Hey Guitar Guys v2.0

[holygoat]

Checked out a pawn shop during lunch yesterday and saw a black sparkle Squire Tele with dual humbuckers behind the counter. The clerk quoted me $176, so I asked to try it out. I immediately noticed that it had been smartly modded with Fender locking tuners, Graph Tech nut and string trees and an upgraded bridge. Played on it long enough to determine that it was solid, then bought it. When I got home, a quick check under the control plate revealed upgraded CTS pots and a Sprague Orange Drop cap, all well soldered with braided wiring. Seriously, the upgrades are worth almost as much as a stock version of this guitar, and whoever did the work knew what he was doing. The switch and pups appear to be stock, but it sounds pretty good, and for a sub-$200 guitar, I can justify upgrading them later. I love this thing.

[Dan Gilmore]

Congrats. I have only checked pawn shops a few times, I guess you can’t expect to hit on a find like yours unless you take the time to investigate. 

[holygoat]

Yeah, I check them fairly regularly just for fun, and probably one out 10 trips are fruitful. I'm usually looking for stuff to flip, but I think I'm keeping this one.

[Biff Mayhem]

On 10/14/2023 at 8:57 PM, holygoat said:

Checked out a pawn shop during lunch yesterday and saw a black sparkle Squire Tele with dual humbuckers behind the counter. The clerk quoted me $176, so I asked to try it out. I immediately noticed that it had been smartly modded with Fender locking tuners, Graph Tech nut and string trees and an upgraded bridge. Played on it long enough to determine that it was solid, then bought it. When I got home, a quick check under the control plate revealed upgraded CTS pots and a Sprague Orange Drop cap, all well soldered with braided wiring. Seriously, the upgrades are worth almost as much as a stock version of this guitar, and whoever did the work knew what he was doing. The switch and pups appear to be stock, but it sounds pretty good, and for a sub-$200 guitar, I can justify upgrading them later. I love this thing.

Squier has been knocking it out of the park lately. I don't know what year your tele is but even with half of those upgrades, you won the day!

[holygoat]

It's a 2020 special run. The pic doesn't really pick up the subtle sparkle finish, but she's in pretty good shape. A couple minor scratches that you have to be looking for to notice, but that's it.

[Biff Mayhem]

Check out the underside of the pickups as they've probably been updated as well. It would be insanity to replace the pots/cap and not replace the pickups as well.

[GenericGuy]

What do you all think of the newer Mexican Fenders? I've heard they play surprisingly well. Was gonna go this week to check a couple out. I've always been an acoustic guy more than anything. But I am back in a band. I play pretty heavy rhythm. My tastes tend to go with the classics. Fenders/Gibson.

[Biff Mayhem]

On 12/25/2023 at 5:20 PM, GenericGuy said:

What do you all think of the newer Mexican Fenders? I've heard they play surprisingly well. Was gonna go this week to check a couple out. I've always been an acoustic guy more than anything. But I am back in a band. I play pretty heavy rhythm. My tastes tend to go with the classics. Fenders/Gibson.

I own one from the mid aughts and it is the cat's pajamas but I cannot speak to the newest ones. I am not a Fender guy so I can't really comment other than to say what I have heard several Fender honks say:

Do you want a guitar built by Mexicans in the US or built by Mexicans in Mexico?

[Biff Mayhem]

About a week and a half ago I was on the hunt for a Jr. I stumbled into my local music store to find a Heritage H137 and it practically played itself. On Saturday I received a message from one of the guys at the store showing off their latest acquisition. 
 

Now I have to sell the heritage. 

 

[GenericGuy]

Welp. i pulled the trigger and got myself a Player Plus Tele. It'll be here the 8th. I don't know how to post photos, but she's a beauty...

[pfife]

Haven't check in with yah in a while, nice axe acquisition fellas.

Anyone play steel at all?   I picked up one of those cheap Rogue lap steels a few months ago ($99 at GC) and got infatuated.    

Obviously the 99 Rogue sucks, so the next thing I tried which I shoulda done originally is took an old gretch streamliner I have and put a nut raiser on it ($7 from sweetwater) but it didn't sound super clear.   Gigged once with that setup....

Then I got this Asher Electro Hawaiian Jr.  And it's a total beauty both looks and sound.   

So in like 3 months I've gone from never playing lapsteel to gigging it and writing parts for 2 songs to record at studio next month.

Currently playing in dobro tuning (GBDGBD) so there are some common strings w standard tuning so can leverage some parts of know scale patterns.

[Biff Mayhem]

I love the sound of those but don't know that I have the capacity to learn one so good on you!

[pfife]

I'm assuming that by "capacity" you mean time/desire?  Because I know you know minor pentatonic patterns 1 and 5 and it's a boatload of that... beyond that ist just the right hand finger picking and tonebar mechanics (which are picked up through reps).   

You would slay it bro, no problem

 

[pfife]

In GBDGBD the locations on the fretboard are the same as pattern 1 major, A is 2nd fret, E is 9,  G is 12, etc. So tons transfers from standard guitar right there.   Then the DGB strings are literally the same as regular axe so all of your shapes work there.   High E on standard is tuned down basically to an open chord so there's a slight adjustment there but in some ways it's easier to hit pretty sounding notes on the high e than standard.

[Biff Mayhem]

1 hour ago, pfife said:

I'm assuming that by "capacity" you mean time/desire? 

 

Pretty much. I have dedicated 2024 to mechanics. 150 hours this year for practice in addition to jamming/rehearsal.

Maybe for 2025 but for now dexterity and improvise.

[pfife]

Gotcha, I do the same thing.   This past year was hybrid picking.   Prior year was arpeggios.   This year is country guitar for me.

[Dan Gilmore]

@pfife does that new one have a hollow neck, like a Weissenborn? 

[pfife]

No, it's solid.  Its pretty heavy axe, I'm glad it's not hanging from my shoulder.

[pfife]

I haven't been into the home recording studio stuff in a long long time, I was never that good at it.   However, it has recently DAWn'd on me (great pun) that w/ how a lot of recording is done these days (recording super dry signal and applying effects later) that I can definitely at minimum record good dry signals for my bands record & send them to the producer.    

So I grabbed an Apollo interface and threw Reaper on a computer and made myself an electric guitar -specializing DAW.   Right now using AmpitubeCS for my guitar sounds.  Yesterday was the first day I was able to get it all connected and signal through, and even with my scant knowledge I was able to get pretty decent tones out of it, and it's fun!

[pfife]

[Crazy Cat Gentleman]

Takamine EG512C. Just got home with it.

It's been years since I've played a bass, so this should be fun.

[Dan Gilmore]

Cool, I am out of likes for today (already!) -congrats!

[Biff Mayhem]

I found the perfect guitar. I’ve played hundreds of guitars. I’ve owned at least 60. This one blows them all away. I’m not even exaggerating. 

 

[Crazy Cat Gentleman]

that's the company operating out of the old Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, right?

[Biff Mayhem]

9 minutes ago, Crazy Cat Gentleman said:

that's the company operating out of the old Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, right?

Correctamundo.