Guitar Amplifier TimeLine

 Generic 20 Watt Solid-State with Reverb [Gone]
My first Amplifier was bought secondhand in combination with a Black Fender Squier guitar. It was your basic 2 channel model with a reverb with I believe a 10" Speaker. I don't even remember the brand name or model. It sounded like your basic Solid-State amp..but hey it was my first so lots of fond memories.

Fender Princeton 112 Plus
A Solid State Fender Amp I got at the same time as a MIM Stratocaster. This little amp was 65 Watts, had reverb and the clean actually sounded pretty good for a Solid-State Amp. Overdrive... not so much. I've had this amp for over a decade now and was my main amp for a long time. Together with a Tube screamer pedal this is quite a combo and can deliver a fair amount of decibel. The only annoyance is that when turning it off there tends to be an INCREDIBLY loud pop and buzz sound. Something I'll have to fix one of these day.

Marshall MG Series Combo Amp [Gone]
For a while I had Marshall 'MG' Series which at the time had just replaced the 'ValveState' lineup of combo amps. I'm not quite sure what the model was , but if I recall correctly I think it was a G50RCD

For a Solid-State Amp it actually had a decent overdrive sound, clean was sort of 'anemic' though, but when all you have available is one solid-state combo it's pretty decent.


Hughes & Kettner Triamp
To me this amp had been the holy grail I dreamed about for a LONG time. The Mrs. was feeling generous one holiday season and since she wanted me to stop talking about this amp she decided to shut me up.

Guitar Timeline

I will try to keep this list updated as my gear changes (or as I remember things ;) )

I didn't get into playing Guitar until I was probably in my early teens. I was a huge Hank Marvin/Shadows Fan (yeah only a decade or so too late ;) ) and loved Mark Knopfler etc. I was also getting into Hendrix etc. One of my relatives 'used' to play guitar and had sorta given up, leaving his guitars as wall ornaments. After a few *hints* to both him and my parents they worked out that I got his Nylon String Acoustic to see if I was really interested.

No Name Nylon String Acoustic Guitar [Gone]

Not even sure I wanted to waste a picture on this - Google found me the above image which yeah is your basic Nylon Acoustic. This guitar was well...beat to hell, cumbersome, a pain to play, worn etc etc.. But hey it was free and got me playing

Squier Stratocaster (Made In Korea) [Gone]
After a while I was ready to move on to the electric guitar. I had been looking around and I really wanted a Black Stratocaster with a white pickguard with maple neck because I liked the way they looked. Obviously a new one wasn't going to happen at the time so off to the newspaper classifieds it was.. After a lot of looking I found one for sale relatively close by for a decent price, and it also came with a small 35W Solid State amp with Reverb.
After going to take a look at it , it turned out the guy selling it had swapped the pickguard for a single ply Black and black pickups.. For 5 seconds I was disappointed, but then I realized I liked the look of this even more. The purchase was made and this was my main guitar for quite a few years. I still think it looks very sharp and may one day actually rebuild one just like it - I found this image online which is exactly how mine looked:

Black on Black - Ah the Memories..

"Chinese" SG Clone [Gone ]
I can only call my next guitar a horrible clone because I have no idea about the brand or anything. It was basically a Gibson SG Clone which was given to me by the same relative who gave me the acoustic. After searching online it appears to be a Marlin copy from the 70s which looked exactly like this picture (it even had missing knobs too!)

This thing was atrocious to be honest.. the neck seemed to bend, wouldn't stay tuned, The rosewood fretboard had such an open grain you could get a finger nail stuck in there, the pickguard was broken, the pickups while looking like humbuckers where these really WEIRD single coils and the sound was more anemic than a $50 pawnshop special. Barely played, hung on to it for a while and then donated it to a local kid (Hey Bart!) who really wanted a guitar. (He has come a long way since then and ended up with an Ibanez Jem 555 IIRC - Lost touch though which is a shame - nice guy).

