For once I had all my instruments in one place and the inclination to do a group pic:
Left to right: Alhambra 2c, Yamaha Pacifica 904, Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, Tokai LS150, Gibson SG Angus Young Signature, Hondo banjo.
Likes and dislikes of each in turn:
Alhambra 2c
Likes:
Pretty high spec for a student guitar - solid cedar top, ebony board. It's been to some funny places with me.
Dislikes:
I'm not entirely convinced by the sound. It's a little dull sounding. The workmanship on the soundhole end of the fretboard is pretty rough, but it is a student guitar.
Yamaha Pacifica 904
Likes:
Incredible specs. Even if I'd paid full price for it, I'd never have gotten a Stratocaster like that for the money. This is a high end Pacifica with an ash top, alder back, a two-screw Wilkinson trem, Warmoth neck (so comfortable and beautifully finished), sperzel locking tuners. It has an incredible Strat sound, but it's extra versitile. What looks like a humbucker in the bridge is actually two single-coils. So when you hit the push-push pot to disengage one coil, you get a full single sound, not a split humbucker. I use this guitar for surf, but have used it for slide too. The quality of workmanship on this guitar is outstanding.
Dislikes:
Bad pot taper for controlling amp gain. Too common.
Gibson Les Paul Deluxe
Likes:
It has that sense of luxury from back when Gibson's reputation for it was well deserved. Deluxe's didn't just have mini-humbuckers. You might notice that it also has abalone fretboard markers. Really dark board. I'm very attached to this guitar. The sound of it is incredible with the P90s. Just beautiful note separation for fingerpicking clean, and a throaty roar when I turn the amp up.
Dislikes:
I've had to do so much work on this guitar to get it to where I want it. The pickups were rubbish, so it now has Lollar P90s which are great. I've put grover locking tuners on because of a broken tuner. Bigsby. Just had Lapdawg sort out the grounding issues and it's now quiet as a mouse. The frets, like many from the era, are incredibly low and wide, making bending difficult. It's also very heavy - despite probably being weight relieved. It's a hard guitar to play even with a great setup. But in a way that makes it very rewarding. It's mostly for fingerpicking and rockabilly. But I intend to use it for a lot of other stuff too.
Tokai LS150
Likes:
Perfect '50s style 'burst straight out of the box. It's the Les Paul I wanted since I saw Jimmy Page play this funny old fashioned looking guitar when I knew nothing. It's lighter than the Gibson despite being completely solid, has all the '50s stuff - aluminium tailpiece, ABR1 bridge (you'll notice the bridge on the black Gibson is fatter), long neck tenon. It has great pots for controlling the amp gain. Vintage style long toggle switch which my Gibsons don't have. Plugged into my "mini-bluesbreaker" amp it sounds straight off the Beano album on the bridge pickup. It's resonant as all get-out. This is my go-to guitar. It just feels right in my hands every time.
Dislikes:
Nothing
Gibson SG Angus Young Signature
Likes:
Wonderful piece of wood - single piece mahogany body (it's actually brown, but it's colour depends on the light. It looks quite black here). Same with the neck. Great pickups - '57 classic in the neck and an AY hotrodded '57 in the bridge. Maestro tailpiece, ABR1 bridge - which the equivalent Robby Krieger sig did not have. Now that it's up and running it's great.
Dislikes:
The finishing touches look like they were done by an Orangutan on crack. The finish is great, but the fretboard binding was terrible uneven and covered in tool marks. The frets are so badly crowned it feels like a ladder. Still need to get that sorted. The nut was some artificial crap and appallingly cut so that the trem was unuseable. It now has a bone nut thanks to Lapdawg and you can wang that trem and it stays in tune. The pots are rubbish. The amp is at full roar from 10 down to 2 and then goes dead quiet between 2 and 1. I'll be replacing those. It's a good piece of wood, and will ultimately be a wonderful guitar. Pity they didn't do it right in the factory. This is my main slide guitar. I use the frets less often that way, and it has incredible neck access.
Hondo banjo
Likes:
If I didn't have it, I wouldn't have a banjo
Dislikes:
Everything. Hondo's reputation for making some of the worst instruments in history is well deserved. It's practically unplayable up to the 7th fret and entirely unplayable above. It has not wrist plate so it digs into your forearm. The materials are cheap. But heck, I got it free and still managed to learn some banjo. I'll be getting a better banjo this year and giving this away.
