'Scales

In $US i figure my amp cost $145 for the head plus $75 for the quad box, and then there's my main guitar at say $80...so I'm into the rig for $300. So I guess its all paid for , but if I was starting just now that's be 4 or 5 shows at 45mins per gig. Got one next week so not long to go!!

Looking forward to this one - Dinosaur Jr tomorrow night at a sold out 1500 capacity quality music venue. Probably my favourite band and favourite guitarist. Earplugs are packed (if that sounds strange, it works superbly with one of the loudest acts on the planet in a theatre gig). Can't wait! Any bands on your horizons?

Sounds great!

I don't know about the term 'luxury' - that brings me thoughts of either luxuriousness (which I wouldn't personally attribute to guitars) or something in excess of basic requirements (which I guess a guitar is, but that's unlikely to be what the question refers to). I'd say maybe a Gibson is aspirational for many players - particularly those who play acoustic or semi/hollow electric where it is a producer of quality instruments, and/or those who want to own the same type of guitar as someone they admire where their electrics have a great history among rock guitarists, or...even just to show off. It's not universal though - my band's lead guitarist, for example, is an Ibanez player and their instruments do the things he wants and are quite different to most Gibson's which he might see as old fashioned and low tech... which is just what people like myself might see as being among Gibson's assets ...So I think I'd vote for something like aspirational rather than luxury when it comes to Gibson - but we's all different when it comes to thoughts.

That look like a lovely and special piece of history - I'm sure you'll treat it with care and affection, and as mentioned above please do only entrust its maintenance to an experienced and professional luthier no matter what needs doing. Very nice! PS - you might like to show the photos on the Gibson Acoustic page here in the forums - those guys will love to see it and some are very knowledgeable on old acoustics.

MEN-tallica or MENTAL-lica....works either way!

That is so true! - I can't sing and play loudly at home (well, I could, but I'd feel like a d!ck given we live in a village) so come rehearsal we always play the current set at least twice and on the first one I try to loosen up by singing well within my limits (couple of beers helps too ) before the 'main' run through - which is fine cos that's where everyone is getting it together. Given we always rehearse the weekend before a gig I've not had issues on the night, but if we don't get together for more than a month....

Hi Lars - good to hear from you and that you are still around the forum and making your music. I tried to find the version i played of your song but couldn't - nice memories though

I try to play at least the current set each week if we have a gig approaching, and if no gig then I'll add in old songs and new ones being developed - so maybe an hour or 2. In the week preceding a gig I'll do that several times as well as listening to old shows - mainly to help subliminally embed the lyrics . We have rehearsals/practice about 3 times every 2 months I'd say. I honestly don't know what the other guys do - probably not as much as me (so not much!) That said, we are middle aged mates who enjoy each others company and are having a blast staying young while our peers mow their lawns or chase golf balls or whatever it is 'normal' people do. So there are no judgements if mistakes happen - it seems to come together on the night (and we aren't playing stadiums or 'hear a pin drop' concert halls to self-important critics - the whole scene round here is play what you wrote and support one another among alt/punk/indie bands 🤘).

yeah, I agree Dub - they are a nice simple design but have their own vibe and a 3 pickup version in Olympic white or Coronet in Silver Fox green would do me nicely! On history - yes, they were built in Kalamazoo in 69 alongside their Gibson equivalents the SG (basically for most of the sixties as same range and price points for both brands/shapes but sold through different dealers - say like Chevrolet and Buick in the day. As our luthier who is expert in guitar history tells it, each day the same guys would arrive at the factory and be told how many bodies to cut in SG and Epiphone shapes that day and then would build them up - same workers, same wood, same neck profiles, same hardware with exception of Epiphones getting their own mini-humbuckers (quite different to later Gibson mini's) rather than full-size Gibson humbuckers. So really just part of a two prong product lineup from Gibson USA. (In the 70's Epi went to Japan).

I realise this may be of no interest to anyone else, but I was looking through some old stuff and came across this screenshot from a website I found back when I bought my Epiphone on consignment from a collector via our local luthier. At the time I just bought it cos I thought it was great to play and the Epiphone mini-humbucker is superb, but I'd been trying to work out what it was, and got excited when I found this old advertisement for one that looked similar - "great!" I thought "this model actually exists". I blew up the image and found it was my exact guitar (every scratch and ding aligned ) - oh well, at least i paid a lot less for it. The interesting thing is that the ad was from 2002 and this shop I believe is/was in New York City USA...I bought the guitar in country New South Wales, Australia in 2013. It is obviously well travelled and has never needed any work done (I changed the knobs, which someone else had changed to witch's hats by the time it got to me, to reflectors) and was my main guitar with a covers band for the next few years. Small world! Anybody experience anything similar or interesting when researching their guitar?

Sparky, I actually recall doing similar a good few years ago in support of Lars68 over on the Acoustic page with a song he was developing at the time - see the thread below for the story. I deleted soundcloud at some stage over the years which is probably just as well, but it was an enjoyable exercise at the time. Very little technology involved though

That sounds true Rabs - i.e. anything that can't be proven to be false - like any individual's interpretation of sound quality - can't technically be proved to be false advertising (as opposed to plain old BS)....unless of course a company was stupid enough to make the same claim for a different item of the same product type.

Sarge, in the blurb Rabs linked for the LPM Lite, it says "...Modern Lite is powered by open-coil 490R and 498T humbucker™ pickups, which provide a wide range of sonic capabilities that are perfect for any style of music..." So that's cool as Perfect is defined as "as good as it is possible to be".. so no matter what music style - C-tuned death metal through to jazz - then if you use any other pickups you will experience lesser 'sonic capabilities' (?). Awesome! Only buy guitars with those pickups!...except that the word Lite can be defined as "not as serious or as good quality as the real thing"... which is sort of confusing when Perfection is involved So I guess perfect and/or lite could be up for consideration?

now, don't quote me here, but I think I recall a one stage that RCT and Sparquelito were planning a collaboration to make a version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's complete album Welcome to the Pleasuredome in the form of a rock opera 🤘, potentially with Sgt Pepper guesting on marimbas for a couple of tracks. Not sure how far they got into it, if indeed I am not entirely mistaken about this.

wow. ok, so one of us is apparently doing this all wrong...

...yep, almost exclusively! The Epi, bless it, looks like its going to make a comeback as Drop D and backup guitar at gigs though

now, if this just works....

hell yeah - how to catch a bagful with mere crumbs! Local knowledge? Sergeant Pepper?

you might be my American alter ego - apparently we are the same age, I also had the same Ross distortion pedal for many years albeit a beat up old thing (i haven't seen it for a long time so I must have given it away) - rare to see another one to be honest! ... and on the subject of Ross, looks like we both occasionally enjoy painting in the style of Bobby Nice family - the black Epi looks particularly cool.

could well be man!....I'll ponder that while I'm parking my old Toyota Avalon.

Cheers man - a muso friend and I are big fans of the captain and we watched that and some of it we hadn't seen before.

Go Jets?

are you selling any of that? (asking for a friend)

...and when yáll start getting pop-up adverts from a mob called Fujifan Inc with offers selling a patented panty-unbunching spray to boomer guitarists, then things may become clearer... just be sure to inform them how long your tenon is when ordering.