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Guitar Gaf |OT| Fingerpickin’ good

finally got to play a rickenbacker, local guitar center had a 360/12 on the used rack

not impressed tbh, def not worth the insane 2 grand
 

deviant1

Member
Hey guys, anyone in here have any experience buying used pickups? I'm looking at a used set of Dimarzio Crunch Lab and Liquefire pickups to throw into an old Schecter C-7 but I'm hesitant to take a chance on used parts. I'm starting to get back into playing again after about a 12 year hiatus and these stock pickups are trash.
 
Hey guys, anyone in here have any experience buying used pickups? I'm looking at a used set of Dimarzio Crunch Lab and Liquefire pickups to throw into an old Schecter C-7 but I'm hesitant to take a chance on used parts. I'm starting to get back into playing again after about a 12 year hiatus and these stock pickups are trash.

I've bought used pickups online and haven't had an issue yet. Ideally you want to take a multimeter and see if they actually work before you buy them. The problem is once you install it, it's hard to prove if you fucked up the installation or the pickups are inherently bad.
 

deviant1

Member
I've bought used pickups online and haven't had an issue yet. Ideally you want to take a multimeter and see if they actually work before you buy them. The problem is once you install it, it's hard to prove if you fucked up the installation or the pickups are inherently bad.

Thanks for the input.
 

btags

Member
What's up Guitar Gaf!

I got question for you. I put some new strings on just a week ago and they're already black where I play. I just have plain Ernie Ball's regular slinky. I'm pretty sure it's always like that, I suppose it's because my fingers get a bit sweaty when I play for a while. I try to wipe it down afterwards, but it doesn't really help much. Do you guys have any recommendation for some strings that last a bit longer without sounding weird, cos of the coating or whatever.

I'm also getting an EHX 720 looper this weekend. Pretty excited about that, hope I can figure it out easily. I'm definitely looking forward to practicing with my own backing tracks, but I also hope to figure out something more creative with it.

And I gotta share this dream guitar... I haven't actually visited the shop yet, I probably shouldn't to guard my wallet.

fender_jaguar_50th_anniversary_brugt_1.jpg


Obviously this is a little late, but I recently got Ernie Ball Paradigm strings and they have held up much better than the other Ernie Ball strings I had previously.
 
Damn fine Tele - birds-eye maple neck, flame maple top - very nice. Not cheap I guess, though 2012 means you got it 2nd hand? I'd happily put that up on my wall and show it off like a piece of art.
 
Hi Guitar Gaf!

I need your advice on a new guitar. I've been playing on an acoustic guitar for some months now but I decided that I want to move on to playing an electric.

I still consider myself a beginner and my budget is about 350€ for the guitar. I can't really state what the sound should be like because I'm mostly playing some of my favorite songs that come from basically every genre. So maybe an allrounder would be good?

One electric guitar that I came across was the Fender Squier Vintage Modified 70 Strat which seems to be great value and got pretty good reviews.

I also heard that the Yamaha Pacifica series has some great electric guitars for beginners. I originally planned to buy a Pacifica 112V but I've got more money to spend now.

I also intend to buy the Boss Katana 50 amp with the new guitar.

So do you guys have any good recommendations? Is the Squier Vintage Modified a solid starting point for an electric guitar? Any other good guitars I should at least check out?
 
Also check out thomman.de. Their Harley Benton house brand is supposed to be pretty good. I nearly bought one today. I would also have bought a Vintage that was in my local shop, but I don't like (overly) relic'd guitars. Nothing wrong with most of the Squier line, either. I use a Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster body on a partscaster.

Boss Katana 50 is a good amp.
 
Hi Guitar Gaf!

I need your advice on a new guitar. I've been playing on an acoustic guitar for some months now but I decided that I want to move on to playing an electric.

I still consider myself a beginner and my budget is about 350€ for the guitar. I can't really state what the sound should be like because I'm mostly playing some of my favorite songs that come from basically every genre. So maybe an allrounder would be good?

One electric guitar that I came across was the Fender Squier Vintage Modified 70 Strat which seems to be great value and got pretty good reviews.

I also heard that the Yamaha Pacifica series has some great electric guitars for beginners. I originally planned to buy a Pacifica 112V but I've got more money to spend now.

I also intend to buy the Boss Katana 50 amp with the new guitar.

