Rocking my semi-hollow body life away ....

Friday, May 29, 2015 -- I am enjoying the hell out of playing my new-to-me Oscar Schmidt OE-30 semi-hollow body guitar. So far I have hidden the fact I bought another guitar from my wife; I usually play when she's either at work or in bed, so she seldom sees me playing guitar anyway.

This SX EG-6 is one of the prettiest guitars
I have seen in a long time. I love the wine
red finish, gold hardware and the binding.
Should I buy it? Or can I hide another
guitar purchase from the boss???

My intent was to buy either the cherry, black of natural finish OE-30 and then sell my original one -- the tobacco sunburst model. That was the plan (emphasis on "was"). Actually I should do that ... but I have had so much fun and gotten so much enjoyment from my new OE-30 and that I now considering keeping it and setting it up so it sounds more like the new one.

Basically, I need to do more work on the action, intonation and pickup height. Electrically, the guitars are identical; improve the setup on the TS (tobacco sunburst) model is all that's needed.

OS discontinued the OE-30 some 9 or 10 years ago I believe, but later brought it back. I just checked the 2015 price list at OS, and the OE-30s list for $469.95.

There are several hollow body guitars I would love to own, just to own them. Among my wish list are:
1. Rickenbacker, any hollow body model
2. Fender thinline Tele
3. Gibson ES-335
4. Gretsch Falcon or Brian Setzer edition
5. Epi Dot
6. Epi Wildkat
7. Epi Riveria
8. Epi ES-339

There are a number of attractive Ibanez semi-hollow body guitars, too. I wouldn't mind owning any of those under $600.

Of my wish list, it is most likely I could afford the Epi models and the Thinline Tele. Squier has a Vintage Player model priced nicely. I just wonder if the sound is more Tele or more like my OE-30?

A guitar I left off my list is the Fender Coronado. I would certainly go for one of those, in Cherry Red. The styling just doesn't sit well with me; its attractive enough, but there's something about the "f" holes that just looks out of kilter somehow. OK, make that No. 9 on my list, lol.

The Coronado does have bound "f" holes, which to me is a very nice detail. My OE-30s have bound "f" holes, neck and body front and back. Guitars with the binding look plain and utilitarian. If that's the look you want, then that's fine. For me, I like the binding. The Epi 339 and Epi Dot both lack binding on the "f" holes, FYI.

There are some nicely built Chinese semi-hollow bodies on eBay ... Grote makes a nice looking guitar for $199 ... as does SX and several others. There are several hollow body guitars with single cutaway that are more like a Gretsch for under $180 .... I'm not crazy about a full-size hollow body simply due to the thickness. One Chinese seller offers to put your own logo on the headstock for an additional $30!

The truth is that if I buy another semi-hollow body, it will likely be a used name brand or an inexpensive import. I'm not that great a guitar player to really justify spending megabucks on a really nice (and expensive) Gibson, Gretsch, etc. The top of my budget right now -- at its highest -- would be $999 (and more realistically, in the $300 range if I didn't sell something to help build my guitar fund).

I bought some roller string trees for my strat, don't have them installed yet. Hoping to see if they'll reduce friction and improve tuning (and reduce detuning, lol).

Rock on, friends!

My new Oscar Schmidt semi-hollow body arrived two days early!

Tuesday, May 19, 2015 -- I should be in bed, or the shower at least, but I wanted to give an update on my latest arrival.

My new Oscar Schmidt OE-30 looks like this one with some
some differences: Mine doesn't have covered pickups, the pickup
switch is in the upper bout, and the jack is on the edge, rather on the
top of the guitar. See below.

Sometime late Monday afternoon, my new-to-me Oscar Schmidt OE-30 semi-hollow body guitar arrived on the front porch. I just happened to check eBay and it said it was delivered -- oh boy! Christmas in May!

I was a little concerned at the fact one end of the box had just about busted open -- the last damn thing I wanted was to open the box and find my purchase just a pile of mahogany splinters. But on opening the box, I was very, very -- extraordinarily -- pleased to see my like-new cherry red OE-30 peeking at me from behind layers of bubblewrap.

I inspected her closely and she was undamaged ... and beautiful. The cherry red high-gloss finish was perfect. It is a transparent finish, and you can see the woodgrain. This guitar was well setup and the action is low. The pickups have been adjusted nicely, and damn, does it play very very well!

