Digital Command Control. Instead of controlling model trains by adjusting the voltage and polarity of the track, DCC sends digitally encoded instructions through the track to individual decoders on each locomotive, allowing you to control the locos separately and allowing for additional features like lighting affects and sound. It also makes layout wiring much, much simpler because you don’t have to divide the layout into a bunch of electrical blocks - it can all be done as one block (pretty much). My DCC system is the best purchase I’ve made for my layout.
I play guitar. Usually, it’s my Ibanez, but I will gladly admit that it wasn’t the best…
The best 12-string I ever played on was one I had in high school. I traded my Crate Half-Stack for it, plus I paid an extra 150 to the guy to finally clinch the deal. It was a beautiful, newer Alvarez. I don’t even actually know the model number, but it played better than any 12 I’d ever touched before.
I would have to say that my best 6-string electric was a custom built Les Paul style. I know a guy who runs a studio and builds guitars for a living. He started on it before I met him, but once he finished it, he sold it to me for $50. There was more money than that in just the hardware. It had three double-coil pickups, beautiful silver hardware, and a nice mother-of-pearl inlay around the outer edge and one every other fret. Sounded and played like a dream.
The best acoustic I ever played was an old Fender, I believe from the 70’s, that my band-mate had. It was bought at a pawn shop and refinished at a guitar shop in his hometown. It was nice to play and took abuse so well. We played 4 nights a week when I was younger, and it never seemed to have any problems whatsoever.
Brendon
You slay dragons for a hobby!? That is way cooler that what I do!
They sound cool, too; a marvellous worm-gear meshing unstoppable power noise. 
Hey, that’s Sinric’s pattern. Do you post at the AA also?
In that same vein here ar my gauntlets.
Mine are the yellow ones.
Remington Mdl 700 VLS. Smooth action, scary-accurate, stock fits just right, trigger is perfect. Some of my rifles require a slight adjustment or two when I pick them up (left hand forward slightly, tilt head a bit, right hand in or out a little) but not the Remington - I pick it up and it and I are in sync. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten near testing its limits, but it pushes me to test mine every time.
I got one for Christmas last year. I love it. I have a tiny kitchen, but it never leaves the countertop. I use it three time a week, at least.
I cook, and my Shun knife is both very practical and beautiful to look at.
I knit. I think my favorite tool is the cable needle. You can do some marvelous stitching that looks really hard but is really easy to do.
Ivylad got one for Father’s Day. He recently got the grinder and shredder attachments for his birthday.
Vroom vroom.
Well - like Brendan_Small - I play guitar, as many Dopers know.
I have gotten to play some very, very good ones, which in the case of solidbody electrics, the Stradivarius of them is a 1959 Les Paul Sunburst - they are going for over $350,000 these days. That was fun, to say the least. And I played it through an amp that is considered the one of the best ever made - a Trainwreck (hand made - there are only about 150 in existence and they sell for over $20,000 these days). I posted a thread about the experience in Cafe Society a couple of years ago, but I think it got lost in the Great Freeze that happened back then…
I have also played my share of 50’s Gibsons and Fenders and currently own a 1957 Gibson Les Paul Special - it was originally marketed as a beginner’s guitar but was so well-made and got such a good tone that it has been a rock n’ roll staple in its own right for decades - and ones in good condition are very pricey indeed. My favorite guitar, though, is also a guitar I own - a 1973 Gibson Limited Edition '54 Custom Reissue - a mouthful to be sure. But basically it is a 70’s reissue of a guitar they made in 1954 and is my everyday gigging guitar. It is a truly amazing guitar that forces me to play better - it is so good that when I play with proper technique the payoff is immediate and obvious - so I find myself constantly striving to be worthy of it. It is getting up there in value, too, but I bought it to play and play it I do!
This weekend, as a matter of fact, I may get to play a 1954 Fender Stratocaster - a guy in town has one and I have been bugging him to let me come over…
I am a pirate for a hobby, my best equipment is the pirate ship I helped build.
That’s the other thing we like to use it for…grinding meat! We make our own hamburger, sometimes, and the other day we ground up cooked pork for enchiladas…thought the ground-up texture would be good for that dish, and it was! My husband wants to use it to make sausage, but we haven’t figured out where to get casings from.
As a musician, the best guitars I’ve used were my Gibson Les Paul Custom and a Rickebacker 4000/1 bass.
As a record collector, the best turntable I’ve used is my current one, a Technics SP-10 Mk II with SME tonearm and Stanton 881S cartridge. Best cassette deck I’ve used is a Nakamichi Dragon. Best open reel machine was an Ampex AG-440. Best amplifier/speaker comination I think I’ve ever heard was a Crown DC300A amp through ESS AMT-1 speakers.
As an announcer, the best microphone I’ve spoken into is a Neumann U87. This is the world standard of microphones. Every other mic wishes it was a U87. None come close.
As a sound editor, I think Adobe Audition is the best kind of software ever devised for its purpose. It used to be Cool Edit Pro and before that, Cool Edit 2000. There’s other recording software, but it isn’t as intuitive, user-friendly or as powerful as Audition.
My secret boyfriend, Alton Brown, just did an episode of *Good Eats * on sausage making this week. You can buy casings very cheaply on the internet that are 100% protein and they keep forever. Stay away from the “natural” casings, ie the submucosa of pigs, et al, as they are very hard to work with.
Don’t you just love Alton? Thank you SO much for the info…I am going to see if I can order some in time for Christmas!
I downloaded a copy of Cool Edit when it was still being offered by Syntrillium. Still the most useful sound editing tool around, including ProTools.
The best instrument I’ve had the opportunity to play is probably my buddy’s Martin D41. Known as the workingman’s D45, it’s less ornate but has all the sound quality you could ever expect in a steel-string acoustic.
As for my other hobby, I have a Sage 389LL that’s probably the coolest light-tackle flyrod ever. A fabulous small stream rod.
Here’s what a quick Google search popped up
You want the collagen casings.
Got it, thanks! Guess what we will be doing during the winter doldrums? 
Another knitter here. My favorite needles (currently) are Addi Turbos, some of the best yarns I’ve worked with are Fleece Artist and Mountain Colors, and my favorite pair of gadgets are my swift and ball winder.
As for the best thing I’ve made (which has as much - if not more - to do with the designer than my personal skill), it’s probably a toss up between the Mountain Peaks Shawl (pattern by my good friend Mim) and my current project, Donegal (it will be a sweater when it grows up) by Alice Starmore (kit and a picture of the completed sweater here.)
