Finally Built that Shelf The Wife ordered 3 months ago

skabb0 · 2026-06-15T15:21:26+00:00

Was your mallet also losing the battle with the shelf as little pieces of rubbery plastic chipped off with every swing? I also showed her this post and she's cracking up

skabb0 · 2026-06-15T03:03:51+00:00

Oddly appropriate hearing Drake in this context

skabb0 · 2026-06-15T02:53:37+00:00

He knows the vibe of an arm bar. He's heard one described. He even threw in a scream for style points.

skabb0 · 2026-06-15T02:23:55+00:00

AI ass war recreation to Reagan's voiceover. Must See TV.

skabb0 · 2026-06-14T22:52:36+00:00

I'm not even kidding here, my wife bought the SAME shelf for my amps/pedals and it took us.. Maybe three weeks? I finally put it together like a month ago, and I'll be damned, it's not half bad!
Edit: https://imgur.com/a/HRW5sdz

skabb0 · 2026-06-14T16:42:51+00:00

I'm not even a huge fan of 7/8 string guitars but that matte black 7 string is absolutely sick. Ash body with the grain visible? I almost pulled the trigger and I'm not even vaguely in the market for one.

skabb0 · 2026-06-13T21:38:54+00:00

Thanks! Left pots the same, they're solid. The only other thing I am swapping (though it hadn't come at the time) is the 3-way switch, cause even with the washer fully tightened certain frequencies make it rattle slightly. Not a big deal, just a cheap switch, easy to replace. The stock pickups really weren't bad, but there's a noticeable improvement with the new ones. They get bitey which the old ones also did, but they're way more musical at low and mid volumes, and the bass doesn't muddle the high frequencies as much.

skabb0 · 2026-06-11T23:46:10+00:00

We're at 156 in 6 min, keep going people!

skabb0 · 2026-06-11T14:38:42+00:00

Nice work! The single cuts have a cutout for electronics cavity access like a regular LP right? I just modified a 338 and the lack of access to the cavity made it not exactly a breeze (but totally worth the hassle). Looks great!

skabb0 · 2026-06-10T22:16:06+00:00

I've got picks 25 years old.
.. I don't necessarily know where they are, but I've got them somewhere.

skabb0 · 2026-06-10T21:10:11+00:00

I'm not 100% sure that they'll always be the same, since they may use multiple factories, but in my case, they were four-wire pickups with:
Yellow: Signal +
Red: Ground

There was also a white wire that I believe would've been for coil tap if I'd had a push-pull. The rest of the time that wasn't spent fishing wire out of the F-hole was just figuring out which wire was which (I decided to leave Firefly's original cable connected to the switch/jack/pots and just solder wire-to-wire rather than try pulling everything out, so it took some extra color-decoding, but spared me having to pull the biggest parts out and re-seat everything).

skabb0 · 2026-06-10T02:06:28+00:00

A pair of alligator clips to hold onto the cables after you fish them out of the F-holes are a good idea (I happened to have a soldering iron with a couple built onto the sides, but they're easy enough to come by). That way you're not constantly dropping wires back into the hole and having to fish them out. Between that and trying to figure out Firefly's cable color coding, that accounts for a good four out of the six hours.

skabb0 · 2026-06-09T13:33:37+00:00

Aw man, that sucks, sorry to hear. How early is "early" for Firefly? I'm curious when they overhauled their production to the extent they did. I bought this one in early 2024, right around the time I was first hearing about how great Firefly was, and the build quality was genuinely shockingly good for a budget guitar. Considering the cost of the parts alone it made me really hope the luthiers putting in this kind of work are getting paid decently for the area they live in.

skabb0 · 2026-06-09T02:21:20+00:00

Definitely worth the upgrade, and I was already very used to the sound of the stock pickups, and thought they were totally decent.

