Deep in my own south...

[Bigbee]

Hello you happy taxpayers - err, I meant, telelovers.

First, please pardon my French

So, started playing the guitar in 1979 (was 12) on a dirt cheap home made thingie (neck from an old Eko found in a trash can cheap pups a friend gave me, and a hand-built particle board body, replaced with a somehow better mahogany board a year latter). Played (badly) in various bands, mostly punk / post-punk / garage / hard-rock / fusion / grunge stuff, in and out until late 1994. Barely touched a guitar for almost 15 years, then realized that however bad I was, I just couldn't live without playing, so I took my good old Vox Custom 24 out from it's case, restringed it, joined the first band I found, and we were doing our first gig 3 weeks later - nothing to be proud of, but well, at the end of the set the audience was still there and asking for more, so it was perhaps not _that_ bad neither !-)

So here I am, almost a year later, re-learning (or should I say finally learning) my instrument, and, like any guitar player with even a very tight budget, chronic victim of GAS attacks - the last one being for a cute black CiJ RI '62 custom tele. I always wanted to have a tele FWIW.

Other gear ?

Well, my #1 axe is this MiJ (Matsumoku) '81 Vox Custom 24 - maple going-thru neck, maple sides, rosewood fretboard, looks a bit like a DC LP, sounds like a mix of a LP and a solidbody Rick, I replaced the sh... stock DiMarzio x2n with Bareknuckles Crawlers and now it beats most Gibbies hands down, a real tone monster and a delight to play.

#2 is her lil'sister, an MiJ (Matsumoku) '81 Vox Standard 25, an all-maple strat-like that weight tons and is way too bright for it's own good, still stock currently but I'll probably give her the BKP treatment one day or another.

#3 is this cute CiJ telecaster. Already removed the bloody treble bleed and replaced the cheapo ceramic capacitor with a russian PIO one - way better - and will do her the full monty (4-way switch, better pots and vintage hot BKP pups) asap.

Currently playing on a black tolex Blues Junior with an Eminence Legend GB12/8 speaker, a couple ODs (my good old '81 TS-09 - glad I didn't sold it for peanuts in 94 - and a Dano CTO-1), a cheap chinese RAT clone, a stock (for now...) base-version Cry-Baby, a Dano Coolcat trem, and a EHX Memory Boy. Mostly "budget" gear except for the BKPs, but well, budget doesn't mean bad

Anything else ? Oh, yes - I live near Bordeaux, France (good wines for cheap, yum), earn a living programming computers, and teach my 13 years old son how to make as much noise as possible with a bass

[barkley]

Welcome! you sure seem to know your stuff!

[FrankJames]

Welcome to TDPRI !!

[fenderix]

Welcome to the TDPRI! You did the right thing to register - good to have you with us.

May we see a pic of your gear please?

Enjoy!

[Bigbee]

Originally Posted by fenderix

Welcome to the TDPRI! You did the right thing to register - good to have you with us.

May we see a pic of your gear please?

Enjoy!

Pics ? Well, here we go...

First, the one that made me register here - with the Bjr and a bit of my (small) pedalboard:



Then my beloved Vox Custom 24 - before I changed the pups:



And her little sister the Vox Standard 25:

[Hiker]

Welcome from the Southland!