Guitar Thread - Post up your guitars and favorite playing style

[Welby]

I'm no player. I am and always have been a "noodler". I have a couple that I'll pick up now and then for a half hour or so, then put down for weeks. Used to have an Epiphone Les Paul Studio that I loved, but stupidly sold it. Missed having one, so I bought an SGR solo 6, it's nice but heavy as balls. Also have a Jameson acoustic that I got off Amazon for $100. It is surprisingly nice.

Most noteworthy is my '75 Gibson Marauder. I acquired this thing in '88 or so, when I was 17. Don't even remember the circumstances on how I got it, but I seem to remember $30 being involved. Had it for years, then traded it to my younger brother for a non-running '89 Dodge Daytona, that I fixed and DD'd for awhile. He had it for many more years, then I weasled it back as a trade for my dad's Ford F150. Truck was my grandfather's until he passed, became mine after my dad passed. He still has the truck, I still have the guitar.

Foolishly, when I was still a teen, I stripped it down and stained it, the original color was the same as the neck and headstock. These things can go for $1,000-$2,000 now and I likely devalued it a bunch. Derp. Still cool to have though. Second pic is a majorly old ass scan from when I ripped it apart. Taken a lifetime ago..

 

[swtfman]

Just picked up this 1st gen made in Japan Iron Maiden P bass. P basses aren't normally my thing but the price was right and this one sounds and plays great.

 

[trampas]

Nice. I'm not partial to P basses either but i've only owned 1

J bass otoh, those i like

 

[Elwenil]

Finally got my Ghosthorse. Cancelled my preorder from Sweetwater, it was taking too long and picked one up from a shop on Reverb. This way I got to pick out one with decent grain as a lot of the Ghosthorse guitars have really awful tops. Either way I am really pleased with it. Not sure how long I will keep the Gibson Burstbucker pickups. A bit too "vintage" sounding for me and I like a lot more output. Might try as set of Wes Hauch rails from Duncan.

 

[swtfman]

Nice, any neck dive?

 

[Elwenil]

Nice, any neck dive?

Yeah, It's an Explorer, so they either weigh 12 lbs or they have neck dive. It's not terrible with the Walker & Williams straps I use, and the angle I typically have my guitar when I play. If you like your guitar more level when you play, and/or use a thin strap like a nylon one, if you turn loose of the neck it's headed to the floor. It's not too bad for me, though I think they could lose some weight on the neck end if Gibson would develop a "speed neck" like a Jackson or similar, but Gibson likes to be Gibson I guess.

 

[RedX]

Finally got my Ghosthorse. Cancelled my preorder from Sweetwater, it was taking too long and picked one up from a shop on Reverb. This way I got to pick out one with decent grain as a lot of the Ghosthorse guitars have really awful tops. Either way I am really pleased with it. Not sure how long I will keep the Gibson Burstbucker pickups. A bit too "vintage" sounding for me and I like a lot more output. Might try as set of Wes Hauch rails from Duncan.

Never been a fan of the Explorer shapes (or V's for that matter)...but that is a beautiful guitar. Enjoy!

 

[RedX]

Ok, here are my current guitars:

My Jackson DK2M, all stock except for the Schaller strap locks.

My Jackson DK2X, with a EMG Kerry King active set installed, two volume and two tone knobs along with the boost switch. Also has Schaller strap locks and copper tape lining the electronics cavities.

Outstanding!!

 

[RedX]

 

[Mattygwheeler]

My epiphone les Paul, playing lots of megadeth and slayer lately.

 

[White Shark]

I'm seeing lots of shredder guitars. Lots of metal guys out there. Very cool.

 

[JNHEscher]

No pics at the moment as all my guitars are loaded in the front of a trailer.

Nicest axe is a Stephen Carpenter 8-string. Love to play metal. Lots of my picking seems to be somewhat of a Flamenco style.

 

[det107]

Really wish I had some talent to play a guitar.

 

[Elwenil]

Got another in today. Nothing real special, a Jackson Series X SLX Soloist with the spalted maple top. Not normally into this style, but I fell in love with the grain and the colors of this one. Typical Jackson, low action, plays smooth and fast. Not real sold on the pickups, but if I swap them, I will probably stick with the white color since it sets off the colors of the wood to me.

Also, I swapped in a set of Fishman Fluence Moderns into my Ghosthorse. These things have such an aggressive cut, so precise feeling, I love them. Easily my favorite guitar to play. I have them setup with two volume knobs and the push/pull changes the voicing, but I am going to change them up and go with a volume and tone and try that.

 

[RedX]

Got another in today. Nothing real special, a Jackson Series X SLX Soloist with the spalted maple top. Not normally into this style, but I fell in love with the grain and the colors of this one. Typical Jackson, low action, plays smooth and fast. Not real sold on the pickups, but if I swap them, I will probably stick with the white color since it sets off the colors of the wood to me.

Nice! I love Jackson Soloists.

Son just bought this for himself (1st electric...and all he could afford at the moment....but I think it will do just fine for now).

 

[PoBoy84]

No vetteboy79 in here yet?

