Jim85IROC

Sold via Reverb. Super nice Epiphone Lazarus. Just enough play to smooth out the neck finish (which is way more comfortable than the rough satin finish). Frets polished, well set up. Original everything, including the Gibson Burstbucker pickups. Includes all case candy and the Bonamassa strap that came with the guitar when you bought it through Bonamassa's website. One of the nicer tops that I've seen on a Laz. Original film still on the pickups and plastics. $950 plus the ride.

There already are. Have been for years. Roughly $500 will get you a handwired Marshall head.

This is an exact copy of the original X100. The chip used for the echo is no longer available, so they chose to omit it instead of use an alternative. I can understand the decision, but I would have liked to see a bypassable alternate included. I want one of these so bad. I don't even know any Boston, Def Leppard or ZZ Top songs that use this pedal, but I need it anyway. Just the chorus and the treble boost & compression on the clean 2 channel could be very useful.

I really want to try one of these.

In what years did Hamers come with the Hamer branded Schallers? There's a 3x3 set that I'm hot for but a few of them almost look like they were pitted and rechromed. Thoughts?

I watched eleventy billion reverb shootouts and came to the conclusion that the UA Golden Reverberator was the most realistic sounding pedal. I bought it for an amp with no reverb and I'm very happy with it. Even when you get stupid with it, the spring reverb still sounds and behaves like a real spring tank. It's got a few spring options as well as plates and halls, and they all seem to sound great.

I liked them. They were wound to 7.5-8k but had ceramic magnets. They were brighter than a PAF, which I liked. The ceramic magnets pushed the amp nicely for crunch tones too. I wish I still had that guitar.

I bought a lot less this year than in recent years, but the stuff I have bought has generally been more up-market from where I usually shop. In December of '23 I took advantage of the PRS SE fire sale and grabbed a 594 doublecut. I liked that so much that in early January I picked up a used 24-08 SE. Next I picked up my first headless guitar, a used Leo Jaymes for $100. The action was a foot high, but after I shimmed the neck and set it up, it was great. I bought it to flip, but my son ended up using it in the high school pit band where space is limited, so I decided to hang on to it for now. I've been thinking about upgrading it because I actually really like playing it. Next I got a Gibson Greeny, which is a halo guitar for me. Ironically, the same day it arrived, the Chibson Greeny that I ordered way back in September also showed up. The pic below shows those and my Epi Lazarus that I converted into a Greeny prior to getting the other 2. Next was 4 cheap IYV IPF-300 semi hollows from Amazon. I made a video showing the build quality across all 4, fixed them all up and sold off 3 with enough profit to pay for the 4th. I never play it so I'll probably sell that one off soon too. Next was a pair of Firefly FFMNs, one for me, one for my buddy. I used them to do another multiple-guitar review. My kid is playing this currently. I don't love Floyd guitars, especially cheap Floyd guitars, but I do love the neck on this guitar. Next was a used Schecter C-1 Custom. This was a bit of a trainwreck when I got it. It had Duncan blackout pickups in it, but the bridge pickup was DOA. It came with a set of Guitarpartsonline Screamer pickups, which I promptly sold off along with the 1 good Duncan. I had a set if G&L humbuckers that I bought off a member here that I put on black chrome covers and chrome pole screws and installed with a custom coil split setup with PRS-style resistors in the split circuit. This guitar came out super nice. I put on black chrome tuners, bridge and black chrome knobs. I love how it looks, and the sorta-coil-split works great. The bridge is wound to about 12k, so it's got some nice grind, but when you split it, it measures closer to 9k and sounds PAF-ish. The neck measures around 8k and splits to about 6k, so it doesn't sound like an anemic split neck, but more like a t-top or maybe a broadtron neck. I don't use this one much but I really should. Next was a 2019 Les Paul Special with a MojoAxe compensated bridge with TonePros locking studs. I'm absolutely loving this guitar. Recently my guitar instructor gave me a couple rough (but technically brand new) Walden acoustics and a cheap bass. He moved to a smaller location so he wanted to get rid of stuff that wasn't really sellable. He robbed parts from these to keep customer guitars going, and they've been getting banged around for years. One was even missing a fret. I refretted that one and got both of them functional. Both needed their piezo undersaddle pickups replaced, and the ones I bought are overdriving the preamp input, so I still need to build a capacitive voltage divider to get them working properly. Next was the Indonesian Standard that I got on Reverb from Belgum. This was probably the worst Indonesian Hamer that I've come across with multiple loose and/or high frets. I had to tap a number of them back down and glue a lot of the fret ends down, then file away a lot of fret sprout. But, it came out killer. I'm debating whether I want to upgrade the electronics or move it along. And most recently, right before Christmas I saw this LP Special Plus on Marketplace for $600 and I jumped on it. The seller said he was playing his Strat more so this was just sitting. I've bought enough guitars to recognize that as code for "it doesn't play well", and sure enough, the action was pretty high. I investigated further and found that the neck had an absolute TON of relief. I pulled the truss rod cover off and the truss rod nut still had lacquer overspray on it, indicating that it had never been turned. It took almost a full turn, but the neck straightened out beautifully, which brought the action down so far that I had to raise the bridge to get it where I like it. I cleaned up the guitar and I'm willing to bet that now it plays better than the seller's Strat. 😆 As a nice bonus, this cheap guitar came with a $200 set of locking Ratio tuners! This is another guitar that I'm unsure what to do with. I bought it to flip it, but now I really like it. Plus, these zebra pickups would be perfect for the Standard.

