Lets see your axes

[Mark Blanchard]

Lets see your £90 beginner or '57 vintage Strat. Any guitar pics are welcome .

Here are mine. There's a real mix, from an ebay Korean Squier I picked up for £63 to a Les Paul. You can never have enough guitars.

Lets see yours.

[Mark Blanchard]

Just bought this lovely mint 97 USA Strat. Wow, when Fender get it right they're better than any Gibson.

[ramjet]

I had a really nice Yamaha 12 string acoustic which I sold as I wasn't using it. Dumb. Should have just destrung it and held onto it.

I also had a Fender fretless bass which I have sold many years ago as well.

I've never owned an electric guitar, but it would be a fender if I bought one.

I don't even have a pic.

[Mark Blanchard]

Shame you didn't hold on to it, they keep there value and depending on the model could be worth more than you paid for it. Yamaha make great acoustics and a 12 string would sound awesome.

[Azlan]

Ibanez Ex 350 by hereticsun, on Flickr

Epiphone Les Paul Ultra by hereticsun, on Flickr

IMG_0586 by hereticsun, on Flickr

[punky]

Here's mine.

I also have a Charvel and a Yamaha bass not pictured but I only really play the SG and the acoustic.

I use to have a Strat but I just don't get on with them.

[Mark Blanchard]

Nice Jem Punky. What sort of Charvel do you have?

[vintaylor]

Didn't know there was such a guitar following on this forum

- Gibson flying v

- Ibanez RG signed by steve vai

- Esp f-series (7 string)

- Charvel San Dimas usa

- Jackson Dinky

- Epiphone Kiss Frehley singature series

- BC Rich Beast limited edition with silver pin striping

- Cheap Squire

Thats my collection

- Cheap acoustic

[Mark Blanchard]

Wow, nice collection!

[punky]

Hi Mark

I'm not exactly sure what model it is.It currently resides in Spain and gives me something to play when I'm over there.

Heres a pic

[molemot]

Some weird stuff..the left hand one is a CSL Gypsy from 1977; a Japanese copy of the Semer Jazz guitar of Django fame, made under the supervision of the designer, Mario Maccaferri. This one gets played all the time... In the middle there is a genuine Maccaferri; sadly, since I'm not up for the £30,000 a real Selmer petite bouche would cost, this is a PLASTIC guitar with an, er, individual tone... and a tale to tell. Maccaferri, apart from being a guitarist and luthier, was a designer too...in WW2 he was in the USA and manufacturing moulded plastic parts for the war effort. Once that was over, he started to make plastic clothes pegs....must have been the gypsy association(!)...and plastic ukuleles. This lead to a plastic guitar..of which this is one. It was launched in New York and Mario prevailed upon his old mate Segovia to come and help out by playing the thing....what he thought of it is not recorded! The right hand instrument is an Epiphone semi acoustic jazz guitar, with an Atilla Zoller pickup fitted. Zoller was a Hungarian who escaped from Budapest just before the Iron Curtain descended...he walked from Budapest to Vienna bereft of passport or any other documentation, and ended up in America. This beast has a lovely big fat tone....

I'm vaguely looking for a wide necked Martin acoustic...needs to be wide for my chubby fingers!

[Mark Blanchard]

Hi Punky, nice Charvel! I had one like that but it was the older Model 4 with active pickups.

John,

that CSL Gypsy is as rare as hen's teeth.

[molemot]

Yes...CSL made several types of Selmer copies. I had two...this one and one with the big D shaped sound hole and an internal resonator. That one was a seriously loud rhythm machine! I lent it to a chum in Oxford; sadly, he went barmy and smashed the thing in frustration trying to master the Django sliding single string runs. He used to teach guitar at the Dragon School in Oxford....

My petite bouche beast has a different bridge to the standard CSL. I got a set of plans for the original Selmer from R.F Charles, in Paris...I had toyed with doing the luthier's course at Totnes....Looking at the plans, I saw that the original bridge was arched and hollowed out, and bears on the table of the guitar with just two smallish pads. So I sought out a suitable piece of rosewood from Touchstone Tonewoods...chose a piece where the grain conformed to the curve of the bridge...and amused myself one soggy Sunday afternoon by sawing and carving a new bridge. This significantly improved the tone; I still have the original, in the guitar case!

[Moxie]

Haven't taken photos, but here's my herd, which I intend to cull by about half in 2012 since it's a stupid amount of gear for this stage in my life. Plus if my playing was on par with most of these I'd quit my day job.

GUITARS:

• 1965 Martin Tiple - Natural (spruce)
  
• 1972 Gibson ES-325 TD - Walnut
  
• 1982 Hamer Sunburst (flat-top) - Sunburst (really!) - Suhr DSV/SSV Humbuckers w/ Phase Inverter Switch
  
• 1995 Hamer Duotone (3-hole flat-top) - Natural (spruce) - Kinman P-90Hx Set
  
• 1996 Yamaha BB-5 Bass - Walnut - Signed and used by Michael Manring for "My Four Moons" on the Bass Day '98 DVD, which he still hasn't paid me any royalties for, the swine!
  
