What's your favourite axe right now?

[GuitarIv]

I have some time on my hands again so I thought why not start a new fun thread? 

Post your current weapon of choice with some pics, a story behind the guitar and what you like about it.

I'll start:

Currently I'm playing my 2010 Gibson Les Paul Studio pretty much all the time, got the guitar used in an exchange, I traded an ENGL 412 Cab (the cheap one with the Celestion V60 Speakers) and a beat up Ibanez RG 350 for it. Even got 150 bucks additionally from the dude and the original Gibson Case. Pretty needless to say that it was one hell of a deal, especially when I consider that I paid 200 Euros for the cab back then hahaha.

She isn't exactly pretty and a bit beat up, but what convinced me was the unplugged sound and the feel of her, very loud acoustically and warm yet clear sounding, after a fret job the action is ridiculously low and she sings and sustains like a pro. Since I grew up learning guitar on a cheap Gibson copy the neck feels very comfy for me as well, just the right thickness imho. (No baseball neck)

Right now I'm rocking some EMGs in there, the 57/66 set which has way more dynamics and sounds clearer than the 81/60 combo. Feels more like a passive too. I'll put in either a set of Mules or a Rebel Yell/VHII combo as soon as I have the cash, but for now she does just fine.

Let me introduce to you, Black Betty 


Looking forward to your stories and some eye candy!

[AndyR]

Obviously, I'm playing the new Les Paul a lot right now (NGD thread: https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=34192.0)

But here's my favourite guitar, the lovely Lucy, she has not been deposed yet. Stormy Mondays. She's a 2012 LP Traditional. We found her new two years ago in a corner in a Fender/Gretsch shop - they'd got her in a deal with their suppliers a week or two before. Mrs R said try her, I did, I brought her home. It took me a week or two to grow into her - it was NOT "oh wow I have to have this" in the shop. It was a bit of a gamble buying it. But oh my goodness, as we got to know each other, I started to consider actually ditching other guitars (I haven't). In the last year, I've bought another telecaster, a 6RI SG (that is almost as gorgeous), a Yamaha Revstar, and a Les Paul Special with P90s - I had to stop playing Lucy so that I could bond with each of them.

Alas the pics don't capture the top/colour. Wine Red, deep and transluscent, with a nice grain and a flame top. Acoustically, tons of sustain and resonance - but a very warm round sound (compared to the new LP which is louder and brighter). The Stormies are GORGEOUS. This guitar does PAF rocking, and it does STRAT clean sounds - partly why I don't seem to b e so strat obsessed anymore.

But... when I get back into single coils (and I do... it goes round in cycles) here's a cr@ppy picture of the "No 1" - one of the original 60s Roadworn Strats, Irish Tours, and various bits and bobs (knobs, screws, pickup covers) from my old JV Squier that did hundreds of gigs with me in the 80s. It's gorgeous. Quite heavy, and REALLY loud and resonant. I bought it in the same shop when the Roadworns first came out. I wanted to try one, but hadn't seen one close up. I went in there and there it was... the head man KNEW I had to try it (I've bought several guitars off him, and he's a strat man too), and he also knew I'd have to buy it if I tried it. I started playing it, and then it was suddenly an hour later... Finally he came over and did the "calculator trick" to offer me a deal without telling the other punters nearby. He offered it to me £50 cheaper than I could have found it on the internet at the time (this is Denmark St, btw, it's not all bad!). I had to buy it. I walked out the shop and texted "Ooops" to the missus - she knew what it meant!

Oh, and "The other Lucy" is the Lucy after whom Lucy the Les Paul is named - she has a particular coat that the finish of the guitar reminded me of.

[gwEm]

My favourite guitar /at the moment/ is my Wez Venables "Wezosonic". Its a Fender Duo-sonic inspired guitar, fitted with two BKP Irish Tours. Despite its smaller size its very solid, in both build and tone. Its perfect for the garage rock sort of stuff I'm playing at the moment


In general though, my favourite guitar is a 1984 Flying V, signed by Johnny Winter. I rewired the neck pickup to be permanently in parallel. Original gruff but amazing sounding dirty fingers fitted. Feline guitars swapped out the bridge and tail piece for tastefully upgraded items. The neck feels like a caveman's club, but bizarrely with shredtasticly low action - love it.

[GuitarIv]

Andy, I gotta say that's one sexy LP you have there, together with the new one from your NGD that's really a stunning pair. 
Gwem, your V reminds me a bit of Hetfields early Electra, maybe it's just the pose though hahaha

[richard]

Gwem, PLEASE tell us the story of getting your guitar signed by Johnny Winter. This is the guy that made me want to play guitar. I first heard him on a 1970 American compilation album (I was twelve at the time) called 'Fill Your Head With Rock'.  The track was 'I love everybody' from the Second Winter album. I finally got to see him at Hammersmith about ten years ago but, being a complete idiot, I'd been drinking and herbing with friends for about eight hours before the gig and can't remember a damn thing about it. So, please tell and spare no detail.

Not to derail the thread - fave guitar is my PRS Bernie with Abraxas set. I've had it for about eighteen months. I had my heart set on a Yamaha that GAK never had in stock. I read about the Bernie and gave one a try when I was in the shop buying strings. I knew right away that I had to have it. It felt like I'd owned it forever. I love the big, fat neck which surprised me as I thought I preferred slim necks. The original pickups were fine but I'd had the Abraxas set on my mind for a while and they are killer in this guitar. I jammed with a band a couple weeks back and the other guitarist was playing what looked like a very expensive LP - it had a stunning top. My Bernie killed it tone-wise. Also, my Bernie's tuning didn't slip once during an hour in a hot studio whereas the LP went constantly, horribly out of tune.

