MA Pete
Pattern Thin Convert!
Greetings, all!
I took about a 3 year hiatus here, and from guitar playing altogether.
My younger brother passed away about 3 years ago from Colon Cancer, and it was the most traumatic thing I have ever gone through - we were very close. He didn't have anything to do directly with my love for playing guitar, directly. But the process of grieving just completely broke the part of me that plays music, and even that actively listens to music, it was like part of my soul was broken, missing or not accessible. I can count the times on two hands that I tried playing guitar and tried actively listening to music, during those three years. Every attempt to do so for playing or listening just didn't all work and/or was unpleasant.
As my friend Bodia reported previously, after my brother passed I had sold almost all of my guitar and amp collection and got back into sports cars and joined a Race Track Country Club, and bought a dedicated Track Car for that. (Both the street car and race car are Porsche Caymans of some sort.) That has been great fun and a great outlet for my time and energy for a hobby.
It has been about 3.5 years since I posted here, in mid 2020 I went down a Collings/Huber path for a while before my brother passed and I stopped playing.
Something changed in me a couple of weeks ago, I was able to listen to music much more easily, and then when I tried to play guitar again, that felt okay too - except I had forgotten just about everything I knew how to play, LOL. (But that has been coming back over time.) It was like someone flicked a switch, and that part of me was okay again.
I was very excited to get back into it, both listening and playing. I went down to the Chicago Music Exchange (December 23rd) and traded my two guitars that remained (a Knaggs Kenai Singlecut and a PRS Silver Sky) for two other guitars, a Private Stock Custom 24 and a Myles Kennedy Signature. After extensive playing of many guitars there, I determined that this time around I wanted to focus on 25" PRS Guitars, not at all the Shorter Scale 594's, which I was previously smitten by and known for (and for the 245's before that). The 25" scale felt very "right" to me, and the 594 scale felt uncomfortably short. That might have had something to do with the fact that I had previously gone down that Collings and Huber path previously, I had gotten used to the 24 7/8 and 25 scales of those guitars, and also I had a 25" McCarty that I really loved, at the tail end of my 594 lovefest. Over time "back in the day" I did favor the 245s and 594s, and that dominated the the bulk of the over 100 PRS Guitars I owned from 2008 to 2020, but I did also own (and gig) many 25" PRS Guitars along the way as well.
As I previously mentioned here years ago, I am very sensitive to both scale length, and also nut width and the resulting string spacing. In fact I think that I am most sensitive to the nut width and string spacing, and then scale length. I don't like to hop back and forth between significant differences in either.
(Please ignore the 25.5" Myles Kennedy Sig Guitar, that was really just an impulse buy because I love Alter Bridge and Myles Kennedy. It is cool, but it won't be one of my main guitars.)
From there I sought out two more 25" PRS Guitars, a 25" McCarty and a Tremonti Stoptail. I am not big on Signature Guitar models usually, but I do love Alter Bridge and Mark Tremonti. But actually more so I love PRS Singlecuts, and this time around I wanted to go 25" scale - so for a new Core guitar that is the only option.
One thing I am very pleasantly surprised by is that as long as the scale length and nut width (and resulting string spacing) is the same, I don't at all seem to mind the difference between the Pattern Neck of the McCarty and the Pattern Thin of the Custom 24 or the Tremonti. If fact, I really like the necks on the Custom 24 and the Tremonti, I barely even seem to notice the difference. I used to have it in my head that I didn't like Wide Thin / Pattern Thin Neck Carves, I am glad that I am changing my thinking on that, that really opens up a lot more 25" PRS options.
I also got a (new) Tremonti Trem Standard, just to have a practice guitar to beat up at my computer table. It was discounted to $500 and change. I also snagged an MT15 Amp for fun, to round out the Alter Bridge Signature fun. My Main Amp is still my 100W Metropolous Superplex (has been since 2017), plugged into an Ox Box to use through headphones or through my beloved vintage Marshall 4x12, which used to be JD Simo's main Marshall Cab for touring and recording, for many years. (I am curious about the new HDRX Amps, as I did love my HX/DAs. All in due time.)
But I consider the Custom 24, the Tremonti and the 25" McCarty to be the 3 main guitars to jump back into it with.
I will expand here with more thoughts on these new acquisitions.
It is nice to be back here! I had some fun over the last couple of weeks catching up on some threads here, particularly the epic PSF thread.
