Yeah. My sister in law asked me in October what kind of guitar to get him. He has been mentioning to her often that he has been interested in playing again since I started taking lessons. He used to play a long time ago and was a fantastic bass player.

I sent her a Reverb link to this guitar and told her he had been interested in something like that but she really needed him to go to some guitar stores and try some out and see what feels good and sounds good.

She bought it five minutes later.

Score for him!

The setup is really good except for some fret buzz on the open low E if you strum pretty hard. Maybe needs a shim in that slot on the nut?

I really like the guitar. He's happy with it.

Impulsive and doesn't think too much about her decisions. My kind of woman.

TXAG 05 said:

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Just went to Fullers Guitars and walked out with a Taylor Academy 10e. Great looking guitar and can't wait to get home and start practicing with it.

Definitely recommend Fullers. Great selection and the staff was fantastic. No pressure, answered my questions, set up my guitar, showed me how the tuner worked and threw in some picks, a cleaning cloth and some other things.

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I bought my Taylor 324ce from Fuller's. Glad you enjoyed it! I actually went by this past weekend to buy some strings. They had an awesome custom shop Fender thinline tele with TV Jones pickups, that sounded awesome. It was also light as a feather.

After watching many videos about strings, and having used 10's my entire life, I finally broke down and bought into the theory behind 9's. Picked up 3 sets and installed one on my LP Standard.

My next project will be to replace the pickups in my ES-335 with a set of Seymour Duncan Antiquities i bought. It will be my first time replacing pickups in a semi-hollow, and I am dreading it.

Beato, Shull, and Onorato experimented and found that 8's work great and don't degrade the sound.

Have you seen that video and is their finding plausible?

9's are as far down as I really want to go. 8's just seem too flimsy, to me.

I like it, simple and clean.

Bah... another one is up on Reverb...

https://reverb.com/item/54295962-paoletti-nancy-lounge-series-2020-pickled-surf-green

I want this model so badly, but I just can't justify dropping over $3K on a new guitar, right now. I would need to have a massive deal close.

I'm not usually one for solid finishes but that one's badass.

Love that neck.

I'm not a big Tele fan but that is a really nice guitar.

MIssed your review earlier of the Sheriff. That's awesome, nice job!

Paoletti again! Seems like I'm seeing them everywhere since first learning about them a few weeks ago. Could be a sign!

Guys... I am kicking myself, right now.

Around 2 years ago, I purchased two ES-330 guitars off Reverb for $2,700 each. One was my 2016 '61 Reissue VOS, and the other was a 2018 Olive Drab Green VOS.

The green one was fine, but I wasn't in love with it. My '61 Reissue is one of the best sounding guitars I have ever played, and is my #2 to this day. Simply a phenomenal instrument.

So, deciding to be "financially responsible", I decided to go ahead and sell the green one on Reverb, and ended up getting $2,900 for it. Fast-forward to today, all of the ES-330 guitars on Reverb are now listed for over $4,000. There are two in the VOS Olive Drab Green for $4,950 and $6,000.

I guess that's just the way with instruments....

Instrument prices are absurd right now. I'd think we'd be hitting the point when the market would be flooded with guitars that people bought to learn during the pandemic, but not so far.

I went to the Dallas guitar showFriday, with a specific goal in mind (find a PRS S2 McCarty singlecut, and some extra dark creme pickup rings for a Les Paul). Unfortunately I did not achieve that goal. I saw very little that would constitute a good deal.

The highlight for me was actually Thursday night at Toneshop Guitars in Addison. Greg Koch and Ken Haas put on a Reverend and Fishman clinic. A good time was had by all. They gave away a set of Fluence Gristlemaster P90s and offered 15% off all Reverends in stock.

I didn't win the P90s (already have a set so that's cool) but I did buy some of their Classic humbuckers. Sweet.

Nice!

I'm actually trying to buy a used Squier FSR Classic Vibe in candy green so I have a guitar to practice dressing frets and other things I'm too scared to do on my nice guitars.

Electronics are easy, and something I've done for years, but all the neck and fret work is something I'd love to learn how to do.

