Let's see your guitar and bass gear!

In reply to Keith Tanner:

No - Gibson humbuckers should not "hum" by design. My guess would be one of the pick-up grounds is bad. Could be internal to the pick-up or a wiring issue.

Ibanez Prestige series are very good guitars. Pretty much professional quality and as good as anything sold by Gibson or Fender for much more money.

Yes, 5-way switch wiring can vary a lot depending on the manufacturer and intended use, but in general a 2H set-up will be: 1-Neck Hum, 2-Neck Split, 3-Both Hum (but this can vary A LOT), 4-Bridge Split, 5-Bridge Hum. But if you search online (Seymour Duncan has a ton in their technical guides) you can wire up a 5-way in a myriad of different ways.

Keith, you know that makes sense that a metal guitar would make a good learners guitar. I should get a metal guitar and tell my wife it's for her... again.

My Epiphone Les Paul Standard is the noisiest guitar or bass I have. I've played Gibsons that are very similar noise-wise. Back when I was in my band, I used to bring it to practice for a backup for my guitar players sometimes. They loved the way it played, but it was too damn noisy! I'm actually planning on doing the copper tape treatment on it as soon as this weekend. I bought some 11's to try on it, so I might as well rip it all apart and make it quiet.

Oh, and that Ibanez is nice! I'm a strong believer that a quality instrument makes learning a lot easier. Nothing is worse than fighting the thing when you are just trying to learn. The Prestige ones are really, really nice guitars, right up there with the best USA stuff.

Ian F wrote: No - Gibson humbuckers should not "hum" by design. My guess would be one of the pick-up grounds is bad. Could be internal to the pick-up or a wiring issue.

It doesn't hum, it buzzes. It's a fairly harsh sound. It doesn't sound like a 60 cycle hum (I used to have a bit of that with the Fenders before shielding them), it sounds as if I'm going to get a shock and it changes with what else I touch. It's done this with two sets of pickups, so it's not the pickup. The wiring is the factory Gibson PCB, although I haven't beeped out the whole thing to make sure there isn't a bad trace on the board. Maybe I'll unplug one pickup at a time to see if that changes things, although switching pickups via the toggle switch doesn't change the buzz. Shielding the cavity didn't help.

I do have continuity from the strings to the output jack. Reading forums, it appears that this is a pretty common feature of Les Pauls but it just seems wrong.

One thing I haven't tried is plugging the LP into another amp. I figured that if the amp was quiet with other guitars, it wasn't an amplifier problem. I'll give that a shot tonight. I also sit fairly close to the amp while practicing, maybe I'll see if distance matters.

The neck on that Ibanez is better finished than the neck on an American Standard Fender, and they're about the same price normally. Definitely a good value.

Here is a sneak preview of the body refinish on the $20 pawn shop Squier SE I've been working on. Plenty of flaws but a valuable learning experience.

I like the color combo, that's striking. Maple or rosewood neck?

In reply to Keith Tanner:

It's rosewood but it's much lighter in color than the rosewood on my other Squier. I think its really nice looking.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

It might be the pots on the PCB. I'd probably order so good 250K or 500K pots along with some good caps for the tone pots and rewire it.

You'd hope a made in USA Gibson would come with "good" pots, but I may try that. According to what I've read, this is a very common feature. I'm on the road right now so I can't do any testing with unplugging things at the moment.

On the other hand, a few truss rod and action adjustments, a new set of strings and a bit of oil on the fretboard and my cheap little Academy is a much happier instrument to play. Still crap electronics with poorly finished frets, but it's useful now.

Yes, you'd think... but I don't consider the electronics of a guitar to be a deal-breaker as those are easy to replace. How the guitar feels and plays is more important. Unfortunately, I have yet to play a Gibson from the last 20 years that feels right to me.

This isn't a deal breaker, it's an annoyance. I've already replaced the pickups, I guess I'll start doing the rest of the wiring. I've got the specs for the stock pots, but not the brand.

Neither of my Strats have a stock piece of wiring in them other than the output jack

Nick (Bo) Comstock wrote: Here is a sneak preview of the body refinish on the $20 pawn shop Squier SE I've been working on. Plenty of flaws but a valuable learning experience.

Are you planning on leaving the body looking like that? Because if you aren't, you should. It looks killer!

In other news, I got to play guitar tech for my bass playing nephew over the weekend. Both of my nephews are in a metal band, and they had a show last Friday. The bass playing one was complaining about his basses playing like garbage and wanting to borrow mine. He has 3 basses: a Yamaha RBX170 P/J bass that's a little over a year old, a killer active 5-string Jackson Concert Bass that makes me jealous, and an Ibanez TR70 that I recently gave him as a project. You guys might remember that one as the one that needed tuners.

I got both the Yamaha and Jackson in nice playing shape by slightly adjusting string height (he drop tunes to B so this helped keep them off the frets), and the Jackson's neck needed some truss rod adjustment. The Ibanez, however, needs a new nut.

When I had it, the tuners were all worn out and they rattled. He replaced the tuners, and to our surprise, it still rattled. Turns out that the A-string nut groove is so loose that it rattles around when seated. I've never replaced one before, so I suggested he farm that out to a luthier.

It's here, it's here!

What is it? Paul Reed Smith S2 Vela Satin Limited.

How does it play? Thanks to my broken arm, I have no idea. It does look pretty, though.

On the back of the headstock, it has a little something extra:

Jack, formerly president/now COO of PRS, is the one who got me into this crazy guitar stuff.

Thanks.

In reply to David S. Wallens: Sweet!!! Can't wait til you can actually try it out....timing is everything...man! And sorry for having a hand in opening up pandora's music box on ya....(maybe...well, not really)

Yummy.

That is the most appealing PRS I have ever seen.

DeArmond in the neck and I am guessing something more filtertron-esque in the bridge? Nice!

jh36 wrote: In reply to David S. Wallens: Sweet!!! Can't wait til you can actually try it out....timing is everything...man! And sorry for having a hand in opening up pandora's music box on ya....(maybe...well, not really)

Thanks for getting me hooked, and hopefully in a month or so I can play it--or at least make some noises with it. It does look amazing in real life.

In reply to Tony Sestito:

Thanks! I'm going to put poly on it. As of yet undecided if it's going to be satin or gloss.

Very nice PRS David!

Nick (Bo) Comstock wrote: Very nice PRS David!

Thank you. Yes, they make some amazing guitars.

This may have been posted earlier but does anybody watch the Anderton's review videos on Youtube? British music shop with Rob Chapman and this dude Rabea who can mimic styles and tone of so many players to give you break down on different gear. It's like the guitar version of Mighty Car Mods.

In reply to crankwalk:

Yeah, I've binge watched quite a few recently.

I find myself watching the andertons videos a fair bit.

I think Rob's playing style is my least favorite musical anything. He is obviously ridiculously talented but it often makes me plug my ears. However the videos are really entertaining! I enjoy the blind tests a lot

Second coat of Poly is on. And while I think it looks pretty cool, the color is certainly a lot more uneven and blotchy than I thought it would be. Especially the back.

I'm considering stripping it all back down and starting over at this point.

In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock:

I think it looks completely badass from the pics!