Let's see your guitar and bass gear!

poopshovel again said:

In reply to barefootskater :

RAD! Now you just need one of these!!!

Such a weird pedal.....

Amplifier purchased. Free two day shipping on a new b-stock orange terror. Pretty excited. Now I have to put my cab back together so I can use it when it gets here. 

In reply to barefootskater :

Wicked! Brent is a sweetheart.

In reply to poopshovel again :

That’s what I hear. The one time I saw mastodon he seemed pretty upset about the onstage monitor situation? I think that was it. Anyway, the apparent frustration came through in his playing. It was furious and magical. A truly amazing artist. 

barefootskater said:

In reply to poopshovel again :

That’s what I hear. The one time I saw mastodon he seemed pretty upset about the onstage monitor situation? I think that was it. Anyway, the apparent frustration came through in his playing. It was furious and magical. A truly amazing artist. 

The monitors are always a problem lol

I basically just mixed us on stage and didn't worry about whatever the sound guy did. Bass is lower than you can hear so it's just felt anyway, drums are loud anyway and I carried 120 tube watts. We could do just fine hearing ourselves on stage

4x12 successfully chopped into a 2x12. Found my roll of snakeskin tolex in the basement. Just wiring left and I’ll be ready when the amp shows up. Woot. 

barefootskater said:

4x12 successfully chopped into a 2x12. Found my roll of snakeskin tolex in the basement. Just wiring left and I’ll be ready when the amp shows up. Woot. 

Swamp Thangs are great speakers, how's that mix do?

In reply to Antihero :

The heat takes a bit more drive to get nasty. It is warm and clear and tight on the low end. I ran this combo with my old jcm and much preferred it to the 1960a. I’ll try to get a video posted maybe. 

Yesterday, I was cruising FB Marketplace for car stuff, and a deal popped up on something that I always wanted that I simply could not refuse. This will likely be my last guitar for a while. 

It's an Epiphone Goth '58 Explorer. I have wanted an Explorer-shaped axe since I was a little kid, after seeing Def Leppard and Scorpions videos on MTV. When these came out in the early 2000's, I wanted one immediately. I've never found one in the price range wanted to pay, until now. It's not perfect, as you can see, and it needs some work. The kid I got it from was the original owner who bought it back in 2002, but he's an acoustic player now and has no need for this shred machine. He said a wire needs to be soldered and he doesn't know how. I paid $130 for it with the original Epiphone hardshell case. I call that a win!

This one was made in Korea (later ones are Chinese), and if it's anything like my Korean Les Paul, it's gonna rule. It came with decent Grover tuners, and the hardware is a little pitted, so I'll see if I can clean that up. They also have a cool feature: the tone knob is also a push/pull kill switch! I now have two of the "Goth" Epis, the other being the Thundrbird IV Goth bass. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Nice!  $130 for that is definitely a score!

I have had an Explorer since 1994 - a Gibson Custom Shop model I bought new on a whim (the manager at the store "knew" me and when his distributor brought it in, he grabbed it and put it behind the counter until I walked in - which proved a good idea for him). Oddly, it's one of the very early Custom Shop guitars and actually had a standard serial number, vs. the "CS" pre-fix they have now.  The "custom" part is mainly the finish. A semi-gloss black over an open-grain applied white, resulting in a "pickle" finish.  It's pretty cool and I've never seen one like it.  The only change I've made has been installing a black pick guard instead of the original white one.  It still has the original 500 pickups in it, but I've toyed with getting something different for it.  Maybe an EMG Hetset. Since... well... because. 

Mine had always been an odd guitar for me. Mainly finding a strap length I like - for rhythm I like it low; for single-note stuff, I want it higher - haven't found a happy medium yet...  I would suggest one of the easily adjustable straps so you don't constantly have to take it apart to adjust. 

Looking around for a band vehicle for hauling. Came across a Grand Marquis Wagon with woodpanel sides for decent price.

Now I'm considering how badass/lame it would be to show up for a gig with a Woody station wagon

In reply to Antihero :

Put me solidly in the “badass” camp. Also put me solidly in the “let’s get our gear loaded first and let the drummer figure his own E36 M3 out” camp. 

In reply to Antihero :

"Badass" as long as all you have to carry is your gear.  My old bass player has a Suburban, which hauls just about everything in the band: 4 piece drum kit, his SVT head in a case, his Ampeg 8x10 cab, his bass, and a beater Marshal 4x12. The guitarist takes his head and guitar home in his own car. Often with enough spare room for a 2nd passenger.  But it's hard to beat an old Chrysler minivan. They're cheap, hold a ton, and do so with some resemblance of stealth if you need to park in sketchy areas before/after the gig. 

After years of avoiding it for some unknown reason, I finally picked up a small practice amp at the local Guitar Center here in Portsmouth from the used amp section (for a good bit less than Sweetwater sells them new). A Roland CUBE Street 5 watt amp with dual 6.5" speakers.  It sounds good enough at hotel-room volume levels and has a nice variety of sounds.  Of course, I'll have to wait until next week to really try it since I brought an acoustic for this two-week trip. 

