I play the guitar, keyboard and vocal chords. All not to great though, but I hope to improve.:drummer:

Interesting find last week, came across this early 60's Guyatone GP-24 sound hole pickup on Craigslist shortly after it was posted, immediately arranged a time to go check it out. It requires no modding to install, it clamps into place with a clip on one side and two little pivoting spider arms on the other, and it's actually very sturdy, doesn't move around at all while playing. It has its own volume/tone controls and an input jack. Sounds fantastic, very clear with lots of tone control, I'll try and get around to recording a tone demo some time this week, I'm currently running it through my MESA Lonestar's clean channel.

Thing looks bizarre, never seen anything like it.

http://i.imgur.com/Vzz8ck5.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/iXIfZeY.jpg?1

Never ever seen one. Does it get in the way of your strumming?

I haven't hit it once yet but the guy I bought it off of did while he was demonstrating it to me. The control arm pivots too so if it were annoying I could just angle it away a couple more inches. I mostly play fingerstyle on acoustic with my hand near the middle of the sound hole and when I am strumming or using a pick it's not very wild, I don't often shoot very far past the strings.

Definitely a unique looking piece of hardware, will probably use it in our next set, I'm expecting it to draw in some questions from other guitarists. Haven't been able to find much at all about it online. It's kind of like a strange brother to the bizarre B-bender on my brown Tele.

Whipped up a quick tone demo: Playing: Guyatone GP-24 Demo.mp3 - picosong

I don't have an acoustic amp yet as I wasn't planning on throwing a pickup in my Larrivee, this one just snuck up on me and was too unique to pass up, so really this is what it sounds like through my MESA Lonestar, which basically makes my Larrivee sound like a Telecaster neck pickup. The occasional low end clipping is my SM57 not the pickup.

Sounds great! Could maybe a bit more high end.

Was recorded with the tone knob rolled off about half way, pretty tricky balancing it with the amp. Looking forward to trying it with an acoustic amp, I'm expecting it to sound much different.

Recently I picked up an old Stella parlor-sized acoustic.

I. Am. Loving. It.

Only complaint is the strings that came with it (that I mean to change anyways) are a bit too high gauge for it. (.13's I believe)

I need to lower them, as the actions a wee bit high for my liking.

Thinking .11s, but I'm afraid of going too low as it has reinforcement instead of an adjustable truss rod.

Anyone care to chime in?

(p.s. will post pics when I get a chance)

Caved on my first parlor a couple of weeks ago, Washburn R314KK, figured it was time to find myself a small knock around campfire / truck guitar, too paranoid to bring my Larrivee out into the woods overnight. I actually came across it by chance at a shop that normally only sells vintage gear, picked it up, slammed some blues for a bit, and found myself surprised at how well it played. So I ask the owner how old it was and he goes "It's new". It's nothing fancy in terms of build quality or materials but it's playability, tone, and tuners made a great first impression on me. Every aspect of the guitar is geared towards fingerstyle blues, the open headstock and steep breakover angle are very effective in tuning stability (allowing you to really hammer down on your bass notes without worry), it has a wide nut and a crazy 1890's style V-neck that I've never seen before this guitar, the strings fan out a bit towards the saddle which leaves a very comfortable amount of room for right hand action, it's light enough and small enough to play anywhere comfortably, and it's unusually loud for a parlor guitar, it's literally louder than my Larrivee dreadnought. The styling is probably love or hate but it won me over, I really like the Trembesi back and sides, first time I've ever seen this kind of wood on a guitar, and it has binding everywhere including the neck and headstock. I'll upload a tone demo when I have a chance.

http://i.imgur.com/0MAqHyj.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YL4aOOR.png

http://i.imgur.com/nvozsvb.png