Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame

We are dropping like flies. Might not make it past April at this rate.

Ladies and Gentlemen, You can buy/trade/build whatever you want. However, if you buy, trade for, or build a guitar or bass, then you shall be disqualified from the 2014 Self-Denial Challenge! If you buy, trade, or build a mandolin, your HFC account will be revoked. If you buy, trade, or build an accordian, your entire music collection will be confiscated and replaced with John Mayer's discography. If you buy, trade, or build a banjo, we'll pretend we didn't notice. If you are disqualified, you must immediately come clean and tell us the story of the acquisition, why you got it, your favorite breakfast cereal, and of course: provide pictures. As such, the point is not to prevent you from purchasing or trading for a wonderful instrument. The intent is highlight such failures of self-denial in such a manner that the rest of us are able to enjoy an entertaining story and see some new guitar pictures. And razz you in a friendly manner. ...and be warned: I have top men on call to deliver the razzing. Top men. Top...men. If you happen to make it to the end of the year without having purchased or traded for or built an instrument between the dates of 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2014*, then you will get a prize. ...which will probably be one of the CDs I got at a bargain bin or pawn shop that's not worth selling on eBay. *fine print: If you paid for the guitar in full prior prior to 31 December 2013, and it arrives sometime in 2014, it will not count.** **why? Dunno. I'm making it up as I go along. Should make for better stories by allowing this loophole. With all that being said, here are our contenders, in the order I encounter them in the nomination thread: - Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame -- Disqualified. 8 Feb 2013. Traded for a Yamaha Weddington Classic, and then purchased a Yamaha PAC312 for cheap. Stories and pics soon. - Cynic 8 Feb 2013. Out for one of the best reasons possible: a blue Talladega - Montelovesco 9 Feb 2013 for an Ovation Hybrid (pictures?) Still Masters of their Domain: - specialk - Thorn (because I can't figure out if he's in or out, but he posted in the thread) - Feynman III (darkhorse contender) - Drendino (you ordered the guitar a long time ago, not your fault they wouldn't take payment in full) - polara (running out of parenthetical statements to make) - tbonesullivan (I'll just stop now) - sirskelt - jwhitcomb3 - gorch - sirDaniel - Toadroller - ghamerinfrance - velorush - carfish7 - belgian If any of you have purchased or acquired guitars since 1 Jan 2014 that you hadn't ordered back in 2013, 'fess up now.

I had the same results. The sound I finally settled was using the tremelo with just a little gain, which sounded professional and authentic. I finally figured out how to turn off the defaulted on noise gate and it made a tremendous improvement if you like to palm muffle, especially on clean with delay. Was bad as a preamp due to the EQ being linked with the volume. Overall a good practice amp, especially with the built in effects, but with so much built in and tied together, not sure how the Spider's would be with pedals. I even did a blog with tips for the small one. I have been disappointed in a lot of the new inexpensive practice amps as compared to the same model from 10 years ago. http://line6spider.blogspot.com/ Thanks, I'll check it out. The thing I like about the Spider IV 75 is it is big enough to take to a small gig, but I can still get decent tones out of it quiet. ...but just too damn complicated. Whereas the microcube sounds great, is portable, surprisingly loud, but maybe just a little too simple...there are some sounds I can't get. Interestingly, I bumped into a Vox Valvetronix VT20+ this morning before I read anyone mentioning it in this thread. It sounded decent, but I was most impressed with its layout. It seems like an intuitive way to get a bunch of sounds (99!) out of an amp, with complete clarity of what you are doing with each change. My only problem with it is it is too small to gig with. I may end up picking one up anyway, but my wife is already irritated with me having 4 amps cluttering up the space. Gotta get rid of two first, I guess.

I have a Roland Microcube and a Line6 Spider IV 75. I've found I like the Microcube for checking out/learning what a guitar *really* sounds like. It's also simpler than the Spider: twist a knob and I have clean tones, another twist and I have British tone, another twist and I have 80s high-gain distortion. Much harder to find the right sounds on the Spider, and I feel like it layers so much more modeling on top of the guitar sound that you lose some of the guitar's character. With a few guitars, or for some sounds I want to get, that's not a bad thing. But although the guitar's character gets more hidden than on the Microcube! it is still there....like one setting, Swamp Throat, sounds great with p-90 guitars, okay with single coils, but muddy with a humbucker. Another complaint (?) I have about the Spider is that with all the different distortion settings, 80% sound almost the same. So as I learn to use the amp better and get the different sounds I want, I will enjoy the amp better. My next move will be to choose a random song (from a pre-determined list of songs that have sounds I want to emulate) and play with the Spider until I find the sound. After that, I will take my most favorite guitars and set the User banks for the four tones I like best for that guitar (the user banks have an a,b,c,d setting for each number...easier to cycle through the letters for each number than the numbers for each letter). As I get more proficient at tweaking the settings, those four choices may end up being base tones I can tweak. But until then, the Microcube works very well, very satisfactory. But like hamerhack, the thr10 is tempting, too.

Diablo's gonna be pissed!

Ah. Okay.

I ain't modding this one!

