The Guitar Pron Thread

[topochico 1,049]

3 hours ago, Goredho said:

Single pickup guitars have always made me wonder why someone has not made a sliding position lock for the pickup.  Maybe because it would be hard to accomplish without allowing vibration that might negatively affect tone?  Or our brains are kind of married to traditional guitar aesthetics?  Maybe its just bad business considering they have us buying N guitars chasing the varied tones we want to hear?

It just seems like from a purely functional standpoint, I should be able to unlock the pickup, slide it wherever I want between the bridge and neck, lock it back down and start playing with a new tone.  Extra points if the pickup could be popped out and replaced with a different style pickup without changing strings like this guitar.

Westone tried it in the 80’s with a bass guitar.

 

Edited January 25, 2022 by topochico

[topochico 1,049]

Has anyone had a guitar PLEK’ed? Thoughts on if it was worth the expense? 

[Chad Fuck 17,548]

48 minutes ago, topochico said:

Already exists. Let us know when you get a shipping number.

https://reverb.com/item/28939055-wild-customs-gyrock

Oof.  I'd rather just go get four guitars for that price.  

[Chad Fuck 17,548]

45 minutes ago, topochico said:

Westone tried it in the 80’s with a bass guitar.

 

I've seen a 6 string guitar version of this somewhere.  Probably at a guitar show.  

[AnotherUTFan 9,672]

2 tones, 2 volumes, and a 3 position selector switch are already too many options for me.

[jimmyjazz 45,537]

3 minutes ago, AnotherUTFan said:

2 tones, 2 volumes, and a 3 position selector switch are already too many options for me.

Yeah, but multiply that by a dozen guitars and it's a shit-ton of pickups, tone knobs, volume knobs and switches.

It would be an interesting guitar to gig with.  Instant changeover between songs.  A little difficult to switch within a song, I imagine, but possible if you work at it.  It's not like people switch guitars mid-song, but they do switch pickups/types.

[tbone_ 14,020]

I sort of get the demand for variable functionality.

But that said, how much do you really need? All I want for gigging is one good dirt sound, one good clean sound, and a volume knob. Any more and I just can’t keep track.

Maybe if you are a legit touring band with a bunch of different sounds on your album people expect you to recreate live your audience might care. But in a club or bar or whatever they dgaf about your pedal tap dance. They just want groove.

[AnotherUTFan 9,672]

I'm w tbone. Maybe if you're in a cover band playing all types of songs w different sounds. Most bands like that I see, the guy uses a Line 6 multi-effect and it sounds good enough for the people there. Ive seen some sound pretty impressive actually.

[jimmyjazz 45,537]

39 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

I sort of get the demand for variable functionality.

But that said, how much do you really need? 

Based on the guitar collections I see posted here all the time, the answer is "a whole bunch".

[noharleyyet 2,837]

2 hours ago, topochico said:

Has anyone had a guitar PLEK’ed? Thoughts on if it was worth the expense? 

I've seriously thought about it. 

[Goredho 17,339]

1 hour ago, AnotherUTFan said:

I'm w tbone. Maybe if you're in a cover band playing all types of songs w different sounds. Most bands like that I see, the guy uses a Line 6 multi-effect and it sounds good enough for the people there. Ive seen some sound pretty impressive actually.

Have seen that, especially on cruise ships or other things where gear is really limited.  Helix even has a decent enough acoustic sim for that setting.

[AnotherUTFan 9,672]

23 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Based on the guitar collections I see posted here all the time, the answer is "a whole bunch".

Im as guilty as anybody, but in reality i have 3 Gretsch's and Gibson that sound pretty much the same / same pickups and i have 2 Telecasters that sound extremely similar. Other than those, nothing but the Les Paul gets played often because that's the sound Im drawn to. The Les Paul only gets played because I love the neck and feel of it. I've ben tempted to pull out the Customer Buckers and putting Gretsch pickups in that one as well, but it feels sacrilege to do that to a custom shop guitar. Of the ones that do get played regularly, I love them pretty equally and for different reasons. The 6120 would be my favorite, but it's kinda tough to play past the 12th fret because the body is fat. The DuoJet is great up the neck, but can be neck heavy. The Flying V hits all those bases, but lacks a Bigsby. The Billy-Bo doesn't play as well as any of them, but it plays well enough and sure looks cool as hell. 

Even with my acoustics. My 000-28 gets played all the time. I cant figure out which dreadnaught to sell because neither of them sound like the 000-28. I think I just answered my own question there - sell both and find a dreadnaught that sounds like the -28. I only want to keep a dreadnaught because Ive been thinking of sitting in with a weekly bluegrass jam they have down the road weekly and all those guys have dreadnaughts. 

[noharleyyet 2,837]

290 Epilogue...I can't put this thing down. It was made for the Magnatone's punched reverb and shimmer. It has 11's and I haven't touched a tuner yet.

