What are you playing? (musical instrument thread)

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
My new (old) baby, a 1985 Gibson Explorer in Ferrari Red:

explorer1.jpg


explorer2.jpg


explorer3.jpg


I've wanted another Gibson since my friend took back his SG after I borrowed it for years (I sort of assumed it was mine at that point =) and I finally got the one I've always wanted. It plays like a fuckin' dream too; no matter how loose or out of control you feel, like you're about to fuck up, it just seems to come out right! I'm thinking of calling her Christine. :zodd:

Or Robin1, Magnum, or just "the Ferrari." :carcus:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Congrats! It looks pretty sweet!

That reminds me, I visited Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture a while back and they've got this great part about the history of guitars. Have you been there by any chance? I took lots of pictures to show you at the time but then got too lazy to pick the good ones from the bad... and eventually plain forgot.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
I've never been, but would definitely be interested in those pictures if and when you get to them. Speaking of which, you basically described how I've handled all the pictures I've taken in the last 5 years until I finally just stopped taking them. I literally have like 13 giant DCIM folders I've copied on to my computer and then never looked at again. =)
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
I've never been, but would definitely be interested in those pictures if and when you get to them. Speaking of which, you basically described how I've handled all the pictures I've taken in the last 5 years until I finally just stopped taking them. I literally have like 13 giant DCIM folders I've copied on to my computer and then never looked at again. =)

:ganishka: Yeah, honestly everytime I take pictures like that I tell myself (and usually also tell the people I'm with) that it's useless and I should just soak in the moment. Which I really try to do and all, but it's hard to not snap at least a few... hundreds, I mean... dozens just a few.

I'll get it to it though, it's pretty cool and I literally only took them for ya. :casca:
 
Griffith said:
My new (old) baby, a 1985 Gibson Explorer in Ferrari Red:

explorer1.jpg


explorer2.jpg


explorer3.jpg


I've wanted another Gibson since my friend took back his SG after I borrowed it for years (I sort of assumed it was mine at that point =) and I finally got the one I've always wanted. It plays like a fuckin' dream too; no matter how loose or out of control you feel, like you're about to fuck up, it just seems to come out right! I'm thinking of calling her Christine. :zodd:

Or Robin1, Magnum, or just "the Ferrari." :carcus:


Wow shes beautiful!
I have an SG, absolutely love it. It fly's. The action is as close to the neck with out buzzing lol.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Aazealh said:
:ganishka: Yeah, honestly everytime I take pictures like that I tell myself (and usually also tell the people I'm with) that it's useless and I should just soak in the moment. Which I really try to do and all, but it's hard to not snap at least a few... hundreds, I mean... dozens just a few.

Yeah, the problem is I try to take multiples to be safe, but again, I'm too lazy to actually go through them and so they become redundantly meaningless in my mind, so I'd just be better off self-editing and making sure I take one good picture.

Aazealh said:
I'll get it to it though, it's pretty cool and I literally only took them for ya. :casca:

Well, thank you! They must have had some great Jimi Hendrix stuff there. I actually have a 1963 Fender Musicmaster/Duo Sonic because Hendrix played one when he was with the Isley Brothers.

GiantSword Mufasa said:
Wow shes beautiful!
I have an SG, absolutely love it. It fly's. The action is as close to the neck with out buzzing lol.

Thank you, and got any picks of that SG? Now that you mention it, my friend with the SG was trying to unload his Stratocaster on me to make space. I should see if he wants to give up the SG instead. :zodd:
 

Fancypantaloons

Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas.
Hey! Nice guitar you got there, Griffith!

I play my fancy bass. Maybe we should get together at Walter's house and play some Berserk tunes!
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Fancypantaloons said:
Hey! Nice guitar you got there, Griffith!

I play my fancy bass. Maybe we should get together at Walter's house and play some Berserk tunes!

I am also a no-so-fancy bass player, which I actually learned far better than guitar because of something I tried with it called... "practice", I think? It's what one does instead of hitting the strings wildly and thinking, "I'm Jimi Hendrix!" In later years I started applying these principles to guitar and it was much better than the former.

brokenknight said:
That's a gorgeous Explorer Griffith. Do you have many other guitars?

Thank you, and yeeeeah... I've been buying and selling them since high school, so I've probably forgotten about more than a normal person even considers buying, let alone needs. I'll post more pics later from my eBay folder. :guts:

brokenknight said:
I just picked up a Crimson Red Parker Fly that I absolutely adore.

