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Get ready.. this is a long one!
I wasn't sure in which forum I should post this because it includes amps, a guitar, pickups, other hardware, and some re-wiring too...
Money is usually a little tight around the BriGuy household, mine being the only income with 3 kids and 2 grandkids at home, so at tax refund time I get to spend a little money on gear. Of course it was still a limited amount, but I think I did pretty well for myself. Since this is the Pedal Board, we'll start there.
Zoom G5 Multi-Effect Pedal: I've been using a POD HD400 for the last 4 years and it sounds great, but it's an awful lot of tap-dancing. I ended up using some other pedals with it just to make switching less complicated, but it made setup (and breakdown) MORE complicated! I put the whole thing on a pedalboard that I fashioned out of a pallet, and it worked good, but was heavy. The POD also has a couple of switches that are getting a little tired. I researched quite a bit and got down to a POD HD500X or the Zoom G5, and opted for the Zoom because it was a little cheaper and simpler. It's awesome! I've got all the sounds I wanted (and they're great sounding) without having to switch banks all the time. 4 stompboxes right in front of me with a built-in tube booster and then I have the Z-pedal set for wah (up and down), delay mix (to the right), and overdrive gain (to the left). I also got the extra foot pedal which is volume only, making it so that my volume doesn't have to go all the way up in order to use the wah.
Fender Champion 100 & Champion 40: My amp for the last 11 years has been a Crate FXT 65. Right about the time I got the POD HD400, I also picked up a used Crate V212C cabinet, and the three have been the heart of my rig ever since. The cab gave it a nice extra bottom, and I always just used the amp clean with none of the effects, letting the POD do the modeling... essentially turning the amp & cab into a 3x12 60 watt powered speaker. When I was researching pedals, I realized that I wanted to be able to NOT use a slot for amp modeling and so (of course) I would need a new amp to go with it. The Champion 100 was in my limited price range, sounds great clean and has some great amp models for the second channel. It has several onboard effects, but I just use the reverb... and HOLY CRAP is it LOUD! I didn't want to lug it back and forth from band practice & gigs, so I also got the Champion 40 (which has most of the same features) for practice at home.
Seymour Duncan P-Rails with Triple Shots: I love all my guitars, but "Rachel" (my 2005 Ibanez AS83) just plays like butter! The stock ACH pickups, though, were pretty meh. I also did a little re-wiring, replacing all the pots (no-loads for tone controls, and push-pulls for volumes with a phase reverse on the neck volume and master series/parallel switch on the bridge volume). The Triple Shots were a little tricky. I got the carved top ones, but the top of my guitar actually slopes down toward the neck (I'd never noticed it before) and so the shorter ring left the pickup at an angle. The taller ring, which is cut for the bridge pickup, sloped the wrong way... making matters worse. I ended up using the short ring for the bridge pickup and the tall ring upside-down for the neck in order to get everything to fit. It's unconventional, but it works good... and my guitar sounds like a million bucks!
GFS Dream 180 Pickup Set: Honestly, I have had it in my brain to get a zebra-striped Pearly Gates set for "Lita" (my 2010 Ibanez RG3EXFM1), but I was spending enough money that I decided to only really splurge on the P-Rails mentioned above at this time. Then I was cruising around on the GuitarFetish site and started listening to some of their pickups. I ended up deciding on a set of their Dream 180s (black casings with pearl tops... I even bought a set of matching knobs). At the price I didn't feel like I could go wrong, and they had to be better than the stock Ibanez V7/V8s that were in it. I was VERY pleasantly surprised at how good they sound! I'd still like to get some Pearly Gates, but I'm gonna have to find a different guitar to put 'em in because this one's all set!
Locking Tuners and Re-Wire for "The Phoenix":You guys (and gals) have seen "The Phoenix" (my 1985 Westone Spectrum LX)... it's the guitar in my avatar and I've talked about it a few times in various places on the forum. I had decided to tweak a couple of things with the wiring, going to a master tone, replacing what had been the neck tone with a blend pot for bringing in the center pickup or even using it by itself (which is a wonderful way to do it, by the way), reversed the split on the neck for hum cancellation, and added a master series/parallel between the neck and bridge pups. I had left the original tuners on it last year, but with all the gold hardware the headstock looked kind of dull... not to mention that I was having some tuning stability issues. Got these locking tuners to match the other hardware from GuitarFetish, along with replacing the center speed knob with a gold dome knob (don't need the numbers for a blend pot).
GuitarFetish Badass Style Intonatable Wraparound Bridge: My wife had gotten me "Scarlet Overkill" (2015 Epiphone Les Paul Special I P-90) for Christmas. It plays amazingly well for a $99.00 guitar, and the P-90s are great, but intonation suffered with the stock intonated bridge. This one from GuitarFetish was pretty cheap, but it does the trick quite nicely, making this guitar VERY playable and fun. Also, I went for gold instead of the chrome and then replaced the black speed knobs with the gold ones leftover from "The Phoenix" for a bit of a new look as well.
BC Rich Perfect 10 Bich: Last but certainly not least is my un-planned gear acquisition "Renee" (named after Mrs. BriGuy) which was given to my by my wife for Valentines Day. I've already posted elsewhere about both the guitar and my wife, but here's a pic anyway!
That's it... my GAS attack for 2016!
