stonge

I'll take the Invisible Man - have a pile of fuzz pedals here that might benefit with a little boostage.

I'll guess it's something like this: https://www.jimdunlop.com/tortex-flow-pick-1-35mm/ or this: https://www.jimdunlop.com/tortex-pitch-black-jazz-iii-pick-1-35mm/ I alternate between a V-pick Chicken picker and a Fender 551 extra heavy celluloid. I started out playing Fender extra heavy, and sometimes that's the only type of pick that sounds 'right' to my ear. I did just Amazon a dozen of those two Dunlops though... always like trying something new.

There were a couple of kit amps in that covering that were built up by Weber techs that sold off their website a few years back. That covering is a Weber option for custom cabs, and the Weber sig speaker makes me wonder if that might be one of them. Seems like a good deal at the price if it's well built.

Wait a minute - you can CHANGE bass strings? I thought you just had to buy a new bass lol. I assembled a P-bass and installed a set of Steve Harris flatwounds - the low E is .110 and I swear you could pull a car with it. He must have bionic hands to play those strings like he does. I prefer worn strings that thud on a bass; I can always add a little treble EQ if I need a little edge. My Stingray 5 is just about perfect for what I like to hear in a bass.

I'm 2FIG, and those are not the bridges that I built. My bridges were stamped 2FIG, and did not have the slots for the screws in the baseplate. Nice bridges, but they aren't a 2FIG product.

from the specs, it seems like Fender's version of a Line 6 Variax; the pickups drive profiles (models) and it's got a Fishman-style rechargeable battery inside. The models sound good in the demos on Youtube, and the inclusion of a couple of electric models along with the acoustic models seems like it would be pretty flexible. There isn't a blend between the models and the straight pickup outputs, so it seems that everything runs through the models all the time. That would be a pretty useful tool for playing live if you like the tones. I wouldn't mind trying one, but I'm staying out of music stores for a bit lol. The Duotone is a slightly different beast on that there isn't any modelling on the piezo pickup AFAIK (or the magnetic pickups for that matter). I've got a beater Duotone with a repaired neck and replacement pickups, but I hardly ever use the piezo side.

not a pedalboard redo, but I found a inexpensive storage cab that is good for stashing pedals not in rotation. It's an IKEA Helmer ($40) and each drawer holds 9 Boss-sized pedals in 3x3 orientation (it holds 6 of the Wampler double-sized pedals) . I'm always swapping out pedals (short attention span while jamming at home with Youtube or Spotify), and this is a little nicer than the big Amazon flat boxes in the other room where i used to store the spares. Not the sturdiest, but it has casters which is convenient.

Just received the Valve Reamer and BM Zen; they sound pretty good but I don't have time to dial them in today. Just got the shipping notice on the Red Moon Tchula too.

My Valve Reamer and Black Magic Zendrive shipped last Friday; Champ and Red Moon Tchula will get here when they get here. So far I've picked up a 5E3 Deluxe (thanks Jakeboy), low gain Mosferatu, SRV So Naked, and a Pickle Vibe. I really like the Mosferatu into the Deluxe. It didn't mush out even with the gain up full on both, and mrs stonge was stunned that that tone was coming from a tele.

I've only had mine for 2-3 months, and it still looks pretty new. I've been running around hitting every guitar that's out (15 or so) some of which had fresh strings. with the tremblock you want to be sure the rubber pad on the bottom of the plastic is on the face of the guitar. you can get the plastic edge pressed into the guitar and leave little marks if you're not careful. have to make sure the pressure is perpendicular to the guitar face and not tilting the tremblock.

yes. It's great for stretching out a brand new set of strings - a half-dozen passes on each string and they hold tune a lot better. Especially helpful on Floyds so you don't have to keep unclamping and retuning. It's easy enough to stretch the wound strings by hand, but the plain ones always feel like they'd slice my finger off. You don't have to use a lot of force with this; just tilt it to get the right tension and go all the way from the bridge to the nut. After that you can almost weld the locking nut in place and you're good to go.

almost as weather-checked as Uncle Rick's '59 LP but a little bit older lol

I use a tremblock ($17 on amazon) and a string stretcha ($15) to set up the floyds. The stretcha is one of those things that make you ask "why didn't I think of this" but it works really well in just a couple of swipes. sure beats playing "unclamp and return" for the first couple days. Diablos are fun - this one has an ebony board. I've sold it and taken it back a couple of times and it's staying.

never really looked lol. took a while to find it.

Indian Laurel feels 'lighter' and has longer grain; seems like it's not quite as fat sounding as rosewood (an analogy might be how korina sounds not quite as punchy/sharp as mahogany - maybe a little less highs or upper mids). I'd guess it's sorta in the middle between balsa and pau ferro if you can imagine that (the paulownia of rosewood). It takes a little off the the brightness of the heavy (poplar?) body. I really like the smaller vintage frets though and the maple of the neck feels like bare wood. Fender builds the Bullets down to the MSRP prices around $179 - if it retails there they aren't paying much for that fingerboard blank. If they expand that to the mid-line guitars they're probably just saving cost. If I were looking for a '62 double bound tele, I'd hold out for an older one with a rosewood fingerboard. That's the original recipe. I had a really nice MIJ '62 that I traded for a Washburn N4 back in the days when I wasn't into teles. Should have kept that one and just bought the N4 outright.