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

I've got one but it's kind of an oddball - it's a 2013 "Fender Classic Series '50s Precision Bass Lacquer" to be pedantic about it.

It came with a tweed case, and has a bigger neck with a 7.25" radius and smaller frets, lacquer finish instead of poly, gold pickguard (which I changed to black), reverse direction tuners and the truss rod adjustment is at the heel which is period correct but I hate because of course this is the one guitar I own that needs semiannual truss rod adjustments.

I bought it on craigslist four years ago for $500 when for some reason I decided I really NEEDED a black and maple precision with a black pickguard. I'd never owned or really played a p before but I love this thing and would never dream of getting rid of it.

I've had an 99 Mexican jazz forever, replaced the bridge with a Badass II and the pickups with Seymour Duncans and I don't ever feel the need to get anything different

Competition Stripe Vintera II Mustang looks dope too

The reason I was wondering about the Mexican ones is, I made a purchase recently that caused me to question my assumptions.
Bought a 1970s Greco p bass, and in truth it's a bit disappointing. It weighs a ton, and there's nothing special enough about the sound to make all that extra weight worth it. I did read that they could be heavy but I never fully appreciated the reality. And in reality, my lighter P-bass partscaster that I assembled from modern parts, it actually sounds closer to what I imagine a classic P bass to sound like.

I am starting to feel more and more like there's no reason you can't dial in a perfectly good 'vintage' type tone on a modern instrument if that's what you want. I used to doubt this a bit but now I think it's true, partly because of this and other experiences too. Some older ones do sound great but that doesn't mean that the modern ones are inferior.

I'm thinking maybe a Mexican one might be just that little bit lighter, as many of them would have a slimmer neck and lighter wood compared to the Greco. Of course, I could just use the parts bass, but it's a PJ, and I think I really just prefer the classic simplicity of the single-pickup version.

I’m actually always looking for a deal on a mim P (white, rosewood board so pre-2019 or whatever) because I would like to keep flats on one and rounds on the other.

For me guitars are like bikes in that they all feel different but I can adapt to most of them pretty quickly, try to modify the parts I don’t like, and/or sell them and move on pretty easily. But I love working on bikes and guitars almost as much as I like riding or playing them.

Pickups are easy to swap and can sound radically different - I’ve bought a lot of used guitar pickups, tried them out for a while, then sold them for essentially the same price.

matttkkkk - I know the Squire VIs. With me it's just a matter of running across the right one to connect wutg,

with

bass opinions - the Tokai Hard Puncher I picked up recently is the best P bass I have ever touched, and it's not even close. They can be had for not too much. It's pretty "old school" in that the neck is a real handful.
and Elvis the pink Squier VI above arrived and I thought oh, somewhat disappointing. Then, after three quarter-turns tightening the trussrod, and dropping the bridge about 1mm, we are in quite another ballpark of playability and fun. Even with the stock strings that everyone hates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etdColw0Knk

Burgundy Mist triple lipstick Jaguar, probably too much to hope Fender makes that a production model

They did that Jaguarillo thing that has disappeared without a trace. Offset with trem, not sure about scale. 2 strat pickups and a humbucker, strat style switch and simple electronics. They called it a Jaguar at the time.

Oh and Ibanez did this forever ago, kinda. one of the Talman models was 3 lipsticks.

The best bass I've ever played is this '86 J-bass:

https://www.quartzcity.net/ilx/86jbass.jpg

It belongs to Ms. Telecom - she bought it new from a guitar shop in Kingston/Woodstock and has owned it 30+ years since. In her words, "feels good, not changing it, never going to sell it" and I agree. Universally - every one who's played it or worked on it has immediately said "wow, what a great bass" - just one of those times when the Fender plant hits a great home run.

USA made?

Y

In the end I ordered an early 90s MIJ Fender p bass. The Greco's not terrible sounding, but I don't think it can do anything a lighter more comfortable instrument couldn't do.

The MIJ does have a basswood body, which gets a bad rap in some quarters. But I do have a poplar bass already which sounds good to me. So I am thinking that if there even is an effect at all, it is definitely not a case of denser/heavier woods sounding better, the Greco has me convinced of that. Now the challenge is to sell it on before I develop an irrational attachment to it.

Confessional
https://i.imgur.com/Fvr32rY.jpg
but - I have to say I am playing them and loving them individually.

