Musicians! Expose your G.A.S.!

[weeniebeenie]

Good Lord it is. What color is it?

I was trying to be all arty farty with the black and white. ;)
Here it is in colour:

[getinthevan]

Damn thats beautiful

[tomEisenbraun]

Oh hell. Did you need a change of pants after playing it?

[thatswhatshesaid]

i play on a 1978 ibenez PF-300, a 1981 peavey classic 50 212, and i use an elecro-harmonix english muff'n, and a cry baby.

the PF is something else. i have never found a guitar with such tone. it makes me cry a little every time i play it.

[tomEisenbraun]

oh dude. that top is absolutely perfect. that thing just looks like it has good tone!

[weeniebeenie]

Oh hell. Did you need a change of pants after playing it?

;D

[weeniebeenie]

i play on a 1978 ibenez PF-300, a 1981 peavey classic 50 212, and i use an elecro-harmonix english muff'n, and a cry baby.

the PF is something else. i have never found a guitar with such tone. it makes me cry a little every time i play it.

Nice! :)

[thatswhatshesaid]

oh dude. that top is absolutely perfect. that thing just looks like it has good tone!

indeed it does. i lucked into having that guitar via a cousin of mine who originally bought it out from under me. he quit playing and gave it to me and i thank him for it all the time...lol. it plays and sounds so nice that i have a hard time playing any other guitar. not that i am a guitar snob or anything, just that i have become so accustom to it that when i play other guitars it throws me off.

the story behind the guitar is that in the late 70's, gibson sued ibenez over the PF-300 (when they still had strict copyrights over the design) because it looked, played, and sounded "too much like a les paul." they actually forced ibenez into bankrupcy due to the lawsuit. i have owned a les paul and i do love them, but this blows JUST ABOUT any les paul out of the water that i have played. it is the only electric guitar i have ever played that feels exactly right.

it feels like the world is at my fingertips.

[tomEisenbraun]

Not to mention it has a few aesthetic advantages over a Les Paul... I think Gibson realized that other people were making Les Pauls better than they were at a better price. Anything but '57 through '59 doesn't really have much going for it over any good imitation.

There are, of course, exceptions to that statement, but I think it holds relatively true based on my experience in the repair shop. I've never been absolutely blown away by a Les Paul, which is really unfortunate, because I've held them in high regard for a long long time. The ones that have really done it for me haven't been true Gibson Les Pauls, which is funny, because you'd think they should own all the awesome that belongs to that particular body design. Not so.

[thatswhatshesaid]

Not to mention it has a few aesthetic advantages over a Les Paul... I think Gibson realized that other people were making Les Pauls better than they were at a better price. Anything but '57 through '59 doesn't really have much going for it over any good imitation.

There are, of course, exceptions to that statement, but I think it holds relatively true based on my experience in the repair shop. I've never been absolutely blown away by a Les Paul, which is really unfortunate, because I've held them in high regard for a long long time. The ones that have really done it for me haven't been true Gibson Les Pauls, which is funny, because you'd think they should own all the awesome that belongs to that particular body design. Not so.

yeah, i have never seen a les paul top that is so striking. and the neck on it is a dream come true. not even going into the tone. like i said, it makes me cry a little everytime i play it.

i emailed ibenez a couple years ago inquiring about the guitar and they legally couldn't tell me anything about it. they said "they do not have records on that particular guitar." so i don't know what kind of hardware is in it and don't know the exact wood that was used.

i totally agree with you on never finding that one les paul. i have owned one and my brother benjamin (funny how that works) owns two of them, one in which i have not played yet. but i have not been just so struck by any of them that makes me feel like guitar society tells me how i should feel about one.

[tomEisenbraun]

The top looks almost like oak, which can't be right. Got a picture that shows the back and sides at all? In all honesty, I think it's the set-neck attitude of a Les Paul that I don't like. The bolt-on gives it so much more bite and chunk, both of which I like in my guitars. Not to mention more of an attack on the low-end instead of a mush.

[thatswhatshesaid]

The top looks almost like oak, which can't be right. Got a picture that shows the back and sides at all? In all honesty, I think it's the set-neck attitude of a Les Paul that I don't like. The bolt-on gives it so much more bite and chunk, both of which I like in my guitars. Not to mention more of an attack on the low-end instead of a mush.

no i don't have a pic of the sides and back. i will take one this evening and post it. if you would like to check out the tone, we have a couple shows on archive.org if you want to check it out.

actually the neck is my favorite part of a les paul, but i do agree that i don't like how they attach to the body either. i'm not a fan of the pick ups the put in them for the most part, but i have heard some that  sound amazing. i also have a '68 hummingbird that has what appears to be a les paul neck from that time on it. i don't have words to express how amazing that guitar is. it plays like an electric, but has such a mellow acoustic sound.

