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Dana_V

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Posts posted by Dana_V

  1. On 1/26/2024 at 2:04 PM, Steve Haynie said:

    You cannot go wrong with a Peavey or Yamaha entry level bass. 

    I have a Peavey Fury I got back in the nineties for the very same reason: I just needed something inexpensive to record with. But it turned out to be a great bass. It's basically a copy of a Fender Precision, but the neck is skinnier, more like a Fender Jazz - which works well for me, since I'm a guitar player who likes skinny necks.

    • Like 2
  2. 14 hours ago, Cboss said:

    Really beautiful:) how much would this have been new in '79?

     

    12 hours ago, RobB said:

    Appx $950.00 MSRP, give or take. GC may have discounted them a bit more. 

     

    11 hours ago, hamerhead said:

    I believe the Standards were going out the door around $575 at the time, and Deluxes were $550 (or maybe the other way around). My LPC was $675 + tax (ordered in late Nov. '78, built in '79. Three month wait. Not sure what the MSRP was). Talking to another store owner at the time, he said he would have done it for $625 (both stores were privately owned).

    Back then you chose from Deluxes, Standards or Customs, not a different model for every day of the year. Fuck I'm old.

    Out the door for $575 sounds about right. I know I paid $479.80 (including tax) for my SG Standard in November 1975, but LPs were always more expensive than SGs - and prices would have increased slightly between 1975 and 1979.

    In 1977 I had a friend who worked in a small music store who could get us stuff at dealer cost*. I remember I had an opportunity to buy a tobacco sunburst LP Standard for - I think - $350 (!), but at the time I needed a new amp more than I needed another guitar (plus it wasn't red). So I got the amp instead: a Peavey Mace head with two 412 cabs (hey, it was the 70s and we all thought we needed huge amps like that).

    *It was great while it lasted, but it ended when he left the music store for a much more lucrative career in motor vehicle theft/insurance fraud.

     

  3. 12 hours ago, tbonesullivan said:

    Oh Sweet! What pickups would be in it? T-tops? Shaws? Or just the good ol 490s? Looks like a great guitar!

     

    11 hours ago, RobB said:

    I don’t think 490s were around in the late 70s. My money is on T-Tops, as Shaws began to show up on 80s Gibson’s. I had an ‘80 LP Heritage Standard80 that had Shaws. Dog of a guitar but it sounded great. 

    The next time I have the strings off I'm gonna look, but I'm thinking there's a good chance they're T-Tops. My '75 and '79 SGs have tarbacks, but I don't think Gibson ever used tarbacks on LP Standards.

  4. I’ve wanted a 70s-era wine-red Les Paul Standard since, well, the 70s, but for whatever reason, I never got around to it.  A few years ago I started watching for one on Reverb, but I was kind of shocked by the condition vs. price of what I saw.

    A while back a ’79 in really good shape showed up:
    “This instrument has sat unused in the back of my closet for thirty years and is completely original, no modifications whatsoever. Slight pitting on tailpiece, two back latches missing from original case and the case has minor scuffing.”
    The listing price, however, was beyond ridiculous. Months passed and I kind of forgot about it.

    Then, in December, I got a Reverb notification that “The Les Paul Standard you're watching on Reverb dropped its price by 65%.”

    So I looked at it again.
    “Update: I took the guitar to Guitar Center to sell it. They said there is a ground problem and wanted to start working on it before they would buy it. I declined, the instrument is still virgin never modified or worked on. I’ve changed the description to ‘good’ to account for this.”

    I knew that whatever electronic-related problem it had I could fix; so I wasn’t worried about that. Although it wasn’t mint, it was in really good shape for its age. All original parts, no mods, no breaks, no exposed wood, minimal fret wear and only slight wear on the finish. And 1979 was a significant year for me: I met my (now late) wife, graduated from high school and turned eighteen. My band was playing regularly and getting paid enough to avoid the dreaded “day jobs.” It was a pretty good year.

    So, after much deliberation, I pulled the trigger. While I was waiting for it to arrive, I went through a mental checklist of what the ground problem could be. And if it turned out to be something internal to one of the pickups that I couldn’t fix myself, there’s a certain pickup wizard right here on the HFC that I knew I could turn to (Josh did a fantastic job reviving one of the pickups from my 1973 Univox Hi-Flier).

    I picked it up from the FedEx office on December 22nd, and when I took it out of the case I was not disappointed. It was exactly as the seller had described and it looked great. I plugged it in and yes, there was all sorts of buzzing and static and the pots were scratchy. I removed the control cavity cover and the little metal shielding box (remember those?!), expecting to see something loose, but I didn’t.

    I gave all four pots a short blast of DeoxIT.

    It fixed it.

    Since I took these pictures I’ve done a thorough clean and polish, cleaned and oiled the fretboard and of changed the (very old!) strings. I’ve also done the only modification I’ll be doing: replacing the original strap buttons with Dunlop Dual-Design Straploks (because all my guitars get Dunlop strap locks). And of course I ordered an appropriate Couch strap for it.

    So, forty-plus years later, I finally have my wine-red Les Paul. It plays and sounds great and I can’t wait to take it out on a gig soon.

    According to the serial number, “Your guitar was made at the Nashville Plant, TN, USA on October 8th, 1979, production number 162.

     

    The lighting here makes it look a little darker than it looks in person.