Samick "P" Base Clone [Gone]
For about a year or so I had a Samick 'P" Bass Clone.. I THINK it may have been called a 'LB' bass or something. I wasn't able to find any good pictures of it online since it was an older model and obviously not at all that popular. I'd basically compare it to a Squier P-Bass, except with a slightly different Head-Stock. Here's a picture I found online, however mine was Black, White Pickguard and Maple Fretboard.

Fender Standard Stratocaster (Made in Mexico) [Gone]
For about 6 months I had your basic MIM Fender Stratocaster - the basic model Black, White Pickguard, Maple Neck.

 

 Nice guitar for the money etc, but it did make me realize I preferred the black pickguard/pickups. This was definitely a nice guitar for the money , though the bridge pickup sounded a little harsh.


Ibanez Jem 10th Anniversary (#741)
At this time I was really into Joe Satriani / Steve Vai and I was itching for a new guitar. A local mega music store had a few JS models & Jems on Display.. the Burnt Stained Blue , the usual White and a GORGEOUS 10th Anniversary model. They had in a case where no one was allowed to touch it, but just seeing it I knew I had to have one. Obviously that particular guitar was sold, and I had a hard time finding any others with it being a limited run of only around 850 IIRC. After literally a few years I was still occasionally searching and I found one in Germany (Musik-Produktiv). Time to whip out the creditcard ;-) They originally sent the wrong certificate with it (wrong number on it), but once that was straightened out I was one happy camper!

Fender Standard Telecaster (Made in Mexico)
When I got this one I had been without a 'fun' electric guitar for a while - I had my Jem but I was trying to take good care of it and not beat it to hell playing on it all the time. Time to shop for something new. I hate most local places like Guitar Center, but sometimes you gotta bite the big one.. So I went there looking for possible a new black Strat or just maaaaaaaaaaaybe a black telecaster, but I was 99% certain I'd get a Black Strat. What do you know - I end up walking out with a Wine-Red / white pickguard Telecaster... I never would've imagined I'd pick this one but out of all the guitars there , this one just clicked ..

Since then I've made a few modifications such as new Pickups and a different neck. The Wine Red is a really sharp color that looks really good and I'm starting to really like the look as much as a good black guitar.

Fender American Deluxe (HSS) Stratocaster (FSR) "None More Black"
So I had a bunch of throw around guitars , but I didn't have a Strat anymore... and I really wanted one!
I had been looking to purchasing a nice black strat with maple neck again, but then one holiday season (I believe it was around 2005?) I noticed an ad for two 'special run' Stratocasters.. a 'Bad Boy Blue' and 'None More Black'. The BBB as the name implies was Blue with 3 Single Coils, while the None More Black was All black with a Humbucker in the bridge.  I wanted the all black one, hence I got the None-More-Black Model.

What is interesting is that in my search for some decent stock pictures, I noticed a lot of 'knock-off' (if you can call'm that) Strats that claim they are the 'none more black' model, but have are missing S1 Switching, don't have the chrome knobs or ebony fretboard etc etc.. not sure what the deal is with those, but the picture above is the correct image. Though I agree with some people online where if it's none-more-black, how come the knobs, tuners, bridge etc are all chrome still? ;)


Ibanez JV50 Acoustic
This guitar was one of those impulse purchases where I was thinking to myself "You know.. I want an accoustic guitar" since I had been without one. I simply looked through the catalogs, found a cheap one ($99) that looked 'ok' (it's an accoustic - not THAT much variety in the low price ranges) and ordered it.

It's actually been a very nice basic guitar to just have laying around the house and just 'tinker' on. Though I must say I'm starting to think about getting a 'nicer' accoustic guitar and really apply myself to it more seriously.


Dean Edge 09 Bass
Similar to the acoustic this purchase was one along the lines of "Hey you know what I'm missing? A Bass guitar! Let's buy one just for the heck of it". Cheap, Simple, Made in China, but actually fun to play on! It is actually fairly light weight, which makes it a joy to play (doesn't feel like a boat-anchor around your neck) and the 'bare' neck feel is awesome. Very Pleasantly surprised by this one. Tone wise.. well.. it's does the job.. More details in the linked write up here.

