What guitar/amp do you play?

[Christian Miller]

Naturally, I have a video

Main guitars in approximate order of usage:
2020 ES335
1968 ES175
2012 Loar LH600
2005 Telecaster USA Deluxe (that one not gig much atm)

Amps
Fender Princeton Reverb 65 reissue
Quilter SuperBlock US through a variety of Toob speakers

Pedals
Often nothing. But I have some interesting bits. I like a JRAD Dude for Drive.

[vernon]

My favorite is a Soloway Gosling 15”

[AllanAllen]

As long as you mean "Jeff" Beck, you're good.

Nope, it was Devils Haircut.

[pauln]

Oh WOW, what a nice Start. I'm not crazy about the paint job, but I can just look at that Stratand tell it plays like butter, It looks like one of those "Ultra Deluxe" (?) jobs. I see it has the Fender roller nut, staggered locking tuners and Lace Sensor pickups. I had a Strat with Lace Sensors in the 90's. It was somewhat of a different kind of a vibe, but there were some really good sounds to be had with those too. Mine was a "Super Strat" with a Lace Sensor humbucker in the bridge positione. Repaint it dark metallic blue and you'll have an ace.

Thanks, that color is a bit softer/creamier than the camera suggests. It has the darkest rosewood finger board I've ever seen, and has its original Lace sensors.

[mr. beaumont]

Nope, it was Devils Haircut.

Oh, well how can you not play along with that? That riff is like the drum break in "In the Air Tonight." You just HAVE to play along.

[AllanAllen]

Oh, well how can you not play along with that? That riff is like the drum break in "In the Air Tonight." You just HAVE to play along.

In case you don't know.

[AdroitMage]

My 1990 Benedetto Cremona straight into my Evans JE 200. Gig with it, love it, cherish it.Attachment 114328

Nice, a beautiful Benedetto. Thanks for posting. A stellar Benedetto jazz box is a must have for my guitar collection.

[AdroitMage]

Okay, we've got an interesting start, descriptions of gear, some pics of some nice jazz guitars, some Epi's, some Gibson's, a sweet Stratocaster, a nice Benedetto, a ukulele, some guy who played until his fingers started to bleed. Okay, i'll allow it.

[AdroitMage]

Gibson L6-S; Princeton Reverb II Super Pro; pedals borrowed from the library, one or two at a time.

LOL, hey, remember the "bookmobile?" What ever happened to the bookmobile? You know, it's like a food truck, except when it comes to your hood you can check out books from the bookmobile like a library.

That's what I need in my neighborhood, an "effectsmobile" that comes around, and I can then check out any effect I want to check out, like checking out a book from a library. "I'll take a copy of The Real Book in C, a choco taco, a triple rainbow pop, and an H8000."

[joebloggs13]

For jazz I prefer my Gibson ES-335...but either one of my Teles will work.

[Litterick]

LOL, hey, remember the "bookmobile?" What ever happened to the bookmobile? You know, it's like a food truck, except when it comes to your hood you can check out books from the bookmobile like a library.

That's what I need in my neighborhood, an "effectsmobile" that comes around, and I can then check out any effect I want to check out, like checking out a book from a library. "I'll take a copy of The Real Book in C, a choco taco, a triple rainbow pop, and an H8000."

The Music and Electronics Library at the Audio Foundation in Auckland.

[AdroitMage]

I

Nope. The point of having more than one is playing more than one.

I'm not sure if you got my double entendre there. The phrase "main squeeze" is a phrase that guys who have more than one woman at a time use to refer to their "main" woman. So referring to your favorite guitar as your "main squeeze" is a double entendre, as in humor.

Remember, on rhythm changes they said "it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing," and they meant it.

[John A.]

I'm not sure if you got my double entendre there. The phrase "main squeeze" is a phrase that guys who have more than one woman at a time use to refer to their "main" woman. So referring to your favorite guitar as your "main squeeze" is a double entendre, as in humor.

Remember, on rhythm changes they said "it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing," and they meant it.

It's not actually double entendre; it's an analogy. I fully got what you were saying. I don't have a main squeeze guitar-wise. If you want to continue the analogy game, I have a harem of varied beauties, all competing for my attention. Which one is my favorite shifts according to my caprices and needs.

[BreckerFan]

My main guitar right now is a 90s Guild X-150. I got it about two months ago tho, so may still be in the honeymoon phase. Probably my main lifer guitar is my 63 L-7C.