This guitar is what my tobacco sunburst OE-30 looks like.
My new cherry OE-30 has the same layout for the controls
and output jack, which is on the edge of the lower bout.

I spent about 45 minutes playing it ... I know its  the same as my tobacco sunburst OE-30, but it felt different, if that makes sense. The strings need changing as they sound a little dead, but it was still great to play.

On my original OE-30, I  need to raise the action on the high strings a little, as they don't ring out well when you go down the neck. I didn't have that issue with the new OE-30. I just love it. I put my tobacco sunburst OE-30 in its gig bag, I'm really planning to put it on eBay ... its a guitar I bought new, but I don't need to have two of them.

The OE-30 is an affordable way to have that ES 335 vibe or Epi Dot without the expense. Oscar Schmidt is owned by Washburn, and Washburn has their set-neck semi-hollow body, the HB 35 -- but the difference in price is substantial, and I mean hundreds of dollars more.

And let's be perfectly honest here -- I'm not a professional guitar player. I just like to play and learn about guitars and play better. I've had thoughts about trying to play with the church group just to get a a little experience, and learn from those who are better than I am.

I took a good look at the damage on my original OE-30, and its stable; in the years I've had it, there's been no change in the cracks. Most people don't even notice the damage, it isn't that visible.

So for now, the tobacco sunburst OE-30 is going in the gig bag and the cherry one is in the office ready to play. I really need to go ahead and put the TS one on eBay.

Oh, a couple of things I will need to address on the new one -- a couple of the pots are loose. I can fix that, no problem. I'm thinking of some speed knobs for it, rather than the gold witch hats.

Well, maybe later. Gotta go for now.

Rock on!

My Fender acoustic is more rare than I would have believed ...

Thursday, May 14, 2015 -- Had time today to pick up my Fender acoustic that I restrung a week or so back. The new strings really make the old girl come alive again .... you forget how dead those old strings can make a guitar sound.

All Fender Gemini IIIs were black with the same binding,
pickguard and fingerboards. The top is spruce, the body
and neck are mahogany.

While I had the Fender handy, I remembered to check the label in the soundhole to see what model this thing was. My guitar is a Fender Gemini III, a low-end acoustic model that's really fairly rare these days.

My research tells me Fender only made the Gemini III for a short time -- a year to 18 months. They were all made in Korea; some of them were available with electric pickups and a rudimentary EQ. I bought mine new for $200 from a long-closed music store in Louisville. I had to decide between the acoustic and the electric acoustic models ... the cost difference was $50 if I remember correctly.

It was probably the best $200 I've ever spent on a guitar. I've owned this thing since 1988 or 89, and its been like a Timex watch -- I've never kept it in its case, its been beaten up, knocked around, fallen over and taken the type of abuse a guitar takes from just sitting around -- and it has never missed a beat. In fact, you won't find many marks on the thing despite the careless treatment

I've given it over the years.

It isn't exactly a top-end guitar, either. But it plays pretty well and is durable. According to Fender, it has a spruce top and mahogany sides and neck. Its a dreadnought guitar, and as such, it gets uncomfortable to play after a while because of its size and my shortish arms. I still enjoy the heck out of it though.

I've seriously considered buying a thinline acoustic of some sort, but I'm faced with the fact I can't play it freely when folks are sleeping. I don't really need another acoustic ... of course, when has "need" ever stopped me??

After my research about the Fender and restringing it, I think I'll try to take better care of it ... its hard to believe its more than 25 years old. The case is upstairs, perhaps its time I use it, eh??

Rock on!

Repeat after me: Gotta read the fine print ... gotta read the fine print ...

Tuesday, May 12, 2015 -- I'm a little pissed at myself over an eBay transaction, but its one of those

deals where you live and learn.

I own an Oscar Schmidt OE-30 semi-hollow body guitar with a tobacco sunburst finish. I bought it new, but it had damage on the lower bout near the f hole, the edge was crunched a bit, cracking the wood slightly. I bought it cheap and it plays fine and always has. The one thing I have never really been fond of is the color.

The tobacco sunburst is indeed a beautiful finish, and my OE-30 is still in beautiful condition. But I'm not in love with the color. I have always wanted a red semi-hollow body, or black, white or natural finish. And you see red, black and white ones on eBay, but I'm not willing to pay $200-plus to replace my damaged-but-mint-to-me guitar with one of the color I like -- until last night.

