Guitars... what you've got / what you want

nice finish, kind of a 70s bowling alley vibe

Does anyone know anything about the Guild Aristocrat? I really like how light they are, the feel, and the pickups. I'm wondering what's considered to be the best era for them.

my 70s gibson actually smells like a 70s bowling alley

I love the Marauder

Does anyone know anything about the Guild Aristocrat? I really like how light they are, the feel, and the pickups. I'm wondering what's considered to be the best era for them.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, May 9, 2023 11:01 AM (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

had to google but they are classy looking, i love those jazz box type guitars

Yeah, I'm into the idea of a closed hollow body. I picked it up and it felt so nice. And yeah it looks really good too. It seems like maybe they were actually introduced pretty late, like 2010s? But a little unclear to me.

I tried a used one they had at GC, but it seemed priced to high and it was missing the cool pickguard

The Aristocrat is intriguing. Chambered, with P-90s? No wonky Bigsby, which is a plus.

Personally I have yet to truly love a semi-hollowbody. I had a very nice 339 for a while but could tell it wasn't for me. Couldn't hear the wood and air at all. And try as I might, I don't think I will ever truly love a humbucker. I had vaguely thought that my next move in that direction might be something fully hollow, possibly with P90s, but my attention is elsewhere at present.

Best of luck to you man

It’s crazy what oddball Norlin Gibson models are going for these days. $1600…considering frets are like on many Norlins…no way dude.

I don't really have reason to buy another electric right now, I've been playing like 99% acoustic. I haven't even been playing the MIJ tele I bought last year much.

I do still sometimes think about selling my ES-335 studio - they've gone up a ton in value, and I hate the color of mine (wine red).

Still idly wish for a Jaguar or Jagblaster w/ wide range humbuckers but since I put Kinmans in my Jazzmaster it's hard to see where I have any need - no more noise issues and I seem to always be frustrated by humbuckers when everything is set for a bright Jazzmaster with 1 meg pots.

man alive there are some pretty amazing 335 type offerings from other makers these days which would handily match your Gibson, if reputation is a guide. Heritage, Guild Starfire, Eastman etc. And a LOT of change left over.

Eastman has a very good reputation in the mandolin world at present.

and milo the OG WRHB is quite a bright pickup because of the polepiece magnets, it would most likely coexist with your JM setups. But cmon, break free, get a Tele Deluxe or Custom. You’ll never look back.

xp Oh yeah for sure. I've kind of been thinking about an Eastman T-59v for a while (I think I mentioned it upthread) and could probably get one for the same or less as I could sell my Gibson for (this is one of the 2015 "studio" stripped down models so it's worth $$ but not $$$). Although I don't love the way they look a lot more than my Gibson.

Eastman has an increasingly strong rep in the bluegrass world generally - their acoustic dreads get recommended a lot as best value for money.

I've always loved Guild Starfires too. I'm generally a fan of Guilds.

But cmon, break free, get a Tele Deluxe or Custom. You’ll never look back

for any fellow new yorkers in this thread: is there a place somewhere in this city that isn’t guitar center (or sam ash) that has a decent stock, or any stock at all, of new electric guitars? i know a million places to buy vintage. can’t find a single place to buy a new one that isn’t a corporate superstore.

I was going to say Matt umanov but it looks like it’s now a “pure barre” whatever that is

i don’t know what a pure barre is either, but the retail store closed five or six years ago :(

Probably a barre studio. Those popped up a lot in the 2010s whenever another business would move out. Same deal as Spirit Halloween, but for trendy exercise.

Matt Umanov Pure Barre

pure barre chords

haha

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr4XtVAM4hi/

This acrylic Teisco reissue is badass

wow that is something else

Looks great

I like the first comment

Trust me, I owned the heaviest acrylic guitar ever. 1st Gen BCRich Mockingbird Acrylic Ice. Very rare and beautiful but cam in at just about 29lbs.(For Gibson owners that's 3 LP's) Literally heavier than a SG Doubleneck. #HeavyMetalPlastic #chiropractichumor

for any fellow new yorkers in this thread: is there a place somewhere in this city that isn’t guitar center (or sam ash) that has a decent stock, or any stock at all, of new electric guitars? i know a million places to buy vintage. can’t find a single place to buy a new one that isn’t a corporate superstore.

