they had an early 2000s Jackson for $250 and a Korean Hamer for $200. Can't hurt to look, right?
Well, the Jackson looked like it had been someone's parts guitar and then they sold on what was left. Clamps on the nuts were missing, the Floyd Rose copy looked well corroded and it just didn't feel right. The Hamer was also so-so. Better, but still so-so. But across the aisle from it was this:
It looked at me in a sad way. So I took it home.
I christened it "Oops".
It's Korean made earlier SE Custom (flat top rather than the contoured current ones). Plays nice, pretty well setup although I'd have to raise the low strings just a tad - the E6 gets a little fret buzz due to the low action. It also has a small crack in the paint with lose paint next to the jack, but I think trying to float a little superglue underneath will hold it together.
Very coon on the PRS SE. My first guitar was one of those flat-top SE Custom 24s.
Thanks David.
That's actually my second PRS and skimming through this thread made me realise that I never posted photos of my other two guitars or the amp, only a couple of photos of the Ltd Explorer. I sold most of my guitar gear when I moved over here from the UK, but there was one guitar that I just wasn't going to part with no matter what:
Yes, PRS made an "affordable" Super Strat in the early 90s. This one has been well looked after but obviously used (not much chrome left on the bridge). It's also been modded a little - witness the Seymour Duncan strat-sized humbucker neck pickup. But boy does it play well. It's also pretty rare, from what I can tell they didn't make that many of the EG series.
I went and did it. I'm a bass player, but I bought a guitar.
L. Burns copy of Keith Richard's Micawber.
"One piece body, butterscotch relic finish from pictures of the original. Dragonfire bridge pick up and an ’57 classic in the neck position. CTS 250K pots, CRL 3 way switch and a .22 tone cap. The neck is a C shape Northern maple, 10” radius maple fret board with 22 medium jumbo frets. The tuners are vintage style Grovers and the bridge is a Fender vintage style (with all 6 saddles and strings)."
The price was right and I was looking for this configuration for a while, but couldn't stomach paying $400 for a Squier.
I'm not much of a guitar player, but I'm digging this one.
In reply to BoxheadTim:
It seems PRS made a lot of low production run guitars back then. I had a rather "basic" model for a few years. Similar to their standard model at the time (2HB, trem, rotary switch, 24 frets), but it didn't have the figured maple top. Just a tobacco sunburst finish. I have yet to see another one.
So, I've created a monster.
My 15 year old bass playing nephew just bought ANOTHER bass (he's up to 5 now). This time, he picked up a 1995-vintage Fender Standard (aka Mexican) Jazz Bass. He picked it up from a local seller on Reverb for short money. He did me proud! 
This one has been around the block a few times, and it shows. It has a few dings and dents, the bridge is wrong (and black for some reason), two of the bridge saddles were busted (he replaced them with some he had from another bass for now) and the action was weird. The neck is nice, and has a good amount of tiger striping to it, and he got it set up enough on his own to be able to play it. The cream color has aged just enough that it looks great, but it's still pretty grungy. The knob plate is scratched and pitted, and one of the volume pots is problematic and is going to need to be replaced. I played it for a bit last night, and compared to my recently purchased Squier VM '77, it's about 5 lbs heavier and the neck profile is thicker, almost like a P-Bass neck. Although I love my VM, it feels like a toy compared to this thing.
One thing that I found strange is that the neck plate is completely blank, and the neck looks to have been pulled at some point. I'm not up on my Fender lore, but I thought the 90's ones got the serial number both on the headstock AND the neck plate, right? The plate is sunken into the body a little bit. I still think he did well, and the bass has mojo for days.
Speaking for mojo, he also found this recently:
This appears to be a pre-1975 Ibanez "Lawsuit" P-Bass. It's obviously in pieces, but the body and neck are supposed to be decent. People love these things, and they usually trade hands for between $500-800+. This one is $60, and he's trying to talk me into buying it. I've wanted a P-Bass for a while, and this would make a great winter project.
Should I?
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