 

[Roc Doc]

This is a picture of Jackson Browne's axes. He does different set lists for most every show, so the band has to be prepared to play any number of 200 songs, so he's got 30 guitars all tuned to specific songs...and he plays piano most of the time.

 

[Elwenil]

Cool. I still have Doctor My Eyes on a lot of playlists and is one of my favorite songs from my childhood.

 

[Roc Doc]

Cool. I still have Doctor My Eyes on a lot of playlists and is one of my favorite songs from my childhood.

That pic was soundcheck from 2015, and he was playing some new Yamaha electric piano, and it was the best sounding electric I had ever heard, and the FOH guy agreed. I assume they still make it, or maybe it's even better now?

 

[Elwenil]

For whatever reason, I decided to buy another. I feel like maybe this is an addiction, but the cost of this one will keep me from buying another for a long while. Anyway, I ended up with an Ibanez Premium. Lots of exotic wood, and I love the white on the edge. Really beautiful guitar that plays real smooth. It remains to be seen how well I get along with the Edge Zero II bridge with the Zero Point system and my typical D tuning and Beefy Slinkys. The DiMarzio pickups are nice, but they have a lot of mid and I'm either going to have to create a new patch in the Katana just for this guitar or maybe swap them out. The hardware is black or smoked chrome, so the Devin Townsend Fishman Fluence set would work real nice if Fishman has a single coil with the same finish. Might have to look into that...

 

[vetteboy79]

No vetteboy79 in here yet?

I'll lead off with this... picture of a picture from around '98/'99, when I was 16. Not all mine, but this was the collection between myself and my bass player/rhythm guitarist at the time 🙂

Few things about this:

- Acoustics, L to R. Martin Classical, 1968 Gibson B-25 (was my mom's), 1970 Fender (was my dad's). Those were mine. The 4th one is an Alvarez that the other guitar player still has.*

- Electrics, L to R. Jackson USA Soloist SL1, mine, still have that. Axis was not mine. The EBMM Steve Morse was mine, it was a very early model, and I traded it for a Taylor solidbody electric later which I regret now. Early EBMM Luke was not mine.

- Basses (my buddy who still plays with me to this day), Warwick Corvette I believe, there's an early Spector prototype behind that, forget what the acoustic was, the J bass was a really nice USA one that is the bass (not just the same model, the actual one) used on Bon Jovi's 'Dead Or Alive' and some other tracks from that time. The P-Bass on the far right is a basic Mexican one from the mid 90s but the airbrushing on it was done by Hughie Thomasson from the Outlaws (and later Skynyrd), one of the janitors in our grade school was good friends with all the original Outlaws and every time they came around on tour in NJ he'd have them over and us teenagers would hang out at his house and probably got high as shit from all the secondhand weed smoke (hey trampas )

The Explorer is a '76 that I no longer have, bridge pickup was a 500T which was hot as shit and the thing had a terrible Kahler trem bridge on it that I locked out with a few erector set pieces the neck pickup was a 496R (I think) and between that and the thing being an 11-lb+ mahogany slab, sounded fantastic. I sort of miss that one but I think it's more nostalgia than anything.

I'll fast forward from the 90's to now, with some more stories in there 🎸 PoBoy84 , you asked for it

*the Gibson B25 I still have and it's awesome, one of my best studio/session acoustics. The Fender had some neck issues that weren't worth repairing and I think my BIL has it now. The Martin classical (I forget the actual brand, it was like the Epi/Squire of Martin at the time) went with my younger sister to college and I don't think it's in the family anymore.

 

[vetteboy79]

I'm actually playing drums here in '98 (the other guitarist and I would trade off, that's the Axis from above, and my Jackson SL1 on the stand). Drums are an old 7-pc Rogers kit and the 5150 is a first-year issue. Not too bad for a few high school (bass player was in 8th grade) kids playing a field day

 

[vetteboy79]

So the SL1...serial number puts it as a '97 build. I picked it up used in '98 for $599 and gave my Jackson Performer series PS4 in partial trade for it. I don't know why the shop had it marked so low as a USA SL1 at the time was easily 2-3x that, but I ended up taking it home for $400. I was mowing lawns and rode my bike to the store every week to pay it down on layaway. Receipt still has all the different times I stopped in there to drop another $20/$40 on it.

Badly needs cleaning, but this doesn't see a lot of use these days...

Hey Elwenil RedX , check out where the volume knob is on my SL1...frankly I can't stand that placement anymore, it completely gets in the way. Somehow for 17 years it didn't bother me until I started playing something else, and now it sucks going back, that's why I don't use this much lately from your pics it looks like they moved it down and away from the bridge pickup over the years, I'd probably like it a lot better now if it were that way...

 

[vetteboy79]

That Soloist was my main guitar from 1998 to 2015. At one point in there I traded in that Music Man Steve Morse for this Taylor solidbody, around '09 maybe.

