Rediscovering gear you have

[Bombadil]

I had one. Named her ‚Gertrude.‘ Had another Seagull, named it ‚Heathcliff.‘
Yup, excellent 12 string for the money.

[tapper mike]

But I find it interesting about 12 string guitars. They always sound like I want to play them forever, then they‘ll sit untouched for ages.

Since the subject shifted to 12 string guitars I want to mention my Duesenberg Double Cat. It is probably my best sounding guitar but I couldn't play it for a whole gig to save my life, let alone forever. I just don't have the strength for it in my left hand.

With the original 010-046 string set I would hardly last one song, but now that I use a 009-042 set it plays OK. Still my hand gets cramped after a while. And of course large bends are out of the question.

I have a huge respect for guitarists who continuously play 12 strings especially if it is an acoustic guitar which usually comes with even higher gauges.

My 6 string acoustic I can go for about 45 minutes on my best day. I have less and less of those.
It's something that I should remind myself of when worshiping 12 string tone.

[Bombadil]

You just need to play more, and more often.
12 strings are excellent for building hand strength.

[Uncle E]

It’s a different technique, too. Slides instead of bends.

[Bombadil]

Well, mostly I am rediscovering my guitars that I rarely played. That is changing. I have such a great collection, borne of years of GAS, trials and tribulations, that when I do pull a guitar out that I haven't played in a while I am always A) happy I have it and B) happy about how it plays/sounds.

The last couple of days, it's been this:
Gretsch 5422-12 Electromatic. I hadn't played this in over 2 years. It has Pyramid Gold flatwounds on it. After 2+ years, 10/12 strings were still in perfect tune, and the other 2 were only out a few cents. WTF?
So, I laid into some Beatles, Byrds, and Tom Petty.

IMG_1134.jpeg

I'm supposed to be thinning the herd and you aren't helping not one bit.

My pov on ‚thinning the herd.‘ I‘ve had periods where I don‘t play a guitar for ages. During those intervals, I often think to myself ‚why not sell it? You‘re not playing it?‘ This has happened to me so often that I‘ve hit on a reasonably decisive test to determine what I want to get rid of.
It is, simply, pull the guitar out and play it. If it brings me joy, it stays. This is what happened with the hardtailed Strat I was trying to sell in the autumn. I‘m not a fan of the hot noiseless pups, but as soon as I plugged it in, tuned up (nothing out more than a few cents after at least a year), strummed a few chords and started playing it, I knew that I would regret selling it. So, I took it off the market.
I‘ve even thought of selling my D-28. I pull that out of its case, tune up and strum a few chords, and immediately conclude I need my head read.
Any of the guitars I have now, I would feel their loss, some more than others, obviously. But everyone of them makes me happy to play.
No, it‘s really just at a point to stand pat, and get on with making music.

[Uncle E]

Yeah, there are several I’ve sold that I’m chasing to get back. Part of why I’m giving up on Les Paul’s is none of them measure up to the 1968 I had 30 years ago.

[The Noodlist]

I really went through "thinning the herd" with synths first, then also guitars.
- I have Prophet REV2 left, sold 6 synths
- a tele, strat and lp, sold a hollow body, 335 and a Squier
- a digital piano and a Hammond organ as well, must haves

Having two acoustics, and not jumping on a third until I really made new takes with what I've got.

No bass?

[The Noodlist]

After playing the parker for a few days several hours each day now...
It sounds great and it plays great but when I'm working out covers it doesn't jell like my other instruments. Maybe I need to fiddle with my rig more or maybe it's just not a good match for me.

Try installing a PRS partial split. It’s an easy mod, you don’t need to hire a tech to do it. My guess is you’re more of a single coil guy and the Parker’s splits don’t sound like proper single coils. The PRS partial split will get you closer to your Tele.

Also, try lowering the pickups, especially the bass side of the neck pickup.

How about this, 500k to 250k volume and a partial split? Split sees 250k.....ish

and

[The Noodlist]

Yes, spin-a-split.

How about a variable resistor on the pull push for tweaking?
If it could be mounted in a tremolo cavity for those guitars for easier access.

[The Noodlist]

Killer guitar! I’ll probably never sell my 1991 RG550.

I regret selling mine for £110 in the 90's, it was bright yellow (desert yellow?). I was a broke student who needed bread and beans, sigh.....

[The Noodlist]

No worries. Most of my guitars haven‘t been as neglected as the ones I‘ve posted, so it isn‘t a ‚re-discovery‘ per se. So I‘m not bothering to post the lot…
The only non-guitar equipment I don‘t use but am holding onto nevertheless is a BOSS GT-1. Just in case I want to play an electric out in the garden, it runs on batteries. It sits under our sofa. Multipedals are just not my cuppa.

Sonicake have an offering that can run from its internal battery. Sonicake Smart Box. https://www.sonicake.com/products/smart-box

[Bombadil]

Not buying any gear this year, but thanks for the tip!

[mystran]

How about this, 500k to 250k volume and a partial split? Split sees 250k.....ish

This (just like the partial split) is also adjustable to taste: if you want to tame the highs a little bit, but don't want to go all the way down to 250k, then you can use a larger parallel resistor (say 1M for a nominally 333k pot).

The exact formula is R1*R2/(R1+R2) where one of R1,R2 is the pot and the other is the resistor, but pots might not always have the tightest tolerances, so not much point worrying too much about the exact value as long as it's in the right ballpark.

[mystran]

Yes, spin-a-split.

How about a variable resistor on the pull push for tweaking?
If it could be mounted in a tremolo cavity for those guitars for easier access.

Well, yeah, I suggested a variable resistor (around 10k or so would likely be reasonable) in my post somewhere around page 2 or so... with the caveat that you want to use a quality trimmer, 'cos the cheap ones are noisy.

[Uncle E]

How about a variable resistor on the pull push for tweaking?
If it could be mounted in a tremolo cavity for those guitars for easier access.

That will work, and putting it on a PCB trimmer is a nice idea. Just use a shielded wire to get to it.

My problem with partial splits is there's still hum. I'd like to experiment with putting a cap in the middle of the split, so that the lower frequencies still cancel and only the upper frequencies get split.