Fender BlackTop Telecaster
After I had swapped out the neck on my MIM Wine-Red Telecaster, I obviously had an extra Telecaster neck laying around. Sounded like the perfect excuse to find a new Telecaster body to go with it! After some looking around I really like the look of the BlackTop Telecaster with it's dual humbuckers. I scored it off E-bay and really enjoy the unique sound it has.

Highway One Stratocaster with Japanese V-Neck
As mentioned near the top of the page, my first real electric was a Black Squier with Black pickguard. I LOVED that guitar and I had wanted to build another Black/Black Stratocaster like it for a while. I found that I really liked the 'Matte Black' Highway One Strats. So after getting a body, swapping the pickguard with a single ply Warmoth and slapping on a nice vintage tinted Japanese 57 Re-issue V-Neck I finally had my Black Strat again!

Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster with V-Neck
This one I got after being on a Stratocaster kick building my Black Strat. I found out that I really liked the American Deluxe in Tungsten with the black pickguard (yes a theme.. no white pickguards for me). Kicker was that that model only came with the 'Modern C' neck, while only a black or red model came with the 'vintage' V-Neck (also had a 'vintage' tint to it). Since I wanted a V-Neck and I am not afraid of a screwdriver I simply ordered the deluxe tungsten body, deluxe V-Shaped neck and now I have another awesome Stratocaster. (You can tell the neck looks 'yellower' than you usually see on the tungsten body).

Gibson Les Paul Standard
So after long deliberation I finally gave in and got an authentic Gibson Les Paul. While it's a beautiful guitar I actually don't play it as much as my others. Really when it comes down to it I think I'm a Fender guy. For now I'm keeping it, but I may actually sell it in the future so someone who really appreciates it can enjoy it.

Keyboard/Synthesizer Timeline

My first adventure in music started out when I was probably about 10 years old. A friend in class (let's call'm Rob H.) had brought his keyboard over for show & tell and as an eager prepubescent nerd I was super excited to see all the sounds & songs he was able to extract out of this table-top instrument. I had to have one! After an appropriate amount of begging etc my parents (who actually did value musical education which helped) got me a basic Yamaha Model. I had to do some major digging online and only vaguely remember what it looked like but at this point I'm sure it was the Yamaha PortaSound PSS-360 or PSS-460. They both are very similar and had the green 'synth' sliders on top and even share the same manual . I'm leaning towards the 360 because I THINK it only had the 1 speaker




Yamaha PortaSound PSS 360

Yamaha PortaSound PSS 460

Either way it was a great little keyboard. I even remember taking it on vacations with me and just playing it whenever I could.


Yamaha DSR-2000
After a few year I needed something a bit 'bigger' the 49 keys were getting to be a little too small. As it happens there was a keyboard crazy going on at the time (anyone remember those 'Synthesizer Greatest' Tapes & CDs?) and there was actually even a 'Special Sales Event' that came to town for like 3 days selling keyboards & synthesizers ( Cheap Prices & they took trade-ins = done deal!). I remember being very interested in either a bigger Yamaha being the DSR-1000 / DSR-2000 or some kind of Technics Synthesizer they had. (Googling reveals AX5/AX7 being the most likely competitor). I ended up going with the Yamaha since it just 'clicked' better. It also had this cool 'fold up' button & display area. It even came with it's own multi-track mini-sequencer which I remember making a ton of songs on. If you google some videos you can hear the cheezy FM sounds this wonder produced  (but hey it was awesome at the time!) - Google search produced this fine image:

I was able to also find the manual for the DSR-2000: Part 1 & Part 2


Yamaha SY-77
Move forward a few years and I had picked up some guitar playing, but figured what they heck I should take a few lessons. The instructor I found (lets call him Fred S. ) was actually a keyboard player who knew a bit about guitar, so I figured well I can sorta get lessons in both & alternate if I want. He was selling his Yamaha SY-77 workstation because he switched to a Roland (JV-30 I believe). Having tried out anything I could get my hands on over time, I came to realize I was basically a Yamaha Guy, so this super sleek looking Synthesizer had my name written all over it!

