Lunacy Guitars

[psychonaut]

I've been playing acoustic/electric guitar and electric bass for about 22 years with about a 10 year break in the middle due to unforeseen circumstances and the need to sell my guitars to make it through some hard times (9/11 recession).

In the last few years I have slowly got my guitars back (not the same, hopefully I upgraded!)

Here's my baby, I gotta tell ya, if you play guitar and never picked up a Gretsch semi-hollow body, you should give them a try next time you're at the guitar shop. The Gretsch replaced my Fender Fat Strat (MX).

Gretsch 2655T Streamliner

I have an old ibanez artwood acoustic dreadnought, that I never sold, it was my very first guitar. It needs some work but it is very pretty just not as pretty as the Gretsch!

Mine has a nicer pearl inlay than this pictured, got some serious fret buzz on the 4th string seems around the 5th fret =/ The luthier that my neighbor has recommended to me to bring it to for repair is up in Boulder, CO so not exactly close. One day I think I'll have him bring it up there to get worked on when his gets worked on next.

This is the bass that I have now, my old one was a Schecter '77 US made jazz bass I added some active pickups on, that was a real gem but compared to this ibanez beginners bass (they sound amazing, not quite good enough for recording, but perfect for practice), it was like carrying an anchor! This Ibanez is light.

Ibanez GSR200 Walnut Flat

I ususally play the bass with headphones plugged into my 10W gibson amp, I don't have much for effects yet but really I prefer to play mostly clean. I do wanna get a crybaby pedal at some point so I can play around with funk licks.

 

[elykpeace]

nice G's ive owned an electric and acoustic for about 15 years now and i had to teach myself. played the coronet (pocket trumpet) in the school band and have since lost ability to read sheet music but tabs are easier to figure out. i can play a little but its mostly just improvising and i cant really play any popular song unless i practice it a bunch before hand. fun instrument to mess around with i wish i had more time and patience to make it second nature but things happen and they just sit in my closet now. ill have to mess around with my acoustic later (its been awhile)

 

[psychonaut]

nice G's ive owned an electric and acoustic for about 15 years now and i had to teach myself. played the coronet (pocket trumpet) in the school band and have since lost ability to read sheet music but tabs are easier to figure out. i can play a little but its mostly just improvising and i cant really play any popular song unless i practice it a bunch before hand. fun instrument to mess around with i wish i had more time and patience to make it second nature but things happen and they just sit in my closet now. ill have to mess around with my acoustic later (its been awhile)

Awesome!

There are a lot of real fun songs to play that are easy, I'm finding them myself. Right now I'm teaching myself the intro to stairway to heaven. Very rewarding to learn because we all know the notes as they're burned into our brains so you dont need to keep relistening to it to know if you got it right =)



I found once you have the calluses built up, the practice starts to come easy. Lately I've been sitting down with about 30 minutes practice in mind and end up stopping after about 90 minutes!

I love to improvise, in fact I just like to put on some grateful dead music and jam along. Seems to be helping my ear out. Still learning a lot though, I taught myself too, well, my best friend taught me the C-A-G-E-D cords and where to place my fingers (he started out playing classical guitar) so I'm learning where to play those down the neck now and working on a few different scales, really trying to focus on country/blues/rock licks. One day I hope to play bluegrass tunes but flatpickin's hard.

 

[elykpeace]

do you use a pick? i cant hold on to a pick! always thought it was weird since ive lost about all of them . just use my thumb and practce the different modes. guitar theory is pretty fun. i spent awhile building up my callouses .


deadhead ova here as well jerry sure knew how to strum. badfish by sublime was the first song i learned to play. bradley could play the guitar like a mother fu**in riot!

 

[psychonaut]

I use a pick, 1.0mm tortex by dunlop, trying to get flatpickin down. I do like to finger pick, ole Mark Knopfler is my hero for finger picking, I just cant do it well, still working on my dexterity on my left hand lol.

I watched a John Mayer lesson he did before the dead and company mexico shows this month, he really tapped into Jerry's theories he even describes where Jerry was going with his playing before he died. He explains it very well, like going into different alleys and roads that just barely work but work just enough to add a real level of expertise and depth of knowledge of the music.

