rootboy 

Very nice. Seeing it reminded me that nearly every time I saw FZ in the mid 70's, which was a lot, he invariably had an SG of one form or another hanging from his neck. I don't know squat about these guitars, other than some of my favorite music was played on one.

auchencrow

+10 ^^^^^^
And every piece drool-worthy!

auchencrow

The 1 pickup models are SG/LesPaul "Juniors", introduced early '61. The Maestro vibrato tailpeice was optional by the following year.
The 2 pickup humbucking model is an SG "Standard" - the chromed lyre tailpeice was added from '63 onward. The Les Paul designation on the truss rod cover was removed at the same time. The 2 pickup P-90 model is an SG "Special" - like the ones favored by Pete Townshend. The small-guard on the two-pickup models were pre-'66. The basses pictured are EB-3's - noted for their thunderous bottom end, and the weapon of choice for Jack Bruce (Cream). That's a poodle on Frank's right. There will be a quiz later on.

rootboy 

The poodle bites….the poodle chews it…

Man, you're a regular fount of information, A-Crow. Most all of which is way over my head of course. But impressive!
I was just doing a little reading and note that Frank's SG was a heavily modified version, with his own tweaks and custom touches, and that his son Dweezil and Gibson have gotten together and done up a copy. The Roxy SG.

He also, of course, played his Les Pauls in concert and I remember one time in particular we sat so close we could smell the smoke from his cigarette burning there next to the nut. Not all we smelled, of course.

OK. Back to you guys who actually know something about guitars. I love looking at all these pics of wonderful instruments you're posting.

auchencrow

The Roxy SG << = You just taught me something new.
- But there are so many wonderful new models and reissues these days ... (I wish the big bike manufacturers' would take a lesson).

RobbieTunes

I watched last night's "Austin City Limits - 40th Anniversary," and the guitars were ace. The old footage of SRV was killer.

Dixie Kiwi

Bianchi's and Banjos...Probably not much overlap with these two things but I'm THAT GUY. The Bianchi's are a 1989 Axis hybrid (my daily commuter). The other is a 1994 TSX that I restored last year to Campag Record and other sweet bits as my rider. The banjo's include two vintage 4-strings (a 1929 Gibson UB1 banjo uke and a very rare 1925 Bacon and Day Silver Bell #5 19-fret tenor). The rest of the 5-string quiver includes a Gibson Earl Scruggs, Deering Goodtime and Ramsey Amish.

auchencrow

Banjos?! We don't need no steenking banjos roun' here.



- Just kidding Dixie Kiwi!!! They're awesome.

- And for those who may have no cotton pickin' idea what a B&D Ne Plus Ultra Silver Bell tenor is, I submit this link for their edification. Positively outstanding!

auchencrow

I don't think I posted this one before. It's not exactly vintage, but it was the first year issue for this model, and now there is even a reissue model: A 1994 Bourgeois Slope D. Also known as the "Banjo Killer". (No offense intended, @Dixie Kiwi ! -That's just what they call it!)

Dixie Kiwi

No offense taken, auchencrow- always keen for some banjer humor. Wow- wasn't expecting anyone here to recognise the Silver Bell- great link too. Some rank the B&D Silver Bells as the best banjo ever...but since Earl never played one the big value sits with prewar Gibsons (same with Gibson mando's with Monroe). Nice dreadnought you got. I have a decent Seagull S6 spruce naught myself but I've never seen a acoustic 6 beat the volume and tone of a tone ring banjo (altho Doc Watson and Tony Rice came close on a good day)

Bianchigirll 

I am no musician but I thought some of you might like this for those big old vintage geetars. I like the British invasaion meet Buck Owens look.

https://www.littlethings.com/buffalo-springfield-holds-its-own/?utm_source=NAT&amp;utm_medium=Facebook&amp;utm_campaign=misc

The Golden Boy 

Funny this thread got bumped today. I had a dream all my guitars got stolen out of the car I had in my dream. I don't often remember my dreams- but this upset me to the point that I woke up.

When we get done playing, I'm always terrified about leaving my stuff unattended in the car. Which is kind of odd, since I have no problem leaving them at home- since all an intruder would need to do is unweld the back door from the hinges, kick it in, navigate the laser death ray hallway, climb the concertina wire mound, simply avoid the 2 ton body smashing blocks that come down from the ceiling at random intervals, swim the pit of ill tempered sea bass, fight the Black Knight and all my guitars are just sitting there.