I also kind of wish I had the tools to build my own guitar. I would love to build a telecaster, as a project.

Love watching this guy's channel, and he built this entire guitar with hand tools, so it's definitely possible:

I'll have to check that out later on. I'm not sure I'd ever have the patience for building one from scratch, but it would definitely be a cool project.

This damned Epi has push-pull pots. Didn't expect that one a $500 guitar. Pickups will probably get replaced at some point. Maybe some Pearly Gates or something like that. I wish it had the Kluson style tuners so I may have to look into that but at a minimum that will require drilling a second hole for each tuner. I pulled the pick guard as I'm usually not a fan of that look, but it seems like it made the guitar pop a little more so it might go back on.

The tuning keys look to be Grover style. Why not just get a good set of locking Grovers? Something like these: https://grotro.com/product/roto-grip-locking-rotomatics502-series/

I would always generally replace all the electronics on a cheaper guitar. The pots usually don't have a very good taper when cheap. I would get a CTS pot kit, with a Switchcraft switch and jack. Get some nice PIO caps (because i buy the voodoo) and then you just have to replace the pickups.

It may also be fun to replace the nut with a bone nut. That's a project I have never done myself, but would be interested in learning to do. Generally, the bridge and tailpiece are also cheaper metals, which could be replaced for better stability and intonation.

As for pickups, I've never played a set of the Pearly Gates. I want to say the SD Antiquities are basically Pearly Gates that are aged and slightly degaussed. My set in my LP sound unbelievably amazing. I still haven't put my other set in my 335 yet, because I just haven't felt like taking many hours out of my day to do it, yet.

Yeah, I haven't cracked open the control cavity yet, but a picture I saw in a review it looked like they had everything running into connectors rather than actual soldered connections on the pots. I had generally figured the electronics would all need to go.

Overall though I'm impressed with the build quality for a $500 instrument. Setup is decent off the bat. It's a "worn" model which basically means they didn't do any grain fill and did a matte finish. Both of which I like and that matte feels nice on the neck.

As far as tuners, I may end up just going the Grover route, I've just always felt like an LP without the keystone tuning keys just seemed wrong. Maybe I can find some that will replace the chrome/nickel ones they tend to have.

The only truly bad review I read on this model, the guy sounded like one of those folks that buys a lower end instrument and then acts surprised that it's not to the level of a high end instrument. Even finished his review with something like "definitely not a Gibson!" Well, no **** Sherlock. It's an Epiphone and isn't even one on the higher end of Epiphones.

I've considered buying a $100 used or pawn shop guitar to learn how to do setups and neck work and such. You must be more confident than me if you are buying a $500 guitar for maintenance lessons!

From all the videos I've watched, they don't seem that hard to do. It's just wood and metal. It's really hard to completely ruin it. I'm confident I could do a decent job doing most of the maintenance things on my first try. Just not confident enough to do some of it on a $2,000+ guitar.

I have rounded the fret board of my LP Classic ($1,900) and my 60's Original Strat ($2,100). I used a razor blade and light sand paper to do that work, and it made a world of difference. I also took the back of a sponge to my Strat to get the Nitro lacquer to stop being sticky. Granted, it would be hard to now turn around and resell that guitar, but I don't plan on needing to. I, of course, have to own two Strats!

I wanted to get something that I was confident could be setup and that I'd want to play. I actually had an offer in on a used one on eBay for $300, but the dude wasn't responding so I retracted it. His ad on reverb said he didn't play and bought it for decoration so I was also concerned about buying a guitar from a person that never played and having them ship it without a case. Seemed like a recipe for having no usable instrument while having my money tied up for weeks.

Are the antiquities two or four wire? I'm always drawn to getting four wire for the wiring options but the number of times I've actually used coil splits are small. Of course, the dimples around the pots on most PRS guitars make push-pulls almost unusable. I suspect that's why they originally had a five way rotary and now a lot of their models with coil tapping use mini toggles.

