In reply to Ian F :
I love those. Wish I would have bought a purple one for $500 when I had the chance. Seems the prices have spiked in the last year or so.
In reply to Ian F :
I love those. Wish I would have bought a purple one for $500 when I had the chance. Seems the prices have spiked in the last year or so.
I think I may have posted it here before, but here’s my weirdo. Custom basswood body, Dimarzio Al Dimeola humbucker, Charvel Predator? Fusion? neck from ebay. Wish I would’ve held out for a reverse headstock, but I was in a hurry to get it done and take it on the road...which was also a mistake, as my singer is a bull in a china shop and chipped the paint the first time he touched it :/ She’s a shredder though!
In reply to poopshovel again :
I'll have to dig through my records, but I think I paid about that for this one, but it has a lot of cosmetic issues. Looks like it went through hell with an owner who gave zero berks. When I opened the shipping box, this is literally what greeted me:
I sh1t you not. I opened the box and just started laughing. Snapped the pic and went and found a coworker who also plays. Fortunately, a Tele is built like a tank and it made the trip from SoCal to NJ without further damage.
This is the other weirdo. 100 year old pine saved from a local house. OFR. Duncans. This is the ebay warmoth neck I was talking about. Wizard profile, no markers, the headstock has some kind of weird “oiled” finish, but the neck has a “satin” finish, and is the best I’ve ever played. It’s a nitro-type finish that’s already started to age in a really cool way.
In reply to Ian F :
Oh jesus god. I think I would’ve sent it back. I had to do that with an ebay Ibanez. Was listed in “like new condition.” Someone had literally taken a jigsaw to it in an attempt to make the horns “sharper.” ...and rattle-canned it white :/
In reply to poopshovel again :
The various dings and chips were as described in the listing, so I knew what I was getting. I generally prefer my guitars used with some dings anyway as I'm not the most careful person myself. While part of me derides the "relic finish" idea, I can also understand the desire to not worry so much about getting that first scratch.
Mod fodder acquired. GAS satiated, for now. 
I will get up some pics later.
I snagged that Squier SE. After trading in some gear that I haven't used in years (spare drum stuff and a pedal I haven't used in 15 years), I paid $53 out the door with the strap. Calling that a win.
I should have taken a pic with it next to a Affinity Strat. The body and neck are almost twice as thick! If anything, it feels like a Mexican Strat more than a cheap Chinese guitar. The neck profile is awesome for my large hands, so I think that's staying. The frets have zero wear, and it doesn't have a mark on it anywhere. Looks like someone played it for 5 minutes and gave up trying to learn guitar.
The hardware, although fully functional, is not the best. Here's where they really cut corners. The bridge is garbage, and the tuners feel cheap. The pickups are functional but weak, but the electronics feel fine. Pots feel nice and the switch works as it should, so I think I can salvage those. Everything works as-is, which is good.
Now, I don't know where to begin. The goal is to make it "better". But what does "better" entail? I'm not sure yet. I think I'm going to go vintage Strat on this one. I already have a HSS Strat-style rocker, so having something that gets classic tones and has the classic Fender feel would be nice. Keeping it cheap, so I'll likely start off at the GFS website. Any tips would be much appreciated. 
In reply to Tony Sestito :
On cheap stuff the bridge and nut usually make a world of difference. I always look at both parts as a pair, since a nice bridge and a cheap nut will still have tuning and other issues..
Tuners can usually be had pretty cheap used on reverb. Quality used beats cheap new any day.
Pickups are hard to go wrong with no matter what they are. I'd leave them until you have everything else where you want it though, since sometimes low output units have their own charm, and some respond a lot to a simple height adjustment.
I also find that some cheap guitars age better with less maintenance... Stuff like keeping the fretboard uncleaned for a few years. Had an old washburn that just wasn't the same after a fret clean and polish, same story with a cheap Gretsch. But my LP studio likes things nice and clean, just seems to play respond better, YMMV.
Tony Sestito said:In reply to paranoid_android :
Get a dual humbucker Strat or Tele? I saw some REALLY nice Fender Teles with dual humbuckers last time I visited my favorite shop. They had set necks too.
EDIT: This is what I saw. It's a Fender Special Edition Custom Telecaster FMT HH (for Flame Maple Top, Humbucker/Humbucker). It's the E36 M3!
It's like a Les Paul and a Tele made a baby. A beautiful, awesome-playing baby.
