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.

Our personal musical journeys are always filled with twists and turns. So often we start down one road and end up going in a completely different direction. I was talking to Mrs Snarf the other day about that very thing.

I played for years and only played acoustics. Then I bought my first electric. It was a low end, import Parker. I don't remember the model number. I only remember a few things about it. I never really bonded with it. It was a weird Parker because it was an SSH. And I traded it at a guitar shop in a little town several hours away to a shop keeper that just saw Parker and gave me waaaaay to much for it because he thought he had something special (he didn't). I traded it straight up on my first Strat. 

Honestly, I got that Strat to impress Mrs Snarf. We weren't even dating at the time, but I thought she needed to see me with a guitar for some reason. I immediately named it after her. It also made it into our engagement pictures. Kind of cheesy if you ask me. But sometimes life is ooey and gooey like that.

Neeways, I started playing that guitar, and I really liked it. It was, in my opinion, a much better guitar than the Parker. Honestly, though, it was probably more that I just didn't know what I was doing when I bought the Parker. But the Strat left an impression on me. When it came time to buy another electric, I bought a second Strat. Heck! At one point, I had 5 Strats. Currently, I only have 4. And, for the time being, that's probably where the count will stay.

Between that first and second Strat, I actually bought a really low end Les Paul. I don't really count it, because I never bonded with it. It was a low end instrument with a LOT of the problems that you would expect from something that was at that price point. The humbuckers in it were...I'll be nice and call them muddy. They didn't sound good. I ended up swapping them out for a pair of Burstbuckers, and it sounded a LOT better, but it still played terribly. So, by and large, it stayed in the closet. 

About 10 years ago now, when Epiphone first started making the ES-339, I picked one of those up. I tried to get in on that first run of them, but didn't get one ordered in time. So I put my order in and waited like 6 months for the next shipment of them to come over. Got the guitar, and it almost never went in the case. I liked the way it sounded and the way it played. It made me think I might like humbuckers better than single coils. Then I got my 1962 50th Anniversary Sheraton. Loved the sound of that one! Initially I thought it was the fact that it had humbuckers too (even though it's mini-hums in it). Then, because I have always like the aesthetic of an ES-335, I got one of those. Oddly enough, I LOVED the sound of that one, but I never bonded with it. There was something just not right about it. But I got to wondering, at that point, my 3 favorite guitars were all semi-hollows, so was it the humbuckers or the semi-hollow that I liked.

Fast forward another couple years, and I was trading the 335 off. I picked up that Epiphone Les Paul when I did, and really liked the sound of it. I figured I was just turning into an humbucker kind of guy. But I realized that I still liked the sound of the 339 better than the LP. Then a year later, I picked up the Epi 335. I totally dug the sound of it. So I started doing the A/B thing with some of my guitars, and I realized that I think I have a thing for semi-hollows with humbuckers. That sound just really does it for me.

A few months after that, I had always told myself I wanted a real live Gibson ES-339, preferably made in the area of 2010 when the Custom Shop was making all of them. I had been trolling for a particular color. Found what I thought was a screamin' deal on one on the other side of the Metroplex. So I got it. And it has been my main guitar since. When Mrs Snarf and I were having the conversation the other day, I had realized that the second guitar hanging on the wall since I got the 339 has been either the LP or the 335. And mostly been the 335.

I've kind of done a 180. I started the electric guitar journey with single coils in a solid body. For several years, I thought they were the only pickups that were any good. If you played anything with humbuckers, then you were just letting your tone suffer. Now I pull a Strat out on occasion, but I primarily grab a semi-hollow with humbuckers in it, and I sometimes think that single coils sound kind of anemic. Unless they're P-90s, but those are a whole other animal. 

Funny how that happens sometimes.

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.

