WOW!

I think I saw that in a poison video. Crazy looking axe!

I don’t think CC could play one. The magic of the Jem would ward him off ... never letting his fingers sully the fretboard ... like a mystical musical guardian protecting the world from his out of key solos and fantastic lady-hair.

CC wishes he could play a Jem.

One day, the musical guardians may let him be in the presence of a Jem. Or maybe even .... touch one.

But probably not.

rd

But what is that built in handle for, if not so you can twirl your guitar behind your back whilst pouting into the camera as silver gerbs explode behind you, blending perfectly into the blur of your golden mane as it spirals upward in slow motion?!

For a chuckle I checked out the Les Paul forum...it's as rife with "will the bubble burst?!" threads as this place!!!

You got one of those $250,000 50s burtsts? Or that Gilmour strat that he played the Money solo on?!

I’m pretty sure ‘59 Les Pauls can fetch $500,000 or more. I believe they only made about 650 ‘59s.

I just snagged fun SG Standard from the Gibson Demo Shop.

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Gorgeous, I used to have an SG special in black, love that look. Put the chrome pickup covers on just doesn't look right without it.

$300 from Airport Music in Buffalo via the internet back in 1999! Sold it to a friend 15 years ago, wish I kept it was a super fun guitar to play.

Find me 3 clean bursts for $250k each and I will buy them all.

The most figured 59s are way closer to 1 Mil than 250k these days.

But finding any burst is cause for celebration. They are truly amazing guitars.

Out of curiosity I looked last year, there were some "low end" ones for $100K or less but they were generally pretty frankenstiened. I think the cheapest was around $80K...he was selling it as the "burst you can gig with" while your nice one sits at home in a vault.

I'm sure there's the same resentment in that community for the big spenders as there is in pinball.

Ooooooh yeah.

rd

Yeah, rats aren't usually desireable to the collectors. And very often a ton of the parts are non-original / missing.

And yep. People get the wrong idea about those who own / collect / chase this type of stuff. None ever realize that many have been obsessed with the things for 30-40 years and are the very reason that ANY 100% original examples still exist.

I regularly sell to Museums as well as Collectors. Not everything goes into a dark vault to never be seen again...but at a certain pont it gets really hard to sneak out with your vintage axe without spending the entire night shitting your pants that something may go wrong or someone may realize what you are holding.

Just driving home (with one you found) in the backseat can be scary enough with certain cases alone valued at 10K plus.

Man dipping into some of these "price bubble threads..."

The bubble has to burst because kids don't like guitars anymore and rock n roll is dead, and when the current generation gets old and dies these axes will all be worthless!!!

Where have I heard that before...every month...I'm sure it'll come to me...

I can only imagine the torturous wet dreams collectors have about finding a '59 burst in some old lady's attic on Craigslist she wants $2,000 for...and the agony of waking up!

If I could have any of these insane collector guitars it would probably be that Gilmour "Black Strat" that sold at auction a couple years ago for $4 million plus fees and taxes. He's probably my favorite guitar player.

While it would insult the rock n roll gods I'd still play it and try and do some pale Floyd solo imitations on it. Would just be so sick!

Purchased at Manny's a couple blocks from my apartment!

If you could have only one, which would it be?!

----
The auction’s centerpiece, the Black Strat, has a unique history, which is why it was so desirable. Gilmour purchased it at the instrument shop Manny’s in New York in May 1970 to replace another Strat that was stolen. Over the years, he made many modifications to it, changing its pickups, switches, inputs, tuners, and neck in the quest for the perfect sound. He played the instrument on nearly all of Pink Floyd’s iconic recordings from 1970 to 1983, including Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall. In the mid Eighties, Fender introduced a new line of Stratocasters and Gilmour picked up the Red Strat, retiring the Black Strat and loaning it to the Hard Rock Cafe. It was displayed in the restaurant chain’s Dallas location until 1997. Gilmour started using it again live for Pink Floyd’s reunion with Roger Waters in 2005 at Live 8. He continued to record with it on his solo albums, but Fender wound up making a replica of it in 2006 that he liked.

“You know something? For me, I can let go of it,” Gilmour told Rolling Stone. “It’s going to bring a lot of people to have a look at this sale, and it’s going to do that job. It’s a lovely guitar. … I did my ‘Comfortably Numb’ solo on it. The notes for the beginning of ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ fell out of it one day. It’s on so much stuff, but Fender have made replica ones that they sell, and I have two or three of those that are absolutely perfect. One of those might be my future guitar of choice or even, horror of horror, maybe I’ll even change the color.”

“I’m both sad with losing some of the instruments and relieved to get this thing dealt with and that it will be doing some good,” Gilmour told Rolling Stone in January. “If I need a particular guitar, I’ll go out and buy another one. They are the tools of my trade. They have given me music, but in the end, they are the tools that I use.”

My latest lefty

Strat Pro 2
Sea Foam Green with metallic flake.
It’s a beauty!

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Love that color. Cooler than the Agave they were doing a few years back.

Beauty.

Anybody here play a Huss & Dalton? Once the pandemic thing subsides I thought I would make my first foray into the world of boutique luthier built guitars.

The one I wish I had grabbed was the Martin Barre Burst. I had my shot at it, but wasn't willing to go as high as it ultimately went for.
That guitar would have been the one for me.

My father-in-law gave me these. 1954 ES-125 and a ‘57 Les Paul Junior/GA-5 transition amp.
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The tuners need new buttons, aside from that guitar is in pretty decent shape. He said the amp was working, but the last time he turned it on that it was dead. Haven’t had a chance to dig into that yet...

GREAT pair. I had someone bring that exact combo to the studio once and was blown away by it.

One hell of a father-in-law.

I love those GA-5 Goldtone Les Paul Jr. Amps! The circuitry is virtually identical to the tweed Fender Champ. Gibson offered a very brief reissue in the early 2000s, a hand wired, made in USA, boutique tube amp.

Test the tubes and tube sockets. Also, check all of the capacitors. On a vintage model like that, be sure to upgrade to a grounded power cord. It is so basic, I'm sure a tech can have it sorted quickly.

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No frills, pure tone.

They are great, though the speakers were and are shit. You have bigger magnets on your fridge!

Easy enough to replace, though. And yeah, the circuit on those is nothing to discount. I have used a bunch over the years and simply love them.

Guild also made some real nice amps at the same time.

I have been trying to figure out how i am going to get one of these in the flock... DAMN!
Gretsch Vintage Select ‘89 Sparkle Jet

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What a beautiful guitar! Wish I could justify it right now. For anybody buying, beware - those things are HEAVY as hell!

Some of you guys seem to know your stuff so maybe you can answer...I posted this on the Les Paul forum too:

I impulse bought a 1993 Les Paul standard "Custom Shop Edition" yesterday and it's on the way.

I've had a Les Paul Custom 2007 Silverburst for many years.

My question is do these guitars have any differences that will make this new guitar more than just a cool Zoom background addition (as in, will it sound or play differently based upon build / pickups?)

The new Standard is advertised as having 57 Classic Pickups and a '59 Neck Profile.
I really don't know the official specs on the 2007, but it was bought new so it's stock (sniffing around here I believe it has 498s and a 60s profile, but I bet you guys would know better than I).

What do you think? I know all guitars are a little different but based on the models and makes should I expect a different sound/feel on these? Pics helpfully added for visual aid and drooling opportunities.

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So that’s where all my Centaur money went!

rd

Yeah, it’s pretty heavy.

The prices are all over the place on these ... anywhere from 5000 USD to 10,000 USD

rd

Very pretty guitar - I doubt it will command a major premium; it's still a "remake". Even their neck profiles advertised as official '59 profiles aren't really exact (in 59 they were not very standardized - that's why Fender took so much market share from them)

HOWEVER any guitar made before the 2016(?) Brazilian wood fiasco will sound much better than the plywood junk you get now

Levi, I bet your Silverburst has Burstbucker Pros, but it could possibly be Burstbucker Type 1 & 2. If it has the 60s slim tapered neck it will be a fast, clean player. Many people call the 50s neck profile 'the tree trunk.' My Les Paul has the Burstbucker Pros and 50s neck, while my ES-335 has the 60s neck and 57s. The two feel very different when playing. I don't mind the thicker 50s neck, but then I play a lot of acoustic, too. I'd say the 57s are just a little hotter, but still a warm tone, while the Burstbuckers have a brighter, cleaner treble.

That's cool, sounds like there will be some differences which I was hoping for.

Just to be clear the SIlverburst I've had since 2008, the 1993 Standard is coming in a couple days.

Are burstbuckers the same thing as 498s?

They are different. The 498/490 combo was what the Les Paul standards were shipping with up until around 2001-2002. Then they switched to the Burstbuckers, which were an attempt at recreating the classic PAF sound.

The 498/490 combo is hotter. My SG came with those, but I ended up switching over to some P94s. I wanted the single coil punch on that one.

So I picked up another speaker cab. It looks identical to my other Sunn 412 cab, only this one is a 612. It came with 2 Sunn Transducers, 2 Carvin British, and 2 Peavey Scorpions. All are 8 ohms, as far as I can tell. Only the Carvins have the rating marked.

I'd like to be able to use both cabs with my amplifier. On my DMM, both cabinets appear to be around 7.6, 7.7, which means they're pretty much 8 ohms, correct? (Both were tested using the DMM on one end of the speaker cable.)

And if so, is that a sign that this 612 cab is wired as series-parallel? Same for the 412? Was this the standard wiring configuration of vintage cabs?

