rate your guitars....

80's_Metal

Underglazed Hair Metalologist
I'm a little... OK a lot sideways... Thought came to me which guitars do I play based on what they do for me... Posing he question to you.

Which are your favorites and why?




I'll go first:

#1 Dean Custom Shop Blue V, it sounds absolutely perfect with any amp and any pedal, (SH-6 distortion bridge and 59neck) it plays great with the v neck. Looks stellar! Weighs nothing. Love it. I'd sleep with it! Needs 10's to sound right.


#2 Epiphone Gothic explorer. Plays perfect, takes any strings and any tuning, always in tune, I love the narrow neck and the board. Detonators in both slots, it's like a part of me. Could play it drunk or asleep.



#3 Gibson faded v. Stock. Plays great, love the feel of the ebony board, sound good in all genres. Can't complain about it one bit. All around great guitar. Very organic wood. Finicky tuner. Controls are awkward.

#4 BCRich V deluxe. Emgs sound great, string plays flat and true, board and Floyd are always spot on. Big ass scale fits my hands comfortably.

#5. Jackson RR limited. Weighs nothing, Jackson neck is amazing, detonators sound spectacular for teh brootalz, no complaints whatsoever. Cheapest guitar in my stack, but sounds huge for poplar.

#6. Jackson bastard homebuilt reverse bloody warrior. I love it to death, it sounds great and hardly ever ****s up! Dimarzio x2ñ bridge sounds wicked.
.

#7 ibanez V. New to me, but love the feel and the pups. (D-Activators) scale is huge and comfy. Plays well.
.
 
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Re: rate your guitars....

Well I only have 1 at the moment so that makes it quite easy, but I've gone through several recently because nothing comes close to it.

83 MIJ Squier Bullet body with a new MIM strat neck on it. Everything feels so good. The slightly smaller and lighter body. The smooth maple neck. Excellent pickups from Seymour Duncan. The SSL5 is absolutely my favorite pickup right now. Combines excellently with the Alnico II pro strat bridge pickup that's in the neck position. Very sweet tones and capable of rocking quite nicely. I'll keep trying to get something else that is almost on that level....

IMG_1495.jpg
 
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Re: rate your guitars....

Top 5 splitting hairs. I like them all equally.

1. Ibanez dt 50
2. Charvel fusion
3. My build north 31 fret
4. Shadow s100
5. charvel spectrum
 
Re: rate your guitars....

1. American Standard strat, just feels right with everything stock.

2. Esp ltd ec 1000 deluxe fr, emg 81/60 combo really gives the feel of a les Paul, but with the features I'd put on one if I could.

3. Charvel San Dimas style 1 hh, the oiled neck is fantastic, and it came stock with a jb/59 combo. Can't go wrong with the tone there.

4. A partscaster I built, I haven't had it finished for too long, but I have yet to truly sit down and play with it, so this could move up a few spots eventually.
 
Re: rate your guitars....

Well, I have a new one on the way that may change this but right now my top 2 are:

1. 2007/2008 Warmoth LP. Chambered carved top black korina body, Warmoth wenge/ziricote fretboard neck (24.75" scale, compound radius, 59 roundback profile). HSH with coil spits through push/pull volume pot on all 3 pickups (Jazz neck, STK-S4 middle, Jazz trembucker). Two point Wilkinson trem. This guitar is my #1 for many reasons. The tone is unique compared to any guitar I have ever played or owned. It's versatile and can handle every style of music I need it to. It feels like home in my hands and playing on the unfinished wenge neck is pure pleasure. This is a one of a kind guitar and since it is pre-lawsuit era Warmoth there will likely never be another guitar like it.

asset.jpg


2. 2008/2009 Warmoth LPS. Chambered mahogany, flame maple carved top double cut. Warmoth Indian rosewood neck (stainless steel frets, 24.75" scale, compound radius, 59 roundback profile). Alnico II Pro set with coil splits on push/push volume pots. This guitar is seductive to look at and play. One thing every guitarist should do in their lifetime is play on an unfinished Indian rosewood neck once in their life. The feel is smooth as silk and the tone is even smoother. This guitar sounds as good as it looks. She is the mistress I cannot stop craving.

IMG_20130630_060709_238.jpg
 
Re: rate your guitars....

