Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by BadMoonT2 on September 1, 2011 at 10:41am

I mostly play electric. My main rig: Made in Mexico Fender Telecaster. Extensively modified by me. Lindy Fralin stock pickups. 5 way PU switch which gives me both standard parallel configuration and in phase and out of phase series configurations. The series positions up the output, giving some characteristics of a humbucker in a single coil guitar. Orange drop capacitors. It's amazing how much difference these caps make in my tone, an inexpensive mod anyone can do if they can solder. Quality potentiometers, another cheap mod that helps tone. Extra circuit that prevents the treble being cut when you turn down the volume pot, another easy soldering project. Graphite bridge, this really helps on string breakage. Custom abalone pickguard from Ebay.

Amp: Peavey Mini Colossal 5w Class A with a Boss Compression pedal in front. This amp really wants to distort and when it does it can easily get a little buzzy. So I play with my guitars volume turned way down. This way I can play real clean or get some distortion and sustain simply by turning up my guitars volume a little. Turning up the sustain on the pedal adds more distortion when I want it. Turning up the attack on the pedal enables me to get a clean country sound and is also good for funk type rhythm. I guess you can tell I am pretty eclectic in my tastes. If I need to get loud I take the XLR output from the amp and run it through a powered PA speaker I have.

When I play acoustic I usually play an Ibanez 12 string. It's a relatively inexpensive guitar but has an excellent action all the way up the neck. I have installed a Fishman humbucker sound hole pickup which produces a nice amplified sound while retaining it's acoustic characteristics. As a child of the 60's I know quite a few tunes from my youth and 12 strings are all over 60's music, Byrds, Beatles etc.

Permalink Reply by Gareth Gamble on October 7, 2011 at 1:54am

Quite impressive! :)

I mainly play electric as well, I've always been a fan of the poor persons gibson personally (epiphones all the way ;) )
Ive got a couple of limited edition les pauls, a firebird and a dot. I like to rotate them as often as possible.....guitar collecting is a bit of a bad habit for me!

Amp - Ive got a Orange PPC412 cab with a Orange RK50H Rockerverb head. Looks and sounds awesome, can get some great sounds of it when recording. I don't tend to use the overdrive on it too much for live performances though due to needing various different sounds etc. So I just tend to go through the clean ch and I use my line 6 M13 stompbox modeler. Really easy to use and doesn't take up much space compared to all the individual pedals I use to go for!

I would love a really good sounding 12 string acoustic to be honest, can sit around at home all night just playing one of those......I've got an Avalon acoustic, it has a really nice tone.....have used it for a couple of songs that my band recorded and it sounds awesome. Nice and full sound to it :)

Permalink Reply by BadMoonT2 on October 7, 2011 at 6:15am

A friend has a Fender 12 string acoustic that I really like. Nice action and tone. Check one out if you get the chance.

Permalink Reply by muleman on February 19, 2012 at 8:44am

G, I'm impressed. Orange is a classic make. Is the amp set up looking like a mini generator? I've seen an Orange and a Silver amp like that but they are the real deal! Orange was big in the 80's I think I recall but they were not toys!

Permalink Reply by pryde on December 13, 2011 at 5:42pm

Hello,
Man I am glad I found this group! Look forward to talking guitars and gear.

I play an Epiphone Elitist Les Paul, Fender strat (MIM), and a Fender Tele (MIM). These 3 guitars pretty much cover most everything

I play through an Egnater Tweaker 40 tube head with 1x12 cab loaded with Eminence Wizard.

I have a ton of pedals as I also build them as a hobby.

Permalink Reply by muleman on February 19, 2012 at 9:03am

I like the idea of building a peddle! But I just picked up a Bass V-Amp Pro (Preamp) It's loaded with Cab and amp sounds. When I last played our lead G had a wah Wah peddle (that was high tech then!),and I never kept up with technology these last few years. So I set the V-amp up for Flang with a rotating Cab and the sound just made me rock laughing! Never been so close to that sound before. I'm trying to stop my wife leaving home! But wait till she hears the 100w 45 Degree Torque 18" + 2 woofers! I may need a lawyer?
I like my new bass, but cannot keep the D in tune! Anyway I'm enjoying following the bass line on some CD's.
Don't know if any of you have your own distinct playing technique? I am having to develop a 'Thumb Over' technique for the 'E'. I had a Carpel Tunnel op a few years ago on my left wrist and having a short arm that side anyway I just cannot reach the 'E' with my left index finger any more! Age gets ya! It' is real awkward but it works! Tell us your tricks?