• 2000 Olympia Guitarra - Natural (cedar)
  
• 2004 Collings Baby - Natural (spruce) - L. R. Baggs Element Saddle Piezo Pickup
  
• 2004 Collings D2H - Vintage Sunburst - Trance Audio Amulet (stereo out) and L. R. Baggs M1
  
• 2004 National Reso-Phonic Delphi - Taupe
  
• 2005 Epiphone Elitist Casino w/ Bigsby - Sea Foam Green
  
• 2005 Fender Nashville B-bender Telecaster - Sunburst - Tossed middle Strat pup and installed Kinman Broadcaster set with custom “Baja” Tele harness
  
• 2005 Gibson Les Paul Supreme Chambered Goldtop 90th Birthday Limited Edition (1 of 90) - Goldtop (duh) - Signed by Les
  
• 2005 Zon VB-4 Bass (neck-through body) - Natural (spalted maple top on swamp ash)
  
• 2006 Warmoth FrankenStrat - Sea Foam Green - EMG SA set w/ Pi2 phase-inverter and SPC/EXG tone controls
  
• 2009 Gretsch "Silver Phoenix" Billy-Bo w/ Bigsby - Black
  
• 2010 Gibson Holy Explorer (aka "Agent Orange") - Colorado Orange - Duncan Custom Shop Pearly Gates/“Greenie” humbucker set
  
• 2011 Gibson Dethklok "Thunderhorse" Explorer - Silverburst - EMG 81x/85x Pickups w/ Afterburner Circuit
  
• 2011 Collings C10 Western - Western Burst - One-off w/ OM Neck
  
• 2011 Martin J12SO! Sing Out 60th Anniversary Pete Seeger Custom Artist Edition Baritone 12-String (#48 of 120) - Natural (spruce) - L. R. Baggs M1 mag pickup (reversed)
  
• 2011 Moog Paul Vo Collector's Edition Moog Guitar - Black Burst - One of a kind, w/ MIDI & Vo Power Control Mod
  

AMPS:

• Fender Blues Junior (1x12" Combo) - Celestion G12H mod and Groove Tubes 12AY7 in preamp #1 position
  
• Line 6 Vetta II (2x12" Combo)
  
• Matchless Phoenix 35 (2x12" Combo) - 4-Input Version (2/channel) w/ Celestion G12H30 and G12M Greenback
  
• Mesa Boogie Lone Star Special (4x10" Combo) - 2 Jensen Specials in the top and 2 Mesa Vintage Black Shadows in the bottom
  
• Orange Tiny Terror (1x12" Combo)
  
• SWR Workingman's 15 (1x15" Combo)
  
• Victoria 20112 (1x12" Combo) - Celestion Blue
  
• Victoria 35210 (2x10" Combo) - One Jensen P10R and One Celestion G10 Greenback
  
• ZVex Nano Head > Dr. Z 1x12 Cabinet
  

ELECTRONICA:

• Dave Smith Prophet '08 PE Keyboard
  
• Dave Smith/Roger Linn Temptest
  
• Moog Taurus 3 Bass Pedals
  
• Waldorf microQ
  
• Waldorf Microwave XT
  
• Waldorf Rack Attack
  

[ramjet]

Holy crap Matt! Where do you keep all that lot?

[Moxie]

In the same secret bunker that Dick Cheney used to hide in.

But you've put your finger on part of the problem, which is that since I've moved I don't have enough space for this stuff. I also pretty much only play for mental health/relaxation these days and can't justify all this gear, particularly all the rack gear I didn't even include in that list since I can pretty much do everything on my Mac in Logic Pro with the two Apogee interfaces I have. So I'll be selling at least half, probably two-thirds, of everything this year.

By the way, I've finally found the absolute best guitar humidification system ever. Amazingly effective. Can't say enough about this:

[ronin]

My 67 old EB2 and a 96 Guild.....Still have em from day one tucked under the bed..

[Mark Blanchard]

Wow, that's an impressive list Matt! That Les Paul is very special, the Hamer Sunburst is super cool and that Gibson Holy explorer looks crazy.

[Moxie]

Thanks Mark. The Holy Explorer is kind of a joke guitar. I'm having it refinished the same color as my S1. "Add lightness", etc. I know, veeeeeery weak joke, but it's actually a really comfortable guitar and sounds good enough.

That Hamer Sunburst is my first guitar, which I bought because Martin Barre was playing them at the time. But probably the most versatile guitar of the bunch is the Hamer Duotone. There are many variants of the Duotone, but mine has a flat cedar top, three soundholes, a piezo saddle pickup with separate output, two P-90s (which I swapped for noiseless Kinman P-90hx pups--amazing!), and a switch/blend control for mono output. They're not worth much, but apparently quite rare in my configuration. Can't find a photo of one like it anywhere. The closest I've found is the same configuration, but with humbuckers…

Anyway, when I decide what's going on eBay, I'll list it all here first in case any TLFers might be interested. I will, however, be buried with my Billy-Bo.

Funny--I just noticed that a guy on Harmony-Central actually posted a photo of my Billy-Bo at http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?2400587-NGD-And-it-s-hideously-awesome.&p=35820059&viewfull=1#post35820059

That's the exact axe I bought from Fuller's. They're in Houston and buddies of Billy's, so he worked out a deal for them with Gretsch where they had the sole rights to order limited runs (24 max) of Billy-Bo variants. They also did a White Pengion version and some other hideous neon green thing.

[Mark Blanchard]

You can see where PRS got there design from. That Hammer should be worth loads.

I bought another recently, a 1995 Squier (a Korean gold logo, similar to a ProTone). I soldered a Seymour Duncan hot rail on for some fun. I love these guitars, best necks on any guitar I've tried.

[Bibs]

Do you design your own furniture Mark?

[Mark Blanchard]

No, I'm too busy designing furniture for other people. I got that table for 10 years service at work. Anyway, you're not supposed to be looking at the table, you're supposed to be looking at the guitar .

[Bibs]

It is a nice table though...

[Mark Blanchard]

Thanks, you can but one yourself if you like it Clicky

[Quicker]

I was a lead in a Van Halen cover-band for 4 1/2 years... so my stuff still screams 80's....