Steinberger Spirit to Gibson Les Paul Or Trading Down to guitar picks?

I recently tried to challenge myself to trade up from my Steinberger Spirit to a GIbson Les Paul. I was inspired by that guy who traded up a paper clip to a house. I have for now given up on it. Maybe it’s the area I live in or my timing but had a hard time getting trades or re selling. I look at it more of a learning experience now but the idea of trading up seems so alluring.

This was the original post I had written

So this week/weekend I decided to start a new adventure, to trade up to a Les Paul. I have heard of the red paper clip to house story and that seems like a long way. I think I’ll be better off going gear to gear. 

So I have set down a few rules.

•  I can only use gear that I have.
• I can use cash
• I can buy modify if I need and sell
• This isn’t a rule but I will not part with my Tele, Taylor, Gold Tone or Bass
• I can buy and sell non music gear items

I may add or remove later but these are my guide lines. My goal is to get to a Les Paul but what I will do is hopefully play a few guitars and have some more things to talk about on my blog.

Right now I have done these things.

1. Started off with a Steinberger I paid $280 for it

2. I sold it for $140 and a Gibson Baldwin Les Paul. It’s a Les Paul but it has some mods and it’s not what I want.

3. I am going to throw in my guitar link interface and probably my Zoom G2.1Nu Pedal. I got everything I needed out of the pedal. It’s got a lot of effects and I like that but I just don’t use it much.

This means I have $140, a guitar worth about $100, a $30 guitar link cable and a pedal worth about $150. So $270 or $420, depending on how much I am putting into it.

My first exchange I went backwards which I didn’t really want to do. So I am about $40 down. Hopefully, I’ll be able to recover, otherwise I’m going to end up with a bunch of shit. 

 

I actually ended up down $80. I finally sold that Gibson Baldwin for $60. If I do decide to start up this challenge again I will start at $200 and I am going to have to get lucky. From what I can see on craigslist there are a lot of people who want 1 or 2 types of guitar. So I have realized if I decide to reboot this I need Fenders, Squires, Epiphones and Gibsons, maybe a Yamaha or a Martin. Also I have limited mobility basically the DC metro area. If I were more mobile I could cast a larger net. Also don’t buy mods if you want to trade and unless it’s a Fender avoid bolt on necks.

So did I give up too easily? I only went through 2 guitars and should I maybe try this again?

I also tried to a Rocky and Bullwinkle style title.

 

Gibson Baldwin Or you are better off with an Epiphone

So as I will soon post, I had been experimenting with trading up and the world of Craigslist.

I ended up for a short period of time with a Gibson Baldwin. Unfortunately, with a lot of modifications it was hard to sell. It had a new neck, and an after-market humbucker in the neck position.

Gibson has a line called Gibson Maestro, this used to be called Gibson Baldwin. In case you are wondering Baldwin is also a brand of piano that is owned by Gibson. They are very nice pianos and actually the one I learned on was a Baldwin. Gibson on its own is the iconic brand and a dead giveaway is that a Gibson Baldwin Les Paul costs about $80 while a real Gibson Les Paul costs closer to $2000. I actually liked the guitar with all its modifications as a beginner guitar. It was nicer that the Squier Strat I learned on. The only thing was that I wanted to upgrade and maybe a little too hastily. It had 2 humbuckers, and a black body, the Tune-o-matic bridge and treble/rhythm switch. The neck was a stratocaster style, but not a Fender brand. I want to say it looks more like a Yamaha Pacifica neck with the emblem scratched off. There was hardly any fret buzz and I think increasing the action would have stopped that. I am almost certain the guy who owned it before was a shredder because the Neck humbucker was replaced and I don’t know the brand but I have seen those pickups on guitars owned by Cannibal Corpse fans.

Here are a few photos

   

Body Shot of the Gibson Baldwin

 

Head Stock Shot - at the bottom you can see my kitten Ben. He is a fan of Judas Priest.

 

From Myspace to Sound Cloud

So I have been writing a lot of my own music that I then record on a Zoom H1 recorder. Its fun and I like doing it, and as I do more I like to post it up. I have a Soundcloud account and the link is in the My Music page up on the top part of this blog page. So if you are interested go over and listen. they are some rough cuts now and I am working on some multi-track recording, but I have not mastered that yet.

http://songsofadventure.org/my-music/

 

Music Concert Series

Since I hadn’t written anything in a while I decided two posts today. Enjoy the second one below.