Put together a small board this evening.  5 pedals that I'm already thinking I'm going to swap at least a couple of them out tomorrow.   If for no other reason, I wanted to use my Lovepedal Kalamazoo sorta-copy (my Tone City Durple), but it's got a side mounted power port, and I'm having trouble getting it plugged in.  So I'm probably going to stick a Rat copy on it.  Which isn't even close to the same pedal.  But the power jack is on the top and the input/output jacks are on the side where they should be.

That got me to thinking.  So here are some musings on pedals.  And boards.

• I tend to overthink putting a board together.  It all looks good tonight, but the next morning I know there will be at least one or two that get swapped out.
• I am beginning to hate, loathe, and utterly despise those pedals that have the power plug on the side.
  • Not to pick on them because some of them sound great, but my experience seems to be that it's the more budget friendly pedals that use the side power thing.  There are exceptions to this (looking at you Lovepedal).
• I'm, also, beginning to dislike pedals with their input and output jacks on the top where the power should plug in.  Pedal makers, please quit using top mounted jacks.  If you don't have the right cable, you can't plug the power in.
• Since I saw one for the first time like 5 years ago, I have been working to only use non-velcro attachments to the pedal board whenever possible.  Zip ties generally work, but can fit awkwardly sometimes.  I really like those rail boards, but I can't put anything that doesn't have a square side on them.  I may be about to come full circle and go back to using velcro again.
• I'm always excited to get a new board to try out until I try it out.  That's when I see that the board that was such a good idea has a feature or two that the manufacturer either didn't consider or over which they just threw up their hands, said "screw it," and sold it anyways.
  • The board I got tonight does this.  It came with handles that you can attach if you want, but, if you do, you effectively cannot put anything within a few inches of the left side (or you can't plug your guitar in) or the the right side (or you can't plug anything in to go to your amp).  So I guess I won't be using the handles on it.  Or I have to find first and last pedals on the board that have top mounted jacks.  See my previous comment about top mounted jacks. 
• I still want to try one of those boards (or make one) where the input and output for the board plug into the side of the board and not a pedal.  That strikes me as a good idea.  That way, if you wanted, you could put the first pedal in your chain in the middle.  Or where ever you want because it doesn't have to go on an end somewhere.
• The verdict is still out on manufacturers that no longer have battery compartments.  I totally get it for mini-pedals.  There's no room for  a battery in those.  But I'm still of the mind that a full size pedal should have that option...even if I'm not using it.
• I love my OneSpot.  I've actually got a couple of them.  I just wish I knew what to do with all that extra wire when I'm only powering like 3 pedals with it.

So I mentioned in my Best Gear of 2021 post that my new Epiphone 335 was the best gear I had bought last year.  I still think that.  I still don't see it becoming my main player, but, lately, it's the one that I've grabbed first when I walk into my music room.  It's just a fun guitar to play, and it sounds really nice.

It's a gold top.  Cream colored binding but all the rest of the plastic is black.  Epiphone's Alnico Classic Pro pickups are in it.  If I remember correctly, those are Epi's version of Gibson's 57 Classics, with the Pro signifying that they're 4-wire instead of 2-wire.  Aesthetically, the one thing I wish they would've done would have been to paint the inside edge of the f-holes black instead of body colored (gold).  The Gibson 335 I had for a while had that, and I just always thought it looked better that way.  I haven't measured it, but I think it has the same neck that is on my Standard 50s Les Paul.  It has that same handful of a feel that I've come to really like instead of the really thin necks that a couple of my older Epiphones have.

Sonically, it's not bad.  That's not to say that it's not good.  It is.  But, remembering back to the Gibson, the Epi pickups sound nice, but they're not as articulate as the ones that were in the Gibson.  Granted, that's sitting in the quiet of my practice space.  It's not something I think I would notice if I were playing out somewhere.  It may also be that I'm not remembering the 57 Classics as they really sounded.  After all, it's been over a year since I traded that one off.  I'm in no hurry to upgrade the pickups (they really do sound pretty good), but it is something that I will probably end up doing some day.  Kind of like my Gretsch, one day I'll come across the right pickups for the right price, and I'll know that it's time to go ahead and upgrade them.  Until then, they will definitely serve the purpose.

