Mend and make new :(

[Matt77]

Gone are the days that I could dream of £2000 guitars.
I am major skint at the mo. Thankfully after a long time out I should be employed again in January
Having no revenue has made me resort to mods rather than new gear.

I've also been resorting to selling pickups out of guitars to finance Xmas! Seymour Duncan Trembucker is the last one I'm about to sell (PM if interested).

I am however very happy in life, which just goes to show money isn't everything.

Just wondering if with the crunch and all, are other people on the forum in the same boat?

If so what are you planning on modding?

I am really looking forward to putting a set of Mother's Milk and a Crawler in my Ibanez 540
I'm also going to get massive frets in my Gibson studio.
both are quite expensive mods, so they are on the waiting list. (Jonathon this is an example of the economy slowing up your business)

However the cheapest and best thing I have done is mod my AC plus. Literally 2 snips and it's now an RC booster on channel B and an AC booster on channel A. It sounds so much better and in my opinion makes the pedal so much more useful.

[Twinfan]

Interesting post!  I've done things a bit different recently.

For a start, I've actually been selling gear(!)  This is unusual for me as I'm a hoarder, and I like my guitars, so it's been a bit tough.  Where previously I would just bung another guitar etc on a credit card and forget about it, I've been trading guitars in or selling some as soon as I've bought another.  For example:

* Custom Shop Tele - traded in Les Paul and Strat, sold Tokai SG and Ibanez RG
* Celestion Gold speakers - selling my Signature LP (thanks Ian!)
etc

I was trying to sell one of my PRS McCarty Korinas for a reasonable price but had no takers, so I bit the bullet and decided to keep it and try a pickup swap.  Luckily this worked really well and I'm dead happy with the Cold Sweats it now has.

Overall, it's been part of a consolidatin of gear and a realisation of what really works for me and my tone.  Part of it has been natural evolution of my gear collection, but a large chunk of the driver has been less disposable income.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Good question .
Takings are down a bit
However in the last week we have seen a lot of work come in - and we had pretty much caught up with stuff.
Lots of fret dressing at the moment - so busy weeks ahead.
I guess folks might be getting old guitars repaired and pimped rather than buying new stuff - which is good for us either way.

I am keen to help people get what they want (where possible) from their old guitars

[Jonny]

I don't really want any more guitars. I want to sell one though.
And use mod everything else really, especially on my seven-string.

Only cause I'm at Uni and want to ideally get out my door without hopping over half a dozen guitar cases but I still have my Toneport so maybe I can get something better than that, maybe the HT-5 if I find somewhere in London to try it out.

[Matt77]

It can be quite a nice feeling clearing out the dead wood and just keeping the really good stuff.

I feel really lucky that I got to buy all the decent gear over the last few years.
I'm also thinking of some 6V6s in my amp rather than EL84s. That I can hold back on though as it sounds pretty good with the EL84s.
I'm really enjoying learning more about the insides of stuff I have.
Once I've finished my grade 8 I think I'll learn some electronics at night school.

Just out of interest Jonathon; have you got anymore nice guitars nearly finished so we can stare at the pretty pics?

[Ian Price]

An interesting topic. My GAS has really died down lately - not sure if this is due to the credit crunch (maybe) or the fact that Jonathan did a fantastic job on my tele (probably).

What I do know is that I am not lusting after the £1900 customer shop strat I saw recently.

EDIT - Forgot to mention that I have agreed to by Twinfans Signature Les Paul! This is another reason why GAS is subsiding (probably).

[ToneMonkey]

I am however very happy in life, which just goes to show money isn't everything.

When I didn't have a job a while back, I was very happy.  Money isn't everything, but not having a job is the bollox  :D

Gonna put the Smiths on now and do the washing up.....

....I was looking for a job and then I found a job
And heaven knows I'm miserable now

[sgmypod]

Am selling some guitars..and a cab, but currently seriously modding a Birdcage amp..so far so good..latest mod sounds great(amp cost me £25)

[_tom_]

I dont really have much to sell, I only have 2 electric guitars and one amp, so I'm sorted for that :) I've been thinking about getting a cheap neck for my old strat body but I dont really have use for another guitar, the two I have now do everything I want really.. I may buy some cheap-ish Hot 100s off twinfan after xmas, but thats about it for my expenditure I think!

[Twinfan]

Ha ha - as if to prove my point two people have mentioned buying stuff off me in this thread!!!  :lol:

My GAS has pretty much subsided now I've finished off my Martamp Orion rig with the Celestion Golds.  Can't think of anything else I want.

[Philly Q]

I'm also relatively GAS-free at the moment.  My New Year Intention (won't go so far as to say Resolution) is to buy no new guitars for the whole of 2009, and to finish modding some of my existing ones.  Which will probably still cost a fortune.

I want to sell some stuff too, but not really sure what, as I've cleared out quite a lot this year (as well as buying quite a lot... ).

I don't think this is driven by the credit crunch as such, but I guess it is always at the back of my mind.  And the sudden fall in exchange rates has made it much less attractive to buy things from the USA and Japan.

[JDC]

I think not being able to afford the gear you want has it's advantages, mostly in playing around with what you have and learning how to use it instead of thinking you can't get the kind of tone you want because it haven't got certain gear

[Sifu Ben]

I'm currently in the process of modding my first guitar (Epiphone SG), just need to get a new pickguard and some new knobs.

[Lew]

oops wrong thread sorry

[dave_mc]

However in the last week we have seen a lot of work come in - and we had pretty much caught up with stuff.
Lots of fret dressing at the moment - so busy weeks ahead.
I guess folks might be getting old guitars repaired and pimped rather than buying new stuff - which is good for us either way.
 

yeah, that's what you notice. a lot of businesses (not yours, necessarily, as yours is pretty well set-up for either economic booms or busts) which did badly in the good economic climate are now doing a lot better. cobblers etc.