No Name Japanese Flying V-I bought a Japanese No-Name Flying V in November '03. Natural Mahogany. '58 style construction a little smaller and lighter than the V 98 Ltd., but it sounds pretty good since I installed a Gibson 498T in the bridge positon. I left the Japanese Gotoh pickup in the neck position. The other hardware is all Gotoh.

2003 Epiphone Elite '61 SG. It felt like the real deal. Big neck, but plays smooth, Deep dark sound, hardware works. gotta good deal. Too bad they discontinued this whole line of guitars and basses. It sounds great.

A Epiphone FT-290 in Cherry Sunburst, shaped like the old Crestwoods and Wilshires of the 60's, an all maple bolt-on that had crappy pickups. I switched those for my Univox Hi-Flyer(Mosrite copy) pickups and had a great sounding guitar for a long time. I always thought those Univox pickups were early Dimarzios but they weren't. I sold this to someone in the 90s and I think he's still playing it. This is the first guitar I bought with my own money!

70's Electra Maple Pro 2267-Bought this in '79 or 80 while in college. Superior construction, great neck, looked awesome(even out of focus). But the pickups were questionable and I didn't have the knowledge to take them out so this one never got played in public. I sold it at We Buy Guitars in the city. If only I knew.....More info for this and all Old Electra guitars at River City Amps.com's Electra Guitars mini-site(very extensive!.

A 70's Hamer Vector-all mahogany Flying V, with Dimario Super Distortions. I never knew what I had with this one. I abused it, had it broken at the neck, had it repaired, screwed around with the pots, miswired the ground a bunch of times; but no matter what I did, everyone I played with always wanted me to play this guitar exclusively. It always worked when I didn't mess with it. Sold.

80's Gibson Flying V-made around 82 or 83, it was a '67 style V with a weird line graphic. Didn't know what I had. Big neck, I wasn't familiar with the tones. So I sold it to a friend who did use it at CBGB's. At least it got to play with the big boys!

48th Street Custom Flying V-1987, All alder, with a Duncan Distortion. Eventually put a PRS HFS pickup in this one. I special ordered this one from a nice guy who used his commission to leave town. Paid $1400, it never stayed in tune. the bridge I ordered was crap. I eventually found an old Japanese copy of a Les Paul Jr. one piece bridge and that worked. But by that time I was fed up with it. I sold it to the guy who bought the Epiphone. He sold to a music store and the last I saw it, it was hanging in a store for $295. Oh, well. Lesson learned.

1981 Dean Flying V-Maple top, african mahogany body, cherry sunburst, Dimarzios, Grovers, american made. Never stayed in tune. There was a burr on the anchor plate under the D string. Took me 8 years to find it. Instead of bashing the guitar, let me say I didn't have enough experience playing that kind of guitar to make it sound right. It was my fault not the guitar.
Looked great though. It cost me many dollars in pro repair. Sold it on Ebay. Was able to get an off-white one about the same time, all mahogany, sounded great, had no problems, sold it to buy the Les Paul.

70's Japanese Washburn Flying V-White with black binding. 3 early EMG select pickups, alder or ash body. Hated the sound, but I wanted a Flying V so I bought it. Had a Washburn Wonderbar whammy bar with no locking nut. So I cut up some guitar cables and put them under the bridge to hold the tune and it worked!!!. Had to change strings carefully . Also with this guitar, I heard the first compliment of my playing from a non-friend or family member. In 87, while playing a solo with this guitar, an audience member said(out loud so I could hear it)"See, he's a pretty good player". Thanks, whoever you were, I still remember. I try to return the favor to other strangers whenever I go see bands. Sold to a friend who sold it somewhere else.

Rickenbacker 481-all mahogany or walnut, Rick humbuckers, with a coil tap switch. Shaped like a 4001 bass. Sounded good, but had faulty wiring I couldn't fix, so I sold it to We Buy Guitars on 48th St. Within weeks they had gone out of busines and disapeared. I hope it wasn't me.

Yamaha SBG 500(no pic)-Mid 80's, Double cutaway, mahogany body, sounded good, looked funny on me. Played 1st gig at CBGB's with it but changed strings to wrong gauge before gig, sounded awful, sold to We Buy Guitars immediately after gig. Wish I kept it.

