Let's talk (show) guitars and gear

Very nice.
The binding on the edge through me off a bit.
I did have a Gibson Melody Maker V from 2009 but tbh it was not very nice…lol
It was not that well made, not a particularly good player and with just a single pickup it really screamed but that was about it.
The Tokai although a lot less $ is much better all round.

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Well Black Friday sale at Sam Ash proved to have a few too many goodies and I succumbed.
New fretless bass, bass amp and an effects pedal.
The pedal is the star of my show now, it was dirt cheap and I’m still not totally sure what it does exactly but when I plugged it in with pretty much the settings you see it was like the scene from Back to the Future where Fox gets literally blown away by Docs amp!
I was not prepared for the sheer level, attack and deep sustain as there was no warning hum or buzz and i hit a power chord and like …woah!
And no nasty feedback, it’s a great little new toy!


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@AceRimmer I couldn’t resist going to YT to refresh my memory. One question that comes to mind is were you wearing sunglasses and did you remove them and say “woah, (and I believe) rock and roll” like McFly? :rofl:

What a great story!! Enjoy the new toy!!

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Haha, glad you took the trouble.
A while back somewhere I actually posted the YT link to it as well…

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Congrats @AceRimmer, you have been on a roll lately. I dig the bass, glad you are liking the pedal. I’ve been very tempted to buy one of the 40th Anniversary Squire Telecaster/Stratocasters directly from Fender. Great Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals…problem is I can’t decide on model, color, hardware…I’ve had a few in my cart and gone back a few times. Seems wrong to buy just because of the deal. But its pulling me.

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I once asked a guitar player what he thought was the optimal number of guitars to have in a collection?

His answer was “one more”.

Lol

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A Texas music legend/eccentric once told me, “as soon as your wife uses the expression ‘all those guitars’ to describe your collection, you’re home free. She won’t notice when a new one shows up!” :rofl:

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sounds like something Ray Wylie Hubbard would say. :wink:

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Loving that colour! :+1:

Hi all… I’m hoping that I’m posting this as a general post under this topic? Please let me know if I’ve posted it to the wrong section or accidentally replied to someone else’s post.

I found this thread by accident when searching for a fix for my ARC connection. So glad I did, as I love everything about this topic.

I play mainly acoustic and would like to show off my latest acquisition which came in the mail the other day. It was a significant birthday/retirement present from my wife but I did all the organising of it with the amazing people at Boucher Guitars in Quebec, Canada.

I’d been researching a new OM size acoustic for some time and was pretty set on a Collings or Martin OM Deluxe but I started reading great things about Boucher Guitars online and after watching a few JP Cormier videos on YouTube decided to get in touch with them. JP Cormier by the way is an amazing guitar player, fiddle player, singer, composer and all round top man. His youtube channel is very entertaining and his reviews are very no nonsense, recommend you check him out.

Anyway… I digress… JP raved about Boucher as did anyone who had owned one. I saw a few on Reverb but one day just phoned the number on their web site. I live in Australia and called at around 8am in the morning, they were just shutting up shop for the night… but the phone was picked up literally seconds after I called and who answered? None other than Master Luthier Robin Boucher himself! I’d never spoken to anyone from Quebec before and thought they liked to speak French so launched into an introduction of myself in very elementary French (pretty embarressing really). Robin kindly put me out of my misery and started speaking English so we said a quick hello and he then put me onto his lieutenant Guillaume, who talked me through which guitar he thought would suit my style best. I enjoyed talking to them both very much and decided to go ahead with a custom build.

That was last February and the guitar was finished and sent just a few weeks ago. I have to say it was well worth the wait… what a work of art with wood.

For those interested the specs are:

Size - OMH
(H for hybrid so it has quite a bit more bass over a traditional OM size instrument)

Top - master grade Adirondac (Red Spruce)
Boucher Guitars are right in the middle of one of the last Adirondac forests in the world. They use this wood on all of their guitar tops with Master Grade being the best. (They actually supply Collings, Martin and other luthiers with this wood but keep the best for their own instruments)

Back and sides - African Bubinga.
This wood is kind of in between Mahogany and Rosewood. I have a couple of other instruments with Rosewood so decided to try something different for this instrument.

Neck - Brazalian Mahogany

Fretboard and bridge - Ebony

Along with the Master Grade pack (which came with an abalone rosette and Koa binding), I also added Vintage pack (square headstock with open tuners) and added in a pickup (Concert pack).

Here is the new guitar in its place in the lounge room alongside one of my other instruments a 25 year old Lowden 032.

The folks at Boucher Guitars were so nice to deal with and the new instrument sounds wonderful… quite a bit tighter than the Lowden, not as mellow - a different voice as they say - which was what I was after. It’s volume and projection, is well on par with the Lowden. The action is beautiful right up the neck even barring on the higher frets.

Anyway, I hope some of you might find this review interesting. It was kind of stressful buying a guitar of this quality without actually having ever played one myself - but thanks to JP Cormier’s reviews I decided to go through with it. I’m not disappointed with the end result.

Regards from Australia,

DK

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That is an absolutely gorgeous guitar and great story - I’m sure it sounds wonderful! I’m the proud owner of a Larivée L03-R (from the period when they were built in Vancouver), which I bought on a work trip to Montreal many years ago (when the UK exchange rate against the $ was very favourable indeed, so it was something of a bargain) - as it happens I now live just outside Vancouver.

Enjoy playing!

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Very good Rockhound… you definitely found that Canadian connection along with your Larivee! Your Larivee will be sounding sweet with that age on it! Like a fine wine.

Would love to get over there one day - actually thought about going there to pick up my new guitar but the post-Covid air fare prices from Australia quickly knocked that one on the head! Canada have some fantastic guitar builders though and very much more reasonably priced than quality equivalent US builders.

Nice to chat with you, thank you for replying to my first message on this thread.

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Great story, great guitar and a very warm welcome to the show!
There are a great bunch of enthusiasts here and you will always be afforded a welcome!
Enjoy your new guitar!

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I hear you about the air fares right now! Mrs RH is a Kiwi and we had briefly toyed with the idea of going down there for Xmas/New Year this year but the prices are insane. Hope you make it to Canada before long!

Wonderful story and beautiful guitar. Enjoy your new retirement in good health and put that guitar through its paces.

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I may just have to give this a go…

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My Nik Huber Krautster I with a custom ‘54 Les Paul inspired setup with twin P-90 single coil pickups. It’s a better guitar than I am a player for sure……

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It’s a thing of great beauty Craig and will give you endless pleasure just looking at it in the lounge room when your not practising!!

Enjoy you guitar mate.

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Pretty cool, Ace

After reading and reading and reading reviews. I think I might need one of these. So many have been sold that I’d think somebody here has one. Any feedback? (pun intended)