Playability is just fine.  The action out of the box (out of the store?) was right about what I would've tried to dial in, so, after I got it home, all I did was clean up the guitar-store-funk on it and change the strings.  After playing it for a while, one thing I do need to do to it is get it back on the bench and smooth some of the frets up in the squeaky-zone.  I don't play up there on a real regular basis, but I've been working some stuff that has a bend on the 17th fret, and every time I hit it, I think it scrapes a little bit.

It's turning out to be a great guitar.  It didn't just blow me away like the Standard 50s Les Paul did.  But, in all fairness, it was that Probucker 1 at the neck of the LP that continues to pull me back to that guitar.  I just really like that sound of that pickup in that guitar.  So, didn't blow me away, but it did reach out and grab me at the store, make me take it home, and continues to make me leave it out on the stand and grab it at some point most every day.  

Bang for the buck, dollar to value ratio, whatever you want to call it, Epiphone continues to step up their game.  This new 335 just further convinces me of that.

My pedal board.  Honestly, I have a love/hate relationship with it.  I said earlier today to some online friends that I prefer to go straight to the amp.  I do.  Sort of.  I usually play at the casa, and to get that nice driven amp sound, I've got to make the neighbors mad.  Or use an OD pedal of some sort.  I, also, really like the sound of a univibe.  I've leaned towards that sound ever since I figured out what it was.  So, at the casa where I usually play, I guess I actually like a couple of pedals in front of the amp.

But that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy picking up pedals and playing with them.  It does mean, however, that I have a whole lot of pedals in the closet that I played with a couple of days and then toss them on the shelf knowing that they're there if I ever decide to use them.

Anyways, I had put a a real board together a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday was looking down at it yesterday and realized that, I have a heck of a lot of pedals in the closet that I either never got dialed in real well or that I found a single sound that I liked and never played with beyond that.  So I decided to do something.  I pulled that board apart, put all those same ol' same ol' pedals back in the closet, and pull out some of the ones that I hardly use and see if I could come to like them better.  So here's the chain in order.  We'll see how long it stays out like this.

Boss Tuner:  It's the tuner I always use, and I only have 1 tuner, so it's on whatever board I'm using.

Fulltone Dejavibe:  Did I mention that I like univibes?  I bought this one back in the spring, and it has been out ever since.  It may've been the only pedal on the the floor, but I haven't put it up since I bought it.  At the moment, it's my favorite univibe.

Amazon Basics Compressor:  Bought this one a year ago.  Used it for a few minutes and put it in the closet.  I've never been a huge compression user, but have figured out that there seem to be 2 types of compressors.  I'm not sure how to describe either sound, but I know them when I hear them.  One I really like.  One I really don't.  This is the second type.  I pulled it out just to try to see if I could find a sound I like in it.  If I can't, it's probably going to go to my Reverb shop.

Boss Blues Driver:  Not really going to say anything about this pedal.  I know I like it.  It's got some great sounds in it.  I just don't use it that often because I have other OD pedals that I like better.  I put this one on mostly because I hardly use it.  But I know it's got some nice tones in it, so at least I'll have a pedal on the board that I know I like if I get frustrated with the others.

Boss DynaDrive:  I bought this one a good while back because it seemed to be the pedal du jour for the youtube channels and everyone was talking about how good it was.  So I was curious enough to pick one up.  I was very underwhelmed!  To my ear, it was just kind of an average OD.  Nothing stood out about it.  By my own admission, I really didn't give this one a fair shake.  I only played around with it for maybe an afternoon; it was that underwhelming.  When I did my big gear purge last fall, I'm not really sure why I kept it, but I did.  It's just sat in the closet since then.  If I can't find some nice tones in it this time around, it's another that will probably end up on my Reverb.

