TX AG 88 said:

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Glad it helped!

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We took her to play some acoustic and electric guitars and I was really hoping she wanted a mini strat but no dice at this time. At least she wanted to play the metal setting on the amp that had several effect settings. I'm really excited she is getting in to it.

I'm thinking my next purchase is going to be replacing the pickups in my Les Paul Standard and getting another Emerson Kit for it. I really want to care about the push/pull pots for coil splits and in/out of phase that it came with, but I just don't use it at all.

Maybe I'll go for the SD Antiquities DallasTele is all about. I put Pearly Gates in the Epiphone so I probably won't do those for this one. Might also do the SD Slash pickups. Can't decide if I want to go with covered pickups or not though.

I had to explain to my wife and brother and daughter that Sweetwater or StewMac would be a better choice than GC if they want to gift me something.

I've got $200 on a StewMac gift card burning a hole in my pocket. I want about $800 worth of stuff.

Prioritize! What are you looking to get?

I'm working prioritizing.

Things I'm leaning towards:

Shop rule or string action gauge or both
Fret rocker
Maybe a loaded pick guard for that Squier project strat I have had set aside for a long time. Or maybe individual pickups and pots and switch and jack

I would like new tuning machines but that guitar has 5mm holes for the tuners and I don't see any replacements with posts that small. Would need to consider a reamer. Theirs is supposed to be really good but it's not cheap!

My guitar life has come full circle. I've had everything I wanted and played them all on stage. Now I'm looking for the lightest Traveller guitar with a good humbucker and one all-purpose pedal to plug straight into a PA. One cable, one set of wireless connectors for the guitar to the pedal, some in-ear monitors, and 100 great songs that I can play without thinking about any of it. That's my new quest. Walk into a gig or practice with everything I need in one hand.

My kids have all caught the guitar bug, and they have a growing collection of really good stuff. Thanks to YouTube, Marty Schwartz, Beato, Church worship bands, and people looking for something "new", I think the future of guitar and live music is looking up.

TeleAg will not approve, but if you mean travel guitar like "is really easy to carry in an airport and put into an overhead bin", then maybe this.

Are all guitar youtubers required to attend the same class where they all learn the same side not smile "herr herr what's this thing" face?

Sometimes they have to have the hands to the head OMG I can't believe this look.

maroon barchetta said:

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TeleAg will not approve, but if you mean travel guitar like "is really easy to carry in an airport and put into an overhead bin", then maybe this.

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While my band does play in multiple counties, we have not yet been hired for a gig requiring air travel. For my personal trips, I take a Yamaha Guitlele. It's practically disposable.

I'm mostly looking to preserve what's left of my back.

Then you need a Strandberg. Very light!

Standbergs look awesome. I've never heard of them before this. I have a Steinberger that I practice with quite a bit, but I don't like the way it tilts forward. The good thing about that is it forces me to play without seeing my fingers. More feel.

Lots of good videos about Strandberg out there.

Phil McKnight has a good review.

Sweetwater has some good history of the guitar.

Same for Five Watt World.

This might be up your alley if you are trying to save your back.

Tools incoming.

I use that exact same Weller station.

I googled "best soldering iron for guitars". That seemed to be the consensus.

Of course, the depressing part was the article I saw was from 2019 and it was $40 then. Not so much now.

I bought my son that same Weller for Christmas a few years ago because he wanted to be able tinker with electronics projects. He's gotten good enough with it that I'm about to co-opt him as my guitar tech.

The one I got came with a flat tip for high voltage. You may need to get a smaller tip for some aspects. For soldering ground to the back of a pot, that flat tip with the high voltage setting is simply amazing. No danger of burning up the pot if you know what you're doing. It just heats up so damn fast.

My dad has been a circuit board tech his whole life, so i've grown up around the stuff. I was raised never to use cheap tools. Always use a Weller, tin/lead solder with a resin core, and the best braided solder wick.

dave99ag said:

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Used some Christmas money for a new pedal... The Dane!