― fact checking cuz, Saturday, 13 May 2023 23:27 (five days ago) link

Rudy's Soho?

I've only been to their suburban outpost, but the Soho location is bigger and they carry new Fender, Gibson, Guild, Reverend, Eastman, and various other brands.

thank you. hadn't thought of rudy's in years because their old 48th street spot was the kind of place you basically couldn't walk thru the front door without at least $10,000 in your pocket. but i should give 'em a shot.

I went to that soho location once about five years ago but couldn’t tell you much about it except that I think Rudy’s daughter is running the place.

I've met Rudy and the daughter at the Scarsdale shop (the D-55 I bought actually belonged to Rudy!). Rudy does seem to always be at Scarsdale so it may be his daughter running it.

I think the shop definitely can give off the impression that it's luxury guitars only, but they do actually stock new midrange and even some cheaper guitars. If you go on the website and filter by new electric guitar, you can see they have a ton of <$1000 and <$2000 stuff.

I am kind of curious now why it's so hard to find new guitars in NYC, I hadn't really thought about it but all the shops I could think of I checked their websites and it's p much all used. Interested in the economic reasons for that.

Um, maybe people buy them at those superstores or mail order or out of the city? Not enough markup to make it worth it in the city? Dunno, grasping at straws.

yeah, i assume guitar center has driven almost everybody out of business except for the vintage shops.

I think it's very hard for small stores to be able to carry the big brands. Not sure if it's like a dealer exclusivity range (such as GC etc is the only dealer for a given product line within 10 miles or something like that) or its simply down to the minimum orders that have to be made to get a wholesale account. I know for a fact the latter was a thing years ago during the rise of Sweetwater etc, there was a TINY guitar store in my tiny hometown but they did stock new Gibsons until they changed the rules to basically only make it feasible for superstores to afford to carry the product line.... as I was told and best I can remember. I think the margins on new guitars are really small, and you probably have a lot of people beating you up to price match GC and whatnot.

And even GC itself seems to do some sort of “strategic bankruptcy” every several years or whatever it is they do.

Buy in for anything in a music store is pretty crazy in how much you have to buy to get even stuff like strings, picks etc. and that stuff has negligible markup.

A few years ago Gibson really pushed up their initial order to something crazy like 1/2 million or a million and you got to take one of nearly everything, including all the wacky shit they put out that very few want.

This is where I repost the bizarrely satisfying video of Gibson driving an excavator over some of its ill-conceived robot guitars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd7ySopIwog

Almost forgot about that one

the crucial comment on that video: "the real tragedy is that they weren't all plugged in for this"

"They must be counterfeit, as the headstocks didn't break."

lolz

oh lordy i want this so bad

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/yPzmsVrJVP2kZXBt9vD2aD-1920-80.jpg

https://www.musicradar.com/news/a-jazzmaster-12-string-squier-steals-the-limelight-from-fender-with-its-new-paranormal-series-guitars?fbclid=IwAR3Q8CwZX6MbUoqPWgyOMN6VroKHN2ric5K54R9VobIbD-RJVFXwE77mP0g

Damn
That’s a lot of tuning

also this tho:

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/25VmU5CeRzmNLFz47sHERD-970-80.jpg

i think the new john 5 tele is stunning but ymmv on that type of thing. and its 3k pricetag is like masterbuilt custom shop pricing lol.
https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/ZoomJpg/10001/0111052880_fen_ins_frt_1_rr.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cNWjujVuFw

Green funk

fun fact, the Rascal bass above is the only time they've re-used the Bass VI body

damn that john 5 tele is gorgeous.