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Old 01-05-2021, 01:16 PM
Captain Jim Captain Jim is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Arizona (from island boy to desert dweller)
Posts: 6,970
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Yep... "sinned" again. A while back, I had a hankering for another solid body electric; last time I had one (a Strat) was in the 90s. Pretty much all acoustic playing since then. Getting together with my music partner last winter, I had the opportunity to play his solid body electrics.

To make a short story long, a few weeks ago, I came across an article about Fishman Fluence electric guitar pickups. Interesting - stacked circuit boards instead of wraps around a magnet; the end result: no hiss with high gain, and the ability to sound like humbuckers, single coil, and nice range of tone.

Down the rabbit hole of reviews and YouTube, and I found Epiphone was putting these in a line of guitars they call Prophecy; Les Paul, SG, Flying V, and another model they are calling Extura. Well, I had a Les Paul back in the day, don't care for the head-banging look of the Flying V or the Extura, but I have always liked the look of an SG.

Try to find one in the US. Only a couple guitar shops showed any of these in stock. Joan was doing the research by this point. She found one place that showed two in stock in the color I liked, on Reverb. Back to the reviews, and she wore me down. I ordered it. The guitar shop was less than forthright and they did not have it in stock. It took them 9 days to fess up. They refunded my money. One of the owners called me, apologized profusely, and offered me what he called "a killer deal" on the color they did have in stock (and the color Joan preferred). I said I'd think about it. He called back later, and I was in the shower... Joan placed the order with him.

The guitar showed up the next day, and it is quite nice looking... for a solid body electric. The Fishman Fluence pickups really are as good as the reviews said. But the neck on this thing had the worst fret ends on any guitar I've ever picked up. I called them, "meat hooks," someone else said, "cheese grater." The owner called again to see how I liked the guitar, and after the burn in his ears eased up, he offered to send me a tag for a pickup and a full refund.

Again, he was decent, but I was appalled that he said he looked it over before it went out, and he thought everything was perfect on that guitar. I told him I would get the frets worked on, and he said he couldn't take the guitar back if anything was done to it. I get that. I like everything else about this guitar except for the awful fret ends, and only on the bottom of the neck. I'm keeping the guitar and ordered some tools from StewMac to fix the frets... in 50+ years of playing guitar, I have never had to do that.

The main reason for keeping the guitar: Joan loves it. I have had it 6 days now, and she requests that guitar over my other guitars for a daily session. It plays and sounds great... for a solid body electric. Certainly not the sweet sound of my lovely carbon fiber Emeralds.

So, yeah, I "sinned" again. I could say I was led astray by the pretty Blonde, but that's been my life for 48 years. When she isn't around (like her weekly grocery excursion), I play my Emeralds. I will work them back into the rotation when she gets beyond this honeymoon period.



On the medical front, 5 weeks since my prostate went missing. I think I'm getting along pretty well. No heavy lifting still (Joan is tough), but I am back on the scoot again; my nether regions aren't up for the bicycle or the boat, yet. The numbness in my fingertips is gone, so daily playing is good mental therapy. My bladder misses his friend, Mr Prostate. I can relate to the Huggies commercial where the kid wears his "big boy pull-ups." I'm trying to stay away from doctors, but more "tests" in a month... assuming I don't have to study for those.

Looking ahead; hoping for better times for us all in this new year, and no plans for more "sinning."

Jim
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