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Thoughts? I'm sitting in my lazy boy on New Year's Eve, browsing Reverb and watching YouTube videos while also looking over at my beautiful guitar collection... and feeling that itch to get some more OD pedals to play with.

My standard setup is getting my Tone King Imperial MKII to edge of breakup on the lead channel, and then using my Keeley D&M Drive to boost it for more distortion. After trying several OD pedals, the EQ range of the D&M drive with the transparency of the boost has been my favorite.

Really interested to hear what your signal chain looks like, including guitar and amp. Is the Dane getting you what you were looking for?

Musicians Friend is doing stupid deal of the hour today.

I don't need anything. But I'll still check often. Could be another deal on strings.

DallasTeleAg said:

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dave99ag said:

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Used some Christmas money for a new pedal... The Dane!

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Thoughts? I'm sitting in my lazy boy on New Year's Eve, browsing Reverb and watching YouTube videos while also looking over at my beautiful guitar collection... and feeling that itch to get some more OD pedals to play with.

My standard setup is getting my Tone King Imperial MKII to edge of breakup on the lead channel, and then using my Keeley D&M Drive to boost it for more distortion. After trying several OD pedals, the EQ range of the D&M drive with the transparency of the boost has been my favorite.

Really interested to hear what your signal chain looks like, including guitar and amp. Is the Dane getting you what you were looking for?

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I'm also running a Telecaster into a Tone King Imperial MKII (thanks to your recommendation!). What sold me on the Dane was Pete pretty much built the Dane around a Tele into a clean amp like the Tone King. I'm mostly living in the Rhythm of the TK. Usually around 3-5 volume and one notch back on the attenuator. Hard to get too loud with the family.

The boost on the Dane stays clean as you roll the volume all the way up. The neck sounds so smooth and then hop over to the bridge for a bit more grit. He wanted a clean boost and it definitely is!

The drive is not a heavy overdrive; again going back to Pete wanting something for his style. If you're doing metal, this pedal probably isn't for you. I can get edge on the neck rolled up 1/2 to 3/4. The bridge gets there super quick. This is with the Dane at 12 o'clock on the settings.

I'm sure it's recency bias since they did their unveiling a few months ago on their YT channel and I was wanting a OD pedal. Found a decent deal on Reverb from a guy in Leander. None of the other shops were dropping it much under $300.

Nice!

Yeah, a Tele through a Tone King Imperial is an amazing thing. I've bought several nice amps since my Imperial, but I always just go back to it.

I'm gonna keep an eye out for a Dane at a good price. I don't really play anything that is high gain, and only use OD pedals to push the signal into a little more grit. My requirement is the OD pedal has to be very transparent, so i can roll back my volume on my guitar to clean up my sound but still remain articulate and clear.

The Dane is what you need! I could listen to Danish Pete all day. Such a good player!

DallasTeleAg said:

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The one I got came with a flat tip for high voltage. You may need to get a smaller tip for some aspects. For soldering ground to the back of a pot, that flat tip with the high voltage setting is simply amazing. No danger of burning up the pot if you know what you're doing. It just heats up so damn fast.

My dad has been a circuit board tech his whole life, so i've grown up around the stuff. I was raised never to use cheap tools. Always use a Weller, tin/lead solder with a resin core, and the best braided solder wick.

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The backs of the pot has always been the toughest spot for me. Probably wasn't getting enough heat to effectively melt the amount of solder I needed at once.

I really like Stringjoy strings and they're doing a free little training series this month

https://stringjoy.com/30-day-guitar-challenge/

Very cool. I'm going to sign up just for fun!

Seymour Duncan has something similar for changing out pickups. Looks pretty involved but is supposed to be free.

https://tech.seymourduncan.com/

I stand with whoever wrote that note!

Only Gilmour boomer 15b17 and Joe bonermaster licks amiright hoss

Some Junkie Cosmonaut said:

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I stand with whoever wrote that note!

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I've heard all of those in a GC. And played badly.