frontpage Posted by jk6812 | Staff 2 months ago
Item 1 of 4
Item 1 of 4
frontpage Posted by jk6812 | Staff 2 months ago
Epiphone Ltd-Edition Les Paul Special-I or SG Special-I Electric Guitar (Various)
& More + Free S&H$134.10
$199
32% offMusician's Friend
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In my very early days I was under the impression that if I had a certain guitar that I would be able to play a certain way. It took me 4 Guitars to figure out that wasn't the case... A country gentleman, a fender jaguar, a les PAUL custom and a les PAUL std.
Then one day I played a vintage strat and literally it played itself. It was the first time that i could hear myself playing the way i wanted to play! And even though i had spent thousands of $ on new guitars that just didn't work for me, this used $110 guitar was magical. Then I got to play a Les Paul that a friend of mine got by trading a Gibson double neck to Jimmy Page... And wow it was like the scene in spinal tap: can you hear the sustain? Well after that, 50 years ago, in 1974, I realized that there are guitars on the scale of mediocre to great and that price or cosmetics had nothing to do with it. So now, if I find a guitar that I try out, that plays by itself, I buy it. I've whittled my guitars down to a very select few, 12 in total, and some I paid $80 for and others more than that. But for me each one is very special. Now I've had friends play some of them and not liked some of them. Which is fine. Everyone has their preferences, which is why it's so important to play a guitar before buying it.
Recently I've latched onto the 2 les Pauls I mentioned above, and 2 classic vibe strats. I probably played 20+ instruments before choosing these. I also stumbled on a used 2002 BR160 that is just fantastic. And none of these were more than $300.
I owned a guitar shop in the 70's and have had the opportunity to play hundreds of guitars, including many of my friends guitars. And as a gigging musician I became more involved with my music when I had guitars that were easy to play. I had 40 guitar students and helped them select guitars that made them sound good.
Setup is also important. When I had my shop I also did guitar repairs. Every new guitar that came into the shop got setup to my Personal standard, but then the person who bought it would get a free setup to their taste, including strings.
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