    0010 1979 Red Les Paul 001.JPG

     

    The top:

    0020 1979 Red Les Paul 006.JPG

    Back view (those white spots/lines are reflections, not dings in the finish):0030 1979 Red Les Paul 007.JPG

    Better lighting shows the top a little better (as well as the dust!):

    0060 1979 Red Les Paul 015.JPG

     

    • Like 32
  5. Sorted by quantity, then alphabetical by brand. This includes two basses, but since we're talking about guitars I didn't include my banjo (Gibson), mandolin (Johnson), ukuleles (Gremlin, Lanikai) or my daughter's guitars and ukuleles.

    And since I never get rid of anything, I still have all of these – including the "unbranded acoustic guitar from JC Penny" my grandmother gave me for Christmas in 1971. I got my first electric in 1973 (a Univox Hi-Flier) and it just kinda grew from there. After my wife died in 2014 I went a little crazy with the guitar buying for a couple of years, but it's since slowed down considerably. In fact, I haven't bought a guitar since March 2022!

    Twenty-six brands, fifty-eight instruments:

    1 – Hamer (21)
    2 – Gibson (5)
    3 – Fender (3)
    4 – Danelectro (2)
    5 – E.L. Vandiver (2)
    6 – Gordon–Smith (2)
    7 – Shishkov (2)
    8 – Texas Box Guitars (2)
    9 – Univox (2)
    10 – Carvin (1)
    11 – Celebrity by Ovation (1)
    12 – Chandler (1)
    13 – Del Rey (1)
    14 – Eastwood (1)
    15 – Galveston (1)
    16 – HardLuck Kings (1)
    17 – Hinkler (1)
    18 – Jackson (1)
    19 – Kimberly (1)
    20 – Lone Star (1)
    21 – Martin (1)
    22 – Peavey (1)
    23 – Rogue (1)
    24 – Sully (1)
    25 – Supro (1)
    26 – Unbranded acoustic guitar from JC Penny (1)

    (The only reason I know this is because I put together a list for insurance purposes a while back – which I highly recommend everyone do.)

     

     

    • Like 1
  6. As much of a guitar nerd as I am, I had never been to a guitar show before this one. There was just always something else going on: I had a gig, one or both of the kids had something happening, etc.

    I didn’t buy (or sell) anything, of course, but it was great seeing all the guitars – from the ridiculously expensive to the incredibly weird and everything in between.

    But the really cool part was getting to meet some of the HFCers in person: Chuck (even though we live in the same ZIP code, we’d never met), Brian, Peter and former HFCer Greg. Thank you all for making a first-timer like me feel welcome!

     

    IMG_3805.JPG

    Yes, that's a Heritage I'm holding. 😆

     

    IMG_3821.JPG

    The matching outfits and hand positions were NOT planned!

     

    IMG_3794.JPG

    "Can I keep it?"

     

    Oh, and I got to see Sully again - the last time I saw him was when I picked up my blue Sparkle 92 from his shop in 2020.

    HYLZ3613.JPG

    • Like 7
  7. It's only about three hours away from me, but I've never been.

    However, it's looking like I might actually be able to go this year - although just Saturday, not Sunday.

    I don't have anything to sell, and - considering how much I just forked over to the University of North Texas - I probably won't be/shouldn't be buying anything*, but it would be cool to look at stuff and possibly meet some of y'all in person if you're gonna be there.

    https://www.amigoguitarshows.com/guitarlington/

    Arlington Convention Center
    1200 Ballpark Way
    Arlington, TX 76011

    Saturday, October 21, 2023
    10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
    Sunday, October 22, 2023
    10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

     

    *Unless, well, you know, I come across something I just can't pass up, like a white SG Junior that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, or a blue wraptail Studio...

    • Like 2
  8. 9 hours ago, RobB said:

    Hocus Pocus

    But Hocus Pocus isn't quite an instrumental, is it?

    Yodeo da dodeo da dodeo da dodeo da dodeo da dodeo da doh bop bah
    Yodeo da dodeo da dodeo da dodeo da dodeo da dodeo da doh bop bah
    Ahhhhhh-aaahhhh-aaaaaa-aaaaAAA
    Ohhhhhh-ooohhh-oooooo-oooOOO

    And the chipmunk-gibberish part - and, of course, the whistling.

    😆 

    • Like 1
    • Haha 7
  9. On 7/8/2023 at 4:31 PM, JGale said:

    .022 uF 100V is how I read it. That 224 is cornfusing.  Shape suggest metal or plastic film. 

     

    On 7/8/2023 at 9:21 PM, HSB0531 said:

    I think it might be Ceramic or maybe Mica?

     

    .022 uF 100V is how I'm reading it too. The 224 could be a batch code or date code - week 22 of a year that ends in a 4 or something like that.

    Not ceramic, but I agree metal or plastic film - possibly polypropylene

    • Like 1
  10. I was going through the videos on the band's YouTube channel and realized this was TWO years ago. Thought I'd share.

    Guitar: 1993 Special FM
    Pickups: Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates
    FX: 1999 Fulltone Full-Drive2, Chandler Stereo Digital Echo
    Amps: Mesa/Boogie Mark V ("mostly clean" channel), 1953 Magnatone Melodier 110
    The line out from the Mesa goes into a delay pedal set for short delay/one repeat, then to the Maggie. In the PA they're panned at about 10:00 and 2:00 (of course you can't hear the stereo split here since the camera was off to one side).

     

    • Like 6
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