Guitar Families...

The present.... (Fender Bass VI not shown)



















The past....

Washburn HB30

Back to ES335 style guitars..... I really like this body style and since I sold my other two.... I had a gap to fill and I found a bargain on Ebay. This is a Korean made Washburn HB30 with Gibson '57 pickups and Gibson electronics already installed. The upgraded pickups are a big improvement from the stock pickups. Clear and articulate Humbuckers and just as good as any Gibson I've heard. Just cost a lot less. As for negatives, I would say that this is a pretty neck heavy guitar and the neck width is smaller compared to my Schecter Corsair that i regret selling. It just takes some getting used to...

I was originally looking for an HB35 which is the deluxe version of the HB30. The main differences between the two are a flame maple top, block inlays, and gold hardware. It's generally considered the best value of the ES335 copies out there. But for the deal I got this hb30 for, it was well worth it.

Washburn has had several variations of the HB line without changing the model numbers.... Generally, the japanese and Korean made ones are better quality than the current chinese made models. This also reflects my experience as I've seen Chinese made guitars have quality control issues while most of the Korean made ones have had superb quality controls.

2016 Update: I miss this guitar. I'm not sure what they kinda of mods they did to the electronics, in addition to the pickups but it sounded really really good. wish I had held on to this guitar.

Fender Custom Telecaster FMT again!

Simply beautiful. The quality of this Korean made guitar is again top notch. As posted earlier, I sold my first one which was in a Crimson Red. This time I decided to get the Black Cherry burst. It also came with Seymour Duncan pickups. A '59 and a Pearly Gates Pickup. I ended up swapping them out for Gibson P-94 pickups. I really enjoy the P90 sound and thought they would look really good in this guitar. Because there was a coil tap already set up and P-94s are single coil, I had the coil tap switch modified so it can be in series and in parallel when both pickups are engaged. When in parallel, the sound of the pickups is very quack like.... The sound of the Gibson P-94s gives a very dark sound with the mahogony body and it drives very easily. Also the longer scale length gives a little more snap to the sound. THere are several different pickup combinations that intrigues me on this tele and with the coil tap option, I may eventually switch pickups again. But for now, I will say that P-90 pickups in a tele sound perfect. See my notes on my other Fender Telecaster Custom FMT for more info.....

Epiphone Casino

1999 Epiphone Casino. Korean made hollowbody guitar. Known for easily feeding back because it's fully hollow. Thus it is an extremely light guitar. Vintage cherryburst on this one which isn't available anymore. I got it in an even trade with the Gibson Les Paul Faded Doublecut. It has two dog-ear style P90 pickups. Very nice sounding guitar with very nice acoustics. I modified this one by putting a frequensator tailpiece on it. The thought behind the frequensator is the longer bass strings provide higher stiffer tension and a tighter bottom end sound while the shorter strings have a little more treble and brilliance... In the end, I sold this one because it had a weird string buzz that i couldn't get rid of and so I couldn't get a real clean sound. I even compared it to some newer ones and they didn't have that problem so I decided to part with it.

Fender Bass VI

Japanese Reissue back in 1996. Made famous by The Cure and the Beatles, It's a 30 inch scale length 6 string bass tuned in standard E to E an octave down. Not exactly the ideal instrument to learn guitar on, but it was my first guitar. They say the reissues don't sound the same as the originals.... 3 single coils pickups with a vibrato. It's not without some flaws. The bridge design is terrible and can move out of position when using the vibrato. It's got a unique and very specific sound though. Not a very versatile instrument. The best part though is definitely in its looks. 

Fender Telecaster Highway 1

This is a 2006 version before they did a major upgrade of the model. Personally, I like this version better. The main reason is because this version has medium frets instead of jumbo frets. The Highway 1 series is Fenders lowest line of American made telecasters. The cost cutting it mostly on the finish which is a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. It's a matte finish that allows it to wear a little quicker. Personally, I like the finish because it lets the sound of the wood come through a little more. This guitar also has the smoothest best playing neck of all my guitars. It's extremely comfortable (the neck not the guitar body) and playable. The body isn't contoured at all so it literally feels like holding a block of wood. I also got a rosewood fingerboard on this one instead of the more traditional maple fretboard. To me, rosewood is just more comfortable.  I am looking to eventually replace the pickups... perhaps a set of Lindy Fralins. I have modified this guitar by replacing the white pickguard with a black one. 

Schecter Porl Thompson Signature Corsair

Porl Thompson is the guitarist for The Cure. It has a very modern rock sound to it. The bridge pickup was wonderful but the neck pickup left much to be desired. The pickups also featured a coil split for turning humubckers to single coils which was nice. Artwork was done by a British Tattoo artist named Kev Grey. I well made Korean guitar. It also included a bigsby and a roller bridge to help the strings stay in tune. Another nice feature that gave it a nice feel is the ebony fretboard. A feature that's not found in many lower end guitars. 

I sold it to a Cure fan because in the end it wasn't the sound I was looking for. I regret it because the feel of the guitar is really nice and I should have just replaced the pickups in it. 
Also, I was worried that in time, the white color was going to start to yellow and not look as nice.

The neck is much wider than my Washburn (to come) which made it really comfortable to play. In retrospect, it's also lighter and thinner than my Washburn. Retail I think these are a bit overpriced and the resale value is pretty bad on these. Also check out the regular Schecter Corsair because they're basically the same guitars;however there are reports that some come with rosewood fingerboards instead of ebony. 

Gibson Faded Les Paul Doublecut

This was an all out rock machine and all in all, it sounded great. Mahogany body with P-90 pickups that had a rock and roll growl to them. Very dark sounding guitar. Faded worn look to it. I ended up selling it because it was just too light and also because of fears that one day the neck might snap.... I guess I have that fear from SGs which are notorious for that. But boy did this thing sound good. 

Fender Custom Telecaster FMT

Korean made with flawless quality. The flame maple top (FMT) is very well done. It's very light and offers a belly cut for comfort. The mahogany body with set neck made it feel like an SG more than a Tele. This one had Fender Humbuckers which were quite good (it had a Pink Floyd sound to it). Later models switched to Seymour Duncans. I preferred the Fender humbuckers better. Also has a coil-tap so humbuckers turn into single coils. Also has jumbo frets which I personally don't like....I ended up selling this one because I liked the feel of my highway one telecaster better. I would regret it later but made up for it. Details later. 

First Post....

Welcome.

I've accumulated quite a bit of info and in the coming days and weeks it may seem like a guitar dump....  please bear with me as I get this thing started... Thanks.