Lets look at our guitars thread

[Semmelweiss]

languagetimothy said:

Tele is an ‘82 JV series. I have a few teles, including two CS Nocasters, ,been my staple for years, but had only one strat. This one caught my eye….must avoid guitar shops, for a while anyway.

Twang!

[owenvaughan]

My two Suhr guitars; the best brand I’ve every played.

[owenvaughan]

And my renovated 1988 Charvel Model 5: rebuilt by master luthier Rob Bowman last year. Maximum Rawk!

[Don Roque]

Don1 said:

Yeah, Framus is on the want list....
My coured guitar is rather old school.

Guitars don't really get much cooler than that.

[Tom1312]

owenvaughan said:

My two Suhr guitars; the best brand I’ve every played.

Stunning.

I had an M4 Pro a long time ago.

Miss it dearly.

One of, if not the best guitar I owned or played.

Only my EBMM JP6 comes close.

[rsbmw]

Not posted in a while - time for some random musings and a couple of photos!

A good few years ago I had built up collection of 10ish guitars, I realised I wasn't particularly enamored with any of them but hung on to them for various sentimental reasons. I had never owned anything I (at the time) would consider "high end", max price of any of them was approx £1k. One day I decided to get rid of all of them, which I did, and go on a guitar trading journey to end up with a collection I did love. Ethos was if I didn't play something, or wasn't happy with it for any reason it would go and I would get something else.

Since then I have owned just about anything I would be interested in including custom shop stuff from Fender/Gibson, multiple different PRS, boutique stuff like Suhr and Tom Anderson, high end superstrats from Ibanez, Jackson, Charvel, interesting stuff including a Davies '91 Washburn N4, UK luthier built stuff, self built (assembled) stuff and various other things I can't quite recall. Most of it also got moved on for various reasons. I have learned exactly what I like and what I don't like, as well as being very clear on the relative quality of different brands and price points.

I'll keep my thoughts on different brands/quality to myself but I will offer a couple of thoughts I hold true - you are well into diminishing returns very quickly, the sweet spot I believe are guitars worth £1k-1.5k second hand (and that's how I buy them). You should also learn to do a very good setup to your own preferences, I can't count the number of expensive / high end guitars that play terribly from the factory, or when you receive them second hand. These can be quickly transformed when you know what you are doing.

Anyway my "quest" has led me to one brand that I believe to be the best value for money, punching well above its weight. See if you can spot my preference from the below photos! This is all of my current electric guitars, I would put all of them up against anything quality wise in a blind test.




The frankie project I just finished this morning. This is actually my first guitar, bought new in the early-mid 90's, a USA Peavey Predator. It has lived in a friends parent's loft for the last 20+ years and I got it back last weekend. Over the past week I transformed it from this:



into this

[Don1]

Cracking work

[chemistry]

I've never played one, but have only ever heard good things about Peavy guitars. Apparently they have always been excellent quality & value in an effort to overcome the fact that they aren't especially well know as a guitar (instrument, rather than amplification) brand.

[lockhart flawse]

That's interesting stuff RS. What pickup did you use?

Out of all the Strats out there, I mean trad Strats not the superstrat types which I dont go for m'self, which do you think is the best? I am still hunting for the perfect Strat (does it exist?) and have recently found a good contender, a 97 Fender USA Lone Star which has a humbucker in the bridge and a maple neck. This is my first guitar with a maple neck for over 30 year as I always thought rosewood had a bit more feel but I am loving it. Interested to hear your views about Suhr etc strats?

[smn159]

lockhart flawse said:

That's interesting stuff RS. What pickup did you use?

Out of all the Strats out there, I mean trad Strats not the superstrat types which I dont go for m'self, which do you think is the best? I am still hunting for the perfect Strat (does it exist?) and have recently found a good contender, a 97 Fender USA Lone Star which has a humbucker in the bridge and a maple neck. This is my first guitar with a maple neck for over 30 year as I always thought rosewood had a bit more feel but I am loving it. Interested to hear your views about Suhr etc strats?

I think that the only way to know for sure is to play one and live with it for a while. I have a few Strats, including an American Pro, but I keep coming back to my '87 made in Japan E series as my favourite. Probably familiarity as I've had it since the late 80s, but it just feels 'right'

The fit and finish on the Suhrs is supposed to be excellent though, so interested in how you get on with one if you go that way.

[Mastodon2]

chemistry said:

I've never played one, but have only ever heard good things about Peavy guitars. Apparently they have always been excellent quality & value in an effort to overcome the fact that they aren't especially well know as a guitar (instrument, rather than amplification) brand.

