tbonesullivan

Is the SG body even thick enough to handle the hamer neck joint? Might just not have been any interest in them. Hamer already was making LP Junior style guitars that actually had a neck joint that didn't fall apart, unlike Gibson. Maybe they figured it wasn't worth it trying to improve the neck joint. The Guild Polara was one attempt to "fix" the SG style guitar, and I believe former Gibson Employee Jim Deurloo was at Guild during that time, though I could be mistaken.

Aside from the extra controls, how do they compare with the "regular" McCarty? I mean I guess if you are nuts about intonation, the 594 would be a no brainer, but tons of people seem to love the compensated single piece bridge. dang they do have a lot of interesting double cut designs.

Do you use mostly humbuckers, or also single coils, especially in the bridge position? The Plex has both volumes for both channels, and I believe it really helps to tune in a strat for that classic Marshall sound. For me, My choice was to go with the JEL-50, which has that "Plexi" style clean channel, but also the Hot-Rodded JCM 800 style lead channel. It also has an Effects loop, which the plex does not. It's pretty much a pure modern version of a Plexi, modeled after Dave Friedman's favorite plexi. Things like an effects loop could get in the way of TONE, according to plexi purists, which is why it was left off.

The IR-J might be the way to go. It has a built in booster, and the "plex" lower gain channel has the variable bright setting, which is really helpful at lower gain levels. Though if you want THAT plexi sound, almost full out is the way you are usually gonna go, in which case the bright cap is pretty much bypassed anyway. Now, having a post phase inverter master volume is always a nice thing to have. Very few amps have such a thing, as they are almost always pre phase inverter, so you miss out on overdriving that tube. Having a built in variac along with a secondary bias circuit for the reduced voltage is also nice. Being internally jumpered? also nice. That, is the Friedman PLEX.

I mean, it's good to have a lot of options. If they all produce relatively similar results, this really lets people get "that sound" from a variety of rig configurations.

The Friedman preamp pedals are all killer. I also love how Friedman has really helped put a great player like Jake back in the spotlight. The boost on the IR-J, along with the cabinet modeling, really makes it a one stop shop for a direct to board rig. I had looked at the IR-X and IR-J hard for a while, but ultimately decided a head would work better for me. I've already got the Carvin Legacy Drive and X1 pedals sitting in boxes that I never use, and pretty much know if I got an IR-J it might end up sitting as well. The JEL-50 is a great head, and I've got some nice boosters to really slam the front end, not that it needs it.

Oh man that is a gorgeous guitar. I've always been tempted by the McCarty series.

I still remember watching MTV in the early 1990s when I was in either Junior or High school, and the video for Mr Tinkertrain came on. I was never the same.

Throw into this the fact that Mesa reissued their "Half back" style cabinets, with the front ported lower and open back upper. Would go perfect if I ever get around to picking up a Mark IV head...

Does it just do a profile at a specific level of gain, or is it able to profile that too somehow? I've always been kinda mystified by the process, just like how they create speaker cabinet impulse responses, and add in all these options for microphone type, microphone location, and so forth.

As someone who writes descriptions / ad copy for items as a job, I can just say that people are stupid. And so are some of my coworkers in customer service who ALSO don't read the damn description before asking me questions. I worked customer service at this same company for years, and I know exactly what people want to know about the items we're selling, so that's what I put in the description. I just don't get it. If I'm gonna spent over a grand on ANYTHING I'm gonna read every damn word of the description, and pore over every picture. And if I still have questions, I ask, like "what's that stuff all over the pickup pole pieces on this Stingray, did someone try to resurface them?"

Pretty sure that's a Gotoh hardtail bridge. Carvin used to use them on their "bolt" series guitars. Great bridges. So what if they don't look cool? https://www.stewmac.com/parts-and-hardware/bridges-and-tailpieces/bridges-and-tailpieces-for-electric-guitar/gotoh-hardtail-bridge?queryid=1aca60c2c573fb3bf19e4cb68f5dfa40

The Vertical 2x12 Forte style cabinets I'm familiar with have two speaker compartments, with side vents on the top and a sealed bottom. I keep meaning to get one from Avatar but I actually kinda don't have many heads to plug into it, just lots of combos because I hate my back.