In hindsight that was the equivalent of dumping a long-time girlfriend for a new hot chick. Turns out those Taylors were kind of problematic and all the pickup/bridge/control hardware is proprietary stuff and they are a bitch to set up (and keep set up). I've had it into Taylor a few times and they basically acknowledge that any time a cloud moves past the sun you'll need to adjust the neck again. When it's in spec that thing is still great to me, but more often it's not and I'll just use something else. No bigger bummer factor than being in a studio session and suddenly the 8th fret or the low E decides it doesn't want to work anymore. But I've had some sessions where that thing just sounds magical, which is why it's still around.

 

[vetteboy79]

I say the Jackson was my primary up to 2015 - at that time I reunited with my old bass player (from the previous pic) and he was playing a 6-string bass, and we wanted to do a heavier sort of project, so I got my first 7 string. Basic bare bones Ibanez RG7, as I really didn't know what we were gonna do. This thing later got DiMarzio Blaze pickups and a Graphtech Ghost piezo system on the bridge...I've got far nicer ones now but this was (and still is) my test mule and general bash-around one for trying new stuff.

After getting used to it and deciding I liked 7-strings, they started multiplying.

Next this one, Ibanez RGA742FM, slightly nicer, paid $350 for it, then double that with Hipshot hardware all around and a DiMarzio Crunch Lab in the bridge. Was ready to change out the neck PU too but honestly was pretty pleased with the stock one.

(ever since the 7 string I've been on board with Fractal AxeFX units...had a Standard rackmount unit, then the AX8 above which is still my primary live rig, and I have a newer FM3 on my studio desk)

 

[vetteboy79]

Picked up this one as well...it's a private label import from Texas (Raines is the company), but 7-string hollowbodies aren't all that common. Would really love an Ibanez Artcore 957 but they are impossible to find. 7-string jazz boxes exist but mostly from boutique manufactures that cost way more than I could justify...for the few times I need it, this thing does just fine. Currently running a flatwound 7-string set from D'Addario on this.

 

[vetteboy79]

Eventually you always want something nicer...Misha Mansoor from Periphery worked with Jackson to come up with some of their first 7-string models, and I was able to get one of the first USA Custom Shop HT7s built. This was not cheap but it's a phenomenal axe. Wouldn't say it's my go-to for everything these days, but when stuff needs to be heavy, this one kills it.

26.5" scale, Bareknuckle Alpha & Omega PUs, Hipshot hardware all around (all factory). An interesting feature is that Misha did not want a tone knob at all and Jackson did, so they put one, but it's a push/pull and you have to pull it if you want it to do anything. Push it's just a bypass. Kind of neat if you've got a spot 'saved' but yeah, I don't really use it either.

 

[vetteboy79]

So everything up to that point had been fixed bridge...I had a few ideas in mind that needed a Floyd bridge, and I mentioned to a buddy of mine that I always loved the Nuno Bettencourt Washburns. He informed me that they had made a very limited run of 7-string Nunos about 10 years ago, so the hunt began...

Not only did they make those for a very short time, this was an even more limited batch comissioned by Boogie Street Guitars (Eric McKenna out of Pittsburgh I think) of only 7 pieces. Difference being the standard Washburn N7 spec would have chrome hardware, these had black, still built by the Washburn USA custom shop. Unlike the regular N4 this has a Duncan Distortion in the bridge...I love the hell out of the Bill Lawrence in the N4, but that company folded long ago and Washburn custom labels that pickup now, and only in a 6-string. The Duncan is fine enough that I don't feel like changing it. Also swapped out the pickup selector for a 6-way Freeway switch so I can coil split/combine them in a bunch of different ways:

JJ Custom Works | 6 Way Switch

jjcustomworks.com

Had the opportunity this past July to do a workshop with Nuno and got it signed:

Also had the chance at that same workshop to share the stage with Steve Vai and his band for a few minutes (same guitar).

So that's the one you'll mostly see in the 'where are you now' pictures I put up here 🙂

(from yesterday)

 

[vetteboy79]

I guess last one worth talking about is my acoustic...I mentioned the B-25, but for sentimental (and practical) reasons I needed something more roadworthy and better suited for the kind of acoustic lead/bluegrass/country stuff I play in those gigs. Enter the Martin SC-10E:

It's on the lower end of the Martin scale as it's one of their Mexican models, but the neck design is what really sold me on it -

It plays way more like an electric than an acoustic, and is super comfortable and fast everywhere. Electronics are a decent package from Fishman and it has a little tuner mounted in the soundhole that mutes the output when activated, very convenient:

Think that'll do for now...yeah I'm a bit nerdy when it comes to this stuff 🤓

I'm also not good at just having the 'regular' version of something, very rarely does anything mass produced off the shelf interest me. Almost every instrument I own has a story behind it which I think makes the whole experience that much better 🎸

edit: quick story behind the Martin. I went to my local Guitar Center to try it, and it was overrun with younger kids just blasting shit everywhere (I mean, I was probably guilty of the same 20 years ago)...there was one poor dude working the counter, and I asked him if I could try one of the acoustics. He said sure, go ahead...until I told him it was one of the guitars that had the lock on the hanger. Suddenly he became a lot more interested and my best friend for the next half hour I might as well have been the only customer in the store. Guy earned his commission on that one...

 

[PoBoy84]

vetteboy79 thats the coolest timeline ive ever seen!