 

[jimmyjazz 45,537]

7 minutes ago, AnotherUTFan said:

Im as guilty as anybody,

I'm actually a piker compared to you guys.  I own one amp (besides a few tiny low-wattage pieces of crap that have accumulated over the years) and two electric guitars worth playing (one G&L Tribute ASAT Bluesboy semi-hollow Tele and a Warmoth Parts-strat).  The latter is a "better" guitar, but I play the G&L almost exclusively, as I can get some fuzzy grunt on the humbucker and some gnarly overdrive on the "Tele" bridge pickup.  That's enough for me.

[AnotherUTFan 9,672]

Im actually a little jealous of that jj. I acquired most of these when i had a ton of space to store them securely. Now they mostly take up space in my small bedroom but i can't sell most for reasons outlined above, simply too difficult to choose what would go. I have identified a couple that I think I'm going to sell just to free up space.

Im slowly turning my big bedroom into basically a studio / small venue and thought about hanging them all along a wall. But I fear some friend of a friend type will be over, see them, then I become theft target. Better to keep them in the other room where I can just lock a door when people i don't know well are over. 

[tbone_ 14,020]

Oh I don’t have all the shit I have because I *need* it to gig.

I have it because it’s awesome.

[tbone_ 14,020]

Has anyone had a guitar PLEK’ed? Thoughts on if it was worth the expense? 

I’ve never had one done on the machine.

But I do have a guy who painstakingly levels the fretboard and frets by hand. I think it’s similar to what a plek does, those I don’t know if the plek machine levels the fretboard true. Which he does.

He’s done my strat and tele and they are beyond fantastic. First one he did I told him I guess I’d never played a guitar that was set up correctly in 35 years because I didn’t know that level of playability was possible. Highly recommended.

[Chad Fuck 17,548]

3 hours ago, tbone_ said:

I sort of get the demand for variable functionality.

But that said, how much do you really need? All I want for gigging is one good dirt sound, one good clean sound, and a volume knob. Any more and I just can’t keep track.

Maybe if you are a legit touring band with a bunch of different sounds on your album people expect you to recreate live your audience might care. But in a club or bar or whatever they dgaf about your pedal tap dance. They just want groove.

You edit this down and put it on a t-shirt, you'll be a millionaire.

[Anton Chigurh 3,318]

Rhett Shull has some good videos on the PLEK machine.

[Scooter Monzingo 820]

8 hours ago, Goredho said:

Single pickup guitars have always made me wonder why someone has not made a sliding position lock for the pickup.  Maybe because it would be hard to accomplish without allowing vibration that might negatively affect tone?  Or our brains are kind of married to traditional guitar aesthetics?  Maybe its just bad business considering they have us buying N guitars chasing the varied tones we want to hear?

It just seems like from a purely functional standpoint, I should be able to unlock the pickup, slide it wherever I want between the bridge and neck, lock it back down and start playing with a new tone.  Extra points if the pickup could be popped out and replaced with a different style pickup without changing strings like this guitar.

Good idea, but….If it changes the distance from the string to the pick up it would fuck with the intonation. How much is anyones guess…

[Deej 76,524]

49 minutes ago, Anton Chigurh said:

Rhett Shull has some good videos on the PLEK machine.
 

 

 

 

My 2019 Les Paul Standard supposedly came plek'd. Not that I'd notice if they didn't tell me. 

I've got a Epi LP that was set up and fret-leveled by Willie's luthier. Plays like butter after he fiddled with it. 

[tbone_ 14,020]

Probably like most things in life. The machine can do a good job but it’s no match for a true craftsman.

[topochico 1,049]

14 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

Probably like most things in life. The machine can do a good job but it’s no match for a true craftsman.

I have a guy, but like most good ones, he is busy. I passed on the guitar, so no PLEK need after all. 

Edited January 25, 2022 by topochico

[Superhero 8,760]

5 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Based on the guitar collections I see posted here all the time, the answer is "a whole bunch".

Based on this thread, everyone needs a Tele, Strat, LP, E335, and RIckenbacker. Amirite?

[topochico 1,049]

9 minutes ago, Superhero said:

Based on this thread, everyone needs a Tele, Strat, LP, E335, and RIckenbacker. Amirite?

And an acoustic. 

Well, and a P-bass.

 

 

 

 

 

Also, maybe a Gretsch with FilterTrons and a Bigsby. 

 

[Bogeywon 2,518]

21 hours ago, topochico said:

New arrival? I feel green guitars do not get enough love. 

Nope bought it in 2002. My first real guitar. 

[Superhero 8,760]

35 minutes ago, topochico said:

And an acoustic. 

Well, and a P-bass.

 

Also, maybe a Gretsch with FilterTrons and a Bigsby. 