My main amp is usually a Victoria Club Deluxe (black panel deluxe reverb clone), but sometimes a 57 tweed deluxe reissue. I'll use a catalinbread Topanga or talisman with the tweed, but that's it for effects. At home I also like to run the amps through a Freyette power station to get the right at the edge of breakup, inspired by Jim Hall on The Bridge.

[AdroitMage]

Epiphone Broadway, I routed the top to add P90s.

I play live though a Fender Blues Jr and I practice with the guitar acoustically. No effects.

I have an Eastman AR503CE in the closet that I'll sell one of these days. Maybe trade it for that Ibanez CC Metheny guitar.

That Epi Broadway is beautiful That little Blues Jr, is a surprisingly good amp for some low volume clean playing.

Why are you going to sell the Eastman AR503CE, what's up with that?

I can totally uinderstand wanting the Ibanez Metheny model.

[AllanAllen]

That Epi Broadway is beautiful That little Blues Jr, is a surprisingly good amp for some low volume clean playing.

Why are you going to sell the Eastman AR503CE, what's up with that?

I can totally uinderstand wanting the Ibanez Metheny model.

I just don’t use the Eastman. It’s a really nice guitar, but the Epiphone just fits me.

I’ll probably end up in the same spot with the Metheny, unless it’s 25.5” scale.

[Stringswinger]

Whichever of my 21 guitars (7 Solid Bodys, 11 archtops, 2 Gypsy guitars and a Classical) speak to me at the moment. Same with amps (3 Henriksens, a Quilter and a Milkman). I have 3 pedals (OCD 1.4, Big Muff Triangle reissue and a Danish made TC Electronics Stereo Chorus +, but I don't use any pedals on gigs these days) No main squeeze other than my wife

One of these days I should downsize, but today ain't that day.....if I got down to 2 or 3 guitars, perhaps a main squeeze would emerge? But come to think of it, I am not sure I need a main squeeze in a guitar. Being true to one guitar would mean being untrue to all the rest.

[Dave70]

My current "main squeeze", that I treated myself to about 3 months ago: Acoustic Guitar :: Deltoluxe Concert, Walnut Fingerboard, Tortoiseshell Pickguard, Black Top

It's a fun guitar!

[telephonic]

Just joined so thought I may as well start here.

I have a G&L ASAT Classic (tele style, butterscotch blonde). I have been experimenting with pedals over the past year but I have now pared things down to basics - a Boss RC-5 loop station, MXR reverb and a Walrus ACS1 amp/cab simulator. I mostly use headphones, but if I want to be heard I have a Headrush FRFR speaker.

One of the reasons for making a minimal setup is that I am away from home a lot, and I wanted something portable. The pedal board is actually powered by an 18V Makita battery so I don't even need to find AC.

[Robertito]

I love my ES-335 as well, but I wanted something that would be a robust, carefree gigging guitar, so I put together the most 335-like Telecaster I could. The body is semihollow, like a thinline, but without an F hole. The conversion neck is 24.75” scale, ’59 Les Paul contour, 12” fb radius, 1-11/16” nut - rosewood on maple. It has a set of Seth Lovers and weighs 5.8 lbs. I carry it in a Glen Cronkhite gig bag.


Pedals: Boss RV-5 reverb, DD-7 delay with tap switch, and if I need overdrive I use a Zendrive. Amps are usually a tweed Deluxe, an Allen Accomplice, or an Ethos amp. It’s compact and lightweight.

[Cunamara]

Oh my gosh man, this saddens me. Step into the 21st century babbah. The microchip won't bite, it may just collect all of your personal information though and store it in a database somewhere.

You get a much more 3-dimensional, wet, yet unobtrusive "reverb" effects using delay, not reverb. That's what all those multi thousand dollar exceptional quality effects racks like the vintage Lexicon and Eventide effects were really all about, adding ambience to guitars so they didn't sound dry and boring and all up in your face, but had some ambience, some bit of spaciousness and even 3-dimensional quality to them. For distorted sounds they're best in the effects loop, but for clean it sounds just as good coming right off the guitar before the preamp, unless you want stereo. About 450 to 500 ms, or better yet tap tempo, and dial in several repeats after the original note, then turn the level of the effect down so that it's barely audible, then you won't hear individual repeats, like an echo, you'll hear a swirly, ambient, "reverb" like effect that is more ambient, swirly/interesting, and more 3-dimensional sounding than a spring reverb or digital emulation of spring or plate reverb. If you hear it too much, it's too loud. Some guys add a tiny bit of reverb after the delay, but it's usually just a little bit to help fill out the delays somewhat. The stellar delays are the star of the show. There's a whole art to using delays like that to add ambience. It really adds ambience and gives the effect that you're playing in a large hall or cathedral where you hear the natural reverberation off the surfaces rather than a small room. Enjoy the beautiful, spacious sounds .