EHX Hot Wax.  This one I liked when I got it.  After I got it a few months ago, I dialed in a sound that I liked on both sides, but tossed it into the closet after about a week.  Wasn't because it was a bad pedal.  It was more just because it wasn't one of my usual pedals.  It has some nice sounds in it, just not the ones I would typically use.

EHX B9 Organ:  This is another one that I know I like.  I just don't pull it out often because it is a very niche pedal.  I think it's a LOT of fun though.

Boss Tremolo:  I picked this one up a week ago.  This one is out, not because I never use it, but more because I want to get it dialed in.  Behind a univibe sound, a tremolo is probably my fave no OD pedal.  If my amp had a tremolo, I'd probably have it on all the time.

Danelectro reverb:  I bought this one several years ago.  It has an actual spring in it (that's why it's so big).  It's a one trick pony, spring reverb.  It's fun to play around with, but not a reverb I would really use on the regular or if I was playing out.  It even has that kick pad on it so you can kick it and make the internal spring rattle.  This one does ok, but it's another that I don't think I ever really got dialed in, and, because it only has one sound in it, I've never really looked at it as a really useful pedal.  Seriously, one sound.  You know how even an OD pedal has different levels of gain that make it sound different depending on how it's set?  This one is the exact same sound just in varying volume levels.

Boss looper:  This one is always on the floor too.  I don't count it because all it does is repeat what I put into it.  It doesn't really change the tone at all.  It's a great practice tool as well as one that that's just a lot of fun to riff into and then play over.

I'm guessing this iteration doesn't last more than a couple of weeks.  If for no other reason, I've been on a Rat kick lately, and been buying those type pedals when I see them for a good price.  I didn't put one on this board because I know I like that sound, I just need to dial those pedals in.  

I'm at least a little active on 2 or 3 guitar forums.  The older I get the more I think I might officially be the curmudgeon that T told me I was 15 years ago.  Sometimes folks on the various forums just irritate the heck out of me and make me think that I should step away and stay off the interwebs for a bit.  This was one of those occasions.

We got to talking about capos.  One of the other forum participants either doesn't understand how to effectively use a capo or was just ignoring everything that I was saying.  I finally gave up, and bowed out of the conversation before I said something that was going to get me a warning from the mods.  May the other person wallow in their ignorance (although I know they are far smarter than I and definitely a more skilled player).

There are two primary ways to use a capo.  Notice I did not say that there were only 2 ways to use a capo.  I said there are two primary ways.  These would be the two ways that most people tend to use a capo.  You can change the key that you are playing by slapping it on.  Or you can change the chord shapes that you want to play by slapping it on.  It's on this second point where the individual mentioned and I reached an impasse.

There's the first way.  Change the key in which you're playing.  This one is pretty simple and straightforward.  You're playing in the key of A, but the singer (or you) decide that the key needs to be raised to B, so you slap the capo on the second fret, and you have effectively changed the key of the song to B without having to change the chords that you have learned for the song.  I've learned to play the song in one key, but it's the wrong key for the singer?  No problem.  Bust out the capo, find a place on the fretboard they like, and capo like a champ.  Key changed for them and I don't have to learn new chords for the song.  Yes, you can quickly and easily change the key to a song with a capo.

The second way can be a little more confusing to folks just learning to play.  And, since I know the other forum person is anything but a novice player, I still can't figure out why they couldn't seem to wrap their head around this concept.  Change the chord shapes that you're playing. 

In my bluegrass days, this was something I used to do a LOT.  Back in those days, I played primarily in the keys of G, C, and D.  Not that I couldn't play in A or E or some either "weird" chord, but all the little riffs and lines I played were much easier in one of those three primary keys.  So we're doing a song in A?  Cool!  Capo II and I still get to play with the G chord shape.  Or maybe the song was still in G, but the other guitar player wanted to play cowboy chords, so I'd capo VII and play with a C-chord shape as the I.  But the key we were playing in remained G.