 

I'm gonna claim ignorance here... Les Pauls have their distinctive sound and Teles have that twang. 

 

But I couldn't claim to know what Strat sounds like. To me, it's just... neutral. A lot of my favorite guitars play Strats - SRV, Gilmour, Knopfler, etc. but what makes a Strat sound unique if you are in the 1, 3 and 5 positions? Watching this video, I still thing the Strat is just... neutral.

 

 

 

 

[dcbc 14,396]

8 hours ago, topochico said:

Has anyone had a guitar PLEK’ed? Thoughts on if it was worth the expense? 

My Les Paul Traditional came plek'd from the factory.  While I can't give you a before and after take, I can tell you that that has one smooth playing guitar since the moment I first took it out of the case.

[AnotherUTFan 9,672]

And an acoustic. 
Well, and a P-bass.
 
 
 
 
 
Also, maybe a Gretsch with FilterTrons and a Bigsby. 
 

I thought the P-Bass was just understood

[tigol 2,383]

11 hours ago, topochico said:

Westone tried it in the 80’s with a bass guitar.

 

That looks like a putter my Dad was into in the mid 90's.

[Paul Wesley 3,277]

12 hours ago, topochico said:

Has anyone had a guitar PLEK’ed? Thoughts on if it was worth the expense? 

My go-to guitar.  It had fret buzz on two strings (?A and D) up around 10-12th frets.  It was otherwise very nicely set-up and stable.  

I took it to Danny Shoemaker at Straight Frets.  He put it on his bench and we looked at it together for 10 or 15 minutes.  He thought the neck had either twisted or swollen a little unevenly over time (I can't remember his exact theory).  Long story short:  I decided to just get it PLEK'd, and left it with him to PLEK and put on a new nut (the machine can also cut the nut with perfect precision as it levels the frets).  

Before I left it with him, he let me look at the machine and showed me how it works.  Once you lock a guitar in place, the machine will measure out everything very precisely and print out an incredibly detailed before-and-after schematic of how "off" the frets are, how much metal is going to be shaved to get to the ideal configuration... like down to the tiniest amount of metal along every single fret.  Then you can pull the guitar down and tweak the truss rod (and maybe also tweak the bridge).  Then lock it back into the machine and let it measure everything again.  I think the idea is to get it set up by hand as perfectly as possible so as to shave off the least amount of metal.  

I picked it up a week or so later, and he confessed that his theory for why I had a little buzz in one spot wasn't exactly correct.  It made me respect him more that he would readily say that.

I've got to say, if it was world's best luthier vs a really good luthier and a PLEK... I'd take the PLEK all day long.  They're incredible machines.  

Y'all have seen it more than once on this thread...  it's a 91 Custom Shop.  It looks a little red in this photo... it's actually orange.  It also got relic'ed the old fashioned way - by playing the shit out of it for 30 years.

 

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by Paul Wesley

[tbone_ 14,020]

That’s outstanding.

You didn’t want to true the fretboard too if it had twisted or whatever?

[Nole-4-Life 800]

15 hours ago, Anton Chigurh said:

Rhett Shull has some good videos on the PLEK machine.
 

 

 

 

Damn that's fascinating.

[Buzzrock 14,870]

Rhett Shull has some good videos on the PLEK machine.


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That’s where I got Angry Larry /csb

[Buzzrock 14,870]

Not sure why that post got all mashed up.

[Butch Had Not 2,940]

Siap

https://consequence.net/2022/01/man-steals-guitar-down-his-pants/

 

[AnotherUTFan 9,672]

There's a pawn shop in very sketchy stretch of San Francisco where really awesome guitars somehow pop up from time to time. Its where I found my Explorer for $700 and where that walnut '69 es-335 that got away was.

Two temptations today.

Yesterday I was talking about selling some gear to free up space, today I'm seriously thinking about going back after this Dean.

[jimmyjazz 45,537]

Oh, hell yes.  Buy the Dean.  Triumph reincarnated.

 

[Deej 76,524]

18 minutes ago, AnotherUTFan said:

There's a pawn shop in very sketchy stretch of San Francisco where really awesome guitars somehow pop up from time to time. Its where I found my Explorer for $700 and where that walnut '69 es-335 that got away was.

Two temptations today.

Yesterday I was talking about selling some gear to free up space, today I'm seriously thinking about going back after this Dean.


 

What do they want for that bass?

[Bogeywon 2,518]

6 minutes ago, Deej said:

What do they want for that bass?

This

[AnotherUTFan 9,672]

I didnt ask, I was only there a moment because I had a bus coming. May go back tomorrow, I have a dentist appt nearby.

Inside they had a nice white Mexican Strat and a Black MIJ Charvel. I asked to look at both just see if the Jackson was a San Dimas and if the Strat was American.