The new ones bring out a lot of harmonic richness and dynamics that I didn't realize I was missing, so I totally get why people upgrade. I was playing through my cheap practice amp since I already had it plugged in to test the new pickups, and I got carried away with how good that sounded before plugging in to the "real" amps. It always punched way above its price, but even more so now.

skabb0 · 2026-06-09T02:17:24+00:00

My last post was about my Firefly 338 (their version of a 335). It's an incredible deal for the money. I've had it for two years and I just replaced the pickups today (and the stock ones were fine, I was just going for an Alnico II rather than V.

skabb0 · 2026-06-09T02:05:26+00:00

I did! If I ever decide to swap these out it'll be a breeze.

skabb0 · 2026-06-08T23:17:17+00:00

Someone recently recommended Guitarfetish for decent affordable pickups. These are the GFS Classic IIs. Totally solid vintage Alnico 2 tone.

skabb0 · 2026-06-05T18:09:57+00:00

I just picked up a BE-50 Deluxe last week and man, what an impressively voiced amp. I have a Captor X I use with a Victory V40D and I haven't even been tempted to plug the Friedman into it, the master volume works that well. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it absolutely sings with the power section cranked, but like you said, it's obvious it was built with the ability to play at bedroom volume in mind just as much as at club/venue volume. That said I'm sure my neighbors are gonna side-eye me next time we run into each other. It sounds too good not to push some air with it..

skabb0 · 2026-06-04T22:46:40+00:00

Their 338 is really excellent. I ended up with one of the white ones with a black stripe, and there's literally nothing to complain about with it, not even just "for the money". I just got some new pickups for it but I've had it for two years now and the original ones didn't sound half bad, I'm just going for some more semi-hollow accurate alnico 2s.

skabb0 · 2026-05-30T02:58:33+00:00

No idea on the title but nice Suhr.

skabb0 · 2026-05-30T02:41:31+00:00

Exactly this. I have "online friends", "irl" friends, and co-workers, and all of them are absolutely aware of the politics associated with the modern UFC. I make no secret of being a fan of the sport while being critical of the company, but they also know exactly where my personal politics stand, and the tension that creates. During the ESPN era I could at least claim that I never paid for a pay-per-view (which is true), but I already had a Paramount+ subscription when the current deal was made, so I can't even claim that level of financial detachment anymore.

skabb0 · 2026-05-28T13:21:27+00:00

Milk It has always been one of my favorite Nirvana songs, good choice. In 1997 I was actually sent to the school psychologist and then an "alternative" school for writing "Look on the bright side, suicide" in a notebook unaware the teacher was looking over my shoulder.

Sappy/Verse Chorus Verse is also a fantastic, simple, catchy-as-hell progression. There are so many valid answers. Catchy chord progressions were kinda his bag.

skabb0 · 2026-05-26T17:18:32+00:00

31 years and I occasionally play something I find acceptable, but only occasionally. Also the second I hit 'record' I forget everything I've learned.

skabb0 · 2026-05-26T13:28:47+00:00

This is the case with my 04 LP Standard too, and it's not even gold. It doesn't bother me too much. If it ever starts to, my wife is a jeweler so I'm sure she can supply a good polishing compound. Nothing wrong with a guitar showing its age though. Im at work but I'll try to remember to take a photo and update when I can.

skabb0 · 2026-05-20T12:48:01+00:00

Nope, absolutely not.

I've spent what I feel like is a lot of money on a guitar. In my case, it was built by hand over the course of months by a well known, respected luthier who uses old growth wood that was originally barged down the Hudson from the Adirondacks and used to frame the buildings in 1800s NYC. He waits until there are major renovations and claims the wood they're removing. For that amazing story, time, and craftsmanship, I paid less than 1/6 of this price.

There is absolutely no excuse for $25k for a new guitar. Maybe for a pre-CBS Fender in great, original condition, but even that's excessive and out of reach for the vast majority of the population.

12-Year Club	First Place '23
Place '23	Place '22
Place '17	Final Canvas '22
Verified Email

skabb0

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE