What kind of guitars/amps/effects do you play?

Cafe Society
1

Inspired by the recent guitar threads, I am now curious as to what other guitar player dopers are using.

My main bitch is a lake placid blue G&L Legacy that I got about 12 years ago. When I was 17 I used a dremel tool to modify the pickguard to accept a humbucker pickup in the bridge position. It’s a Dimarzio something or other (it’s pretty hot). Now I get good blues tone in the neck positions and usable distortion at the bridge. This guitar gets used (banged around) all the time and doesn’t get cleaned often enough, so it’s starting to show its age. It could probably use a tune up too, but everytime I’ve tried doing things like that over the years I usually end up making things worse. I play this through a 72 silverface Fender Deluxe Reverb that I got for $200 from some idiot because he couldn’t get metal sounds out of it. I relpaced the tubes and had a friend who builds his own tube amps replace the caps in it and now it sounds great. It came modified with a master volume knob, so I can crank the preamp while keeping the volume reasonable. I have a few effects, but I hardly ever use them. I got a digitech multieffect thing that sounds really cheesy, a Boss Distortion (the orange one) and a phaser/volume control pedal.

I also have a cracked Samick acoustic, a 60’s Saturn semi hollow that I refretted with wider bass frets. (I hate those really thin frets that it came with. It sounds great, but needs to be set up really badly) and various other junky acoustics and electrics that I left at my parents house.

So? What’re you playing?

2

I have the same amp but mine has 6L6’s, a solid state rectifier and a different transformer it also had a master/mod done to it. I don’t use it except sometimes for recording though.

I don’t really have a main guitar but I use a Tele, Strat, or an Ibanez AS-80 most often. I use a TS-9 with the single coil guitars along with some compression. The bucker guitar needs no assistance to get gritty.

3

My main electric guitar is a blue 1994 Fender Strat Plus. It has a 12" radius maple fingerboard, Gold Lace Sensor pickups, locking tuners and a roller nut. I also have an Epiphone ES-335 and a 1965 Fender Mustang. My amp is a blond Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, with an audio pot in place of the linear pot for the master volume. My acoustic is a 2005 Taylor 710CE. I use a Dynacomp, a Boss chorus, and a Boss Giga digital delay.

4

My favorite guitar is my Gibson ES-175. Sweet-lookin’ box, isn’t it? I play through a little Marshall practice amp or a Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight. I have a pedalboard full of mostly Boss and BBE units, a Digitech multi-effects board, and various loose effects, including an old Cry Baby wah.

5

My current guitarsenal includes (and yes, I happen to think that “guitarsenal” is pretty much the stoopidest word on the planet… :slight_smile: )

  • My #1 = 1973 Gibson Les Paul 54 Reissue Black Beauty Custom. I think we can all agree that in the case of this guitar, a nickname is in order - hence, Gracie (link to photo). Best Les Paul I’ve personally played (well, for any length of time - doesn’t count the real '59 'burst I got to play). Very light with gorgeous crunchy bridge tones, liquid clear clean tones at the neck - but they gain up to Keef wonderfulness when I need them to.

  • My gigging guitar (when I am leery of bringing Gracie, etc.) = my Parts-o-Caster Tele. I found this “Parts-O-Tele” left at a small music store, and I bought it because I liked the neck (made by Allparts, it is called the Tele Fat neck and is 1" thick at the 12th fret (i.e., freakin’ huge baseball bat). I also liked the pickups (Duncan Donahue bridge and Duncan Phat Cat P-90 at the neck). From there, I:
    [ul]
    [li]Had the neck reshaped - still as thick, but I had a friend give it more of a soft “V” profile - like buttah now[/li][li]Swapped the body out for a light swamp ash with a nitro finish (Fenders don’t have full nitro - even if they call it that, it is nitro sprayed over a poly first coat[/li][li]swapped out all the electronics - pots, caps, wiring - with top-line aftermarket stuff[/li][li]new pickguard - may not stick with the Tortoiseshell; but fun for now[/li][/ul]
    I am sure I did more, but what I list here is enough, innit? :slight_smile: All in, I have about $800 in the guitar - dirt cheap for a fully-custom player that I love. (Note: I am contemplating building a slightly different Parts-o-Tele build later this year - I want one with a couple of differences. I am debating whether I should start an SDMB thread when I start the project in case Guitarist Dopers would want to follow along. Would that be of interest? It really is just assembling a bunch of carefully chosen parts - it is not like I am shaping the body, winding the pickups or spraying the lacquer myself - but you still have the pride of doing most of it yourself and every part is to your spec…)

  • I have a 1957 Les Paul Special in TV Yellow - pic here. I got this one as a collector - I was able to trade for it with some first-edition books I had a LOT less money in vs. what this is worth. It plays so great - I love taking it out for a spin.