#1 - Amira. Heavy as hell, but plays great, sounds great, very solid. I just need to change out the Floyd saddles and it'll be extremely reliable again. As it is know, there's a burr somewhere on a few saddles, especially the A string saddle, and I've tried to file it out so many times. I'll just get the Graphtech string saver saddles and be done with it. Those saddles will fit a Schaller Licensed Floyd, right?

#2 - G&L Tribute ASAT Deluxe. Light as hell, but plays great, sounds great, very solid. Pretty looking guitar and straight forward.

#3 - Fender MIM Clear Gloss Ash Telecaster. Medium weight, and it's actually probably my darkest sounding guitar. Even single coils with 500K pots can get dark in this guitar. This one always needs the treble booster on, but once it gets going, it kicks ass. I also use it for the "heaviest" songs which need a dark over driven fuzz tone. Also really cool to record with as it has three pickups with on/off/out of phase switches. Sometimes this guitar is perfect for the song, and other times it just doesn't fit. It's a great guitar to have though.

#4 - All the other guitars that I rarely ever play. They're just not fun compared to my main guitars.
 
Re: rate your guitars....

1. '87 American Standard Strat, stock aside from Texas Specials. It's wired with a tone on the neck and bridge. Rosewood board. The bridge is decked, 3 springs tight enough to bend across the neck with no movement, but sensitive enough for lots of whammying.

2. Epiphone Les Paul. GFS Fat PAT neck (A4), Crunchy PAT bridge (A2), one mag flipped for Peter Green middle position tone. Tusq but, Grover tuners, everything else stock. It's the only green burst I've ever seen.

Also 2. MIA Peavey Predator. Soon to arrive custom wound pickups, A5 middle and neck, A5/A2 hot bridge. Same tone scheme as the other Strat. Maple board. Whatever locking tuners Fender uses. Blocked bridge.

These two were my favorites of all my guitars ever until the Fender showed up.

3. Schecter Avenger 7 string. 1 volume, no name replacement bridge pickup, stock everything else. Sounds and plays pretty crappy.

Everything is setup with 10-52 (plus a 70 for the 7 string), action "too low for slide, too high for fretted" as Warren Haynes calls it. All standard tuned.
 
Re: rate your guitars....

#1 Fender Highway 1 Telecaster with Duncan Broadcaster/Duncan '55 neck.
Most versatile for all styles of music I've had to play over the last 10 years. If I'm sitting in on a gig and don't have advance warning of everything that will be in the set list or will have to play through someone else's amp or rig, I take this one to cover all the bases. Sucker stays in tune for hours despite heavy bending. Good intonation. Nice piece of ash.

#2 Gibson SG with Whole Lotta Humbucker set and Jimmy Page wiring
Very versatile second to the Tele. Covers all kinds of music, is a very comfortable cut of body (only a Strat body is better) and lightweight enough to play for hours. Great intonation, stable tuning.

#3 Gibson Les Paul Standard stock
When I control the signal path and what amp I play through, I use this as it delivers. Tons of records made with the Les Paul, makes 'that' sound, stays in tune, good intonation, smaller scale. A bit heavy for longer shows, so that's the only thing keeping it out of the top slots.

The ones after this are just backups/seconds for the top 3.
 
Re: rate your guitars....

Here's some.

Favorite (tie):

2008 Gibson Custom Shop 1961 Les Paul/SG Reissue in Sparkle Green
100% stock
450x600IMG_3801_zpse251de43.png


Being I'm part Irish, this puppy takes the cake. Spotted this on a random Google search for SG finishes; 3 years later
it was mine. It's a jewel (emerald) of a player.

===

Favorite (tie)
2013 Gibson Elliot Easton Firebird in Gold Mist Poly
100% stock
450x600IMG_3809_zps65540743.png


Extremely versatile and very comfortable to play. Love the Firebird styling. Big thanks to Elliot for forcing Gibson
to finally make a true neck-thru lefty Firebird after decades.

