NGD x 2 - '94 PRS McCarty & '08 Gibson 339 - oh hells yes!

[jeffwith1f]

I spent the better part of the last quarter of a year saving money, planning my tax return and selling instruments to buy a Custom Shop V from a local store. Well, 2 weeks before I had scraped together the nessesary funds, some dastard over on the Les Paul forum scooped it from my store!

Fair enough. I can think of worse problems than having a stack of cash earmarked for spending on guitars while I singlehandedly try to jump-start the Canadian economy. I'm doing it for my country. yeah....

at any rate.

NGD are about the closest thing to a religious experience that I have. I'm pretty sure 2 in one day is a once in a life-time experience.

Let me show you some pics of my new babies.

2008 Gibson 339 & 1994 PRS McCarty

I will be taking both out to rehersal tommorow night, and giving them a full wind-up in the band context.

 

[Shark Sandwich]

that 339 just looks sweet. . .I thought those were only sold through Guitar Denter (I mean Center)??

 

[5E3]

Both are gorgeous! Congrats :AOK

You've got a lot of tone covered there. What amp(s) will you playing them through?

 

[dantedayjob]

Nice.. the Gibby is cool, but that Mc is one of the most handsome I've seen... I'm jealous

 

[jeffwith1f]

it's possible to get them in Canada at select stores.

this is my understanding:

Distribution of Gibsons in Canada works somewhat differently. In the US, Gibson deals directly with stores, and as we know has started to foresake some of the mom and pop shops, opting instead to deal with the larger vendors like Guitar Center, or Musicians Friend, as well as the larger online retailers, and any other shop that will meet thier demands (I understand they require a surprisingly high percentage of thier instruments on the walls in the shops that they continue to deal with).

In Canada, Gibson deals through the proxy Yorkville Music, who acts as a buyer for all of Canada, and then individual stores here deal with Yorkville. As an entitiy, Yorkville is pretty large, and as such, seems to get access to some of these "exclusives" and "limited editions", such as, 339s, that Limited Blue Mist Metalic SG I bought last year ("Guitar center only"), GOTW/GOTM, and Limited Edition Custom shop stuff like the 50th anniversary V's and Explorers (there is one of each in Toronto, at different stores...I played the Explorer. best. guitar. ever.)

This works out quite well. More stores are able to stock Gibsons, in smaller nubers, as such shops have greater variety. Also, As Yorkville buys in such large quantiites, they get good deals from Gibson. As our stores then subsequently buy from Yorkville instead of dealing with Gibson directly, this allows the shops somewhat more latitude in setting pricing than Gibson shops in the US, who have thier pricing somewhat strictly set by Gibson as part of the terms of being a Gibson distributer. This is why I was able to get such a good deal on my Robot up here (about $350 cheaper than even the online retailers in the US)

it also helps that I live in Toronto, which probably gets the lions share of cool Gibsons coming into Canada. it also helps that I live around the corner from the 12th fret, which I am increasingly starting to believe is the best guitar store in the world.

 

[jeffwith1f]

Both are gorgeous! Congrats :AOK

You've got a lot of tone covered there. What amp(s) will you playing them through?

At home I run a Marshall JCM 900 (50w - run at half wattage) through a 1X12 JCM 800 cab. the cab makes all the difference. sounds much better than the 900 series cabs, which sound thin to my ears, for some reason.

With the band I use a Line 6 Vetta HD which I then run through a pair of custom 2X12 cabs, one with Celestion G70's and one with Celestion G80's.

the digital setup took some getting used to, but is just way to versitile to go back, The Vetta HD does everything, and sounds great.

I can hardly wait to try these at volume, backed by a band. That will be the true acid test.

 

[jeffwith1f]

Nice.. the Gibby is cool, but that Mc is one of the most handsome I've seen... I'm jealous

I was just giving the McCarty the microscope inspection.
I don't know who owned this before me, it was clearly played a fair amount, as per the wear on the stop tail peice, however, they must have always wore track pants when they did as there is absolutely no trace of buckle rash on the back. it it weren't for the stop tail piece, and a very small # of almost non visible dings, I'd say the instrument looks unplayed.

is this typical? Do McCarty's still use Poly, or is this one of the models that PRS used Nitro on (I don't think so).

 

[5E3]

With the band I use a Line 6 Vetta HD which I then run through a pair of custom 2X12 cabs, one with Celestion G70's and one with Celestion G80's.

Very cool! With the Vetta's two amps at once, and a pair of 2x12 cabs, you must be capable of getting some very interesting combinations. I would imagine it takes (or took) a while to work through all of the possibilities and get it dialed in. However it would be a simple process to switch in a totally different sound for different songs/genres. Excellent :AOK

 

[RvChevron]

In Canada, Gibson deals through the proxy Yorkville Music, who acts as a buyer for all of Canada, and then individual stores here deal with Yorkville.

Yorkville is Traynor and Long & McQuade owns Yorville or Yorville owns L&M, different business entities but they are the same.

Congrats on the double NGD!

 

[Sean French]

Wow.A 339 and a McCarty.:AOK
Killer guitars.
I miss my 339.That Cherry finish is beautiful.
The McCarty is stunning.
Would like to see a back of the headstock photo.
Enjoy your two new beauties.:BEER

 

[jeffwith1f]

Sean

here's a shot of the back of the headstock:

5E3 - yes, the Vetta's amp combos work nicely. they do creat some really rich sounds. I used to run bi-amped before anytways when I ran stero outputs from my rack processor (yay...the 80's...and..well, most of the 90's too)

The secret for getting the best tones out of the Vetta for me, was splitting apart the amp emulations and then the speaker cabinet emulations. In general when you select an amp, you get it paired with it's speaker cabinet emulator, but what I found was that when the speaker emeulator was paired with my actual speakers, it did not always sound best. In fact, I think I found that most amps when selected sounded best through my actual speakers when I paired them with the emulation of a HiWatt 4X12. (not always). had to tweak all of that to get the best sounds. It did take some time, but now that i have everything at the push of a button, I find it hard to imagine going back to a set of amps and then a pedal board full of effects. just not practical (although would be nice.. I am a gear-hound)