I love playing the guitar as well. I know most of the members are guitar players. May I see your gear?

I'll start.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 350zee,

Though sadly I can no longer play due to a brain injury, here is a few from my last few. My 59' Historic Flametop with original PAF's, all vintage pots and Sprague black beauty caps installed courtesy of Jim Rolph. This guitar sounded just incredible, Jim loved it after he completed the electrics.



An early blackface Deluxe with a JBL in the cab..



My 65' Strat with blackface Pro Reverb..



I really loved the sound of those early Fender blackface amps, they were my all time favorites. I never kept any photos of all my other gear, especially the Martins, but loved them all equally. It really saddens me that I can no longer play with absolutely no feeling of my left arm and hand.

flashguy

Loved the Twin. I had one in the past with two Altec's in the cab and all I could remember was I was glad it had castors to roll on because it was one heavy amp. I had two bass cabs made to stack it with. Many of the early rockers used twins and stacked them on bass bottoms, a great Fender sound. I also had an early blackface Super Reverb with those 4-10's that was another good oldie. Never had the Dual Showman heads, but played thru a few in my day Thanks for the reminder of older days..

***Just Remembered*** I'm a big fan of those early tube amps and still have an old Ampeg Gemini stashed in the back guest room under some stuff that the wife has been hounding me to get rid of. I haven't been able to play now for many years but I did want to restore this small amp back to it's original condition but, had my injury and forgot I had this amp. It still has the old smokey looking grill cloth and very worn looking cab and canabalized parts but I liked the older Ampeg sound. I'll snap off a photo later today of it if I can dig it out from under the stuff.

I like a heavy pick and an extra heavy on mandolin. Red Bear makes my favorites. I like the triangular pick with three differently shaped points.

http://www.redbeartrading.com/flatpicks.html

Here's a snap of the Ampeg Gemini I that was just too difficult for me to dig out from all the stuff stached in that room. I had received a factory electrical schematic to use for restoring the amp to period correct electrics with all the NOS tubes I could find to supply it with. Just never got ahead of the curve to do the job before my injury. I wanted to send the cab off to Vintage Amp Restoration to clean it up and still give it that vintage look with the original grill cloth. The stock speaker was awful and I did swap it with a JBL once just to hear it, sounded very cool too, typical vintage Ampeg sound.



Additionally, I dug out a vintage photo taken in 1970 of my first Martin D-28. I was just 18yrs in that photo and definitely a surf bum. The photo was taken late one night at Channel 2 , I was stringing her up for some jamming. My good friend was a producer and director at the station. We would use the studio to record tracks, he had a late 50's vintage Martin D-18. We recorded some great jams that some of the folks at the station used as background music to some of their documentaries around Miami....Boy, those were the days. That was another great sounding guitar. The only remains of my last Martin is the sales receipt for my HD-35 that I had for several years.

350zee,

Did you go to the guitar store and take pictures there?

just1tym,

Was your 28 Brazilian rosewood?

I have a 2004 D-28 and it's a wonderful guitar. Also have a 2002 D-15 and a 2014 D-18 with adirondack top.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
just1tym,

Was your 28 Brazilian rosewood?

Yes, it was the Brazilian rosewood.

From my album of the 65' Strat, a full size shot with the headstock. This was a great vintage Strat and sounded excellent for a 50 year old axe. Being totally honest though I preferred my 57' Japanese Reissue with the maple board for playing around with anyday. It just was a "special" guitar.

65' Strat



Definitely my all-time favorite Strat for playability. Japanese 57' Reissue

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
350zee,

Did you go to the guitar store and take pictures there?

just1tym,

Was your 28 Brazilian rosewood?

I have a 2004 D-28 and it's a wonderful guitar. Also have a 2002 D-15 and a 2014 D-18 with adirondack top.

Nah, but if I get another guitar, my wife said she's gonna leave me. I'm seriously thinking of trading in some of my Strats for pistols that are on my "WANT" list. I'd really like a 9mm Dan Wesson 1911

I just found out that I could play better with Les Pauls, not that I am a great player to begin with

quote:

Originally posted by just1tym:
From my album of the 65' Strat, a full size shot with the headstock. This was a great vintage Strat and sounded excellent for a 50 year old axe. Being totally honest though I preferred my 57' Japanese Reissue with the maple board for playing around with anyday. It just was a "special" guitar.

65' Strat



Definitely my all-time favorite Strat for playability. Japanese 57' Reissue

Nicr guitars Sir.

quote:

Originally posted by just1tym:
Loved the Twin. I had one in the past with two Altec's in the cab and all I could remember was I was glad it had castors to roll on because it was one heavy amp. I had two bass cabs made to stack it with. Many of the early rockers used twins and stacked them on bass bottoms, a great Fender sound. I also had an early blackface Super Reverb with those 4-10's that was another good oldie. Never had the Dual Showman heads, but played thru a few in my day Thanks for the reminder of older days..

***Just Remembered*** I'm a big fan of those early tube amps and still have an old Ampeg Gemini stashed in the back guest room under some stuff that the wife has been hounding me to get rid of. I haven't been able to play now for many years but I did want to restore this small amp back to it's original condition but, had my injury and forgot I had this amp. It still has the old smokey looking grill cloth and very worn looking cab and canabalized parts but I liked the older Ampeg sound. I'll snap off a photo later today of it if I can dig it out from under the stuff.

