Show us your Semi(s)

abw1989

I don't we've seen one of these in this thread yet so here is my Gibson Midtown Custom:



I had one in tobacco burst, foolishly sold it and had to buy another. It's the only guitar I've ever bought twice!

yocky

chris_john said:

My SA2200
Had it refretted and I just finished installing treble bleeds.  I can't figure out how to display photos

https://imgur.com/a/7ZsiREW

Very nice too

lovestrat74

Got some serious semi-envy here chaps!

Panama_Jack666

https://i.imgur.com/YYcXhgW.jpg

Basher

Red and redder - 345 and Casino. 

NelsonP

Basher said:

Red and redder - 345 and Casino. 

Comparison please!

JerkMoans

NelsonP said:

Basher said:

Red and redder - 345 and Casino. 

Comparison please!

Seconded. Given there’s about a £3k difference, I’m intrigued.

Basher

...it's a bit like apples and oranges. (Only with red apples and red oranges.)

The 345 is a '64 reissue from, I think, 2015 and is my favourite "centre block" semi I've played. That's after having a DeArmond Starfire, Orville ES335, Tokai ES120, Yamaha SA503 TVL, SA2100 and SA2200 (and possibly some more that I've forgotten. Oddly I've never owned a "proper" 335!

The thing is that, for all the build quality of the Yamahas (ditto the Orville and Tokai) they didn't quite have the sound I like in a semi. I actually quite like the slightly "banjoey" plonk sound some of them have in the attack. The Yamahas are amazing but they have a slightly more compressed, smooth sound to my ear, a bit more Les Paul like. Add in the extra skronk-o-matic sounds from the varitone and I really love the 345. Plus, in inlay terms, parallelograms > blocks > dots.

The Casino is a whole different ball (or should that be card?) game. Fully hollow and with the "short" neck join. It's a Korean Peerless one from (iirc) 1997 and it's been a bit of a pain to be honest. Stock pickups were horrible - overwound and dark sounding - the worst I've ever heard. They've been rewound (not much difference) and then I bodged a set of plastic covers (a bit of an improvement). Also had the frets, pots and wiring, tuners replaced but it still doesn't have that open, jangly thing going on that nice Casinos have.

Thing is that there's something in the Casino sound that makes me think a nice one (or 330 or Starfire hollowbody) could be the best possible guitar for me. If it were a 335, there are no end of decent budget pickups I could try but, for those who don't know, new Casino pickups are rare and tend to be expensive. I can't really justify the cost of Lollars (or whatever) plus fitting and find that it still sounds dull!

Oh, and the neck is a comically narrow 40mm at the nut so that would rule it out for most people. Oddly enough, I don't mind this as there's a little bit of beef to the neck which feels great to me. 

chris_john

yocky said:

chris_john said:

My SA2200
Had it refretted and I just finished installing treble bleeds.  I can't figure out how to display photos

https://imgur.com/a/7ZsiREW

Very nice too

Thanks! I will figure out the photo thing eventually!

Fledermaus

My SA50 from 1966

https://imgur.com/sHxpQRQ

Fledermaus

Have no idea how you post an actual picture !
Some gorgeous instruments on here.....

Cacofonix

This very one.

https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/guitars/carvin-frank-gambale-fg1-565149

...and the picture.

Also an Ibanez AM50, but I can’t get a photo just now.

Philly_Q

Fledermaus said:

My SA50 from 1966

https://imgur.com/sHxpQRQ

Wow, that's simultaneously very '60s and extremely modern looking!

brooom

Basher said:

...it's a bit like apples and oranges. (Only with red apples and red oranges.)

The 345 is a '64 reissue from, I think, 2015 and is my favourite "centre block" semi I've played. That's after having a DeArmond Starfire, Orville ES335, Tokai ES120, Yamaha SA503 TVL, SA2100 and SA2200 (and possibly some more that I've forgotten. Oddly I've never owned a "proper" 335!

The thing is that, for all the build quality of the Yamahas (ditto the Orville and Tokai) they didn't quite have the sound I like in a semi. I actually quite like the slightly "banjoey" plonk sound some of them have in the attack. The Yamahas are amazing but they have a slightly more compressed, smooth sound to my ear, a bit more Les Paul like. Add in the extra skronk-o-matic sounds from the varitone and I really love the 345. Plus, in inlay terms, parallelograms > blocks > dots.

The Casino is a whole different ball (or should that be card?) game. Fully hollow and with the "short" neck join. It's a Korean Peerless one from (iirc) 1997 and it's been a bit of a pain to be honest. Stock pickups were horrible - overwound and dark sounding - the worst I've ever heard. They've been rewound (not much difference) and then I bodged a set of plastic covers (a bit of an improvement). Also had the frets, pots and wiring, tuners replaced but it still doesn't have that open, jangly thing going on that nice Casinos have.

Thing is that there's something in the Casino sound that makes me think a nice one (or 330 or Starfire hollowbody) could be the best possible guitar for me. If it were a 335, there are no end of decent budget pickups I could try but, for those who don't know, new Casino pickups are rare and tend to be expensive. I can't really justify the cost of Lollars (or whatever) plus fitting and find that it still sounds dull!

Oh, and the neck is a comically narrow 40mm at the nut so that would rule it out for most people. Oddly enough, I don't mind this as there's a little bit of beef to the neck which feels great to me. 

I really like your description because it is quite accurate... a lot of post 90s Japan made ES-335 style guitars, have that banjo-y sound to them. I personally also quite like it as well, but it's different from what you'd expect from a 50s/60s 335.

I've had and still have Gibson reissues, the one I've kept which I liked the most is my 2014 61 reissue (Warren Haynes model) and even though it's a great guitar, I also think it doesn't quite match up a good old 335.

The one place where I was able to get something very similar to the bark and sustain of an old Gibson 335s, was in the late 70s/early 80s 335s from Japan. For example early 80s tokai ES-100/150, late 70s/mid 80s Greco SA-900/1200 (SA61-90/SA59-120), Vesta Graham VCG-1000, those have been the closest ones I've tried, so far.

I think in the late 80s, some Japanese factories started using different plywood (literally different ways of stacking the plies rather then different quality of wood). And the neck angles of the guitars also seem different (they're not set so shallow). This, in my opinion, makes up for the difference.

So I really agree with your statement, most of the Orvilles/late 80s/90s Grecos/Newer Tokais seem to have that banjo plink to their sound. I really like that sound though, it's a "cardboard like" attack to the note, which gives the guitar a really cool hollow sound.

But if you want something thicker, that plays and resonates like a 50s/60s Gibson late 70s/early 80s japanese 335s have it in my opinion.

brooom

duplicate post

PeteC

1983 Ibanez AM100.  My only semi (at the moment) 

Rather nice original super 58 pickups 

Philly_Q

PeteC said:

1983 Ibanez AM100.  My only semi (at the moment) 

Rather nice original super 58 pickups 

I always liked the look of those AM models, although I never actually saw one in a shop.  I wonder if Ibanez were the first to come up with that idea of a scaled-down semi?  I now have a CS-336.

I love my 1980s guitar magazine ads and I've never forgotten this one ("a body that's about one fourth the normal semi acoustic size"...).  I still have no idea who John Bushnell is.

brooom

Greco had their small bodied SV range, well into the 70s, I'm sure other companies in Japan had models like this as well.

executor

Cacofonix

PeteC said:

1983 Ibanez AM100.  My only semi (at the moment) 

Rather nice original super 58 pickups 

Nice.  Mine doesn’t have a scratch plate and is varnished not painted.  The neck is superb, andI agree with the pups comment.  Lovely.