Guitar Nerds Anonymous

Thanks dude! We're super happy.

All been a bit unreal until today actually. Had a little false alarm this morning and suddenly it's all feeling a bit imminent.

I've got a Diago and also daisy chain off a Diago power supply. Never had an issue with that, and the case/board is great.

At the moment I've got a Deluxe Reverb amp (blackface) but I barely ever use it and unfortunately have no musical action on the cards at the minute. Judging by what they go for it seems like selling it would ease my money woes a bit. Is there something small, valvey and cheap that would be suitable for home use and not too much of a crying shame to replace it with?

It would be with a heavy heart I let it go, but I got rid of my Les Paul and survived.

Speaking of the above, this looks like a good trade:

http://www.andertons.co.uk/combo-amps/pid22986/cid691/vox-ac4-c1-4w-tube-combo-in-special-edition-blue.asp

Reviews look great, does anyone have any experience with these? Or better yet, one for sale?

Sheet man. What year is your DR?

It's a reissue so not a proper vintage one. It's beautiful though.

I do like a DR. Not sure if that was just years of brainwashing at TDPRI.com where the BFDR is revered as the holy grail of twang.

I haven't tried the AC4 but it looks very cute. Though that kind of money is nearly enough for a nice late-'70s silverface Champ, no? I do love my Champ.

It has arrived.
In 1978, when I was six years old my dad came home with a copy of AC/DC's If You Want Blood (You've Got It).

Ever since then I've wanted a cherry red Gibson SG Standard. Now I have one:

I had never heard of Gibson or SG and I had no idea what guitar Angus was plunging through his chest on the cover, but that image, and the incredible sound coming from the stereo speakers made me want to learn the guitar, and to own one like that. It was 10 years later before my parents relented and let me have an electric guitar. I practised constantly and got pretty good.
For my 21st birthday my dad bought me an Epiphone G310, which is the cheap bolt-on SG copy. It looked lovely but it sounded absolutely shite, like it was made of cardboard and the strings made of wool. Such a disappointment.

Fast forward to Monday. I had a little bit of money left after Bobbinbird's life insurance paid off the mortgage so when DV247 sent me an email alerting me to the massive savings on Gibsons at the moment I took the plunge and bought one. It's bloody amazing. You can play so damn fast on it. Better even that my Les Paul. The sound is everything it should be, plus the 2015 model has coil taps on both humbuckers accessed by push-pull volume switches. And it tunes itself at the press of a button, which is just fucking magic.

I shall be rocking out for the rest of the day.

Tasty, very tasty. Funnily enough was just drooling over a cherry SG myself, except with a bigsby. Mate of mine has a brown SG too which is lovely. Think I'd go for a whitey, if I was gonna get my own one.

I was playing a nice gloss red 1998 SG Special today in my local shop through one of tbe Marshall Class 5's. Sounded lovely. I love my '63 SG Standard

The neck is a thing of beauty. They've made it wider, keeping the string spacing, so you don't fall of the edge quite so readily, and the profile is so playable.

I am so pleased with it.

Holy sh*t. Sorry BQ, I've really been quite removed from the forum the last year or so and had no idea what had happened. I'm so very sorry.

Post some clips. AC/DC riff only, naturally.

Yeah, Toni finally lost her fight back in late February.
The guitar is definitely retail therapy. But retail therapy is a totally legitimate form of therapy.

Right then BQ.

Since I bought my special on a similar whim, I have heard all the negative press:

g-force tuners: they do work actually, but after a while I realised that I don't really go crazy about changing tunings and the main ones I use are Eflat and Open G (for slide which I have another SG set up for, thicker strings higher action and a ghetto single coil in the neck). Plus I'm actually OK at tuning a guitar! I'll be swapping for Schallers and baying the g-force.

The wide neck: the main reason I bought this, almost identical to my L00 acoustic in width and profile. I'll be ordering a warmoth in the same dimensions to make a partscaster soon. I can actually play an open A chord (if I wanted to) without my fatass digits bumming the other strings. However, I'm a bit odd and many people hate this 45mm+ width and rightly see it as a consequence of the…

Brass 'zero nut': great idea until you realise you don't actually need to mess with the nut height more than once in a million years and the strings bite into it and groove it in about two days. They then catch on the grooves when you bend. It's a pig. My SG is going to the dude that sets up Dave Catching's guitars for a proper bone nut job.

The 'wiring': yes, it's all on a poxy PCB which saps the high end if you're a player that rolls back the pots for cleans. I'll be soldering in a 50s style hardwiring loom and ditching the PCB like them POS that it is.

The "les Paul" signature: nobody in the galaxy thinks this looks good, and it's certainly stupid on and SG. However, a bit of black tape costs fuck all if you're really crying over it.

PUPs are a bit meh. When I do the wiring I'll probably put one of Kent's p90s or his filtertrons in the neck and one of his vintage buckers in the bridge when I can be arsed.

Quite a few £££s to get it how I'd like before the PUPs, but not much more than I'd lose if I sold it SH, plus I fell in love with the 'translucent ebony' nitro gloss finish.

BTW my friend, this isn't trashing the 2015s like most people have done, I think there are outstanding guitars underneath a few misguided ideas. If you love the neck, nothing else will be the same. If it's not a deal breaker then an earlier model can be got for much less dosh, but it'll have a narrower 43mm nut, jumbo(er) frets and a deeper neck profile.
Whether you decide to keep it as is, mod it or return it for something else, I hope it brings you pleasure buddy :)

Lol way to piss on his bonfire! :-)

Not the intention!

And it tunes itself at the press of a button, which is just fucking magic.

Ooh that's clever!

How does that work for odd tunings? On the acougi, I'm always tuning around in funny ways (John Martyn stylee), but I'd be interested to know how this works on the new gibsons - do you just hit a preset or have to specify which string to which note and then hit a button and can save that for future?

Has it really come to this?!? Self tuning geetarz?!?

Nice one, Niall, looks like a beaut...

There are loads of presets plus a whole bank for user specified presets, so basically anything you like, once programmed in, at the push of a button and some motorised winding.

Apart from the cosmetic differences the Standard has a few upgrades over the Special.
The standard is hand wired, no crappy PCBs.
The saddles are titanium. No idea why.
The pickups on it are '57s which sound great, and have splits for a bit of variety.
I've got a P90 neck and a Burstbucker 3 bridge on my Les Paul. That's a killer combo, so your plan for the Special sound spot on.
You're right about that signature though. It is naff. Apart from that though I wouldn't change a thing about this guitar.

Good news on the electronics and coil taps, that's well worth the extra bunce. The standard in trans ebony was what got me interested in the new lineup but I couldn't justify the cost at the time and the special had enough of the look. £600 Vs £900 though so I can live with steadily upgrading bits.
Keep an eye on that brass nut though, apparently gibson will supply a nickel coated top part if you complain hard enough about the grooves that wear into the brass one. I haven't sent the email yet, I did to DV in Rom but they've thus far roundly ignored it. Great discounts and sales but not so great after sales, lolz.

I forgot the hologram. It seems to pull the chain of the 'haterz' in a big way but it's just a small picture of an elderly man which you never really see. I won't lose sleep over it.

What are you playing through? I think mine needs a fender tube amp as I'm not digging the orange terror

I've got a Vox AD120VT, so I can pretend to have a Marshall JCM800 or an AC30 or a Fender Twin.
I think Gibsons sound great through Fender Twins.
(and handily it also has a knob on the back that reduces the 60 watts down to 1 so you can overdrive at neighbour-friendly levels)

What's to hate about the hologram? Who's going to see that besides the owner?