I can confirm from personal experience that the old US-made Peavey instruments were amazing, both guitars and basses. Fantastic value for money too, though as time passes and there are less and less kf them around, I expect values to climb, but they should always remain a good bargain for what they are.

[Stealthracer]

lockhart flawse said:

Out of all the Strats out there, I mean trad Strats not the superstrat types which I dont go for m'self, which do you think is the best?

I'm sold on the Fender American Standard (later called the American Pro and now the Pro 2).

Decent pickups,, tone control on te bridge as well, smooth as silk 2-post trem and the truss rod adjuster is at the head end where you can get at it without taking the neck off. Which reminds me, the neck tilt now works - unlike the old '70s ones!

My '99 AS will be up for sale soon so keep watching eBay! (Nothing wrong with it, just poverty.)

PS - the Deluxe is quite nice too.

[rsbmw]

lockhart flawse said:

That's interesting stuff RS. What pickup did you use?

Out of all the Strats out there, I mean trad Strats not the superstrat types which I dont go for m'self, which do you think is the best? I am still hunting for the perfect Strat (does it exist?) and have recently found a good contender, a 97 Fender USA Lone Star which has a humbucker in the bridge and a maple neck. This is my first guitar with a maple neck for over 30 year as I always thought rosewood had a bit more feel but I am loving it. Interested to hear your views about Suhr etc strats?

Dimarzio super distortion in that

I was a strat guy for years but have an aversion to anything sub 12” radius now! That said, in order of quality of more traditional strata I’ve owned/played over the years I would rank them

PJE ‘96
SVL
Tom Anderson
Suhr
Fender Custom Shop
Peavey Falcon
Other Fender

Fender are a triumph of marketing in my opinion, better quality available elsewhere.

On Peavey, the best quality stuff was made in the Leakesville custom shop during the EVH era (Wolfgang and Limited models). I did have a falcon custom until recently, great quality but something about it didn’t work for me. Fabulous woods though, maple cap best part of 1” thick. Bought and sold in the £400-450 region, which is ridiculous value for money.

Edited by rsbmw on Thursday 20th April 07:42

[Mastodon2]

Finally managed to get a decent picture of my Ormsby.



Also, the colour on my Ibanez MTM1 really pops on a sunny day.

[chemistry]

Mastodon2 said:

Also, the colour on my Ibanez MTM1 really pops on a sunny day.

I love the fixed Edge bridge on those; very unique!

[White-Noise]

chemistry said:

Mastodon2 said:

Also, the colour on my Ibanez MTM1 really pops on a sunny day.

I love the fixed Edge bridge on those; very unique!

Yeah I like that, what do you play it through?

[Mastodon2]

chemistry said:

I love the fixed Edge bridge on those; very unique!

Yes, I owned the first RG2228 in the UK and that was the first time I played something with one of those bridges. I love the tuning stability and more than anything, the comfort under the hand when palm muting is just sublime. I have a Jackson SL2 Mick Thomson signature with the same deal, but it's a fixed Floyd and it's also nice, but not as comfortable as the Edge.

As for my amp, I think the only picture I have of it is from the day I got it, it's an EVH 5150 Iii Stealth 6L6 and an EVH 2X12. I keep a simple setup, I use a Line 6 HX Stomp for reverb and delay, but it mostly gets used as a noise gate. I've got a Peper's Pedals Dirty Tree boost on the way, but it's probably overkill for most as the 5150 III Stealth is already a very tight amp.

[Grrbang]

Just received a ‘Helmsley’ Fender Princeton clone by Emprize amps, as my existing amp lacked bass definition and had a higher noise floor. I’m chuffed with it, and consider myself a Fender convert.

I recorded a clip and put it on YouTube

[Misanthroper]

This is my Ibanez SEW761 S series



Fender American Performer



And my favourite, this is an Adam Jones epiphone art series, I’m not exactly loving the picture on the back but it’s a hell of a guitar, plays amazing

[lockhart flawse]

Here's mine.

1976 Gibson Explorer. Cost me £375 in 1984. Best neck I have ever played.
2001 Fender USA Strat FSR. My stratiest Strat - sounds really nice with nicely balanced pickups and great for rhythm parts.
1997 Fender USA Lone Star Strat. Closest to the grail of the perfect Stratocaster that I have owned with a great neck. The Seymour Duncan Humbucker slightly lacks bite to my ears and it's harder to squeeze pinch harmonics out of than others I have played but it's still a great guitar.

Quite happy with this lot. I play at least 2 of them almost every day. I dont dig Teles and dont care for Les Pauls. Plans in hand for a custom Gordon Smith.