The guitar corner

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400C SYNCHROMATIC 400 CUTAWAY

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Gretsch Synchromatic 'Cat Eye'

[BFrank]

So, what are all these guitars?

Is there a theme?

Or just cool looking.

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So, what are all these guitars?

Is there a theme?

Or just cool looking.

All of them were photos that were sitting on my hard drive that I thought were cool in some way, they're all archtops - jazz guitars.

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Danelectro with custom paint.

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Ren and Stempy Stratocaster.

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Epiphone Recording style B, ca 1929. I've never seen one of these. Looks real modern, in fact.

[BFrank]

Another nice, black Tele. This one is not quite available yet, but is due out soon. It's a "Jim Root" model. Love that black hardware. Seems to be retailing for about $900.

[Shawn]

A tele with EMG pickups...hmmm....now you've got ME interested in the thing!

[AllenLowe]

too much ceramic in them there pickups - it's why guitarists tend to all sound the same today - beat 'em with mids and distortion pedals -

[Shawn]

too much ceramic in them there pickups - it's why guitarists tend to all sound the same today - beat 'em with mids and distortion pedals -

I play without distortion about 90% of the time, the EMGs I have sound really nice in my old Gibson.

[7/4]

too much ceramic in them there pickups - it's why guitarists tend to all sound the same today - beat 'em with mids and distortion pedals -

I play without distortion about 90% of the time, the EMGs I have sound really nice in my old Gibson.

I play without distortion about 99.99% of the time.

[AllenLowe]

well, no offense intended, guys - and I do like distortion, but the kind you get by playing too loud - and not pre-amp distortion, which is, to me, just annoying buzzing - gotta hear it from the power tubes -

[jazzbo]

I've got an EMG Select "J" pickup on my "Wishbass" built by Wishnevsky, really nice pickup!

Hey there's good preamp tube distortion too (imo), there's a place for it all in making sound.

[7/4]

well, no offense intended, guys - and I do like distortion, but the kind you get by playing too loud - and not pre-amp distortion, which is, to me, just annoying buzzing - gotta hear it from the power tubes -

No shit speedo.

[jimi089]

well, no offense intended, guys - and I do like distortion, but the kind you get by playing too loud - and not pre-amp distortion, which is, to me, just annoying buzzing - gotta hear it from the power tubes -

Right, which is why I prefer lower wattage amps so you can get the power tubes really cooking. Also, let's make a distinction between overdrive, which is what you're getting when you get the tubes hot and push them, with a distortion which can really just be signal processing.

[AllenLowe]

don't get mad anybody, but I pre-amp distortion annoys me no end, and at the risk of offending the few people here who still like me, I'll tell you why - to me pre-amp distortion is the sound of a certain kind of non-funky suburban rock, a middle-class version of real tube distortion, because it allows you to get noise at polite sound levels, since it's so much easier to overload the pre-amp tubes; and this kind of distortion is mono-chromatic, it doesn't breathe like true over-drive, which is a wonderfully compressed, bottom-up sound. Pre amp distortion is is from the top down sonically; it's cold and, to my ears, lacks the courage of its own muscial convictions -

going after power tube distortion, on the other hand, feels, from my musical point of view, like Ornette summoning up the Southwewestern blues cries of the past in his alto tone - to me power tube distortion done right conjures up Pat Hare and Hubert Sumlin and Willie Johnson -

I do, however, like old-fashioned fuzz -

and watch what you say about my speedo -

Edited April 2, 2008 by AllenLowe

[Shawn]

What type of music you're playing I believe is also a factor for this. If you're playing blues then overdriven tubes would fit the bill...but if you're playing thrash or something then signal processing is what you want (distortion, compression, boost highs, boost lows, cut out all midrange, etc).

[AllenLowe]

and just to add, Danimal, I agree, though when I say distortion I am referring, as well, to that produced by driving the amp's power tubes - though of course there is the kind produced by pedals through a bumping up of certain (mid) frequencies -

Edited April 2, 2008 by AllenLowe

[AllenLowe]

I do like thrash, which to me at least tries to push the envelope - and does use the forbidden (pre-amp) distortion) - so I guess there are exceptions - though there's still nothing like the real thing, which would probably work great with thrashers of the world -

Edited April 2, 2008 by AllenLowe

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I don't know too much about EMG pups, just that they make active pups. An active circuit on an electric guitar never really did much for me...I'm not even sure I like it on a bass, but of course it works for the right kind of music.

Amp...Fender clean does it for me. I tend to like 6L6 tubes over 6V6 tubes so I'm into my '67 Bassman these days, it's been a while since I've fired up my '73 Princeton.

[Shawn]

Since I've never heard my guitar with the original Gibson pickups (which I have, but the guitar would need to be rewired to install) I'm not even sure what the active pickups even really accomplish, having nothing to compare them to. The only time I notice them is when the battery needs to be changed.