While the wife's away........1

[PhilKing]

I took the opportunity to take all my BK guitars out to play!  There are a lot of pictures!

[Gochaz]

Good heavens. Some nice guitars you've got there. I wonder what delights your other thread holds...

[Floyd Pepper]

Phil, Nice guitars.  Not a pickup discussion but...Can you tell me about the junior and special.  Are they Gibsons?  How old are they and how do you rate these guitars?

I'm after a similar guitar with P90s. I've played a £500 LP DC faded but am wondering if I should stump up the extra cash for a £1,500 Historic or a £2,500 early 60's.

Interested in any opinions about how these guitars compare.

Also...What amps do you use?

Thanks

[Floyd Pepper]

Noticed there's a Jimmy Page thing going on with the Black Dog pickup cover on the sunburst Les Paul.  :)

Did you do the in/out phase, coil tap, etc switching too.

[HTH AMPS]

If you want a P90 Gibson at a reasonable price you gotta go with an SG jr - you can snag one for a grand easy.  I paid £800 for my '67 a year ago.

 :twisted:

[sambo]

or you could be a cheapskate like me and get the melody maker  :P  lol

[PhilKing]

I think the best bargin at the moment is the LP junior single cut.  In the States I have seen them for $600.  The DC I have is a 60 SG (after they took Les Paul off the headstock).  It has a great wide/flat neck.  I was very lucky and got it cheap as a Junior with extra pickup (from a dealer!).  The body was stripped, and I had a friend respray it.  The neck has the original finish.  The Junior is one of 3 I have, one more DC and a white SG.  This one is a fake, the other 2 are real!  I got a Warmoth body, had a friend make a neck and rout out the neck pocket and then I sprayed it.  

I love the older versions with just the wrap round bridge, the new LP jnr has this.  I think you lose some sustain and punch with a tuneomatic.  One thing - if you get an old one, they seem to be appreciating fast!  If you get an older DC special, make sure it is the model I have (the later one), as the early ones have neck joint problems.  You can tell the early ones from the scratchplate, there is a small piece filling the gap between the neck and neck pickup.  This is a separate piece in the older ones, on mine there is just one larger scratchplate.

The LP has just standard wiring.  I wanted the look, but I like LP's to be basic - the PRS's have all the extra sounds if I need them!

I have a 50 watt Silver Jublilee combo, a Princeton II reverb (the Rivera one), a black face Princeton and quite a few amps made by John McIntyre (including the first production Lexicon Signature 284 - since I had the idea for the amp and I have the original which the Lexicon guys heard!).  My favorite giging amp is a 20 watt 'Bluesmaster' that John made (he did an article on it in Guitar Player in the 90's).  It sounds like a Marshall crunch on one channel, and overdriven on the other (I told him not to bother with a clean channel as I can turn down the guitar for that!).  I have a 4 x 8 cab with it (it is the size of a 4x10).  This gives me a multi speaker sound, but I can carry it with one hand - in fact the amp weighs more!

[Floyd Pepper]

Phil, Thanks for the info.  :)

[headtheball]

Juniors are great altogether Floyd. Theres just one thing...They're as heavy as old hell!!.

Just a suggestion, but you may wanna check out the Pat Eggle Wave. I've got one (a prototype of all things). It's lovely and light, plays beatifully, and best of all, comes loaded with BK's as stock....

[blue]

mmmm i've got an eggle wave as well, couple of quality control issues on it, but did that ever stop old guitars from being great?  it's got a pair of p90's, although i don't believe they're bareknuckles.  sounds bloody fantastic though!  and like you say, nice and light

[Floyd Pepper]

Eggle.  There's a company/bloke with a funny history.  Didn't he start off Eggle electric guitars in the UK then sell the company and move to the US to make acoustics then come back to the UK and carry on making acoustics?

Patrick Eggle http://www.patrickeggleguitars.com/ and Patrick James Eggle http://resocentre.com/index.php?id=78,0,0,1,0,0 are two different companies.

[headtheball]

That's right enough. Most eggle fans would tell you my geet is somewhat akin to a cbs fender. Mind you, that's more a reflection of fanboyism than actual relative quality. Patrick James Eggle Guitars go for pure bloody fortunes though, so I'll stick with mine.

[headtheball]

Let me guess blue... Internally pretty rough? Dry solder joints? couple of slightly dicky frets up at the dusty end? a big fecker of a heel? Still, I've learned to live with mine through these problems, and now my fenders are resting in almost total peace!!

[blue]

Let me guess blue... Internally pretty rough? Dry solder joints? couple of slightly dicky frets up at the dusty end? a big fecker of a heel? Still, I've learned to live with mine through these problems, and now my fenders are resting in almost total peace!!

well, internally it is a bit rough, and the screw holes on the rear electronics cover were stripped, and the frets needed a bit of a polish (this is sounding bad, isn't it :roll: ), the daftest thing though, although it doesn't affect playability at all;  the side position markers on the neck were all drilled in the wrong place, then filled, sort of half covered up and redrilled in the right place!  i know if that had happened with the older owners of the company, that neck would probably have been binned.  but it's just cosmetic, the neck itself is quite a nice piece of flamed maple and it's a nice, chunky, very playable handful.  i'm glad it had a few faults cuz i got it for bugger all!! :P

[headtheball]

That'd be two of us then!! You didn't buy it in belfast by any chance?