Guitars

[DesertDan]

Hey DesertDan, nice to see another southpaw! Respect!

Thanks, and same to you. Here's the kicker though....I'm actually right handed!

 

[Mr Badger]

Here's the kicker though....I'm actually right handed!

:eusa_doh: How the heck did you end up playing lefty, then?

 

[DesertDan]

Heh, gets 'em every time!

fftopic:
Birth defect of my left hand, so the only way I could play was lefthanded. It's unique in that even though I am righthanded I have a very real understanding of the inconvieniences faced by lefties and when it comes to music I consider myself a lefty.

My hand is visable in this pic,

An interesting bit of trivia, Greta Brinkman, bassist for Moby, is also a righty who plays lefty. In her case, when she learned to play bass the only instrument available to her at the time was a lefty

 

[Atomic]

That Univox is really nice!

I appreciate the info, I'll look into that kind of a bridge as well. I have another Fender acoustic that I need to have worked on so I'll have the guy look at this hollow body when I take it in.

I took a couple of pictures of my other work horses. I have a nice black US made Gibson SG standard, my favorite of all so far. I also have a really nice little Epiphone SG that I swapped the original pickups out for better humbuckers. Oddly enough, this Epi says Gibson on the nut cover with Epiphone written on the headstock, and its the stock piece. Really weird.

 

[gholla]

i have a nice semi hollow ill post...

 

[Edward]

Oddly enough, this Epi says Gibson on the nut cover with Epiphone written on the headstock, and its the stock piece. Really weird.

I thought that was the norm for Epis (at least prior to production moving from Korea to China - not paid much attention in recent years). [huh] My LP is the same.

 

[Dinerman]

These are just the lousy craigslist pics, but I just got this 1979 Gibson RD custom. It's back in Maryland- my dad picked it up as my birthday/Christmas present- I'm selling one of my Godins and he's covering the difference, so it's back in Maryland.
It's got some issues- the moog electronics have been removed- though talking to some people here who play them, that seems to be a very common thing to do. As a result, there are some holes in the top from switches that went with the electronics. Some fret wear, and generally grungy. Thinking of sending it off to Matt Artinger, the luthier who's doing my Tenor to see if he can't come up with something creative to put in the back where all the moog stuff went.
The seller says this guitar was owned by Dave Grohl of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters. I know he has several, and with the guitar coming from Northern Virginia, geographically it would make some sense. A friend of my dad's knows Grohl, so we're going to check the story out.

It's kind of funny- the RD is relatively obscure, it was only made for five years, and the RD custom only for two- yet two Halifax musicians play them.

Craig Eugene Harris of the Stanfields

And Joel Plaskett of Thrush Hermit

 

[Edward]

I always loved the RD shape, it's like a somewhat distorted Firebird. I also love the incongruity of the very traditional headstock with it. Worth checking out the Grohl story: if you can get that authenticated, it will substantially add to the value of the guitar. If it is a genuine Grohl, I'd be wary of changing anything in terms of preserving that value.... Otherwise.... you certainly could do some fun stuff. The RD series was one of Gibby's early forays into the world of active pups and onboard gizmos. They weren't considered to be much of a success by players (I think this was also the guitar that Gibby advertised as "The guitar you probably couldn't play even if you could afford it"; doubt that helped sell 'em!), and it was extremely common to whip out the onboard electronics, rewiring then as per the Gibson LP / SG / etc norm. If you do decide to make use of the extra holes (I guess if it's reversible, it shouldn't compromise value too much), there are a couple of things I'd think of fitting. you could go down the obvious route of an out of phase switch for the so-called Peter Green mod in the middle position (Robbie Krieger of The Doors also had something similar done to the middle position of his SG). I'd also consider a kill switch (much more flexible than turning one of the pickup volumes off to get that effect by flipping the selector switch). Also, one thing I have always found badly lacking in the standard Gibson schematic is a master volume (a la Gretsch) - it's a pain in the bum to have to fiddle with both volumes to take them down or up when you've already found the perfect balance between the two.

Great looking guitar.... I'd love to put together something in that shape, though I'd prefer a bolt on neck with a maple board.... I'm more of a Fender guy, I guess.

 

[Dinerman]

Clearer pic

 

[Dinerman]

And now it's in my hands!

 

[Kahuna]

And now it's in my hands!

Great looking Gibson! I've never seen that model before. Here's my "family". As you can see, my tastes run more towards the acoustic.

 

[Silver Dollar]

Your "family" looks great. What is the one second from the right? Is that an old one or a reissue of some type. It has a beautiful shape.

 

[Kahuna]

That's a copy of a Weissenborn guitar made in Paracho, Mexico for Superior Guitars. They are used strictly for lap style playing with a slide and make some beautiful sounds in the right hands (not necessarily mine, but David Lindley does excellent work on one).

 

[carouselvic]

Stuart Mossman:A Modern Stradivari

Just got my copy of the DVD.

 

[Silver Dollar]

That's a copy of a Weissenborn guitar made in Paracho, Mexico for Superior Guitars. They are used strictly for lap style playing with a slide and make some beautiful sounds in the right hands (not necessarily mine, but David Lindley does excellent work on one).

Weissenborn, yes!! That's why it looked so familiar to me. Shame on me for missing that one.

 

[Silver Dollar]

Just got my copy of the DVD.

I haven't seen a Mossman in a long time. A friend of mine in Florida played one of those. It had a great sound.

 

[Dinerman]

My dad found an original Weissenborn in a ratty old chipboard case at an antique store in New York State. Perfect condition, but it wasn't priced. Hung around for a while while they made phone calls and eventually came up with a price of $500. Snapped that thing up so fast.
I think it's still on loan to a traditional music recording studio.

 

[Kahuna]

My dad found an original Weissenborn in a ratty old chipboard case at an antique store in New York State. Perfect condition, but it wasn't priced. Hung around for a while while they made phone calls and eventually came up with a price of $500. Snapped that thing up so fast.
I think it's still on loan to a traditional music recording studio.

Twenty years ago they could still be found for cheap. Since you can't play them like an ordinary guitar people didn't know what to do with them. One guitarist found his hanging on the wall in an old lady's home with plastic flowers coming out of the sound hole. Unfortunately I missed those days, thus the Weissenborn copy instead of the real thing.

 

[DesertDan]

My first quality bass was a Gibson RD Artist, it looks really unusual upsidedown!
It sounded great, but wieghed almost 14 pounds. I traded it staright across for my first true lefthanded bass a '75 Fender Precision. I still have the Precision, it is my most treasured material possesion. The stories it could tell......!

 

[Dinerman]

This old hagstrom has been a wallhanger for quite a while. I'm going to try to get it back up and playing.
Someone's routed it out and put a big dummy pickup cover on it that looks more hardware store than music store. Frankensteined bridge as well. My dad got it at a yardsale some years back with all these mods. At the time the body had separated into three parts so it had to be all reglued and refinished. With all that- probably no real value, but it has a good neck, so hopefully some work and it could be a decent player.