I took about a 3 year hiatus here, and from guitar playing altogether.
My younger brother passed away about 3 years ago from Colon Cancer, and it was the most traumatic thing I have ever gone through - we were very close. He didn't have anything to do directly with my love for playing guitar, directly. But the process of grieving just completely broke the part of me that plays music, and even that actively listens to music, it was like part of my soul was broken, missing or not accessible. I can count the times on two hands that I tried playing guitar and tried actively listening to music, during those three years. Every attempt to do so for playing or listening just didn't all work and/or was unpleasant.
As my friend Bodia reported previously, after my brother passed I had sold almost all of my guitar and amp collection and got back into sports cars and joined a Race Track Country Club, and bought a dedicated Track Car for that. (Both the street car and race car are Porsche Caymans of some sort.) That has been great fun and a great outlet for my time and energy for a hobby.
It has been about 3.5 years since I posted here, in mid 2020 I went down a Collings/Huber path for a while before my brother passed and I stopped playing.
Something changed in me a couple of weeks ago, I was able to listen to music much more easily, and then when I tried to play guitar again, that felt okay too - except I had forgotten just about everything I knew how to play, LOL. (But that has been coming back over time.) It was like someone flicked a switch, and that part of me was okay again.
I was very excited to get back into it, both listening and playing. I went down to the Chicago Music Exchange (December 23rd) and traded my two guitars that remained (a Knaggs Kenai Singlecut and a PRS Silver Sky) for two other guitars, a Private Stock Custom 24 and a Myles Kennedy Signature. After extensive playing of many guitars there, I determined that this time around I wanted to focus on 25" PRS Guitars, not at all the Shorter Scale 594's, which I was previously smitten by and known for (and for the 245's before that). The 25" scale felt very "right" to me, and the 594 scale felt uncomfortably short. That might have had something to do with the fact that I had previously gone down that Collings and Huber path previously, I had gotten used to the 24 7/8 and 25 scales of those guitars, and also I had a 25" McCarty that I really loved, at the tail end of my 594 lovefest. Over time "back in the day" I did favor the 245s and 594s, and that dominated the the bulk of the over 100 PRS Guitars I owned from 2008 to 2020, but I did also own (and gig) many 25" PRS Guitars along the way as well.
As I previously mentioned here years ago, I am very sensitive to both scale length, and also nut width and the resulting string spacing. In fact I think that I am most sensitive to the nut width and string spacing, and then scale length. I don't like to hop back and forth between significant differences in either.
(Please ignore the 25.5" Myles Kennedy Sig Guitar, that was really just an impulse buy because I love Alter Bridge and Myles Kennedy. It is cool, but it won't be one of my main guitars.)
From there I sought out two more 25" PRS Guitars, a 25" McCarty and a Tremonti Stoptail. I am not big on Signature Guitar models usually, but I do love Alter Bridge and Mark Tremonti. But actually more so I love PRS Singlecuts, and this time around I wanted to go 25" scale - so for a new Core guitar that is the only option.
One thing I am very pleasantly surprised by is that as long as the scale length and nut width (and resulting string spacing) is the same, I don't at all seem to mind the difference between the Pattern Neck of the McCarty and the Pattern Thin of the Custom 24 or the Tremonti. If fact, I really like the necks on the Custom 24 and the Tremonti, I barely even seem to notice the difference. I used to have it in my head that I didn't like Wide Thin / Pattern Thin Neck Carves, I am glad that I am changing my thinking on that, that really opens up a lot more 25" PRS options.
I also got a (new) Tremonti Trem Standard, just to have a practice guitar to beat up at my computer table. It was discounted to $500 and change. I also snagged an MT15 Amp for fun, to round out the Alter Bridge Signature fun. My Main Amp is still my 100W Metropolous Superplex (has been since 2017), plugged into an Ox Box to use through headphones or through my beloved vintage Marshall 4x12, which used to be JD Simo's main Marshall Cab for touring and recording, for many years. (I am curious about the new HDRX Amps, as I did love my HX/DAs. All in due time.)
But I consider the Custom 24, the Tremonti and the 25" McCarty to be the 3 main guitars to jump back into it with.
I will expand here with more thoughts on these new acquisitions.
It is nice to be back here! I had some fun over the last couple of weeks catching up on some threads here, particularly the epic PSF thread.
