Meet the (guitar) family

Hello Guitar Community!

I’ve recently returned to guitar playing following a fairly long break, mostly due to the arrival of my two kids! One is now a teenager and the other isn’t far behind, and I find myself with a little more “me time”. Over the past month or so I’ve picked up the guitar again and have managed to get some practice hours in.

The experience so far has been enjoyable although I’ve pretty much had to start from scratch. I wasn’t particularly good to start off with as I never really applied myself.

In line with kicking off my learning journey again, I thought I’d introduce the family.

So, here we have it from left to right.

Line 6 Variax 600

This is a pretty funky guitar. It has now visible pickups as you can see, but instead has piezo pickups under the strings at the bride. It uses some magic to turn the output from the piezo pickups, into the sounds from lots of different makes and models of guitar. It covers Stratocaster and Telecaster sounds from Fender, Les Paul sounds from Gibson, Rickenbacker, Acoustic, 12 sting and even a banjo. I’m using this more and more as I get back into playing through my computer for recording.

Steve Benford Custom Build

My dad passed away in 2006 and I was after something special. I’d always wanted a Gibson Les Paul, but upon searching couldn’t find one I liked. I think it was Gibson’s dodgy days when it came to quality control.

I got to know Steve Benford through the SixStringBliss Podcase (and other Steve - see the Podcascter below). He’s a luthier based in the US and used to appear on episodes of the show. He built this guitar based on my design and material desires. It’s a sapele body (alternative to mahogany), birdseye maple top and ebony fingerboard.

I absolutely love this guitar but it currently has some electrical gremlins. It has coil taps which means the dual coil “humbucker” pickups can be switched to single coils. I’ve been looking at rewiring to simplify and hopefully resolve the interference issue.

Kimbara Stratocaster Copy

My very first guitar! I think I got this from my dad as a Christmas present in 1991, maybe ‘92. I’ve replaced the pickups and switch, it was originally a 3 way but is now 5. I kept all the original parts and may swap them back. It also had a white pickguard.

Fender Standard Stratocaster (Mexican)

This was the guitar I always wanted growing up, after seeing Hank Marvin, Mark Knopfler and Jimi Hendrix. Of course an American made one would be lovely, but to be honest the cost far out does my ability. This Mexican is still a lovely sounding guitar and again beginner friendly. I think these are made from Alder and mine has the maple neck (as opposed to the darker rosewood).

This is the guitar that tends to get played the most recently.

“The Podcaster”

I know very little about this guitar other than it’s very interesting, sounds nice and is easy to play. I won this after submitting a song on the old SixStringBliss podcast. It’s via that podcast that I met @Steevc.

Martin LXK2 Little Martin

This is a cool little guitar, I say little as it’s ¾ size. I bought this when I used to travel a lot as it’s made from HPL (High Pressure Laminate) and is therefore not as susceptible to damp and other changes in climate.

It’s finished Koa

Tanglewood TW28 CLN

A nice budget dreadnought. The back, sides and neck are mahogany. The top cedar with a rosewood fingerboard. It’s pretty good sounding for it’s price point, more importantly quite easy to play for a beginner. The only regret I have about an acoustic is I wish I’d gone for and electro-acoustic enabling me to plug into an amp/my computer.