What are you trying to say????? That my Limited Edition Zakk Wylde Signature shoelaces WON'T make me the best guitar player in town????

My world is crumbling, my heart--it sobs!

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"To Be Is To Do" --Locke
"To Do Is To Be" --Thoreau
"Do Be Do Be Do" --Sinatra

Nice list. It is kinda funny the preconceived notions people tend to get pushed on them.

Along those same lines, it's a great feeling to find stuff that's not "name-brand" that is entirely cool! Kinda makes you feel like you stumbled upon something no one knows about.

Heck!! Now I have to sell all my gear that took years to acquire!!
JK!!! some of you points are well heeded!!

Much wisdom in your words, Kemosabie!

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Hey, Boy Blue is back!

great thoughts. when i learned the basics of guitar, i then went in to playing music that i liked. i started off on the ventures, duane eddy, and songs like that type. when i played in wedding bands, i learned to play a lot of the old standards.

i never really learned to play"fast"' or learn to shred. there are a lot of talented people who can do that- and props to you.

i can go to guitar center any day of the week and watch some kid speedplay me under the table- and i always go up and say "nice job".

it seems best to find your style, and work with it. you'll enjoy it a lot more.

I learned long ago to take the opinions of others with a grain of salt and that goes for guitar magazine reviews unless there's a universal consensus of opinion on a certain piece of gear.The MIC-MIM is garbage myth has been blown out of the water so many times that it's ridiculous to suggest such a thing and anyone who still adheres to that opinion is full of fecal material as far as I'm concerned.Just this past Monday I bought a MIM Jimmy Vaughn Strat after trying several other Strats and a Les Paul, to my ears and hands it was the best of the bunch.A couple of years ago my daughter was working at the local Gibson(don't give me a hard time) factory and gave me for Father's day a MIC no-name factory second that they had come in(apparently that was a regular thing)anyway this non descript guitar sounded like a million bucks and after some tweaking of the truss rod and intonation became a great player.I have also played "vintage" instruments that sounded worse than Walmart specials,I got off lucky as all my vintage gear sounds sweet but some people get stuck with absolute dogs.Sometimes low budget gear has a better sound than gear costing many times more.Back in the early 70s when I bought my Big Muff Pi it was the cheapest fuzz you could get but outsold everything else not because it was cheap but because it was far superior to anything else.Cost,country of origin or age of gear should never be a factor when buying gear,some gems may get bypassed because they're perceived as being cheap and/or inferior.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

If you ever run across a B-52 AT-412 cabinet, snag it. Those things are freaking cool. You can find them dirt cheap. They're nicely constructed ply cabinets, insulated, and the speakers pull off some really nice warm tones.

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HaleAmano- House Of Sharks (Now On iTunes)
http://www.reverbnation.com/haleamano
http://www.haleamano.com

-Effect Pedals
Of all the musical gear, I think these undergo the most snobbery. You simply must have this overdrive pedal or you will never be any good etc. Oh no, is that a reissue of a famous pedal. Nope, it could never be as good as my 400 dollar vintage version. Did you make that pedal yourself? Must be crap. My pedal is boutique, it beats your 30 dollar pedal.

I constantly comeback to the cheapest pedal i ever bought, the Boss DS1 Distortion. I love the simplicity, Literally the dials can be set about anywhere and i can use that sound for something.

-Vince

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-Fender 92' Telecaster unknown
- 2007 Gretsch 6118T
- Ibanez 02' AF85 Artcore hollowbody, modded
- Epiphone Firebird
- Line 6 Variaxe 300
- Squire strat (refinished)
- 2008 Fender Supersonic
- Fender Blues Junior (original)

I can not agree with all that. A budget guitar is what it is, a budget guitar and most last and play as such and build quality is that of a budget guitar. They are built that way.
Pedals are almost the same but more so on how well the hold up to the riggers of use. Means quality of box and switch ect.ect. Digital or Analog

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

hmm budget guitars , i have a 89 mij strat which i've owned for 15 years or so , i didn't pay a lot for it , a few weeks ago i tried snowys dave gilmour strat , not a bit of difference apart from that wee switch , oh and the price i also hve an epi lp i picked up a few weeks ago and compared it to snowys gibby lp agian not a bit of difference apart from the name and the price , what i might be a wee bit snoby about is my amps , i've used marshall heads and 4x12 cabs for 20 odd years , currently using my old jcm 800 with a roost 2x12 , not gigging so it a nice size for in the house and i get the sound i love ,
i think if most people got themselves a decent amp they would be a lot happier with thier sound instead of blaming the budget guitar they bought , just my thoughts and i only realy use my old wah peddal so i don't really bother with effects but it is old and from what i've heard of the ne ones it's a bloody lot better

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Good after noon? alanssaab. I once had a Marshall and thought that it was the most wonderful guitar amplifier ever made and still do. but I have an old Sunn 2/15 cab and that Strat of yours would catch Jimi's spirit right away 'specially with your wah pushing that much air Bro.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

I think Nevin nailed this topic perfectly and it is true. I have seen some all out wars on Harmony Centrals guitar forum as there are a few guys on there that are real gear snobs and do not hide it. Not only that they ridicule other guys for what they call garbage low end guitars. Well this one guy blew a cork and said he was just fine with the gear he had and posted some amazing playing with it and then called out the guy with the million dollar to post some music and really shut him up. The bottom line is you can have the most expensive high end axes going but if you cant play all it makes you is a wealthy $@!.

In this day and age you really can get a good solid guitar for $500 that you could gig and record with and will also be a pleasure to play comfort wise, and sound great. The budget guitars of the past were barely playable with action an inch high and just as hard to keep in tune. I really feel that when Fender and Gibson got knocked down and the guitar making biz went from a 2 company show to a lot of smaller companies getting a slice of the pie the quality went up in everyones favor.

Tres , straycat113.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

I visited a buddy who is a long time guitar player and lead in a small garage band. He uses a couple of Gibsons to gig... one a nice electric 12 string. He's also built his own parts-o-caster and a couple of his own acoustic guitars and frankly... they are quite nice.

When he had a chance to plug my MIM Strat into his original Twin Reverb he was totally amazed! The first thing he said was... "I've never played a real Stratocaster before." then he followed with... "This is a REALLY nice guitar! How much was it if you don't mind my asking?" And to be honest... it did sound sweet through that old 100 watt Fender amp.

So, yeah, it seems you can get a lot of decent sound for relatively little cash these days. Relative being the key term. A $500 guitar is still no child's toy. I think today's amps are even bigger bargains.

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You're only as strong as
the drinks you pour,
the tables you dance on,
and the friends you roll with.

Next time you're by your music store, plug a MIM Strat into a Fender VM Deluxe amp and squirt out a tune. I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised!

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"To Be Is To Do" --Locke
"To Do Is To Be" --Thoreau
"Do Be Do Be Do" --Sinatra