Ethan

The Bros. Landreth and new Kendrick Lamar!

You might find his blog about his Gibson LP Custom Shop guitar interesting: http://www.billyduffy.com/stories/new-gibson-custom-shop-flame-top/

I like the plain wood better...stuff like a Hamer or Les Paul, I would rather have a trans finish, but over plain maple...weird huh? Like this- http://www.billyduffy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Les-Paul-wood-top-2000.jpg

This exercise has helped me a lot...start at about 6:50 of video one

I just found the Riverdogs record on Spotify, which I had never heard before. I was pleasantly surprised-I guess I expected it to sound a little dated (the drums kind of do) but the writing isn't bad, Viv sounds great and the singer's voice is super cool. It kind of makes sense hearing that and knowing where he was in his career (between Whitesnake and DL).

I might have missed this somewhere in the thread, but apparently that is the same Les Paul he used back in the early Dio days. Band sounds great and I had no idea Phil Simms could play bass like that!

I feel pretty confident that I could grab a Schecter or cheap Squier, do a few setup tweaks, and play a gig with it (and I have), but having said that I definitely feel a pretty big difference between my buddy's Collings 290 and a Les Paul Jr, or the Suhr Pro S1 I played over the weekend and any USA/Custom Shop Strat, and I know which ones I'd rather have...Schecters rule pretty hard by the way! Best out of the box setup of any guitar under $1000 I can think of, better than a lot over $1000 too...

I guess the beauty of what the big brands are doing now is kind of like the same thing as what happened in the 70s-80s...they were out of touch so now there's tons of good stuff from smaller brands. Are brands like Fano, Suhr, and Knaggs the modern equivalent of what brands like Hamer, Charvel, and Robin have done in those years?

They missed the boat on trying to cash in on the Killers guy playing one of these like 10 years ago. Cool to see my bros in Kopecky Family Band in the ad but neither of those dudes own one either haha

Rad!

That 69 and Big Muff sound totally different from eachother...multiple flavors if you will

I never really liked SGs either...I LOVED them. Here's what always comes to mind for me when I think Robin guitars:

Totally true...I didn't like them til I bought one on a whim and took it to band practice...totally changed the way the whole band sounded compared to how my G&L L2000 did. Instant believer!

My main bass (and only bass) for several years now has been a Highway 1 model Precision...this particular variation of that model came with a stock Badass II bridge, thin satin nitro finish, and graphite rods on either side of the truss rod before that became a standard feature on the American made stuff...and this was really a budget model too.

I have had something of a gear epiphany the past few days. I have been kicking around the idea of a new bass amp lately. You read a lot online about what someone says is great, another guy says is junk, etc-very easy to get caught up in whether you mean to or not, especially if you live somewhere that there isn't a lot of places to try different gear out. Last night I saw a band using all off-the-shelf kind of stuff-the bass player was using two Peavey T40s, a few pedals you could get at generic big box music store, an old Peavey Mace head, and an Ampeg 810...thick, nasty tone that drove the whole band. All the members of both of these bands were using stuff like that-pretty plain gear and sounded incredible. Friday I saw a band and the bassist had a standard Jazz bass, 4 pedals (Boss and one Maxon), the solid state SVT head and the really basic Ampeg 4x10...his tone was killer also-articulate, warm, all the things people look for. I look at the stuff I have and think, I am not anywhere close to what these dudes are writing and playing, I am going to make the most with what I've got already and not worry about gear. Granted there is something to be said for knowing how you like your sound to be, and to have functioning stuff that won't break on you, but I am pretty far off from sniffing cork for the time being.

I had a standard issue Dyna Comp that sounded like it never turned off, had some EH one that sucked, got a Barber Tone Press and have been happy ever since.

Amott is a beast!

Barleys in Asheville = awesome. Congrats on the packed schedule!

That is awesome!

Fender Frontman 25R...humble beginnings Crate GFX212...sold Carvin MTS tube head...sold Mesa Dual Rectifier Vox practice amp custom built 20 watt head Ampeg B2R...sold Ampeg SVT3Pro...would like to be sold Ampeg B100R

I think pretty much any Peavey bass from the 80s or 90s would fit that bill, really! The T40s are starting to gain popularity but you can still get those for pretty cheap too.

Yeah, that is what I really missed at that show, Michael Anthony's stage presence. They had tracks for the background harmonies which was lame, I know a lot of bands do it but when I got the Chickenfoot record, there they were! I know the majority don't care and I'm putting myself further in the minority by saying this-I always loved those records and the guitar work, but just as much as EVH influenced me, the fact is that I have played bass in more bands in my life than guitar, and in that aspect Mike has influenced me just as much to tell the truth. It just doesn't seem like Van Halen without him.

I dunno, I saw them the first night of their reunion tour a few years ago and I sure missed Michael...

haha! He split to play with another band, then when they didn't want to keep him full time he tried to get his old gig back and THOSE dudes didn't want him either! Egg on the face! Been THERE a couple of times!!!

Man Brooks! Glad you are ok!