Let's see your GUITAR!

[dubkitty]

fucking punctuation.

some of this will be repetitive to the Gasaholics post...i'm not going to do complicated editing if i'm not on the clock.

$599 from Sweetwater. alder body with a lovely deep red translucent finish. satin finish maple neck with pau ferro fingerboard (more on this later), 9.5" radius, jumbo frets. 6.8 pounds. string-through-body "modern Strat" hardtail bridge with big rectangular aluminum saddles/chromed steel bridge plate. 80s style closed-back trapezoidal F-branded tuners.

the pickups are Fender Modern Player Strat pickups. they're similar to the X-1 Dan Smith Stratocaster pickups in the original Lead IIs which were Strat form-factor pickups with unstaggered flat-top polepieces, wound to 7.8kΩ. the Player pickups are wound to more like 7.3k and have beveled edges on the poles. so they're not identical, but they're in the ballpark. both are well zippier than vintage-style Strat pickups which typically run in the high 5k/low 6kΩ range. 3-way pickup toggle; phase switch (only active in middle PU position); 1 volume knob, 1 tone knob.

this guitar has an attitude. the more gain i run it into, the happier it is. with the LAL 46 it's going to harm people. the bridge pickup sounds like a very grumpy Strat; the neck sounds like a Tele that can breathe; the middle position seriously cuts; the phase switch makes you sound like heavily filtered Nile Rodgers when playing chords and a psychotic duck on lead. it doesn't like laid-back country picking...it's a nasty girl who likes to be pushed a little bit. it edges me out of the laid-back psychedelic thing and more towards punk/post-punk. so mission accomplished then. it's exactly what i wanted. i like its Les Paul Junior vibe.

[dubkitty]

that said, i am not enthused with pau ferro fingerboards. when my guitar arrived the majority of the board was literally paler than a cardboard box with a weird dusty, grainy feel that varied noticeably with the color with the lighter streaks being more unevenly textured. i did 7 coats of fingerboard conditioner over 2 days with buffing between the later coats and it's much improved with more of a velvety feel and a reasonably decent mid-brown color, but in its original state it was fairly unplayable. i think builders are treating it exactly like they did rosewood, but the two just aren't the same. pau ferro is drier and more grainy than rosewood, and needs additional processing that they aren't doing. so if you're looking at a pau ferro fretboard, look for the darkest, most consistent color and expect to do some moisturizing. and by that i mean "just got back from going barefoot all week at Burning Man" moisturizing. i don't think manufacturers should be sending guitars with fingerboards in this condition to retail, but here we are. and it's not just Fender, either...the last time i bought strings i saw Schecter and G&L guitars in similar shape.

the other notable flaw is that the D and G strings sometimes go a little dead when you play open strings. judicious tweaking of the nut helps, but i'm being extra cautious because brand-new guitars are rare at my house and i don't want to fuck it up.

no matter what you do with it, it's going to be what it is: a cheap guitar that's literally an "axe," a blunt instrument with a keen, deadly edge. on its own terms it succeeds brilliantly, but you have to take it as it comes. you're not going to make it a "nice" guitar.

[dubkitty]

it also really likes alternate tunings. a dropped low D sounds like it's resonating in Yosemite Valley. the combination of the fairly dense body and the huge aluminum bridge saddles is giving me a *teensy* bit of EGC effect, i think.

[Lurker13]

That's a real beauty, dubkitty, congratulations! Now you can get your Mission of Burma on.

[dubkitty]

i'm working my way up to Burma. maybe in a week or two. i haven't even gotten to fuzz yet, just a chonkier setting on the AC15.

today i discovered that the Count Quackula setting on the phase switch works quite well for Mideast/Asian phrasing, and the great big frets make it possible to approximate quarter-tones with sneaky bends. it's only simple on the surface; like many dead simple guitars, it's really deep when you dig down, and it's always intriguing to figure out what a particular guitar wants to do.

[Phosphene Audio]

hopping over from the Gasaholics thread to show y'all my new Fender Lead II. i have a lot of detailed observations, but suffice it to say that it's a nasty, dangerous little weapon, a rock and roll Saturday Night Special. i tried a couple of my song ideas on it and it's PERFECT for them.

PSX_20201220_154524.jpg

that's rad


I always liked that shape, not sure why Fender didn't bring it back sooner or why Warmoth didn't make it.

[coldbrightsunlight]

Lead II looks cool! Very clean.

[phantasmagorovich]

i'm working my way up to Burma. maybe in a week or two. i haven't even gotten to fuzz yet, just a chonkier setting on the AC15.

today i discovered that the Count Quackula setting on the phase switch works quite well for Mideast/Asian phrasing, and the great big frets make it possible to approximate quarter-tones with sneaky bends. it's only simple on the surface; like many dead simple guitars, it's really deep when you dig down, and it's always intriguing to figure out what a particular guitar wants to do.

Shit, this sounds way more serious than a mere crush. You know what Beyonce said!

[dubkitty]

oh, i already took all the plastic protection off. it's not going anywhere other than out to play.

[Lurker13]

Yo, the latest addition to my stable.

[Lurker13]

NGD!



Epiphone G-400 Exclusive Deluxe PRO - how is that for a mouthful? - in honeyburst. Because you can't have too many SGs.

It's my first Epi, so I wasn't sure what to expect. My first impression is that no, it isn't quite my Gibson, but it's still a hell of a lot of guitar for the money.

[Aquietcabin1978]

Lead II one of my fav guitars. Had a red/maroon & rosewood Lead II in college that got stolen. Almost bought a black/maple one a GC a few years ago but let the wife talk me out of it. Found this MIJ Cort knock off last year at a pawn shop for like forty dollars. Started playing it a lot recently due to this thread. Got a SD super distortion for the bridge pickup to install, might get a rosewood allparts neck and refinish. Decent ash body but the neck is a bit clunky.

[dubkitty]

i saw one of those on Reverb and was really surprised that anybody did a copy of a model which was so signally unsuccessful in the marketplace.

[backwardsvoyager]

Reposting this one since I modded it. GFS Surf 90s, Babicz trem, Gotoh tuners, gutted and rewired MV/MT with CTS pots/sprague cap, painted the plastic parts.
Fun to play, sounds great and actually stays in tune now. I still hate strat trems, though

[coldbrightsunlight]

very cool, looks great!