So do you guys have any good recommendations? Is the Squier Vintage Modified a solid starting point for an electric guitar? Any other good guitars I should at least check out?
That's a perfectly good guitar. It has Seymour Duncan Designed pick ups which are superior to what you'd normally get on a Squire. The Boss Katana 50 is a good beginner amp too. If possible go to a store and try a few guitars and amps out. But otherwise I'd say you're on the right track.
 

Ostinatto

Member
Hey guys, i wanna buy a guitar, but i'm kind of out of touch about guitars , my last electric guitar i bought it was in 2004 i think, so help me out. i want to play metal covers mostly, ...so it has to have i nice tremolo bridge with floyd rose (is that still a thing?) hopefully, i dont want the guitar to get detuned after i destroy it with the tremolo...Also i want to play SRV covers, so it would be cool if the guitar could manage a similar tone (that blues overdrive SVR sound).

Is this possible?

I just want a nice canadian maple neck guitar with a ebony fingerboard, maybe an ibanez? i dont know //// i was looking some of those but i don't get the differences between japanese, korean and indonesian models.

What you guys think?, could you give me some models to check? i don't want to spend more than $1000 also... $1100 tops if is it worth it. thanks.
 
Hey guys, i wanna buy a guitar, but i'm kind of out of touch about guitars , my last electric guitar i bought it was in 2004 i think, so help me out. i want to play metal covers mostly, ...so it has to have i nice tremolo bridge with floyd rose (is that still a thing?) hopefully, i dont want the guitar to get detuned after i destroy it with the tremolo...Also i want to play SRV covers, so it would be cool if the guitar could manage a similar tone (that blues overdrive SVR sound).

Is this possible?

I just want a nice canadian maple neck guitar with a ebony fingerboard, maybe an ibanez? i dont know //// i was looking some of those but i don't get the differences between japanese, korean and indonesian models.

What you guys think?, could you give me some models to check? i don't want to spend more than $1000 also... $1100 tops if is it worth it. thanks.

If you want to sound like SRV, why do you look at Ibanez? Get a nice American Strat and call it a day if your budget is $1000.

I personally, would get a nice sounding mexican strat, get the bridge and nut replaced to make it sound better.
 
Hey guys, anyone in here have any experience buying used pickups? I'm looking at a used set of Dimarzio Crunch Lab and Liquefire pickups to throw into an old Schecter C-7 but I'm hesitant to take a chance on used parts. I'm starting to get back into playing again after about a 12 year hiatus and these stock pickups are trash.

I actually own the Crunch Lab and the Liquifire. Its what Petrucci used to use in his older guitars. They're great pickups, so you should get some good tone out of em.

However, I've never bought used pickups so cant help ya there :/
 
Hey guys, i wanna buy a guitar, but i'm kind of out of touch about guitars , my last electric guitar i bought it was in 2004 i think, so help me out. i want to play metal covers mostly, ...so it has to have i nice tremolo bridge with floyd rose (is that still a thing?) hopefully, i dont want the guitar to get detuned after i destroy it with the tremolo...Also i want to play SRV covers, so it would be cool if the guitar could manage a similar tone (that blues overdrive SVR sound).

Is this possible?

I just want a nice canadian maple neck guitar with a ebony fingerboard, maybe an ibanez? i dont know //// i was looking some of those but i don't get the differences between japanese, korean and indonesian models.

What you guys think?, could you give me some models to check? i don't want to spend more than $1000 also... $1100 tops if is it worth it. thanks.

You might have to buy 3 guitars if you want all that. One guitar for metal, like an Ibanez. A Strat for Stevie Ray. And a Gibson for an ebony fingerboard.
 

Ostinatto

Member
If you want to sound like SRV, why do you look at Ibanez? Get a nice American Strat and call it a day if your budget is $1000.

I personally, would get a nice sounding mexican strat, get the bridge and nut replaced to make it sound better.

A Mexican hss strat and the rest for an amp.

You might have to buy 3 guitars if you want all that. One guitar for metal, like an Ibanez. A Strat for Stevie Ray. And a Gibson for an ebony fingerboard.

Cant have a SVR sound with an ibanez? since metal tone is priority for me?
 
You might have to buy 3 guitars if you want all that. One guitar for metal, like an Ibanez. A Strat for Stevie Ray. And a Gibson for an ebony fingerboard.

