Tartanphantom's Guitar Roundup, Part IV-- Okay, @jaska and
Confessor , it's time for another gearp0rn installment!
This section is going to be rather large, as it it covers mandolins, bass guitars, and miscellaneous string instruments. I'm not going to bother posting keyboards/accordions, percussion instruments, woodwinds, harmonicas or theremins, as I think that would be complete overkill and quite divergent from the original plan.
Part V will cover acoustic guitars, and I'll try to post that by next weekend.
The final installment will be Part VI (exclusively Gretsch instruments not previously posted), which I hope to get posted before the end of February, 2022.
So off we go-- first, I have yet another oddball electric that I didn't post in the previous installments.
This is my 2009 SX SJM-62. It's another design hybrid, Stratocaster fret-scale and switching, but mated with P-90 pickups and a Jazzmaster tailpiece. pretty versatile, and definitely not one you see every day.
Next up is my 2009 Peavey Power Slide Lap Steel guitar. Although it is technically a lap steel, this model was designed specifically to be played standing up, and I use it frequently with my band, The Exotic Ones.
Now on to the Bass stable. While I'm not a full-time bass player, I do play quite a bit in my band Secret Commonwealth, as seen in the two previously posted videos (I happen to be playing bass in both). However, the instruments used in those vids were both borrowed for the shoots, and I do not own either of them, although I can indeed play upright bass viol.
My oldest bass is this 1988 Peavey T-45 long-scale. Most people are familiar with the more popular T-40 and Patriot basses, but the T-45 is different in that it has an unusual tone circuit employing a split-coil pickup. This allows you to get a number of different tones, from a Rickenbacker-esque sound to a P-Bass sound. T-45's were not made in large numbers and are only now becoming somewhat collectable. The last word on the T-45 is that it would be my weapon of choice in a bar fight... it's a bit heavy, and as expected from Peavey, it's "overbuilt" in terms of construction quality.
Up next is another oddball, my 2004 DeArmond Ashbory bass. 18" fretless scale with active electronics and rubber strings. This thing is flat out weird, but it can sound like a synth-bass or an upright, depending on how you dial it in. Certainly takes some time getting used to playing it.
My Gretsch Electromatic G2224 Junior Jet Bass-- This one probably gets more playing time than all of my other three basses combined-- a true short-scale workhorse, at home both in the studio and on stage.
Final entry in the bass department, and my personal favorite, My 2007 Gretsch G6073 bass. The stock pickups are TV Jones Thunder'trons, and they certainly live up to their moniker. Simply put, it's a sonic beast.
Now we come to miscellaneous string instruments. I play a variety of instruments, not just guitar and bass. In fact, my absolute favorite is mandolin, and I consider myself more of a mandolin player who happens to play guitar, instead of the other way around. Even so, my mandolin collection is not large, and consists mainly of good workhorse instruments, and no "museum pieces". This is because I gig with mandolins a lot, and I'd rather have substance over beauty, if you will.
1968 Harmony Baroque F model-- made in USA. This one is sometimes referred to as the Harmony "Batwing" model, due to the scalloping on the headstock and the pick guard, which somewhat matches the shape of the cutaways.
2001 Fender FM-62SCE-- This one was my main gigging mandolin for over 10 years. Although it resembles a Fender Mandocaster (electric mandolin) in style, it's actually a full-blown acoustic model with a factory piezo-bridge pickup.
My knock-about travel/camping/gigging mandolin, a 2015 Gretsch G9320 New Yorker Deluxe A-body. This one was meant to travel, and it does. It goes wherever my more expensive mandolins won't go.
And the pride and joy of my mandolin herd, a pair of Gretsch G9350 Park Avenue F-body instruments. The 2014 (lighter finish) was a surprise Christmas gift from my father-in-law, who sadly passed away less than a year after gifting it. I love the sound and playability so much that I ended up hunting down a second one (2017 model-- darker finish) so that I would have a backup if anything ever happened to the first one. Nowadays, I alternate them for gigs.
I admit to actually owning a couple of 5-string banjos, although I'm not very good on the instrument... good enough to fake it, bad enough to get myself in trouble.
This one is a 1962 Harmony 30-lug Reso-Tone Deluxe. I've held on to this one because it has a very unique sound. That's due to the fact that the both the banjo pot (the body) and the resonator are made from Bakelite.... yes,
Bakelite. Because of this it has a very throaty voice, not like most other banjos.
My other banjo is a pretty good player, but it has more sentimental value to me than anything else. It's a 1975 Japanese-made Bently 5-string that belonged to my father... my family gave it to him for Christmas in 1975, and when he passed away in 2004 my mother gave it to me. I don't play it much, but I have vivid childhood memories of my father playing it.
And bringing this one to a close, some of my other miscellaneous folk instruments... first, a pair of steel-string Soviet-era balalaikas, a 3-string model and a 6-string model:
My Apple Creek Appalachian lap dulcimer (I electrified it as well!)
And my 2016 Paolo Lorenzo fiddle... (another instrument on which I pretty much "stink"-- you can see my chalk "cheater" position marks on the fingerboard!)