I wasn't sure in which forum I should post this because it includes amps, a guitar, pickups, other hardware, and some re-wiring too...
Money is usually a little tight around the BriGuy household, mine being the only income with 3 kids and 2 grandkids at home, so at tax refund time I get to spend a little money on gear. Of course it was still a limited amount, but I think I did pretty well for myself. Since this is the Pedal Board, we'll start there.
Zoom G5 Multi-Effect Pedal: I've been using a POD HD400 for the last 4 years and it sounds great, but it's an awful lot of tap-dancing. I ended up using some other pedals with it just to make switching less complicated, but it made setup (and breakdown) MORE complicated! I put the whole thing on a pedalboard that I fashioned out of a pallet, and it worked good, but was heavy. The POD also has a couple of switches that are getting a little tired. I researched quite a bit and got down to a POD HD500X or the Zoom G5, and opted for the Zoom because it was a little cheaper and simpler. It's awesome! I've got all the sounds I wanted (and they're great sounding) without having to switch banks all the time. 4 stompboxes right in front of me with a built-in tube booster and then I have the Z-pedal set for wah (up and down), delay mix (to the right), and overdrive gain (to the left). I also got the extra foot pedal which is volume only, making it so that my volume doesn't have to go all the way up in order to use the wah.
Fender Champion 100 & Champion 40: My amp for the last 11 years has been a Crate FXT 65. Right about the time I got the POD HD400, I also picked up a used Crate V212C cabinet, and the three have been the heart of my rig ever since. The cab gave it a nice extra bottom, and I always just used the amp clean with none of the effects, letting the POD do the modeling... essentially turning the amp & cab into a 3x12 60 watt powered speaker. When I was researching pedals, I realized that I wanted to be able to NOT use a slot for amp modeling and so (of course) I would need a new amp to go with it. The Champion 100 was in my limited price range, sounds great clean and has some great amp models for the second channel. It has several onboard effects, but I just use the reverb... and HOLY CRAP is it LOUD! I didn't want to lug it back and forth from band practice & gigs, so I also got the Champion 40 (which has most of the same features) for practice at home.
Seymour Duncan P-Rails with Triple Shots: I love all my guitars, but "Rachel" (my 2005 Ibanez AS83) just plays like butter! The stock ACH pickups, though, were pretty meh. I also did a little re-wiring, replacing all the pots (no-loads for tone controls, and push-pulls for volumes with a phase reverse on the neck volume and master series/parallel switch on the bridge volume). The Triple Shots were a little tricky. I got the carved top ones, but the top of my guitar actually slopes down toward the neck (I'd never noticed it before) and so the shorter ring left the pickup at an angle. The taller ring, which is cut for the bridge pickup, sloped the wrong way... making matters worse. I ended up using the short ring for the bridge pickup and the tall ring upside-down for the neck in order to get everything to fit. It's unconventional, but it works good... and my guitar sounds like a million bucks!
GFS Dream 180 Pickup Set: Honestly, I have had it in my brain to get a zebra-striped Pearly Gates set for "Lita" (my 2010 Ibanez RG3EXFM1), but I was spending enough money that I decided to only really splurge on the P-Rails mentioned above at this time. Then I was cruising around on the GuitarFetish site and started listening to some of their pickups. I ended up deciding on a set of their Dream 180s (black casings with pearl tops... I even bought a set of matching knobs). At the price I didn't feel like I could go wrong, and they had to be better than the stock Ibanez V7/V8s that were in it. I was VERY pleasantly surprised at how good they sound! I'd still like to get some Pearly Gates, but I'm gonna have to find a different guitar to put 'em in because this one's all set!
Locking Tuners and Re-Wire for "The Phoenix":You guys (and gals) have seen "The Phoenix" (my 1985 Westone Spectrum LX)... it's the guitar in my avatar and I've talked about it a few times in various places on the forum. I had decided to tweak a couple of things with the wiring, going to a master tone, replacing what had been the neck tone with a blend pot for bringing in the center pickup or even using it by itself (which is a wonderful way to do it, by the way), reversed the split on the neck for hum cancellation, and added a master series/parallel between the neck and bridge pups. I had left the original tuners on it last year, but with all the gold hardware the headstock looked kind of dull... not to mention that I was having some tuning stability issues. Got these locking tuners to match the other hardware from GuitarFetish, along with replacing the center speed knob with a gold dome knob (don't need the numbers for a blend pot).
GuitarFetish Badass Style Intonatable Wraparound Bridge: My wife had gotten me "Scarlet Overkill" (2015 Epiphone Les Paul Special I P-90) for Christmas. It plays amazingly well for a $99.00 guitar, and the P-90s are great, but intonation suffered with the stock intonated bridge. This one from GuitarFetish was pretty cheap, but it does the trick quite nicely, making this guitar VERY playable and fun. Also, I went for gold instead of the chrome and then replaced the black speed knobs with the gold ones leftover from "The Phoenix" for a bit of a new look as well.
BC Rich Perfect 10 Bich: Last but certainly not least is my un-planned gear acquisition "Renee" (named after Mrs. BriGuy) which was given to my by my wife for Valentines Day. I've already posted elsewhere about both the guitar and my wife, but here's a pic anyway!
That's it... my GAS attack for 2016!
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