I use a pair of Ampeg BA-210 for my Jazz bass. I'm still trying to learn the bass line for YYZ. It is tough to find time to play and enjoy music with a full time job plus mandatory OT. Ahh, someday, my dream studio setup will be a reality.

Ampegs were one of my favorite amps back in the day, love the tube tone. I did stray with solid state amps for awhile and had a few hybrids built, but always returned to the warm tube sound. In my last days I just used small tube amps for recording tracks, never went back to amp stack days, or any of the larger varieties. Additionally, I've never owned A Marshall, came close a few times but opted for another.

Though I love Fenders, both guitars and amps, especially growing up in the 60's and 70's where it was hard to toss a stick without hitting a Fender product. I've always been a Les Paul guitarist by nature, always loved the tone of humbuckers.

I started playing in middle school on a tobacco burst Peavey chipboard Strat clone. It was not a good guitar. Early in high school (probably 2000-2001) I bought a Fender American Series Texas Special Stratocaster. Maple neck and fretboard, ash body, cherry burst. Originally it had a pearl pickguard, two Fender Texas Special (high output) single coils in the neck and middle positions, and a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates humbucker in the bridge position. At that time, I think I donated the Peavey to my school's music program, I can't remember exactly.

A few years ago, I swapped to a white pickguard with Rio Grande Vintage Tallboy pickups. I like them a lot better than the HSS setup. I recently put another pickguard together with Lollar Blonde pickups, but haven't put it in the guitar yet.

I still love the Strat, but a few years ago I really started wanting a more Gibson sound. I find Les Pauls very uncomfortable to play. I actually bought an ES-335 from Guitar Center (it had to be shipped from another store), but when I got it, I found that the model had been mislabeled and the guitar was actually a much less expensive model than it was marked, so I took it back. I honestly wasn't in love with the ES-335 feel, either.

After a lot more looking around, I found the perfect guitar: a local guitar center had a barely used, 6-month old Anderson Cobra. It's a semihollow Telecaster-shaped mahogany body (but with the ergo body and arm contours of a Strat body) with a maple top, mahogany Gibson-scale neck, rosewood fretboard, two humbuckers, and a fixed bridge - pretty close to a Telecaster-shaped Les Paul. It was even the color I'd have ordered if I was buying a new one. Despite being six months old and showing zero signs of use, it was about 60% the price of a new one.

The fit and finish is amazing. The neck is a really comfortable medium thickness and the fret dressing and work on the fretboard edges is outstanding.

I took out the Anderson pickups and push-pull switch pots and put in Throbak ER-Custom PAF replicas with normal Les Paul wiring.



(Click picture for original resolution.)

When I bought the Anderson, GC was running a promo that gave me $1000 in store credit. I went back a week later and played every acoustic guitar they had that was under $3000. I had a slight preference for no electronics, and my only real criteria was that if I was buying an expensive acoustic guitar there was no way I was buying one with a plastic fretboard or laminated body or top. I went in to it really wanting to like the 000 size, but the dreadnoughts just sounded better to me.

This one just sounded the best to me, it's a custom model that was made for Guitar Center, it's kind of a D-28 lite. Gloss solid Indian rosewood back and sides, solid Sitka spruce A-braced top, mahogany neck and actual ebony fretboard and bridge. No electronics. They offered to get me a new one out of storage, and I took a look at it, but it didn't sound as good and the grain on the top wasn't as tight or as straight so I took the one home that had been hanging on the wall for a while. I slightly prefer a non-gloss body, but I'd have had to pay a LOT more to get one that sounded as good.



(Click picture for original resolution.)

At a vacation home, I also have a faded purple quilt Ernie Ball Axis that I bought very, very used, but it sounds great and I like the fat maple neck a lot. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures.

I have a bunch of amps, but they're all in storage except the Kemper digital modeling amp that I play through headphones (between the wife and two kids, loud tube amps are generally a no-go at home). A late 90's Marshall solid state combo, a late 90's Marshall tube combo, a Trainwreck Climax I built from a kit with a different name that I bought from Gerald Weber (who designed the Climax with the Trainwreck guy, and had a bunch of the parts left over and sold them as kits), a Ceriatone Fender Tweed Deluxe clone, and a Ceriatone Marshall 18 Watt clone with the clean preamp switched out to an EF86 preamp stage. At the vacation home I have this goofy little tube amp some local guy built, but it sounds great.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: maladat,

^^^^ Beautiful Martins! ^^^^

As mentioned above, all I have left aside from my first D-28 pictured above, is just my receipt of my last HD-35 Not too bad of a price for 1991 though

quote:

Originally posted by just1tym:
^^^^ Beautiful Martins! ^^^^

As mentioned above, all I have left aside from my first D-28 pictured above, is just my receipt of my last HD-35 Not too bad of a price for 1991 though

Wish I could go back in time and purchase a D-28 for that price.

I was messing with my DSLR camera last night and took a pic of my Bourbon Burst Les Paul.

Well, I'm not REALLY a guitar player, but there are these.









http://www.fototime.com/73AE839B4E089F3/large.jpg





RMD