Marshall C5-01 Amplifier

I was hesitant to trade my vintage Takamine acoustic for this amp because I read all kinds of issues with rattling on some early models.  This one ended up having a 2011 manufacture date so I pulled the trigger on the trade.  Actual model name is C5-01 for this great sounding Class 5 tube amp.  The construction is probably not as ruggedized for most working musicians -- but hey, this is a hobby for me so the fragile looking build is not an issue.

The amp comes standard with a 10-inch Celestion G10F-15 speaker which provides ample volume for most practice environments.  The controls are also fairly simple on this 5W box -- no gain, just volume and 3 tone knobs.  The one good feature that makes this a great bedroom amp is a headphone/low power setting.  Forget any attempt to get a clean sound out of this amp, though.  It is a Marshall, after all.

Three Fenders and A Talman

I used to have a couple paintings hanging on this wall in the studio but when I got the Lake Placid blue Tele, I decided that I have enough guitars to make a nice installation.  The 3 Fenders (from left to right) are my Telecaster, Stratocaster, Marauder with the Ibanez Talman and the recognizable Bigsby tremolo.

Sage Green and Aspen Green

There's the famous Seafoam Green -- also known as Surf Green but as these two guitars show, not all greens are the same.  Sage Green Metallic Fender Stratocaster on the left and Aspen Green Gretsch G5420T hollowbody right show the differences.  In person, the Sage Green strat is actually more subtle compared to the Lake Placid blue guitars I have.  Without adequate lighting, I mistake one for the other.  The Aspen Green hollowbody, however is a very mild finish, giving the hollowbody an illusion that it is even lighter than it actually is.  Which green?  All green.

Sage Green Fender Stratocaster

Not all green guitars are surf green.  This particular Fender Strat is a sage green metallic with a maple neck.  That combination of color + neck makes for one beautiful guitar.  I bought this one used off Craigslist and has a couple nicks and some fret wear -- which is exactly how a used guitar should be.  That way, I'm not too worried about getting is all scratched up and just leave it in the case most of the time.  Not this one, though.  From the serial number, it is a 2004 model made in Mexico.

Taylor 210e Acoustic Guitar

I'm not a fan of cutaway acoustic guitars specifically because of the the attenuated volume of such models.  This Taylor 210e plays as good as it looks.  When I found it used at Guitar Center, I could not believe that is was a used guitar -- everything looks and feels new, specially the fretboard.  About the only thing that was non-standard is the Gator case that came with it, which incidentally is a perfect fit to the guitar.

The beautiful spruce top and the simplest of bindings make this guitar a little more elegant in design without the excess of fancy that don't really add to the sonic quality of the instrument.  Plugged in, this 210e is very bright and balanced with feedback at a minimum.  Just about every song I play sounds better on the 210e's fast neck; plugged in or unplugged, it'll do the job for a very long time.

Vox SDC-33 Guitar

After I tried this guitar at the Guitar Center on Sunset, I was pretty convinced I needed one.  Vox is better known for amplifiers that axes and I've seen it before but just hadn't been too inspired to try one.  Until the SDC-33 caught my eyes walking in the amp aisle at GC.  The electronics alone is interesting because besides the usual pickup selector switch, it has a Mode Select switch (close to the bridge) to toggle between Clean and Lead.

The other thing that makes this guitar different is the neck width (at the nut) at 1.7" which is a bit wider than my Strats (at 1.625") making it a little bit easier to fingerpick that most electrics I own.  But there are a couple more design features that I really like.  The first being the specially designed bridge finished in a brushed alloy just like the tuners.

The Vox SDC-33 has a set neck and CoAxe pickups. Some additional info on the CoAxes are found on this site.

http://www.planetz.com/vox-coaxe-interview-with-vox-rd/

I ended up ordering the guitar from Amazon through a vendor Music123.  When it arrived, the guitar wasn't setup at all.  Fret buzz on the low E, 2nd through 4th fret so I had to adjust the bridge height and play with the truss rod a bit.  Not sure it's perfect but it's playable for now.  Also, the fretwires weren't smoothed out so I always feel like I might get a finger cut when I play around the 12th fret.  Again, something I can mess around with to fix.  So although, I saved some money buying online, the aggravation of having to set it up properly is going to make me think twice about buying online again.  (This is my 3rd online guitar purchase after the PRS Tremonti and Fender Marauder).  Overall, I'm happy with this Vox as it gives me several tones not achievable through my selection of Fenders.  My only worry with this guitar is the fact that it's the lightest (6.4lb) of all the electric I own and with that light weight comes the question of how it can withstand getting dropped or some other kind of abuse.

And last but not least, the goldtop finish is flawless.  Form and function.  Sound and style.

Body: Mahogany

Neck: Mahogany w 22 frets

Neck Width at Nut: 1.7 in

Scale Length: 25.125 in

Weight: 6.4 lb

60th Anniversary Fender Telecaster

I think a Fender guitar made in Mexico in the last 5 years is better than any Fender guitar made in the US 15 years ago.  This Lake Placid Blue Telecaster is proof that US-Mexican relations had been good in the area of collaborative guitar manufacturing.  Any blue guitar is worth looking at so when I saw this used 2011 Tele on Craigslist, I knew it would be a short courtship.  The neck plate on the back states the year of manufacture -- which is 60 years since the introduction of this Fender product in 1951.  Couple the Lake Placid Blue with a fast maple neck and I'm sold.

The third selling feature (of all Teles) is the fact that it doesn't have a tremolo bridge.  I hardly use the whammy bar on all my Strats and quite frankly, I find it visually cluttered.  The pearloid pickguard does add an air of elegance to this piece of functional sculpture.