This kind of stuff continues to piss me off, like the whole thing with the Jeff Beck Les Paul and a collector who found it in a store. Collector knew it was the Beck guitar, apparently even contacted him regarding it to "ask permission" to buy it or something like that, but then Beck wanted it back. Then there was the more complicated thing between Ronnie Montrose and Gary Moore.

He's a fantastic guitar player, and my guitar teacher (who is a HUGE Ozzy fan) really wishes that the live album Gillis was on was more readily available. I remember him talking to me about how excited everyone was when the 2002 Reissue of Blizzard of Ozz came out, with "You Lookin' at Me Lookin' at You" as a NEW Bonus track. Like NEW Rhoads after 20 years? And it's a great freakin song! Getting back to Gillis, I remember reading an article about the "process" to replace Randy Rhoads, which involved Brad Gillis as well as George Lynch, as well as the eventual replacement Jake E. Lee. As was/is standard for Ozzy's "management" they pretty much screwed over as many musicians as they could. George Lynch was pretty much making ends meet by delivering whiskey, but still finding time for rehearsals and even going on tour as a backup with Ozzy when Gillis was playing, and ended up with nothing. He even worked with his buddy Warren DeMartini when learning the songs, as usually Lynch only played his own stuff. All that work, no compensation. Shades of when Kerslake and Daisley were canned simply for asking the production to maybe get them somewhere to live while recording. After seeing how Lee was treated, Gillis probably dodged a bullet. Sure he missed out on that exposure, but he also missed out on being treated like garbage. Now if only they would re-release the live stuff he played on so we could all enjoy it and he could get more recognition.

Yeah... even my guitar teacher, who is a huge 80s metal fan, was like 'nope'. Eller thankfully has a "small hand" version for those who aren't an 80s player like Lee, George Lynch, or Warren DeMartini, all of whom also loved to have these extreme stretches. Ratt's "Lay It Down" isn't THAT bad, but it's still a stretch.

At least he has a valid excuse for not playing bark at the moon. Mine is just that I am not a great guitar player. The speed of those palm mutes interspersed with the notes, as well as the insane stretches? OOF. Even guitarist / youtuber Ben Eller has trouble with those. 5th to 10th fret stretches in the main riff, and then 10th to 17th fret stretches in the outro.

I see they've been clamping down hard on the DMCA strikes for any videos out of the concert, or at least any clips of the live stream. I've got mixed feelings about the concert, and one of those feelings is "why the hell couldn't the management have not been assholes and gotten Bill Ward on the actual farewell "The End" tour 9 years ago. However, by all accounts some great music happened, and a lot of people came together to give Ozzy one final hurrah before really "retiring" due to his health. I LOVED the stuff that Jack Black did, and I've seen a lot of other great clips from the show. Sure, it's no "Concert for George", but it's still great, and I assume there's going to be some huge mega box set come out for it eventually, once they get all the rights and such.

The only dedicated "boost" I have is the Seymour Duncan pickup booster, which is true bypass, and actually needs to be directly connected to the guitar electronics without any buffer for it to work properly. It also depends on your rig setup. There are also some dedicated boosters that are not entirely clear on whether they are true bypass or not.

Isn't Brian Setzer quite a bit taller than than 5'2" Angus? Google says he's 5'10". The SG has always looked HUGE on Angus. Also honestly I don't care if he only plays SGs, because no one makes an SG sound like Angus.

That thing is NICE. Nothing more needs to be said. The top is unreal. If only it was blue 😁

Just remember that PRS guitars with solid color tops still have the super flamed top under it, just so they can have the flamed "natural body binding".

That's sad to hear. I didn't arrive here until August of '09, so I kinda missed the "glory days" in that sense, but I definitely remember the "Wild West" era of internet forums. Sounds like it was quite the character, even if abrasive at times. I've got a few friends who are also the type that "will not be tamed".

Honestly, I prefer double cuts. I just do. My first real guitar was a Gibson SG. Even on versions with a a "sculpted" neck heel, the LP is pretty massive at that area. I have some single cut LP style guitars from Heritage, and they sit in the case, while my studios get played. But, that's just me. If you're gonna switch from a drop dead gorgeous Studio to an LP, it better be a top tier LP in terms of sound and playability.

NICE! Also, what is that bass? It looks like something somewhere between a Telecaster (1st gen) Precision bass and a Jazz Bass.