gtone

My guess is that they're BB1/BB2's with PAF stickers, but I'm no expert. @murkat What say you almighty former Gibson guy?

Seems they could be Classics or Burstbucker 1 & 2's, neither of which would be a deal-breaker for me. What I'm wavering on is the tone of an all hog LP which I have pretty well covered already. It is one sexy beast of a guitar though...

With all that case candy, you'd think they'd list the build specs/features, no? More self-serving corporate promo than user-friendly material, I guess... Maybe it'd be less bother to contact Gibson and see what they used. Yeah I know they make a gazillion guitars a yr, but you never know.

^^^ What they said X2!

What's "under the hood" pickup-wise? Enquiring minds must know...

Thanks Dave - Zimm's is one I was aware of that's close to one of our BNB's. Not that I mind driving 2-3 hrs if the shop is worthwhile (we live on the flat, bald prairies where some people drive an hr or more just for a coffee/donut). Will check into the others as well. Cheers!

Thanks guys - got some followup to do here, for sure. Appreciate your suggestions.

It's all part of the journey if you ask me. Sometimes we just have to experiment to see what works and what doesn't hardware-wise for ourselves. Next thing you know, you've passed that stage and end up with a hardware drawer full of stuff you may/may not use down the road (you can always sell/trade or share it with others down the way and build some good karma). Once we get past all the choices and nuances of our setup and gear, the real player development takes place IMHO. Playing the crap outta your favourite guitar, and playing a lot of different ones challenges your skills and abilities and makes you more adaptive. Playing while watching content/TV helps develop subconscious learning and familiarity with the entire fretboard to help aide your muscle memory. Jamming with other musicians, especially those beyond our skill/experience level, helps to develop our "ear" and to how to listen/play interactively with others, maybe even pick up a few technical bits or expand our musical horizons. Playing scales, learning theory and practicing our finger work is all fine and dandy, but giving ourself challenges can really pay dividends. Making a song from a single note using every kind of nuance/technique in our arsenal is a worthwhile exercise. Exploring alternate tunings, slide work, fingerstyle, capo and partial capo'ed strings. Explore how to manipulate feedback! (YES!!). Playing guitar like another instrument really helped me - think percussion instrument, piano, sax or horn, mandolin, bagpipes (ha ha) or whatever - world is your oyster! Each of us has our own musical journey to take and explore. I'm enjoying mine and I hope you enjoy yours. Guitars rock -literally and figuratively!!

Thanks for the input guys! Anyone else got something to add?

Might have to contact Winnie Thomas from Winfield Amplification while I'm in AZ (he's in Cochise, closer to the NM border), maybe grab a coffee with him if he's got time. He's a great guy and always so helpful. Love the little Cyclone amp that came direct from his shop - built like a little jewel.

Hitting the road on a couple of trips this fall/winter and always on the lookout for worthwhile shops with interesting stuff - vintage, used or new guitars, amps, what have you. Any worthy shops to check out in these locales? TIA...

I built a "poor man's Leslie" about 12 or so yrs back. Took a pulled rotor from a junked Farfisa organ and put it into a birch plywood cab with scrap ends left over from my cab building days. Threw in an Eminence 10" hi-powered speaker that was a bonus on a pedal trade deal. After wiring for 120VAC, I experimented with the rotor speed control system. Initially used an old tube radio potentiometer to switch on/off and vary the speed. Nice and simple solution for awhile, but I really wanted to do swells/decays in real time while I was playing rather than manually changing the speed by hand. A old sewing machine foot controller worked nicely for that but demanded a bit of foot dexterity to get nice smooth variations, so think I went back to the potentiometer. It worked well and sounded very good, though it was clunky to transport. Recorded it once using 2 mics 180 degrees off-axis of the rotor on the top of the cab and it sounded glorious (think Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds). I ended up selling it after a few months as it never left my basement studio and saw pretty limited use there. The guy that bought it thought he hit the jackpot as he'd been looking for an affordably priced rotary speaker system, so that was cool. Plenty of free older organs here - you'll see 'em on sidewalks or as giveaways in return for removal from premises (especially seniors and such).

Thanks Ted! We're grateful for your efforts slogging through this migration process and all the effort you put into keeping this whole crazy (but fun) train rollin'. Cheers mate.

Cool story! Sorry about your Mom though, I lost my Mom last yr, so know full well the extent of your loss. Steve Hackett is the bomb! He always had a big following in South America it seems. Glad you got to check him out. Cheers!

Had to post this after watching "Once Were Brothers" documentary on NetFlix:

Van's in winter storage so this will have to do in the meanwhile: