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The Guitar Pron Thread


Celery Man

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4 hours ago, Goredho said:

Missed this one.  I've owned an Eastman slope-shoulder Gibson J45 knockoff and a 335 knock off.  Both were great for just under a grand each at the time.  I've played some J45s and owned a couple of 335s and I'd say they were roughly on par with a Gibson standard equivalent.  They are made with a similar level of care and quality of component.  They don't hold value like a Gibson, but if you buy used, someone else has already taken that hit for you.  I ultimately sold them, but it was not because they sucked.

At a certain point, long ago, I started buying the American-made Fenders and Gibsons because I could always resell them and not take much of a hit, particularly if I bought them used.  Spending more out of the gate tended to yield more when I grew tired of it and wanted to sell.  The problem eventually became that I liked what I bought and didn't want to sell it. 

 

My only recent experience buying a guitar made in China was a beautiful, Gold-Top Casino.  What a looker.  But that damned thing sounded like I was playing a cigar box.  The only time it sounded good was when I ran it through my cranked Victoria Bassman. But everything sounds good through a cranked bassman.  I think the lesson for me was, as with most things, try it before you buy it.  But I've gotten luckier far more often with American-made Fenders and Gibsons buying sight-unseen.  YMMV.

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13 hours ago, dcbc said:

At a certain point, long ago, I started buying the American-made Fenders and Gibsons because I could always resell them and not take much of a hit, particularly if I bought them used.  Spending more out of the gate tended to yield more when I grew tired of it and wanted to sell.  The problem eventually became that I liked what I bought and didn't want to sell it. 

 

My only recent experience buying a guitar made in China was a beautiful, Gold-Top Casino.  What a looker.  But that damned thing sounded like I was playing a cigar box.  The only time it sounded good was when I ran it through my cranked Victoria Bassman. But everything sounds good through a cranked bassman.  I think the lesson for me was, as with most things, try it before you buy it.  But I've gotten luckier far more often with American-made Fenders and Gibsons buying sight-unseen.  YMMV.

Always best to play before you buy if you can.  I live 2 hours from the nearest gear store, so I tend to try to buy used at a used price, have it shipped to me, treat my ownership as an extended demo, and if I ultimately don’t like it, I sell for roughly the same used price and the shipping costs and reverb cut are my rental/demo fees.  That holds true for all brands, but it might take longer to resell something that doesn’t have Fender or Gibson on the headstock.

I really think quality control is something that varies on a brand by brand (maybe even factory by factory?) basis.  I agree there’s a good standard of quality from USA Fender and Gibson.  I’ve also seen really good QC from PRS SE line, Eastman and Reverend which are made overseas but set up and inspected in the US before they go to retailers.  Reverend in particular is probably my favorite ~$1000 new “value brand”.  Absolutely on par with US made Fender and Gibson in terms of quality, playability, tone.  I’d have no qualms buying any of those other brands sight unseen.

 

 

Edited by Goredho
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On 4/15/2024 at 4:59 PM, Goredho said:

Missed this one.  I've owned an Eastman slope-shoulder Gibson J45 knockoff and a 335 knock off.  Both were great for just under a grand each at the time.  I've played some J45s and owned a couple of 335s and I'd say they were roughly on par with a Gibson standard equivalent.  They are made with a similar level of care and quality of component.  They don't hold value like a Gibson, but if you buy used, someone else has already taken that hit for you.  I ultimately sold them, but it was not because they sucked.

I recently bought a used Epiphone 335 Figured Tea Burst used for $450. I’m not an expert by any means but it’s about as good a guitar as I would ever need. I thought that I would at least need to change the pickups but I was wrong.  These “Inspired by Gibson” guitars have CTS pots, upgraded hardware and are finished nicely. I also like the changed headstock better than the other version.  I kind of expected the guitar to be the typical Chinese cheap feeling  type of thing.  It’s slightly heavier than the Gibson as it’s not nitro finished but other than that the differences are not something I would notice  

 I’m not what I call a cork sniffer as I’ve been lucky to find three really good MIM Fenders as well as a 1993 LP Classic that I rotate around.  For someone who just enjoys playing at home I think there are a lot of moderately priced Chinese guitars out there that provide a good value. 

IMG_9493.webp

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Yeah, I am not a fan of the color at all. I know some people love it, but I am firmly on the opposite end of the spectrum: Team Fender Pastel.

Also, Celery Man's picture smells like stale cigarette smoke. 

 

 

Edited by topochico
The living room, hopefully not the baby
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SIAP, but have recently discovered a new favorite guitar channel on YT.

If you haven't seen Jamie Robinson, he's an insanely talented player, but also a professional instructor and comes up with some great technique exercises that both sound cool and are fun to play. Also, he's got quite a collection of custom guitars.

 

Edited by Storm the Field
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AFTER BEING DISCOVERED in an attic, John Lennon’s famous Help! guitar is headed to auction as part of the upcoming “Music Icons” sale at Julien’s Auctions on May 29 and 30.