And that's where the person I was interacting with was wrong all day long.  They said that by placing the capo on the guitar, you were changing the key that you were playing in.  Specifically, we were talking about playing in the key of Bm.  They said that, if you did the capo VII thing, you were playing in Em.  I tried several times to make the distinction to them.  No, you were not playing in Em.  You were playing an Em chord shape, but you were still playing in Bm.  They disagreed.  Vehemently. 

They were wrong.  And still are.  Whether you played a barre chord at II to play Bm or you stuck a capo on II and played an Am shape or put a capo on VII and played an Em shape or even stuck a capo higher on the neck and played a Dm shape, you're still playing in Bm.  Yes, your chord shape turns into something else as you move around the neck, but the key remains the same.  Chord shape changes.  Key remains the same.

The one thing I erased several times and didn't tell them out of concern that it would come across as overly snarky is this.  The band is playing in Bm, and you slap a capo on VII.  You don't tell the band that you're switching to Em because the key didn't change.  Your fingering and chord shapes changed.  If you told them to stop playing in Bm and switch to Em, you and the band are going to be playing in different keys.

I still can't figure out how they couldn't wrap their head around that one.

Along a different vein, I only use Shubb capos.  I was given my first one back in 1993.  That's still the one that is in my pocket whenever I'm playing.  No tuning issues.  No bending issues.  It works every time.  I've tried some of the other brands, and always find myself back to the Shubb pretty quickly.  They're the best.

I bought my Epiphone 339 back when they first released them in 2011.  I missed that first run that delivered in the fall of 2011, so the one that I got was made in that second run.  That means that I had to wait 4 or 5 months to get mine.  I ordered it in November, and got it the end of March or first of April.  One change that they made between the first run and the second that I didn't see them announce anywhere was that the original 339s shipped with their Probucker pickups and the second run shipped with their Alnico Classic Pro pickups.  I had actually been looking forward to getting to try the Probuckers out, but the Alnico Classics sound good to my ear, so whatever.

Never gave it a whole lot of thought after that.  Like I said, I wasn't unhappy with the pickups it came with.  I had always heard that the Alnico Classics were Epi's version of Gibson's 57 Classics and the Probuckers were Epi's version of Gibson's Burstbuckers.  I had put a pair of Burstbuckers in an old Les Paul I had, and I really liked them.  Never really bonded with the guitar, but I thought the pickups sounded good.  I had a Gibson 335 for a while that had 57 Classics and I really liked them too. 

In my head, I always said I preferred the 57 Classics.  I'm not really sure why.  Honestly, I think I liked them better because that's what it seemed that most Gibsons I liked were getting when I started paying attention to that brand, and they were advertising them as being "like PAFs."  In the last few years, I've realized that they now seem to be putting Burstbuckers, 490s, MHS, and another pickup or two in guitars as much as they are the 57s.  When I saw that, I realized that several of those are also said to be "like PAFs."  Now, I must confess, I'm not really sure what a PAF sounds like, but being a good gear hound and sometimes cork-sniffer, I know that PAFs are the sound that everyone thinks they should have.  So, if it sounds like a PAF, that's the next best thing to actually having a PAF, right?

Now I'm just confused.  All these PAF-like sounding pickups, and they all seem to sound a little different to my ear.  What's the real PAF sound?  No clue.  At that point, I realized I had been sniffing a cork or two, and figured, I wasn't unhappy with the way that 339 played or sounded.  As well, from a similarity standpoint, I had the real 57 Classics in that 335, and, to my ear, they didn't really sound all that different from those Alnico Classics.  If I really sat and listened to them, I thought Epi version may not have been quite as clear and articulate on the low end, and they may not have been quite as harmonically rich when driven, but they sounded good.  Just playing at church on Sunday or at the local blues jam, and nobody was going to hear a difference in the two.  So there was no reason to change the Epi pickups.