Yes, the VM Tele I tried was an HH.
I haven’t seen this set neck flavor of tele before. I will do a price check on it.
Personally, I don’t go gaga over signature model guitars, but the Charvel Joe Duplantier looks like a tasty item.
A quick search on eBay netted some pickup sets as cheap as $25. Saw some "hot" and "vintage" sets from Wilkinson, for example. I have a Wilkinson bridge on my Jackson HSS "strat", which I love, so maybe that's an option.
Speaking of bridges, I also saw some Mexican Strat take-off bridges with the stamped steel saddles for around the same money. Still not sure what I want to do yet, but it's good to have so many choices!
Also, I noticed the plastic is still on the pickguard and back cover. This thing is basically new. Ha!
In reply to Tony Sestito :
SEs are awesome, love the huge neck on mine. They can be hard to find, congrats on getting one.
GFS is usually where i go for project material. Im a huge fan of the VEH hb and their ProTube HB as a neck pickup. Recently found out their hot rails single sized hb is a great bass pickup too
The Wilkinson pickups I was talking about earlier might be the winner here. Just watched some videos of them, and they sound REAL good for any price.
BTW, just jammed out with it for a bit, and played it back to back with my Epi Les Paul Standard. After playing that Strat, the Epi's neck, which is fat in itself, felt like one of my Jackson shredder guitars. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it surprised the hell out of me!
New bridge, pickups, and tuners are on order.
Went with a Wilkinson WV6 "5+1" tremolo kit. Looks like this:
I've read good things about it. The elongated holes keep it from binding. Has the vintage-style saddles which I wanted (I like the look) and a heavier steel block. Should be a drop-in replacement.
For pickups, I again went with Wilkinson and picked up the "hot" version of their single coils. The ones in there now are majorly lacking in output, so hopefully this will solve that problem. I've watched a few videos on them and they sound great, especially for the money. We'll see how they do with the stock electronics for now.
I also ordered some new tuners because the Ebay store had a discount if I ordered 3 items. They are Gotoh-style sealed tuners, nothing special. In the end, this thing will have about $100 total into it and hopefully play and sound like something costing 8X that.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
Sweet! Nice score!!!
I need someone to buy this so I don’t have to :/
In reply to poopshovel again :
STAHP. You are making me want a Tele now.
In reply to poopshovel again :
Ooo... that looks nice. Fortunately for me, Atlanta is far away and I basically already have one. Plus, would need to add some $ and effort to replace the annoying Kahler string lock with a proper locking nut.
In reply to Ian F :
Agreed...and I don’t love the color. But for $300 I could probably live with both.
Found this today at a pawn shop
Saw this at a local shop here in NH. Not that I need another amp, but I've never actually owned a tube Marshall... and the price is very reasonable. Thinking about putting a deposit down and trading in a guitar I don't need for it when I get back from vacation.
Ian F said:Saw this at a local shop here in NH. Not that I need another amp, but I've never actually owned a tube Marshall... and the price is very reasonable. Thinking about putting a deposit down and trading in a guitar I don't need for it when I get back from vacation.
TSL is a good amp, ive been looking for much the same one too. A good price on one is about $450
In reply to Ian F :
In the mid-90’s my bass rig consisted of a Marshall 50-watt tube head through an old Hi-Watt 4x12, plus a Boogie 400 bass head through a 4x10 cab. I guess it’s no wonder I have tinnitus and a bad back...
In reply to Antihero :
This one is $499. I rarely see a tube Marshall of any model for sale at this price.
In reply to Pete Gossett :
Let's see... my guitar rigs have been: a 100W Carvin X100B, a 120W Fender Dual Showman, and a 200W ADA MP-2 rack set-up (still have the latter two). All fed through a 4x12 cab. In some ways, I'm surprised my hearing isn't more damaged and my tinnitus is only moderate.
Ian F said:In reply to Antihero :
This one is $499. I rarely see a tube Marshall of any model for sale at this price.
In reply to Pete Gossett :
Let's see... my guitar rigs have been: a 100W Carvin X100B, a 120W Fender Dual Showman, and a 200W ADA MP-2 rack set-up (still have the latter two). All fed through a 4x12 cab. In some ways, I'm surprised my hearing isn't more damaged and my tinnitus is only moderate.
$499 still isnt bad but for about $50 more you can get the 100w version. I play a marshall DSL15h for low volume practice, all tube and about $275 used. 15w but has a load of gain for metal
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