===

2nd place:

Fendermoth Strat in some kind of dead-looking maroon-purple metallic
2Ks Fender Am Std body / Warmoth 1/4-sawn neck / Am Std trem w/Callaham block, saddles & arm / BK VHII
(old pic shows SD Seth Lover)
PHMS2xAMP1.jpg


My beater / experimental strat. Also most likely to do the Brown Sound with. 3-way blade is a kill; mini-3-way
does series/tap/parallel

===

3rd place:

Warmoth / Callaham Strat in Candy Purple
All Warmoth wood / All Callaham parts including H/SRV pickups
IMG_3888_zps68471ad4.jpg


This one's for all my Blackmore / EJ / chimey strat needs.
 
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Re: rate your guitars....

3rd place:

Warmoth / Callaham Strat in Candy Purple
All Warmoth wood / All Callaham parts including H/SRV pickups
IMG_3888_zps68471ad4.jpg


This one's for all my Blackmore / EJ / chimey strat needs.

Vibrato arm looks short. Is that an illusion with the photo, or is it really shorter? Any benefits or issues that?
 
Re: rate your guitars....

Vibrato arm looks short. Is that an illusion with the photo, or is it really shorter? Any benefits or issues that?

That's the standard length Callaham offers based on his own conclusions on pick-hand positioning, etc... .

It's in-between the longer Fender regular and a Gilmour-ish style; I dig it.
 
Re: rate your guitars....

^ What are the little switches for on the tikibird. I'd seen pics of this guitar before but the angle made it look like they were just graphics or similar.
 
Re: rate your guitars....

Well, I have a new one on the way that may change this but right now my top 2 are:

1. 2007/2008 Warmoth LP. Chambered carved top black korina body, Warmoth wenge/ziricote fretboard neck (24.75" scale, compound radius, 59 roundback profile). HSH with coil spits through push/pull volume pot on all 3 pickups (Jazz neck, STK-S4 middle, Jazz trembucker). Two point Wilkinson trem. This guitar is my #1 for many reasons. The tone is unique compared to any guitar I have ever played or owned. It's versatile and can handle every style of music I need it to. It feels like home in my hands and playing on the unfinished wenge neck is pure pleasure. This is a one of a kind guitar and since it is pre-lawsuit era Warmoth there will likely never be another guitar like it.

asset.jpg


2. 2008/2009 Warmoth LPS. Chambered mahogany, flame maple carved top double cut. Warmoth Indian rosewood neck (stainless steel frets, 24.75" scale, compound radius, 59 roundback profile). Alnico II Pro set with coil splits on push/push volume pots. This guitar is seductive to look at and play. One thing every guitarist should do in their lifetime is play on an unfinished Indian rosewood neck once in their life. The feel is smooth as silk and the tone is even smoother. This guitar sounds as good as it looks. She is the mistress I cannot stop craving.

IMG_20130630_060709_238.jpg

A very unique pair. Love the '08/'09 LPS...beautiful guitar.
 
Re: rate your guitars....

1 - Fender FSR strat, currently equipped with an indonesian squier standard neck since the frets on the original neck are all busted up. My current number one for gigging and band practice for its versatility: Dimarzio true velvet in the neck, fender tex-mex in the middle and an MJ wound pearly gates in the bridge. It has a really balanced tone, doesn't sound like a traditional strat though. The neck pickup sounds smooth, sustains well and is not too bright, the bridge pickup just growls. Really suits my playing style and my band's music.




2 - 1976 Yamaha rock'n roller 400 strat: A nice old vintage strat. All stock and has this brilliant strat sound to it, definitely my favourite sounding guitar of the 3. Too bad it doesn't play that well being all old and beaten, I can't seem to get the neck straight despite all my effort setting it up. It is my go to guitar for writing though.




3 - Fernandes Tej-55G, my latest acquisition. Nicely relic'd by the last owner, it is one badass looking tele. Plays really well with a flatter radius D neck compared to the two strats, I'm really enjoying this guitar but I'm not totally satisfied with how it currently sounds, in the future I'm going to swap out the Dimarzio super 2 in the bridge for something hotter, maybe a fullshred for playing heavier stuffs.

 
Re: rate your guitars....

^ What are the little switches for on the tikibird. I'd seen pics of this guitar before but the angle made it look like they were just graphics or similar.

There's 4:

1) Coil split neck humbucker
2) Coil split bridge humbucker
3) Phase reverse with pickup toggle in between
4) "blower" switch which routes the bridge pickup straight to the jack regardless where any controls are set to
 
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