I like the angled cabinet so you can point it right at you, thus (in theory) being able to play at reduced volumes.  The controls are pretty comprehensive. And it can run on batteries which is kinda cool.  

Now I just need to find a way to justify the used Carvin X100B head they also have. With new tubes (so I ws told). I had one ages ago and while I still really want a Marshall, there's also that part of me that wants to be different - and these days, "different" means playing an Orange. 

Oh... and I saw this bit of artwork on Facebook today... goal, man... goals...

Woody wagons are always "badass". Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. 

I opened up the Explorer tonight to see what I was getting into. A couple things:

-This one does NOT have the push/pull kill switch. Must have been a later feature. Oh well, no big deal.

-The seller was correct: there was exactly one wire that came unsoldered. It went from the input jack to the tone pot. I soldered it back on. The input jack itself is a little janky, but I will fix that later. 

I pulled it out of the case and it was already tuned to E Flat. It knows what it is, and begged to chug. And chug it does. The strings are ancient, but it still plays amazing. Went through a couple Sabbath and Maiden standards, and it played phenomenal! 

I still can't believe I finally have one of my holy grails. I cannot wait to go through it to clean it and set it up!

This definitely wouldn't be for the drum set too, as the last 2 drummers I've played with had a 11 and a 14 piece drumset....well I'd need a bus.

I can almost fit the bass amp, bass cab, guitar amp, guitar cab, keyboard amp, keyboards and the various guitars and basses with my pedalboard in my explorer and still fit one passenger, so a big station wagon might even fit 3 people and all that. The PA dragging rig is one of my work vans if need be. I might be able to pickup a decent Club Wagon for an ok price but it's not looking good and this wagon might be able to be cheap, although the owner is a bit of a "I know what I have" guy.......but he has a beater not anything great

Tony Sestito said:

Woody wagons are always "badass". Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. 

 

I opened up the Explorer tonight to see what I was getting into. A couple things:

-This one does NOT have the push/pull kill switch. Must have been a later feature. Oh well, no big deal.

-The seller was correct: there was exactly one wire that came unsoldered. It went from the input jack to the tone pot. I soldered it back on. The input jack itself is a little janky, but I will fix that later. 

I pulled it out of the case and it was already tuned to E Flat. It knows what it is, and begged to chug. And chug it does. The strings are ancient, but it still plays amazing. Went through a couple Sabbath and Maiden standards, and it played phenomenal! 

I still can't believe I finally have one of my holy grails. I cannot wait to go through it to clean it and set it up!

Sweet! I really like the goth series, they are solid guitars

Finished for now. The cab is 3/4”oak, by far the most expensive sheet of plywood I ever bought. It’s been gigged a lot, flooded, loaded with half a dozen different speaker combos and now it’s been cut in half and stitched back together. Now it wears a well used piece of old fender grille mesh and 24” of eminence. We’ll see how it handles when the amp arrives. And when I find time and motivation I’ll wrap it in snakeskin. 

New fiddle arrived:

This, and possibly a red/gold Firebird VII are the only guitars I’d ever consider buying online without holding one in my hands first. My personal unicorns. Finally caught one. It’s very light, but I’m used to unchambered les pauls so most guitars feel very light. Solid mahogany, set neck, grovers, 24.75”, EMG 81/60, and a paint scheme that I fell in love with instantly even though I am not an anime fan. Just something there that speaks to me. One corner has a pretty decent chip, but the finish otherwise is perfect and the protective film and inspection stickers are still there. I’m stoked. And tracking says that tomorrow is amp day.  

Awhile back I got some good ideas on a bass to buy.  I started looking around and stumbled on a deal on this:

Serious excitement and serious irritation. Got a new rig, got a new guitar, can’t plug in because just got home and the kids are sleeping. Tomorrow is a new day though. Pic:

In reply to barefootskater :

Wicked! 

Not that you asked, but I’d leave the cab as-is. Looks tough!

In reply to barefootskater :

Nice!

So... you spent the frustrating time researching how to build sound absorbent rooms? 

In reply to Kendall_Jones :

Is that a Geddy Lee model?

In reply to poopshovel again :

Thanks!

I may leave it, as that is the lazy thing and usually fits my MO. I do need to open the cab up again because the grille mesh has a wobble I need to stretch out. Also Look at that roll of snakeskin in the lower left corner. "Looks tough" is about right.

I was just in Paris. When I got there, I Googled "Paris guitar shops." Turns out there are a ton of them, many located in the same neighborhood--many, in fact, on the same street. 

And we're talking some very specialized stores, too: only basses, only pedals, only amps, only lefties, only metal guitars, etc.

Anyway, some pics

For better or worse, nostalgia got the better of me.

Carvin X-100B.

I had one back in the 80's and early 90's. Sometimes I hated it, but it was sort of it's own thing. Still plan to get a Marshall at some point.