New Guitar

[mspart]

Hi all,

I am getting a new guitar.   Felt like we could use something less controversial for a change.  Unfortunately it is stuck in Boardman, OR.   Where is that you ask?  Coming from Portland, it is before you get to Pendleton, home of the famous Pendleton Roundup rodeo.  It is along the Columbia River that unfortunately for Pres Jefferson, did not run all the way from west coast to east coast.   There was the little thing called the Rocky Mountains and Continental Divide that kept that from happening.  As it turns out, the Columbia comes from Canada.   So Lewis and Clark had to hoof it for part of their adventure.  

 

Anyway, the guitar is a Hagstrom Viking semi hollowbody similar to the Gibson ES-335.   I have heard reviews on Youtube and everyone that plays it thinks its great.   In a side by side comparison with the ES-335 (which I have always wanted but is too spendy), it sounds great.   It is pictured below. 

I am no great guitar player but the price was right and I made the leap.   I'm hoping to have a lot of fun with this one. 

mspart

 

[WrestlingRasta]

I love guitar and tried taking it up during Covid.  I quickly learned that my fingers do not work well.  I could pick and strum and all that with my right hand, but my left fingers were not getting the job done 

[Offthemat]

2 hours ago, mspart said:

Hi all,

I am getting a new guitar.   Felt like we could use something less controversial for a change.  Unfortunately it is stuck in Boardman, OR.   Where is that you ask?  Coming from Portland, it is before you get to Pendleton, home of the famous Pendleton Roundup rodeo.  It is along the Columbia River that unfortunately for Pres Jefferson, did not run all the way from west coast to east coast.   There was the little thing called the Rocky Mountains and Continental Divide that kept that from happening.  As it turns out, the Columbia comes from Canada.   So Lewis and Clark had to hoof it for part of their adventure.  

 

Anyway, the guitar is a Hagstrom Viking semi hollowbody similar to the Gibson ES-335.   I have heard reviews on Youtube and everyone that plays it thinks its great.   In a side by side comparison with the ES-335 (which I have always wanted but is too spendy), it sounds great.   It is pictured below. 

I am no great guitar player but the price was right and I made the leap.   I'm hoping to have a lot of fun with this one. 

mspart

 

I bet you’ll enjoy that one.  I once had an ES 347.  Same as 335 with a few different features.  One was a coil splitter that changed the pickups to single coils.  Wasn’t impressed with that that feature, but in normal mode, playing through a Vibrolux, I could duplicate the sound for the lead of Can’t You See.  

[Offthemat]

1 hour ago, WrestlingRasta said:

I love guitar and tried taking it up during Covid.  I quickly learned that my fingers do not work well.  I could pick and strum and all that with my right hand, but my left fingers were not getting the job done 

It takes about a year of practicing an hour every day before you get to where you can do much of anything.  

[mspart]

I started as a teen so it was probably easier to pick up.   I am  not a fast picker or on the fret board by any means.   Any leads I play sound like a rote scale.   But I love playing guitar and learning new things. 

Most recent new songs (minus leads):

Back in Black

Hell's Bells

Rock Bottom (UFO)

Layla

Nothing else matters (I can almost do that easy lead, the beginning tricky picking is really tricky)

Ten years gone

It's been fun for sure.   I played bass in a semi successful band in college.   After we broke up (due to graduations etc) we got called by  our favorite place to play to be the house band.  And the biggest place in the area called and offered us a spot.   There were 3 of 5 left (drummer and keyboardist/lead singer) and we decided we couldn't continue with out the two that left.   So that was it.   Got me through college for the most part the last year or two.   It was a fun time.

mspart

 

 

[Gene Mills Fan]

How many Marshall stacks have you accumulated!

[Caveira]

My son is learning guitar.  Loves rock and roll.   He started 6 months or so ago …. He’s in 6th grade. 

[mspart]

That's awesome!  I love to hear that.   I tried to get my kids interested and only two actually play but they noodle around mostly.   Which is essentially what I do.  

I played piano, flute, and french horn and didn't last very long on any of those.   But the guitar has been a 50 year quest and I really love playing.   I'm no good, but I love playing along with backing tracks I find on youtube.   That way I am the guitar on the song. 

