Musicians: Favorite instrument make/model? - Sperg about your gear

[The Shadow]

So fellow Kiwi Musicians- I know most players like to talk gear so...What's your favorite? Doesn't necessarily have to be gear you own, it can be gear you aspire to.

My favorite gear is my (1999?) MIJ Fender Strat that I've modified a bit over the years. Black body/black pickguard to imitate David Gilmour's Black Strat, Texas Special pickup set. Grover tuners on a wide 70's style headstock on a maple neck/fingerboard. I've had several guitars but that's one I've kept. Sounds good doing blues, funk and rock. Doesn't have enough chug for metal but that's what my LP is for.

I've recently started bonding with an Epi Les Paul Custom with the Koa top and hot rodded with a Pearly Gates pickup at the brige (the stock humbucker doesn't sound bad, it's a big improvement over earlier Epis...)

As for gear I don't have but I love...the Rickenbacker 4003 is the most perfect bass I've played. Playing a Ric, the unique tone definitely appeals to me as someone that likes a bassline that's more than just a barely audible thump. Easy to see why it's the choice of a lot of great bassists.

Your turn!

 

[oldTireWater]

Pisgah openback banjo.

Also very partial to Schecter guitars.

 

[Mr. A. L. Mao]

Right now I have:

2014 mia Fender standard strat, sienna sunburst (favorite color), maple neck, fat 50's pickups: had a little paint chip so got a great deal, awesome playing guitar and sound is pretty great, stock right now but will probably put some new pickups in it this year. I'm thinking the Lindy fralin hot strat set.

2013 mim fender jaguar classic player, sunburst, Pau ferro fretboard: picked it up at a pawn shop cheap, rhythm circuit didn't work, just played it in lead circuit until last year when the neck pickup stopped working as well. Ending up getting it modded with "witch hat" tone and volume knobs, different rhythm circuit plate and switch, changed the lead circuit to a 3 way switch, parallel/series, bright switch set up, with Lindy fralin jaguar pickups. Plays like a dream and sounds incredible, the modded switch system allows for a huge amount of tonal variety.

2001(?) Mij Fender Marcus Miller signature jazz bass, natural finish, Maple neck: bought off Craigslist, after a good setup this is now a lifer bass for me. Great sound, neck and fretboard are incredible, and preamp allows for more output and slap response. Will probably put fralins in here eventually as well, maybe change the pre amp.

201x squire classic vibe 70's bass, natural finish, Maple fretboard: nothing too special, but a good choice for anyone wanting to get started playing bass cheaply, plays well for a ~350$ instrument. With some hardware and pickup changes would be a solid backup bass as well.

Also got an acoustic takamine beater and a seagull s6 that needs a good setup.

Wants could go on a while, but after recently getting into my bloody valentine and dinosaur jr. I've been looking at jazzmasters. The Troy van leeuwen one looks cool, that oxblood finish is on point, if I find one cheap I'll snap it up:

Or maybe something with humbuckers like an sg, or the St. Vincent signature model, or a tele, or.....

 

[PTNR 2.0]

I play in a dream pop band, where I do the obligatory "ethereal, wispy" female vox in addition to playing guitar. My rig is geared for this sorta thing.

I have a few guitars since we use weirdo tunings; basically, a bunch of Fender-y offsets including:

-a Warmoth "Jazzcaster" routed for Strat pups with Dimarzio single coil rail humbuckers (BC-1, Chopper, BC-2). I use this one for our fuzzier shit since the pickups are hella high gain and loud and work great with the fuzz I use.

-Fender Classic Player Jazzmaster that I had routed out for some Telecaster Deluxe WRHBs (and yup, I have the real, original, 70's WRHBs in it). I use this for our cleaner shit because reverb and delay pedals sound like sex through WRHBs.

-Fender Classic Player Jaguar. It's stock and I only use it on a couple songs/as a backup.

-Fender Mustang. Has Noiseless Fender single coils in it. Also only used for a couple of songs/as a backup.

Amp is a Peavey Classic 50 with GM12 speakers. Dunno what the tubes are. Whatever were in there when I bought it and they're still good so I haven't fucked with them.

I have an ass ton of pedals. My current chain is: Korg tuner into MXR 10 band EQ into Keeley Compressor Plus into OCD into Op-Amp Big Muff into a Skysurfer reverb (set to a mild hall verb) into an Echobrain analog delay into a Hungry Robot Stargazer (set to a moderate-non-shimmer blue channel/heavy-shimmer red channel setting) into a Line6 DL4 delay (usually set to digital delay but sometimes use as a looper) into a Polara reverb (set to Halo (shimmer) and basically so wet that it turns my guitar into an ambient pad if I need it) into a Corona chorus into a super-shitty-but-it-gets-the-job-done-I-guess Chinese "Modstation" mini pedal that I use for tremolo in a couple songs, vibrato in one and flanger in one and then into my amp. I also have a vocal pedal I use for reverb and delay if the house isn't able to provide, but it's out of the guitar loop obviously. Pedals are organized on an SKB PS-45 board and require basically two entire One Spots to power everything.

Rig is dope to hell and sounds amazing and I'm very happy with it.

 

[Dizzydent]

Well let's start. The guy who loves Schecters will like this too.

First acoustic, not worth mentioning, beaten to hell bought 20 years ago used and it falling apart. Jut a god awful ibanez cheapo for 100 bucks that'll make your finger bleed.

Next guitar I still own which is a Mexican made fender but I switched out the bridge pickup for a Seymour Duncan hot rail which is amazing. (Think same setup as Tom morello from rage against the machine. Problem with that is the neck and truss rods and input are messed so it's not worth fixing so im going to hang it up on the wall. Not my pic but it looks exactly like this, you can see the hot rail pickup by the bridge with the two lines instead of the dots, that's good stuff.

Next electric I bought was a schecter c1 classic which is much more expensive and looks beautiful but I sold it years ago in a pinch and unfortunately never played it enough at the time.

Oh and to power it I bought a Marshall valvestate 100 combo which is a nice little combo for home and small gigs and jamming. I then went absolutely insane and bought a Marshall mode 4 head and cabinet which is what system of a down uses and way way overkill and the reason I have so much hearing damage today. Guess which ones which. Sold the stupid big mode 4 and kept the valvestate.

And finally we get to today. I just ordered a schecter demon 6 on Friday which is supposed to be a real beast for metal and the like with active pickups that are Seymour Duncan rip offs of emg 81 and 85s but produce a lot less noise for recording or places with old wiring or if you're playing in front of a screen while still staying true to all pertinent specs. It looks amazing and can't wait to get it in my hands probably a week from today. Did I do good?

 

[BubbleButt]

I've got an electric bass (Rogue LX400 in red quill), three electric guitars (Rogue Rocketeer in purple sunburst, an Ibanez GRX20 in jewel blue, and an Epiphone SG Special in cherry red which is my preferred guitar), an electric/acoustic guitar (Kona K1EBK dreadnought in black). There's also a pawn shop knockoff strat by Ion I need to replace the pickups in after refinishing the paint. And a cheap First Act piece of shit at work. A ukelele, a mandolin, a bunch of harmonicas and a (((harp))). I've got an Orange Crush PiX 12W practic amp I almost never use, and my interface into my PC is a Behringer Xenyx802. DAW is FL Studio.

ETA: My favorite guitar I've ever seen is a Gretsch 6121 Roundup that was used by Jake Snyder of Minus the Bear back when in the mid-late aughts.