Then last fall, I picked up that Epi LP Standard 50s (or whatever it's called).  I immediately bonded with that guitar.  Loved the neck!  Loved the sound!  And did I mention the neck?  I had been playing that 339 predominately for nearly 18 months when I got that LP, and the 339 suddenly found itself relegated to hanging on the wall.  One of the things I really liked about that LP were the pickups in it.  They seemed super clear and articulate, and sounded good clean or driven.  Maybe it was the guitars.  Maybe it was the pickups.  Maybe it was a bit of both.  Either way, it had the Probuckers in it, so I was once again questioning what the 339 would sound like with Probuckers instead of the Alnico Classics.

So I started looking for a set of them.  You could get them direct from Epiphone, but they were (1) $150 a set, and (2) out of stock.  So Reverb was my option since I don't like eBay.  Someone from Thailand was selling them starting at $50 a set with a wiring harness.  That's a good deal, right?  Seemed super sketch to me, so I passed on them.  I'd see others showing up here and there, but they were running about $50 a piece (or more).  I found a pair that someone pulled out of a new Epiphone where they were asking $70 for the pair.  I messaged them for pics of the back of the pickups, and, when he sent them, it turned out they were actually the Alnico Classics like I already had.  I let him know what he actually had, and that I'd pass since they weren't the ones I wanted.  His ad hasn't changed.  So be careful if you come across that ad; they're not actually Probuckers. 

The next afternoon, I noticed someone had posted a set of Probuckers for a super price.  Looking at the ad, the pics all looked right, so I was convinced they were real.  According to the ad, the seller had just pulled them out of a new Epi LP Modern that they had gotten.  Pics looked right, and the story sounded legit.  Looked at the price again, and three other folks had already made offers on them and someone had them in their cart.  So, since the price was really good without asking for a deal, I pulled the trigger.  I will say that they are the Probucker 2 and 3 pickups where my LP has the Probucker 1 and 2.  

Finally got them swapped out, and the Alnico Classics are now sitting beside me on the desk.  What's the verdict on the 339 now that it has the Probuckers in it?  I like them better!  I think they have a clearer low end.  I'm not sure the difference in the Probucker 1 in the LP neck and the Probucker 2 that is in the LP bridge and the 339 neck, but I still like the Probucker 1 best of all.  To my ear it really sounds good.  Either way, again, to my ear, the Probuckers have a clearer low end and are just a bit more articulate than the Alnico Classics.  They also seem to be a little bit smoother and not quite as harsh when driven.  When turned up, they also don't sound as hot to me.  The Probucker 1 is easily my favorite, but the 2 and 3 I also like better than the Classics.  Granted, in a blindfolded side by side, the only one I think I could pick out of the mix would be the 1.  That is, if I could pick it out of a crowd.  But trying to be objective sitting in my quiet little music room, I believe that I hear a difference in the two types of pickups.

So, I have to say that I think the Probuckers are great pickups.  They're half the price of the Gibson Burstbuckers, and, to my ear, they're not that different.  Granted, I haven't A/Bed them at this point, but from what I remember of that pair I had, they're pretty close.  Given the chance, if I had another Epi with those quick connect ends, if it didn't have the Probuckers in it, I'd see about finding another pair.  I'm not sure that all the hype around the Probuckers isn't at least a little marketing, but, I think, they're well worth the money.  Like I already said, they're not the Gibson (or Duncan or Lollars), but they're close enough that nobody but us gear hounds are going to hear the difference.  Bang for your buck, especially if you get them used, I don't know that you're going to get anything better.

Read today about a company that, at the conclusion of the interview, asks the interviewee to write a haiku about the interview experience.

Now I've heard that some companies will ask you off-the-wall questions to see how you think on your feet.  Or they'll ask you how to do a simple task to see how detail-oriented your thinking process is.  Or they'll ask you a question that seems simple, but want to see if you think outside the box and give the usual, easy answer.  I've even sat through some of these kinds of questions.  And in most cases I thought they were as ridiculous as they are.  Truth is, I think most companies that asked them heard about the famous (or infamous) Google interview process, and they wanted to do something that seemed just as hip and trendy so folks would want to work there.  So they just came across as copy-cats.

