Gearhead

[WalshFan88]

Gibson makes some really fine quality instruments...but they also capitalize on "name association" a LOT. Having Felder's (or anyone elses) signature on a new guitar wouldn't be worth the $8000 or so in additional price.

Now, if it were for the actual guitar that artist played on the original album or studio session...that to me would come a lot closer to making it worth that kind of money.

Epiphone makes some good clones of the Famous Gibson guitars that are very nice replicas and they do so at prices that are affordable. Fender does too. I have been told that the best bargain in guitars today are the Squire versions of the Fender Telecaster and you can pick one of those up new for under $200.

But that PRS....I love that finish. Everything about it I like...though to tell the truth, I'd rather see it with a maple neck and fretboard.

Definitely. Gibson loves to use their name on the headstock to make $$$$.

On the PRS, I've always loved rosewood and ebony necks... They are warmer to be, and tend to be less "bright/icepicky". I still have some guitars with them but I've always playability and tone-wise preferred Rosewood.

I do like Epiphone-made guitars that have been modded (pickups/electronics), but I honestly never liked most Squier's. Supposedly the Classic Vibe line is suppose to be close to a Mexican-made Fender, which I love. I might try one out. But stay away from the Affinitys. Horribly put together in my experience.

[MikeA]

The thing about Squire Teles (from what I hear) the woodwork is excellent and they make wonderful test-beds for new pickups. It is the price that puts them up on a Pedestal.

But I'm tickled with my MIM Tele. Mine is a 2008 Ash body and Maple neck and fretboard. Love it.

[tequila girl]

Sorry to interrupt on your thread guys, but I just read something that made me laugh and thought i'd put it here - hope you don't mind

I just read on my Nephews partners Facebook page that they now have 6 guitars (they both play a little bit) but the bit that made me laugh was ........they have a blue one for their little boy and a pink one for their little girl......who are 2yrs 4mths and 11 mths respectively!

[MikeA]

Sorry to interrupt on your thread guys, but I just read something that made me laugh and thought i'd put it here - hope you don't mind

I just read on my Nephews partners Facebook page that they now have 6 guitars (they both play a little bit) but the bit that made me laugh was ........they have a blue one for their little boy and a pink one for their little girl......who are 2yrs 4mths and 11 mths respectively!

Why Heck YEAH! Why Not!

[WalshFan88]

The thing about Squire Teles (from what I hear) the woodwork is excellent and they make wonderful test-beds for new pickups. It is the price that puts them up on a Pedestal.

But I'm tickled with my MIM Tele. Mine is a 2008 Ash body and Maple neck and fretboard. Love it.

The problems I've seen are the fretwork, setup, and pickups. The wood and paint jobs were good though.

MIM Fenders are really the best IMO. I have a couple of 'em. When modded, they practically become MIA's in my opinion.

[MikeA]

TRUE CONFESSIONS

I pulled a good one yesterday! I was playing around with some new rhythm riffs to use as loops to jam over. The intent was to record a progression and then loop it and just improvise over it. It's a good drill. Keeps you thinking as you have to anticipate what chord is going to be played next so you can work your way through a scale and end on the right note at the right time.

So, I plug in and record a rhythm sequence. But when I play it back, all I get is really muddy stuff with no high notes to be heard. Sounded like crap and nothing I did seemed to have any impact.

I tried changing settings in Reaper to no avail. I activated the front end processing of Gearbox trying to use "pass filters" to no avail. I even mic'd my amplifier and had the same results! I was at my wits end!

Finally, I plugged in my wireless headset and listened to what I'd recorded and it sounded fine! Finally getting somewhere! After getting into the System Control Panel in the Sound section and finding nothing wrong I eventually went behind my computer and started checking wires to the speakers.

My speaker setup on my "recording computer" is Altec that has a sub-woofer and 4 satellite speakers. The input to the amplifier built into the sub-woofer is a 1/8" plug that accepts input from the sound-card stereo output.

That's where I found the problem. I come out of my Analog Monitor outputs on my digital interface with a 1/4" instrument cable. But I have to go into my Altec sub-woofer with a 1/8" plug so I have to use a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter.

I hate those adapters. With the weight of the chord and the adapter providing leverage, those adapters tend to put a LOT of pressure on the input jack! Mine had worked its way somehow into an angle that was providing only 1/2 the signal to the speaker amp. I wiggled it a little and everything came back to normal!

That in itself is almost enough initiative to go out and buy a set of studio monitors that have 1/4" jacks on them! Or buy a power amp with 1/4" inputs then it wouldn't matter what kind of outputs it had. Most passive speakers have one of three type connections and sometimes a combination. 1/8" RCA and just a ground and positive terminal are the most common though some have banana plugs or even 1/4" plugs. The amps usually have a full choice of connections on the outputs.

But ANYTHING is better than having to use an adapter that takes something BIG down to something LITTLE!