Ebony fretboards are available on a variety of guitar brands, including Fender in the past. Suspect it will become more common due to the change in CITES classification of rosewood (though Fender is using pau ferro).

Cant have a SVR sound with an ibanez? since metal tone is priority for me?

SRV: big strings, low output single coils and loud clean amplifiers with a tube screamer.

Metal: little strings, high output humbuckers, and high gain amplifier.

If you could find an Ibanez that was closer to vintage Strats then it would be fine, but I can't find one.
 
Cant have a SVR sound with an ibanez? since metal tone is priority for me?

Well you'd have to sacrifice the humbucker at the bridge position if you want true SRV tone and there aren't too many Ibanez models with SSS configuration. You might want to look into an Ibanez with HSS or HSH config if you want to compromise. But you need a humbucker if you want to do metal.

As for the Ibanez factories - the Prestige models are their highest quality and those are made in Japan - also the most expensive. Indonesia is currently their #2 factory and they are in charge of the Premier models as well as many standard models. They no longer make guitars in Korea since they moved their factories to Indonesia, but the old Korean models are very solid. Their budget models like the Gio are made in China these days.

If you want a true metal guitar then I would look into the Ibanez Iron Label series (made in Indonesia) - they run about $800 new and they do have an ebony fingerboard model. But they are all mostly humbucker-humbucker config and not really great for SRV style. Almost all the Ibanez come with a Floyd Rose style trem.

You could possibly get a used Made In Japan Prestige Ibanez at around $1000, but new they cost well above $1500.

Ebony fretboards are available on a variety of guitar brands, including Fender in the past. Suspect it will become more common due to the change in CITES classification of rosewood (though Fender is using Pau Ferro).

Yeah like you say, ebony would be found probably in the older models. Although there are some ebony in the Ibanez Iron Label series. Pure metal though.
 
Hello Guitar Gaf! I'm a long time lurker with a recently approved account and I thought I'd share a couple of picks of my current axe:




I had a blue Ibanez RG920QMZ-CBE previously but the floating bridge made tuning and string changes a nightmare. So I traded it with someone on kijiji for their ESP EC-1000 with Bareknuckle P 90's for pick ups.

It feels really good to play metal, hard rock and even some blues licks. It reminds me of my first guitar which was a Epiphone Les Paul and feels alot more comfortable to play then the Ibanez. I also really love the quulted maple finish as well as the unique looking abalone inlays. :)
 
Hello Guitar Gaf! I'm a long time lurker with a recently approved account and I thought I'd share a couple of picks of my current axe:

I had a blue Ibanez RG920QMZ-CBE previously but the floating bridge made tuning and string changes a nightmare. So I traded it with someone on kijiji for their ESP EC-1000 with Bareknuckle P 90's for pick ups.

It feels really good to play metal, hard rock and even some blues licks. It reminds me of my first guitar which was a Epiphone Les Paul and feels alot more comfortable to play then the Ibanez. I also really love the quulted maple finish as well as the unique looking abalone inlays. :)

Very nice!! I like those LTD EC-1000s. They have amazing finish selections and are solid players. I used to have an EC-256 but I sold it. It felt a bit cheap and the pickups weren't all that great. One day I'd like to get a 1000 or even an ESP Eclipse! Welcome to GAF!!
 
ESP EC-1000 with Bareknuckle P 90's for pick ups.

It feels really good to play metal, hard rock and even some blues licks.

Nice! Have not heard of P90s for metal before, but whatever works.

It felt a bit cheap and the pickups weren't all that great. One day I'd like to get a 1000 or even an ESP Eclipse! Welcome to GAF!!

Those Bareknuckles are worth a third of what the whole guitar originally cost. :p
 
Very nice!! I like those LTD EC-1000s. They have amazing finish selections and are solid players. I used to have an EC-256 but I sold it. It felt a bit cheap and the pickups weren't all that great. One day I'd like to get a 1000 or even an ESP Eclipse! Welcome to GAF!!
I agree! The sick looking finish is what immediately caught my eye and it's a very good guitar for me to continue to learn and improve my playing. Until I someday get my dream Les Paul with a sunburst finish like Jimmy Page's, it'll do nicely in the meanwhile.

I just need to eventually find a good teacher as being self taught for years has its limits.
 
Nice! Have not heard of P90s for metal before, but whatever works.

