7/4 Posted March 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2005 I always wanted one of these. Gibson Modern. Cheap when I couldn't afford it, now way too pricey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7/4 Posted March 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2005 And the only one I ever tried had a neck like a baseball bat. Works for me on a Strat, but not on a Gibson. A big neck always translates to big tone though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted March 5, 2005 Report Share Posted March 5, 2005 (edited) And the only one I ever tried had a neck like a baseball bat. Works for me on a Strat, but not on a Gibson. A big neck always translates to big tone though... I agree. The neck on my Rickenbacker 650 Dakota is HUGE. It's the biggest neck I have on any of my guitars, yet the guitar itself is tiny. I remember when they made those Modernes. I think it was around '83. Before that they were just legends or fakes. Edited March 5, 2005 by AfricaBrass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7/4 Posted March 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2005 (edited) And the only one I ever tried had a neck like a baseball bat. Works for me on a Strat, but not on a Gibson. A big neck always translates to big tone though... I agree. The neck on my Rickenbacker 650 Dakota is HUGE. It's the biggest neck I have on any of my guitars, yet the guitar itself is tiny. I remember when they made those Modernes. I think it was around '83. Before that they were just legends of fakes. Pat., but not produced. Edited March 5, 2005 by 7/4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted March 5, 2005 Report Share Posted March 5, 2005 And the only one I ever tried had a neck like a baseball bat. Works for me on a Strat, but not on a Gibson. A big neck always translates to big tone though... I agree. The neck on my Rickenbacker 650 Dakota is HUGE. It's the biggest neck I have on any of my guitars, yet the guitar itself is tiny. I remember when they made those Modernes. I think it was around '83. Before that they were just legends of fakes. Pattened, but not produced. I meant, "or fakes" - oops I've seen the old patent drawings of the Moderne, V, and Explorer (futura). Man... Gibson R&D couldn't do anything wrong in the late 50's. Yet, this stuff didn't sell very well and even the Les Paul was replaced by the SG in '61. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottb Posted March 5, 2005 Report Share Posted March 5, 2005 I have a black reissue Danelectro DC '59. Looks like they are back to one guitar, an upgraded U2. Looks like they are following the same format as the last comeback only with a little higher price tag and maybe quality. I got my DC 59 for less than $200 and got a free Dirty Thirty amp with it! That's was money well spent. It's a fun guitar! I wish that little amp could go clean though. It lives up its name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 (edited) I have a black reissue Danelectro DC '59. Looks like they are back to one guitar, an upgraded U2. Looks like they are following the same format as the last comeback only with a little higher price tag and maybe quality. I got my DC 59 for less than $200 and got a free Dirty Thirty amp with it! That's was money well spent. It's a fun guitar! I wish that little amp could go clean though. It lives up its name. That's cool, Scott! I don't know if you're aware of it, but those black DC59's are actually selling used for around twice what they sold for. I've had offers on mine. My guess is because of the Jimmy Page connection. Edited March 6, 2005 by AfricaBrass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe G Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Blasphamy in some circles, but do you guys think that most Gibsons are overrated and overpriced? I've found maybe two that really turned me on in the last ten years, and they were priced about $500 more than I was willing to pay for them. Back in the day I had an Explorer, which for a time really suited my needs. Also had a Les Paul that didn't work out for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Blasphamy in some circles, but do you guys think that most Gibsons are overrated and overpriced? I've found maybe two that really turned me on in the last ten years, and they were priced about $500 more than I was willing to pay for them. Back in the day I had an Explorer, which for a time really suited my needs. Also had a Les Paul that didn't work out for me. Gibsons are highly esteemed by me. but... I do think they have issues with quality control and they are expensive. If you look at guitar prices back in the 50's and 60's they are equivalant to Gibson's Historic series pricing (adjusted for today's dollar value). On the other hand, there are great guitars out there at great prices. Yes, I do think they are expensive and there are very competitive options at better prices. It really comes down to if you really have to have a Gibson. If you have dreamt of a real Les Paul your whole life, a copy won't be as satisfying as the real thing. My biggest issue is with Gibson's management. In the last few months they've gone crazy. They've successfully sued PRS over their Singlecut, they've made the stores that sell Gibson cease showing photos of their guitars on their websites (except a few, Musicians Friend and Elderly, and two others). They are also making longtime dealers get out of the Gibson game by demanding that they have $150,000 worth of inventory and 60% of their guitars on the wall have to be Gibson products. They seem to be heading for a Wal Mart type of superstore only strategy and squeezing their longtime dealers out. A couple of top Gibson dealers have recently stopped carrying Gibson. I know it's their company, but they're losing goodwill by the day and many people are saying they won't buy any new Gibson products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Joe, Are you still playing the Hofner Jazzica? Just curious... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe G Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Well, I still have it. The thing about that guitar is that it's very sensitive to environmental conditions, so the neck is constantly going in and out, depending on humidity. It's like having a really hot but very high maintenence girlfriend. When it's good, it's really good, but it takes a lot of work to get it there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe G Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 My biggest issue is with Gibson's management. In the last few months they've gone crazy. They've successfully sued PRS over their Singlecut, they've made the stores that sell Gibson cease showing photos of their guitars on their websites (except a few, Musicians Friend and Elderly, and two others). They are also making longtime dealers get out of the Gibson game by demanding that they have $150,000 worth of inventory and 60% of their guitars on the wall have to be Gibson products. They seem to be heading for a Wal Mart type of superstore only strategy and squeezing their longtime dealers out. A couple of top Gibson dealers have recently stopped carrying Gibson. I know it's their company, but they're losing goodwill by the day and many people are saying they won't buy any new Gibson products. I wasn't aware of all that. Pretty lame! I believe that any finished product reflects the spirit in which it was created, and I feel much better about supporting a company that has a positive and holistic approach to doing business. Finding out about what Gibson's doing makes me want those guitars even less! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 My biggest issue is with Gibson's management. In the last few months they've gone crazy. They've successfully sued PRS over their Singlecut, they've made the stores that sell Gibson cease showing photos of their guitars on their websites (except a few, Musicians Friend and Elderly, and two others). They are also making longtime dealers get out of the Gibson game by demanding that they have $150,000 worth of inventory and 60% of their guitars on the wall have to be Gibson products. They seem to be heading for a Wal Mart type of superstore only strategy and squeezing their longtime dealers out. A couple of top Gibson dealers have recently stopped carrying Gibson. I know it's their company, but they're losing goodwill by the day and many people are saying they won't buy any new Gibson products. I wasn't aware of all that. Pretty lame! I believe that any finished product reflects the spirit in which it was created, and I feel much better about supporting a company that has a positive and holistic approach to doing business. Finding out about what Gibson's doing makes me want those guitars even less! It's hard, I feel the same way. Part of me feels cool about boycotting the company, but then I remember that the people who would probably be hurt the most are the employees. Even with that in mind, I'd rather support another company instead. If I buy another Gibson, I'll probably just buy used. It just taints the whole thing for me. That's too bad about the Jazzica. I have some guitars like that and I had a girlfriend like that once. OOF! Have you played many other archtops? I've considered the Heritage 575. They seem to be somewhat reasonably priced on the used market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe G Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 No, I haven't played a lot of archtops, though I almost bought a Heritage Eagle several years ago. When I bought the Hofner, I wasn't even looking for an archtop. It has such a gorgeous tone. Chords just blend, and on single note lines, the dynamics are incredible. My mentor played it right after I got it, and he said, "The notes just pop out at you!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe G Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 BTW, one of the Gibsons that I mentioned that really turned me on was a bright red 175 (I think - is that the one with two pickups?). Man did that thing play great, and with an incredible acoustic tone - I didn't even plug it in. But at close to $3K, or maybe even over that, I just wasn't going to happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 I do hope to hear that guitar on the next Organissimo cd. I played a Jazzica after you told me about yours and I came really close to getting one myself, but I bought my Gretsch instead. They are very nice guitars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottb Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 A couple people mentioned Dearmonds. They are owed by Fender now. Today at a new more friendly guitar store. (more on that later) I saw that Fender is making Dearmond-like guitars under the Squire name. I played an archtop that listed for $700 and it was pretty nice. Maybe another reasonably priced archtop option. Back to the new guitar shop. About 2 minutes into the store an I'm deep in guitar talk with one the salesmen. Felt real comfortable there. Two other salemen spoke kindly to me while I was trying out guitars. One of the things we discussed are how prices on guitars are actually going down for similar quality. Like he said, 5-10 years ago you couldn't get crap for $200 and now there are some nice pieces out there. The Korean PRS, Cort, Epiphone, Squire, Samick are all making guitars of improving quality and decreasing prices. When I was making my custom Strat, I never was satisfied with my $120 Warmoth neck so I ordered a Squire Bullet for $99 got the neck which worked for me much better, sold the body and later the pickguard / pickups on Half.com and got half my money back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottb Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 (edited) All this guitar talk got me fired up and besides making the rounds at the local shops I also spent some time with my guitars today. I replaced the strings on my Broadway and Oh, my God! I never thought strings could make such a differnce! I have not been able to find Flatwound strings so I had some of those Elixir strings in it which I let a salesman talk me into. Today I changed to a set of Gibson strings. It's actually not that easy to get strings for the Broadway. It has that crazy Frequencinator tailpiece which requires longer strings. Anyway, with the new strings in, that baby's tone was TOTALLY different. I may actually be keeping it now. Which presents a problem because I was really getting geared up to buy a new one. Thought I might still trade my epiphone Les Paul (may regret that) towards a Korean PRS and might install Humbuckers to make it more like the real deal. Here's my proposed outcome. If I use the extra set of buckers I have now $500, if I buy some new Golden Age buckers $600. Compared to the $2000 for the real deal. Edited March 6, 2005 by scottb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 I just wrote a long reply to your last message and lost my wireless connection... I'm glad you found a new store, Scott. It's easy to support merchants who respect their customers. Don't they make PRS SE guitars with humbuckers? I'm concerned that the P90's are wider than the humbucker pickup rings. I might be wrong, though. It's been really fun talking guitars and I hope we continue to do so. If I had cash, I'd have been at the guitar store already... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 I'm glad your Broadway is sounding better Scott! What about looking into selling your Danelectro? I'd check the ebay prices for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottb Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Option with black pickups Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottb Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Don't they make PRS SE guitars with humbuckers? They do but it's the Santana model and I don't like the look of the pickguards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Don't they make PRS SE guitars with humbuckers? They do but it's the Santana model and I don't like the look of the pickguards. That's too bad. The guitar looks good with the chrome and black pickups. That's a hard choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottb Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 (edited) Here's my little family. 1 Epiphone Les Paul Standard with Honey burst finish - put original pickups back in last night. (Not sure why) 2 Danelectro DC59 reissue in Limo Black 3 Epiphone Broadway with Vintage Sunburst finish 4 Fender American Standard Strat in black 5 Custom made hardtail Strat with 3 color sunburst finish, Seymour Duncan classic stack pickups, Squire neck As you can see I prefer rosewood fingerboards and either sunburst or black finishes Edited March 6, 2005 by scottb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe G Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Here's my little family... Cute kids! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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