BluesKing777

Little update for those waiting with baited breath...what does THAT mean? I had a practice on the OM28 Mq, then put it on the TR while I went for a ride to the boat ramp and back, had some lunch, watched some of my team on TV and then took off the TR and played the OM...it has already lost some of that new thing, just a wonderful guitar anyway, so I packed it back in the case and will run it some more during the week while I am working...that should cover it. I had a quick strum of the 37 Gibson L-0 and put the TR on - it has been buzzing away while the Princess and I walked the dog along the beach in the cold, went shopping at the supermarket and now back watching the Teev - the old guitar is getting the new bits run in while we doodle around........ Nice weekend.... BluesKing777.

This is the first time I have used a TR on an expensive guitar - previous use was klunky extremely 'new' sounding budget guitars and then my 000-15. The mahogany top on the 000-15 was going to take 35 years to break in with my gentle bare handed fingerpicking, so I gave some buzzes and it worked. The Adi tops will take about 45 years to break in with bare fingers and I just want to take out the 'new' edge, even though the guitars sound absolutely glorious before Toneratering.... Some other bum is going to get my hard work playing the guitars in a little bit for him, otherwise, so I will see how this goes. Hope I dont break 'em! If I have take them to my guitar tech and he asks what happened, I will say the dog knocked the guitar over...... Next, I am going to use it on a pair of leather topped Nikes I have that because they are stiff rather than 'tight', I have not used a much as the other model I got at the same time. Shoes are probably a real good analogy - wearing in new leather shoes with leather soles in particular. I had to walk the length of the city in a new pair of leather on errands once and my feet have never recovered. Some people chuck old shoes like those out when they are broken or worn out, others keep getting the beauties repaired because once broken in there is nothing more comfy. My old, old 1944 Martin 0-17 all mahogany is like a very, very old pair of leather shoes that has been repaired a multitude of times, this being the reason the new guitars are bothering me now.......and getting Tonerited. BluesKing777.

Ha - that's funny It just occurred to me that if the ToneRite works, I won't have a new sounding guitar.........may need a newie.....those worn out old things.... BluesKing777.

Yes, old post, but the third I have read in the last few weeks on various forums and I guess it was an 'arrow' pointing at me, because I rummages trough the bits and pieces and dragged mine out yesterday. The guitars that I bought new recently with Adi tops are the perfect candidates - I mean if left to their own devices, they will have broken in by about....the year 2095. So first up yesterday, I put my Martin CEO7 on a stand and connected the Tonerite. I left gurgle and burble from 4pm til about 2 pm and turned it off because even though they claim it is quiet, it ain't! The princess said it sounded like our old dishwasher when the electrics needed the doc. She is right. This morning I played the CEO7 and the surprise was it was still almost in tune, ands it had been on the stand all night where normally I case all guitars. The next surprise was that it had already 'worked' a fair bit, even though it had only had 10 hours instead of the recommended 72 hours on the TR. Buzzing away in there now is the OM28 Marquis with a fairly thick Adi top that will probably never break in 5 lifetimes, so that will probably need the longest time on the buzz. Next is a weird one I will try - my old 1937 Gibson L-0. It had a neck reset, a new fretboard, nut, bridge, saddle, tuners and just doesn't sound THAT old compared to looking at it, so that can get a few buzzes to see what happens and I hop all the new bits don't just fall off! BluesKing777.

It is all coming back to me - playing in blues bands and breaking a string was a total financial disaster! Now that was the time of old, stuffed strings. I have had a day job for years and I recently converted to Elixir Lights PB or 80/20s and may even change them every few weeks - not rich, but bitter and twisted! Though I think I prefer Elixir PBs.... Some of the old bands' members are still flogging around, unbelievable but if I went to this guitar player's place tomorrow, he would probably be boiling old strings. Another guitarist was complaining about the strings being too high and when I asked him when he changed strings he said they came with the guitar! True! I said why dont you get the guitar set up properly by a tech and get at least some new strings......'Too dear! No money!' I almost gave him a set of my Elixirs, but he ruined that by eating my dinner and drinkng all my drinks..... BluesKing777.

Yeah, it is a tough crowd! The J45 Standard you tried caught your ear, same here! So perhaps go back and play it some more, bearing in mind a setup from a trusted pro is a great start to acoustic ownership. My local genius added a handful of magic dust to my Standard a few years back when I bought it, and it has held those settings very well. It can really give you that 10%! BluesKing777.

Too big for the guy in the first clip too! It looked enormous and hard to play....sounded great. Too small for the guy in the next clip! :mellow: Very weird after the first - are the 2 guitars the same size? BluesKing777.

They have one at Julliard and other music schools...if you are naughty, you get to sit in the naughty chair trying to tune the 18 all day..... It looks like my 12 string B25-12n grew extra horns overnight, . BluesKing777.

Thread from a few weeks back , but I have watched Matt's videos a bit recently, though I think they are all recent, and I am enjoying his fingerstyle playing....just wondering if anyone knows what his style is derived from? There is something familiar about it, but I haven't put my finger (s!!!!!!) on it yet. BluesKing777.

Spoon Phillips from Maurie's and a few others with guitar demos need to get that beard going! He does a review of another guitar of the same model that is actually winging its way to me on FedEx.( edit: on my flight radar tracker, I think it just left Honolulu..not watching with my fingers crossed or anything...but I hope Tom Hanks and Wilson aren't on that jet).....so I noticed this one. Looks like the same mic as Tony uses to me - I have one. On a few of their videos with dread guitars, he uses a flat pick and does strumming things - to emulate what the possible owner would use the guitar for. Cool. I listen with some good Sennheisers to all of their demos in the last few days and the L-00 above has a big dud note on the 5 string/12th fret! I think they could have redone the demo or something - if you listen a few times, it stands out! It also sounds a bit 'new'. Last time I listen with headphones! Too picky. BluesKing777.

I have done a bit all combinations and really like bone parts, but I have left the Tusq stuff, mainly because it does sound good and I don't want to ruin things. Another thought is that someone in the Gibson scheme of guitar designers must think the Tusq sounds good or they wouldn't want to risk losing sales? BluesKing777.

I am not sure of the answer because I probably haven't played enough of them! Give me another 100 years. Though I went in to a local huge DVD/Electrical shop that have been advertising that they have moved into musical instruments in a large way as well, and I looked around for something to love and couldn't find a single thing. I was wasting a bit of time while TOH was shoppinizing up the road and I would really have liked to stay and get into the merchandise, but wow, what a load of junk. And a real, real lot of it! Who buys all this stuff? Kids? Cheapskates? Wives? A big waste of resources. BluesKing777.

Some other experts will turn up - I am NOT! BUT I thought the original J160E has P90 pickups (LOVE P90s!). If you want the Beatles electrified acoustic sound, I would see if you can swap the P100 (nobody's fave) for an old P90. The acoustic pickup of choice for me is the Fishman passive undersaddle, but two holes in your guitar? What I think you really want is a nice J45 that comes with a Baggs u/s pickup and move the J160E along to someone that wants that configuration! BluesKing777.

Is that a nylon string guitar? I can't see any bridge pins? BluesKing777.

Lessons? Not much to talk about on the forum if you get lessons....currently I'm doing lessons till the end of time. Now Tusq pins - I have some on a couple of guitars but I don't really hear much difference from the plastic pins they replaced. Bone pins to make the guitar ring out, ebony pins to stop it ringing too much...worked so far on most of my Gibsons. My J45 Standard has been annoying me and is about to get some changes - bone nut to replace the GraphTech nut, Bone Saddle to replace the TusQ saddle and the Baggs in a Bag pickup has fallen off it's perch one time too many and will be replaced with a personal standby - the Fishman passive under saddle. That is the plan anyway. BluesKing777.

Here is a comparison video I found! Gibson ES 125 vs Godin 5th Ave Kingpin: I tried both these. BluesKing777.

Thanks MR and BK, It is the original fat body, non-cutaway, one P-90 - easy to play as an acoustic guitar if I want.... Looks (though we have a Gibson remember) exactly like this one from Gary's Vintage Guitars: http://www.garysguit...-es-125-gat0217 Could be a long day working on this thing while the geetar is waiting......Pics later. BluesKing777.

