It's no secret that I like Epiphone guitars. I also like Gibsons. And Fenders. And a good Gretsch. Gosh, I just really like guitars. I also like modding and even fixing them sometimes.

That said, if I were to pick my top 5 guitars from my woodpile, they would probably be these, and in this order.

• Gibson ES-339
• Epiphone ES-335 Trad Pro
• Epiphone Les Paul Standard 50s
• Epiphone ES-339
• Fender Highway One Stratocaster

Four of those guitars have been modded in some way. The Strat is the only one that is bone stock. I kept saying I was going to swap out the pickups in it, but every time I decide it's time to do so, I pick it up and play it, and like the way it sounds. So it has managed to remain untouched. I guess I did add a couple of springs to it to deck the trem, but I'm not sure that completely counts.

The Gibson ES-339 is mostly un-modded. The only thing I've done to it is to swap out the bridge. I didn't like the bridge that came was on it when I bought it. I'm not completely sure it was the original bridge either. So I bought one and swapped it out. It came with 57 Classics in it, and that's how I'm leaving it.

The Epiphone 339 has had the pickups swapped out and two of the knobs have been swapped. The original shipment of those that Epiphone sold were advertised to come with their Probucker pickups. When I ordered mine, and even when it came in, they were still advertising those as the pickups. However, when I got mine in and checked it, it had the Alnico Classic pickups. I found out that, after that first batch that came over, they had swapped the pickups in all the 339s, but they hadn't updated their ads or specs on the website. I was disappointed, but the ones in it didn't sound bad. Still, I always wondered what the Probuckers would sound like in it. A year ago, I ended up with an extra set of Probuckers, so I finally got to hear what the 339 sounded like with them in it.

The Epi LP originally came with Probuckers in it. A Probucker 1 in the neck and 2 in the bridge. I really liked them. In truth, I saw no reason to change them out. Played it for a year and a half or so with those in it. Then one day I got a wild hair and decided to grab a pair of Burstbuckers (a 1 and a 2) and drip them in to see what they sounded like. Honestly, I liked the Probucker 1 better that the Burstbucker in the neck, but the Burstbucker 2 sounds better than the Probucker 2 in the bridge. Because I'm lazy and didn't want to mess with it again, the Burstbuckers have stayed in the LP.

Those Probuckers out of the LP were what went into the 339.

The Epiphone 335 came with the Alnico Classic pickups. I was quite happy with those. They sounded as good as the 57 Classics that were in the Gibson 335 that I had traded off a couple years previous. I had no plans to replace them. I played it for a year with it being bone stock. Then, back in December, I unplugged my cable from it, and the jack fell back into the guitar. Then, while I was trying to fish the jack out and back into the hole, I screwed up one of the pots. So, since I didn't feel like I had the time to I decided to carry it into the my local luthier. And, since I was carrying it in for electronics work, I started making a list of what I wanted him to do to it. Basically, put in another jack and replace the push/pull pots in it. Since I was doing that, I decided to pick up a couple of 57 Classics to put in it. When I dropped it off to the luthier, I have him do all of that at the same time. Got it back, and have been super happy with the sound of it. 

You'll notice that, by and large, it's the pickups that have been swapped. I know that there are a LOT of different pickups out there, and a LOT of those pickups sound really good. You may notice that all of the pickups that I have talked about are Gibson branded in some way. That's mostly because I know what they sound like because I've played them at some point in time. So I've stuck with them. I know that Lollar Imperials are supposed to be super good. I've also been told that the Bare Knuckle brand is super good.

By my own admission, with the humbuckers I've always picked, I have always seemed to chase that PAF sound. In the Gibson stable, the 57 Classics and the Burstbuckers are both supposed to get that sound. Of the Burstbuckers, the Burstbucker 1 and 2 would be closer to that vintage 50s LP kind of sound. In the Epiphone world, it has been my understanding that the Alnico Classics are the Epi version of the 57 Classics and the Probuckers are the Epi version of Burstbuckers. I once read that, from a PAF perspective, the Burst/Probucker 1 & 2 combination would be that 50s sound. The Burst/Probucker 2 & 3 combination would be that 60s sound. And the 57/Alnico Classic combination would be that 70s sound.

So, except for the Epiphone ES-339, all of the pickups were just swapped from the Epiphone version to the Gibson version. In that 339, I just swapped from one Epiphone version to another Epiphone version. In the case of the ones being swapped from the Epi version to the Gibson version, the Gibson pickups do sound better. The Epiphone ones sound good. They're not bad. I could absolutely play them and be happy. But, since I swapped them out, I'll say that the Gibsons seem to have the edge when it comes to clarity and range. I think there's a reason that they cost twice as much, and isn't just the name on the box they came in.

Maybe some day I'll try some other pickups like the Lollars I mentioned. I hear the low-wind Imperials are just the best. In fact, I've got a buddy that said that's what he has in his 335, and his guitar sounds amazing. Course his overall tone is a step above mine too.

All that to say, if you don't like the sound of the guitar, try some new pickups. Heck. Even if you like the sound, try some new ones and see if you like them better. Or leave them the same. At least for me, half the fun is in the tinkering.

