LTigh
New Member
- Joined
- May 17, 2014
- Messages
- 35
Right, so one of my big regrets of my time in Colorado (besides living in Colorado) was letting go of my PRSi to fund the escape from Bizarro World, most notably the Bernie Marsden I scored NOS for $319 back in 2013. I mean, I miss the rest of them (okay, the S2 maybe not so much, but I were in a weird place at the time), but getting rid of the Bernie really hurt.
So fast forward a couple of years after digging myself out of the hole of suck and fail that passed for life in the High Plains, I started missing that Bernie real bad. Sure, I tried filling that void with other guitars, and that worked for a while (although it took a few tries and I did manage to score a couple of keeper Edwards E-LPs and a proper Custom Shop ESP), but the Bernie still haunted me.
Until Monday, that is.
Came across a 2012 Marsden in the not-so-local-but-close-enough GC in very good condition, didn't think twice about dropping ducats even though used it cost a bit more than the Marsden I had to sell did NOS.
Anyway, pics, followed by more rambling:
Yes, them's my grubby fingerprints over her, had to give the Bernie the once-over and luckily enough, the previous owner did some value-added stuff-- Switchcraft jack, CTS pots (one of which is Seymour Duncan branded), Orange Drop cap, and a bone nut.
So far, feels great, definitely a player's guitar. Very solid and comfy in a way you would expect out of an old school Gibby (like, say, the Beast?) without being too much of a boat anchor. Been spending the last couple of daysworth of free time with her after some minor adjustments to get her playable.
Neck had some relief what cause some fret-out on the high E-string but adjusting the height of the bridge and a couple of nudges with the truss rod got things acceptable until I can get a full set-up done by my go-to tech-guy (part of the collateral damage of un-screwing myself is that I've been ridiculously busy with work, thus no free time to do this stuff myself). Very loud unplugged, and the guts upgrades help with the otherwise (to my ears, anyway) meh-tier G&B stock pups. Actually, the neck pup is quite acceptable, the bridge is bleah, no matter how much I adjust the height or mess around with the volume and tone-- scratch that, it does fairly well with a little bit of dirt and the tone down about 3/4 of the way. But that's it.
No matter, though, because THIS Bernie gonna get all the TLC the previous Bernie weren't able to get thanks to general life-suckage in the Mountain State.
My own mods are gonna be that MannMade 2300 bridge in the picture (already put it in my Marty Friedman, it's the bomb-diggity, once I got the Bernie home I ordered it from @John Mann and GuitarVaultUSA and it got here in 2 days. BUENO).
Also, Switchcraft switch, maybe some cleaning-up of the rat's nest in the control cavity (previous owner did good putting in quality guts, but the soldering leaves something to be desired-- I'm surprised there weren't any cold solder joints).
Most importantly, though-- my new go-to humbucker pups, the SD Seth Lover set, what I got on the cheap on teh fleaBay (usual used pup spot is Reverb, but current selection is at damn-near new prices).
Would go with the Beastbuckers, but they're nearly 4 times as much and I likes da Sefs (thanks to the aforementioned Edwards E-LP 125ALS what gots them stock and got me hooked so much I scoured teh internets for more to stick in some of my other guitars). Plus they do the P.A.F. thing real purdy, so Sefs it is.
So here's another pic of the Bernie with my other single-cut SE, the Friedman:
Huh. I just realized, all my current SEs are signature models (Orianthi, Friedman, Marsden). Ah, well.
Now to start working on acquiring that previous-iteration CE to replace that S2 hole in my life. Or maybe a Mira. Always wanted one of those in Seafoam Green semi-hollow flavor.
So fast forward a couple of years after digging myself out of the hole of suck and fail that passed for life in the High Plains, I started missing that Bernie real bad. Sure, I tried filling that void with other guitars, and that worked for a while (although it took a few tries and I did manage to score a couple of keeper Edwards E-LPs and a proper Custom Shop ESP), but the Bernie still haunted me.
Until Monday, that is.
Came across a 2012 Marsden in the not-so-local-but-close-enough GC in very good condition, didn't think twice about dropping ducats even though used it cost a bit more than the Marsden I had to sell did NOS.
Anyway, pics, followed by more rambling:
Yes, them's my grubby fingerprints over her, had to give the Bernie the once-over and luckily enough, the previous owner did some value-added stuff-- Switchcraft jack, CTS pots (one of which is Seymour Duncan branded), Orange Drop cap, and a bone nut.
So far, feels great, definitely a player's guitar. Very solid and comfy in a way you would expect out of an old school Gibby (like, say, the Beast?) without being too much of a boat anchor. Been spending the last couple of daysworth of free time with her after some minor adjustments to get her playable.
Neck had some relief what cause some fret-out on the high E-string but adjusting the height of the bridge and a couple of nudges with the truss rod got things acceptable until I can get a full set-up done by my go-to tech-guy (part of the collateral damage of un-screwing myself is that I've been ridiculously busy with work, thus no free time to do this stuff myself). Very loud unplugged, and the guts upgrades help with the otherwise (to my ears, anyway) meh-tier G&B stock pups. Actually, the neck pup is quite acceptable, the bridge is bleah, no matter how much I adjust the height or mess around with the volume and tone-- scratch that, it does fairly well with a little bit of dirt and the tone down about 3/4 of the way. But that's it.
No matter, though, because THIS Bernie gonna get all the TLC the previous Bernie weren't able to get thanks to general life-suckage in the Mountain State.
My own mods are gonna be that MannMade 2300 bridge in the picture (already put it in my Marty Friedman, it's the bomb-diggity, once I got the Bernie home I ordered it from @John Mann and GuitarVaultUSA and it got here in 2 days. BUENO).
Also, Switchcraft switch, maybe some cleaning-up of the rat's nest in the control cavity (previous owner did good putting in quality guts, but the soldering leaves something to be desired-- I'm surprised there weren't any cold solder joints).
Most importantly, though-- my new go-to humbucker pups, the SD Seth Lover set, what I got on the cheap on teh fleaBay (usual used pup spot is Reverb, but current selection is at damn-near new prices).
Would go with the Beastbuckers, but they're nearly 4 times as much and I likes da Sefs (thanks to the aforementioned Edwards E-LP 125ALS what gots them stock and got me hooked so much I scoured teh internets for more to stick in some of my other guitars). Plus they do the P.A.F. thing real purdy, so Sefs it is.
So here's another pic of the Bernie with my other single-cut SE, the Friedman:
Huh. I just realized, all my current SEs are signature models (Orianthi, Friedman, Marsden). Ah, well.
Now to start working on acquiring that previous-iteration CE to replace that S2 hole in my life. Or maybe a Mira. Always wanted one of those in Seafoam Green semi-hollow flavor.
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