New Amp: EVH 5150 III 50w Head

I came across this one at my local Sam Ash music store. The amount of gain and how thick and full it sounded really surprised me so I worked out a deal and took it home.

It’s a great compliment to my Marshall TSL, which has a dryer tone with more upper mids and less bass. The EVH can be dialed in conservatively for classic rock tones but the fun to me is going all out on the red channel, which is as saturated as the 5150/6505 it is based on but with more hollow sounding mids and more complexity, making it sound a little more clear and articulate.

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New Guitar: 1992 ESP Maverick Deluxe

Won this auction on eBay while at work back when I worked somewhere you couldn’t have your phone out while at work. Special thanks to my supervisor for turning his head the other way for 30 seconds at the end of the auction so I could place my bid!

This guitar was my first time owning one with EMG’s, and quickly became one of my favorites. I placed a stop on the floyd to make it dive only, and it became my #1 player for years. The “elastic” sound of the EMG-X pickups, and the great thick tone from the SA-X neck single coils (this was before I’d ever had a guitar with a neck humbucker) made it my favorite for playing all sorts of music. The stopped bridge allowed me to quickly switch to drop or open tunings as well. It’s still a staple of my collection although these days it spends a lot of time in the case as its value has greatly increased since I bought it and I’d like to keep it in excellent condition.

New Guitar: Charvel Spectrum

On a whim, I dropped by my local Sam Ash on the way home the other day and spotted this very strange Charvel on the rack. I didn’t actually know what this was, and they had it listed as a “51 style Charvel.” I did a little research and found out this is a “Spectrum,” and it had acoustic strings on it and I could not get the tone knob or switch to really do anything. Still, the price was pretty tempting and I figured I’d come back and trade my Kramer XL1 for this, to have something a little different from my Kramer Pacer Custom 2.

Upon returning, I was able to get 85 bucks for the XL1, which seems fair especially considering the case that came with this Charvel - a nearly brand new Road Runner ABS case, which is much nicer feeling than the SKB Freedom I traded in with the XL1.

I completely disassembled this guitar, cleaned and polished it, and threw away a very crusty old 9v battery. After adding a new battery and lightly cleaning the contacts, I’m happy to say the electronics work great now - and I’m very surprised just how much I like it! The JE-1500 is a parametric EQ circuit, and the frequency is adjusted by the second tone knob. This circuit can be completely taken out of the circuit when flipping the mini toggle switch, which makes for some really cool ways to play parts - I was enjoying playing some songs by The Cars and then flipping on the JE-1500 for solos or other lead parts. Basically, it can be set in a half-cocked wah type position that sounds really great, and there is a bit more gain when engaged too which makes it perfect for solos. I also think it does a very good Humbucker impression tuned just a little lower, and the factory pickups are three J200 stacked single coils. Overall, I’m very impressed with this guitar even if it took a little love to bring it back to its full potential.

New Guitar: Charvel Spectrum

Spotted this one in my local Sam Ash. The bridge was leaning very far forward - previous owner must’ve gone up a string gauge and not adjusted the bridge to compensate. The electronics didn’t work and it sounded quite strange - but it was labeled as a “Charvel ‘51 style” and priced very low. This was around the time that Fender/Squier had released the very inexpensive “pawnshop” series with a similar 50s bass style pickguard, so I think they priced it in that area not knowing what it was exactly. I took in my Kramer XL1 and traded it and the case + cash for this Charvel and its own (nicer) case. In hindsight I wish I’d kept the XL1 too, but this was a way nicer guitar!

I took it home and dissembled it, removing the large old strings and lifting the pickguard to reveal a mess of dirt and crud. Despite being neglected for some time, I was able to clean up the body very well and the neck was in really great shape. A new battery and some cleaning restored the functionality of the electronics - and this quickly became one of my favorite features. I loved to set the JE-1500 EQ to a nice “vowel” type lead sound, with some gain to boost it up, and then I’d play my rhythm parts with it turned off and kick it on for leads and solos. At the time, I was learning a lot of songs by The Cars and this guitar was as close as I could get to that type of look and sound.

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New Guitar: 1986 Kramer Pacer Deluxe

Lucked out and was the only bidder on this beautiful guitar - in pristine condition. The seller even had towels underneath of it when taking pictures - that’s usually a sign it was well cared for!

