17 Comments
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Tom Fredrickson's avatar

Once more, Dan, you’ve proven yourself my doppelgänger, or vice versa. (I’ll share pics of my axes one day.) Fascinating stuff here, and, for me, timely as I’m working on a guitar pub.

Serious question: If you were working on a book on 20th century guitars, what would you call it?

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Dan Epstein's avatar

Hey Tom! 20th century guitars in general? Or specific to a particular country/style/period etc?

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Tom Fredrickson's avatar

In general.

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Dan Epstein's avatar

Hmmm…

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Toni DelliQuadri's avatar

Your uncle John would have loved this guitars in the life of Dan commentary ...and loved you all the more for writing it!!!!

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Dan Epstein's avatar

Thanks, Toni! I always loved talking about guitars with Uncle John...

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Bryan Hepkema's avatar

Dude - I did the same thing with the amp jury-rig before getting a proper amp, albeit even more crudely (if that's possible) by plugging into the MIC jack on a component stereo. I had no idea what 'impedance' was or whether things would start smoking. All I knew was that the plugs & jacks fit!

I remember Fender had the 'Lead I' & 'Lead II' guitars in the early 80s and my buddy had one - I thought those were super cool - kind of a more relaxed strat body style and very playable with more limited pickup options. Hey, if they were good enough for Steve Morse from Dixie Dregs they must be cool, right? I'd love to get my hands on either one of those someday.

Great read, as always - rock on!

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Dan Epstein's avatar

My freshman year college roommate had a Fender Lead II — I borrowed it for band practice a few times when my Hondo Fatboy was in the shop, and thought it was pretty cool. In retrospect, I'm pretty sure that was the first actual Fender I ever played!

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Bryan Hepkema's avatar

Though I really ought not to be 'shopping', I can't help it now that it's stuck in my head. Or an SG :-D

Reverb has a number of both Lead Is & IIs for <$1000.

Guitars are always a good investment, right? Right?

Right?

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Dan Epstein's avatar

Yeah, I have a couple of guitars that I'm jonesing pretty hard for right now, as well — but I'm also on a bit of a self-imposed spending freeze these days due to [gestures wildly] all this.

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Bryan Hepkema's avatar

Yea - it is frantic I know

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Hugh Jones's avatar

Great piece! Why, why, why do I love guitars so much? (a rhetorical question).

My first was an acoustic Stella with action about 3/4 of an inch off the neck - got it for Xmas from the folks along with lessons when I was 10. It was bitch to play but perfect to start on, as when I moved on to a higher-quality instrument with normal action I could immediately play better than before!

If it wasn't for "all this" and a similar avoidance of spending money right now, I'd consider one of those pretty new Fenders - the Tele with humbucker looks great - though I'm really more of a Gretsch lover these days.

Guitars are like records - you can never really have too many!

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Dan Epstein's avatar

I have always admired Gretsch guitars from an aesthetic and sonic standpoint, but sadly I’ve never played one that felt “right” in my hands.

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Garrick Rawlings's avatar

I love the Cliff link and how many hits he got from Cobain guitar seekers! - still have Devil Woman 45.

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Dan Epstein's avatar

Great single!

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Catherine Norden's avatar

I don’t know how you found a photo of a Wieners Circle sign that just, like, advertised product, but I have to tell you that I always love reading what you have to say and I loved reading this in particular because it is hard to find any discussion of guitar mods that isn’t dudes duding out trying to make absolutely damn certain they sound like they’re talking over my head.

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Dan Epstein's avatar

Awww thank you Cathy! I remember being really frustrated when reading all the over-my-head/"inside baseball" stuff in guitar mags while I was a teenager, so I've always tried to keep my own guitar-related writing as lucid and accessible as possible — glad that came across here!

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