Let's see your guitar and bass gear!

'94 Strat:

'94 Custom Shop Explorer:

Close up that shows the black/white "pickle" finish:

ditchdigger wrote: Here it is. Routed and installed Jaguar/jazzmaster tremelo and bridge installed in a Squier 51. This thing is even more or a mutt now than when it was designed. I need to fab up a buzz stop for it. I am way to heavy handed for the low break angle this setup provides. Trying to decide on a lipstick tube Or a surf 90 for the neck position. That TV jones P90 is a keeper though.

Lipstick!

Man, I love the Jag/Jazz trem. I, too, tend to pick like I'm driving nails, so I don't think I'd get along with one.

Accidentally picked up a new project this weekend while I was in Nashville. Stayed with a family friend who had this in its original case, sitting in a closest (next to two custom Martins, also in cases in the closet...)

It's a '64 Regal 235, which is the same as the famous Harmony/Sovereign 1206/1230 that Jimmy Page loved. It's the Stairway guitar! All solid woods, giant neck and a big, bright and bassy tone. This one's going to be fun. (And the pickguard was in the case, so that's a quick glue job.)

Of course, no good deal comes without a catch...

But I've got a plan for that. In fact, I hope to have this one in playing shape by the weekend.

Just purchased a Warmoth Wizard profile neck for either a barncaster or "Strele" project. Stoked.

There is a neat documentary about the guitar, called 'It might get loud' with Jack Black, Jimmy Page, and The Edge. It was pretty neat.

It's free on Crackle, which is also free on PS3.

Ian F wrote: '94 Strat: '94 Custom Shop Explorer: Close up that shows the black/white "pickle" finish:

Especially that Explorer, oh my...

In reply to SilverFleet:

Thanks, it's a fun guitar to play although currently in desparate need of a proper set-up. Action is a mile high and won't stay in tune. It's in line to get worked on after I get the '71 back in a month or so.

I just got my '80 Les Paul Firebrand back from the shop. It plays better now than ever before:

It's a somwhat rare variation only made for a couple of years. Sort of a cross between a LP and a SG. Looks like Paul, but sounds more like an SG. I call it the SG for guys that don't like how an SG feels. I bought it for a whopping $350 about 20 years ago from a store up in Buffalo, NY when my g/f at the time was a co-op living in Niagra Falls. I'm still kicking myself for not buying a Gibson semi-hollow (ES-275, I think) they also had for a ridiculously low price.

Grabbed a Warmoth Pro Wizard profile neck cheap for the next blasphemous project - either barncaster or barn "Strele."

Like so:

In reply to poopshovel:

I.... I like that. Yup. I do. 5 position selector? Overall tone and volume?

In reply to poopshovel:

I like that. And I can't stand Telecasters.

RossD wrote: In reply to poopshovel: I.... I like that. Yup. I do. 5 position selector? Overall tone and volume?

I would ASSume so. Mine would be radically different and probably lose some of the "cool" because of it. Recessed Floyd. Probably just one humbucker and a volume knob. Or a bucker in the bridge and single coil in neck.

Oh, and Allen Colby is the builder. Super berkeleying cool guy. My best bud/singer's Dad. If you want one, he'll build you one!

SilverFleet wrote: In reply to poopshovel: I like that. And I can't stand Telecasters.

This tickles my tingly bits.

Give me the body with that color; don't change the neck or the Floyd. Add a tele deluxe pickguard and selector, and pickups and knobs from a Strat.

poopshovel wrote:

SilverFleet wrote: In reply to poopshovel: I like that. And I can't stand Telecasters.

This tickles my tingly bits.

Just noticed somebody forgot to order a trem-spaced bucker for his project. Still hawt.

I want to like Telecasters - I've owned enough of them over the years - but something always feels odd about them. Some day I'll have one made with Strat bevels. Or maybe a Charvel. Regardless, no new guitars for me until I'm done with fixing the ones I have.

Ian F wrote: I want to like Telecasters - I've owned enough of them over the years - but something always feels odd about them. Some day I'll have one made with Strat bevels. Or maybe a Charvel. Regardless, no new guitars for me until I'm done with fixing the ones I have.