Nah. I've tried multiple different delays many times and they all sucked. Not my thing. Reverb is OK when playing alone, but when playing with horns and drums the guitar sound starts to get washed out with more than a tiny, tiny amount. Can't stand chorus on my own sound and can barely tolerate it with Metheny, Stern, et al. A little overdrive from the amp is OK, but distortion/fuzz is not. Basically all effects pedals I have tried since 1986 have ended up in a box in my practice room- cool for about ten minutes, then they get on my nerves. Can't really listen to most players using a lot of pedals (except, oddly, I really like Allan Holdsworth and Jerry Garcia; AH used multiple stacked delays and overdrive and Jer used a lot of modulation).

Basically just I want to hear the guitar... a good sounding guitar doesn't need all that stuff.

[AllanAllen]

Nah. I've tried multiple different delays many times and they all sucked. Not my thing. Reverb is OK when playing alone, but when playing with horns and drums the guitar sound starts to get washed out with more than a tiny, tiny amount. Can't stand chorus on my own sound and can barely tolerate it with Metheny, Stern, et al. A little overdrive from the amp is OK, but distortion/fuzz is not. Basically all effects pedals I have tried since 1986 have ended up in a box in my practice room- cool for about ten minutes, then they get on my nerves. Can't really listen to most players using a lot of pedals (except, oddly, I really like Allan Holdsworth and Jerry Garcia; AH used multiple stacked delays and overdrive and Jer used a lot of modulation).

Basically just I want to hear the guitar... a good sounding guitar doesn't need all that stuff.

Yeah I’m with you here. I don’t like using effects.

I sure like listening to some guys use them though. The rockabilly guys with their delay, and a few local blues guys who do the SRV/Hendrix warble effect really well. Oh and CCR or Magic Sam with the tremolo. That’s my favorite effect I think.

[Webby]

Oh, that's pretty. Those two Eastman's are pretty. They look like antiques plugged into an antique tube radio. I've always thought it would be cool to have a really nice sounding jazz amp that looked like an antique tube radio like in the pic. What amp is that?

Yeah, I love that Eastman antique finish.
The amp is an older Ibanez T20 acoustic amplifier in a scratch-built cabinet. It's not really something special, but I like it. The neutral sound is a great platform for the Jr. Barnyard preamp I use. It's my poor mans EH-150 amp, so I thought it might aswell look the part.

[AdroitMage]

I don't have a main guitar or a favorite. I have 4 electrics (Seventy Seven Archtop, Les Paul, D'Angelico semi hollow, Fender Strat). For jazz I'd say it's something like 40% Seventy Seven 25% D'A, 25%, LP, 10% Strat, give or take a bit. For other stuff, about a third each D'A, LP, Strat. Right now the LP is new and in the honeymoon phase, so maybe getting more action now that it would otherwise.


Nope. The point of having more than one is playing more than one.


My favorite of the ones I own is a Quilter Aviator Cub, but it's not necessarily what I use most (that depends on playing situations). I often use my Fender Champion 20 (modeller) for grab and go/smaller/quieter situations). For noodling outside/on vacation/quiet solo practice I also have a Spark Go (Modeller, fits in my a guitar case) and a Roland MicroCube (modeller; probably going to sell it now that I have the Spark Go). For recording, I used DAW plugins.


Reverb on everything, overdrive on rock-y/blues-y stuff. On recording I'll usually add some delay and compression. I've got various other pedals I almost never use.


Use your imagination.

We may love our guitars like we love women, but the good news is that guitars are perfectly happy with polyamory. So get intimate with quite a few and enjoy the beauty.

[John A.]

We may love our guitars like we love women, but the good news is that guitars are perfectly happy with polyamory. So get intimate with quite a few and enjoy the beauty.

That’s the spirit!