I think I may have caused confusion by not giving the correct name of the pickups, I looked it up and their actually Bare Knuckle "Pig 90's" as opposed to p90's, so that's my mistake. They definitely work very well for heavy tunings, especially drop b which I just tried for the first time earlier on a skillet song my wife wanted me to learn to play with her.
 
I think I may have caused confusion by not giving the correct name of the pickups, I looked it up and their actually Bare Knuckle "Pig 90's" as opposed to p90's, so that's my mistake. They definitely work very well for heavy tunings, especially drop b which I just tried for the first time earlier on a skillet song my wife wanted me to learn to play with her.

Ok that makes way more sense lol. Bare Knuckles are great pickups.

I've gained a lot more respect for ESP over the years, my ESP 8 string is a fantastic guitar. Rarely goes out of tune and the intonation is spot on.
 
Ok that makes way more sense lol. Bare Knuckles are great pickups.

I've gained a lot more respect for ESP over the years, my ESP 8 string is a fantastic guitar. Rarely goes out of tune and the intonation is spot on.
I also seem to rarely have tuning issues with this guitar, especially compared to some of my previous ones. This is my first guitar with locking tuners which is a nice change.
 
Two things

1> Gretchen Mann and Nili Brosh have started a podcast on their respective YT channels

2>Marty friedmans new AWESOME SOUNDING album is all available on Prosthetic Records YT
 

Ostinatto

Member
WOW, i've played 5 different Prestiges yesterday, they feel so cheap and low quality, it hurts, first impressions, they are too light, you feel like it's going to break, the maple doesn't feel like maple, i'm sure they are not using canadian maple, looks too different also, looks too brownish,also, all five had fret problems, they sound out of tune on different parts of the fingerboard, sound wise wasn't bad, i've liked the clean sound when you use the middle position of the pickups.

conclusion: is not worth the money imo.


It seems that i will never replace my old Telecaster.
 
WOW, i've played 5 different Prestiges yesterday, they feel so cheap and low quality, it hurts, first impressions, they are too light, you feel like it's going to break, the maple doesn't feel like maple, i'm sure they are not using canadian maple, looks too different also, looks too brownish,also, all five had fret problems, they sound out of tune on different parts of the fingerboard, sound wise wasn't bad, i've liked the clean sound when you use the middle position of the pickups.

conclusion: is not worth the money imo.


It seems that i will never replace my old Telecaster.

Well everyone has their preferences, that's why it's good you tried them out! Also I wouldn't judge setup qualities like intonation, tunings etc. too much in a store, especially a big box store. A lot of them mess with the settings so they make clueless customers pay extra for setup services when they buy the guitar.

Maybe you should look int Schecter if you still want a Floyd Rose/metal guitar. But probably a Fender Stratocaster with Humbucker-Single-Single setting would be best for you if you want quality Maple fretboard and a bit of Stevie Ray Vaughn flavor.
 
What a beautiful Telecaster!

That's a very sexy tele

Noice!! I'm not a big Tele guy but that is a beautiful guitar!

Damn fine Tele - birds-eye maple neck, flame maple top - very nice. Not cheap I guess, though 2012 means you got it 2nd hand? I'd happily put that up on my wall and show it off like a piece of art.

Thanks all! I'm quite chuffed with it really; it's a great guitar... @Slackbladder ~ ya, I got it used for about the price of a new American Special Tele, which is a complete steal as they were priced higher than the AmDlx line - just slightly less than a Custom Shop Tele - in 2012... it was just a totally fortuitous bit of synchronicity; I was in my local shop looking at a used Custom Shop Tele and one of the guys there says "hey, we got another in yesterday, I'll show it to you... but I can't sell it for a couple weeks yet"... so he brings out this and I just go "wowzers!" and as soon as I plug it in I think "SOLD!"... so I tell him, okay, put it away, I'll give you a deposit on it and come back for it when you can sell it... then the manager comes in - I know this guy; in fact, I'm playing at his club next weekend - and he says "it's okay, I know the guy we took that from in trade, there won't be any trouble with it... oh, and give it to him for $xxx..." I'm guessing that's what they had into it on the trade, and he was willing to give it to me for that... I basically paid about half what I expected to for it...

