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I’m real tempted to get one of those Squier XII deals. I’ve had mixed results with the Classic Vibe stuff though, so it comes with reservations. (I know this is the paranormal series though, which I assume is the same tier quality). I got the 50s Tele and it smokes. Plays great, fret ends were great right out of the box. On the other hand I have limited run CME exclusive color 60s Strat and while a decent guitar, it is not even in the same league as the Tele. Fret ends were dogshit (which have been corrected) and the pickups swapped for much better sounding ones. I also swapped out the nut for a Tusq one. It plays fine but not like butter. The bridge is kinda janky too.

Classic Vibe stuff seems to be mainly Indonesian made whereas Paranormals are generally China. I bought a Paranormal Offset Tele last year and although the parts felt somewhat flimsy, the fit and finish was insanely good, like jewellery.

Goddamn that looks good.

These little thumb picks. I got light gauge size L. Very nice! They require a little practice but they’re not as intrusive as those big fuckers

benadrian wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 10:44 am

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 8:11 am I need a thumb pick for finger style electric guitar. I need a clearer top end on the bass strings for a balanced sound coming out of the amp and I’m tired of fighting it.

I use regular thumb picks for pedal steel, but for
electric guitar, I was looking for a pick that feels as close to your bare thumb as you can get, so I don’t have to adjust my right hand angle so much. My plain thumb nail works better for strumming than for what I’m going for here.

I plan to try out whatever stupid pick I find, but I was wondering if anyone else has dealt with this?

A number of years ago I was studying fingerstyle playing (I never got super great... I just needed a change of pace). I got a few of these picks from someone's grab bag, and I've been holding onto them tightly.

https://fredkellypicks.com/product-category/speed

The super skinny plucking area really makes the pick feel almost invisible. It was the easiest, most gently transition from flatpicking to no pick fingerstyle, to using thumbpicks.

I also tried finger picks, but I could never get the hang of those.

Squier Classic Vibe 50s Telecaster (white blonde) Indonesia 2019.
Micro-review? Fuckin A.
Mini review? insanely nice neck, pickups decent altho can get a bit trashy when pushed, fit and finish immaculate, 100% Tele experience. Guy who sold it to me very cheap had it strung with Thomastik flats and it is giving me serious 50s vibes. I love it.

Z-ed mesh heads. They come in 1/2/3 ply configurations and the 2-ply are quite realistic feeling compared to an actual drumhead. I believe Silentstrokes are only 1 ply and they're a bit unrealistically bouncy (my drum teacher has them on his kit).
Not too much noise difference (maybe the Z-eds are a fraction quieter?). The Z-eds are like 2/3 the price of the Silentstrokes too, so not bad at all!

Travis Bean Designs TB1000s, pictured here both with and without my dog, who is very skilled at reading the room, in the foreground:


Lots of contradictory stuff happening here. Heavy (like Les Paul heavy at 9 lb 10 oz, not my-almost-14-pound-Ovation-Magnum heavy) but I don't feel it when I'm playing. Pickups objectively way too hot, but super musical. First time I've loved a neck pickup in ages. Wideish neck (1.73"?) but comfortable and fast (my anatomy is across-the-board unfortunate but the Huge Man, Small Hands dichotomy is tidily in the bottom 5). After years of honing my style as a "lead electric guitar player" (Shitty Mascis via Shitty Cohen via Shitty McCaughan) I just wanna play some barre chords.

As a convenient point of comparison, I bought the charmingly- and easy-to-rememberingly-named 2016 Gibson Les Paul Studio Faded T In Worn Brown while I was waiting for this to arrive. As I am an intrepid dealsperson, I paid almost exactly 10% of what I did for the Bean for the Gibson (which, like, lol). Is it 10% of the guitar? No, it's probably 90% of the guitar - it's an absolute ripper, even. I might be foolhardy, but I'm not foolish - I understand diminishing returns.

But man. I left my house and actually went up to my practice space to Play Some Fucking Guitar for the first time in a year or more. I turned a 53 year-old Traynor up until the sound of a sustaining chord became a physical presence in the room with me. I smiled. I had actual fun.

I'm not particularly hard to find on the ol' internet, but none of you know me outside of my handful of posts here (I don't think, anyway). Shit's been real bad for a long time, and this instrument is extremely nice. Apart from (or maybe tempered a bit by) the guilt sort of inherent to having the privilege to buy and own a ridiculous luxury item like a very expensive electric guitar, I feel so lucky.

In conclusion, apparently the neck is made out of a different kind of aluminum from past Beans? I don't understand metal. Also, Kevin Burkett is a very nice man.

9/10 WF eviscerated savings account.

EDITED TO ADD: A fun consequence of putting a hilarious amount of money on my Visa for a very short time is that my credit score shot up to 898, which I have been laughing at for a whole week.

I have a Peavey Classic 60 tube power amp sitting on top of a 1x15" ampeg cab that I use as a little pass amp with a Rusty box/Boxidizer. It's pretty good combo. I bought one of those TC Electronics Custom Deluxe, Deluxe Reverb Emulators so I can use a a/b box and switch from a guitar set up to a bass set up. It sounds pretty fucking good. Like 89% real. Real enough for government work. the reverb is actually pretty good and I was able to dial in a tone that sounded almost exactly like my Epiphone Pathfinder easily. $150 it's a great deal and it has a headphone out for couch jamm'n. They are getting way better at emulating spring reverb these days.

This is an odd post that is going to be more of a hot take right now and an actual review later.

So after a long hiatus of cabinet building, I'm putting together a pair of TL-606 for a fellow cultist. Based on info from other cultists here, we chose an Eminence Deltalite speaker to put in one of the two (the other speaker being more of a traditional clone of the classic EVM-15L that most of us are well-acquainted with. This speaker also comes by way of yet another cultist #thisistheway #notacult).

Anyway, I got the Deltalite in the mail already and was shocked at how light it is. It's literally lighter than the packing it came with & that's NOT an exaggeration. This is no surprise to anyone else who's used neo-magnet speakers but I don't think I've ever had one out where it's JUST the speaker. It's usually been a cab with a neo speaker in it (or in the case of PA: speaker, AMP and cab). After years of SVT and 8x10 and 'heavier is better' mentality, this is still an adjustment even though I've known for a while how much lighter cabinets can be w/ modern builds and the lighter speakers.

Once I get the cabs finished I am really eager to do some sound tests and comparisons and the actual review will come back at that time. I think they're on sale right now though so I'm seriously considering buying a pair just to do it. IDK, maybe that's dumb since I barely gig anymore.

Earthquake Devices Bit Commander

Cool ass pedal. A little one note (pun intended see below) for my normally frugal/utilitarian guitar gear approach and it's price, but it's definitely doing something unlike all my pedals.

It will not come as a surprise to owners of similar octave/synth pedals that you have to work with its tracking limitations. It can create wonderful chaos, but to really get the bass synth thing to stay coherent it likes a neck pickup and starting around the 4th fret on the D string, but even without the lower octave of the guitar it sounds robust and so much like a monophonic synth.

Totally opens another sonic avenue for my fantasy of a next band that breaks from traditional rock band configurations. Getting the bass filled out by my guitar hands sounds fun, and even if that's asking too much just getting a pleasant 'the guitar doesn't really sound like a normal guitar' sound is really fun.