snarf.rocks
thoughts and musings from the mind of snarf
  • Snarf.Rocks
  • About Snarf
    • Snarf's Gear
  • Snarf's Blog
  • Contact Snarf

1/31/2023

Half and Half

0 Comments

Read Now
 
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.

Share

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

Details

    Author

    Snarf is a wannabe musician who currently resides in the great state of Texas.  His wife is his favorite.  He believes chocolate milk made from milk that is anything less than whole milk is basically water and deserves to be dumped down the sink so nobody has to suffer through it.  He hates having to shop for clothes. But he has a thing for really cool bags, and, consequently, has more gig bags than guitars and a closet full of messenger bags and backpacks.  He still misses his dog who was taken by cancer 5 years ago.  Check out his Reverb shop and see if he has any gear he's trying to get rid of.  

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    May 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018

    Categories

    All
    50s Les Paul
    ABY Switch
    Acoustic
    Acoustikar
    Affordaboard
    American Design Experience
    Astronomy
    Axle Grease Delay
    Backpacks
    Back Packs
    BGU
    Bigsby
    Blues
    Blues Breaker
    Blues Guitar
    Blues Guitar Unleashed
    Boss
    Boss Pedals
    Caline
    Capo
    Cork Sniffer
    Creme Brulee
    CruzTools
    Dallas Guitar Show
    Danelectro
    Daypacks
    DIY Guitar
    Dumble Amps
    Effects Pedals
    EHX
    Electric Guitar
    Epiphone
    ES 335
    ES 339
    ES-339
    Fender
    Fender Stratocaster
    Filtertron
    Fort Richardson State Park
    Franken'Tron
    GarageTone
    Gator Gig Bags
    Gator Guitar Case
    Gibson
    Gig Bags
    Greasy Groove
    Gretsch
    Gretsch 5120
    Griff Hamlin
    Griff Hamlin's Blues Guitar Unleashed
    Guitar
    Guitar Cases
    Guitar MultiTool
    GuitarSetup
    Highway One
    Hiking
    Hiking Adventures
    Horseman
    Hwy 1
    Hybrid Guitar Case
    Ibanez Guitar Case
    Incase Gig Bags
    Inspired By Gibson
    Klon
    Klone
    KTR
    Lake Jacksboro
    Lakota Leathers
    Learning
    Les Paul
    Looper
    Mono Gig Bags
    Mooer
    Morning Star
    Multi Effects
    Mustang Floor
    Not Guitar Related
    NuX
    Outdoor Products
    OwnTheTone
    Parker Gig Bags
    Patio Gardening
    Pedalboard
    Pegasus
    Play What Makes You Happy
    Polyfoam Guitar Case
    Probag
    Probag Gig Bag
    Probag Gig Bags
    RC 20xl
    RC-20xl
    Reunion Blues Gig Bags
    Route 66
    Saddleback Leather
    Sonicake
    SoulFood
    Spinning Speaker
    Splattercaster
    Splatter Strat
    Strat
    Stratocaster
    TC Electronics
    Teton Sports
    Texas State Parks
    They're Not Investments
    Tone Bakery
    Tone Snobbery
    Tools
    Totally My Opinion
    Travelite Case
    Tru Arc Bridges
    Tru-Arc Bridges
    TrueTone
    TS9
    TU2 Tuner
    Tube Screamer
    Tumnus
    TwiggyBlues
    Valvetronix
    Visual Sound
    Wampler
    WhatsInYourGigBag
    YMMV

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Snarf.Rocks
  • About Snarf
    • Snarf's Gear
  • Snarf's Blog
  • Contact Snarf