My 3 Guitars That I Play the Most
Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2023 4:52 pm
Hey all,
Been a long time since I've stalked these hallowed halls. I miss you guys! I'd like to say that by staying away I've managed to save money not impulse buying gear, but alas, that would make me a god damn liar. And we'll have none of that here! @Bubba Zanetti let me know he had heard from @tobijohn recently and I decided to stop on by when I had the chance and check in with you adorable miscreants.
Quick update. I still have too many guitars. Like storage locker too many. I don't record many YT videos these days as the kids keep me busy and work is a Sh$tshow so not a lot of free time. I am slowly getting a 90's cover band together and my skills have at least reached the level where I'm good enough to be second fiddle in the posse. We didn't travel during the covid years and I may or may not have gone a little too cork sniffer on the guitar goodies in that period. I'm prepping to reduce the herd a bit, but at the moment we're at a high water mark for quantity and quality. Good problems to have I guess. But here's the dealio. Even with a load of axes filling the barn, for the most part I only play these three guitars:
On the left is a MJT nicely relic'd whiskey burst Strat body with an All Parts neck that an eBay seller shoots thin skin nitro on and pre ages a bit. 11" radius for my Gibson loving hands turns out to be perfect for me. I may switch the bridge pickup to an aged covered Seth Lover Duncan one of these days, or I may not. Pickups are a loaded guard I got for a song with some Fender Custom shop 57's. Everything is complimented by aged hardware. Total cash outlay is about $800... There's a magic in this combo and I consider that one a steal.
On the right is a pine body telecaster body from NoMoonLaser on eBay. Thin (very thin, no gloss coat) nitro over 3 or 4 pieces of pine. Same neck profile all parts neck, this time in maple on maple tele format. Aged Slick pickups that I like but perhaps don't love. TBD there. Aged hardware abounds. I pick this up and play it unplugged every day. Very resonant. You can sometimes score these bodies for $60. All in for this guitar is ~$500. I will be keeping it forever but tempted to build a second one to hang onto until someone in my circle needs one in their life. Pine is soft and it easily collects scratches, dents, etc. I love it.
In the middle is an impulse buy I recently grabbed. It's a Gibson Custom shop 1960 VOS. It was used and came with some uber cork sniffer $1000 pickups that I can't remember the builder of. I got a great deal on it and will be moving some guitars to condense the collection a bit. Great guitar, does all the LP things well and the pickups are up there with some of my favorite LP sets. It's definitely a case of diminishing returns though as I love my standard issue LP Standard just about as much and they play and sound very similar. I've dabbled in Custom Shop before, and each time I've sold them on and kept my regular production standards (or traded back for them). We'll see what happens here but I do love this thing.
I play the Tele most (usually unplugged), followed by the LP and then the Strat. If it had a bridge hum bucker I recon I might play the Strat as much as the LP if not a little more. I'm usually playing through cool Fender Vibroverb re-issue with a shorty pedal board. I just love that fact that a couple of mongrels can hold their own with a guitar made with virgin forbidden woods, hand sculpted by Michelangelo himself, all rubbed down nightly with the best tone wool imaginable.
Been a long time since I've stalked these hallowed halls. I miss you guys! I'd like to say that by staying away I've managed to save money not impulse buying gear, but alas, that would make me a god damn liar. And we'll have none of that here! @Bubba Zanetti let me know he had heard from @tobijohn recently and I decided to stop on by when I had the chance and check in with you adorable miscreants.
Quick update. I still have too many guitars. Like storage locker too many. I don't record many YT videos these days as the kids keep me busy and work is a Sh$tshow so not a lot of free time. I am slowly getting a 90's cover band together and my skills have at least reached the level where I'm good enough to be second fiddle in the posse. We didn't travel during the covid years and I may or may not have gone a little too cork sniffer on the guitar goodies in that period. I'm prepping to reduce the herd a bit, but at the moment we're at a high water mark for quantity and quality. Good problems to have I guess. But here's the dealio. Even with a load of axes filling the barn, for the most part I only play these three guitars:
On the right is a pine body telecaster body from NoMoonLaser on eBay. Thin (very thin, no gloss coat) nitro over 3 or 4 pieces of pine. Same neck profile all parts neck, this time in maple on maple tele format. Aged Slick pickups that I like but perhaps don't love. TBD there. Aged hardware abounds. I pick this up and play it unplugged every day. Very resonant. You can sometimes score these bodies for $60. All in for this guitar is ~$500. I will be keeping it forever but tempted to build a second one to hang onto until someone in my circle needs one in their life. Pine is soft and it easily collects scratches, dents, etc. I love it.
In the middle is an impulse buy I recently grabbed. It's a Gibson Custom shop 1960 VOS. It was used and came with some uber cork sniffer $1000 pickups that I can't remember the builder of. I got a great deal on it and will be moving some guitars to condense the collection a bit. Great guitar, does all the LP things well and the pickups are up there with some of my favorite LP sets. It's definitely a case of diminishing returns though as I love my standard issue LP Standard just about as much and they play and sound very similar. I've dabbled in Custom Shop before, and each time I've sold them on and kept my regular production standards (or traded back for them). We'll see what happens here but I do love this thing.
I play the Tele most (usually unplugged), followed by the LP and then the Strat. If it had a bridge hum bucker I recon I might play the Strat as much as the LP if not a little more. I'm usually playing through cool Fender Vibroverb re-issue with a shorty pedal board. I just love that fact that a couple of mongrels can hold their own with a guitar made with virgin forbidden woods, hand sculpted by Michelangelo himself, all rubbed down nightly with the best tone wool imaginable.
