sparquelito

Ha ha ha, thanks, Boris. 🙂 Yeah, Big Bill, booze and the keyboard do not go together. At least I didn't wake up the next morning and find out that I had impulse-ordered a PRS Silver Sky! 😜😞

I'm back. And yes, I'll take all due criticism for that dramatic departure. I guess it was Facepage that I really needed a break from, and so (in an alcohol-influenced state), I threw the babies out with the bathwater. I really don't get sensory overload here on the Gibson boards, and I truly do enjoying posting and contributing. So, please accept my apologies. I'd like to carry on here, and I'll just choose to avoid the political chaos and nonsense that is Facebook instead. 🙂

My good friends on Facebook, tdpri.com buddies, gibson forum associates, axecentral.com pals, and myguitarbuddy.com chums: I’m taking a break for awhile, until at least the new year. I’m suffering from sensory overload, I guess. Time to concentrate on family, dogs, writing, song writing, and music-making. I’ll see you all in January. Please know that I love most of you. And one of you just might be my son. That is all. 😐

Ha ha ha! Okay, in that case, I'm not just dense, but my vision should be checked. Thanks, friend Cabarone! :)

Maybe I'm dense, but what or where is our Reputation posted? :(

Wow! Such a beautiful guitar! Congratulations. :)

I do apologize. That guitar in your original post is indeed gorgeous. I love the color and the woodgrain very much. I really love that it has chrome hardware and not gold. (I'm not a fan of the gold.) I live down south of you by an hour and a half. Harvest, Alabama. You would laugh at my Les Paul. It's butt-ugly. (When compared to the one you brought your son, that is.) See photo below. 🙂 https://www.dropshots.com/sparkmaj/date/2019-04-15/18:28:25

For a young player who wants to explore all options in tone, who probably wants to dabble in guitar effects, and who doesn't want to lug a really heavy amplifier from there to there, I would recommend the Peavey Vypyr VIP2. It's a 40 watt modeling amp with a single 12 inch speaker. It emulates a variety of classic tube amps, and has dozens of onboard effects and combinations. The great thing is that it's designed to accommodate electric guitars, acoustic electric guitars, and bass guitars. And it sounds brilliant at all three endeavors. $249 at Sweetwater and/or Amazon. A really great and versatile amp, and works well at both stage volumes and bedroom sound levels as well. I have gigged with mine. Two thumbs up, really! 🙂 https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/VypyrVIP2--peavey-vypyr-vip-2-40-watt-1x12-inch-modeling-guitar-bass-acoustic-combo-amp

I live in northern Alabama, and will be listening to the game on the radio. (I don't watch television anymore.) It should be a barn-burner, and Eli Gold calls a great game! 🙂

Praying for all good things for you, Digger. Good luck with the surgery, and hopefully you'll be in fine voice when all is said and done. :)

That's a tough one. My instinct would be to reach for the Strat, but I would have to do another A/B run between that and the Gibson SG Naked. 😕

Thanks, guys. I must confess that, in addition to this being a very subjective 'experiment', I proceeded with no hypothesis from the outcome, (Which is exceedingly bad science.) Had I hypothesized that the more expensive guitars would have outperformed the cheaper guitars in every measurable manner, the data and opinion would not have supported such a hypothesis. If I had hypothesized that the heavier-gauge strings would sound better than the lighter, the data would not have yielded a compelling statistical significance to support such a thing. The heavier strings had a slight edge, but it was hardly compelling. If it was my intention to conduct a test that supported the hypothesis that Cheap Guitars can sometimes run with the pricier ones, then, YES, that would have been supported. Anyway. I'm gonna shut up now. 😞

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. 🙂

Yes. I think, yes. The way she plays, feels, and sounds. She's a keeper. :)

I bought my latest Gibson Les Paul (BFG) and my Gibson SG Naked with the P-90's. I have a lot of guitars with humbuckers, and to be honest, I just love/prefer the harmonic textures that the P-90's give me when playing live and at stage volumes. All my previous Les Pauls featured humbuckers, and though I loved them all, their tones just never really grabbed me by the guts and squeezed me tight. The P-90's do. Call me a girl, I am okay with it. 🙂

And so, voila, here she is after an entire afternoon of cleaning, fret polishing, waxing, adjusting, DeOxit spritzing, restringing, and just general all around love. She's a real beauty, and she plays and sounds like a dream. Such a great double-cutaway! And the case that came with it is really posh, and form-fitting! 🙂 :V

So, last year I had my eye on a Devlin solid body guitar, and she was a real looker. Problem was, the owner was real proud of it, and wanted far too much jingo for the guitar. I had done some homework on Devlins, and apparently they were fairly high quality Korean-made guitars, and only made between 2006 and 2009 or so. They all retailed for somewhere around $500 or more. (And then the company dissolved, or merged into something else.) Anyway, last week, I came across a Devlin in a pawn shop just a few towns away from here, and it really caught my eye. It is a double cutaway (much like certain Gibson guitars they used to make, or the Hamer DC that I have always fancied). Problem is, they pawn shop wanted too much for it, and worst of all, the guitar was in really cruddy condition. Dirty, dusty, gunky, and in a state of neglect. I went to visit the Devlin a few times, and managed to play it plugged in. The neck is true, the Grover tuners are great, and the guitar is mechanically sound. (It's just really, really filthy.) So, long story short, I picked her up today, and got it, out the door, for a little over a hundred dollars American. Here's how she looked this morning when I brought her home. (Don't worry. I have had my tetanus shot.) 😞

Congrats, and Roll Tide!! (Sparky, from Harvest, AL) :)

I have always said, "If you are going to swing at the ball, swing for the fences". Rock on, and all the best of luck to you in this endeavor. I own a lot of guitars, but only one Firebird. A Pelham Blue Firebird Zero, which gets no love all across the internet, but I find it to be a tasty, good-playing guitar. I played a gig with it last Friday on the river, and it sounded and felt just right. 🙂

That's the wife's 2000 BMW Z3. She loves that old beast!

....Happy new Ford Transit van day that is. It was a tough call, but to avoid paying thousands in anticipated repairs for the aging Subaru Baja, I finally went and traded her in. The local Ford dealer (over there in Decatur, Alabama) handled everything wonderfully and admirably, and I am finally driving the vehicle I have coveted for many years now. The Ford Transit Van. The all-purpose music gear hauling rig. An iconic beast, one that I admired while living in Germany in the 1980's and later on in the 1990's. A smooth-riding cargo van with an ultra-modern two-seat cockpit. The Capshaw Road band will now be playing gigs with dry, secure gear, instead of wet, precariously-loaded gear. My beloved Subaru, I will love you forever. And you served us well. I wish for you all the best that life has to offer. But I'm rocking the small white serial killer van now. Life is good. 🙂

In general, I do agree with the original poster. Especially with regard to the Chibson fakes that are cluttering the dark web marketplace. But I will say some nice things about the Chinese made (legit, legally produced under license by Fender) Modern Player series. Really, really nicely made. I had a Fender Modern Player Telecaster Plus for a few years, and it was one of the nicest guitars I ever owned. (I only sold it because I was lusting for a new Les Paul, and a good friend always coveted it....) 🙂

I love the classic zebra (uncovered) humbuckers, but that's just me. The less chrome there is, the less polishing I have to do. 😉

Play them all. And then play three more models that you never even considered before. One of them will sing to you, and that will be the one. 🙂

I have always gone for Dunlops on my motorcycles, and have only good things to say about them. :)