60's Gibson Les Paul Special-had a Les Paul Junior sticker, which is wrong, had one of the pickup holes covered, which was questionable. Had a hideous paint job. I didn't care. IT WAS MY FIRST LES PAUL!!!! I was delirious.....after having the neck reset for straight guitar playing, I played it happily until I got the Dean V's, after which I sold it to a friend who needed reliable intrumentation. A good deed!!! He had the money to have it properly restored and now it's on some music store wall at 4 times the price!!!

Gibson L6-S(no pic)-Ultra slim maple body with Bill Lawrence pickups, Les Paul shape. Dark Silverburst. Very un-Gibson sounding. Used for 2 or 3 cover gigs and sold to a friend. Internal electronics came apart easily. Had to carefully put back together.

Marshall JCM800 Model 4104 2 x 12 50 watt amp-All white anniversary model, so loud had to keep it too quiet to gig in small clubs effectively. One gig in a big hall, it sounded so good, people thought I was using someone else's stack. Very heavy. The day I sold it, they tested it in the store. Tester plugged in a Les Paul, turned it up to 11, and played 5 or 6 of the best notes I ever heard from it. I turned around to see the amp, but the guy turned it off unplugged it and vanished with it. I would have liked to play a few notes on it then, but que sera.......There's a picture of it on the photo page.

Tokai Explorer-Made of metal or composite industrial material, single Japanese pickup, with push/pull coil tap switch. Sounded very fendery, not bad actually, cherry metallic color, got a lot of use out of this one. I recently found a companion Flying V that was identical to the Explorer-I always wondered!

Mid 70's Yamaha acoustic-model FG-335. Dreadnaught body, Had Martin strings on it for a long time and it sounded terrible. Put satin 'n steel strings on it and it started to sound great. Otherwise it was a good guitar. Gave up acoustic guitar all together in the 80's

SOME OTHER STUFF

1. You want to sound good in front your audience!!!!!, no matter who it may be. If it's just you, your guy or girl, 10 drunks in the dive down the street or the Meadowlands. When it comes to music what's important is sounding good, whatever that means to you(and your audience). Do what you have to do to sound good. New strings, clean guitar, fixed up amp, tattoos, piercings, clean suit, tight skirt, whatever. Let that be your guide for what you need to do to get ready. Be in tune!!!!!!!!! Practice!!!!!! Know the songs!!!!!!!! And don't be afraid to at some point check yourself out on how you're achieving these goals. Tape your performance, record your rehearsals, ask someone with good ears whether you hit that note or not. Then figure out what you need to do for yourself to improve and reach your goals and go do it. Musicians, actors, artists have to be a little more critical of themselves so they can brag to everyone else. It's part of the work you have to do as an artist. Then you can go party.

2. Not everything works the first time out. Try again. Assume you might have made an error instead of it always being someone else's fault or the the guitar's fault or the amp's fault or the pedal's fault. Get some more experience somewhere. See another band, read it in a book or on the net. Keep looking. It may be out there somewhere. Or you might have it right next to you all along. Just a thought.

3. I'm unhappy with Ebay's decision to do away with checks and money orders to pay for stuff. Looks like the end of Ebay. And I don't like Paypal. There I said it again!

4. When you write a song, imagine singing(performing)it in front of people you don't want to embarass or let down. Or people you'd be embarassed to look bad in front of. People who will be properly critical of your work. If it gets by them, it'll get by everybody else!

5.There's a song called "High School Never Ends" by Bowling For Soup. I scoffed at this when I first heard it. I'm grown up now and so is everybody else. Then I went back to living my real life. (Not a reality show. You want reality, go to work tomorrow, that's reality.) And then I realized. The big man on campus(the boss)is more concerned with keeping power(staying the boss) than graduating(doing his job). The pretty, popular girl (executive secretary, division head etc) smiles, flirts, and depending on her level of competence(See Peter Principle) does everything to graduate (do her job) but study(actually do her job).. The jocks(line foreman, loading dock guys, sometimes drivers) flex and preen and use every shortcut in the book to get through school so they can go play the big game. Everybody not in those groups(regular working grunts, either white collar or blue) keeps their nose clean, graduates the right way (actually does the job) and never gets ahead, wins any big game or gets credit for anything, graduates and fades away. Bowling for Soup is right. High school never ends. I am screwed. Only took me 50 years to find out. Wonderful.