It had a sequencer, could read/write to/from floppy disc & memory cards, 77 keys of great action and the sounds were fantastic. I spent a ridiculous amount of time on this thing doing all kinds of fun projects (like painstakingly sequencing some Tubular Bells II (by Mike Oldfield) tracks on it ) & still have fond memories of this synthesizer. This was THE synthesizer to have at the time... so much so that a while after I bought it my guitar/keyboard instructor wanted to TRADE me back for his new Roland since he missed the sounds & versatility when he played with his band. I tried it out for a week so he could do an important gig with it, but I was already hooked and the Roland just did NOT click with me AT ALL, so No Dice buddy! (especially after telling me I'd never be able to play guitar decently because I have 'fat-fingers'... yeah thanks.. I think I'm done with the lessons.... LOL) Vintage Synth has a nice writeup on the SY-77 with a demo video here and the manual can be found here.



Yamaha MO-8
I had been without a synthesizer basically for quite a few years (probably 5+) and I was itching to get something like the SY77 back again, yet I was also leaning towards perhaps even a digital piano. I glanced over the pages in various catalogs and online sites and of course only Yamaha caught my eye with a few of their models, especially their MOTIF XS series. Down-side was that they were ridiculously expensive!

I still wasn't quite sure what I wanted and was going back & forth between a 77key and 88 key. The MM6 looked like a 'fun' 61 key setup based off the MOTIF family and very affordable, but the 61 keys just didn't do it for me. (MM8 hadn't been released yet). After some more research I basically had it narrowed down between a Yamaha S90-ES or a Yamaha MO8. The S90 looked super sleek and the Piano sounded FANTASTIC.. The MO8 though was more of a 'workstation' like I was looking for, and still had great piano sounds etc, but it was 'silver' instead of my usual black. In the end though the feature set of the MO8 won out over the S90 and I went ahead and with some help from the birthday fund got me one of these beautiful synthesizers

It plays and sounds absolutely fantastic and I'm sure I'll enjoy it for quite a few more years to come. If anything it'll be quite some time before I've gone through the manual sufficient amounts of time before I can memorize on how to do everything!



Looking back at all of these I find it interesting that without any real 'outside' influence as far as I recall I've been totally loyal to Yamaha products. To me the sound, the feel, options & user Interface they present as a complete package just clicks with me. I've tried Roland products & other brands but to me they always feel 'off' for one reason or another... I guess this is very similar to one of those Fender vs Gibson things, where it doesn't need to make sense, there doesn't even need to be a reason, but people instinctively like one better than the other... And for me, when it comes to Keyboards & Synthesizers,  it'll always be Yamaha.

Introduction to Steve's Gear & Music Blog

Hello Everyone, I'm starting a Gear & Music blog. Not so much because I have a lot to say , or that I have songs I want the world to hear, but because I'd like to keep track of things for personal use, like what instruments I've had over the years etc. - Call me nostalgic. While I 'play' (as in 'can noodle a little bit on') Guitar, Bass & Keys, I don't really play much at all anymore because of general lack of time / being busy with life. I also have no desire to 'make it big' in music, or even play in a local band (I already lack the time to consistently practice) but I still enjoy making music once in a while as a typical 'bedroom-musician' if you will.

For a bed-room musician I have a decent amount of gear I've amassed over the years - Currently I'm holding on to:

• Ibanez IJV50 Acoustic
• Ibanez Jem 10th Anniversary
• Fender Standard Telecaster (MIM) - Wine Red
• Fender American Deluxe( HSS) FSR - "None More Black"
• Dean Bass "Edge09" E09-CBK
• Yamaha MO8 Synthesizer
• Fender Princeton 112 Amp
• Hughes & Kettner Tri-Amp

And of course a miscellaneous batch of other gear & effects

I plan on writing separate entries for my most interesting instruments / pieces of gear and then possibly also address any mods to them in separate posts. Obviously if new developments happen (new instruments / changes etc) I'll make new entries for those as well. Though it's now actually June 23rd 2011,  I'm backdating this to January 2011, but some posts will have actually taken place before then etc, but I figured this way I wouldn't have to remember the EXACT dates etc, but just general chronological order.