The Gear Page

a lost love found "great guitar find"

bluesmann8 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:35:16 GMT

I remember 35 years ago walking into a local music store to see all the great guitars i could not afford. A used goldtop les paul deluxe went for 400 bucks. one day i walked in the store and saw a epiphone solid body with 2 mini humbuckers that looked just like the ones used on those 400 dollar les pauls. I thought man! that must be a good guitar but at that age none of us had any money and asking mom and dad i know would be a no.. I thought maybe i could do some horse trading with the owner for i had all kinds of junk to get rid of. I asked, and he said what have you got to trade. I've got a set of chrome wheels and some other stuff. To make a long story short i traded 4 wheels 2 swords and some other odd idem and i got the guitar. A epiphone with 2 real mini humbuckers., i was in heaven! i never knew what that guitar was till a few dayz ago other than it was a old epiphone and it was my favorite guitar ever! well a few years later i was told it was a crestwood by epiphone. I played that guitar for about 8 years and wore it out. I had it routed once and put a pair of humbuckers in it and a few years after that it was spent so i traded it in for a g&l invader. got 50 bucks for it i should have kept it but like all guitar players i went through lots of gear trying to get something better.
Today i play a PRS custom 22 10 top and 2 godin guitars and own 4 amps 2 high end stuff. Sound system, recording gear and every pedal known to man. minus an echoplex. Really, i got too much gear lol!
the other day i get a gear mag from one of the top retail stores Zzounds and just gazing through it before it hit the trash can i see my old epiphone to the tee. Wait a minute i think this can't be...... i go jump online and hit epiphone in mt search engin. Sure enough their making my old guitar again and its called a wilshire. My thoughs, But epiphone isn't the same conpany it was back then in the 60s but darn it look just like it and at only 379.00 it cant be much or its a misprint or something. Well I took the chance after reading up on it and checking out all the pic's. It came UPS last night and i get to setting it up. first inspection Man! this is my old guitar brand new. the only differents noticed is the screws used to hold the pickguard on were brass on the orignal and the truss rod had a nut like on the gibsons where this has a allen wrench type. I lowered the action first thing and set the intonation. While setting the intonation i had to pull the little wire out that holds the bridge sattles in place and turn the top 3 sattles around so there would be more travel towards the neck and the intonation set in perfect. The neck didn't need any a justments. Set the pickup height 1/8 and 3/32 on the high E. i now pull all the plastic off the pickguard and pickups and find that the pickups are a alnico magnet type. before hand i thought i'd at least have to replace the pickups but they ain't bad. Iplayed a tweaked the action a little bit more and its rate in there now , just how i like it. Played for about an hour and a half and i'm impressed with this old friend of mine. the craftmanship is top notch. I'm sure like most guitars today its made on a CNC machine and its spec'd out to the tee. Man! what a great find for me and at only 379.00 Yeah buddy!
Epiphone may not be made in america but it sure has come back to its roots amazing!

Bought an old Classic 50 head tonight. Hell yeah!

tennisplayer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:32:14 GMT

Had no idea they sounded this good. Had a Classic 30 once, didn't sound like this bad boy. Anything I should know? I'm loving it! Running it through my 2X12 greenbacks. What other speakers does it like?

Original looped Backing Track !!!

Texsunburst59 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:30:54 GMT

Heres' a cool looped backing track my son wrote and recorded all the parts. He wanted me to post it to see if it would inspire anyone to record some cool riffs over. Hope to hear some cool guitar over the backer. Enjoy.:D

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=8374956

Boss BF-2 Owners.......Question????

kenstee — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:26:25 GMT

Recently got a used MIJ BF-2. There is a rather pronounced hissing sound when it is in use in addition to the flange. Is that normal for this pedal?

What's the coolest duet you've seen at a concert?

nmiller — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:23:46 GMT

I always think it's great when there are surprise guest musicians at shows. Sometimes it's a superb musician that you're not familiar with, or sometimes it's someone you've heard of but just didn't expect to show up. Here are mine:

1) The last time I saw Emmylou Harris, she brought on John Starling and Mike Auldridge of the Seldom Scene, comepletely out of the blue. I got to see two of the best vocalists in country music trade verses on "Pancho and Lefty" accompanied by one of the top Dobro players on the planet.

2) Last summer, Steve Winwood opened for Tom Petty and the heartbreakers. It wasn't really surprising that he came back to do a song with the band, but it was pretty amazing to hear Winwood sing "Gimme Some Lovin'" backed up by such a great band.

2) I saw Paul Simon at the Beacon, NYC, earlier this year. He came back on for the encore and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, my old friend Art Garfunkel!"

What are your stories?

What percentage risk are you taking when you buy NOS tubes ?