John Mayer gets a lot of shit but for his age, he is going to go down as one of the best guitar players of all time.

 

[elykpeace]

john mayers awesome as well. hes got the worst playin face tho. hes always trying to mouth the chords lmao


edit: i love john mayer im just messing around. he can play anyway he wants it just cracks me up.

cool vid ill have to watch it on lunch

 

[Diggy Smalls]

I'm a bass player here. I started out on a fretless 4 string and migrated from there to a to 5 string with frets. But... One of these days I want to get a 5 string multi scale bass with fanned frets but the price range on those is still steep. One day though.

I'm playing a schecter 5 string these days, but for years I used an ernie ball music man bongo 5 string that I ended up selling to move back to NY. That was a beautiful beast and I miss it dearly.

I also have an acoustic guitar I play from time to time that was a gift from a pastor I haven't spoken with in years. It's funny who I lost contact with when I stopped going to church. Thankfully it wasn't everyone.

I used to have a danelectro baritone guitar but I sold that to move away from NY many moons ago.

I'm self taught and play by ear and prefer to improvise. Never had much interest in learning to play how other people play parts.

 

[elykpeace]

bass seems fun @Diggy Smalls stinks you had to part with some of your instruments.

 

[Diggy Smalls]

Yeah, but they are just things. Truthfully it sounds the same no matter what bass I'm playing. My 300 dollar bass and my old 2k bass were indistinguishable from each other when I played them. I'm the effect

 

[psychonaut]

It is really amazing how good these beginner priced guitars are now a days. The Ibanez GSR200 bass is really incredible though I can tell the pickups need upgrading, seems to have a little too much noise. But for $200 (got mine on sale for $159 w/gig bag!) it's very impressive!

Maybe not for beginners lol. Have you all seen these new Fenders? I am hoping that Squire will come out with something like this but who knows. $2k If it had a built in b-bender I may have to think about saving up for it!

 

[-dab8-]

Wow, that’s beautiful! Never played a Gretsch. I had an epiphone les Paul as a kid, and then a PRS copy. Finally as an adult got a real Les Paul and a Mesa double rectifier a few years back that are better than my actual ability to use them. I enjoy playing, but now that I have decent equipment, I don’t have as much time to play. Catch 22!

 

[Diggy Smalls]

@psychonaut I highly recommend an auto wah for some funk bass.
I need some new bass strings, but mine are extra expensive because my neck is extra long and the strings go through the body. Plus I like to get coated strings.

 

[I'm Ron Burgundy?]

Have you all seen these new Fenders? I am hoping that Squire will come out with something like this but who knows. $2k If it had a built in b-bender I may have to think about saving up for it!

I saw these on Instagram. Someone had it plugged in through an amp and quite honestly it sounds like shit.
I don’t know what the hell fender was doing with this one...acoustics need to be acoustics and electrics need to be electrics

 

[psychonaut]

I saw these on Instagram. Someone had it plugged in through an amp and quite honestly it sounds like shit.
I don’t know what the hell fender was doing with this one...acoustics need to be acoustics and electrics need to be electrics

Man that is bad news for sure! I thought the sound in the video was actually pretty good but who knows how they had it setup on the amp?

 

[I'm Ron Burgundy?]

Man that is bad news for sure! I thought the sound in the video was actually pretty good but who knows how they had it setup on the amp?

To be fair it’s hard to judge unless you hear it in person.
But my initial impression is “why fender why???” Lol

 

[I'm Ron Burgundy?]

Andy Timmons is so underrated. His tone and phrasing are undeniable.



I had a really good jam session with the electric today. I’ve only had this guitar for about five months I’m still finding cool tones.

I run a simple chorus and distortion pedal with the foot switch for the amp for Reverb and delay effect.

It’s an American Strat, it does have some upgrades: Seymour Duncan pick ups and I think vintage tuners and bridge also.

 

[momofthegoons]

 

[just_tHe_fLu]

 

[warren0728]

1998 gibson les paul special SL ... color was called "spearmint"

 

[just_tHe_fLu]

...i like that colour ...