  • I have a couple of other electrics I play a lot less - one is a vintage Japanese replica Les Paul with humbuckers that is amazing - but covers the same ground as Gracie, so I will likely be selling it soon. Until very recently I had a Strat - very similar to **Crotalus’ **- but I had to sell it to fund one of the others I currently have.

  • Main acoustic = Gibson J-45. Just traded a gorgeous Taylor to get it, simply because this guitar just spoke to me.

Amps:

  • Cornford Hellcat - handmade British two channel amp. Uses EL84 power tubes. Clean channel is all Vox chime, but the gain channel is all Marshall crunch. Just a great amp - 35 watts per channel - more than loud enough for big club gigs.

  • Bruno Tweedy 18 - a handmade replica of a vintage Fender Tweed Deluxe. 18 very loud watts. Celestion Blue speaker. I put my Parts-o-Tele through this with my ProCo Rat distortion pedal (an original one from the late 70’s I bought in high school) and get the most responsive and articulate tone.

Effects - pretty much just the Rat through the Tweed above. I have a digital delay I need for a couple of U2 songs, a booster I use to get more volume on leads, and a noise gate since my pickups are all single coil and get noisy close to fluorescent and neon lights, but that is about it. I am not a fan of pedals - I would rather just use my hands.

Sorry for geeking out - can’t resist. Nunavut Boy your Silverface sounds like a great deal.

6

I love 175’s - I wish I was worthy of a jazzbox!

7

Fender Nashville Power Tele - it’s a stereo guitar with three single coils for one output and a piezo in the bridge on the second. I run it through a Pod XT and a Boss digital reverb before it goes into a Traynor K4, with the two inputs on a completely different EQ.

My acoustic is a very basic Seagull, and my classical is an Ed Klein that I had built in 2001.

8

Holy shit! WordMan you’ve got some nice gear!

Must…fight urge…to buy…more guitar stuff

Also, I would def. be interested in a guitar build thread.

9

But as far as mid-life crises go, it was far cheaper than a little red sports car, and far less emotionally costly compared to having an affair…at least, this is the case I try to make to my wife! :smiley:

Oh - and regarding Guitar Build Thread - check out the Fender / Gibson thread going on - **River Hippie ** says he makes Parts-O-Casters, too…and I know **Crotalus **has his spec’d out, but don’t know if/when he’d pull the trigger on it…so there could be a lot of Guitar Buildy Goodness to go around…

10

What, you think Ted Nugent was worthy of a jazzbox? Brother, if you’ve learned 3 chords, you’ve surpassed him!

11

I have three Stratocaster clones that are my main guitars, my favorite of the three varies from time to time. Also I tend to swap parts among the three. Actually, within the three there are all the original parts to reconfigure an early nineties '62 reissue in 3T sunburst.

12

I have crappy pics, but I’ll be happy to post 'em. :slight_smile:

My #1 is a G&L ASAT Special (1996 or so). It’s a heavy mofo made out of about 900 pounds of swamp ash, but it’s the nicest playing and sounding guitar I’ve ever had my hands on.

I also have a very heavily modified 1980 Ibanez AS50. It’s a semihollow I found dirt cheap at a DC yard sale. It had been abused pretty badly, so I modified it out the wazoo. The original V2 pickups were gone (drat), so I eventually put in a DiMarzio FRED and an Air Norton. I also refinished it with gun stock oil, replaced the electronics with push/pull minipots (so I have coil taps and phase switching on both pickups), replaced the tuners, and put on a snazzy Birdland tailpiece. The pickups sound OK, but I think my next project is to drop in some 57 Classics and nix the fancy switching options.

My third main electric is a Highway 1 Strat (bought last year when Guitar Center was blowing them out for $388). Since the photo, I’ve switched out pickups in favor of a SD Lil 59 in the bridge and SD Vintage Strat pickups in the other positions.

My main amp used to be a 1997 Fender Prosonic, which I kept for far too long. It was a good amp, but I just never got along with it.

These days, I’m playing a Traynor YCV40WR.

Sometimes, I also run a stereo rig with my silverface Bassman 10.

Other random noisesticks that have not been photographed include a G&L L-2000 bass, a 1974 Ovation Custom Balladeer acoustic, a Taylor 422R acoustic, a Kay squareneck resonator guitar, a 1963 Valco/Supro lap steel, a bog-standard Washburn D-10 acoustic, a Yamaha cedar classical guitar, and my prize possession, a 1958 Gibson Mastertone banjo given to me by my grandfather.

Oh, and I bought one of those cute little Fender Champion 600 amps last year. Not really my bag. It’s nice enough, but I think I’d have to mod it to sound really good. I’ll probably just Ebay it.

And, of course, I have a wide selection of effects and pedals.