The keyboardist of our band recently wrote some songs one of which really grabs me.   I'm waiting for some spare time to add a bit of slow lead to it.   The time never seems to come.  You can hear it here:  

mspart

Edited Monday at 07:45 PM by mspart

[Offthemat]

24 minutes ago, mspart said:

I started as a teen so it was probably easier to pick up.

No doubt, the younger you start, the easier and faster it is to learn.  

[WrestlingRasta]

@Offthemat yeah I hear you.  I did put in a ‘lot’ of time to it.   I could play some basic things where the left hand didn’t have to shift a lot.  Broken hands and fingers….arthritis. 
 

I love acoustic so that’s all I messed with.  I thought of getting a slide and jammin on some blues.  That seems like may be a better fit for me. Some Eric Clapton “Running on Faith” type stuff.   
 

Maybe when I’m finally done with wrestling…

[WrestlingRasta]

I can bang the hell out of some bongos though.   RASTAFAR I

[mspart]

1 minute ago, WrestlingRasta said:

Maybe when I’m finally done with wrestling…

Gotta pace yourself for sure. 

mspart

[mspart]

It came!!!   My wife says the box does not look all beat up so hopefully it is good.   I am excited to try it out. 

mspart

 

[Offthemat]

38 minutes ago, mspart said:

It came!!!   My wife says the box does not look all beat up so hopefully it is good.   I am excited to try it out. 

mspart

 

What amp will you play it on?

[mspart]

First I will play it acoustically a little.   Just to see how it sounds that way.   Then I will plug it into my Marshall Origin 20 head and attach my effects pedals to it and put on some chorus and reverb and see how that sounds.   I'll probably keep th sound pretty clean for awhile.  On th videos I saw, it really sounded sweet  on a clean amplification.   I might add some fuzz or turn it up to get natural fuzz to to see how that sounds.  I have a 2x12 cabinet with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers  that does pretty good.   I'm expecting some good sounds coming.  

The Origin 20 is a cheaper tube amp that goes back to the old days of the Marshall amp.   It sounds pretty good.  My cab is one I bought for $80 off Offerup.   I changed the speakers from Celestion 12GM-70 which I did not like.   I bought some Vintage 30's (again, not the most expensive) and have a really nice cab now.   I don't have expensive gear.   But I don't play well enough to demand better.   It suits my purposes pretty nicely. 

Interestingly, Ted Nugent played a similar instrument back in his heyday in the 70s.  

mspart

[Offthemat]

1 hour ago, mspart said:

First I will play it acoustically a little.   Just to see how it sounds that way.   Then I will plug it into my Marshall Origin 20 head and attach my effects pedals to it and put on some chorus and reverb and see how that sounds.   I'll probably keep th sound pretty clean for awhile.  On th videos I saw, it really sounded sweet  on a clean amplification.   I might add some fuzz or turn it up to get natural fuzz to to see how that sounds.  I have a 2x12 cabinet with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers  that does pretty good.   I'm expecting some good sounds coming.  

The Origin 20 is a cheaper tube amp that goes back to the old days of the Marshall amp.   It sounds pretty good.  My cab is one I bought for $80 off Offerup.   I changed the speakers from Celestion 12GM-70 which I did not like.   I bought some Vintage 30's (again, not the most expensive) and have a really nice cab now.   I don't have expensive gear.   But I don't play well enough to demand better.   It suits my purposes pretty nicely. 

Interestingly, Ted Nugent played a similar instrument back in his heyday in the 70s.  

mspart

He was my first concert.  The Byrdland has been his main guitar.  
 

Ted said:

“And at these increasing volumes back in the 1960s, that would tend to encourage feedback and people would fight to stop the feedback. But I discovered when I got my hands on a Byrdland that the feedback when you marry - when you become a soulmate with the feedback with a Gibson Byrdland hollow-body guitar, you can make sounds and noises that pre-dated the sounds and noises of Jimi Hendrix.

[Offthemat]

Well?  @mspart

Edited 12 hours ago by Offthemat

[Gene Mills Fan]

get out the Pig nose!!