Permalink Reply by muleman on January 12, 2012 at 10:41am

Hi Guys. Well BM, my friend wants his bass back. Only had it a week! At least I can grow some skin back for a while. I told you I used to play bass. My last being a Mexican Jazz bass. Had my fingers on my left hand crushed a few years ago(30). Middle finger is still flat as all 3 middle finger bones split! Kinda flat now(middle is wider to!Skin soft like a babies butt! I'm looking around the web and there seems to be a lot of cheap stuff! I don't have big money as a pensioner so the names I know are pretty much out of my league. I could not believe that even Chinese things are double the price here in Spain than in England. However the exchange rate is similar! There were some Less Paul packs?
I played in a skiffle group when I was 14. Kinda Country/rock. We are talking 1958. Played Tea Chest Bass(one string!)out side pubs (in the streets haha!I could not afford a banjo so I bought an old Mandolin and re tuned it kinda! I played it for years! Went Electric in 1961 and bought a Hohner (Bert Weedon Copy). We played warm up in the London Pubs, For Animals, Manfred Mann, And the Stones at the 'Craw Daddy'. Which was basically a big changing room for Rugby players at Richmond Athletic Grounds (as it was called in those days if you wish to look it up!)but Friday and Saturday was the place to be. We also went first at 'Ell Pie Island on the Thames. All this was just around West London! All 3 bands had just released their first records so it was a major buzz!
Anyway seems harder to find a geetar than I thought! Going back to my place in Granada Friday and snow due Monday! maybe I'll get a Guitar Hero hahaha! It's gonna be a boring winter! You can email me at mulesspain@gmail.com/p>

Permalink Reply by BadMoonT2 on January 12, 2012 at 6:08pm

Sounds like you had a lot of fun with music back in the day.

Hope you can find something to play that fits your budget. I started out in the late 60's and cheap instruments were not well built and were hard on the fingers. Now days I see some decent instruments for a quite reasonable prices.

I have bought several guitars on Ebay. The hunt is fun, learn the market, search for the right guitar at the right price and finally pull the trigger and buy one.

Permalink Reply by muleman on January 17, 2012 at 8:20am

I lucked out twice on ebay in one day. The folks selling Hohner Pro Bass's circa 1970's! My bidding screan froze. I bid more, but someone else got them each time?
For your interest Thunderbirds around for $250 to 300 in the UK

What would you go for? Through or bolt on neck?

I'm bidding on a Guvnor J right now. There are a lot of Les Pauls Bass's around selling around $100-$150.
I'd prefer a short action as my old fingers and wrist are already struggling.
There is also a 'Shine' Korean make. with 2 Vol 2 tone & 2 Hum, pick ups at around $180 New!
A Lindo, not quite as well made with same spec at around $100 New!
from Uk to here is around $35, But the same rigs are double the money here in Spain! and the web sites are very poor here in Spain!
Come on guys load up the replies and reactions!

Permalink Reply by BadMoonT2 on January 17, 2012 at 9:58am

Don't know a lot about Bass'. Since I play Fender electric guitars I'm used to bolt on necks and single coils. Sound like you have several choices, with reasonable prices and shipping. Hope you can find something that will work for you. Do you have anyone you can play with locally once you get your chops back?

Permalink Reply by MissKitka on February 1, 2012 at 1:40pm

BadMoon,
I have talked to you in the past but thought I should describe myself here as I have just joined this group. I have a Canadian Norman B-20 6-string acoustic and get together with a banjo player once in a while to play bluegrass.
In the early 80s I played punk with the Vacant Lot and learned over 90 songs which meant we had to start at the top again within an hour ha ha!!!
I mostly play electric rhythm with my band The 4-Heads these days. My favorite guitar is a classic 1978 Fury F22, hand built in my hometown of Saskatoon. I use a custom set of John Pearse strings from 0.12 to 0.59 called an alto set. It is finished with 24 coats of nitrocellulose lacquer and is white in color of Ramones fame. There is Honduras mahogany showing where my wrist lays when I play and the back has almost no lacquer left. It feels like an extension of my body and mind. I did a fret replacement job on it once and have modified it heavily. I hand carved a piece of 1/2 inch MDF and used that to carve a new pickguard on an over-arm router so I could install 2 new Fury humbuckers, 10,000 turns at the bridge and 8,000 turns at the neck. The 10,000 turn pickup produces over 2 volts RMS so any amp under the sun becomes easily distorted. I have 2 switches for grounding the center tap of either pickup to make it a single coil, plus 2 volumes, and a single tone control. There is also a 3-way toggle for selecting one, both, or the other.

I was part owner of a company called Deakon Roads guitars for a few years, We built about 90 guitars, and went to Namm one year. I built myself 2 guitars while I was there and they are super smooth. We built every part except switches, controls, and knobs. Like my Fury guitar, the guitars we built using double truss rods meaning they need to be tuned only once or twice a year.

I used a Canadian Verlage VTR-100 (4X6L6) amp with a Peavey 4X10 bottom for years but our bass uses that now. I use a Peavey MX with 4X6L6 tubes and a 12" black widow speaker. It kicks serious butt but I can't lift the darn thing now without help because I'm nearly a senior ha ha!!

Below the pictures on my home page is an MP3 from way back in the 80s and the punk band and then 3 more below that of original tunes by the 4-Heads. I composed the music and play rhythm guitar.

Don

Permalink Reply by BadMoonT2 on February 1, 2012 at 5:57pm

Don, Actually our discussion about our rigs was the genesis of this post. Fun to talk about something besides diabetes. Did a little tube swapping in search of a mellower tone and am happy with the results. My little amp only has 2 tubes and does not require biasing, so it's pretty easy to do.

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