GuitArcher

If I haven't written in awhile, it usually means one of two things... I've recently acquired an engrossing video game, which means I'll see you in 80-120 hours. I've recently acquired some gear that is taking my attention away from writing here. Happily, this time it's the second one.

Guitars, like all instruments I imagine, are sentimental.  Spend any extended period of time with a particular guitar and you'll find yourself rationalizing it as one might another person.  "Flaws" transform into lovable idiosyncrasies that define what makes the guitar unique to your experience.  Basically, you learn to love it. Sometimes.   Other times the damn thing just wont stay in tune, and that fact haunts you for 20 years. Behold, the 1998 Epiphone Les Paul Deluxe. This particular guitar was given to me by a friend who had spent the better part of a decade ignoring it. When I received it, the frets were green, the pickups were touching the strings, and the body was covered in what might be generously described as DNA. Also, there was a Tool Sticker. I wish I had taken pictures of the cleanup process, which took place over the course of a week.  Bridge hardware was removed, the entire guitar was cleaned, the fret board oiled...

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...

The other day, as I was watching Mr. Tom Quayle demonstrate guitars for Dawson's Music on a seemingly endless playlist, my two-and-a-half year old daughter walked past the relatively giant screen, pointed, and said "Pwetty. Pwetty eh-tar". "Huh," I thought to myself. "That's a first." Fast forward a few days and wouldn't you know that someone posts an Ibanez JEM Jr. for the princely sum of $350. Feeling that the universe was speaking to me, I offered $300, thinking that the seller would reject my offer. Nope. Happily accepted.  The universe had spoken. A slight drive out of the way, and $300 later, I was the proud owner of an Ibanez JEM Jr. So why did the owner sell a near new guitar for less than half of retail? When I went to pick up the guitar, I noticed that the bridge was pulled slightly forward.  The owner noted that he had put heavy bottom strings on it, and hadn't bothered to set it up.  A few strums quickly revea...

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...

My first amp ever was a Peavey Rage 158 (silver stripe). Having spent a year or so on my mother's acoustic, getting an electric guitar and amp and being able to engage overdrive  was pretty amazing.

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...

After far too long, Fender has finally got around to replacing the Mexican Standard line of guitars, which had about as much sex appeal as Leo Fender in a bikini. You're picturing it now... Aren't you? Full credit to Fender.  Taking a series that is ubiquitous in it's plainness and making it exciting is no small feat, and when you consider how little they had to change to make it happen, you're left wondering why they hadn't done it years sooner. Not wondering for long mind you.  Given a bit of thought, it's pretty easy to conclude that they needed to move the mark up on the "Standard" American instruments, now dubbed the Professional, before they could make a move like this. Fender had to be concerned that any meaningful improvements to the Mexican Standards would cannibalize American sales, especially since what we've been presented with are American Standard instruments that just happen to be made on the wrong side of the border. ...

PRS EG SE - $400 Isn't the internet great? John Mayer, having left Fender as a Signature Artist years before, finally asked Paul Reed Smith to make him a Strat. Despite this being likely the least surprising thing in the history of artist relations ever, the internet could talk of nothing else. The memes alone were getting tired by the next day. Of course, it didn't help that both Paul and John offered explanations generously described as contrived. If either had come out and said something to the effect of "of course I (he) wanted a Strat style guitar... My (his) career has been built round it", I can't help but feel the internet would have gotten over it. But here's the thing.  PRS was making Strat knockoffs long before Mr. Mayer came along.  No, there isn't a trem, and sure it's set-neck, but whatever.  Sport this and you can claim to be into PRS Strats way before this Mayer character ever came around... $400 for a guitar that ca...

I've been GASing for a Gretsch Electromatic pretty hard lately, but my inability to move some equipment to justify the purchase has left me resigned to being patient.  No need to jump the gun here, FMIC isn't going to cancel the line anytime soon, and I'm actually a bit hopeful that we'll see a few more FSR runs with some new colours that might light the fuse of a purchase. But something else is tickling the back of my brain... Super Strats. Neck through, locking tremolo, flat fingerboard.  The opposite of Gretsch.  Could I end up going in a completely different direction? YES: Half the price, twice the pink? What's not to love? Some thoughts on recent items: Ibanez RGA Lagoon Burst - $350 I don't remember when the original RGAs came out, with their Gibraltar bridges and such, but I remember wanting one something fierce, and being devastated by the price - after all, these were Prestige guitars. Fast forward a decade (or two?)...