Love them all!

Turning 40 today, my alltime favourite
https://i.imgur.com/fodQvAk.jpg

that is such a great guitar

Ta - I’ve had it 14 years, and it answers to no one for the quality of workmanship and the sounds it can make.

hell yeah!

Oh - not really apparent from the pic but it’s a Japanese Squier from 1983.

that's aged like fine wine

What's everyone's feelings on the Danelectro reissue stuff? Been wanting a real clean/chimey tone?

'67 Dano looks cool, a friend in Japan just picked one up and has a show next week.

Changing subject to WANTs, what exactly is this Arthur Lee frankenstein and how do I get my hands on one?

https://i.imgur.com/uo5SBty.jpeg

mad headstock on that top neck!

Almost perfect body/neck/headstock ratio... floating trem too lol, i bet that's "fun" to keep in tune.

woah -- look at the pickups on the bottom - the neck pickup looks like it's offset so it's not getting the bottom two strings, and the bridge is offset so it's getting those but not getting the top two strings

looks like a teisco or one of those brands

that pickup config is insane lol

what could be the purpose of that offset thing? some kinda 1 + 3 pickup setting with a phase thing going on?

I’m thinking of picking up an Epiphone Les Paul Standard 60 after years of playing strat clones and cheap Ibanez’ish pointy ‘shred’ guitars. Never had a LP before and can’t justify more than £500ish. Can anyone talk me out of it or recommend something better in that range?

I have had two Epiphone Les Paulish guitars. An LP Standard and a 339. Both were extremely good guitars in terms of fit and finish, playability, etc.

Although I ultimately decided to sell them and be single-coil forever more, I have no quarrel with those utterly fine instruments.

I’ve got one of the recent trad reissues (wooden bridge), I’ve really got to put more effort into setting it up. The factory string height/etc. was trash (no surprise) but I’ve got to monkey with pickup height because it just sounds dull (compared to other Dano reissues I’ve played and my old Silvertone).

my 17yo has got his first gigs booked!! he plays guitar in a thrash/death metal band. so far he's just been using a cheap marshall practice amp so i just got him a 90s peavey bandit 112 teal stripe for £99. we pick it up on tuesday. did i do good?

Willl I have heard extraordinary praise for the Epiphone Les Paul Muse series from folks who would know - they are metallic colours if you can abide that. Retail £499, Thomann have them for £399, some places less.

xpost I'm a Peavey fan it's wild how that company stays at underrated

Yeah Peaveys are quite solid and versatile.

seemed like a good way to get 80w of loudness for cheap, and the clean channel is apparently what a lot of the swedish death metal guys used to run their hm2 pedals through

he's going to be running an epiphone les paul through a metal zone or a rat, hope the neighbours will be cool with it oops!

I loved the old Peavey 5150 in my high gain days. I played a Classic 30 quite a bit, that's a sweet, compact affordable tube amp.

Classic 30 and Classic 50 are extremely good amps.

the new Danelectros seem very expensive for what they are. I'd rather have a J Mascis Squier Jazzmaster in that price range. The 67 DOES look cool though. I think the Danelectros are cool for trashy garage stuff, less so for chimey cleans.

xpost I'm a Peavey fan it's wild how that company stays at underrated

well I don't know about that

https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-251---punk-interest---john-mcgeogh-owned-and-used-peavey-amplifier/?lot=44617

Cheers everyone, looks like it’s Epi Les Paul time then. Now just got to talk myself out of the James Dean Bradfield style all white and gold custom I just spotted 😂👌

why would you talk yourself out of it?!?

this looks rather appropriate: https://reverb.com/au/item/69438004-epiphone-les-paul-custom-1989-2012-alpine-white

but if I was choosing I'd take this one, the 90s Korean made ones are just superb. https://reverb.com/au/item/64911200-epiphone-les-paul-1999-cherry-burst

I wanted this exact guitar so bad when I was 18, it looked like Billy Zoom's Gretsch (and I didn't know enough about guitars to know that Billy's was a Gretsch)

https://reverb.com/item/73944190-2001-epiphone-les-paul-special-edition-electric-guitar-silver-sparkle-flake-pro-setup

@ matttkkkk was mainly trying to talk myself out of it to save £725 ;). £450 is a lot more achievable, thanks for the heads up