Let's see your guitar and bass gear!

Tony Sestito said:

barefootskater said:

Antihero said:

wawazat said:

I found a rough looking Peavey Patriot with amp local for $250.   I'd like to take a look at it but Detroit is kind of a Covid hot spot right now so Imma sit tight.   

Peavey's are always good

Not sure I'd use the word "good," but that's just personal taste. Solid,for sure. Beefy. Reliable. Peavey basically makes small block chevys. Not the most sophisticated, heavy. But when you need a workhorse, by golly it will work for you. Goes for their  amps and pro audio stuff as well. I like peavey. 

I'll die on this sword: The USA-built Peavey bass stuff is bulletproof, all the way from the early T40's to the later 90's Foundation and Fury basses. I've played more than a few of them over the years, and every one of them played and sounded awesome. And they can take a real beating; the Foundation S I have was beaten within an inch of its life and somehow was able to be brought back to life with some cleaning, new strings, and minor tweaks. It's probably the best playing bass in my lineup!

Their guitars are pretty good as well, but I've found that the later USA ones pale in comparison to the earlier ones, with the exception of the EVH ones.

The Peavey T-60 is one of the coolest guitars ever. I have one that had a pretty hard life before I got it so I just set it up with really high action and heavy strings for playing slide. I’d love to have a nice one someday.

I'll play...  To say I'm a real player would be a huge stretch but it's fun.   I played drums in college and worked at the Zildjian factory for a summer job before my senior year (kid in a candy store?).   That skill set has completely left the building at this point, no room for a set and just way too loud for home.   This is my #1, Schecter Tempest Blackjack with a set neck,tapped Seymore Duncan humbuckers and string through body.   It has back and side relief on the body so it sits closer than a Les Paul.   Makes my cheap little tube amp make all the right sounds.  My son's Ibanez bass is to the left.

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Here's the rest of the herd.   On the left is a Monoprice Tele copy that I bought on a whim.   Considering what it cost (cheap!!!) it looks and sounds way better than it has any right to.   Action is low, stays in tune and hardware / switches are surprisingly good quality.  Other than restringing it with Ernie Ball regular slinkies I haven't had to touch it.   The right hand is a Fender Telecoustic with a Fishman pickup under the sound board.  Bought this from the orphan toy box at GC for cheap, it was unplayable due to a bowed neck.   Played with the truss rod, shimmed the neck to improve the action, restrung and it sounds pretty decent.

In reply to barefootskater :

Actually funnily enough they did a lot of pretty wild stuff that people have forgotten.

Take for example the Vulcan. Name one other 200 watt plus guitar amps that had 2 footswitchable channels, onboard fuzz, reverb and phaser......that was made in the 60s.

A lot of Peavey got lost in time because they weren't spendy

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

Seems the new Peavey stuff is still considered affordable gear one can gig with. I have zero experience in such things but I bought my Peavey slightly larger than a practice amp based on this reputation. I could have easily gone with Fender, Ampeg, or Orange in the same price range. Peavey destroyed them on watts/$ and wasn't trying to sell me on "tradition" and hero worship. Tradition in quotes as they're almost all made in the far east anyway.

3 months of free online guitar lessons: https://try.fender.com/play/playthrough/?banner=PLAY_20200323.PlayThrough2020.Pencil.Shop

Tony Sestito said:

Got bored yesterday and decided to tweak my Squier SE Strat a bit. On the agenda were a string change, lower the bridge height, round and deburr the fretboard edges, and oil the fretboard.



So yeah, the bridge was just a wee bit high! I installed this Wilkinson vintage-style "big block" bridge when I brought this thing home a couple years ago, but never messed with it since.


After sanding the edges of the board lightly with a foam sanding block to round/deburr the fret edges, I hit it with some Dunlop lemon oil. As you can see, the board was extremely dry. I can bet that it's never been oiled since it left the factory. When I bought it, it was basically new; hell, it still has the cellophane on the pickguard!


So much better!


And done. I LOVE how this thing looks!

So, how's it play? Better, I think? Still not 100% happy with it. The neck feels better and doesn't want to cut my fingers while playing, but the tone still isn't what I am looking for. When I bought it, I replaced the weak stock pickups with some Wilkinson "hot" ceramic pickups that I scored super cheap. While they are much better than the originals, they still don't sound the way I want them to. I'm used to humbuckers, so it could just be my ears. I also strung it with some cheap Musician's Gear 9's instead of the usual D'Addario 10's I always use, so that might be part of the problem.

Not sure what to do next, maybe another pickup change? We'll see.

 

I've been playing this thing all week, and I'm pretty sure I need to revise my comments. I think I love it now.

To be honest, everything else I have has at least one humbucker, if not two. The reason I bought a Strat in the first place is because I wanted something for the clean stuff that's more moddable. After playing around all week with different tones, I'm able to get some really nice stuff out of this guitar. It sounds clean, punchy, and clear as a bell when cranked. And between the bridge fix and the 9's, it's incredibly easy to play. If I do anything to this guitar it might be an electronics upgrade. These Squier SE's still have the cheapo switches and pots.

C/N: I didn't "get" Strats, but I think I do now.

The SEs have that huge nevk that I love. I have one in pieces somewhere

Interesting that you mention the 9's.   Rick Beato on the tube of you did a video on strings a couple of weeks back.  Basically said we're all playing heavier gauge than we should, 9's ended up being his pick. I plan on grabbing a couple of sets the next time I need some to try it out.