Last week I talked about my two Strats. Well, two of my Strats. The two Strats that I have that I play anyways. I think I have four. Maybe five. The Hwy One, the ADE, the Monterey Strat from 2017, and the Splattercaster. I think that's all of them.

Since I mentioned them last time, I thought I'd talk about the Hwy One and the ADE.

The Highway One is a 2009 according to the serial number. Mrs Snarf bought it for me in really early 2010. I had started working my way through Griff Hamlin's Blues Guitar Unleashed course, and, to motivate myself, I decided that I would buy myself a MIA Strat once I got done with it. Had it already picked out and everything. My wife walked in one day, let me know that she had gotten a pretty good bonus at work, and told me to buy the Strat that I had been looking at. So I ordered it well before I finished the course.

Don't quote me on this, but I think the Hwy One series was built from early 2000s through 2010. In 2010 or 2011, I believe they were replaced by the American Performer series. As I recall, they changed a few things in the series long about 2006. I think they changed the pickups, but the thing I remember most is that they added the Rust Bucket tone control. I don't remember what exactly it does, but I think I remember the ads saying something about cuts the highs without adding more lows.

Mine's a 3 color sunburst with an ebony fretboard. Whatever pickups are in the Hwy One series (I never found out) with the middle being reverse wound, reverse polarity. A 1970s headstock. A modern C-shape neck. That Rust Bucket tone control I mentioned earlier. I've heard over the years that the electronics are all American and I've heard that they were the same electronics as they put into the MIM Strats.  

I've always liked the the finish on it. It's a satin finish, and since it's a sunburst, you can really see the wood grain through it. Also, since it's satin, the more you play it, the more the areas of wear shine.

I've never quite figured out the Rust Bucket part of the tone control. It does what a tone control is supposed to do. However, I've always like that the first tone control runs the tone on the neck pickup, and the second tone control runs the bridge pickup. There is no tone control on the middle pickup that seldom gets used. 

It has what I would consider a modern Strat sound. The pickups seem a little hotter than regular single coils. At least hotter than the usual stock pickup on a Strat. Playing through the positions, it definitely sounds like a Strat.

The other is a 2013 American Design Experience. That's the equivalent of a current Mod Shop guitar. Before the Mod Shop, where you can order whatever pretty much whatever guitar you want online, Fender had the American Design Experience. It was the predecessor of the Mod Shop. And before they had the online American Design Experience, they had the one where I got my guitar. When I got mine, you actually had to go to the factory out in Corona. It's probably the closest thing I'll ever own to a real Fender Custom Shop.

Now, when you got to Corona, there was the little visitor center that had a gift shop and museum-ish area. Then, off to the side, there was this small room over on the side where you could go and spec out a guitar. They had bodies, necks, pickups, bridges, and all the other hardware around the room and on the walls, and you could pick out what you wanted in a guitar. If it was in the room, then it was an option on your guitar. If it wasn't in the room, then it wasn't something you could pick.

Over in one corner was a rack that had probably 20 Strat bodies and 20 Tele bodies and maybe 10 or 15 bass bodies. I had wanted a surf green one, but they didn't have any in the rack, and the guy reminded me that if it wasn't in the room then it wasn't an option. I ended up picking a body color that I hadn't seen before. It wasn't really that special other than the fact that I had (and still haven't) seen that color anywhere. The one I picked is a satin orange color. I went over and played with the rack of necks and ended up with a fairly standard one-piece maple neck.

Then I went over to the hardware and picked a set of vintage tuners and one of the modern bridges. Got to the pickups, and the guy showed me the list on the wall. There were the standard pickups plus the Noiseless and Custom Shop 50s and a couple of other Custom Shop varieties. The ones that I wanted were the CS 69s, and they weren't on the list. So I mentioned that to the guy, and he said that they had pulled them off the list because they were in short supply at the time. But then he let me know that he'd be sure that my guitar got a set of 69s in it. 

From there, everything went into a box with my name on it that went into the corner of the room with some other boxes that had names on them. Two months later, it arrived on my doorstep. By the time all was said and done, it was a nice balance between a Standard and a Deluxe. The total cost of it was also right dead in between the two. And it was also twice as much as the Hwy One.

I believe that my opinion is being objective when I say that they're both super nice guitars. Out of the box (and even today) the fit and finish on both of them are great. They both play great, but, as I mentioned in the previous post, the Hwy One plays a little better. Not sure what it is about it, but it does. They both sound like a Strat, but those CS 69s in the ADE Strat just sound soooo nice. For the money, they're both great guitars.  Bang for the buck, you can't beat the Hwy One. Total cost, the ADE is a super nice guitar as well.
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I bought that ES-339 back in April (I think), and it's about all I've played since then. I kept a 335 out hanging on the wall for a bit that I would pick up occasionally. About a month ago, I put the 335 up and pulled out a Telecaster, and it's the guitar that I've picked up about once a week when I wasn't playing the 339. I've been reminded how much I like some single coil pickups.