There was an auction for a used OE-30 in Cherry Red that was going to end in a few hours. Opening bid was $100, so I entered a bid of $121, believing it would be a bargain at that price. When I got home last night, I was shocked that my $121 bid won the auction! Bargain, eh?? Oh?? What's this??

The one detail I missed was the seller's shipping and handling price. Usually its $25 or $30 tops for domestic shipping on any guitar ... this guy was asking $50 to ship it! Yikes! Suddenly my guitar becomes a $171 guitar ... still a fair price, but about $20 more than I anticipated, even with shipping.

So now I'm wondering what to do ... will I sell my OE-30 once my red one arrives? That's a possibility. The seller only posted one photo of the red OE-30, so I think I'm going to look it over once it arrives and make sure it is what I want before I list mine. If it isn't what I want, its going back on eBay.

I'm kinda kicking myself now, but a deal is a deal.

Speaking of my OE-30, I was playing it last night and this morning, and after playing my Squier Strat, I realize now that there's more setup work to do on the OE-30. I need to get the intonation better, which just means taking more time to get it zeroed in. I haven't really done much to dial-in the string height either. All in due time ... depending on if I decide to sell it or keep it, lol.

Gotta run ... rock on!

My Arctic White Squier Strat -- I think I'll keep her!

Saturday, May 9, 2015 -- OK, I'll admit that once I had the wiring corrected on my latest guitar acquisition, I figured there would be damn little left to write about.

This guitar is the only Fender (well, Squier by Fender) stratocaster I own, and I've wanted a true SSS strat simply because I've not owned one over the years. Yes, my Peavey Raptor is a strat copy, but it is a fat strat, with a humbucker in the bridge position. None of the guitars I own (save for the Jazzmaster) have a single coil in the bridge position. I've wanted a true SSS strat, name brand or not. (Technically, I DO own an SSS strat copy -- the Spectrum strat project that's still awaiting me in its case).

So after re-assembly (and finding all the damn pickguard screws after I accidently scattered them all over hell, west and crooked) it was time to play the thing.

Following a tip from Scott Grove, I took the strings out of the string tees on the headstock, as they aren't always needed and are mostly a source of friction leading to tuning problems. Plugged her in, tuned it up and -- WOW!

It sounded like a million bucks! Just for kicks, I checked the intonation to see how bad it was, and boy howdy was I fooled -- it was SPOT ON. In fact, none of my other guitars have their intonation set as precisely as this one. And the action -- its low and easy. It plays like a damn dream.

Obviously, this guitar was professionally set up at some point prior to its wiring problems. It looks like the nut was filed, the strings set well in the slots, and the action is nice and low without buzz near the nut. This thing set a new standard for what I'm going to need to do with my other guitars ... I want them all to play this well!

There's only one blemish on the guitar body, a small chip on the inside of the top horn. The pickguard also has a small scuff on the edge near the middle pickup. Nothing big.

I really, really enjoy the strat's tonal qualities, which I think are far and above the Peavey SSH Raptor. Of course, I think I'm going to have pay attention to the setup on the nut and truss rod and see if I can duplicate the Squier's ease of play.

Rock on!

New axe arrives in one piece, and all is right with the world ...

Wednesday, May 6, 2015 -- Been busy today but took time to drag the big cardboard box on my front porch inside to the living room -- my new-to-me Squire Bullet strat!

Come to Papa! Woot!

The seller had it packed mostly in newspapers -- ugh! -- but when I got down to the axe, he had it wrapped in copious layers of bubble wrap. Thank you, seller!

When I had her unwrapped, I found what I expected -- a gently used Arctic White Squire strat in excellent shape. I plugged her in to my V-Amp to check if the description was accurate -- the electronics were inoperative.

That description was the key reason I bought the guitar ... guitar electronics are really pretty damn simple. I don't really get the mystery and mystic about guitar wiring and components. They really are simple.

The first place I started to check was to remove the output jack. Bingo! There was one wire on the jack, the signal wire, which was wired to GROUND. There was no ground wire at the jack, which makes me wonder how the hell it EVER worked.

With the pickguard removed, all of the electronics looked good. I'm not sure where the ground wire went, but I'll need to add one to go from ground to the output jack. Other than that, I'm not sure yet what else is wrong.

Interestingly, this strat has a hard tail bridge -- no tremolo! I'm not complaining, at least this will be one guitar I can keep in tune (and I don't have to block the trem to make it happen!). Actually I can't complain about m Peavey Raptor strat copy ... its Fender-style trem actually stays in pretty good tune.

