06-25-2013, 09:05 PM
I was going to say lol
I've never seen a Squire with actives
I've never seen a Squire with actives
Post your gear thread
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06-25-2013, 09:05 PM
I was going to say lol
I've never seen a Squire with actives
06-25-2013, 09:19 PM
Nope. Fender likes their stock pickups. But the stock pickups, while being ok, weren't really what I was looking for.
06-25-2013, 10:16 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-26-2013, 11:06 PM by Johnny_Ibanez.)
These pictures are pretty old so the quality isn't great.
In chronological order: Episode I: The Apprentice's Slab My sister asked for a guitar for her birthday one year. She got one, she played it for a while, then it went in a box under the bed. Then she went to university in Liverpool. She took the guitar with her, and was promptly and predictably burgled. The guitar was gone. Luckily she had contents insurance and some months later the insurance company sent her a cheque for £120 made out the music shop where it was from. As she didn't use the guitar, she gave the cheque to 18-year-old me and I went down and bought this trusty old warhorse: Squier Affinity Telecaster This thing weighs a ton. You really know you've got something around your neck when you're playing a Tele. When I first got it, I played it all the time. Then it went back in it's box under then bed until the next time I got it out. Eventually those gaps became longer and longer and before I knew it, I'd had it almost a year and not learnt a damn thing. I went out and bought a guitar stand. With it constantly sitting in the corner looking at me, I played it much more frequently. I learnt to play the guitar on this. Were it not for that guitar stand, I likely wouldn't be able to play now. When people ask my advice about buying a first guitar, I always tell them to get a stand too. Episode II: Ding Dong, Bellamy On High Summer 2002 and I'm on the bus on the way back from Woolworths with a copy of Muse's Hullabaloo on VHS tucked under my arm. It's an amazing spectacle, sonically astounding, it's getting me sweaty in all the right places, and then... then Matt Bellamy pulls out one of these. Ibanez DTX-120 Millennium Destroyer I'd never seen anything like it before. Look at that fucking thing. I must have one. TO EBAY! There were none available locally, but there was one available in the US with a little time remaining. I sniped it with seconds remaining for £72. Shipping was another £50, and I had to wait weeks for it come. On the day I was expecting it to arrive, instead I got a letter from Her Majesty's Kidnapping Service telling me I'd have to traipse ten miles to their office and pay another £30-odd in bullshit to get it released. When I finally got it home and tuned her up, I couldn't believe it. "This is what a guitar is supposed to play like?" I said, scowling at my old Tele. The neck is so sweet on this. I could bend strings with little effort, the action was tight tight tight. It was just easier to play. I had no idea I'd been playing all this time with the difficulty turned up. It's a little off-balance if you play standing up. If you let go of the guitar, the headstock will swing down and take a knee-cap off. But other than that, I love it. Episode III: The Sin of Lust Things were going well for Johnny_Ibanez. I had a proper paying job. I had a girlfriend. We'd spend many a weekend out and about in Manchester. One such romantic day, we blithely wandered into Dawsons and blathered about this and that. Then it all went to shit when I saw this. Gibson Les Paul Studio: Platinum Edition. It was in it's own horizontal wall hanger amongst the uniformity of the horizontally displayed axes, signifying that I should come closer. Some sneered at it's gaudiness. "Like a prop from Lost In Space" they said. "Must-a got a job lot of Bacofoil down the Gibson factory" they said. But not I. I was enamoured. Tentatively I reached out. "No fret markers" I whispered with awe. I forced a trembling hand to reach for the price tag, knowing the number on the reverse would reveal how many weekends I'd be spending at home to save up. £900. Ouch. I visited the old girl a few times during those austere months to check she was still there. She was always waiting for me. Then the time came. I strided in with £900, the maddest stack I'd ever stacked, but it was too late. "Where's... whe... THE SHINY ONE, BITCHES?!" Turns out they'd just moved it because some goon had fucked up putting it back on the wall and put a dent in the back of it. "We've reduced the price though!" the shopwench placated. I went to check on the damage. Relief. It was barely discernible. The price for the £900 guitar with the barely-discernible dent is £750. Thank Christ. Hush child, we can be together now. Anyway, turns out this guitar weighs even more than the Tele, is even more challenging to play, and the luscious nitrocellulous finish rubs off in no time. I keep her around for old times sake and the hope that she'll accrue value in her old