BryanMatthews — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:22:07 GMT

Worst Case Scenario:
you have your lovely el84 based amp (like a vox ac30 :D) and it has a quad of JJ el84`s in it which sound pretty good. you read on TGP ravings over NOS, so you do a bit of homework and you compile a list of NOS el84`s that include . Tungsram, Brimar, Tungsol USA, Genalex Gold Lion.....and you send away for a particular NOS quad. you then un-install your trusty JJ quad and put the NOS quad in their place , and they sound from infinitesimally better, to no better at all .

What is the risk of this scenario actually becoming a reality ?

I could spend lunatic money on NOS sylvania or rca el84`s..........but Im not gonna throw that amount of cash at tubes.

Interesting Slide Technique

GtrWiz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:05:25 GMT

I can honestly say I've never seen anyone play like this before!

Blankenship Carry On leeds VS. Reeves Custom 18

cr8z4life — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:01:12 GMT

For those who have had the opportunity to test drive.......which and why for smaller gigs.......

If you could change anything on the internet what would you change?

It's Time! — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:47:39 GMT

It's a discussion, not a boxing match :boxer

brief thoughts on an upcoming A. Lucier performance

JamonGrande — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:43:42 GMT

tonight, i'm playing with an ensemble performing a number of Alvin Lucier "beating" pieces such as On the Carpet of Leaves Illumniated by the Moon, Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas, and Homage to James Tenney.

it's been an interesting experience. while they don't involve a lot of "notes" in the way that most think about music, i've found it requires a dedication to technique and focus that is an intense as any other type of music I've played. I find that I'm far more conscious of my own breath and pacing. Really wonderful in a lot of ways.

ironically, i'm finding some of my fellow performers to have a slightly different attitude. A small group of us are performing a quartet involving vox and 3 guitars with ebow, and I find that their focus to actually developing ebow technique to be lacking. The same people that would be very frustrated with bad right hand technique, bowing technique, etc... I don't know if it's a "well you just put the ebow on the strings" kind of deal or what. But it seems like an example of thinking they can "let the technology do the work". the performance will be fine, and I'm not doubting the intentions of others.

but my point being, it doesn't matter how "minimal" or small the musical gesture may appear, the smallest detail can hold a wealth of power, and open up a world of experience.

just some random thoughts before soundcheck

joe

List film stars who look as if they are about to fall asleep ?

BryanMatthews — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:43:07 GMT

I got hold of an entire series of the X Files (great program) , whilst gillian anderson is HOT HOT HOT, David Duchovny looks like he is about to nod off in every scene that I see him in .

Any others you can think of , male or female, and post a pic.

PA and Vocalist?

Melodic Dreamer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:41:32 GMT

Hey, didn't really know where to put this.

I was wondering what's a decent little PA that doesn't cost to much. I'm not trying to drag it out everywhere, but more for my basement. I'm needing something I can run Vocals and Keys into. Needs to be loud enough to keep up with a normal drummer. He's not super hard hitting, but not acoustic either. I didn't know how many watts one needed to be or anything.

Hello all!

courtney2018 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:34:31 GMT

Hi all! Just joined up a few days ago. I've been meaning to join this forum for a while and just never got around to it. I've been following Doug Doppler's little effects voyage and thought I'd jump on here to see how things are progressing with that. It's very interesting and sounds like an exhaustive analysis of just about everything that's available.

A little bit about me...I'm a mechanical engineer by education with a bachelors and masters in it. Currently unemployed, which is a real bummer. Moving on.....I'm a guitar fanatic. I started back in the mid-80's and my first REAL guitar was an Ibanez Roadstar 570. I've been an Ibanez lover every since, although that's probably about to change here soon. :D

Since I've been out of work I've taken my hobby of building guitars by hand and refinishing to the next level. It's something to provide a little extra income until the next big engineering job. And, who knows, maybe my guitar company will be enough to continue to provide extra income for retirement, which was the whole point to begin with.

Right now I'm working on a few guitars for some customers. Two are reproductions of other brands, but one is my design which is pretty exciting.

I typically play rock and metal, but also like to dabble with a nice piano and maybe get into some folk and folk/rock. A few years ago I got introduced to 7 strings and have been spoiled every since. It's all I play now. One of the things I wanted to focus on with my guitar company is the production of 7 and 8 string guitars, but also not forgetting about 6's.

Anyways, looks like I've finally made the jump here and so I'll be around.

I need this tone! (strat content)

xzzy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:28:27 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLp9NQd_uNQ

Skip to the 2:00 mark. The low end is quite possibly the sexiest thing I've ever heard out of strat. I've watched this guy play dozens of vintage strats in the past, and none of them have had this character.

Obviously the simple solution is to win the lottery and buy the guitar.

More realistically, I'll probably have to approximate it with a much more modern and cheaper guitar.

Anything I can do to get close?

Hendrix Grear Book!

fuzzface71 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:23:14 GMT

Thank me later. ;)