Oooh, I've only played one of those, at Sylvan Music in Santa Cruz. Really cool, but too nice for my tastes at the time (I did get a half American/Mexican Strat and Desert Yellow RG-550 there for a great price though, both regrettably long gone).

But hey, SHOW, don't tell, let's see this beautiful red (my favorite guitar color =) Parker Fly, Mufasa's SG and Fancy's bass! :daiba:
 

Kompozinaut

Sylph Sword
l9qQ6Km.jpg


This is my ca. 1860 Viennese 15 inch viola. It's a little small, closer to the size of a violin, because I am a pretty small guy. I originally learned and played violin for about 12 years before I switched to viola in 2008. Tried learning on a more traditional sized instrument, and found it very difficult for the size of my hand. My professor at the time ran into this instrument randomly and immediately sent it my way. The thing is gorgeous, both visually and aurally, enough so that I fully committed to playing viola after that point. Unfortunately, my skills have waned over the last several years since I've had to put my playing aside to support myself financially.

I also own and play: violin (acoustic and electric), electric bass, trumpet, trombone, accordion, and piano. But those instruments (except my acoustic violin and accordion) are in "storage" at my parents' house since I don't have room in my apartment. I'll try to update when/if I ever see these instruments again!
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Wow, a real musician. I knew one of yous once, a friend of mine from the jazz band who it seemed could pick up and play anything (piano player, naturally). Gorgeous instrument you have there too, I can't imagine playing something so... I don't know, Violins, at least the good ones, feel like museum pieces that shouldn't be touched. I can relate to sort of getting caught between instruments and how they feel in your hands. I started with guitar but really found myself on bass, not just because it can be simpler but because I just flow much better and found a natural "voice" on it, but I've have never quite given up guitar obviously despite my greater proficiency on the bass (I think part of it is I just prefer the "hands on" manipulation of bass finger-style as opposed to a pick). But like millions of others I love the tones you can get on a distorted guitar. This has led to trying several compromises over the years; classical guitars and basses, the guitarron, a 12 string bass (a bit much), and the Bass VI. The bass VI has proven to compliment me best, it feels natural to me like the bass but I can transpose guitar parts on the higher strings. Actually, that's not true, what I did was I took a short 30" scale six string bass (very rare instrument as it turns out) and strung and tuned it like a Bass VI, which gave it that bass/baritone guitar sound but enough string space to play comfortably with my fingers like a bass (I like to think of this wide neck bass VI as an instrument of my own invention =). Anyway, I hope you find time to brush up again and just enjoy playing, or, as the saying goes, you could always join a rock band. :badbone:



Now, as promised, here's some instruments I've eBayed away over the years, some are junk, some are very fine buy I just didn't need:

lesspaul.jpg


A Jet "Less Paul" as I called it. Used this for a Halloween costume as Slash from GnR one year. Dog assisted with the photoshoot.

rick.jpg


The original "Christine" - A 1981 Rickenbacker 4001 bass, quite a beauty, fast neck, but just not for me as it turned out (that's the problem with purchasing online). I had no business affording it at the time, and borrowed all the money, but somehow ended up making a tidy profit. These continue to go up ridiculously in price so I might have sold low yet.

strat.jpg


"Cherry Axe II", bought at Sylvan Music in Santa Cruz for $250, I think I sold the American body for as much. Still have the Mexi neck and kind of regret parting them.

12string.jpg


"Harlequin Rose" - A 12 String bass, this was not the answer to my problems, unsurprisingly. It had 27 frets!

rd707.jpg


"The RD", or "707", a cool bass, recorded a Dwelling of Duels song with my mates on this. Maybe should have kept it...

550.jpg


Also bought at Sylvan for $250 and sold for as much or more thankfully. A bit flashy for me and especially my ability at the time I owned it (but my friends were all a bunch of Ibanez/Jem nerds), plus I can't stand tuning those floating trems and don't know what I'm doing on them anyway. Cool guitar, but no regrets.

classical.jpg


Ibanez classical, nice starter guitar for playing some classical stuff (or video game tunes =), but it became redundant when I picked up a nice vintage Japanese classical for practically nothing.

clearv.jpg


A POS, I think the truss rod broke almost immediately, sold it off as is.

abass.jpg


"Black Beauty" - Very nice, but you couldn't hear it among acoustic guitars without amplification; kind of defeats the purpose.


Well, that's it for now (but isn't that enough!? My certainly and parents certainly think so =).
 
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