I've owned a couple of the normal sized Corts that look like that, so I'd be all over it if it was close, and if I had $2k to piss away on a 6 1/2 foot guitar.😄

Fortunately, I've had different experiences. I've found the imports to be surprisingly good guitars, good enough that some of mine have stayed in my collection when some US Hamers gotten moved along. The biggest issue with most of them is their lackluster electronics & pickups, so once you swap out that stuff you wind up with a killer budget guitar.

If you happen to be interested in an import, there's a dirt cheap Korean Eclipse listed on Marketplace in the Hartford CT region. I'd nab it if it was closer https://www.facebook.com/share/15VXaJUFBe/

I never miss an episode. Not only are his videos highly entertaining, they're extremely educational. I've learned a boatload from him from cosmetic repairs to neck resets.

Today I finished cleaning up the Standard. I replaced the pots, cleaned the guitar, seated and glued a few high frets, leveled a few frets, cleaned up all the fret ends, polished them, then gave the guitar a full setup. I want to replace the nut with one cut with more appropriate string angles, and I'll probably replace the pickups. Until then I just want to play the guitar a bit. The pickguard has a nice cream color that didn't show up in the pics.

There was a great deal on Ernie Ball 9.5s a couple weeks ago. It was the 3-pack for $6. I bought 3 of the 3-packs. I suspected they were counterfeits, but now that I've received them I think they're legit. Either way, at $2/set, it's a good deal even if they're fakes, as long as they aren't as sharp as razor blades.

maybe I'll try that with my JB. Should help add some highs back in. That said, for this guitar, if it ends up being a keeper, I might swap the Tonerider Rocksongs that I have in my Harley Benton PRS copy. I really like those pickups. The 12k bridge is just the right amount of output without getting that peaky sound the JB has.

Not sure. Might be a 2011 if the SN can be believed, but I'm not sure how much you can Yeah, I've got/had a bunch of the imports and except for the p90 models (which sound excellent), I usually swap the pickups. I've got a JB/Jazz set, but I may go with aomething closer to the 12k range for the bridge. I don't love JBs.

...sorta. I've wanted a Standard forever, but the US models are way out of my reach, and frankly I'm not willing to pay $750+ for an imported one, so when this showed up on Reverb for way, way less, I jumped on it. I really want a flame top Standard, but this one was cheap enough that I couldn't pass it up. Aside from appearing to need a new nut, it seems to look pretty good.

Amazon has Primo Slinky 3 packs for $7. I just picked up 3 sets. https://a.co/d/aumKqu1

These days, everybody makes a decent LP copy. Best bang for the buck is probably Harley Benton, or Firefly if you don't mind doing a little work to it. If you want something more upscale, the Sires are tough to beat. If it doesn't need to look like a LP, my suggestion would be a Chinese Hamer Sunburst. Some came with nice thick necks, were extremely well made, and with new pickups and pots, will be an incredible instrument.

Bass is no longer listed, and it's not because the seller accepted my offer 😂

Seems that way. I bought a beautiful Ibanez SZ520 on Reverb, and when I got it there was some pretty significant damage to the edge of the guitar at the binding. I sent pics to the seller and he started getting all defensive, telling me he owns a shipping company and knows how to pack guitars. I checked, and he did own a shipping company (something like a UPS Store) but clearly he didn't understand how physics worked. To make it even better, the clown accused me of trying to return a different guitar. I had to send him a video that panned from the serial number to the damage. What an asshat.

Bass went unsold. He relisted it and I put in a low offer that he hasn't responded to yet (and probably won't). I guess we'll see!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/145811733179?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=9cyc90rPTtO&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=uJhGVTlFQdq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY Considering the amount of work this neck needs at both ends, I really don't know if the current asking price is even worth it, but I figured I'd throw this up as an FYI. If nobody bids I may offer a borderline-insulting amount just to see what happens. It could be a fun project with the end result being a good playing bass with virtually no resale value.

Even in the 2nd pic the 7th shows a unique discoloration, but apparently they moved the sticker back to the center of the fretboard.😁

Yeah, I've been working up the nerve to fix it. I've fixed much worse on cheaper guitars, but I hate to make a mistake on this one. When I got it some of the neck binding was delaminating and there was some chipped clearcoat as a result. I fixed that already because I could feel it when I played. I love the guitar though, and once I did the magnet swap I love how it sounds. My only wish would be for it to have a thicker neck profile.