"Bevels" like body contour & tummy cut? Yeah. Must-haves for me. I already destroy my forearm WITH a body contour.

poopshovel wrote: "Bevels" like body contour & tummy cut? Yeah. Must-haves for me. I already destroy my forearm WITH a body contour.

Yep. The shop I've been going torecently has a ton of Tele's along with some versions I'd never seen before. Some have belly cuts. Some have the arm bevel. Haven't seen one with both. They have a coupel of arch-top Tele's whih look cool. IIRC, those have belly cuts.

They had a couple of other neat Fenders: a Dick Dale signature model and a Custom Shop David Gilmore Relic replica - accurate down to the filled in body from an old Kahler installation. The price was a bit eye-popping: $4600

ditchdigger wrote: The new lady friend came with a few instruments and I am now refurbing her 84 G&L SB-2. It is a cool Bass and she has gigged all over the country with it since the early 90's. It was actually given to her in 91 as payment for a gig when the club owner couldn't pay the band what he promised. It is filthy and awesome but she wants it cleaned up.

I finally got around to finishing this one up. She has been playing the H22 so there was no rush.

I personally hated the idea of removing the honest, road worn look but she really wanted it done. Sanded it down to bare ash body, two coats of clear lacquer and then............

One can of duplicolor Metalcast blue anodize top coat, then 3 more coats of lacquer, wet sanded, buffed and waxed.

I am well chuffed with the result.

Most importantly it doesn't look new, I left some of the dings in the body and didn't polish it all the way to a wet look. It still looks like an old, used bass. Strung it up with some Rotosound flatwounds and it unsurprisingly plays and sounds amazing. Bridge pickup is the exact sound of Nomeansno's "Wrong" album.

In reply to ditchdigger:

What pickups are those? Our bass player (well, and all of us) are big NoMeansNo fans, and he'd love to sound more like Rob Wright (wouldn't we all?).

We've got other impediments to that goal; wrong amp, technical issues, brainlessness... Did put GFS's hotted-up P-Bass and Jazz bass pickups in the appropriate spots to replace the Fender active stuff, but... Did I mention the brainlessness?

In reply to ransom:

Whatever G&L was installing in 1984. They are an odd size/shape and you only ever see them in G&L's.

A quick google had me really surprised what Rob Wright actually plays. Stock MIM P-basses through a Marshall SS bass amp hooked to a 4X12 guitar cabinet.

Well, add one more to the collection:

With Solo Nats around the corner, I figured I needed something for the trip--not something that I'd call disposable, but something that wasn't worth a ton of money in case anything happened. Our local shop had this Epiphone Junior for $75--two knobs, one pickup, no switches. I have played Gibson Les Pauls that seemed a bit off-balance, but this one feels nice. I like it.

In reply to David S. Wallens:

Neat. Now go learn some Mountain/Leslie West songs.

The shop I've been going to has an odd Les Paul in stock - an otherwise normal gold top - which a single bridge pick-up. While the Jr looks ok without a neck p/u or upper switch, seeing them missing on a standard LP looks rather strange.

ransom wrote: In reply to ditchdigger: What pickups are those? Our bass player (well, and all of us) are big NoMeansNo fans, and he'd love to sound more like Rob Wright (wouldn't we all?).

The pickups are G&L MFD's. MFD stands for Magnetic Field Design. They were one of Leo Fender's later in life inspirations. They have one magnet mounted on the back of the pickup and adjustable iron "poles pieces" that somehow transfer the magnetic field up near the strings and the windings.

I pretend to know enough about magnetism or electrical signals to tell you exactly how they work, I just know the sounded berkleying awesome in G&L SC-2 guitar I used to own. Of all the instruments I traded over the years that is the one most wish I'd kept.

Type Q wrote: They have one magnet mounted on the back of the pickup and adjustable iron "poles pieces" that somehow transfer the magnetic field up near the strings and the windings.

Hmm... from what I've seen over the decades - especially from my younger years when many things I owned had to be taken apart to see how they worked - that's how most pick-ups are constructed.

In reply to David S. Wallens:

The two-pickup version of that guitar saved me from a Hondo II Professional strat copy that wouldn't stay in tune for 45 seconds, and served me well for the next decade and a half... Still have it, but contemplating passing it on to some kid who needs it to make room for a GFS experiment...

In reply to Type Q:

Thanks for the info!