My friend / bandmate bought a Dean V as his 1st "real" guitar last year. Its left handed so I have no idea how it plays, he loves it. He said he paid $900 used on Reverb. $550 they are asking for the one I saw today.

[AnotherUTFan 9,672]

Oh, hell yes.  Buy the Dean.  Triumph reincarnated.
 

I always thought Triumph was a British Band for some reason. Likely cause of the motorcycles of the same name.

So I was a little embarrassed when somebody pointed out that they are Canadian when I was DJing a "New Wave of British Heavy Metal" set and included one of their records.

[Deej 76,524]

Oops!

[tbone_ 14,020]

I met those fuckers at Reunion back in the day. Kind of an interesting story if anyone is down.

[topochico 1,049]

32 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

I met those fuckers at Reunion back in the day. Kind of an interesting story if anyone is down.

Bring it.

And since Deej and Bogey are trying to scoop the bass, pics of the Charvel? Pointy headstocks are my jam. 

 

[Napoleon 8,600]

Tone Shop in Addison, Texas sells that brands with the massive forked headstock. I feel like their Flying V knockoff was in the $650 range about 3 weeks ago.

Not my style. 

[tbone_ 14,020]

Ok back in 83 or so I was sophomore at Irving Nimitz HS (Michael Huff and Roderick Walker holla!) and was a big Triumph fan.

We had this one dude in our crew who was a year younger, short fat kid who we all not so affectionately called Shitsack. Shitsack was always full of shit but he was the kind of guy you could get do do anything so we always brought him along. His older sister was our age and hot as balls, but of course she wouldn’t give any of us the time of day.

So Shitsack all of a sudden starts telling us his cousin was some big time music producer guy in CA and was married to Belinda Fucking Carlisle. Sure dude. Whatever. But he wouldn’t stop with it and he wouldn’t back down.

Obviously pre internet there was no way for us regards to verify anything like that. So eventually we’re like alright motherfucker time to prove it. We all had tickets to Triumph on the Never Surender tour. Molly Hatchet opening. Fuck yes. And we had 11th row floor because I had a buddy who had a buddy who worked at LP Goodbuy and would nab us the first tickets that came out of his Rainbow Ticketmaster machine before anyone in line got any. Double fuck yes.

The challenge was put to Shitsack: if your cousin is such a big deal, get us some backstage passes to Triumph. Sure he said. Done deal. We’re all like this is such bullshit and it’s going to be beautiful proving this motherfucker wrong when we get there and we don’t have jack shit.

The razzing was merciless in the weeks leading up to the show. So we all roll up to Reunion, park under those freeways like you did back then. Shotgun half a dozen Schaefers in the parking lot and make our way to will call. We just knew the fail was about to be epic.

And sure as shit. They hand us a goddamn envelope with a couple of after show meet and greet passes. We all nearly fell over. If I’d woken up with my head sewn to the carpet I wouldn’t have been more surprised.

Anyway so we go to the show, which fucking rocked (Flirting With Disaster is such an underrated classic) and make our way to the after meet and greet. We’re just hanging out in the room and I had snuck in my dads 35mm and had it around my neck and some dude comes up to me and says hey are you a photographer? Of course I am sir. Ok we need a picture. The whole band comes over and I took a couple. Then we got one with the band, our crew, and a bunch of people I had no idea who they were. Some guy from Q102 gave me a card and said call me when you get them developed and we’ll buy then from you.

I called and he never called me back. Didn’t matter. Shitsack had pulled off the most ultimate redemption ever and I’d met my hero Rik Fucking Emmett with a picture to prove it.

Never did learn who his cousin was or meet Belinda Carlisle. I don’t think it ever came up again.

[jimmyjazz 45,537]

1 hour ago, tbone_ said:

Ok back in 83 or so I was sophomore at Irving Nimitz HS (Michael Huff and Roderick Walker holla!) and was a big Triumph fan.

<snip>

That's the most beautiful story I've ever read.

I too went backstage at a Molly Hatchet show, and it was eye-popping.  One disagreement:  while "Flirting With Disaster" is a great song, this was their peak, their cover of "Dreams I'll Never See":

 

[AnotherUTFan 9,672]

I put together a playlist I put on when I work in the bar (I do that sometimes). Flirting with Disaster is on it. Great track.

Great story tbone

FB always gives me "suggested posts" or whatever. This one just came across, says from 1985. (I know, get off FB!) FML.

[Foggy Notion 1,202]

@tbone_That’s an awesome story.  And you tell it well.

@AnotherUTFan I’m not a Dean guy so I might be wrong here. But the Dean at the pawn shop looks like the original pickups may have been replaced. Is that a Dimebucker in the bridge? If so, the pic above is timely and appropriate. 

Edited January 28, 2022 by Foggy Notion