Hello Guitar Gaf! I'm a long time lurker with a recently approved account and I thought I'd share a couple of picks of my current axe:



I had a blue Ibanez RG920QMZ-CBE previously but the floating bridge made tuning and string changes a nightmare. So I traded it with someone on kijiji for their ESP EC-1000 with Bareknuckle P 90's for pick ups.

It feels really good to play metal, hard rock and even some blues licks. It reminds me of my first guitar which was a Epiphone Les Paul and feels alot more comfortable to play then the Ibanez. I also really love the quulted maple finish as well as the unique looking abalone inlays. :)

That's a lovely guitar... I had one for a backup when I was regularly gigging my ESP Eclipse for about five years and really liked it; I kept the EMGs in the EC-1000 but put different pickups in my ESP over the years; a pair of Duncan P-Rails at first that I just couldn't get along with, then a Dimarzio 36th Anniversary PAF at the bridge and a Gibson P-94 at the neck that was just a kickass combo... I bet those Bareknuckle P90s sound awesome!!

here's an old pic of my pair; sorry to say they're both long gone now...
esp-ltd.jpg
 

blanky

Member
So I got some Elixer Nanowebs, thanks for the advice! So far they haven't turned black like the usual Ernie Balls. I don't know if it's all in my head but they seem to sound different, I wanna say I liked the sound of the Slinky's more it seemed fuller, less metallic but maybe that's just in my head.

Can any of you explain or recall when the light in your head turned on with regards to soloing and music theory? I only just started, running through basic blues fills and pentatonic scales. Intervals etc, but I don't know how to turn that into a jam. Or how to transfer between scales and such.
 
To learn the scale up and down the neck you can:
-learn all the different movable patterns and see how they butt against each other
-play the scale farther on one string before switching to a different string (do this by ear or with a chart)

To learn how to play something musical and not just a scale, well, that is harder. You can learn some solos you like note for note and see what scales those notes seem to come from and how that relates to the key of the song. Also look at how the notes generally get higher as it moves along or how it gets faster.
 
Well I finally got my fender strat I had been wanting. I ended up just buying a fender body and getting a custom warmoth neck.

The body is an american fender professional
dCvyYqo.jpg


and my warmoth neck, which is padouk neck and pau ferro fingerboard. Reverse headstock, wizard neck profile, warmoths jumbo with tall peak stainless steel frets
s0h25o6.jpg


putting it together
35jABiU.jpg


all done
cpebCzP.jpg


It plays and sounds great. Its super bright, a bit more so than a normal strat, but then I'm also used to humbuckers anyway.

I'm glad I decided to put my own guitar together. A fender american professional strat is like $1400 and I spent under $1100 for one with in my opinion a better neck.
 
birthday comin up so i decided im finally gonna get treat myself to a telecaster

while searching around, im pretty annoyed at how much fender screws around with model specs and doesn't even let you customize everything if you choose to build your own on their website. i really want a 7.25 inch radius neck but these seem all but phased out on anything but stupid expensive vintage models or humbucker stuff like the thinline, deluxe of 72 custom argh
 
Nice job on it.
Can I ask why you went for a reverse headstock if you're not a lefty?

Because it looks cool! There's no functional difference.

birthday comin up so i decided im finally gonna get treat myself to a telecaster

while searching around, im pretty annoyed at how much fender screws around with model specs and doesn't even let you customize everything if you choose to build your own on their website. i really want a 7.25 inch radius neck but these seem all but phased out on anything but stupid expensive vintage models or humbucker stuff like the thinline, deluxe of 72 custom argh

You could always buy a tele neck to your liking. There's a shitload of them on eBay. It's why Leo Fender made the Fenders the way they are - easy to replace parts.
 
Nice job, nabe_shogun.

I wanted to see this "build your own" thing that Red Blaster mentioned. Reminded again how much Fender's website sucks donkey balls. In the past I've clicked on links and it redirects me from the linked pages to, judging from the URL, a generic international start page. So today I get there and I found an option to set it to the US page so I did. And now the site won't load. Excellent work.
 
Nice job, nabe_shogun.

I wanted to see this "build your own" thing that Red Blaster mentioned. Reminded again how much Fender's website sucks donkey balls. In the past I've clicked on links and it redirects me from the linked pages to, judging from the URL, a generic international start page. So today I get there and I found an option to set it to the US page so I did. And now the site won't load. Excellent work.

i love how the custom shop page is still straight outta 2006
 
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