[mspart]

I got it yesterday.   It was packed like crazy.   It plays very nice.  Sounds great.   My wife likes it quite a bit actually.   It has a much mellower sound than my electrics.   I played it unplugged for a few minutes and she was impressed.   I like it too.  I plugged it in and put some reverb, chorus and delay on it and played around with that.   Sounds pretty good with the reverb and chorus.   The delay adds to the sound but it wasn't much really.   I did set it so I could play Run like Heck (sp) by Pink Floyd with that delay effect that it has.   That didn't sound bad.   It would sound a lot better if I was a better player.  

Overall, I'm very happy with it.  Hagstrom Viking.   Still on sale on reverb.com at https://reverb.com/item/86682438-hagstrom-viking-tobacco-sunbrst-rp        if anyone is interested.  

I told y'all about my rig, I have another amp, a Marshall Code 50.   It is a programmable where I can get different sounds out of it, it has all of the effects.   I didn't like the speaker, very cheap, and doesn't sound great.   I rewired that to have a 1/4 jack out the back so i can plug it into the 2x12 cab and it sounds a lot better that way.   The jack has the property of allowing  the Code 50 speaker to play, but when the cord is plugged in, it takes power away from that speaker and routes it to the other end of the cord.   Pretty cool jack really.   Interestingly, my 20watt head (with vacuum tubes) is way louder than the 50watt Code, which is solid state.   In addition it has bluetooth so I can play along with it with the backing tracks.  That is a lot of fun to do alone without other players, because I don't have other players to play with.   They make me feel inadequate because I am really not that good.  I play decent rhythm, but leads, nope. 

It plays nice, I will have to do some work on intonation, but overall, plays good, feels good, sounds good plugged and unplugged.   So overall I am impressed with how good it sounds and plays.  

mspart

[Offthemat]

53 minutes ago, mspart said:

I got it yesterday.   It was packed like crazy.   It plays very nice.  Sounds great.   My wife likes it quite a bit actually.   It has a much mellower sound than my electrics.   I played it unplugged for a few minutes and she was impressed.   I like it too.  I plugged it in and put some reverb, chorus and delay on it and played around with that.   Sounds pretty good with the reverb and chorus.   The delay adds to the sound but it wasn't much really.   I did set it so I could play Run like Heck (sp) by Pink Floyd with that delay effect that it has.   That didn't sound bad.   It would sound a lot better if I was a better player.  

Overall, I'm very happy with it.  Hagstrom Viking.   Still on sale on reverb.com at https://reverb.com/item/86682438-hagstrom-viking-tobacco-sunbrst-rp        if anyone is interested.  

I told y'all about my rig, I have another amp, a Marshall Code 50.   It is a programmable where I can get different sounds out of it, it has all of the effects.   I didn't like the speaker, very cheap, and doesn't sound great.   I rewired that to have a 1/4 jack out the back so i can plug it into the 2x12 cab and it sounds a lot better that way.   The jack has the property of allowing  the Code 50 speaker to play, but when the cord is plugged in, it takes power away from that speaker and routes it to the other end of the cord.   Pretty cool jack really.   Interestingly, my 20watt head (with vacuum tubes) is way louder than the 50watt Code, which is solid state.   In addition it has bluetooth so I can play along with it with the backing tracks.  That is a lot of fun to do alone without other players, because I don't have other players to play with.   They make me feel inadequate because I am really not that good.  I play decent rhythm, but leads, nope. 

It plays nice, I will have to do some work on intonation, but overall, plays good, feels good, sounds good plugged and unplugged.   So overall I am impressed with how good it sounds and plays.  

mspart

Great to hear.  I’ve long preferred tube amps.  It’s crazy how many songs were recorded using an old tweed Deluxe, Princeton, or Champ.  Eagles, ZZ Top, everyone.  Does it say where the guitar was made?

[mspart]

The guitar was made in China.   My Origin 20 head was made in Vietnam.   My Epiphone LP was made in Korea I think.   All are very good quality as far as I can tell.   The cab appears to be locally made.  

I have been very happy with the Origin 20 head.   Those tubes sound so nice!!

mspart