13

A Strat clone (Elektra) and a beat to shit (and shit-brown) '71 Gibson SG Custom. Plugged into a POD 2.0 and into my HTR and out some studio monitors. I had other gear long ago, I’m just getting back into guitar after a long spell on piano. Check out the other thread for my vast confusion about current guitar model insanity. I’ve still got some 20-30 yo stomp boxes lying around, apparently some of these are considered precious, but the POD sounds pretty good. I should pull out the old MXR phaser for nostalgia’s sake.

14

Shit, man. Ebay the old MXR (and the rest of the “vintage” pedals), and fund a major studio upgrade!

15

Oh, and since the OP asked for effects, my pedal chain (for the Traynor) consists of:

MXR Micro Amp > Vox volume pedal > EXH Pulsar > Sitori Sonics Tidal Phase > Sitori Sonics Tapeworm > Dunlop Crybaby

I also use a Sitori Sonics Brownies and Cream with the Bassman.

Emanual for Sitori Sonics is a local guy for me, and he makes great pedals.

16

Oh, and while I’m on a roll, here’s my next huge project. I designed this hybrid tele, and I want to build it. Ignore the toggle on the upper bout. I forgot to remove it. I’m undecided on the two different finishes, though.

In case you’re interested, and didn’t know about it, I used this toy to design it.

17

Bass player here. You can see pics of all my gear here (scroll down).

But to summarize, my main axes are a Rogue LX406 Pro 6-String bass and a Tobias Toby Pro 5-string bass.

The Rogue is amazing. Rogue is Musician’s Friend’s “house brand”, and it only cost me $250, but the quality of this instrument is phenomenal. It’s beautiful, the construction is rock-solid, and most importantly, it sounds better than any bass I’ve ever played (granted, I haven’t played any “high end” basses). The Tobias is a Korean-made, neck-thru model that cost me $600. It’s also beautiful, and sounds good, but I don’t play it much since getting the Rogue.

For effects … well, as a bassist I don’t use effects much. I’m currently playing through a Behringer Bass V-Amp (essentially a clone of the Line 6 Bass POD). My primary setting emulates an Eden amp and (I think) an 8x10" cabinet (can’t find the owner’s manual where the exact settings are detailed). The only effect I use with this setting is a very light touch of chorus.

Currently, I’m just plugging into the V-Amp and running that directly to the mixing board, but I have a Carvin RL6815 combo amp (actually an R600 head incorporated into a cabinet with one 15" speaker, two 8" speakers, and a horn tweeter.

18

Actually, the only stomper I’ve got that looks pricey is an Ibanez “tube screamer”, ca 1980? @ about $100 on ebay. Most of the rest (MXR boxes or similar) look to be a glut. Anyone want a Scholz Rockman? :slight_smile:

19

Well, I feel kinda left out. I used to be something of a gear head but these days I don’t have a whole lot.

Presently I have a 1960 Les Paul Goldtop. Purty guitar. I run that through a new B-52 AT-212. Dig the amp quite a bit. I have an old Fender amp around somewhere as well, don’t use it too much though.

I also have a Ibanez acoustic. Not a very expensive guitar but it plays ok.

The only effect I have presently is a BBE Sonic Stomp. I use it sparingly. It can be a great effect, it basically spaces out the frequencies a bi with delay. If you hit it to hard it’ll make things sound way to tinny.

I am looking to get some more gear here in the near future. Maybe someone will have some suggestions/recommendations. I am looking for a delay unit, preferably something that can loop reasonably long sections. I also need a wah, a volume and a gate.

Of course, I gotta clear all this stuff with the girlfriend first (Yeah, like that is gonna happen :))

Slee

20

I’d link back to my old all the guitars I’ve owned thread but I have no idea how to find it.

Current main guitar is a PRS CE(something) 24 fret, nice guitar providing you get the neck adjustment right (see another current guitar thread about that).

Day to day Amp is a 25+ year old Park - 2*EL84s. If I was gigging (which I’m not) I’d probably use the 1971 50W Marshall, though I might find it a bit loud these days. FX - just a bit of reverb from a Roland multi-fx unit and boost from a Boss line switcher. I’ve got a couple of Boss DDLs which I use occasionally and a load of phasers/flangers/chorus pedals that I haven’t used in years. The Boss turbo overdrive that used to be a fixture is now a doorstop.

Other guitars

Les Paul Gold top with P90s, currently tuned down a semitone.

Telecaster, beaten up, much gigged. Got this new in 1978 (maybe), this is really my ‘real’ main guitar even though it doesn’t get played much these days.

Fender Performer, Fender’s imaginitive take on a super-strat. I’ve only ever seen two of these and I own one of them. Currently in System of a Down tuning (which also works for early B52s).

Ibanez S220(?) Shredding guitar, though I don’t do that anymore (much).

Acoustic, Yamaha small body FG(something)

Bass, Washburn ‘Status’ headless carbon fibre neck.

There’s other stuff too but this lot gets used regularly.