There were a couple of technical interviews that I sat through where the weird question was beneficial.  Those two interviews were with different companies and a couple of years apart.  They both asked the same question.  How do you make a PB&J?

The first time, I answered the question, but I kind of stumbled on myself because I hadn't really thought it through.  I gave some details, but realized when I left that I had still been a bit high level in my answer.  I didn't get that job.  I think that was more about me telling them I was trying to cut my commute down and then them telling me the job involved a bit of driving to field offices every day.  But I digress.

The second time I was asked the question, I was ready.  I went into mind-numbing detail.  "Get your bread out of the cabinet, and be sure that it's sandwich bread.  I prefer this brand and this variety for these reasons, but as long as it's sliced, you should be fine.  Gently set the loaf of bread on the counter in a way such that it won't fall off.  Now you can get your utensils out of the drawer.  Go to your silverware drawer and pull out a knife.  Not a sharp one, but one of the full-size table knives like they set next to your plate at suppertime.  Pull that out of the drawer and set it on the counter next to the bread.  Now let's find the jelly.  I actually prefer jam, but that's a matter of personal preference..."  The guy didn't even let me finish.  I was five minutes into my answer and just getting to the point of putting the peanut butter on the bread when he finally stopped me and said, "sounds like you can definitely pay attention to the details when you need to."  I was prepared to go on for another five or more minutes.  Don't clown me with a question like that, because, according to Mrs Enfinger back in 6th grade, I got a PHD in class clown.  That job I got.  Or at least got offered.  They didn't offer enough, and I turned it down after a week of trying to get them to increase the offer.  They did, but just barely.

Anyways, most of the time I think those kinds of interview questions and gimmicks don't really serve a purpose.  When I was on the other side of the table, I refused to ask those kinds of questions.  Instead I'd give an actual example they might encounter, and then I'd ask them how they would respond.  Details?  I could tell in their answer if they knew what they were talking about.  I didn't care if they could bore me with the tedious details on how to make a sandwich.

So I was reading this morning and saw this new take on this whole "who can ask the dumbest, most off the wall thing in an interview, and I think this one wins.  Hands down it wins.  Apparently, some company (they didn't say who) would ask, at the end of the interview, for the applicant to write a haiku describing the interview experience.  I thought about it for a couple of minutes, and here's what I penned.  And those that know me know that I'm just brash enough that this is what I would give them.  I present to you, my interview haiku.

I guess I made a mistake tonight.  There's a piece of gear that caught my eye about a year ago that I decided to research.  I keep telling myself that, if I ever spotted a screamin' deal on this piece of gear I was going to pick it up.  I spotted that deal, but decided to do the research on it first.  By the time I got back to it, someone else had picked it up.  Not pulling the trigger quickly wasn't my mistake.  My mistake was in hitting up some internet forums looking for thoughts and reviews on it.  There was one person's pontificating that particularly chapped my hide.

Someone had written a short, glowing review of this piece of gear.  It's a pedal that's not considered a piece of budget gear, but it uses digital modeling to copy an old analog pedal from way back.  Consequently, the used/new price is usually $70/$100 vs the several hundred that the original costs.  So most of the comments turned into the usual copy vs original vs cheap vs insanely expensive arguments.  Most of that part of the discussion I just skipped, but this one post caught my eye.

I'm not going to copy the post here (although that would probably be easier), but this self-proclaimed authority on the subject spewed their nonsense using what appeared to be a well thought out tome of a post.  However, when you take a look at what they were saying, they're nothing more than a corksniffer saying that more expensive is always better.

They said that folks that give good reviews on budget gear or copies of other, more expensive gear fall into one of a several categories.  They said that they either are a young, broke player that can't afford anything nicer that really just wants to justify their purchase to avoid having buyer's remorse because they know what they got is really not that good.  Or it's someone that doesn't know anything about gear and they're just repeating what they've heard or read somewhere else online.  Or, and this was my favorite, they're not a pro player that has demo-ed vintage, boutique, mid-level, budget, etc gear to see which of it is really better.  They even had the audacity to condescendingly mention that not everyone can afford vintage or high end gear, but "everybody has to start somewhere."

