Posted a YouTube video of me playing the IB'64 Texan

[dhanners623 79]

Did a cover of Ray Wylie Hubbard's "Dallas After Midnight" on the new guitar. Please excuse the camera's mic, but I hope you get some idea of the guitar's sound. And yeah, my voice is an acquired taste....

http://www.youtube.com/user/dhanners23?feature=mhw4

[Guest 41]

Enjoyed that DH thanks for sharing

[brianh 395]

Sounds good d, that mic's not so bad..

 

Great song.

[Red 333 136]

Nice job!

 

I'd say Epiphone has a real winner in the IB '64 Texan. If it sounds that good on the computer, it must be even better in person.

 

Red 333

[dhanners623 79]

Thanks for the kind comments. I just sat down with the Texan and my '98 J-45 to A-B them, which I hadn't done yet. I have to admit the Texan compares very favorably with the '45. Maybe even has a bit more bottom end.

 

All along, I've believed (and still do) my J-45 was one of the better-sounding guitars of its ilk, particularly from Gibson and particularly that era. It has aged very well, and generally is my main stage guitar. Very dependable, very good sound. I like it so much I bought it twice. (Long story short: Bought it new in '99, then about four years ago I was strapped for cash and sold it to a friend who was jonesing for a slope-shoulder. A year later, I was missing having a slope-shoulder and mentioned it to the guy and he offered to sell it back to me, saying he realized he wasn't as crazy about slope-shoulder guitars as he thought. If you total what I paid for the guitar in the two transactions, it is still well below what a J-45 retails for.)

 

Anyway, the '45 is a great-sounding guitar. I've used it to record and it pops up in some of my YouTube videos. But playing it side-by-side with the IB'64 Texan, I have to say the Epiphone more than holds its own. Color me impressed.

 

The only real change I've made in the Epiphone so far is switching out the plastic bridge pins for some camel bone pins, and I had the nut smoothed out a bit. The next big change -- and I ordered the parts yesterday -- are the tuners, an issue that has been discussed elsewhere. I think once those are on, this will be a real killer of a guitar.

[frenchie1281734003 13]

Hey David, I really enjoyed hearing your version of "Dallas after midnight", that IB Texan of yours, sounds pretty good to my ears. That`s pretty much how mine sounds, when I manage to play it right, or as the English comedian Eric Morecambe once said to Andre Previn "They are all the right notes dear boy, but not necessarily in the right order"! Dead impressed with your efforts though.

 

Steve.

[brianh 395]

BTW, did you get the Epiphone Limited Edition Beatles Gear Book with the guitar? Is that the same one sold on Amazon with a different cover, or did they edit it to include only Epis?

[dhanners623 79]

BTW' date=' did you get the Epiphone Limited Edition Beatles Gear Book with the guitar? Is that the same one sold on Amazon with a different cover, or did they edit it to include only Epis?[/quote']

 

I never got it and didn't think of that until you mentioned it. I ordered the guitar through Musicians Friend and the book was supposed to come with the guitar, but it never arrived. Don't what the deal was or if I should make a stink about it. My general philosophy is the less I have to deal with Musicians Friend, the better.

[Harrison 0]

Hi,

 

I'm confused! so are you a lefty who plays righty strings.. thats cool, but where did you get your epi lefty scratchplate?

great playing tho, finally an IB texan on youtube.

[brianh 395]

I never got it and didn't think of that until you mentioned it. I ordered the guitar through Musicians Friend and the book was supposed to come with the guitar' date=' but it never arrived. Don't what the deal was or if I should make a stink about it. My general philosophy is the less I have to deal with Musicians Friend, the better.[/quote']

I agree about dealing with MF, but that book's pretty cool and worth about $28. I'd go after them myself....

[dhanners623 79]

Hi' date='

 

I'm confused! so are you a lefty who plays righty strings.. thats cool, but where did you get your epi lefty scratchplate?

great playing tho, finally an IB texan on youtube.

[/quote']

 

Yep, I'm left-handed but play upside down. (Unlike McCartney and Hendrix, who changed their strings around.) I taught myself to play, so that's just how I learned. Plus, true left-handed guitars can be hard to find. This way, I can pick up any guitar and play it.

 

I know you can order left-handed pickguards from Epiphone (you have to do it through a dealer) but one of the things about being left-handed is you soon learn A) how to remove a righty pickguard and how to make a left-handed one. I made this one myself out of pickguard stock, and since my other hobby is cardmodeling, I had the tools to make the "E" out of self-adhesive Mylar I've got.

[frenchie1281734003 13]

 

I know you can order left-handed pickguards from Epiphone (you have to do it through a dealer) but one of the things about being left-handed is you soon learn A) how to remove a righty pickguard and how to make a left-handed one. I made this one myself out of pickguard stock' date=' and since my other hobby is cardmodeling, I had the tools to make the "E" out of self-adhesive Mylar I've got.

[/quote']

 

I do card modelling too, that`s how I made the new TRC on my Texan, but that is a very nice job you`ve done with that pickguard & "E".

 

Steve.

[TheLastCrowOnTheWire 0]

very nice job-im digging the twang-and beautiful guitar by the way-i got an Epi H-Bird on youtube http://www.youtube.com/thelastcrowonthewire

if you are up for a listen-be aware some of the micing sucks on osme of them so you may have to crank the speakers a bit to hear her sing, other vids sound is much better-hope you enjoy it and ill be sure to check more of your stuff-keep strumming!!!!!

[meanstreak1281734111 0]

wow, you're a lefty who just plays upside down rather than bother with ordering a left handed guitar! Nice homemade pickguard too! That's pretty cool! You should post some videos that are close ups of your finger positions and strumming style.

 

And the IBT sounds awesome too

[dhanners623 79]

Playing upside-down/left-handed is just the way I learned. My brother had an old Stella without a pickguard and he left it behind when he went to college. I picked it up, headed downtown to the pharmacy and bought some Black Diamond strings (Seriously. It was a small town and they sold strings at the pharmacy) and I checked a book out of the library that had guitar chords in it.

 

I just looked at the diagrams in the book and put my fingers on the strings in the right places. I actually didn't realize until I started playing out with friends that I had the guitar upside down. I probably could have re-learned everything right-handed, but I didn't bother.

 

Were I giving advice to a beginner who is left-handed, though, I'd suggest learning right-handed. For one thing, you're teaching both sides of your brain to do different things, so in the long run it probably won't matter. In fact, a couple of the best guitarists I know are lefties who play right-handed.

 

And if you're a "true" lefty -- i.e., you switch the strings around -- a trip to a guitar store is a real depressing experience. You see all these great guitars, and then maybe tucked away in a corner you'll see their "collection" of left-handed guitars. And by "collection" I mean two or three guitars. (Although I will say that on my last trip to my local Guitar Center, their lefty wall had a number of guitars on it.

 

For me, on acoustics, it is just a matter of removing the pickguard (hair dryer on "low" and/or naptha) and making a new pickguard. And Jimi Hendrix aside, I can't play a righty electric; the volume/tone knobs are generally where my left forearm winds up resting, so I always wind up turning myself down. When I've owned electrics, I've bought lefty bodies and then had them re-strung right-handed.

 

I'd love a lefty Epiphone Casino, but they don't make them. Epiphone offers the Dot and Sheraton archtops in left-handed editions, but I'm wanting a Casino with that trapeze tailpiece.