age, but I rarely get her out. The duplicitous bitch. EPISODE IV: We have to go deeper One day I got a text from my mate: "wanna be in a band? Saw one last night looking for someone." Well, no, not really, so I ignored it. Next day a phone call from an unknown. "Hello?" "oh hi, i herd you like play n that n do u wanna play bass in r band lol?" I'm not good in these situations. I crumble because I'm hella beta. "Yeah sure, let's have it" *click" Well I suppose I'd better buy a damn bass then. Thanks a lot, social anxiety. Aria Bass: Model Unknown Walked into Forsyth's in quite an exclusive part of Manchester with £250. They mostly sell pianos, violins, oboes and various other posh knob instruments. "The bass guitars are upstairs, sir" said the man, dripping with condescension. "At the back" I had no idea what I was doing or what I was looking for. I liked the look of this with its gunmetal grey finish and chunky hardware, and it was within budget even with a practice amp thrown in. It plays well enough but I haven't played enough basses to properly compare. I gather the electrics are complete dogshit because you can't get a decent recording out of it, but for a live punk rock band it did the job with gusto. Until I deposed their lead guitarist and took his place. EPISODE V: The Epiphone Epiphany My (now ex-)girlfriend got me this for Christmas a couple of years ago. A bloke was selling it for £50. Epiphone SG (stock image because I haven't got a picture of mine and I can't be arsed getting up.) This guitar has actually become my main guitar. It plays great, it doesn't weight a ton, it's comfortable to sit with and it behaves itself on the strap. This is the guitar that is usually nearest to me and the one I mostly jam with. Not to mention, I can almost faintly still smell her hair on it. Oh sweet lady, why hast thou forsa-- Yeah. Can't fault it. APPENDIX I: Boys and their Toys Here we have: - Roland Cube 30 practice guitar amp. Does the job. Has in-build effects, whoop-de-do. - Hiwatt 10w practice bass amp. Really, this is just shit. Honestly. - Korg KP-3 Kaoss Pad. The impulsiest impulse buy I ever bought. I saw this in a shop window in Edinburgh on demo mode. I knew what a Kaoss Pad was from Matt Bellamy having them built in to his Mansons, but this was the newer model. It was red and black. The red and blackness drew me in and the hypnotic lights danced and flickered. I parted with £300 on the spot. I didn't get nearly as much use out of it as I thought I would, and I didn't even think I'd get that much use out of it in the first place. We've since parted company. - Boss ME-50. My main multi-effects board. I love this thing. Surely not as versatile as stand alone stompboxes, but a lot cheaper and still capable of some craziness. - Dunlop Crybaby Wah. My first pedal. Predictable. - Digitech Bullshit-2000. The result of my mum going guitar toy shopping for me for Christmas. It's not that I'm an ungrateful bratling, it's just I already had the ME-50 and this thing is total bobbins, m8. We've since parted company. - Zvex Vexter Fuzz Factory. Apparently identical to the top-of-the-range Zvex Fuzz Factory, I got this much cheaper 'Vexter' version. The challenge with this pedal is finding a setting that doesn't sound like a constant drone of robot dinosaur sex. When you find it though, you will wade through glorious fuzzy pastures, run your fingers through the fuzzy grass, run towards a beautiful fuzzy woman in a floaty summer velcro dress. - An eBow. Crackin' bit of wizardry. Hold it near your string and the little fella starts magically singing its tone. Great fun to play with for a while but also very easy to put down again soon after. Not pictured, I've since added: - a melodica, because it was a present. - a ukelele, because it was a present. - a Stylophone, because it was a present. and, - a theremin, because theremins kick ass, shut up.
06-25-2013, 10:45 PM
that was a fun read, would read again
06-25-2013, 11:10 PM
9/10, would read multiple times!
07-07-2013, 06:27 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-07-2013, 06:32 PM by Johnny_Ibanez.)
NEW GUITAR DAY!!
This is my first acoustic. I had no intention of buying a guitar today. I went to a music shop with my drummer because he wanted new cymbals. Then I saw this: My camera is shit so it doesn't really do justice to the depth of the grain of the wood. I have no idea what wood this is. This guitar is from the exotic woods range so it's something endangered, hopefully. Ibanez, naturally. Yeah, that's Mother of Pearl. So is that. They must've got a job lot from a bloke down the pub. That's not a weed, it's a plant. <_< Dat red. Oh, it's electro too. The built-in chorus feature is total bobbins, mate. The best thing about it is the name. It's an Ibanez EWC30PDE-RLG! See the way it just rolls of the tongue. Ibanez EWC30PDE-RLG. Catchy as fuck.
07-07-2013, 07:39 PM
I agree, it's so fun to say.
Ibanez EWC30PDE-RLG.
07-07-2013, 08:20 PM
It's not gay, it's fabulous.
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