New guitar day

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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sookwinder
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Re: New guitar day

Post by sookwinder » Sun Nov 08, 2020 5:54 am

I have bought a shit load of vintage guitars and basses from the US, half of them would have come via USPS and never had any issue with them.
And now they help save the world from TRUMP … there is nothing more that we can ask of them!
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Larry Mal
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Re: New guitar day

Post by Larry Mal » Sun Nov 08, 2020 7:36 am

I love the USPS, that's what we use all the time. My wife does a great deal of shipping, she's an artist who creates and ships directly from our home.

Now, don't get me wrong, they'll all lose a package from time to time, they all destroy stuff from time to time. It's rare, but any of the delivery services has a certain amount of loss to it and some incompetence too.

But only UPS is consistently miserable, making virtually no effort, using bizarre technological methods, making themselves impossible to contact, outsourcing what should be basic services to third parties that aren't capable of handling them well, and on and on. Dumping my deliveries in a location that can't be accessed except by car.

I have decided that in almost all cases, if UPS doesn't make a successful delivery to me, I won't lift a finger to do anything other than watch it be sent back. If it's something that I'm not in dire need of, I'll just let everyone waste their time and when it gets back to the merchant I just get refunded and tell them that had they not used UPS it would have been a successful sale, and since they do use UPS I won't shop with them again. I hope to sting UPS enough with this that they actually start being a decent company again.

In this case I won't, though, since it's a private seller who is a nice guy and is probably pretty terrified that his big sale of an ES-335 might go wrong. I know how nervous I get sending guitars out and I know how much it sucks when it goes wrong, so I always try to make sure I get the guitar as quickly as I can, and then I make sure to reach out letting the seller know that this is a successful sale as soon as possible.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: New guitar day

Post by jthomas » Sun Nov 08, 2020 8:27 am

Larry Mal wrote:
Sat Nov 07, 2020 5:06 pm
mediocreplayer wrote:
Sat Nov 07, 2020 2:44 pm
We can guess the color at least. Although with you it’s easy — sunburst? :)
Nah, it's red. Of course, you can't just call things red anymore, so it's "Antique Cherry" or "Vintage Cherry" or "Busted Cherry" or some shit like that.

But it's red.
Said like a "true" guy.

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Larry Mal
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Re: New guitar day

Post by Larry Mal » Mon Nov 09, 2020 7:08 pm

What a stunning guitar this is. I'll get some pictures up tomorrow, but man, Gibson made a great guitar here.

So, these pickups are wonderful. It was hard to find a lot about them, they are the MHS II pickups, or the Memphis Historic Spec 2 pickups. I think they are Alnico 2 or 3 or something and I know they are low wind. Gibson either didn't make them long or they called them something else or what I don't know.

But they are fantastic, with a great clean sound, plenty of highs, very powerful and not overwhelming bass, dynamic and powerful. Frankly, everything you would want from a pickup.

Sounds great, plays like a dream... I guess I'll get a bunch of pictures up tomorrow. But what a great and inspiring guitar.

Since the seller already put on locking Grovers, and the rest of the guitar is so excellent, there is nothing more I need to do to this guitar. I'll put on a locking aluminum tailpiece and string it up. But the great pickups, the bone nut, the brass saddles on a real ABR bridge... shit, it's everything it's supposed to be.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: New guitar day

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Nov 10, 2020 8:05 am

Also, I should mention that UPS did a better job ultimately than I thought they would do. I had to ask my wife to pick it up, and it's a half hour away, but they pulled it from the truck and got it in her hands very well.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: New guitar day

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Nov 10, 2020 8:15 am

But:

Image

Image

Image

I have zero complaints. It's a wonderful guitar.

I might have been worrying about the ES line since Gibson moved it from Memphis to Nashville, but then again, I saw a video the other day where they talked about how the press that makes the ES-335 type body is the exact same one they used on the very first ES-335.

Regardless, it's a great guitar. Plays like a dream, like my other ES does. I guess I just really like this type of guitar.

A few guitars will have to be sold to fund this, which is fine. But honestly, I think about things like my Les Paul Studio, which is my only other double PAF type guitar. I can't imagine when I will prefer to play that guitar to this one. Maybe that will go on the block.