Interestingly, this has a transition era neck - a one piece instead of the usual 3-piece ESP made pointy neck. The story goes that these were originally banana headstock necks, but when ‘86 came, they were fitted with the new pointy shape. Compared directly with my 3-piece neck pointies, this one is a very slightly different shape as well - and is also somewhat unique that it has the “American” script as many transition necks only had the Kramer block logo. There are also transition necks with the rosewood “skunk stripe” down the middle in the back - I haven’t had one of those yet but I’ve heard they are excellent.

This neck is a thin C shape, a bit more rounded than most of my other pointies which tend towards a more “D” shape, although Kramer was notorious for wild variations through the run so I’ve had 3-piece necks with all sorts of varied back shapes.

New Amp: ADA MP-1

I’ve heard great things about these and spotted one at the same Musicgoround I purchased the TSL head from. While staying over at a friend’s place in Atlanta one weekend, I went and picked this up. It has some really killer tones, and I’ve been playing it run into the FX return of my TSL head. Dialing in tones is a little tedious but they can be saved to any of 128 user presets, and can be recalled with a few taps of the front panel arrows or with a MIDI footswitch.

This is definitely more classic sounding than my TSL, and a lot darker. My only complaint is it is also noisier, especially at high gain settings.

(This is the earliest picture I can find of it)

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New Guitar: ESP Maverick Deluxe

Spotted this one on eBay and won it - my first auction win. Over time, I uncovered more information about it - it’s a “production custom.” At the time, licensed ESP dealers could request a shipment of guitars from ESP with some custom options that differed from the catalog models. It’s not exactly custom shop, since several guitars would have to be ordered - which probably means there are a couple of similar ones to this out there.

Still, a Maverick Deluxe, with no pickguard, and a figured maple top is a heck of a guitar and in hindsight, I got an incredible deal on this beast. I replaced the factory humbucker with a Dimarzio D-Sonic which sounds great in that position, though I still have the original humbucker as well.

New Amp: Marshall JCM2000 Triple Super Lead

I have been searching for a real tube amp to replace my VOX AD30VT practice amp for a long time now. I’m loving the sounds I get testing out a Mesa Dual Rectifier in a local shop, but after playing a Marshall JCM800 2205 in a Guitar Center I’m thinking that a Marshall amp of some kind might be closer to the classic metal tones I’m after than the rectifier. I also really liked the Blackstar HT-100 head, as well as the HT-60 combo, but missed the “crunch” channel on the HT-20 and HT-40 models. Either way, all of these seem to be a little less clear sounding than the Marshalls.

Enter the TSL - Marshall’s previous flagship amp (prior to the JVM) and featuring three channels, covering ground all the way from clean up to high gain. I never played one before, but watched plenty of youtube videos and listened to clips so it was on my want list.

I found a used one at a Musicgoround in Lilburn, GA, not the easiest drive but I could justify stopping there on my drive home from Atlanta. I stopped by with my Vox AD30VT, as well as a high quality crash to trade on it. After playing it for some time, I was really loving the sounds, but the footswitch was not fully working. The shop manager was great and helped work out a deal with me, so I could either try to repair the footswitch or buy a new one if needed.

Once I bought it, I had to sit with it in my girlfriend’s apartment and no guitar or speaker for a whole weekend - it was torture!

New Guitar: Kramer XL1

A friend of mine who knew I liked Kramers spotted this one in a local pawnshop in my college town, Statesboro GA. I went to check it out, and was able to get a nice SKB hardshell case thrown in - the grand total around $100.

This one had a very unique gloss lacquered neck with a beak headstock, H/S pickup config, and a 6-screw traditional trem. Since my other guitars all had floating Floyd bridges at the time, I put 5 strings in this one and used it to experiment with different pickups, string gauges, and tunings. It was a great “fun” guitar to learn on without messing up my much nicer Kramer Pacer or later my ESP Maverick.

I eventually traded this one in on a Charvel, which was a great guitar on its own, but I wish I had kept this one. For a “cheap” guitar it was very nice and a bit on the unique side as far as budget Kramers go with that fantastic neck.

New Guitar: 1986 Kramer Pacer Custom II Red

Purchased this guitar on eBay, my first ever internet guitar purchase. I remember being nervous about buying a guitar based on pictures alone (hilarious now that I purchase almost all of my guitars this way now), and the seller never provided a tracking number and I was really thinking I got scammed. Anyway, guitar arrived in great shape in the original case. I’d been wanting a Kramer since I started playing and was thrilled to finally have one.