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I did a bit of an experiment yesterday evening. I selected eight of my electric guitars, and tuned them all up nicely. I set the Volume Knobs at 8, and the Tone Knobs to 6. I plugged one guitar after another thru my Vox AC15 amp, and played the same series of riffs/songs, some thru the clean channel, and the others thru the distorted channel. I left the amp settings exactly as they were throughout the experiment, with every single control set to 5. Clean: Steve Miller Band's Fly Like An Eagle Dirty: Free's All Right Now The guitars: Fender Sandblasted Stratocaster Danny Matthews Zombie Tech custom-built Tele Gibson Les Paul BFG Gibson SG Naked Gibson Firebird Zero Ibanez AVS10A Artcore Vintage (jazz box) Ibanez SA120 Devlin DVE 700-TS All guitars have fairly fresh strings on them. Most have Ernie Ball Super Slinky's (9's), the Devlin and the Ibanez SA120 have Ernie Ball Primo Slinky's on them (9.5's), and the jazz box has D'Addario flat-wound 10's on it. I toggled thru all the pickup positions as I played each guitar. It got a little loud, but I worked at it steadily, playing with the same consistent technique and attack. And then I did some subjective, unscientific scoring for each guitar. Bear in mind, all the guitars sounded great, and each sounded just a bit different from all the others. I will gladly take each of them to a gig, and I will make all of them work just fine. Here's how the guitars that rose to the top of each category did: Sounds the most like the original record album: (Steve Miller song) Fender Stratocaster Danny Matthews Tele (Free song) Ibanez jazz box Ibanez SA120 Loudest (at the control settings described above): Gibson Firebird Zero Ibanez SA120 Most unique tones: Ibanez jazz box Devlin DVE 700 Most sustain: Gibson Firebird Zero Devlin DVE 700 Warmest, most pleasing clean tones: Ibanez jazz box Fender Stratocaster Greatest, head-turning, sonic-ally gut-crunching distortion tones: Gibson Firebird Zero Ibanez SA120 Most comfortable to hold and play: Ibanez jazz box Tie: Ibanez SA120/Gibson SG Is there anything to be learned from this experiment? I don't know. It's surprising how much a lesser-expensive guitar can grab you when compared to a pricier, name-brand guitar. And the fact that the Firebird Zero, which has been panned by critics from Hong Kong to Holcomb, Kansas, did so well when stacked up to ostensibly better guitars? And the Ibanez SA120, which cost me exactly $85 in a local pawn shop the other day? That's a bit of a surprise to me. Anyway, carry on. Rock and roll. 🙂
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This convinced me not to refinish... but that's coming from a person who (pretends) to chase sound. I could see refinishing one though if the guitar was a lost cause before the work, and after the work the new look enticed whoever to pick it up more often... i.e. a gift to a newbie or youngster or something. I keep thinking you're going to ruin the sound though, and that causes me to cringe, but then with your background - I'd love to see what type of refinish work you could do. You should see if you could find a local builder and try and finish a couple of new guitars.
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Stefan_Mack changed their profile photo
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Stefan_Mack joined the community
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Can you get any system to fit a Vibrola trem to an SG without drilling into the body like a Vibramate for a Bigsby?
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Bravo! Red 333
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Hi Anders, although you already found out what you need, here is a link to the wiring of a HazLabs board. Bernd
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thank you! my ES 335 on paper ES55, it is hand-written... ..I'll post here a picture, it is gotta be a mistake... or they made my first 'signature model' LoL
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Anyone Use Martin Retro's on on their Maple Jumbo?
Larsongs replied to thegreatgumbino's topic in Gibson Acoustic
I use the Martin Retro Monels on my Solid Top Gibson J-160E Bozeman Masterbilt & they sound excellent. Perfect balanced Strings for playing it Acoustic or Electric... Lars -
My wife bought me a new Martin D-35 back in 1975... It as been a workhorse for all these years.. It is a wonderful sounding Guitar. Well, About 20 years ago I started accumulating a few Guitars.. The Martin needed some Work done & I wanted to add Factory Fishman Electronics... I called Martin & arranged to send it to them & did so. While it was there I called them & asked them if they would refinish it to New Condition... Their answer, NO! They asked me how long I'd had the Guitar? I told them. They said, It will take that long for it to sound as good as it does now... They completed all the Work, much of it under Factory Warranty & it came back perfect & beautifully Detailed... Still sounds fantastic! Glad they said, NO!