To reference the other thread, I don't necessarily feel like "I made it" with this guitar or anything, I can say that I wish I would have known how much I would have connected with this type of guitar previously.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: New guitar day

Post by Embenny » Tue Nov 10, 2020 8:25 am

That's a gorgeous guitar. Congrats! Glad it made it to you safely in the end. I don't typically like red guitars, but it's always felt like "the" colour for an ES-335 to me.
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Re: New guitar day

Post by HNB » Tue Nov 10, 2020 8:42 am

Image
Christopher
Lilith Guitars

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Larry Mal
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Re: New guitar day

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Nov 10, 2020 8:48 am

Well, I never care much about color, what meant more to me was that this one had some appointments that I thought might be good.

I have complained about Gibson in the past, and they have kind of quietly bumped up their product. Firstly, these are great pickups, as good as anything I could buy. Secondly, the bone nut tells me that they are taking care of little details better than previously at this point, and the ABR-1 bridge is something I would have put on there anyway.

Gibson has been listening, and they have increased the quality of their guitars in little ways and I see no reason to change almost anything on this guitar. That's not usually the case with me and guitars, especially Gibsons. As you know I don't like the Tune-O-Matic bridge, but I really, really hate the Nashville bridge. An absolute piece of garbage that has no business on a $100 guitar.

So in the face of having all the electronics and hardware be what I wanted, I preferred this basically brand new guitar over the older ones.

But who cares... I know what you're all here for:

Image

Image

Image
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: New guitar day

Post by stevejamsecono » Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:29 am

Lovely spread and lovely backdrop for them as well. Congrats, bud.

I'm finishing off this hellish year by surprisingly conquering some longstanding debt of mine, so I think one of my first acts of 2021 is going to be saving up and spoiling myself with a nice guitar. Right now it's a question between these and a Grestch.

I imagine you didn't try this one first since it came in the mail. You get it from Reverb or something?
And you find out life isn't like that
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Larry Mal
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Re: New guitar day

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:44 am

stevejamsecono wrote:
Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:29 am
Lovely spread and lovely backdrop for them as well. Congrats, bud.

I'm finishing off this hellish year by surprisingly conquering some longstanding debt of mine, so I think one of my first acts of 2021 is going to be saving up and spoiling myself with a nice guitar. Right now it's a question between these and a Grestch.

I imagine you didn't try this one first since it came in the mail. You get it from Reverb or something?
I did, the guy was asking a little more than $2k but I offered that and it was accepted.

It'll cost me more, though, credit and all. We'll see how fast I can pay it off. Some stuff will go on the block.

But yeah, I have a new house, and thought that a new guitar would be inspiring for it.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: New guitar day

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:48 am

I'll say that I really like these Memphis Historic Spec pickups.

It's hard to find out official spec sheets for them, but you see things like this on the interwebz:

MHS are alnico II neck and alnico III bridge, manually scatterwound, uneven coil, and unpotted, and are for that reason more of a PAF style pickup in construction, that Gibson probably considers more of an "historic spec".


And that seems accurate, of course, those are the MHS 1 pickups and not the MHS 2. What's the difference? Fuck if I know.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: New guitar day

Post by seenoevil II » Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:08 am

Gorgeous! That's the color I'd get. Red but not clown nose red. That's awesome to hear that the specs were dialed in and the first I've heard of these new pups. I figured they'd get burstbuckers. I'm still completely baffled how you got such a good deal. Oh well.

Good stuff. Can't wait for my NGD. Also UPS. Scheduled for Friday.... the 13th. Fingers crossed.
If it wasn't for disappointment, I wouldn't have any appointments.

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Re: New guitar day

Post by mediocreplayer » Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:52 am

Congrats! Looks awesome and from what you say everything else is awesome as well.

I will confess though, that once the 330 showed up in the pictures, I did not look at the 335 again. I know all the theory of course, but can you quickly compare the two based on these fresh first impressions?

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Re: New guitar day

Post by Gavanti » Tue Nov 10, 2020 11:56 am

Congrats. This looks great. I'll be interested to hear more of your take on the MHS pickups.

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