They went on like this for 8 or 9 paragraphs.  Then they continued to argue with other commenters expounding on these opinions.  I think that's part of what just really irritated me.

Yes, budget gear is usually not as good as more expensive gear, but saying (or at least implying) that someone is giving a favorable review of a piece of gear solely because they know it sucks and are trying to feel better about it is, as the British would say, total rubbish.

Let's use my Klon and klones as an example.  At one point, I had my KTR and like 8 klones and did a shoot out with all of them to see which one I liked best.  Honestly, I fully expected to the KTR to come in somewhere in the middle with some of the less expensive klones sounding better.  To the corksniffer's credit, yes, the KTR edged out all the rest of the pedals, and, to my ear, it sounded better and did the Klon thing the best, and the cheapest klone I had at the time ended up at the bottom of the heap.  All the rest of the pedals were basically a crap shoot with pedals that I wanted to do well (and were more expensive) not ending up as high as I would've like.  The #1 pedal (the KTR) was a $300 pedal.  The #2 pedal (the Tone Bakery Creme Brulee) was a $100 pedal.  Was the KTR worth 200% more than the Tone Bakery?  That's a highly subjective thing.  I have both, and even I would say that the KTR sounded better but I'd be hard pressed to say it was worth $200 more.  I'd also say that, since I'm not a pro player, the other pedals sound close enough (and are easy enough to replace) that I'm probably not going to gig out with the KTR.  Heck, my EHX Soul Food came in at the #3 spot, and it was the 3rd cheapest pedal.  I'd write a glowing review on that pedal for none of the reasons that poster mentioned.  I'd do it for the simple fact that it's a good pedal.

They closed their nonsense by saying that folks can drive their budget car if they want, but the Ferrari is always going to be the better car.  To that assertion, I would have to say that it depends on the Ferrari.  A bright red Ferrari is almost always going to win the cool factor, but may not be the better car.  Who wouldn't take a 1962 Ferrari 250 if given the opportunity, but it's not always the better car.  I drive an FJ Cruiser.  It's a very utilitarian ride.  But it has aircon, a radio/cd player, power windows, power locks, can pull a trailer, is a capable off-road ride, and, according the literature, will do 0-60 in 7.8 seconds (although I'd believe that when I see it).  That Ferrari 250 has none of the amenities, and has a 0-60 time at just over 8 seconds.  From a purely objective viewpoint, the modern FJ cruiser is an all around better vehicle than the 60 year old Ferrari.  The Ferrari would be a fun ride for an afternoon or two, but give me power windows and an a/c the rest of the time.

I don't think the modern pedals are that different.  The pedal I am looking at is a fuzz pedal that digitally copies one of those late 60s/early 70s fuzzes.  In the coolness factor, the huge enclosure of the old pedal totally takes it.  In tonal qualities, the old pedal probably wins again.  In the budget arena, the newer pedal can be had on the used market for 1/10th the price of the originals.  From an audience factor, the only ones that are really going to care about the difference in sound are those of us that are "discerning" guitar players; nobody else is going to give a rat's big butt.

In the world of guitar gear reviews, it seems to be truer than ever that half of what you read is just wrong and the the other half you can't believe.  I'll be the first to admit that there's bad gear out there.  But, if you go into it with an open mind, there's a LOT more good gear than you think.  Heck, back during the summer I started looking for a good compressor pedal.  I ended up over the course of the last 6 months buying and playing on about 5 pedals...some budget and some not.  Which one has ended up on my board?  That red Behringer compressor that cost me $25 brand new and shipped to my door.  Definitely considered to be a budget pedal.  Also, a good reminder to put the cork down and breathe in the fresh air.

​And in conclusion, as with all things gear related, your mileage my vary.