I'm going to keep my eye for future projects on eBay. I really, really want a Telecaster or a new semi-hollow body guitar. I don't have the budget for anything much, but it doesn't hurt to look.

I'm still in the market for a short-scale bass, which are plentiful and cheap brand new. I just need to come up with some additional cash first (and an OK from my wife).

Rock on!

POST SCRIPT, May 6, 2015, 11:55 p.m.  Thought I would update this entry and report my "DUH!" moment and record it for posterity.

The mystery of the missing ground to the output jack was solved tonight -- after I went to the trouble of adding a ground from the pots to the jack. The schematic I referred to indicated a separate ground wire from the pots to the output jack -- but that's not entirely correct.

The red "wire" that ran to the ouput jack was not actually a "wire" -- it was a "shielded cable," though it did NOT look like one. The wire attached to the output jack (the ground, no less!) looked like one stranded single conductor wire.

Had looked closely at the other end of the cable, I would have noticed that it was two conductors; as my son often says, "There's your problem!"

I had it back together (with an separate ground wire) and when I plugged in my amp, it sounded like a dead short to ground -- despite the 60 cycle hum one heard when touching the tip of the 1/4-inch guitar plug. Once I plugged the cable into the guitar, it went completely silent -- no hum, no nothing.

So back apart she comes.

I removed the ground I just ran, and clipped the cable and very carefully stripped back the outer insulation to review the inner conductor. This was one itty-bitty cable (at least for my fat fingers it was). I tinned the cable ends, then connected them to the output jack. I hooked the amp up and pecked on the pickups -- ah! My first sign of life from "Whitey"!

I'm going to go back into the office and reassemble her and then see what she sounds like. I know this is a low-end guitar, but its given me a bit of a challenge and something to look forward to working on. Next I suppose I'll see about giving her my own lower-tech-than-most setups. I'm looking forward to seeing how it sounds. More to come -- and hopefully soon.

eBay seller backs out of guitar sale, time to snipe another one

Saturday, May 2, 2015 -- The guy whose had the Spectrum strat for auction on eBay reneged on the sale after the auction was closed. I paid him and I never heard anything from him, and eBay never showed the damn thing shipped.

I sent a couple of messages and waited until he finally responded with an apology, and a lame excuse that he couldn't see it now, it fell off the wall and was damaged.

Bullshit!

The only thing damaged is his pride -- he had no reserve on the auction, and I won the auction with my bid of $36. I think he just decided not to sell it. Period. He didn't get enough to suit him. Sorry about that chief, but it really isn't my problem. What kind of damage happens to a strat that falls down?

I was unhappy with the excuse, but I haven't raised a ruckus. He probably thought it would bring more ... it was a good looking tobacco-style sunburst, I expected it to go for twice what it did.

So, no new guitar coming ... or is there??

I keep prowling the low end of eBay looking for my next project, and found a likely prospect -- an arctic white Fender Squire strat. It looks really clean too. Seller is a pawn shop in Fort Worth. I paid more for it, but I'm glad that its a Squire strat rather than a Spectrum. I'm not wild about the color, but I'll live with it. The guitar's issues are that its dead -- nothing from the electronics. As simple as guitar electronics are, this is likely to be a very, very simple fix.

This guitar will be here next week, and I'm looking forward to getting it here and starting work on it.

This strat is the traditional three single-coil pickups, rather than the "fat strat" format I have in the Peavey Raptor EXP. I'm not real sure if I'll find a great deal of difference in the quality of the Squire

strat vs. the Peavey ... guess I'll have a chance to check that out myself, eh?

IBANEZ BOOGIE. I have switched from playing the Peavey back to the Ibanez Gio GAX30 for my nightly jams. The Ibanez is a shorter scale guitar, and I can confirm it just is easier to play. It's like putting on my old flannel shirt. Its a lightweight guitar too, I just can sing its praises enough.

I've also been playing my Oscar Schmidt OE-30 semi-hollow body, kinda switching off between the OE-30 and the Ibanez. I enjoy both, but the OE-30 takes a little more work to play. I have to say that of any of my guitars, the OE-30 just feels great in my lap. I love the look of the guitar too ... the bindings and tobacco sunburst are just gorgeous. I'm really wanting a red version of a similar guitar, but those tend to be the name brand, and they ain't cheap!

Enough guitar talk for now, I need to go jam.