The Holt Blog

I was thinking about how many guitars I’ve owned in the past couple years, and thought I’d give everyone a synopsis. During the last few years, and with our new budgeting system, I’ve had some extra cash to throw around. This led to a bad case of “GAS”, or Gear Acquisition Syndrome.

To be fair, I don’t collect guitars. I merely like to trade around. As of now, I actually have *less* guitars than I started with a couple years ago.

Also, this is only the guitar trading that’s been going on. This chronicle doesn’t even cover the massive amounts of other musical gear I’ve traded around, but it’s probably more interesting. Here goes!

- Gibson Les Paul Studio

Pros: Plays nice, looks beautiful, good sustain
Cons: Heavy!

I had this guitar for about 14 years. My grandma bought it for me unexpectedly when I was taking lessons in 8th grade. I didn’t really appreciate how cool a guitar it was back then, but I sure played it a lot! I traded it for two others guitars in November 2008.

- Hagstrom Ultra Swede

Pros: Looks like a Les Paul, very thin neck, nice sustain, awesome tonal options, not heavy
Cons: Didn’t like the way it played for some reason, tuners and finish on neck felt cheap

I traded my Les Paul to a guy who was offering TWO guitars for it in November 2008. The other was an Ibanez Iceman (see below). Jill liked the way this one looked, and the “spalted maple” finish was nice. Embarrassingly, after I traded this guitar in January 2009, I bought the same model *again* in May 2009 from another vendor. I thought I’d like it better the second time around. Alas, I sold the second one in August.

- Ibanez “Iceman” IC400

Pros: ?
Cons: Horrible to play sitting down with the huge arm thing, neck not amazing, pickups not that great, a big piece of wood under the nut that I didn’t like, bad intonation

Got as part of the trade, and promptly sold in November 2008 to raise money for my next guitar.

- Ibanez S320

Pros: Thin body, very light, nice finish, great pickups, thin/fast neck, adjustable tremolo system
Cons: Due to bolt-on neck and thin body (basswood), horrible sustain

I liked almost everything about this guitar. It was my first guitar with any sort of whammy/trem system, and I did like it. Eventually, the metal look and dive bombing got old, though. Bought in December 2008 and sold in June 2009.

- Takamine EG-320

Pros: Cheap, sounded decent acoustically
Cons: Action too high, tried to adjust it myself and broke the pickup, which sounded lousy anyway

Jill and my dad bought this for me as a present around 2007, but didn’t play it that much (more of an electric guy). I sold it in January 2009.

- Ibanez Artcore AG75

Pros: Nice sounding pickups, good action
Cons: None?

I traded the Hagstrom Ultra Swede (above) for this guitar in January 2009. It was a fairly nice jazz guitar, but I eventually sold it (in June 2009) because I can play jazz on my electrics just fine, and I didn’t use it enough to justify keeping it around. Jazz guitars aren’t loud enough to be used acoustically either.

- Ibanez ARC500NT

Pros: Beautiful Les Paul type look, awesome finish, nice pickups, decent action/intonation
Cons: Just didn’t like the thicker neck after playing the Hagstrom, fine tuners on a fixed bridge are just weird

After *extensive* research, I bought this guitar without playing it. They are hard to find and aren’t in production anymore. If I was still playing Les Pauls, I may have liked it better, but I just didn’t like the way it played. I sent it back after a couple days in May 2009.

- Schecter C-1 Classic

Pros: Neck-through-body, great pickups, awesome inlay, coil tap for both humbuckers, good action/intonation, not too heavy, ergonomic design
Cons: None yet!

This is the current apple of my very fickle eye. I researched it a lot before I bought it, and wish I had found it sooner. I bought the dark red version in June 2009 (used), and have been happy with it for a record of four months! I liked it so much I bought a second, blue one that I saw locally in August 2009. I traded it for another Schecter later the same month though. The red one is my current favorite, and I hope I will like it for a long time

- Schecter S-1 Elite

Pros: Looks very nice with quilted maple and abalone binding all over, plays decently, good intonation, coil tap for humbuckers
Cons: Weak, muddy pickups, not as playable as my other Schecter

I traded my blue C-1 Classic for this guitar, but quickly decided to sell it and buy the Ibanez SAS32EX (below) in August 2009. It looks so beautiful, but wasn’t my dream guitar I guess. Also, I’m not really a fan of the “SG” type look with the double short horns on the body.

- Ibanez SAS32EX

Pros: Looks great, a non-complicated tremolo system, many tonal options with dual coil tap.
Cons: Pickups thin-sounding, goes out of tune with tremolo (no locking system) a lot.

This one played nicely and looked really swell, but I sent it back pretty quickly. Thank goodness for return policies. The pickups didn’t sound that great, and it seemed to go out of tune with the slightest whammy bar use. I’m not that familiar with whammy systems, but they seem more of a hassle than anything. I think I’ll be sticking with fixed bridges for a long, long time. Received and returned in September 2009.

- Michael Kelly Patriot Custom

Pros: Sweet looking, ebony fretboard, mahogany body and neck, abalone inlays, good pickups direct mounted to body
Cons: Heavy

Hopefully I’ll be happy with this one for a while along with my red Schecter C-1 Classic (above). It’s a Les Paul style guitar without the LP price, and has more features than a LP Studio (my first electric). I just hope I like the way it plays

My music page hasn’t had anything new to post in awhile that was just me. There are several things recently that I’ve recorded with friends or bands, but no solo stuff. I guess I’ve just lacked the motivation for that in the past year or so. I was wondering why…

1) Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) has been crazy this year. I’ve constantly been trading gear around! I am buying and/or selling something nearly all the time. Honestly, this kind of research (reading manuals, reading reviews and specs) is just as exciting to me as *having* the equipment and using it, for whatever reason. Sometimes being a geeky musician is outweighed by musical geekiness.

2) Too much time spent playing computer games.

3) Other bands. I’m currently in three bands/projects right now. None of these are very “serious” in that they don’t take too much time, but they do require some practice time and even creativity. Perhaps all these things are stifling my desire to create my own songs (not necessarily a bad thing).

4) Lack of ideas. I have always been self-conscious about what I write, and end up disliking almost everything eventually. I feel uncreative and boring when I make things up in Logic.

Again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing… just something I’ve noticed. This past week I have done some recording, as I’m actually in a space where I am relatively satisfied with the gear I have! I was trying to use my effects processor to create, as accurately as possible, a Joe Satriani sound. To show it off, I created a solo tune with some ad-lib soloing.

You can see my post and the comments people made here:

http://www.fractalaudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=9282

One of the places I occasionally go when practicing is Guitar Shred Show. It’s the coolest online presentation of music lessons I’ve ever seen. It features a cute monk-like character who realistically performs every riff, and tab is given for every example. Try the “Mountain of the Tapping Dwarves” for some neat riffing that you can spend hours on.

Tonight I was going through a couple of those riffs and almost got them to the speed of Mr. Fastfinger himself!