I ordered a thing today. Casual browsing of Musician’s Friend led to scouring google for reviews which led to an eBay purchase of a Yamaha RS320. Basically Yamaha’s interpretation of a stripped down double cutaway Les Paul.

I’m excited. I like my Fenders but it will be nice to have something different around for heavier stuff.

In reply to BlueInGreen - Jon :

What color did you get?  I really dig the light blue they have. 

11GTCS said:

Interesting that you mention the 9's.   Rick Beato on the tube of you did a video on strings a couple of weeks back.  Basically said we're all playing heavier gauge than we should, 9's ended up being his pick. I plan on grabbing a couple of sets the next time I need some to try it out.

I don't know if I agree, I destroy light strings fairly fast. 

Of course i also break picks at times too, I can use fender tortoise for one. They last about a half hour

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

I agree, but I'm tempted to try.  I have been using Ernie Ball RPS 10's for so long (they were the only ones that seemed to last on a Kahler), that I don't know what lighter strings feel like.  I have EB Power Slinky's on a couple of guitars (11s) and even the EB "Not Even Slinky" 12's on one Les Paul.

I don't break picks, but I do wear them down.  Even the stainless steel picks I used to use (great for epic pick slides).

In reply to logdog (Forum Supporter) :

I got a white one, nice and boring.

I actually really like the way it looks. White is one of my favorite guitar colors in general.

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

I’m using 10’s now so I’m not sure it’ll be a huge difference.  It was interesting to watch them play the same riff with the different gauges though.  I think he called it the Stevie Ray Vaughn effect, heavy strings tuned low and everyone basically followed along because Stevie Ray...  

My chops are very basic at this point, I’d love to take some lessons again but up until recently we’ve been slammed at work leaving not a lot of practice time.  If I’m going to take lessons, I need to respect the teachers time and practice so....  I pick away with you tube tutorials for now.   Drumming was so much more intuitive for me but at the time I was playing, I also had the time to play / practice every day. 

In reply to BlueInGreen - Jon (Forum Supporter) :

Looks good in white.  I dig it!

Just an FYI, we're going to add a music chat room to the GRM Happy Hour video call this Tuesday night (4/7) @ 8 PM.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/grmr-happy-hour-video-chat/170447/page1/

11GTCS said:

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

I’m using 10’s now so I’m not sure it’ll be a huge difference.  It was interesting to watch them play the same riff with the different gauges though.  I think he called it the Stevie Ray Vaughn effect, heavy strings tuned low and everyone basically followed along because Stevie Ray...  

My chops are very basic at this point, I’d love to take some lessons again but up until recently we’ve been slammed at work leaving not a lot of practice time.  If I’m going to take lessons, I need to respect the teachers time and practice so....  I pick away with you tube tutorials for now.   Drumming was so much more intuitive for me but at the time I was playing, I also had the time to play / practice every day. 

I use 10s mostly, Ernie ball lime slinkies actually. When I tune to c# I go for power slinkies (11-48).

Baritones get 14-80s

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

Lime slinkies, that’s what I’ve been using!    Lol.  

I like 10s, maybe it’s in my head but there seems to be a little bit more sustain with slightly heavier strings. Now I’m just used to it and 9s don’t feel right.

Tony's post above had me pull out my "disaster Squire" that I've meaning to make playable or at least some approximation of. I got it as part of a deal with this little box of noise:

That thing also needs some bad contacts fixing up, but it is a working Marshall amp, and the price was mostly right-ish.

Anyway, the Squire:

It's an early 2000s Chinese made SE. Generally it's in OK condition although someone painted the pickguard, pickups and knobs black. Not Plastidip either, so that's not coming off. The main issue is that its action is mostly suitable for bow huntin and the trem needs a bit of adjustment, too:

I did get the trem closer to where it's supposed to be and removed some relief out of the neck until the action at the 8th fret was closer to sane, but the action at the higher frets is still way too high even with the string height adjusters lowered. I suspect that it might benefit from a thin shim under the neck to bring the rear of the neck up just a tad, but I don't have any suitable veneer or similar material floating around.

The rest of it is pretty much as expected - it doesn't play badly, but I'm used to slightly nicer guitars. The tuners are, well, oh well. They're present, and you can tune the guitar with them. Pickups are OK and sound decent - the string are shot so I'm not going to make any pronouncements about the sound quality, but they sounded OK to me.

What I really like about it is that it's got a satin neck that feels rather good. There is a nice guitar in there wanting to come out, I'm just not sure I'm the person to bring it out as I'll probably end up selling it cheap anyway.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

I’ve shimmed a couple of necks, my daughters Squier P bass and my Fender Telecoustic.   I have some aluminum offset print plate stock that worked well, as crude as it sounds I’d bet you could do the same with soda or beer cans. 

In reply to BoxheadTim :

That looks like perfect mod fodder to me. That would be a great candidate for a loaded pickguard, a decent bridge upgrade, and some tuners. When I did mine, I ended up getting everything pretty cheap. The pickups were about $20/set, the bridge was $25, and the no-name tuners were well under $20. It made a HUGE difference. If you can get that neck to behave, that's an option. Parts for these things are dirt cheap!

In reply to Tony Sestito :

I really needed another all consuming hobby . You're right, parts are indeed dirt cheap. Anybody know if a loaded pickguard from an American made Fender will drop right in, or is that going to lead to issues with the string spacing?

In reply to BoxheadTim :

Imports and US stuff has slightly different bolt patterns most of the time. Even my Squier SE with its full size body has slightly different holes. There are aftermarket solutions though. The bridge I got, for instance, has elongated holes to account for adjustments.