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i'm back down to one (electric) guitar again. i used to have a Gibson Faded Flying V, but i could never get used to it over my first love, a

*Danelectro 56-U2*

it's just such a crazy-ass guitar. its tuning stability is shit, it's constructed of masonite (the stuff they make clipboards out of) and pine wood (that's right, PINE), and it's slowly falling apart, but i love it. it's in a discontinued "Daddy-O Yellow" finish (in fact, i don't even know if they still make the guitar short of their new "pro" line); it has the shittiest input jack of any guitar ever (i've had to re-solder it at least twice, and eventually put a locking washer on the nut, which of course cut the nut in half, so the whole thing's hanging on by a thread now); it's covered at any given point in up to 3 layers of stickers; one of the tuning pegs was chewed up by my cat, and is still covered in teeth marks; and, being hollow, it has the lowest threshold for resisting feedback of any guitar i've played (something i've found very fun, actually). it doesn't have an adjustable truss rod, so it took me about two years to get the action to a decent height all over the fretboard; and it's strung with 11-50 guage steel strings, because i've found them the least likely to break.

what a piece of work.

I have one guitar, given to me by my pal Todd, which was given to him by his friend Ed who used to play in the Elephant Men. I inherited it with a Bauhaus sticker on it. I regret peeling it off, coulda drawn a moustache on it or something. The headstock has a sticker that reads "Los Angeles" on it. Sure, I knew this was no ordinary guitar, but I was also certain it was not manufactured by the Los Angeles guitar company. I peeled that sticker off too. Underneath it reads, no shit, "Automatic," written with what looks to be a gold ink paint pen. Alas, that is no sticker. I reaffixed the "Los Angeles" sticker on the headstock, upside-down this time. I suspect that mine is an exceptionally well-crafted homemade guitar.

Travis Bean TB-500 sn#252 - bridge pickup replaced with Custom P-90, so I can get the "classic Travis sound" on centre swtich and a more "standard guitar sound" on the bridge setting.

Gibson SG, with an Airzone in the Bridge for Helmet-tastic crushing distortion and a PAF Pro in the neck for warm fuzziness.

I run these through a vintage Mesa Boogie Mark I short-scale head and whatever cab I'm using at the time. The Travis-Mark I sound is the best clean sound I have ever heard in my life... period -I use a Crowther Hot Cake for overdrive. The SG through the Mesa + RAT = crushing wall of guitars...

That's me...

Fender Mustang and Jaguar into a Hiwatt Custom 100 head and a nameless 2x15 cab.
Zvex Super Duper or MXR MicroAmp for overdrive, ProCo RAT for sheer distortion. Sometimes also an MXR Blue Box and Akai Headrush for looping and delay.

Eko Dragon
Tokia Strat copy 1982 ish (Japanese made - if that makes a difference)
Yamaha FG 180
Taylor 310

A CRAP one.



Your first guess is likely to be right.

A Fender Acoustic. My friend Alessio was an awesome guitarist, but gave it all up to pursue anti-capitalist activities, which he’s doing with all his heart. I packed all that in to do creative stuff, so he gave me his guitar.

Electrics - Green G&L ASAT Special, an all-black early 80s US Fender Strat, a Yamaha SGV500, a late-sixties Epiphone Coronet and an Aria IGB 55 bass.

Acoustic - Yamaha FG 12s (I think, and FG with a spruce top anyway!)

Amp - Selmer T&B 50 head, Laney closed-back 1x12 cab.

Goddamn! I never get tired of this shit, that's because I am a geek with no life and difficulty talking to women.

I be playing:

1973 Fender Tele Deluxe in poo brown. I had a younger, more fucked up one but I flogged it on EBay and the guy from Franz bought it. So the rising values are my fault. doh!



1973 CSL (Ibanez) Dan Armstrong. Has 2 Gibson humbuckers in it. Looks rad but doesn't sound as good as the Tele (nothing does)



1978 Travis Bean TB500 (#214). Off white, bit fucked up, totally original. On the owners club page but you folks know what these look like right?
Had it for years, don't use it anymore but can't part with it. sob.

