Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[kawai2g4b]

I figure this thread could either be lame , or garner some interesting responses .  Basically name a guitar, bass, amp, or piece of equipment that you lusted after, expected great things from, and placed great time and effort into.  But then that thing could never never fully satisfy your needs in the end.

Mine...had an Ibanez MC400 Musician for 5 years.  As a bass player, I am extremely partial to neck-thru instruments.  Naturally, a vintage, rare as hell neck thru Ibanez with a preamp and tri-sound switches that could theoretically cover everything from jazz, out of phase funk to straight up metal greatly appealed to me.  So I buy it cheap, restore the preamp, un-twist the neck and get it playing great.  Only thing is, the brass hardware is DESTROYING any note attack that I try to wrench from it.  Without the preamp, it sounds amazing; however, the preamp and EQ overboost everything I try to run the guitar into, and raises the noise floor to unwanted levels.  To top things out, the out of phase coil setting sounded anemically weak, shrill, and unusable.  Single coil setting?  Did not really brighten the tone any (to this I attribute to construction).  So with all that versatility, I came out with three usable sounds (less than a Strat), no note attack, dampened tone, and slack string reaction.  After 4 years of giving it chances, I sell it for profit and...lo and behold...the next owner sells it two months later.  I still have some experimental recordings of it and they frustrate me to this day.  Same fate befell my Ovation Ultra GS.

[rnolan]

Hey kawai2g4b, I've always managed to lick them into shape in the end but there have been many frustrations (and good lessons) on the way. Except my first ever guitar, electric, no name, parents bought for me from a piano (style) shop, I was 13 (over 40 years ago ~1973 ish).  It kind of looked the part, had a whammy bar, used to bust top Es and Bs but then I was using .008s, served it's purpose though, you've got to start somewhere.  My 2nd guitar was a second hand Navarra Les Paul (bolt on, early Ibenez I believe), nice guitar, regretting I sold it many years later, 3rd guitar was an Anson Jap strat copy, which I still have, although it's been through quite a few incarnations.  The most frustrating thing doing it up was, back then to avoid copy write issues, all the dimensions were a bit different (not just metric to imperial).  So I want brass bridge saddles so I buy a strat bridge with brass saddles (brass was all the rage, better sustain etc), but the Anson neck not as wide as a strat so the strings go off the edge of the finger board (learning, learning  ), so in the end I file the saddles thinner (width wise) so they fit on the original bridge, made a brass nut (that was easy(ish), I had a slab of brass to make truss rod end blocks).  But the truss rod never worked, no wonder, when I routed it out it could never have worked, a U piece of aluminium with a 3/16th rod with no bend down the guts.... so I inlaid a piece of sugar maple in it's place (it was 1/2" wide) and made the thinest neck ever (Frank Gambale played it, liked it, then Ibenez came out with the FG model, low and behold it had a very very thin neck).  But now no truss rod, so I had to file the neck relief into the frets...  I liked the brass saddles and nut, never had a problem with note attack etc just got more sustain.  I've never been a fan of active stuff though (none of my guitars are active), I'm also not a fan of transistors before tubes.  But I do like straight through necks (I'm with you there).

[rnolan]

Back of neck

[rnolan]

A bit closer (not great shots from my phone....)

[rnolan]

Side view, I'm not sure there's enough depth for a truss rod now LOL, don't need a whammy, I can just bend the neck 

[Dante]

I had the same experience - more than once.

First: My Tele. I wanted a Telecaster so bad, I just had to have one. I needed a Fender tone and didn't wanna get a Strat like everybody else. I shopped and shopped and finally decided upon a Foto Flame model with a great feeling neck. It had 3 single coils, so I was still able to coax Strat-like tones from it - kinda like a Nashville Tele with a nice finish. I recorded a lot with that guitar, but when it came to playing live, I hated soloing on it above the 12th fret. That neck heel felt like a LOG in my hand, and the single cutaway was doing me no favors.

Second: My Strat. I figured I was damned to the Strat for my 'Fender' tones. I got a cheap Squire Strat on Craigslist and began soldering pickups and different wiring arrangements, which was a lot of fun. I finally got that guitar sounding REALLY great, with a HSS config and some PIO caps. I removed the 2nd volume knob & just had a master volume & tone with a 5-way switch. I loved the sound, but I the trem was a POS. I figured I'd get a better one someday. Truth be told, I didn't like the feel of the Strat that much, but it was better to me than the Tele. Then I found an Ibanez RG with an Edge III on it in a HSH config and I no longer needed the Strat after all.

Something about Fender guitars I guess, just don't fit my hands right. Gibbys and Ibbys, no problem

[El Chiguete]

First (and only) time I was in a big store in USA was Sam Ash in Dolphin Mall Miami, the manager is my mentor and first guitar teacher. I go there to do what I can't do here... try out many great guitars and amps!!! So I started to check out the prices on the guitars and I see a $5K+ Gibson Historic 50's Les Paul and I say to myself ¨this must be the nicest guitar I will EVER play¨, I grab it and start playing. After a few minutes I just don't feel right or particulary like the sound of it and I tell him that and ask him if he can pass me another one that he thinks I would like better, he passes me an used Carvin DC250 or DC400 (don't remember) that had the price at $350 or $400 and I say to myself ¨this should suck compared to the other one¨... to my TOTAL surprise it sounded WAY better and it felt great in my hands!!! My mind couln't understand what just happend and I actually felt really bad when I left the store. Latter I learn that what happend was I didn't undersand that the specs of the LP (baseball bat neck, vintage pickups, small frets) where not what I was expecting and for sure not the correct guitar to play classic heavy metal. Now I would appreciate that guitar for what it is and definetly use it to get another tone and feel when playing.

The moral of this story is that the price and brand of a guitar will not really determind if you like it or not, let your hands do the talking and your ears hear the result!

[rnolan]

The moral of this story is that the price and brand of a guitar will not really determind if you like it or not, let your hands do the talking and your ears hear the result!

Absolutely +1 

[kawai2g4b]

+1 on that as well 

And just like you, "El Chiguete",  A Carvin DC200 taught me that lesson...what is it with those Carvins?  All three I have owned were effortless to play and get great sounds out of. 

[El Chiguete]

Yeha they sound good but I just don't like how the body and headstock look ... thats why I didn't bought it right there!

[kawai2g4b]

Right on, if mine wasn't a reverse headstock I would have passed on it.

[rnolan]

I know what you mean, my Anderson has a great looking head stock, before he had to change it, I don't like the new one at all... And the guitars I build have my headstock design

[WickerMan]

Gibson Explorer, pretty thing, cream with ebony fretboard. Wanted one for years and I try to love it, I spend hours adjusting and fine tuning but nothing to do, never like the feeling of it

[rnolan]

I've never liked the Gibson "fat" shoulders, I got my Epiphone SG shaved to be more V shaped, ahhh much nicer for me.  Maybe you should sell the explorer, or get the neck reshaped like I did.

[kawai2g4b]

I would say hell yeah to the resurface if it won't destroy the resale value.  What details in particular bothered you about the Explorer?