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

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

majorairbro - thanks for the advice, I actually went to a store yesterday and see what you're saying, one Danelectro that was over $500 had that black plastic that covers the edge of the guitar pulling up off the guitar around the neck joint, seems unacceptable for a new guitar

The prices have gone up, but I've had a bunch of 21st c. Danelectros — 12-string, baritone, longhorn bass — and they've all been great.

so I basically am so sick of all this gear that I have acquired since Covid, and went shopping this weekend....took a synth, an amp, and two guitars to trade. Intended to get a Jazzmaster but at GC I fell in love with an American Professional II Stratocaster that was marked down from $1699 to $1350, with all the trades I basically got out the door for the price of a used Squier.

I'm absolutely blown away by this guitar, the new V Moda II pickups are amazing, one tone knob is push/pull so you can add the neck pickup to the bridge and bridge + middle positions (basically the David Gilmour thing I think?)

This is the most comfortable guitar I've ever played by far, the neck is fantastic, it's just effortless. I've usually been a quirky/bargain guitar shopper I've never really owned an expensive top of the line model and this is pretty amazing.

At the end of the day I just think I like Strats the best, the body style and dimensions are the most comfortable for me to play.

Olympic white + tortoiseshell pickguard

https://i.postimg.cc/85B96bx5/PXL-20231205-153449537.jpg

looks super nice

nice. i was just thinking about how models go in and out of style (seems like offsets are back in right now, it was telecasters like 10 years ago, etc.) and how it makes sense to buy off-trend if possible. not like strats are ever really out of style.

yeah I mean it's got a bit of tone attorney stigma but it's just a comfortable body style, that's why it's been so popular for so long

I like the neck on this - it's not a regular thickness, it's thicker down by the headstock for chording then gets thinner up and past the 12th fret, sort of like a compound radius but for thickness not radius

congrats on the strat, looks really nice. and it always feels great to do some trading in and get something you really want out of it.

When it’s right it’s right

I have felt that way about exactly one Strat, and then when my daughter turned 18 I gave her the pick of the rack, you know what happened next.

@mississippi - wow, that's a beauty. the neck sounds very special. would love to hear how it sounds!

@matttkkkk - that must've been heartbreaking! i hope she's doing justice to it. my dad's got a stunning MIJ strat from '86 or something and every time i pick it up i yearn for it

I love that she has it. She loves it too. Squier Japan 1982 JV sunburst, just alive in the hand.

oh man, i've heard great things about the 80s squiers. i really do rate japanese guitars - i have a 1994 "black label" MIJ jazz bass (from the fairly obscure "squier series" - basically a fender neck and body with cheaper electronics" and it is soooooo nice to play. i just wish it was a p bass tbh

I recommend you search out a Tokai “Hard Puncher”, they can be found cheaper occasionally and it is the most P bass I have ever encountered. Kills 70s Fenders dead.

i will! thanks for the tip!

Seconding the MIJ love. Nothing to add though.

UMS, I got an American Professional II Telecaster a couple of years ago and it is about the best combination of "easy to play" and "sounds amazing" that I have ever had access to. Anyone I let play it agrees. Not really a big gear person, I am probably not qualified to really speak to these things beyond being a guy who has played in bands for a lot of years, but yeah it rules. I imagine the Strats are great too.

i bet the tele is great too, i feel like this series hits the perfect mix of staying pretty traditional but with little smart improvements

The Dano 12s sound amazing, I have one-though it's not that balanced. very curious what the new humbucker one sounds like.

I went to this crazy store in Maryland called Chuck Levin's, which carries like every new model of every big brand. I played about 10 telecasters and the neck of the American Pro II was simply too good to pass up. About the best feeling neck of any instrument I have ever played.

For anyone “12 curious”, do NOT sleep on the Squier Paranormal Jazzmaster XII. Insanely well made and easy to play.

Grandavis, Chuck Levin's has been an institution basically forever. Given the amount of money I have spent there, I would like them to name a new wing after me (but they probably will not).

Glad you connected with an instrument. Hope it serves you well.