If both cabs are each at 8 ohms, what does the amp output need to be? Any recommendations on linking cabs properly? I was looking at a Radial CabLink speaker combiner or is there a better way?

My concern is having two separate wiring configurations linked together possibly affecting the combined ohm rating. Tried searching the internet but not 100% clear.
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The new guitar is here and I love it. Plays amazing and looks great on the wall. My babe loves the way it looks which is a huge boom as she's happy to have it up there.

A couple dumb questions about frets:

The new guitar has tiny divots (really small) on the first G and B frets. No issues with play and action is nice and low. Is there a benefit to having these smoothed out or addressed in some fashion now, or should I wait till (if ever) I notice any playing issues?

My SG also has similar divots, maybe a little pronounced. I've noticed a weird buzzy fret/dead fret lately way up the neck on the G string maybe 12 frets up. Wondering if that's due to possible low frets and divots I see.

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Not exactly how that one to one works and it's extremely hard to tell exactly what you've got on your hands unless you open up the cabinet and show us some pictures of that.

Generally speaking, 6 speaker cabinets are a pain to wire and a pain to pair with other amps. A lot of 6x12s were wired in a combination of series and parallel to generate an overall output of a more standard rating of 4 or 8 or 16 ohms. If the whole thing is wired up in the same way you would wire a normal speaker cabinet (and how these things came stock) you'd get something wacky like 6 or 12 ohms, which if your reading is coming in closer to 8ohm on your DMM, I would suspect you miiiiiight be running a 12 ohm load in that cabinet, but someone can speak more intelligently about this one I'm sure. usually an 8ohm speaker cab should read as 6 ohms or just under on your DMM.

I think from what I've seen, again, please correct me if I'm wrong here, is that a lot of of 6x12s have two 8 ohm speakers wired in series, and then four 4 ohm speakers wired in series, and the two batches of speakers (totaling 16 ohms each) are wired in parallel to give you a total output of 8 ohms to be matched up with an amp. Not exactly sure how that affects the power consumption and output of the speakers, but as far as I'm concerned, that should be the last of your worries.

What amp are you using and what are your output impedance options on that? Either way, I would suggest mixing a 6 ohm or 12 ohm speaker cabinet with a standard 8 ohm cab, but it really depends on what amp you're using and how much of a fuck you give. I tend to give little fucks about this stuff and then get mad when my gear breaks.

Only real way to get rid of fretwear is to re-crown and polish.

You could look into maybe getting it Plek'd.

Gotta be a local shoop in NYC that can do that for you.

On a pinball website shouldn't we call that dimpling?
Frets on vintage guitars tend to show less dimpling than on newer guitars.
Guess they don't make them like they used to.

Depends on how in tune you want it to play etc... any guitar with fret issues will either not intonate right (especially flat frets or uneven) or cause buzzing or other issues.

Ritchie's guitar repair is the best in NYC if you dont know him... he is sort of under the radar but does lots of famous players guitar work.

he has had some health issues over the years though so may not be working I dont know.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/nyregion/richies-guitar-repair-the-strokes.html

Levi, How's the neck feel on the new one compared to your Custom Shop LP?

My first fret job was nerve racking, thought it was rocket science. Until I witness a custom shop guy beating them in with a brass hammer.
The most difficult thing to find are flush-cut nippers that are any good.
Usually use jumbo wire on rebuilds that are keepers. Try to match the original for vintage/customers.
Stewart Mac sells and expensive sanding/polishing block, I made one for a buck.

It feels faster, more like my SG. I was surprised as I thought it would be thicker but this works for me, I really love playing this thing.

I mean, it plays like an SG but sounds like a Les Paul, what's not to love?

Elvis I usually go to 30th street guitar (I think they are actually on 27th street now) but I don't think this guitar needs any work like that now. I guess the question is do you take it in at the first sign of fret wear or wait until it 'needs' it? The divots are really, really tiny. I'm generally an ain't broke don't fix it guy but don't want to cause bigger / more expensive issues down the road.

The SG has a dead fret now so I may bring that in, I'll bring the les paul in also and see what they think.

I appreciate the info. Ultimately I need to see the actual wiring like you said, but damn these Sunn cabs a bitch to open from the back. For now I think I may just test each individual speaker from the front and based on one final DMM reading maybe I can narrow it down to one wiring diagram.

I have the matching amp which is a late 60s Sunn Sceptre. This thing is a LOUD 60 watts. Has 8 and 16 ohm output.

I may just be safe at 8 ohms, but especially if my cab is possibly 12 ohms like you mentioned, just hoping it doesnt affect my overall sound too much. I think I read if theres too much of a difference it doesnt sound as good.

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Speaking of Sunn theres a guitar shop over here in Scottsdale that has a mint 1980s Model T amp but they wanted way too much for it. Plus sometimes when amps are the same price as a mid 90s Williams machine, that requires some deep thinking.