197? Antoria (Ibanez) SG. Has a neck pickup out of a Jaydee guitar built for Tony Iommi. Cost me fuck all. I love EBay 4 years ago.
http://www.honeyisfunny.com/lastoftherealhardmen/ has embarassing photo.

197? Commodore 335. My first guitar. Amazing high output pickups, totally wrecked by now but still useful. I don't have any pics. Imagine it's red/yellow splendour.

1994 Fender Jaguar reissue. Has a nasty big hole in the body where I moved the jackplug then moved it back, has a humbucker out of a Steve Vai guitar in it. Pretty trashed all in all but nice.

199? Martin 0015S, slot headed acoustic. My favourite guitar. Has a pickup fitted but its fairly crappy.


My girlfriend has a couple of ali-necked Kramers too and a 70s Epiphone Coronet but she's too normally adjusted to post on forums like this, unlike myself. Thanks for indulging me. good day

my main guitar is a good ol' black and white single pickup Silvertone...

let's see if i can list 'em all:
a Peavy Tracer...my first guitar...basically a strat copy thing...it was a pawnshop find...i was sold on it due to three factors: 1. price, 2. it had a 5-position pickup switch for the 3 pickups which i thought would be super cool to just flick the switch real fast, 3. it's covered in an assorment of cheesy stickers...
a single pickup Danelectro...
a Fender Lead II...this came with my ARP Avatar, with the special hex-pickup screwed on...
a nameless Gibson SG copy...
a Rhodes Telecaster copy (just like the real thing to my amateur eyes, ears, and hands...of course i've never done a side-by-side analysis as i don't have a real one of my own...)
*Rhodes electric sitar (how can you go wrong with sympathetic strings!?!?!?)
*Hondo custom thing that's shaped like a machine gun...
a Silvertone? (mine doesn't have a name on it but i've seen another guitar exactly like this that said Silvertone...i think the price tag said Harmony when i got it, but it was at-least-second-hand, of course...) pseudo-jazzmaster-ish thing...
some other OLD nameless thing with a mirror pickguard...for some reason it reminds me of a church organ...the way it looks, not sounds...probably due to the pickup switches...it also has a weird squat body...
some other nameless thing...a former roommate who now deserves death gave it to me for christmas, like it was his dad's or something...sort of looks like if my "mirror guitar" and my pseudo-jazzmaster-ish Silvertone? had a baby...but since you haven't seen those you wouldn't know what i'm talking about...and had you seen those you'd probably have seen this guitar anyway...
some thing i got at a thrift store for $15...it didn't have any pickups...years ago i had a plan to build one...i did, but i don't think i got a strong enough magnet...any way, it wasn't nearly loud enough...and like many projects i start it was stopped before completed...i don't know where the pickup is anymore...i wish i did...
oh yeah, i also have this cheap Artisan lap guitar i got somewhat recently...
and 2 basses (one Danelectro with a built-in effect that's lame but i got it at a pawn shop...and one Silvertone that looks an awful lot like my pseudo-jazzmaster-ish guitar...i got 'em at the same time...they were right next to each other in the store...a matching set?)

pretty much all of my guitars were cheap finds at around $100 or less (as in the cases of the free and $15 guitars...) except for the two marked with a *: those were in the $300 range...my most expensive guitars...i had to make an exception for the machine gun and the sympathetic strings...the basses were in the $200 range...

maybe on day i'll take pictures of 'em...they're a sporty lookin' lot!

for the most part i just ran across them and they were cheap and i thought them relatively sweet so i got 'em...i did seek out the Silvertone (i.e. my main guitar...) and i did sort-of seek out the electric sitar...i saw it in a musicians friend catalog and was like woah and then later, not having forgotten about it, i ordered it from musicians friend online...

what are my primary preferences in a guitar? light weight!!!, sporty looks!, and i guess feel and sound and all that...but i leave complete pickiness for the professionals...i am extremely happy with my Silvertone...i think it meets all them criteria just swell-like! but usually the primary factory in my guitar shopping is owed to the majesty of the impulse-buy!!!

now that i've written FAR more on the subject than anybody cares to read.........