Bianchigirll 

Maybe you need to find a way to electricify your car.

The Golden Boy 

That's a really good idea. I tried hiding the angry hornet's nest under the back of the car- but it keeps blowing off on the road.

Maybe putting some nerve poison on the door handles, like in the Bruce Willis/Richard Gere movie "The Jackal." That'll teach 'em.

The Golden Boy 

By the way- as pertinent to this thread- One of the local stores has a 66-ish Gibson ES-335. It's "well played" and all the hardware has been replaced with nice newer stuff. I've been scheming for a way to trade into that guitar- but all my stuff is "keepers." I really would like to get an old Precision Bass before another guitar. Funny thing is, 335s have always seemed like an "old man's guitar," and then I realized... I'm an old man- no wonder why it appeals to me. I'm not a big guy, so it might look kind of funny on me, but they do have those new ES-339 and CS-336 that look to be a smaller bodied version of the 335...

So in splitting the resources between the bike habit and the music gear habit (I think my stereo habit has kind of plateaued)... that's a lot of money required for both habits...

Now... after the hand crush injury- I don't play guitar anywhere as much as I used to- kind of just enough to keep decent for when I do play- and most of my gigs are on bass, so I really wouldn't use a new guitar much at all... but it doesn't keep me from wanting a new, pretty guitar...

The Golden Boy 

And now I'm going to ask for more pix and details about your couch!

Is that a Stickley or something?

My wife fell in love with a couple of chairs that were in the local Eddie Bauer store- sure as anything- they're both Stickleys...

MiloFrance

Westone Prestige 150, Epiphone Sheraton and a Harald Petersen classical. I probably have photos somewhere but I don't ply anymore so I traded them and have a Mapa Dean in case I feel like a strum

fietsbob

only have older Mandolins .. and a 35mm film camera.

The Golden Boy 

So I went through this thread and realized I didn't post much of anything as far as actual gear. Except for my obnoxious amp post.

When I was in high school I was in a little punk rock band, we got reasonably locally popular, mostly because we had a decent sounding demo. I read somewhere that our tape was "passed around like a 2 bit hooker."

I was playing my EB-0 through a Yamaha bass combo. This bass was paid for in lawn mowing money- I totally didn't realize the headstock had been broken off until after I bought it. Not that it wasn't COMPLETELY obvious- but I just wanted the bass THAT much. It wasn't until after it broke (when a friend was using it) that I found out it had been broken at least twice before. By 1994, it had been broken off an additional 3 times- each time, someone else was using the bass- so I actually never broke the headstock off...




Sometime around 1995 I got it repaired, I said "I don't care how it looks, just make it solid. After the repair (which is sufficiently ugly), I slathered the join with 2 ton epoxy. I basically built a volute on the back and made it even UGLIER. It hasn't broken since- and this is probably the longest that bass has gone without a headstock break.






Also, RIGHT after I got this bass, I used a sharpened screwdriver to route out the wood to install a set of Seymour Duncan Hot P Bass pickups. Over the course of several years I've enlarged that rout to the size of an Olympic swimming pool and installed probably a dozen different pickups to include the neck mudbucker. Right now it houses a Seymour Duncan single coil P bass pickup.





After high school I joined the Army, while in the Army I acquired a few more basses and I bought my Marshall from my uncle. There was the EB-2 that I bought with my bonus money from joining the Army, the Rick 4001 that I got after a guy overheard a conversation I was having- that trip home I got to see Danzig and Motorhead. Also in this pic is my Telecaster Custom that my dad got for me when I was in high school. This was my collection around 1990.




I still use that bass from time to time- I also still have that strap and flannel shirt that I'm wearing in that 1985/86 picture up there.





(those are Lita Ford's Marshalls in the background)

rootboy 

Saw a nice vintage guitar last Thursday night. Not sure what it was but, it was making some nice noises.
In the hands of Walter Becker of Steely Dan.
Man, what a show.
10/10

The Golden Boy 

When I got out of the Army, I was 22 years old and enrolled in college. Like many, I started an rock and roll band- this was just at the time Nirvana released Nevermind and this "alternative" music was sweeping the nation. The band I was in did quite well locally and regionally, we put out a 45 that somehow managed to crack the CMJ College Charts (oh how I wish I'd have kept that). I ran through a series of Marshall heads, eventually ending up with the one I now currently use, but always used the same cab- the cab is a 76 or 77. Around this time I traded guitars around like nobody's business. I probably had a dozen different Les Paul Deluxes- for guitars I really didn't like the feel of- they were just inexpensive and fun to play with. My first Les Paul was a 75 Deluxe- I still think that is one of the prettiest guitars I've ever owned.





