Guitars
The guitar gallery
These are the galleries of my guitar collection. My newest guitars are a Gibson Les Paul 1959 Re-Issue and a Gibson Johnny A. Signature, both of which were bought from Mark's Guitar Loft in the USA. Below is my current collection:
2006 Gibson Les Paul 1959 "R9" Re-Issue: This guitar has an RS Premium kit replacing the volume and tone controls (the Gibson pots are linear taper which don't work very well), Schaller straplocks and double white Tim White "Timbucker" humbuckers (if you visit the Les Paul Forum you'll know about these).
2006 Gibson Johnny A. Signature: This guitar is a Custom Shop model (Gibson also relased a "production" version of the guitar), made to the specifications of Johnny A. If you don't know who Johnny A. is, I highly recommend going to his website and purchasing his albums. The guitar is a mix of different styles and has its own unique voice. It has a hollowed mahogany body with a carved maple top, which lends itself to a large variety of playing styles and tones. A Schaller straplock has replaced the original strap button on the heel of the guitar, but the bigsby tailpiece interferes with adding a second to the end. This should not be a major issue as it is more likely to be the heel button that de-couples. A second set of thumbwheels for the ABR-1 have been added to stablize the bridge posts. Gibson have re-released the model in 2014 with a Richlite fingerboard as opposed to ebony due to their issues with the U.S. government and their sourcing of the raw timber.
2000 Gibson Les Paul Classic: Modified with blank truss rod cover and scratchplate, CTS500K pots, an extra set of thumbwheels and the burstbucker pickups from the R9. I've also changed the capacitors to Sprauge "Orange Drop" capacitors, and shielded the control, switch and pickup cavities with copper foil to reduce electrical interference. The pictures in this gallery are from when I had Seymour Duncan '59's installed. If you want to read my opinion on the various pickups I've tried, you can do so here.
2001 Epiphone G-1275 Custom (Doubleneck): Modified with Switchcraft selector switches, and CTS500K pots. The original selector switches are cheap "Epiphone" branded types, at least one of which had an intermittent fault causing the sound to drop out occasionally. Embarassing during a gig!
2005 Fender Standard Stratocaster: Mexican made. Modified with schaller straplocks and steel trem block. The 5-way switch and one of the tone pots have been replaced after failures, and the tone cap has been replaced with an "orange drop".
2002 Fender Telecaster copy "Kit": This copy of a Fender Tele was bought and constructed in 2002. It has Kent Armstrong pickups (which at some point I might change to Kinman or Bareknuckle's) and has an unfinished body and neck. It has straplocks and has been routed for a middle pickup. I wanted to retain the switching and look of a proper Tele, so the volume and tone pots have been changed to push/pull switches and the middle pickup sits underneath the scratchplate. The tone push/pull switches in the middle pickup and the volume push/pull is a kill switch for the neck and bridge. If you want to copy the wiring, I will be putting up a wiring diagram in the future.
Ibanez RX170-T: This RX series guitar (of undetermined age) was bought secondhand. It is currently undergoing something of an overhaul with a complete refret, and the addition of Planetwaves locking tuners, graph tech nut and Wilkinson VS100 Trem bridge. It already has had a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails swapped into the middle position, and a tone control push/pull switch for selecting the bridge and neck humbuckers at the same time installed.