[AndyR]

^ Haha! I can still remember the "I got a cool new V but some idiot called Johnny Winter has written on it... what should I do?" threads.

We need a pic of the Bernie. I've wondered about them several times, especially from your reports - but I've probably got "Les Paul" covered enough now... (Especially cos the newest one scratches the "LP with a burst of some sort" itch... And I'm fully committed to "no more guitars this year")

[Plenum n Heather]

MIJ Fender Stratocaster; 1968 Reissue. DiMarzio HS3 in the bridge, Fender Custom shop middle and neck.

[gwEm]

Love the strat Ben!

Do you find the HS3 is too low output compared to the Fender pickups?

[Plenum n Heather]

Love the strat Ben!

Thanks. :)

Do you find the HS3 is too low output compared to the Fender pickups?

It is a touch lower, but it depends on how much gain I am using. When you shovel it, the HS3 really sounds killer. I am still trying to figure out what I want to do with that guitar, pickup-wise.

[gwEm]

Love the strat Ben!

Thanks. :)

Do you find the HS3 is too low output compared to the Fender pickups?

It is a touch lower, but it depends on how much gain I am using. When you shovel it, the HS3 really sounds killer. I am still trying to figure out what I want to do with that guitar, pickup-wise.

Just scored an HS-3 for the neck of my Mustang. Looking forward to try the old classic! I use an Area 67 in the neck of a few guitars and a Virtual Solo in bridge of one and like them.

[_tom_]

This is my main/only guitar now and for the foreseeable! Dad bought me it for my 21st birthday. Took me a good few years and a proper setup to really bond with it as it never played or sustained as well as my LPs. Went through loads of pickups til I settled on the axesrus ones I have in it now (sorry, just didn't find the right BKP for it! Pictured with Mules below). P90 neck and humbucker bridge which gives me all the tones I need. It still took me a while to really love it but I sold my LPs which forced me to play this and now I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't even like LPs any more, too big and clumsy. My other guitar is my old strat copy but that's just a last resort backup. I love having just the one main guitar.

[gwEm]

Gwem, PLEASE tell us the story of getting your guitar signed by Johnny Winter. This is the guy that made me want to play guitar. I first heard him on a 1970 American compilation album (I was twelve at the time) called 'Fill Your Head With Rock'.  The track was 'I love everybody' from the Second Winter album. I finally got to see him at Hammersmith about ten years ago but, being a complete idiot, I'd been drinking and herbing with friends for about eight hours before the gig and can't remember a damn thing about it. So, please tell and spare no detail.

Well, to tell you the truth theres not much of a story to tell, or at least not the one you might expect.

I wanted to pickup a white mid-80s rear routed V on a trip to the states.

Anyway, there was this one on eBay so I did some research about it. Actually I even arranged to have a long distance phone call with the seller. He sounded like a real red neck, proper guitar man, so I figured it would be a safe bet.

Apparently the guitar had the Johnny Winter signature on it before he owned it. Actually I did some googling and found reference to what I assume was my guitar many years back on flying-v.ch

So the guitar arrived at a friends house in New York. I remember sitting in my mates front room with a bottle of T-cut trying to remove the sig! I wasn't the biggest Johnny Winter fan at the time, though I'm more into him now probably because of the guitar.

The sig had been painted over with varnish so it was impossible to remove. So I just added a pair of straplocks and did a gig with it while I was out in NYC.

I couldn't bring it back with me due to luggage problems I think. So I left it with PhilKing.

Instantly I felt at home with this guitar. The gruff tone of the Dirty Fingers. The unsophisticated club feeling neck. The bizarrely low action. The alder body, maple neck, ebony board wood mix. And of course the look! I bonded straight away on that first gig.

So I just decided to leave that Johnny Winter signature on there. I figured it was part of the guitar.

Later on I rewired the neck pickup to be permanently in parallel for a more strat like neck tone. Feline guitars swapped out the non-original bridge for a tone-pros and swapped out the stop tail for an aluminium part. But to be honest I liked the sound of it from the beginning.

[gwEm]

Andy, I gotta say that's one sexy LP you have there, together with the new one from your NGD that's really a stunning pair. 
Gwem, your V reminds me a bit of Hetfields early Electra, maybe it's just the pose though hahaha

Actually, it was Hetfields mid-80s Explorer which drew my attention to the rear routed Gibson guitars of that time.

[gwEm]

Do you find the HS3 is too low output compared to the Fender pickups?

It is a touch lower, but it depends on how much gain I am using. When you shovel it, the HS3 really sounds killer. I am still trying to figure out what I want to do with that guitar, pickup-wise.

So I've been using the HS-3 for about a week. It definitely has its own sound going on, and I can see why noiseless strat pickups got a bad rep back in the day.

Actually I really don't like it clean, it has no strat sparkle and bell-like tone. As you say though - when you shovel on the gain the tone comes out and it really does sound killer!

I'm going to try wiring in a coil split and see what that does for it.

[Dave Sloven]

I guess this would be the one I play most often, right?

That's this 2007 Gibson SG Special Worn Yellow

Warpig (A) set
500K CTS pots with WD Music 0.022uf PIO caps and pointer washers under the knobs
TonePros bridge and tailpiece set
TUSQ XL nut
Grover autolocking tuners with lightweight aftermarket buttons
DiMarzio Cliplock strap system
Fully shielded with that tape you buy from the garden centre to keep slugs out of your basil