Sentimental Gear Thread

[Jocelyn]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

This is my first electric. I cant find myself selling it, for a no of reasons. It is worth almost nothing in the used market. But it is light weight and has a long sustain, and surprisingly nice tone. Its got a few flaws, I am working on that slowly though. I have reglued the body that was splitting down the joint and refinished the body. I want to convert this into a single humbucking guitar. I have got some pickguard material but that will have to wait for now.

 

[Brandenburg]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

customized 2001 Jackson DK2.. pickups are: 1979 Gibson TTOP(B), iron gear pig iron(m),smoke stack II.. The wiring is pretty much one of a kind and reflects my needs I guess


somewhat uncommon 1985 Gibson SG special loaded with emg85 and H.. been the owner since 1991.. good guitar but in need of alot of work.. when I get enough spare funds, ill get her all fixed up


and my 1989 Randal RG 100es.. im the original owner.. feels good to be the original owner of something.. lol

 

[Wattage]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

I have nothing of sentiment in my collection really. There are a few pieces I'd like back, my old LP Special being the one I regret selling most, but they're just tools of one kind or another to me. Tools I like a lot no doubt but nothing I get weepy over. Guitars go thru my life like water and I kind of like that.

My Grandfather's old steel bodied 1930 National Mandolin is a family heirloom that I am entrusted with. It is beautiful and cool but not really sentimental though I do appreciate it's lineage very much.

 

[cwebb]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

What pups you got in that?

 

[Frantic_Rock]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

I have a super cheap ibanez that i bought for 120 10 years ago. Just something about the way the pickups resonate in the body, and what it does to the sound. It's pretty amazing. I am thinking of upgrading the trem on that guitar. There's something special about it. It gives it an outer space type tone, thats very unique. Maybe it's just the pickups or the body, but i don't wanna disturb it.

Also, i think for most people: their first guitar is special, and they will keep it just for memories. Mine is a yamaha pacifica tele. It was natural finished. I believe it's a poplar body. I have since scalloped the crap out of the fingerboard, and also painted the guitar Gold using a spray paint. Then i painted the pickguard using masking tape as stencil. Since then, i stopped abusing this poor thing....

 

[Brandenburg]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

I have nothing of sentiment in my collection really. There are a few pieces I'd like back, my old LP Special being the one I regret selling most, but they're just tools of one kind or another to me. Tools I like a lot no doubt but nothing I get weepy over. Guitars go thru my life like water and I kind of like that.

My Grandfather's old steel bodied 1930 National Mandolin is a family heirloom that I am entrusted with. It is beautiful and cool but not really sentimental though I do appreciate it's lineage very much.

hmm.. i feel for ya then.. to not connect with an instrument. That must be kinda lonely.. I do agree that guitars are tools but in saying that.. there are those few instruments that are almost alive and you feel connected spiritually with.. atleast some do.. to me this goes beyond just sentimental value

My DK-2 is like apart of me and without .. im emotionally less than I was with.. in a very real way.. it is my soul. Took me 22 years to find such an instrument and ive had quite a few along the way.. some cheap.. others not so much.. Kramer focus 1000,striker 200,striker 600, american standard strat w/fender lace pickups,1979 les paul black beauty,daion mark XX, and a 1/2 dozen others.. None compare to the DK and all that follow are compared to it.. lol Took some money.. time.. and some imagination to get her the way i wanted her
here is what she looked like when I bought her.. Only thing original now is the neck and body.. everything else has been changed..

 

[DreX]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

Just something about the way the pickups resonate in the body, and what it does to the sound. It's pretty amazing.

A friend of mine had an old Sammick like that. When you strummed it, the whole thing vibrated a lot, and it had a rich sound that I've haven't heard from a guitar since. It's funny that you could pay $3000 for a Gibson or PRS and it still might not have that resonant quality that make a $200 strat copy so amazing. It must be the kind of thing you don't know you have until the guitar is assembled and able to be played.

 

[aliensporebomb]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

Bought this in July 1989 - am the original owner so I'll have had it 25 years this July:

It's a singing type of beast of rare type. A Heartfield EX-2 set-neck.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

My grandfather was a guitar player/musician and when he passed away he left me (2) pieces of gear: an Epiphone Les Paul and a '71 Fender Vibrolux Reverb. He had gotten them in a trade when I was very very young for his original 50's Gretsch White Falcon (plus some considerable cash as well for the time).

The Epiphone wasn't much to write home about, but I always remembered hearing him play that Fender amp when I was younger. I went through a lot of gear and it never fit my original playing style, but I always held onto it for sentimental reasons and ironically, it's the sound that I eventually came back to and embraced. In some way, I'm kinda carrying on my love for music from my grandfather and using an original Vibrolux to do it just seems all the more fitting. I feel pretty blessed to have it to make music with as it's a great amp.

