Best guitar related discoveries for 2010.

[Tonar8352]

Everyone is doing their top 10 best 2010 lists so why not one for the board.  What were the best new to you guitar related items that you became aware of in 2010.  This would be products or people new to you during the year of 2010.

Since I'm such an old dog my list is short because I've been tasting from the guitar well for 40 years (I got my first guitar for Christmas in 1970) but I certainly have not sampled everything. So he is my short list.

Number one would be Throbak Electronics PG-102 Limited (Peter Green) Pickups.  I put a set of these in my Les Paul and they are very nice. I think I want to try some of his other sets but they are real pricey. There is a ton of discussion about PAF pickups on the LES Paul Forum if you are interested in doing some more research regarding PAF's.  I have not found any that sound as good as real PAF's but these Throbak PG-102's have a real cool mojo. Here is Kid Anderson lighting up a set. PS Kid is worth looking into if you like the blues, the boy can play.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTAhsJSoonI[/youtube]

Second for me would be The La Cabronita Telecaster with TV Jones pickups.  I paintied three of them this year and so far the 2 that have been put together are getting rave reviews from the local guitar tone freak community.  The TV Jones Pickups sound so good!

That is my short-list how about you?

 

[Steve_Karl]

My big discovery for the year is that Gibson Burst Bucker Pro pickups have enough highs to actually be used effectively direct into my mic pre.
They match up quite closely to the highs and presence I'm getting from my active Alembic strat. systems when they're set to flat. ( no boost on the active treble tone knob ) Of course the bb pros are slightly thicker in the mids and lows but have the presence balances that. This was in a mahogany LP with a mahogany / rosewood neck so I'm expecting slightly more highs when I put them in a mahogany bodies strat with a goncalo / ebony neck.

I had a hankering, about 8 months ago, to get an other Les Paul after about 15 yrs. of not having one, and it was just a quick buy to be able to experience the shorter neck scale again, and I bought a used LP Studio and it just happened to have the burst bucker pros in it.

Well, I didn't like the feel of the neck or the feel of the body or the lack of tummy cut but it was worth it to find the bb pros.
I sold the LP Studio a month or so ago but bought a set of bb pro pups to go in a w. strat build I'm planning to do in a few months.

I also discovered that even though I was raised on Gibsons ... as in never had a strat. for the first 30 yrs. of playing ... I'm now a Warmoth strat convert and will never go back to short scale necks.

 

[Mor Paul]

I found out on Wednesday that the local setup god is WAY closer to my house than I thought. From what I can tell, he may well be the best in the state, taught by Frank Ford. I thought he was about an hour away, but when I was hanging out with a friend, we decided to hit up some less prominent music shops, and there was one about 20 minutes away from home, in a small shopping center I'd never seen much activity from... we drove up there, and it was the guy I'd been looking for, Darren Riley.

 

[ORCRiST]

Schaller Ruthenium-coated tremolo's and hardware!  :icon_thumright:

Expensive as f**k, cool as hell.(tm)

http://schaller-electronic.com/hp231410/Ruthenium-the-Black-Pearl-of-Schaller.htm

ORCRiST

 

[jackthehack]

Wow, that's pretty steep... I'm working a different tack... A while back a buddy of mine picked up one of these old Silvertone guitars he found in a pawnshop, don't think he paid much of squat for it, because he was intrigued that the humbuckers had offset poles like on the hb's used on Fender Telecaster Deluxe models, see pics here:

One of the tone controls was shot so he had me fix it for him; when I pulled the harness out, the back of the pickups were labeled with a patent number #2,896,491.

This corresponds to Seth Lover's original HB patent from 1959:

http://patimg2.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=02896491&homeurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpatft.uspto.gov%2Fnetacgi%2Fnph-Parser%3FSect1%3DPTO1%2526Sect2%3DHITOFF%2526d%3DPALL%2526p%3D1%2526u
%3D%25252Fnetahtml%25252FPTO%25252Fsrchnum.htm%2526r%3D1%2526f%3DG%2526l%3D50%2526s1%3D2,896,491.PN.%2526OS%3DPN%2F2,896,491%2526RS%3DPN%2F2,896,491&PageNum=&Rtype=&SectionNum=&idkey=NONE&Input=View+first+page

These pickups sounded as sweet as any HB's I've heard; later wound up mounting them in a custom Strat pickguard for him as he couldn't deal with the neck on the Silvertone.

