noisebloom

kit_strong wrote: What about a Fender FMT Tele Mahogany body, set neck SD Peraly Gates Bridge and SF 59 neck. -Kit I think we may have a winner.

Expected to see at least one Jim Root Strat or Tele. Was not disappointed. Although that's not my answer. My answer would be a Tele with a humbucker in the bridge and a rosewood fretboard. The body should have a warm wood, not too bright. On paper, at least, it would seem the best Strat to get might be the American Special Mahogany Strat. I'd bet the pickup should be swapped out for a PAF style humbucker, but even then, I doubt it would be a close match to a Les Paul.

Leah died of a broken heart after losing Lamb Chop. This. Huge mojo to you, Woody, for your second loss in so short a time.

When I started playing again a few years ago, my first guitar was almost a PRS SE Standard. But I never settled on a color I liked (yet, there were only 3 choices: black, walnut and cherry), and by the time I was ready to buy, PRS pulled the SE Standard off the market. Now SE Standards with a trem are pretty scarce, and my gas has since moved on to CE 24s. Even the SE Customs, which are nice, haven't fully revived my interest in the line. I also wanted a MIM Strat with a Floyd for awhile, and I bid on a number of them on eBay. But I thought the winning prices were too high and I hedged on raising my bids. I probably should have gotten one when I had the chance. Now it's hard to find a used one under $400. But I'm pretty much past it anyway. My brother's ex-gf has a Danelectro DC 59 in sage green, and that's a really fun guitar. After I played it, I wanted one for a year or more, but I never saw one for a price I liked, and I passed. IMO the market for that guitar is currently overvalued. I still pull up my saved search on eBay on occasion to look for a nice surprise. I also came damn close to getting a Godin Fifth Avenue Kingpin. What a gorgeous guitar that is, but so far I'm glad I haven't given in to temptation. Used prices for them have come down the last couple of years.

Just on a personal note, I think the MXR Custom Badass '78 Distortion is pretty underwhelming. I got it for a good crunch sound, but I have to set the Distortion knob at > 3 o'clock to get there. For a dirt pedal, that's a small sweet spot. Not badass enough.

I personally think Motley Crue peaked with Too Fast for Love, and I can easily say I prefer that record over Metallica's worst.

It's called "tongue in cheek". Pot, meet kettle. That's called sarcasm. BTW, seriously, I'm seeing the write-in No votes out-polling the Yes votes.

nobody has yet posted any poll response other than Yes. (emphasis mine)

I guess you're right. Although many, including myself, have offered dissenting points of view, I see that nobody has yet posted any poll response other than Yes. Actually, my guess is that roughly a third of the responses so far in this thread tell us otherwise.

I hope you're also counting the write-in ballots. EVH is in my top 5 for sure -- but he'll never be greater than Hendrix or Page.

Yea Gibson has a ZW BFG (chambered) and it's cheaper than the Standard ZW les paul, used I found for $1500. I love the standard one but its soooo expensive. I love that it has an unfinished neck, weight isn't a big concern. I'll check out the edwards, looks great. Too bad the ZW Gibson costs so much, maybe someone will be selling a used one a year from now that's much cheaper somewhere in the world? Just find a nice Les Paul with an ebony fretboard, put some EMGs in it, and Scotchbrite the neck to taste. Call it a stealthy ZW. You're paying a premium for the bullseye on those sigs.

Mmm. Looks like they killed a high quality American product...BA dum pshht. Which is really sad. I remember coveting Steinbergers back then. I want to own a GL to this day. They were among the first guitars I remember that came standard with EMG pickups. They had the TransTrem, the headless design, and the graphite composite structure. Just revolutionary products. And then the brand got watered down with the cheap stuff, and it's never been the same since. I wanted to use AMF's acquisition of Harley-Davidson as an analogy, but it doesn't quite fit. AMF was an incompetent manager of that brand, whereas I suspect Gibson's failure with Steinberger may not be from incompetence. If I had the capital, I'd buy Steinberger from Gibson, end the licensing bull{censored}, and realign the company back into its core competencies, which are high-quality composite guitars and cutting-edge innovation. But I'm afraid it may be too late to restore the shine on the brand.

Steinberger is one of the saddest stories in the history of the guitar business. They came up with a truly innovative product that could more or less sell itself and it...didn't. I don't get it. Is it because GC lacks the facilities to hang them up? Bad price points? Two similar companies, Parker and Brian Moore seem do be doing a lot better. One word: Gibson. For much of the 80s, Steinberger was doing bang-up business and attracting a lot of star power. They were one of the leading guitar innovators of the 80s, without any question. Then Gibson bought Steinberger in 1987. For whatever reason, Gibson licensed the Steinberger patents out to makers like Cort and Hohner, who then produced cheaper, non-composite versions of the Steinberger in large quantities. Almost from that point on, the image of Steinberger was not of high-quality composite guitars, but of the licensed budget lines which (I think) eroded the cachet of the brand. Steinberger was making Gibsons look old and stodgy in the 80s, and you know any kid who had enough money for a Les Paul Standard back then would have also been looking at the Steinbergers. The Steinberger looked like the future of guitar designs. Gibsons looked like the past. I think for Gibson, it was a classic case of "if you can't beat 'em, acquire 'em."

I didn't upload pics of the First Act Bambusa in my first post here, so here are a couple. Still curious about these guitars, and maybe one day I'll find one.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/fender-skb-molded-case-for-right-or-left-hand-strat-or-tele-guitars/476086000001000 This. Oh yes. I want to get one for one of my Strats sometime. And at a hundred bucks, that's getting irresistible.

I'm going to guess the chambered ones are cheaper because they're made out of more pieces of wood. One-piece bodies are more valuable. It's cheaper to do multi-piece bodies. I think the body of my Studio 50s Tribute is three pieces of wood. I could be wrong here, but I doubt very seriously that Gibson would want to chamber a one-piece body. Seems like a waste to do that.

What do you all think of them? Good? Bad? Major differences in tone? I have two. My recently acquired BFG sustains and resonates surprisingly well for a chambered body guitar. My Studio 50s Tribute is acoustically loud, but the pickups aren't as good as on the BFG, so it kind of pales in comparison. Its sustain and resonance are also not as good as the BFG.

I bought a Spirit years ago, but there not the same thing - of course I once went to buy a Steiny back in the mid 90s, but found they were suddenly no longer available. They were quite pricey back then - can't exactly remember how much now (something like around $1800 IIRC) - these days, I doubt I'd want to buy one, but I'd still like to play one. Good call. I'd love to have a mid 80s Steinberger GL2T someday.

Anything by Edwards. Strats from Fender Japan. First Act Bambusa.

I hated the CBS Strat headstock for years. Now that I own a Strat with the big headstock, I've gotten to like them.

I actually like the Dean V headstock, even though it's very 80s. I don't like the Razorback variation, though. It's these I can't stand: I don't care for these either. I like the tuner side, but the bottom looks halfassed:

Oh no.

I recall getting very close to that sound with a JCM 800 and a tube screamer. It wasn't a hard tone to reach, actually.

In general, no. I find it too restrictive. I move my pick hand around a lot while I play. I stabilize my hand position by how my forearm rests on the corner of the body, but I wouldn't call it anchoring, necessarily. Palm muting is as close as I get to anchoring my hand.