Now the Telecaster has always had a couple of issues. I bought it a little over a year ago. Back in the great gear purge of 2020, I traded a 50s Road Worn Tele because I never played it. Like never. It was one of the original Road Worns. Or at least one of the first couple of years they were making those (I think). It wasn't a color that I really liked (blonde), but the neck on it was the best strat/tele neck that I had ever touched. It was for that reason I bought it. And pretty quickly realized I wasn't a Tele kind of guy. When I traded it, I think it had sat in the closet pretty much untouched for at least the 3 years we had lived in this house.

Then I started seeing that purple Tele from Anderton's over in the UK, and really liked the look of it. Like really liked the purple look of it. Then I saw that GC was selling a Road Worn version of it. It had been out a year or two, and I could already see that they were becoming more scarce. So, when I saw Musicians Friend put them on sale in the summer of 2021, I pulled the trigger and am pretty sure that I got one of the last new ones. When I ordered it, MF had them on sale, but they were listed on both the MF and GC website. I ordered mine, got the ship notification, and the next day the listing on both sites showed them as no longer available. 

So back to the couple of issues. Had I played this one at the local GC (I ordered it from MF, but it came from a GC across the country), I probably would've passed on it. It had hung on the wall long enough that the hanger had burned the neck up by the nut. The neck didn't feel anywhere near as good as the one on the previous Road Worn, and the skunk stripe wasn't sanded real smooth. But the biggest thing is that the fret ends were terrible. I don't think it had a case of fret sprout. I think it was that whoever cut the frets just did a bad job or maybe had a dull set of cutters. But, I figured that everybody needed a Tele, I had traded away one that wasn't bad for one that wasn't as good, but I really like the purple, so I ought to keep it since it doesn't look like I can get another one for the price I paid. So I kept it and figured I'd do something about the frets at some point.

That was the long way around the bush to say that, after playing it a few times this month, I finally pulled out my tools to try and smooth out the fret ends. And, since i had my stuff out and was taking up all the space on the kitchen island, I pulled out a couple of Strats since I haven't one of them out in at least a year.

After I got them out and cleaned them up and changed the strings, I decided that I was going to do something I had never done before. I decided to A/B them for a few minutes. Not that it really matters, but they're both MIA, but one cost twice what the other cost. They're both great guitars! The fit and finish on them both has always been outstanding. Even never having played them back to back like this (I always seemed to have one or the other out, but never both at the same time) I knew that I liked the way one felt and played better than the other. So it was time to check out if I still thought the same thing about them.

One is a Highway One. Mrs Snarf bought it for me at the beginning of 2010. It's the one that I've always preferred the feel of. It just sits in the hands right and the action is pretty much just like I like it. It sounds like a Strat should. It's a bone stock 2009 model. Although I've talked about it for years. I've never changed anything on it but the strings.

The other is a Fender American Design Experience from 2013. It is from before they put that option online. When I got mine you had to go to the factory, and, in that little room off to the side of the gift shop, you would pick out your body, neck, and all the rest of the specs that you wanted that they had available. Unlike what they started doing when they started doing it online, you had your choice of what was in the room at the time. If they didn't have it in the room, you couldn't choose it. The day I spec-ed mine out, there were maybe 20 Strat bodies and maybe 10 necks.

There are several differences in the ADE and the Hwy One, but one of the biggest is that it has Custom Shop '69 pickups in it. Those weren't actually on the list to choose from (although other CS pickups were), but when I asked about them, the builder that was in the room that day noted that's what I wanted and said those were in short supply at the time so they took them off the list, but he'd be sure mine got them. With that, he put all the components from around the room that I had picked out into a box, put my name on it, and set on the side of the room with a couple of other boxes with names on them. About 2 months later, the guitar showed up on my doorstep. The cost of it was somewhere between an American Standard and an American Deluxe, and is probably the closest thing I'll ever had to buying a Fender Custom Shop.

That was another bush to take you around, so back to playing them back to back.

Spent about 30 minutes just playing the same riffs and licks and chords through the same amp set the exact same way. I was actually a little surprised at the results.

I didn't expect that I would so quickly be reminded that I really prefer the feel of the Hwy One. It still just feels right to me. Something about it that I'm not sure I can describe. Theoretically, the two guitars should be really similar feeling since I set them up myself and aim for the same thing on every Strat and Tele I have. I follow the same process, and I try to get them all to feel the same way. Maybe it's the cut of the neck or something. I don't really know. But that Hwy One just feels better than the ADE. If I was just going off sound, I would go with the Hwy One every day.

I think the sound of the two was what really surprised me though. There is no question that the Hwy One sounds like a Strat. It very much does. But I think I made the comment when I first started playing the ADE that I finally understood what they meant when they said a good Strat sounds glassy. Those ADE pickups just sound sooooo good to my ear. The Hwy One has its own unique Strat sound, but the ADE sounds like a Strat should sound. The Hwy One plays better than the ADE, but, when I try to be objective, I think the ADE almost runs circles around the Hwy One when it comes to sound.

So, after working on the Tele last night and getting those fret ends down so they don't cut you, I've almost decided to put the Tele back in the closet and leave out one of the Strats instead. The question now is which one. It'll probably be the ADE since it sounds so nice.