I'm bidding on this on an eBay auction for the same guitar, may wind up getting the HB set plus a vintage Bigsby for less than a set of those ThroBak's...

My best new thing for 2010 was getting one of these: http://www.xotic.us/effects/bb_plus/index.html

 

[NLD09]

My black Sovtek Big Muff Pi was my huge discovery this year. Best pedal ever, and it's pretty much defining my sound now. I'd heard of them but never thought much of the sound samples, until one day a band I was in required a fuzz pedal. I ended up finding the muff at a garage sale for $10. I've since tried a few other big muffs but none of them compare to the garage sale one.

 

[JaySwear]

neither of these i've actually had the chance to test yet... but i'd like to throw Couch Guitar Straps (absolutely love their designs! and only heard good things) and Rio Grande Dirty Harry pickups to my list. love the look, and it was the very last telecaster set i could find for sale anywhere on the internet :icon_biggrin: literally. hopefully they'll have a few more shipped out and for sale soon, since i think i might just pick up another set from them

 

[rapfohl09]

My discovery for this year I just recently finally acquired. The Peavey AmpKit Link for the iPod touch. Oh man I love this thing. I have been amp-less for a long time now and haven't really wanted to buy anything as I would get to play it like 3 months out of the year since I'm away at school. A little while ago I stumbled across the AmpKit app for my iPod in some magazine and thought it was pretty cool,

-Tons of cool amps that were modeled after famous amps like the AC-30, JCM900, 6505, some Fenders, and their respective cabinents
-Tons of really popular effects
-Can record straight out of it, tuner, metronome

Its just really awesome, plus I rediscovered that I love my Gibson.

 

[crash]

For me, it would have to be Warmoth.  Stumbled across it while searching for guitar parts for my Ibanez.  Two months later I ended up buying a strat.

 

[RIPeturs]

+1 for the Big Muff, Electroharmonix makes a good copy if that one ever dies. My discovery was short scale basses by Warmoth. Something to keep around for the occasional song with a bass solo during a gig. The parts are in the mail and I can't wait to get it together. Also, this forum is worth an honorable mention for discovery of the year. THX to the experienced builders for sharing their tips and tricks with the nubies.

 

[JaySwear]

awesome! we need more short scale basses on this forum. and a few more carved top telecasters...

 

[Superlizard]

Agile Les Pauls - 3000+ series.

 

[Cagey]

The discovery of the year for me was stainless steel and gold frets. Why anybody would not use one of those two alloys in place of the standard nickel-steel is a mystery to me. They're far superior and without any drawbacks, while only having a pittance of an adder on the cost.

 

[SustainerPlayer]

The discovery of the year for me was stainless steel and gold frets. Why anybody would not use one of those two alloys in place of the standard nickel-steel is a mystery to me. They're far superior and without any drawbacks, while only having a pittance of an adder on the cost.

Don't know about the gold frets. But if you like me like super low action (and can accept the slight "acoustic-only" buzzing that makes) then the SS-frets gives an annoying "ziiing" which do get picked up by the pickups. And that is a deal breaker to me.

 

[B3Guy]

well, I gotta put Warmoth at the top of my list . . . I'll get back to you on the rest once i've actually built a guitar.

 

[mgaut051]

well, I gotta put Warmoth at the top of my list . . . I'll get back to you on the rest once i've actually built a guitar.

Mine is that I CAN build a guitar (halfmoth). MG001 fresh off the press!

 

[smjenkins]

As soon as I read the title, "Warmoth" jumped up to my head too.  The big W, along with this forum of course.  Through Warmoth and assembling guitars, I've discovered the Offset Guitars forum which I find a lot of like minded folks and Jason Lollar who makes pickups that just sound really good to me.  As far as gear goes, the Line 6 M13 has really simplified my rig and added new flavors. 

 

[ORCRiST]

The discovery of the year for me was stainless steel and gold frets. Why anybody would not use one of those two alloys in place of the standard nickel-steel is a mystery to me. They're far superior and without any drawbacks, while only having a pittance of an adder on the cost.

Oh yeah, +10: Stainless steel frets... le sigh, where have you been all my life?  :headbang:

ORC

 

[hachikid]

yea, I'd definitely say Warmoth. but also, I've recently found out about Granger Amps, and that they're located here in Birmingham, AL. I called him up, and I'm gonna figure out what else is going on with my week, and schedule a time to go meet him and take a look at his amps. I have a feeling I'm eventually going to end up with a Granger.

 

[swarfrat]

This
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFPPLJe5vdg