LOL, I was shocked at just how good the mini-Strat I bought for my 10 yo sounds and plays. Paid $99 used and after a proper setup the intonation is dead on all the way down the neck and it sounds so good that at one point I was thinking about stealing the pups for my Strat!
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I have an Epi SG that is all the guitar I will ever need. It has something other than stock pickups. I don’t know what they are but they have a hot output.
It’s amazing what can be done to a Squire at a small price. Most I’ve dealt with are very playable out of the box. I bought 3 new ones at a ridiculous sale price about 3 years ago. I upgraded tuners, nut, and added Floyd Rose trem, and a set of gifted Texas Hot Rod pickups. OMG…a cheap way to get a SRV experience. Wish I still had it, but gave it to a kid who had little, but a ravenous desire to play. He can now play circles around me, and his guitar still sounds great.
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Need more stories like this one!
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Just getting back into playing guitar after a long hiatus from it (and my fingers are hurting!), so have picked up my south paw Standard Mexican Strat again, which is good enough for me.
I have a Roland GK3 divided pickup fitted on it, and have just paired it with the new Boss SY-1000 which sounds awesome. Lots to explore in that package. The SY-1000 has replaced a GR-55 which was OK, but a bit “meh” to me in terms of the overall sounds.
So the GR55 will be for sale soon, once I have the few sounds I did for it programmed into the SY-1000 (just the guitar models).
I went the Strat/GK3 route as I got fed up waiting for Line6 to do a left handed JTV. I have a Variax 500 in left hand form, which is OK, but the strat is much nicer to play.
There is such a wide array of vst’s available now where I can do so many things with a strat. So many amps, pedals, and fx I always wanted to try. I am glad guitar modeling is now decent enough to make my strat sound like a Les Paul, or a 12-String, or a Gretsch. It has really changed my stage setup, and my approach to bigger things I want to do. Nice to switch guitars digitally!
And wearing a Les Paul for 3 or 4 hours … no more. Like playing a bari sax.
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Similar story here concerning long hiatus. I found that my biggest problem is tempo/pocket skills are pretty much pathetic from non-use. LOL, pretty sad when my 11 yo has a better sense of pocket than I do at this point… I can still lock, but its taking too long and then I’m fighting drift… Hopefully I can fix it and its not just one of the joys of growing old, lol.
Yeah…that too!! My Japanese Strat is the lightest solid body I use. I tend to go to it a lot.
My few skills have also suffered from this lock down.
Oh, there are many neverending joys of aging cropping up every day. Four Doctor visits last week…2 more this coming week with a side day of medical procedure including anesthesia. The fun never ends. 
So sorry to hear that! I hope they can get you fixed up soon!
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Thankfully, I have good insurance. It’s all those years hauling a B3 and monster PA’s. Plus everything else I did. I feel like I am constantly replacing parts on an old pickup truck, me being the truck. But, hoping I can get everything going again before the music scene comes back. Couch dwelling hasn’t helped anything.
Yes, it’s amazing where the tech is these days. They need to figure out how to make it look cool on stage though lol! The gigs I used to play always had really big stage areas and I’d usually bring four guitars just to spread them around my area and take up some space. Two I always took were my blue burst Gretsch 6120 with 24K gold hardware and my Gretsch Pearl Jet (still have them both, kids demand as part of inheritance, lol). They are both pure eye candy, so it worked out well. What a Pearl Jet does with light on a bright stage is really something to see, totally distracted everyone from my less than spectacular playing, lol! Great sounding rock guitar too with the right amp and FX.
LOL, one band I was in had a C3 and we had to lift it up about four feet onto the stage every week. I was built like an NFL corner back at that point and it still took three of us!
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I bet that did cast quite a halo! 
Just a little diddy for your enjoyment
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That’s the best Deep Purple cover ever period!
It probably is one of the best. Another one came to mind…
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IK’s Hammond B-3X has been with us over a year now, with a few sprinkled updates since. Even though I’ve asked for improvements, most of my suggestions fell to the wayside. It was apparent early on that IK had no clue how many people use keyboard controllers (especially us Cantabile users). It seemed as if the software was modeled for use with modern Hammond digital organs.
Here is one, of many, things that drives me nuts. I’ve been using an upper level 49 key controller for years as my virtual Hammond. My choice for various reasons I won’t discuss here. B-3X falls short in my quest to use key presets. On the Controls View page (supposedly for live use), there are buttons representing the key presets. Most everything on this page can be automated thru MIDI…but not those buttons. So, if I want to select an A or B key switch, I have to grab a mouse, zero in on the button, and click on the button. Not a feasible option for live performance. Other Hammond clones have Key Switch parameters.
That said, yes I could use a larger controller and mark the Preset keys, or I could lower the controller octaves, hit the keyswitch, raise the octave, then catch up to the song in progress. 
I unsuccessfully tried using a controller pad, and higher keys to trigger the particular key switch note. The thing is, I shouldn’t have to find alternatives for something the developer should have included.
I normally use drawbar sliders, in a constant tone search during a song, but it would be nice to use keyswitches occasionally on less busy songs…just like a “real” Hammond.
Sorry for the rant, but if anyone has a work-around, I would love to see it. I am very confident Cantabile will prevail. 
Regards
Corky