Lets See All Them Axes

[Fred Sanford]

1993 Hohner TWP600B

Another MIK, this one came to me in a trade when I purchased a 1990 Suzuki DR250S motorcycle. Chronic problems with the 4-band preamp (Hohner replaced it twice, and now yet another slider has gone bad), and overall just an OK guitar. Useful to have around for songwriting sessions & informal acoustic hacking, but not really loud enough for acoustic use & the piezo pickup amplifies so much body & string noise that it's tough to amplify or record with. Still around 'cause it's not really worth selling, and it does give a unique textural option for some tunes. Currently wearing half-rounds to try to kill some of the string noise.

More than half of the acoustics I've owned have been black, not sure why that is.

je

 

[Mystic]

That Teisco and the Kazoo have big ol' bathtubs, too, and they're thinner bodies to begin with...I'll post up pics of them.

je

You need to fill those up w/ sand to add some mass. Finding ways to improve (or just get any) sustain was ever the issue with 60s Japanese solid bodies. This guy...

...managed to find a way.

 

[JonL]

Sustain can be in the fingers of the player, not only in the response of the guitar. Gotta shake those strings sometimes.

 

[trhee]

Some of my guitars... 2 Fender Strats and an Ernie Ball Axis.

 

[Fred Sanford]

Sustain can be in the fingers of the player, not only in the response of the guitar. Gotta shake those strings sometimes.

Absolutely, but certain aspects of some guitars conspire against you & suck that string energy away quite effectively. This Teisco has a very shallow string angle over a zero fret, and then a very shallow angle over a loose roller bridge and into a flimsy vibrato tail, all screwed to a mostly-hollow body. "Shaking those strings" with this guitar in stock form would simply cause the strings to jump from the saddles, and at the very least ruin your intonation, at worst make it entirely unplayable. Changing the neck pitch with shims gave me much better downforce on the bridge saddles, but there are still plenty of things working against me (including the microphonic & loosely-mounted pickups in a resonant metal pickguard, which preclude even using sympathetic vibration feedback to artificially increase sustain). It's not a bad player at this point, but it really makes you approach playing it very differently than the sustain-monsters like my LP Specials. That actually becomes part of its charm to me, for some music. It makes you work for it, picking & phrasing differently 'cause a long sustained note or smooth legato sequence just isn't an option.

je

 

[fotno]

Lord almighty, that is the mother of all control cavities!

There was a ton of crap in there at one time. Wired up like an SG, that big old tub looks like an ghost town.

From the net, what it would have looked like originally...

 

[Fred Sanford]

You need to fill those up w/ sand to add some mass. Finding ways to improve (or just get any) sustain was ever the issue with 60s Japanese solid bodies. This guy...

...managed to find a way.

Higher string action and tilt-back headstock adds better downforce, then a slide & some body english can get you some sustain. Is that Hound Dog Taylor?

je

 

[enricosonic]

Rickenbackers don't seem to have gotten any love on these pages so here are a couple. My Rickenbacker 360/12 and 360WB:

 

[enricosonic]

One of my better eBay finds 10 years ago, a 1961 Kay Value Leader. Probably the biggest overachiever, tone-wise, of any guitar I've owned.

The fretboard wear (pickguard too), shows what kind of player it is.

 

[JonL]

That Kay is one of the coolest guitars I've ever seen! Really beautiful!

 

[enricosonic]

Thanks Jon, shame they couldn't have come up with a more inspired name than Value Leader.

 

[enricosonic]

I think this is also a '61 model. A Guild T-100 with P-90s. My grandfather bought it new but after many years of my visiting and pulling it out from under his bed and dusting it off to play it, he just gave it to me. He passed about 15 years ago, making this one pretty special.

 

[Fred Sanford]

One of my better eBay finds 10 years ago, a 1961 Kay Value Leader. Probably the biggest overachiever, tone-wise, of any guitar I've owned.

The fretboard wear (pickguard too), shows what kind of player it is.

Love. That. :sigh:

Original bridge?

je

 

[Fred Sanford]

I think this is also a '61 model. A Guild T-100 with P-90s. My grandfather bought it new but after many years of my visiting and pulling it out from under his bed and dusting it off to play it, he just gave it to me. He passed about 15 years ago, making this one pretty special.

Love that one, too...

I got my grandfather's 1921 Gibson H-2 Mandola, much too early in life to give it the respect it deserved. I finally did sell it after teaching myself guitar, and used the proceeds to buy the drum set I still play to this day, so I've still got a part of him here.

je

 

[JJJimmy]

Don't know how I missed this thread, but here's mine

 

[enricosonic]

Original bridge?

No. Good eye. If I remember it right, it came with a simple, straight wooden bridge. Not even compensated. I added the tune-o-matic style bridge (for obvious reasons) and filed the other one away in my guitar parts bin/junk-pile.

 

[JonL]

Don't know how I missed this thread, but here's mine

Nice!
I've got three G&Ls myself... no ASATs though. An F-100, a Legacy, and an S-500. The F-100 is a keeper, the other two are not. Nice guitars, but not what I need/want right now.

 

[trhee]

Over the years I've bought and sold a boat load of guitars. There are 2 guitars that to this day I regret selling.

1. A neon orange Charvel/Jackson Jeff Beck Signature model prototype, played by Jeff Beck and built by Grover Jackson.

2. A black Charvel Model 1, temporarily owned and played by Phil Collen of Def Leppard. Phil actually borrowed the guitar from Grover and didn't return it for a couple years.

I bought them both from Grover Jackson in the mid-90's when he was thinning out his collection. Both came with letters of authenticity signed by Grover himself and pictures showing the guitars being played by Jeff and Phil. The Model 1 even the tip of the pointy headstock worn down from Phil spinning the guitar by the point during shows. Anyways, like an idiot, I sold them to thin out my collection because I never touched those guitars. Although, I've had nicer guitars that I've sold including a Bob Benedetto customized PRS Custom (fretboard, fretwork, binding, and custom finger board inlay design), it's those 2 Charvel/Jackson's that I miss most.

 

[enricosonic]

Love that one, too...

I got my grandfather's 1921 Gibson H-2 Mandola, much too early in life to give it the respect it deserved. I finally did sell it after teaching myself guitar, and used the proceeds to buy the drum set I still play to this day, so I've still got a part of him here.

je

If it makes you feel any better (probably won't, so this is just another back-story in the life of a musical instrument), I pawned that Guild T-100 during tough times in the early '80s and forgot to pay up within the 90 day "loan" agreement. I literally remembered and then found the ticket 2 days too late.

When I pleaded my lame case, the shop owner told me he was sorry, and that it was already in some clearinghouse or something. But then I spotted it on my way out in a glass case where the better guitars were and when I pointed it out, he really didn't know what to say, except to charge me an extra $100 as a sort-of late penalty. He had every right to tell me to go to hell and might have done so, but we'd had a little history of doing minor business together and talking guitars, etc.

And it probably wouldn't have fetched as much for him as that H-2 Mandola.

 

[royf]

well heres mine