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Normally, refinishing significantly diminishes a guitar’s value. Plus. Recently, somewhere I read that scientifically. refinishing a guitar potentially changes the vintage sound that makes a well aged/vintage guitar sound so good. The article was a lot more specific, but that was the gist of it. in the case of a vintage Kay, unless it’s a KayKraft, the predecessor of Kay, most Kays were inexpensive guitars to begin with and not of professional quality...although some of their Art Deco designs were way cool. Therefore, you’d have to weigh are you putting out a lot of money to refinish a guitar that never had much value or high quality built into it. And, still won’t even after a refinish because a refinish generally lowers a guitar’s resale value in the collectible market. And, consider, would you be better off just trying to find the same model in better shape. Plus, keeping in mind that if it has a vintage sound or one better because of age that it originally had when newer, it may lose that cool vintage sound with a refinish. You night also want to consider just cleaning it up as some distressed looking guitars sometimes have a coolness factor if they are none-the-less fully playable. On the other hand, if it is not playable, you’ll need to weigh is it worth it to fix it up as again, it’s still a mass production (as opposed to hand made) Kay in an era before mass production produced some fine guitars (such as today’s Epiphones.) Just some things to consider. I personally have a 60s dreadnaught Kay in my collection and a 1933 KayKraft archtop in my collection. Conversation pieces and cool ones at that, but not of the quality of Gibsons or even most of today’s Epiphones. And, good sentimental value to them. But, I haven’t invested any extra $ into them, for some of the stated reasons. Plus. I find I play my Gibsons or Epi’s much much much more. (As they play and sound better.) Kay had cool Kay Kelvinator headsrocks, though. Huge headstocks! I hope this helps. QM aka “Jazzman” Jeff
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I have been waiting years for Gibson to reissue the Reverse VII & the Non Reverse VII exactly like Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones played.. I'll buy one of each... If they aren't crazy money... 2 of the coolest Guitars ever built by Man!!!! I love my Reverse Gibson Firebird V.... Lars
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It worked for John Lennon.. Anymore I can't see buying a Guitar that doesn't have a Bigsby, Vibrato, Tremelo, Marstro or Lyre.... IMO it completes the Guitar... Lars
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igogusto joined the community
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Although I dont mind refinishing as I am not a collectorbut I would rather in be original.. So I can do either If the guitar sings I listen.
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Surfer Girl - The Beach Boys
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New answer to an oooooooooold post: Paul McCartney did...
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My sources have that FON as mid-1950. It should have trapezoid fretboard inlays and a bound fretboard. That model was discontinued in 1956. It's great to have a vintage guitar with a known family history.
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My Solo Version of "I Shall Be Released"
BluesKing777 replied to BluesKing777's topic in Gibson Acoustic
Just back from giving the Dove a service........new Elixir pb12s, wipe, lube with lead pencil etc....tuners great, pins good, holes good, saddle low and has string dents, nut good but b string a frac low....but now it is ringing like a bell! If possible, it sounds even more fabulous than the sounding fabulous before........ I saw a video with a dude playing a 1976 Dove that looked identical to my supposedly 2005 model and a quick check told me I only had ONE X😎 BluesKing777. -
Amen!! It bothers me that people come here with their first post to the forum to slam Gibson before going through the proper channels. I don't think the OP is doing this at all, but some trolls come on here to stir the pot. I assume they are agents of PRS. However, the OP, stated he loved his guitar and was pissed when he discovered it had a different pup than what was advertised. IMHO, that's just splitting hairs and pointless. No harm was done. This whole post is pointless... I am Big F. Bill and I approve this message.
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PAULINO joined the community
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LeAnn Rimes
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Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I'm sorry to say I don't think that white pearl fits in with your red guitar. It just doesn't match anything else on it. I think maybe black would be a better choice. Tortoise shell is reserved for natural finish guitars.
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On the beach-Chris Rea
- Yesterday
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There you go, enjoy retirement my friend.
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Will Lee
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Let Me Take You to the Beach - Frank Zappa
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Big fan, love the ‘Mule. I didn’t know this until this past weekend. Johnson City is the birthplace of Mtn. Dew.
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Bienvenidos Dhango. Enjoy your stay.