I seriously would trade guitars pretty much every week. Pretty much blew my entire Army savings- but I got to own and play a LOT of guitars. Bunches of LP Deluxes 3 or 4 1955-57 LP Juniors (all beat to hell), one 56 Les Paul Special, a 64 Jaguar, a 65 Jazzmaster, Travis Bean S/N 117- I just couldn't put up with the super tiny nut width and the aluminum neck combined with the Wisconsin winters. (never got a pic of that one) There was the 1974 20th Anniversary Les Paul Custom (the heaviest Les Paul I ever owned). The 1981 Les Paul Standard- it was a goldtop with a 3 piece top, 3 piece maple neck and one piece body. That ended up being my main guitar for a number of years.

The 20th Anniv. Custom with the Goldtop waiting to go








Also, somewhere around mid/late 1992 I picked up THE 1965 Esquire that was owned by Kurt Neumann of the BoDeans- this is THE guitar that was played on the first BoDeans record- "Fadeaway," "Angels" and "Runaway" were all recorded with this guitar.



Somewhere around Spring of 1993 I got my 59 LP Special. That guitar was a Frankenstein- the body had been routed and re-filled and refinished and it was an ugly beast. But it played great and sounded awesome and I thought it looked cooler than all get out. That guitar was my main guitar for the better part of 10 years. I still love it and play it out from time to time-
















This is Mike Palm from Agent Orange playing "Bloodstains" on my guitar:

The Golden Boy 

One of the guitars I really regret letting go was my 1958 Les Paul Special. Unlike a lot of LPs, this one sounded so great clean, but it didn't sound like I wanted to with a little overdrive. All I have left of pix of that guitar:







Somewhere around 1994, a guy gave me a Les Paul Deluxe body along with the neck in several pieces. To make a short story long- I contacted Gibson, they pointed me to the company that did their second work- I got a new neck made for it- the neck was HUGE and I had it shaved down, but it was still huge.







To give an idea of how thick that neck was- on the left is my 59 LP Special, on the right is my 2001 R8- in the center is the 71 Deluxe. This is after the neck was shaved.





Then there's the 1965 Epiphone Olympic. The Olympic was analogous to the Gibson Melody Maker, I got this about the time that "vintage" guitars started becoming worth money- where this used to be a $100 guitar in 1992, in 1996 it was a little less than $300. Somewhere around here I had the case leaning against a wall unlatched, I moved something, the case kind of stood up, and opened up and the guitar went face down onto the ground. It cracked the headstock. I ended up getting that repaired by local luthier Denny Rauen. Prior to that the existing Melody Maker pickup just quit working- I used a series of Tele and Strat pickups, but nothing sounded right- I ended up having the body routed and a new pickguard made and installed a P-90. It pretty much smokes. So it's kind of a Les Paul Junior killer. And I love that batwing headstock.




Not a lot of wood needed to be removed:





That ungainly headstock/neck repair:









Because of how long that headstock is- the strings will sympathetically ring- I think it's G chords that it resonates and feeds back all yucky. I have a Velcro cable tie on it, it's on backwards in the pic, but it's usually fuzzy side down.

The Golden Boy 

In the late 90s I found out about Gibson's reissue Les Pauls. They started making guitars like they did in the 50s- that totally appealed to me- the first Custom Shop Historic Reissue I bought was a 1997 reissue of a 1958 Les Paul- it was ostensibly a "replica" of George Harrisons "Lucy" Les Paul. That guitar had quite the provenance. It started out as a gold top owned by a recording studio that Mickey Baker (Mickey and Sylvia "Love Is Strange") worked at. It was then owned by John Sebastian, later of the Lovin' Spoonful it then was bought by Rick Derringer who's dad thought the gold finish looked to crappy- and had it refinished red. After this, it was bought by Eric Clapton who played it on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and subsequently gave the guitar to George Harrison.

All that, and I don't have a picture of the guitar.