[WalshFan88]

I think I'm gonna put "covers" on the pickups on "Ruby". Aged raw nickel covers. Something to mesh with it's vintage vibe... The exposed pickups sound nice but I wanna go with that '59 LP vibe on her. I also want to get a blank truss rod cover to put on it and possibly some Grover Rotomatic tuners. I see Walsh had those on a LOT of his vintage LP 'Bursts. I want it to be as vintage-correct as possible. My dream guitar is a '59 Gibson Les Paul Standard Sunburst. I would cry happy tears if I ever got one.

Vintage amps are a LOT cheaper. You can get an original '65 Fender Twin Reverb in original mint condition for less than I paid for my PRS... You are talking 2500 bucks probably. I will own one someday. I love a good Marshall for hard rock, but Fender amps are the amp for me. If I could only have one amp, I'd be content with my Twin and a Marshall-sounding overdrive pedal. But I do like a good Marshall stack but if I had to have only one amp, it'd be a Fender Blackface-era (mid 60s) amp (Deluxe Reverb, Twin Reverb, Super Reverb, Princeton Reverb, etc). I think those have the best tone. Tweed 50s Fenders are nice, but I like the mid 60s amps better. But then again, the solo on Hotel California was a mid 50s Fender "tweed-era" Deluxe (nonreverb) cranked to 10. Both Walsh (with a Tele) and Felder (with an LP) played through that amp for their electric parts. No overdrives. Just a 12 watt tube amp cranked all the way up. Maybe some delay and echo on it and that's it. Those are Felder's words. I have read where Walsh said something to that effect but not that in detail. Vintage ones go for about 2500-3k in mint cond.

[WalshFan88]

That's what I want Ruby to look like when it's said and done. Just like Jimmy Page's main LP he got from Walsh. Grover "kidney bean" Rotomatic tuners, and a covered neck pickup. Might cover the bridge too, I'll see how it looks.

[MikeA]

I think that the draw towards "vintage" gear goes very deeply into musicians. True, the wood soaks up the music and adds that special tone, but until I played on my Father-in-law's 1937 Gibby (an L7 I think), I didn't appreciate it and thought it a myth.

But I also think that modern manufacture of instruments is underrated. They are GOOD...the new stuff I mean. As are the new amps.

But the draw towards "vintage" is still there. And the thing is that I think it justified if the cost of that gear is not an obstacle. The draw is that those artists of the 60's and 70's could squeeze out the tones from that gear without the technology we have today! They pushed their gear to the absolute maximums and defined their own sounds....they defined Music as we know it and owning that kind of gear becomes the Holy Grail of aspiring musicians of today.

A lot of the draw is rather mystical....90% in your head. You would get your hands on a '59 LP and not doubt would play better on it than you would on your new PRS. I think it is mostly "in your head" though and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that! Whatever works.

And I too lust after one of those vintage LPs, or SGs or 335's.

There is a lot of truth in the allure of vintage gear. Just look at how much goes into the top of the line equipment. Gibson, Fender, Gretch...you name them off and each has premium priced "Vintage" gear made "exactly" the way it was made back in the day.....even to the point of manufacturing "age" into the instruments. They probably even sell amps that have beer stains and cigarette burns on them!

[WalshFan88]

I think that the draw towards "vintage" gear goes very deeply into musicians. True, the wood soaks up the music and adds that special tone, but until I played on my Father-in-law's 1937 Gibby (an L7 I think), I didn't appreciate it and thought it a myth.

But I also think that modern manufacture of instruments is underrated. They are GOOD...the new stuff I mean. As are the new amps.

But the draw towards "vintage" is still there. And the thing is that I think it justified if the cost of that gear is not an obstacle. The draw is that those artists of the 60's and 70's could squeeze out the tones from that gear without the technology we have today! They pushed their gear to the absolute maximums and defined their own sounds....they defined Music as we know it and owning that kind of gear becomes the Holy Grail of aspiring musicians of today.

A lot of the draw is rather mystical....90% in your head. You would get your hands on a '59 LP and not doubt would play better on it than you would on your new PRS. I think it is mostly "in your head" though and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that! Whatever works.

And I too lust after one of those vintage LPs, or SGs or 335's.

There is a lot of truth in the allure of vintage gear. Just look at how much goes into the top of the line equipment. Gibson, Fender, Gretch...you name them off and each has premium priced "Vintage" gear made "exactly" the way it was made back in the day.....even to the point of manufacturing "age" into the instruments. They probably even sell amps that have beer stains and cigarette burns on them!

Yeah. I do believe though that guitars get better with time and the aged wood and pickups make a big difference in the sound. In my opinion PRS is making the best "new guitars" and as is Carvin and Fender. I haven't been that impressed by recent Gibsons I've played.

But I think Vintage Guitars do sound and play better than new ones. But the mojo from it is pretty much in the head, as you said.