I have recently been watching a lot of Austin City Limits. It’s been the longest running concert series on TV since 1976 and it is great. A few recent concerts I really liked were Raphael Saadiq and the Jeff Bridges/ Miranda Lambert concerts, also Randy Newman was great. I watch it through PBS like I assume more of America because I happen to live in DC. It is a great music series, and commercial free. It plays a lot of Americana music, so if you are looking to get into Americana just DVR ACL. I find myself looking a lot at the guitars (Jeff Bridges has a great gretsch).

The Website is below

http://acltv.com/

And Photos! All photos come from ACLTV.com

Hayes Carll

What I have Learned about buying guitars

Why to buy a good instrument?

I have been playing music of some sort for 15 years, from when I first started playing violin in 4^th grade to my latest instrument, the banjo. It took me a lot longer than it probably should have but it is worth it to buy good instruments. There is a saying buy the best that you can afford and I can certainly say I agree. I own three instruments that I am absolutely in love with. I don’t think I would ever sell them; these are the Telecaster, the Taylor and my new banjo for those who are new to the blog.

One of the reasons I bring this up is because I have been down the cheap guitar road too many times. The most recent time was last year when I bought a Steinberger Spirit. This is the entry level model for Steinberger. This company is very innovative and interesting. However, their guitars are a sort of acquired taste type. I would not recommend them to everyone. I bought it because I thought I would want to play guitar on the road and when I travel. This was true to some extent but I don’t think I played it enough to really make it worth it. The other reason was that I wanted to have some humbucker pickups. So I thought I’ll kill two birds with one stone (for those who don’t know this is another saying). So I got it and thankfully I didn’t pay too much for it but it was not the guitar I really wanted. The frets needed work, the fingerboard had some glue on it and you could see the top plywood veneer through the switch hole. I knew to myself, this is not the guitar I really wanted or really enjoyed playing. Personally the nut width was too wide so when I played or soloed I felt like everything was too far apart. It was frustrating. Also it’s a light guitar. My girlfriend said it looked like I was playing a video game. I know now that I should be putting as much into the guitar as I expect to get out of it. Since, I play every day. That is a lot. If I were playing live at all it would be essential to have good gear. With this post I am not trying to push expensive gear on anyone and there are definitely good deals out there. This has just been my experience. One more thing, don’t buy a guitar that doesn’t feel comfortable in your lap. The Steinberger was weird feeling and I once had a Jackson flying V that was awful. I don’t recommend anyone do this, but if you really like Alexi Laiho or Megadeth you will probably be playing a flying V at some point.

Guitar Player Magazine recent ran an article on the 34 best guitars for under $500.

http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/solid-deals-34-electrics-under-500/147598

Here is a Guitar World article on the subject

http://www.guitarworld.com/ask-paul-five-great-guitars-under-500-part-1

Maybe one Day (from music.wikiproducts.com)

Against the Blue Wall

I recently upgraded my banjo from my Epiphone MB 200 to a Gold Tone CB-100. I have to say I like the gold tone a lot better. It is so much nicer than the MB 200. I also realized for a bluegrass banjo the MB 200 is really light. I went to my favourite music store (Chuck Levin’s) and tried out a few bluegrass style Deering and Gibson banjos. They are way heavier. So that made my decision to get an open back a lot easier. I also play mostly clawhammer so an open back made a lot more sense. This banjo is a lot more sold and it has a scooped fret board so you can get that clucking holler sound. I know Gold Tone is a great brand for beginner and intermediate players. The parts come from China and are assembled in Florida. I also have played some of the Goodtime open backs and I like the Gold Tone a lot better.

It has a good action which was a big selling point for me. The tuners and hardware are also significantly better than the MB 200. It has a frosted head which I like and the color is kind of a deep greenish brown. The few cons are that the headstock looks a little bit off center from the neck and the neck is a little bit weightier because there isn’t a resonator to balance it out. I would definitely recommend this as a step up from a beginner banjo but for someone who isn’t ready to spend the money for a really good one.

A quick overview of Open Back vs. Resonator

Open back

– A lot lighter

– No resonator

– Used mainly for Clawhammer/frailing and old time music

– Cheaper

– mellower sound, not used for cutting through a bluegrass band

Resonator

–  A hell of a lot heavier and you can usually judge how good a blue grass banjo is by how heavy it is

– Sharper ringing sound, has a metal tone ring to influence tone ( open backs also have tone rings, but lower end ones probably won’t)

– Used for bluegrass/Earl Scruggs style, that’s three finger picking. It’s harder to learn than clawhammer.

– Wooden Resonator used to project the sound. The one I had was mahogany but the good ones use violin quality 3-ply maple.

-More expensive

-More popular

Also when it comes to tone rings, try to get a brass one.

Some more photos

Back side