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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.
    Good stuff.

    Good to see a Nylon. I had an obscure Yamahata Pacifica I think it was 514. HSS and in white but I couldn't play electric so sold it, one of my biggest regrets.

    Unashamed punt for Tokai ?
      nice collection, but no steel string acoustic?
        studmissile wrote: nice collection, but no steel string acoustic?
        Nah. I toy with the idea a lot. I should probably get one for recording - as well as a bass guitar. But it's not really a big priority. They tend to sound a bit crap live since they're never miked up. Electrics sound a lot better in a live setting. But yeah. I would like to have one for recording purposes.

        Squonk, since I believe what I wrote about the Tokai, there's no question of being ashamed at punting it. ?

        Those mid-range Pacificas are some of the best value in 2nd hand guitars about. The belief that all Pacificas are the same as the PAC 112 keeps the prices of the higher models way down. Absolute bargains. You can get even 700 series Pacificas for around 2 grand if you're lucky. My buddy has a 712R which is an awesome do-anything HSS shred guitar with a floyd rose type bridge and a reverse headstock. It's been his main guitar for years an it was already cheap 2nd hand when he got it.
          Ooh, lovely group shot, and some interesting info. Those P90's just make that Deluxe look amazing.
            Sean wrote: Ooh, lovely group shot, and some interesting info. Those P90's just make that Deluxe look amazing.
            Thanks Sean. It's ended up quite an unusual looking LP, I think.
              Nice pic and rundown of what's what. There's something about a Bigsby an P90 on a Lester that just looks so cool. Pity that both Gibsons need(ed) so much work to get them where they should be.

                Nice collection there, one day when I am big.....and can actually play of course
                  Nice! I love the look of that deluxe...it just oozes class.
                    Great post, thanks Singe!
                      Singe - is that trem standard on the Angus Young SG or is it a mod (worse still - is it my eyes deceiving me? Is there one there even! :-[). I remember reading comments about Angus and trem systems and he didn't appear to favour them.
                        Chabenda wrote: Singe - is that trem standard on the Angus Young SG or is it a mod (worse still - is it my eyes deceiving me? Is there one there even! :-[). I remember reading comments about Angus and trem systems and he didn't appear to favour them.
                        It's stock. It's a bit of a funny scene. This guitar is a 1968 SG knockoff. Only difference is a barely visible Angus logo instead of a crown inlay on the headstock, and the lyre engraving on the vibrato plate has lightning bolts through it and says "Angus" instead of "Gibson." It's funny because Angus's original SG was worked out by eagle-eyed geeks to have been a 1970, and quite different.

                        But yeah. The Maestro vibrato tailpiece is a very simple affair, but it works really well if the nut is well cut and set up. It also imparts a slight Tele-like twang to the SG which is really appealing.
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