GuitArcher

I've been eyeing semi-hollow or hollow electric guitars for years now. I initially had my heart set on a Gretsch Electromatic in that awesome Fairlane Blue...  ... but my brother has great taste, and beat me to it. I tried other Gretschs, Epiphone, Godin, and Gibson hollow and semi hollow guitars, but none felt right. Specifically, I've tested a bunch of ES-335s over the last 10 years, both Epiphone and Gibson, and each time, I  was left unimpressed. The quality control seemed was never where I thought it needed to be, and I began questioning if this kind of thing was my jam. Something was missing, you know? Didn't feel right. But then, a glimmer of hope at Long and McQuade in Guelph. I stumbled upon a Satin-finished ES-335, gave it a whirl, and surprise, surprise— it didn't feel wrong . The two volume and tone controls were doing something cool, and while it didn't quite feel right, it was much better than others I had tried.. Eager to explore more, I went back to

Take it from someone who has lived through this not once, but twice: No matter how much you try and tell yourself that your Les Paul Studio is every bit as much a Les Paul as a Classic or Standard, deep down you know you're lying to yourself. I'm not saying that Studio's can't sound great - they absolutely can.   When you want a Les Paul though, you want a something-burst, binding on the neck and top, full-fat Les Paul.  You want Jimmy Page, not Jimmy Eat World*. *This is pretty unfair to Jimmy Eat World, as a quick Google search yields pictures of them playing Les Paul Standards in various bursts. Are you a Dentist? At some point in the future, Gibson is going to abandon it's policy of only making guitar with "Gibson" on the headstock in the USA, move some production to Korea, and start offering Les Pauls with binding, bursts, and the big "G" on the headstock for under two grand.  Write it down.  It'll happen. Quality

I sold the Les Paul Studio for the princely sum of $800, exactly what I paid a few years ago. I could  do the responsible thing and bank the money, seeing how I just paid $300 on a barely used Ibanez JEM Jr., but I think we both know that isn't how this is going to work. I've had my eye on a Pink Jackson for quite some time, but now that I have the JEM Jr., and given that the absence of the Studio is not being felt, I can't help but wonder if I'd be better served with another amp or something else, to say nothing of my aversion to buying new (which the Jackson purchase would require). Eight hundred bucks goes a long way in the amp world.  On the other hand, there are a ton of other really good options on the market right now, and the sale of the Studio reminds me that if I play my cards right, I will experience zero depreciation on my money if I buy used. Here's a quick list of what I'm considering: Fender '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb - $900 I&#

You win. After months and months of vacillating between wanting to sell and not, I finally found a buyer who paid my asking price without much of a haggle. So yes, for the third time in my life, I've failed to bond with a Gibson, and for the second, I've sold a wine red Studio. After posting the guitar for more than a month, an extremely eager buyer asked a rapid succession of questions: When can I check it out? Will you take less than asking? Are you free yet? Can I check it out now? Clearly, the hard sell wasn't going to be required here, but a funny thing happened once it was clear this hombre was serious - I got cold feet.  Was I really ready to sell this? Wouldn't I regret it in a few months?  Could I really live with my brother being right again?  With these questions swirling around my head, I "forgot" to bring the guitar the first day we had agreed to.  It wasn't entirely on purpose, but a late morning combined with uncoopera

I'm not even sure how to artfully put this... I came across this Epiphone Nighthawk in purple quilt the other day, posted as "For Trade".  Not having anything I wanted to trade for this, I reached out after a few days, having noticed multiple posts, usually an indication of desperation on the part of the seller. "How much?" "$600" Wait, what? Better still, the seller had also posted their Roland Cube 80 for the low low price of $400. In case you're keeping score at home, that's a bit more than you could walk out of L&M with a brand new Boss Katana 50. With that in mind, I've decided to compile a list of all the other, and better, things, one could buy with that same $1,000 this seller is expecting for his/her rig. Genz Benz Black Pearl 30 - $600 A long time ago, in a town not so far away, I came across one of these in a little music shop run by folks eager to tell me how their stock of Blade guitars was easily better

If there has been a theme recently, it has to be something about how nostalgia drives more guitar gear desire than anything else out there.  Why else would Van Halen still be such a force in the business, despite not having anything meaningful to say musically since the eighties? I'm terrible for this.  Every few months, maybe years, I pull my Korg AX10G out of the closet, convinced that there are great sounds contained inside, and that if I was only patient enough, I could pull them out... And each and every time, I give up after 20 minutes, mostly disappointed. Look, if you can pick this up for twenty bucks or so, and you aren't expecting much, then this is a great buy.  the 70s Marshall sound, set to low gain (less than 1/3rd), is the best clean sound in there, and the tremolo (which is harmonic I think), is pretty great sounding. The entire thing is plastic though, so the effects selector is dodgy, and the whole thing feels like a toy. In short, it's bullshit

I've been having a really hard time with the thought of selling the Fender Super Champ XD I picked up a few months ago.  Truth is, I rarely use it, and the few times I do, I find myself immediately wondering if the Dr. Z Maz 8 will sound better and, whodathunkit, it does. But the Super Champ does have its qualities - mostly the plug and play nature of the thing - no pedalboards required for delay and verb and drive. With all the buzz around the Katana (which after two years doesn't seem to be going away), I can't help but wonder if THAT would be the amp that better fit the "plug and play" bill. There's something else though - there are very few pieces of gear that I don't regret selling, and somewhere along the line I feel like I'll have to revisit each and every piece that haunts me. Fender Classic Series 60 - $850 Fender Japan is amazing, and this isn't Fender Japan, but it's as close to the Fender Japan ST62-TX as you're li

Couple of things I've noticed lately: The Canadian dollar going down is driving used prices up.  $1200 average for Fender American Standard?  Insane. Bar level wattage isn't cool.  I'm still seeing Fender Hot Rod Deluxe 1x12s for less than Blues Juniors.  Maybe folks are waking up to the realization that 40 tube watts is a bit of overkill for the basement. The neck IS the guitar.  Don't take an American Standard (for example), put a Squier neck on, and expect to sell it for 80% of the Standard.  It's now a Squier.  Deal with it. Here's what caught my eye recently. PRS CE22 - $1400 Originally, the posted listed this as a Standard, and was asking $1800.  Whoops. The giveaway here is the bolt-in maple neck as opposed to the set-neck of the Standard. someone must have sent him a friendly (or otherwise) note about correctly identifying the product you're trying to sell. Now, at $1200 this would be a steal based on color and condition.  As I n

Here's a roundup from about 2 years ago that for some reason went unpublished.  What interests me the most is the SGJ, which go for much more than $400 currently. Fender Esquire GT w/EMG 81 ($450) I'm not including this because I think the price is particularly good (it isn't).  Still, this (along with the Esquire Celtic) were very cool Korean variants with a single volume/humbucker set necks with unique finishes (the GT had the Shelby Cobra finish, the Esquire some inlay that the Lilith Fair crowd goes for).  Made in Korea - not that it matters.  People ascribe too much value on place of manufacture rather than the quality of the instrument itself. I don't feel one way or the other about the EMG 81 - they're good pickups, but they're a one trick pony... They're really good at that one trick, but still.  That finish is killer though, with the matching headstock, and $100 less would be a steal.  I'm watching this one carefully. Digression:

A collection of the things that have caught my eye in the past week, though I've noticed that, in a couple of cases it isn't for the best reasons... Gibson LPJ - $750 $700 I don't even know where to start, except I do.  The owner claims this to have "the same guts as a standard."  No. It. Doesn't. Aside from the seller claiming something that is so obviously untrue that he or she should be taken out back and beaten with their own guitar, the price on this is absolutely insane.  In my mind, this is just shy of Les Paul Studio money on a typical day, and would land you a Studio if the right stars aligned. Shame too, because of all the colors offered in the first year of the LPJ (the EMG like pickup covers give it away), the white was by far the best looking. Update: Seller has removed mention of guts and lowered price.  Huh. Replica Fender Stratocaster with Floyd Rose - $350 Look, it's bad enough that you're trying to sell a

As promised, I picked up the JHS "Angry Charlie" last night. First, a quick rundown of the transaction. The seller and I agreed to meet at his jam hall, not far from where I used to live.  I showed up slightly early, texted as instructed, and he came down to "let me in". I assumed that the transaction would take place outside.  It did not.  He wanted me to come up to the jam hall.  Being a poorly lit semi-industrial building, I wasn't too keen on following him up to an even more poorly lit section up a rickety set of stairs.  Would this be the place I finally have a really bad Kijiji experience? Thankfully not.  The giveaway was the strong scent of patchouli coming from his jacket.  While not exactly a sure thing, this guy was more likely a flower child than a serial killer. A few twist and turns and I'm led to a well lit room covered in Bob Marley posters (naturally), a drum kit in one corner, a wall of amps along the opposite wall, a

Everyone goes through ebbs and flows with their guitar obsession, and I'm not different.  After acquiring the rosewood Eric Johnson, and selling the Squier 51 to Henman, I went into a holding pattern on guitars.  No desire for anything new, and no desire to sell anything I own. Also video games.  I'll admit I'm rather taken with a few video games right now (Titanfall 2 is really that good IMHO), so... A digression - While I don't intended to turn this into a video game review site, I really have to say how impressed I am with that game.  I've been a pretty solid COD guy since COD4 (and played the original COD on by first Mac), but this is another level.  No surprise that it comes from the MW2 developers.  Everyone has been chasing their success for 10 years. Blame Video Games.  Parents blame everything on them anyway. Let's get back into it. Gibson Les Paul Classic - $1900 At some point last year one of these came up and I commented on how much I