Looks like you are right again sir, really tough to tell but I found a pretty good shot around the 1:09:20 mark that seems to clearly show dark metallic flake finish - looks a lot like black cherry to me... About seven years ago I bought this dark metallic flake cali with maple fb. But there was this guy who was begging me to sell it to him. So I did. Out of 20 Calis I had, I had to sell the only one with maple board....what an idiot ! 2 years later I saw that video and till this day I can't forgive myself for selling it. Could be the one, who knows? So depending on whether the one you had was Tommy's or not, that is either 3 or 4 maple-boarded Calis confirmed in existences, with the current location of two confirmed. If Peter chimes in, we will probably confirm a few more. I've contacted Mr Shaw via twitter about the guitar, but no response yet. I don't really expect one...

As I said in post #3, not only are the humbucker pickup pole pieces different (mine has the parallel axis trembucker split pole pieces, whereas Tommy's look like normal ones), I thought I saw some sparkle/metal flake on his guitar a few times. But I never saw a hint of red, so I figured it was black metallic. It makes sense that it is his black cherry metallic w/ a maple board. So what about the next question: Do we know who has it? Does Tommy Shaw still have it? Or Peter Fung?

It's getting played more these days, Doug...

A couple of differences, maybe, as I watch the video: I think Tommy's has a bit of sparkle to his black paint job, and I think he has normal pole pieces on his humbucker...

Thanks to Doug (Hbom), I ended up with the black USA Californian with a maple fretboard, signed by Ted Nugent. But tonight I finally got around to watching Damn Yankees Live in Japan 1993, and Tommy Shaw is playing a black Californian with a maple board. http://youtu.be/vCkjMvztu2Y Now, as I understand it, the one Doug helped me acquire was a guitar won in a contest, Ted Nugent played it on stage (in Alaska? I'm not clear on this), and the contest winner got to ride in the limousine and everything. I got the pictures as part of the deal, helping prove the signature is real. But the guitar I have is so similar to the one Tommy Shaw is playing, I just have to ask: is there any connection? Did Tommy Shaw see the contest guitar and liked it so much that he ordered one made for him to play? They can't be the same guitar, of course, because Ted signed mine in '91, and Tommy was playing his in Japan in '93... We know there aren't very many maple-fretboard Californians. Mine, and FGJ's green one are the only ones I've seen on this board. Does anyone know what happened to the one Tommy Shaw was playing in that concert in Japan? Does he still have it? If not, did someone else buy it? (Peter, I'm looking at you...) Anyway, here are my pictures...can't remember if I ever posted them or not.

Hm. To me "Superstrat" = "Shredder". But I admit I might have to revise that.

You know, my Yamaha RGX 1212 (neck through) is pretty dang awesome, too. I consider it the equal in tone, action, feel to my Californian(s).

Here's your first item: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hamer-Daytona-USA-/231112496896?pt=Guitar&hash=item35cf60d700

It's here! It's here! Here's a glimpse:

I know I may be inconsistent on this topic, but to me it seems easier to accept a modification that has already been done rather than one that is still under discussion for the future. It looks nice, and you did a great job. Until we hear differently, it looks like it is just you and me w/ maple-boarded Californians.

"Queen of Spades" by Styx is in C#m. Make of that what you will.

Depends on what you mean by "easy". For a jazzer, c# and eb should actually be easier, because the lack of open chords means you stick with moveable chords. Open chords aren't movable, movable chords aren't open.

Okay, the money has been sent. The guitar will most likely be shipped Monday, and most likely arrive by Friday. Expect NGD pictures by next Saturday...

Well, mine wasn't as profound as parenthood or anything. It's just, I've been hanging on to just over 40 guitars for over a year now. When I find a new "must have", it's been extremely difficult to decide which one to let go. I thought I hit my perfect combo just a few weeks ago. I admitted that there were 4 scenarios that could get me to break my self-imposed vow to not purchase again. ...and wouldn't you know it, one of those conditions arrived! This was a guitar that was love at first sight for me. If anything, more of an impact on me than the Blueburst Centaura. Okay, so a new guitar is inbound (full disclosure: not paid for yet, but the deal has been struck). So that just means one guitar is going out, right? Nope. Suddenly, with one guitar, there are 10 guitars that no longer matter to me. Sure, they were decent guitars with some flaws, but well worth keeping. Some collectible, some good quality acquired for an extremely cheap price. But these were the guitars that have survived dozens of purges. So why would just ONE guitar change my perception of nearly a dozen other guitars? How can adding just one guitar make nearly a dozen other guitars superfluous? Dunno. I think it might be that this guitar is so cool, it is going to take up so much of my playing time, that those other 10 guitars just don't matter much anymore. They won't get played, and they don't even hold as much attraction as minor collectibles, either.

Well, I'd like to hear that story.

I have. Since this is a Hamer Fan Club website, you can probably guess that this involves a USA Hamer. Of course, based on past postings, you could also guess that this involves a Yamaha, Westone, Jon Kammerer, or even an import Hamer. Go with the first guess. It's going to take about 10-14 days to get to completion on this. Yes, I do plan on spinning out the suspense as much/long as I can.

I think cmatthes got a vicarious thrill out of Diablo's latest acquisition. That should kick him out of the contest, right?