But I hated the Bigsby- I never used it, but it would go out of tune for me all the time- and it was a pain in the rear to re-string it- getting the string end ball to stay on the little post... so I traded it for a 1998 reissue of a 1958 Les Paul. This one was red as well- but this one was flamey. The flames were SUPER prominent. It was a cool and unique guitar.





What's weird is that I have so few pictures of this guitar in the digital camera age and as long as I owned it... The most terrible thing is that I lent it to the guitar player in my band at the time. He had it for a LONG time- and I needed it for a show and asked to have it back. He dropped it off at the show. I opened the case and it had dead ass strings on it... and there was a huge chunk missing out of the headstock. He claimed he knew nothing about it.

Never lend guitars to people. Only bad things will happen.




In 2001 I waited for Dave's Guitars in Lacrosse to get their first batch of Butterscotch colored 58 Reissues (R8). I picked this one out.




This guitar has been my #1 pretty much since then. It sounds so incredible, it feels so great... for a long time it really played great for what I play. One day, relatively recently, I was working on something, playing up the neck into the cutaway and the string kept fretting out... it turns out this neck is kind of hozzled up there. I rarely ever play up that high so it really never bothers me. As far as these reissues go, it's not very flamey- but what's great is while you're playing under stage lights and you look down and you see those "hide and seek" flames peeking out at you. That's so effing cool.






The other guitar I share "favorite" status with is my "Foto Flame" Telecaster. Somewhere in the early 90s, Fender made a bunch of Japanese Strats and Teles, and used their "Foto Flame" process to make it look like the guitar was made from a highly figured piece of wood. I thought the sunburst finish was hideous- it was what could reasonably be called a "clownburst." I sanded it down and refinished the guitar with almond colored Krylon. In all honesty, I wanted the guitar to look like Jimmy Page's Olympic White Telecaster.




I think it has a "resemblance" and that's exactly what I wanted. I also did the wiring up with an up/down toggle, I like the Gibson-esque switching better than the fender blade switch. I also set it up with separate volumes and a tone control just for the neck pickup. The pickups are from a company called Harmonic Design. The bridge pickup pretty much sounds like a Les Paul Junior crossed with a Telecaster.

The Golden Boy 

Most of what I do is playing bass these days. I got the Thunderbird- I seem to remember it in 1992. It's a 1979 model. Ostensibly there were 8 sunburst T-Birds made in 1979. I could swear I've seen more than that, unless those basses travel around. I think the T-Bird is an exotic looking bass- what's kind of interesting to it is that it's a long, thin, narrow plane, from the lower bout coming in contact with your thigh, the bass has a tendency to move in an odd manner if you're not used to it. They also have a very unique sound. If you were to ask me what the quintessential T-Bird sound is- I'd tell you it's the "Kids In The Hall" theme- ("Having An Average Weekend" by Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet).

This bass was my main bass for a few years in the mid 90s, and since the Rolling Stones cover band has been my main gig- the T-Bird has been my primary bass for the past almost 10 years.






I think it's a really cool lookin' bass- apparently our PR agent thought so as well- he used this pic for our posters and stuff for a long time:




The T-Bird has a very unique 9 layer lamination- it can be seen running the length of the bass- with the "wings" added separately:





The T-Bird does have a very unique tone, what it does NOT do well is a modern sort of springy sound- kind of what you think of when you think "bass guitar." In 1996 I lucked into finding a stripped and refinished 1965 Jazz Bass. It was horribly refinned- you can still see the brush strokes in the lacquer, and it's really uneven and quite poor. But it feels, plays and sounds really nice. Plus, because it was beat I could afford it (I paid too much for it at the time, but I wanted it. Now it's almost comical to say I paid too much - it was right around $1000). I still play and use this bass all the time, sometimes I use it for the Stones band gig, sometimes when I've got fill in gigs. It's a great all-arounder and you don't quite get "settling into the mix" on a recording is until you hear what this bass does.










It was refinished on New Year's Day 1972, by E.U. and he must've been proud enough of his job to sign it in blue ink.





It's that sort of thing that makes the "vintage" thing cool. This bass started out as a Fiesta Red bass- effectively "pink." I can imagine in 1971-72, a pink bass would have been the absolutely un-coolest thing on earth. Both Fender and Gibson were making earth toned, walnut finished instruments- very hippy and natural. That EU felt the need to be "in" with the times, speaks of the things this bass has played through.

The Golden Boy 

And now I'm like this about bikes...