Hey Mike, nice to see you around again these days, not that i was here to see you in the old days, youre on of my most influential players.
well only three in my collection but its enough to start.
PRIDE AND JOY
my jaguar, inspired somehwhat by mike here, its 2002 jap RI sunburst with a badly worn 67 mustang neck.
KA hotrails in the bridge and SD coolrails in the neck, the two mix together great.
the jaguar is something of an albatross for me, or maybe a white elephant, it has many flaws, like its lack of sustain, plunky metalic sound, short range trem, the bridge tends to sink every so often, 3rd, 8th and 11th frets slope off too much on the high e side, the neck is 1mm off to one side, the pickguard is ugly and it cost near 800 pounds to complete but i still love it, it was a long tough genesis but its mine and id never trade it.
The finish on the neck is old and soft too and can grip and squeal when my hands get sweaty and the frets used to feel really rough and gritty when bending, but thats ok now, and the trem socket is loose and rattles.
but having said that the short scale fits my small hands well, the trem never goes out of tune (even though it pops strings suprisingly easily) its comfy to play, the pickups mix well, and after ive played it for a few minutes all those faults melt away and its raw raspy character sounds good and organic.
CLOSE SECOND
my first owned is a rally les paul, probably a 2006/7, bought for 200 quid (9 pound discount)
and has had maybe 50 pounds of upgrades.
it was weird to play this again after i got my jag, it was like id never played it before but thats all done with now and i can switch back and forth no troubles.
this is pretty much a flawless guitar; flat sleek neck, big shiney frets, loads of sustain, glossy rich sound, bends so easy, hammers and pull offs happen so easily, its just damn heavy and hard edged.
i was going to put in SD somethings but decided theres no point as i really like the pickups that are in there, the mid position is fabulous and plently of power from both.
ive had grovers fitted in place of the slightly off jinho ones it came with, also a custom pearl/abalone hummingbird inlaid ebony pickguard and a trapeze tailpiece.
finally i want to take out the lower knobs and replace them with 2 or 3 way switches for some custom electronics.
Finally and most recently is my freshman 12 string.
I paid 50 quid and traded an old amp for 100, exaclt what i paid for it.
no idea how old, maybe as far back as 2004/5 since the strings were really cruddy.
i'm still getting used to 12 strings so i cant play fluidly, the strings tend to push together when you go higher up the neck and the high action and low sustain up the neck makes it hard to adapt to, but time will come.
its bigger body wise than id like but most acoustics are but the neck is actually really good, it has low frets with i dont go for but these feel great, really solid and positive when i fret, probably cause of the double strings and the extra taughtness acoustics seem to have.
and its funny how slide just sounds so right on an acoustic but sounds crap on an electric, does with me anyway.
FUTURE.
id love to make a strat, would be an easy project what with all the parts around, i just cant decide if i what to go hendrix and have a white one, of SRV with a 2 tone with a black PG, i think the second.
i could also have a floyd rose trem on it which id love to have as i love trems and want something that really dives and can growl and quake, the jags trem can do but just isnt enough, i love that warbling sound they make too.
problem is i dont want to make my jag feel obsolete with something that has more sustain, sharper trem etc, although the strats longer scale may cause issues with long stretches, some things i can play so easy of my jag that i just cant play on my les.
that and the fact that someday i'll inherit my dads mexican '75 strat, although that is a hardtail.