It was very nice to go to a non-Guitar Center-like environment and really get to try out the guitars. Much different experience than most stores like that I have gone to, and yeah that telecaster has been great so far. A real joy to play.

If you get down to Virginia try Action.

There are comparatively few independent stores put there these days.

*out

mattk thanks for putting that Squier on my radar!

I’ve heard mutterings that Fender is testing the waters for raising Squier’s price category, hence the stellar reputation-building quality of the Classic Vibe and Paranormal ranges. No complaints here, some of the best guitars I’ve tried for about half the price I would expect, but it can’t last.

I've also tried out the Jazzmaster XII and it's pretty nice and not too expensive. Jazzmasters without vibratos though.... eh. In a perfect world they'd just keep the last reissue of the standard Fender XII around though- that's a classic model on Led Zeppelin and Velvet Underground records.

The 80s Squires are very nice and if you were blindfolded, you simply wouldn't know.

Strats are awesome. There's only a tone attorney stigma if you have the SRV pickguard.

Quick update, my Tobacco Burst Epi Les Paul Standard 60s arrived this morning.

Can confirm it shits on my previous burner guitar (an atrocious plywood ‘AXL Tiger Pro’ pointy Ibanez clone) from a great height. Definitely wasn’t expecting the insane amount of sustain I’m getting out of it. V happy with it so far :)

As the tail end of purchase follies in 2023 I received a box of stuff in the mail earlier in the week. A fantasy baseball project, combining things I love:
- Jazzmaster bodies
- Tele Custom pickup configs
- Telemasters / offset Telecasters
- 70s black-on-black-on-maple aesthetics
- the necks and vibe of 70s Greco Fender copies.
Therefore: a Telemaster Custom as if Greco had made one in the 70s.
Ingredients: a used 2019 Squier JM HH hardtail, and a 70s Greco neck that was covered in weird gunk and so was about 1/4 the price they usually fetch. I was able to chip it off with a careful razor blade, which took a while. It came up pretty well except the area between frets 3 and 4 was scraped to wood sometime long ago.
Laying out some parts to figure how it will go:
https://i.imgur.com/uSghpUw.jpg
but maybe a Jazzmaster neck pickup to offer something different from my beloved Squier Tele Custom:
https://i.imgur.com/eNSa5CH.jpg
Maybe a black cover tho? Who knows, it'll take a long time to sort out a pickguard and a nicer bridge.

Looks great, Greco neck matches body well.

It's a little loose in the pocket, which I'm choosing to view as "authentic 70s Fender".

Shims.

Shims.

Lol. Two shims, I guess.

Bout to pick up this girl on my last day in Tokyo tomorrow
https://i.postimg.cc/GmhL5j6N/IMG-4426.jpg

125000 yen. Pretty girl, plays wonderfully, very excited

ooh! nice!

The Shims, one of my favorite bands. Chutes Too Marrow, right?

Haven't bought a guitar pedal for so long but I'm real tempted by this -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Y61ZVGqzE

seeing the temu thread just reminded me - lots of decent enough chinese clone pedals out there now, and most are boringly-enough pretty standard fare, but here are a couple of really fun ones i've picked up recently off aliexpress for supercheap, both at the weirder/more interesting end of things while still being pretty useable:

Movall Falling Star modulated delay
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006162312833.html
Superb memory man clone with those lovely lightly-distorted modulated repeats, think of the sounds that the edge was getting in early U2 stuff e.g. 'A Day Without Me'. Really it sounds awesome, no tap tempo or any pattern options but maybe just maybe my favourite delay out of the ones i have atm

Ginean Ringmod Modulator
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005774060602.html
A clone of the legendary DOD Gonkulator from the 90s that Digitech themselves reissued recently for ~$100 more. Really musical for a ring mod, you can easily tune it to the key you're playing in and get some great metallic gong-like sounds. It also has a nice distortion circuit based on the DOD Grunge which you can blend with the ring mod or just use by itself

don't really get how Ali works but you might need to click about a bit to get the best price. i paid about £30 for each? both well worth it imo

https://i.ibb.co/hBF1Mpy/20240122-202810.jpg

not the ugliest things either which is very much a bonus