Hand tools are extra effort, but you would be amazed what you can do with a jigsaw, orbital sander and palm router. I even made a jig with my belt sander to turn it into a disk sander for shaping. $200 all in for tools. At this point I buy my necks - just do setup on them. Considering I go cheap, you can do pretty good on Amazon and eBay.

I've made a strat, bass and telly so far. All would command well over $50 on the open market. Don't care. Learned so much and understand the instrument so much better.

Next in will be totally custom. Don't know if I'm ready to build my own neck yet, but soon. I know I could buy a guitar cheaper than what I've invested in tools, materials, etc. figure about the 5th one it would be good enough.

Antiquities I have are 2 conductor. However, I think you may be able to get 4 conductor, or custom order them. My set in my LP are by far the best humbuckers i have played on.

I'm absolutely shocked you bought a blue guitar.

Some Junkie Cosmonaut said:

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I'm absolutely shocked you bought a blue guitar.

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I know. It's so out of character for me.

Hey Echoes97,

Is Pigs On The Wall your tribute band? I see they are playing in Tomball on the 20th and am curious.

Hey man, nope they kind of took our spot around town as we don't play much anymore unfortunately. Their keyboard player used to be in our band a long time ago, and he's very good. They recruited some great players in that band, and I will say they are very good and would recommend checking them out. Short of it is, they definitely put their own spin on some of the songs, and make it very interesting overall. Sometimes it's a little out there in Jeff Beck land for me, but if you're not married to them playing the songs note for note, I think you'll enjoy it. They are super talented no question. As a long time Floyd fan, I find it somewhat refreshing as I'm not looking to hear the songs 100% as they are on the album. I feel like we (Us And Them) sound like PF sounded live in the 70s, with a little rock edge and some improv with good vocal harmony, but stick to the songs pretty close. PotW does a mix of note for note and some "out there" feel eg when they do "Wish You Were Here" it's all electric with some crazy effects and electric solos. Again, super talented and worth your time IMO.

Us and Them! That's right. I've seen that in your signature a zillion times.

This sounds really interesting. I'll have to see if I can get loose and hit that show. Not sure what I have going next week.

Why does it have to be pink?

Anybody played one of these? It's only about $100 less than some other new models but I don't know the special qualities of a CM 25.

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/PRS/CM25-SE-Custom-24-Solid-Body-Electric-Guitar-117991166.gc

If you go with the SE Paul's Guitar or the SE Custom 24-08 there are different finish options and you get a three way switch with individual mini toggles to split the coils on the humbuckers. The 35th Anniversary SE Custom 24 has the same five way blade switch as the one you posted but has a sunburst and blue finish.

If it were me, I'd go with the 24-08. Seems like it would offer more tonal options.

Quincey P. Morris said:

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If you go with the SE Paul's Guitar or the SE Custom 24-08 there are different finish options and you get a three way switch with individual mini toggles to split the coils on the humbuckers. The 35th Anniversary SE Custom 24 has the same five way blade switch as the one you posted but has a sunburst and blue finish.

If it were me, I'd go with the 24-08. Seems like it would offer more tonal options.

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I just need to make a decision and buy something! The soloing exercises I've been learning are getting to be tough on an acoustic!

I'm considering an SE, maybe one of the Silver Sky models (I'm not crazy about any of the colors), a Schecter Nick Johnston, or a Sire Larry Carlton.

The Sire Carlton reviews are all great. Looks like a lot of guitar for the money.

One complaint is that the fretboard was rolled too much for some people. Other people love it.

Volume knob might be too close to the bridge pickup for some people.

The Schecter Johnston and the SE Silver Sky are both in the under $900 range.

The Sire is $599. Doesn't come with a gig bag or case though.

Fretboard radius is 14" on the Schecter, 9.5" on the Sire, and 8.5" on the SE.

Also, roasted maple fretboard or rosewood? Or ebony? I've only played one roasted maple and it was on a used Ibanez Prestige. It felt great.

Jumbo frets or medium jumbo? I played a Jackson that I thought was going to feel great looking at the specs and I hated it. The frets felt like dull knives. Tall dull knives.