Musician's Christmas

Cafe Society
1

OK, who’s getting an instrument, of any sort, for Christmas around here?

I’m not, but my son is. I just bought him this to go under the tree on the 25th. He’s 9, and started learning guitar around early June this year. He’s been using one of my old guitars, a Strat clone that doesn’t really suit him and is far too heavy for him, so its time he had his own axe.

We’ve talked about getting him a guitar, and I’ve taken him to Guitar Center a couple of times. He’s been fixated on guitars with unusual shapes, and was lusting after one of the BC Rich guitars like this one. I played a couple of the lower end BC Rich’s that he liked, and they were just okay at best, but I was going to get him one if it would encourage him to play. Then, on one of the visits to Guitar Center, he spotted this lower-end Jazzmaster clone, and thought it was wicked cool looking. I’m not sure I can think of two less similar style guitars than this one vs the BC Rich, but, whatever, its going to be his guitar, not mine, so I want him to really like it and feel inspired to play. And I like this guitar a lot better than those metal-shape weirdo guitars he initially liked.

So, I went over to GC today and played this guitar for a while, and was actually kind of impressed. It has a 24" scale, so the strings feel all slinky, and the tone is a bit growly if you want that, but it also has a very nice clean tone. The Duncan humbuckers sound good, and the whammy works as well as tremolos usually do. The neck is a bit dainty for me, but will probably suit his smaller hands pretty well. The workmanship seems pretty good, and I couldn’t spot any flaws in the neck like buzzing or poor sustain or bad frets, and it seemed reasonably well intonated out of the box and seems to stay in tune fairly well. The tuners are junk, but I’ve seen much worse, and these do the job. And the sunburst finish and brown pickguard look very nice.

It does, though, have the stupidest name that I’ve ever seen for a guitar. Who thought that one up?

So, my boy is going to be very happy on Christmas this year. Anyone else getting or giving an instrument?

2

I’m getting an acoustic for X-Mas from my parents/girlfriend. Since they don’t know jack about guitars I get to pick it out.

I am leaning towards a Breedlove right now, but may do a lower end Taylor or Martin (unlikely due to cash limits).

I was quite taken with one of these from Breedlove. I played some Martins and was quite impressed, but not quite 3 grand + impressed.

I get to do a lot of guitar shopping in the near future, which is one of those kinda cool/kinda sucks thing. I really need a decent acoustic and should be able to get a nice one on my budget. At the same time, spending so much time in music stores can lead to a fatal case of G.A.S.

Slee

3

I might buy my own…yes I know how generous of me.

4

Hey, giving yourself a Christmas instrument also counts! Many happy returns!

5

My dad and husband got me a guitar this year. I got to pick it out myself, but they financed it. All I knew going in was that I wanted a hollow-body electric; I didn’t care what it looked like as long as it sounded and played good.

I ended up with a 1974 Greco. See here and here. (Sorry about the shitty pic quality.) You can’t really tell by looking, but she is gorgeous, with moher-of-pearl inlay on the logo and the pickguard. The action is lower than I thought possible! And the sound… I have never in my life heard an instrument that rang so clear and smooth, even growing up surrounded by musicians as I did. There’s absolutely no buzzing anywhere, and the strings don’t rattle at all. Gah, I’m in love. drools She only cost $150 too; I feel like I stole her.

Merry Christmas indeed!! :slight_smile:

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David Lowery did quite well with a Squire guitar.

7

I am working on my project guitar - it should be done in time for my March birthday since it will represent Xmas, my birthday and probably a few other gifting times past that…:wink:

At my son’s request, I am giving him my first electric guitar that started off as a Fender and has long since been nicknamed the Beast since I performed most of my guitar-modding experiments on it and it looks like a junkyard dog at this point. A totally rocking, much-cooler-than-new junkyard dog, but a mongrel regardless. He is currently working the riffs for TNT, Mannish Boy, Smoke on the Water, the Bo Diddley beat and More Than a Feeling - basic rock canon stuff…

8

My pre-christmas personal spend was a pair of Seymour Duncan Vintage Rails pickups for my Squier Protone, and all-new pots/switch/wiring. The guitar already had a SD humbucker fitted (Fat Strat config), and now sounds totally awesome in all switch positions (with no hum on the neck/middle from my particularly radiative self). I sort of wanted to replace the guitar this year, but replacing the kitchen takes precedence and I can get away with a few upgrades. Given that it has a solid ash body, Floyd Rose locking tremolo (blocked), all maple 12" radius 22 jumbo fret neck and is in all-round great condition, I’m pretty happy. In fact, I just found some contemporary reviews (1996) online of that model guitar, and it was very well regarded - so good, in fact, that Fender killed that model line to stop it competing with their Fender label Stratocasters without the upgraded fittings. So I am likely to retain that instrument for a long time to come.

Couple that with a PC rebuild that has given me a really, really quiet dual-core 3.0GHz 4Gb dedicated studio PC, midi controller and 10 audio 6 midi in/out setup, and I am pretty darn happy. I also got 5 hours guitar lessons in a charity auction, and really enjoyed the first one - challenged on reach (5 frets) and picking (no lazy sweeps, using down/up alternate strokes for crisp note attack). My left hand hurts, though (I can press now A and L simultaneously on a standard Dell keyboard using my index and little finger curved slightly).

Makes up for the fact that the Alesis Multimix 12 I got last christmas was a total lemon, and is only any good as an output mixer. I’m going to Ebay the sucker, and try a M-Audio 10x10 firewire + 8x2 mixer combi.

Si

9

I got my husband a guitar for Christmas last year. He’d been lusting after it for years in a small music store. (yes, they had it for sale for at least five years. They aren’t the type to mark down stuff to sell it.) It’s a handmade acoustic made by a local luthier who is no longer able to make guitars. It’s gorgous and has a lovely full sound, heavy to the lower end. The brand is Owyhee with a pretty hand carved rose logo on the head. We named it Rose and it’s almost completely suplanted Baby, the Seagull guitar.

This year he only gets a good guitar tuner.

10

Just bought one of these for myself for Christmas.
Imgur

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Wow, that’s old school. Very cool.

What’s the control setup? I see three slide switches – one for each pickup, and a phase switch? I assume volume and tone knobs on each side.

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It’s 1 for each pickup, 1 rhythm/solo (actually a volume boost) Pots are both volume.