 

[Wattage]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

hmm.. i feel for ya then.. to not connect with an instrument. That must be kinda lonely.. I do agree that guitars are tools but in saying that.. there are those few instruments that are almost alive and you feel connected spiritually with.. atleast some do.. to me this goes beyond just sentimental value

Nothing to feel for, there is nothing missing for me. I connect to my guitars pretty well and they do for me what I need them to do but beyond that I don't really even want to be that attached to them. I am sure that if my LP suddenly went missing I would lose my **** but in reality it is just a guitar and I could replace it with some effort. My old Jr got broken very badly and I have chased my tail for years trying to re-invent that guitar, I've never nailed a replacement for it unfortunately so I guess that could be the one.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

i have 2 guitars i have for sentimental reasons and have not parted ways with... yet... if i need to let them go in the future i may do so... 1 is my 76 LP Deluxe i got back in the 80's... i borrowed cash from my boss at work to buy it and basicly worked without a pay cheque for weeks to pay him back... i could not afford coffee breaks or bus tickets for a long time... but i got it.... saddly it was a real lemon and started falling apart... the glue joint for the neck tenon had started to give and the neck had already been refretted a few times trying to get twists out of it... finally in the early 90's they steamed the fingerboard and neck off and custom made a new extra thick bound rosewood board... re-set the neck and touched up the finish... the bonus was it played like a new gutar... down side was the extra thick rosewoodboard made it uncomfortable to play... i started to get serious muscle and tendon issues, bad enough i almost had surgery... i ditched that guitar to the back of my closet and only use it once in a blue moon... i worked so hard for the bastard and it failed me baddly... i should sell it but i never do...

the 2nd sentimental guitar saved my wrist... i won a few grand on a lottery... for $900 i bought an imported Jackson in 1994 with a super thin neck... then i did something crazy... i spent another $500 to have a real Floyd installed and had the new guitars large 6000 frets removed, had the rosewood board sanded even thinner, re-radiused and refretted with slightly smaller fret wire... my tech tried everything to talk me out of all this work but i wanted it done... looking back it was completely insane.... but the guitars neck was so thin i felt no stress on my wrist.... it was my main guitar for a few years until my wrist healed and i had a custom Warmoth strat made...

 

[blueman335]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

I have nothing of sentiment in my collection really...they're just tools of one kind or another to me. Tools I like a lot no doubt but nothing I get weepy over.

+1. They're tools that let me express myself, but they're still tools. I make the music, they don't. I get attached to living things. Regardless of how old it is, how much it cost, or who owned it before, I can't see myself having an emotional relationship with any mechanical device, whether it be a guitar, toaster, or dishwasher.

 

[Securb]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

I got nostalgic picked up a ROSS Distortion it was one of my first stompboxes the second one I am pretty sure. I do know it was my first gigging stompbox when I was 14. I remember it sounding ok, it should be here in the next couple of days I can't wait to plug her in.

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

+1. They're tools that let me express myself, but they're still tools. I make the music, they don't. I get attached to living things. Regardless of how old it is, how much it cost, or who owned it before, I can't see myself having an emotional relationship with any mechanical device, whether it be a guitar, toaster, or dishwasher.

I am convinced that my refrigerator is jealous of my toaster oven.

I got nostalgic picked up a ROSS Distortion it was one of my first stompboxes the second one I am pretty sure. I do know it was my first gigging stompbox when I was 14. I remember it sounding ok, it should be here in the next couple of days I can't wait to plug her in.

Man, you are going to love that thing. Looks like it still has the original Ross sticker, too! My first stomp box was a Ross Phaser. I've had the Compressor for many years as well, but it's broken now. I recently picked up the Distortion to round out the trio. There is nothing subtle about any of them.

 

[Oinkus]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

My 81 Les Paul Custom I bought used in 81 for $400 with some money my Grandmother lent me , guy that bought it new didn't like it and brought it back to store. I wore the paint off the neck by playing it for 28ish years and when a paint chip cut my hand I sanded it down and Tung Oiled it to start my modding infatuation.It now has a Custom Handwound alnico 2 in the bridge a Shaw in the neck , Planet Waves Trim Lok Machines , Tusq XL nut , Dunlop Strap Locks and a wonderful Babicz TOM bridge.Fender Prosonic early beginning of the Fender Amp Custom Shop mid 90s Bruce Zinky designed with the most incredible distortion channel ever made at the time. 1982 MXR Distortion + first really decent distortion pedal I ever owned. On the side note all my gear is sentimental to me I have zero income except for a little sidework or gig a few times a year when I buy something it is to keep forever period endofstory.

 

[IMENATOR]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

That would be my 1996 MIM Richie Sambora Std Stratocaster. The story behind it is for years I was desperatly wanting to get an electric guitar, but not just any guitar since I really really wanted a Fender kind of super Strat but I was always at the edge of bankrupcy since I was in college and all my money was basically put into surviving. So I really put all my mind and soul into getting the best notes and I actually was able to get a small scholarship so all of the sudden I had to decide: "Do I buy a PC so I can do even better at school and not borrow my firend's PC, or should I buy an electric guitar?" As you can imagine I decided to buy my guitar and I went down town trying to buy myself a strat with little money of my scholarship and guess what, it was not enough to my strat!!!! So this one guy in one store said "you know, we have one of those strats that you liked back in the warehose but it has not been entered into the system. You go there and pay for the gig bag, give me the bill and I will bring it WITH THE GUITAR INSIDE OF IT, just give me the money you have. The scurity guy at the door will not even check, I will mak some money and you will get your guitar". And so I did, I cheated school since I did not use the scholarship money for books or nothing related to school, I cheated the stored and made my first felony in life but I also got my first electric guitar ever and it was a Fender Strat as I was dying for!!!! I WILL NEVER SELL THAT GUITAR, it is like a time capsule from my old times in school and all my struggling trying not to die out of money.

It is the lake placid blue one right, now it has JB / SSL1 / YJM Fury with whilte pearl pickguard but the knobs are original.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Sentimental Gear Thread

I've got tons of stuff, and realize I'm sentimental in two ways.

1. It's a piece of gear that overjoys me in every way. I love it's look, tone, playability, and whatever back story it has.......vintage, rare, mint, etc.

2. I used it in a band or recording and it defined me in a way.

In both cases, it would be really hard to part with. I'd sell the mass produced replaceable items first.