Well, a bit of an update - NGD!!!!! Woke up really, really early this morning. Coffee, practice the Blues King for a bit, open a Stefan Grossman book and there in the photo opposite the music I was playing was a guy playing what appears to be Gibson ES125! Kind of set me thinking...... Had cereal, shower, drove the zillion miles to the shop - possible second person to arrive at the shop - bought the 1954 Gibson ES125! So I know that technically the new guitar announcement belongs in a different forum (Archtop Forum?), but I was talking about it here first. So I played it for while acoustically, and one of the main attractions of the guitar initially was that the neck is pretty well identical to my other 50's Gibson acoustics. Then plugged it into my Mesa Boogie .22 calibre (22 watt tube amp) that I have hardly touched in years. Spiders and bugs had to move out! There may be a dog hair stuck in the amp's master volume, but there is dog hair everywhere at my house, even in my car's fuel system....I am not interested in the jazz clean sound - I am trying more for the John Lee Hooker/Lightnin' Hopkins/ bluesy sound. The setting I had when I gave up for a while before was more like the guitar sound in Tom Waits' "Heart Attack and Vine". BluesKing777.

Well, I have driven the miles and miles to the music shops and I am back with just strings (12 strings Elixirs for the Gibson B25-12N). I went to a pawn shop where they have a Dobro a friend is interested in - he tried it the other day and wasn't sure, but I thought it was pretty good. That broke the ice in the shop for me, then I asked for my real target: 1954 Gibson ES125 like this one from eBay: Not this one though.. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1955-GIBSON-ES-125-/251074018177?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a752d7b81#ht_500wt_1057 Well - perfect! The neck was like playing my er, well, Gibsons! Sound was that lovely old smoky blues singer thing. I want it! That's what I am looking for and my car whisperer that I mentioned in another thread had better get back to me real soon or guess what? He will be unemployed and I will be the owner of a 125! I then tried a mid 60s Gibson ES125 and it was ok and $500 cheaper, but with the skinny neck. I went to another shop to try the Godin Somethin'orotherwhat'sitcalled that is sort of like the 125. 5th Avenue, that's it. They wish! Cheap and cheerful but not what I wanted. Quickly played a J45 Legend they just got in. Perfect! Neck -WOW! Had it all, but not what I'm looking for today. BluesKing777.

Thanks Mojo The HR is a good idea size wise - the trouble with the Chet is the size. They are a bit scarce down this way. A local pawn shop has a 1954 Gibson ES125 (ad says the top is slightly sunken????) that I may go have a try. Wow - they LOOK cool!!!!! Expensive experiment probably. Another local shop is flogging the Godin 5th Avenue cheap copies - may give them a test run: http://www.acousticc...com.au/archtops Hard to ignore that damn 125 now, oh, oh, oh - a bug has bit me! It would be a 120 mile round trip to try it...... BluesKing777.

So, probably a dumb question, but I like the neck on my 1959 Gibson LG3 the best of all my guitars, which we are assuming is a version of the above '50s Rounded D Shape'. Is there a decent Gibson electric with the same neck for fingerpicking blues on electric guitar instead of acoustics? I know zip about the Gibson electrics but 20 odd years ago I had a Les Paul Custom, which was obviously from a Gibson bad spot......apart from weighing in at about what seemed like a hundred pounds, the neck was ok (ish), the pickups ok (ish) for rock blues, but fingerpicking was never going to happen! I have a Strat and a Tele (with spiders living on them in their cases 'cos I haven't played them), but those 2 guitars are pretty useless for fingerpicking, especially the skinny neck Tele..... I'm guessing some of the earlier jazzer models would do the trick, but I don't want a collector's item - I want something newish to play at a bar straight in to a tube amp etc....not worry too much about, but with a nice sound. BluesKing777. OH, I saw John Fogerty doing ok fingerpicking a custom made Dolphin electric guitar, so it can be done!

Thanks for that chart, BigKahune - nicely done. At the present time, I like the neck on my 1959 Gibson LG3 the best - it is the best I have played in the limited number of older Gibsons that I have tried. It reminds me a bit of a Les Paul Standard that a friend had years ago that I coveted! I guess it is the late 50's D shape from your chart. BluesKing777.

What's a SNIT, Retro? From you birdhide? BluesKing777.