[tomEisenbraun]

Oh beauty.

[thatswhatshesaid]

Oh beauty.

indeed it is. i inherited it from my grandfather when he died. this is one of the only ones i have ever seen that is not sunburst from that time though.

[tomEisenbraun]

I prefer the natural finish, though.

How does it sound? Gibson has always been strongly hit or miss, but some of these hummingbirds are absolute beauties.

[thatswhatshesaid]

I prefer the natural finish, though.

How does it sound? Gibson has always been strongly hit or miss, but some of these hummingbirds are absolute beauties.

i prefer the natural finish too. it is so beautiful in person. the pic doesn't really give it justice.

it is pretty quiet but has a very crisp, clear sound. very good for recording, but in a bluegrass band setting, it gets drowned out. i do like gibson acoustics, but i haven't played many of them. as far as acoustics go, i prefer taylors.

[mjkoehler]

Hey Tom, what is your opinion of this one? It's in my price range and appears to be a little better constructed then the Peavy I was looking at. Sounded good, but then so did the Peavy. The only drawback is no master volume, just volume controls for the 2 pickups.

http://www.ibanez.com/hollow/guitar.aspx?m=AFS75T

[tomEisenbraun]

Hey Tom, what is your opinion of this one? It's in my price range and appears to be a little better constructed then the Peavy I was looking at. Sounded good, but then so did the Peavy. The only drawback is no master volume, just volume controls for the 2 pickups.

http://www.ibanez.com/hollow/guitar.aspx?m=AFS75T

The Art Cores have a pretty solid rep. Having individual tone and volume knobs is actually preferable, because you really have the ability to tweak your tone that way. Put the switch in the middle and you can dial in just how much of each pickup you want in the mix. That and you can turn one off and one on and pull some Morello/Buckethead kill-switch type effects by toggling inbetween the pickup that's on and the middle position where they're off. Most of the time, guitars with two humbuckers and two separate volume knobs will be wired so that killing the volume on one volume knob in the mid position will cut the volume altogether.

Good pick! The all maple should be a good balance for a guitar that can tend to get a bit muddy, too. Keep playing on it through a couple different amps and make sure it's something you dig, but it definitely looks like more of a winner. Plus, it's got a Bigsby. Can't hardly beat that.

[mjkoehler]

Hey Tom, what is your opinion of this one? It's in my price range and appears to be a little better constructed then the Peavy I was looking at. Sounded good, but then so did the Peavy. The only drawback is no master volume, just volume controls for the 2 pickups.

http://www.ibanez.com/hollow/guitar.aspx?m=AFS75T

The Art Cores have a pretty solid rep. Having individual tone and volume knobs is actually preferable, because you really have the ability to tweak your tone that way. Put the switch in the middle and you can dial in just how much of each pickup you want in the mix. That and you can turn one off and one on and pull some Morello/Buckethead kill-switch type effects by toggling inbetween the pickup that's on and the middle position where they're off. Most of the time, guitars with two humbuckers and two separate volume knobs will be wired so that killing the volume on one volume knob in the mid position will cut the volume altogether.

Good pick! The all maple should be a good balance for a guitar that can tend to get a bit muddy, too. Keep playing on it through a couple different amps and make sure it's something you dig, but it definitely looks like more of a winner. Plus, it's got a Bigsby. Can't hardly beat that.

I looked at some of the other Ibanez HB's and some of the ones for a few bucks less didn't have a whammy which just seems wrong. I never thought of the dual volume knobs like that which makes total sense. Yeah, the Bigsby is a nice addition. I'll have to play around with it some more and somehow convince the Mrs. that this is essential for my sanity.

[Hawkeye]

Ok, I finally have some pictures, sorry if they're not the greatest quality or too big, etc...

All guitars:


Banjo, Tele, Alvarez, Peavey, Epoch

The banjo is a "starter" Washburn model.  The Tele is a Korean FMT HH (two Seymour Duncans).  It's the only decent guitar I own.  The Alvarez is an old nylon-stringed classical model.  I got it for $35.  Most of the upper frets buzz, but it's what I learned on.  The Peavey was my first electric.  I took everything out of it.  Someday I'm hoping to paint something cool on it and put in decent pickups, etc.  The last one is one my brother bought from one of his buddies.  He's in the Air Force in Italy right now (jealous), so I inherited it.  It's kind of a piece of crap.  The amp is an Orange (obviously), Orange Crush 30R.  It's ok.  A good practice amp but not loud enough to play with drums, etc.  The guitar pedal is useful.  I can run my keyboard through it, a mic, guitar.  It's got lots of effects (not too many that I'm crazy about) and you can modify them and create your own.  You can also use it to record, just hook it up to your computer via USB.  It's probably not the best set-up, but it's compact and it works well for now.

pedal GNX3000


Orange Crush 30R amp


Washburn banjo


Tele