Both Lennon and George Harrison played the Framus 12-string Hootenanny acoustic guitar while making Help! — both the album and accompanying film — as well as Rubber Soul. Lennon can be seen strumming it in the performance of “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” in the Help! movie, while it’s distinct 12-string shimmer also graced songs like “Help!”, “It’s Only Love,” “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” “Girl,” and “Norwegian Wood.” 

The Framus later ended up with Gordon Waller, the Scottish singer-songwriter who was one-half of the duo Peter and Gordon (with Peter Asher), and then Waller passed it along to one of Peter and Gordon’s road managers. Fifty years later, it was discovered in an attic in the British countryside, while the original guitar case (made by the Australian company Maton) was found in the trash and rescued. 

The Framus guitar currently has an estimated price of $600,000 to $800,000, but it’s expected to fetch far more than that and potentially surpass the $2.4 million price tag of Lennon’s Gibson J160E when it sold in 2015. The lot includes the guitar, the Maton case, and a copy of the book The Beatles: Photographs From the Set of Help, featuring images by Emilio Lari. 

Darren Julien, co-founder and executive director of Julien’s Auctions called the discovery the Help! guitar “the greatest find of a Beatles guitar since Paul McCartney’s lost 1961 Höfner bass guitar.” He continued: “Finding this remarkable instrument is like finding a lost Rembrandt or Picasso, and it still looks and plays like a dream after having been preserved in an attic for more than 50 years. To awaken this sleeping beauty is a sacred honor.”

The Help! guitar is one of over 1,000 lots that’ll be featured in the “Music Icons” sale. Other highlights include a Fender P Bass played by U2’s Adam Clayton (plus Clayton’s stage-worn Rick Owens t-shirt, pants, and sneakers); Mick Mars’ signed Girls Girls Girls Kramer KM-1 guitar (used in Mötley Crüe’s “You’re All I Need” music video); Tina Turner’s custom Versace dress worn during the “Wildest Dreams” tour in the mid-Nineties; and a pair of Onitsuka Tiger high-top sneakers Freddie Mercury wore on stage in 1979, along with the singer’s red vinyl pants. 

 

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6 hours ago, Deej said:

It ain't the tools, it's the man who uses them. 

 

 

Notice how it doesn’t have any switches in the strum path?

Still amazed that Leo Fender sucked so much ass at switch placement. 

I know that he didn’t play, but only some Mustangs moved the switch out of the strum path. 

R.L.’s guitar maker apparently fixed Leo’s stupidity. 

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Test drove this Epi 'mandobird' again last night. At a local Music Go Round so going to wait and see if they drop the price.  

Cool sound, especially when run through a chorus, other modulations, but not sure I want to pay the $550 they are currently asking.  Fun to play though and just a cool looking instrument.
 

5a68ac418130e9d65ab1571bbee2e99b.jpg

 

I'm trying to get the tone of Buddy Miller's 'mandocaster' at the 2:20 mark of this song.   I have an Ovation mandolin with piezo pickups but it just sounds like a mic'ed up mandolin.  

 

Edited by hullabelew
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i think the biggest leap in my playing came when i bought a bunch of acoustics. of course i was also drunk and massively depressed, doing almost nothing but sitting on my couch and holding on to my pretty toys

 

7 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

This is an issue for you?

The next time I accidently switch pickups on my Tele or my Strats will be the first.

uh yeah for sure. strat volume knob is right where I want to anchor my hand and it's easy for me to hit the switch. don't even get me fucking started on the jaguar (not mine, back in the band days when I switched off with the other guitarist/bassist). I used painters tape on the stupid switches to keep them in place. no problem with teles. The hand position thing with the strat became a problem for me after I spent a long time playing mostly acoustics. Knocking switches around I find easy to do, but it's also probably influenced by leaning into performatively large right hand movements as stage presence

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11 hours ago, Napoleon said:

Notice how it doesn’t have any switches in the strum path?

Still amazed that Leo Fender sucked so much ass at switch placement. 

I know that he didn’t play, but only some Mustangs moved the switch out of the strum path. 

R.L.’s guitar maker apparently fixed Leo’s stupidity. 

There's a hot take.

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4 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

This is an issue for you?

The next time I accidently switch pickups on my Tele or my Strats will be the first.

Bro…

You are AWESOME!

29 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Struggled with switch placement:

image.thumb.png.c9a30cecba2b8e588dcbfb5504a2b5ee.png 

image.thumb.png.153e1572dd4762470b2e5237200d541b.png

image.thumb.png.80993662da27b7f53d144b5bd7d276c8.png

image.png.4bb1753a2c9377ba640c5239b5817144.png

image.png.b7aeeef565133b4104269d68340d6105.png

Not one strummer in the bunch. 

Poor choice of examples, but keep on it. 👍

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