Current & Past "Hot Gear"

[guitarhack]

I also had the Squier 51, and also several DeArmonds, which got a lot of love on the message boards several years ago. I've sold all of mine but a Starfire Special. I traded some of the others for a G&L ASAT Classic S, which is an awesome guitar.

[Brian Krashpad]

I also had the Squier 51, and also several DeArmonds, which got a lot of love on the message boards several years ago. I've sold all of mine but a Starfire Special. I traded some of the others for a G&L ASAT Classic S, which is an awesome guitar.

I never got a Squier 51. Went and tried all the ones at the local large mom'n'pop, Lipham's (where Tom Petty used to work back in the day), and every last one of them had fret ends that'd slice a finger off. Easy fix, I know, but that poisoned the well for me.

I did, and do, like the DeArmonds. I started with a cheapo bolt-neck Indonesian-made Jet Star Special, which in fact wasn't very special. But on graduating to the MIK setnecks with the Fender US factory-made GoldTone pups, I found every last one to be a high quality instrument in terms of looks, tone and playability. In a perfect world I would've kept them all, just on principle, but since the ones I had all had those same humbuckers (I just never got round to getting one with the P-90 voiced 2K single-coils), they all sounded pretty similar. And once I got a couple Gibson Les Pauls, the M-series based on Guild's Aristocrat sorta became doubly redundant. All told I owned 4 DeArmond setnecks with GoldTones. Two M-series, an M-72 and an M-75. These were so similar that I sold the M-75 pretty quickly, as I preferred the stoptail on the M-72 to it's harp tailpiece, plus the M-72 had a beautiful burst and light flame, while the M-75 was plain ol' ebony. I kept the M-72 for quite awhile and only sold it after getting some Gibby Les Pauls. I also owned two of the much funkier Jet Stars. One I bought specifically to flip, because the money went to VH1's Save The Music charity. I ended up trading it for the M-75! I still have the other Jet Star, Ruby, my first DeArmond setneck. THAT one I'm keeping!

Dunno if it ever qualified as "hot" but I love love love my li'l Fender Super Champ XD.

Also fond of my Vox AD30VTXL. The regular AD30VT an AD50VT got a lot of love here, but the AD30VTXL sorta flew under the radar. Even if you didn't like the more high-gain models than on the regular AD30, the larger 12" speaker is certainly an upgrade from the AD30's ten.

[Eric***]

Dunno if it ever qualified as "hot" but I love love love my li'l Fender Super Champ XD.

For sure. I forgot about those. I would probably also include the Egnater Tweaker series and possibly the Mesa Boogie Transatlantic amps.

[marnold***]

I never got a Squier 51. Went and tried all the ones at the local large mom'n'pop, Lipham's (where Tom Petty used to work back in the day), and every last one of them had fret ends that'd slice a finger off. Easy fix, I know, but that poisoned the well for me.

Unfortunately, that plagues just about every Fender of every price range that finds its way to Wisconsin. It's a nuisance to find that on a $100 guitar. It is ridiculous to find it on one that costs over a grand.

The first batch of 51s were supposed to be bad that way. Mine had been actually overzealously filed at the factory in one place on the neck and they actually took off a bit of fret wood. This winter I took it in to a luthier to get it filed. There wasn't much sprout, just some mildly rough edges. It was just enough to be annoying. It wasn't that expensive to get fixed.

Neither my Jackson nor my LTD bass suffer from that. The Jackson has a bound fretboard which helps in that regard.

[Tig***]

My Fender Super Champ X2 is a certain never ever sell. I'm sure I'd feel the same with the original XD.
There's a slight possibility the Tweaker 20 might go up for sale or trade some distant day, but the tonal range and quality would make that a not so smart move, especially when you can change tubes to shift it deeper into various territories, like Marshall and Fender.

I've realized more or different guitar gear won't do as much for me as I'd like, so I've become very happy with everything I have. Time to work more on the "engine" (me).

Ah, but a really nice keyboard, however...

[Eric***]

I've realized more or different guitar gear won't do as much for me as I'd like, so I've become very happy with everything I have. Time to work more on the "engine" (me).

Indeed. I think my GAS shortage isn't due to bad playing or apathy or anything, but more what you said: new gear doesn't really change that much, and what I already have covers a lot of ground.