For some reason I've been wanting an SG lately. It's been awhile since I bought a guitar, I'm due! Historically I've never been a fan of the SG, not sure why. Maybe I figured I already have a nice Les Paul why would I need the cheaper version? I typically advise against buying guitars without playing them, but Covid has us in a strange situation. I've visited 2 local Guitar Centers and there is no inventory. Not one SG at either, and they still claim to be Gibson dealers? If anyone knows of a guitar shop that has some inventory within a few hours of Boston let me know. My options as I see them:

Buy it new- it's only $1,500. You don't need to play a bunch of them, they are pretty consistent now that they are PLek'd from the factory (in theory, not sure if this actually applies).

Buy one locally used- Standards are around $1,200 used. Save the tax, see it in person. Unload it for the same money if you don't like it.

Buy a higher model used- I've seen a few Derek Trucks models in the $1,500- $2,000 range. I like the looks of it. I think they were close to double that price new.

Buy a cool vintage one- I don't want a trem, and I have no attachment to any particular year for an SG. This is probably the least likely scenario but I find it interesting that the vintage SG's are relatively affordable.

I took the SG dive early in the pandemic (1970 standard). Really fun guitars to play, stoney great classic rock sound, light. Very different than Les Pauls.

I think part of the reason they are cheaper (relatively) is they are all the same. They made any color you liked between 1965-1971 I believe, as long as it was "Heritage Cherry." THough some are faded to "walnut." 70s and 80s one start to differ in color...I'm really not a fan of the post-1971-early 80sish SGs. But yeah you can buy a brand new standard for 1500 bucks, and like you said tons of of other recent used options.

I had a black 1999 special for many years and that was a great guitar.

I've been tempted to do the stimulus spend on a new guitar but I just dont play enough anymore to warrant hanging a Les Paul on the wall, though I've wanted one since I was a kid. Maybe I'll just buy a poster for $20 instead of spending $2000.

Then i started looking at the Charvel DK24s and thought "I could get 2 of those!"

Then reality sets in again - they wouldn't get played.

If you are just looking for a Zoom background wall-hanging you can get a used Les Paul Studio for well under $1,000 these days and some look pretty cool. And they play well; they are Les Pauls!

https://reverb.com/p/gibson-les-paul-studio-1998-2011

I was watching some live videos of Mountain and I was like damn, Leslie West had such a good sound. Turns out he had P-90s and Sunn amp so I'm like damn I may have to get that '77 Les Paul Special for sale locally.

The 61s are probably the best bang for the buck on the Vintage Market these days. PAFs and the circuit straight out of the burst LPs...silly cheap for what you get.

All Mahogany construction and P-90s are an awesome recipe. There are a few PRS McCarty Models that bank heavily on this recipe and they are killer axes for relatively cheap pricing.

I did not know this thread even existed! Very awesome stuff in here. I've been playing for about 20 years but still would consider myself very much a novice. I love to play but no one likes to listen if you know what I mean . I've posted a couple of pictures of my project in a couple of the Fathom threads but this really seems like the right spot for it.

I've been working with a local luthier for over a year now, getting shut down on and off because of COVID but we are just about at the finish line on my custom build. It has been a fantastic experience taking blocks of wood and turning them into an instrument. I can't recommend it enough to anyone who has the time/skill/money . Working with a true master at their craft has been a great experience and if any of your local luthier's offer a similar class I'd highly recommend it.

A little backstory if you feel like the read... first pinball I ever bought was a Bally Fathom and I did a playfield swap years back with the original pre-CPR Fathom reproduction playfield. I sold the machine years ago but kept the old playfield always wanting to do something with it as it was my first original pinball love. At one point I thought I'd make a coffee table out of it but somewhere along the line I decided I'd like to make a guitar from it. About 6 years ago I met the luthier I'm working with at a local fair where he had a booth setup and took his card but never took the plunge, figuring I wasn't deserving of a custom guitar due to my skill level... Seeing Fender release their Bally Wizard Tele I think really inspired me to pick the project up.

I've got a number of different light sequences built into, selectable by the kill switch pot, it has a microphone built into it and it has some rudimentary tuning built into it that leverages the lights and microphone built in. Due to the limited capabilities of the microphone however it can only so accurate. The microphone also acts as an input to drive the lights as well for some fun effects.

The luthier I'm working with has really enjoyed the project too... so much so I've tracked down some more playfields for him and he is going to work on some more pinball guitars amongst his other builds, so stay tuned for those.

I call her Fathomcaster...

Link to the lights working on the luthier's instagram... https://www.instagram.com/p/CFe_0fgncgW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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Fuckin' Love It!

One of the best art themes ever on a Tele. Kudos. Well done, man.

Centaur next please!