I’ve got a few, but this is my favourite. A Gibson Les Paul Standard.
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It is, AC15HW1X, and it’s great. I notice they’ve gone up about 50% in price since I bought it a few years ago from Guitar Factory. They originally sent me the model with a Celestion Greenback speaker, not the Alnico Blue I ordered. To their credit, they let me keep the original delivery for almost a year while they sourced the Alnico one, and threw in a hand wired Vox wah wah when it finally arrived. There was a noticeable difference between the speakers but it really wasn’t much, at least not to my ears. The only thing it lacks for me is reverb, so I use a Boss Fender '63 pedal which does the job.
The other amp I looked at at the time was the Ratajczyk Cream Reverb 15w, which then was about $500 dearer. That’s no longer the case, as while the Vox has gone up the CR hasn’t. They’re made by a local guy here in Brissy and I still want one (John was also pretty confident he could add a reverb to the Vox, though not cheaply):
http://www.bjamplifiers.com.au/
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Nice guitar man.
Matons must be the most overated guitars on the planet.
Wood type and quality on solid bodies may not affect the tone much but certainly affect the sustain.
Flame away.
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A mate of mine sold his (quite rare) Maton El Toro for 5k about 3 months ago.
And it still played like a 300 dollar cort
Lol. But had an extra octave on the neck.
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Good thread mofos.
Nowdays I have a 1993 ovation, so it’s vintage this year. Sunburst.
I did have a yamaha apx-4 i think it was. Great sound. But it was in a trailer when I was moving house and fell out of the top which was only noticed hours later.
Gutted.
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No doubt there’s been some excellent Matons made over the years, but the mid range acoustics I tried out earlier in the year didn’t impress me much.
I do like my ms2000, but it’s not quite a LP.
Anyway, I just sold the aforementioned Vox as I got sick of no on board reverb, despite the great tone. BJ Amps has just finished building my Cream Reverb so will pick it up soon… He’s given me the choice of Celestion Creamback or Greenback speaker to go in it. I’m sure both are good, but does anyone have any thoughts on comparison of those?
Ive tried both and got the M Creamback. The creamback has an extended bottom end, but also higher power handling. Handy if you’re putting them in a 1x12 or 2x12 and have a bigger amp.
I’ve got to admit I’m biased due to the ongoing Taylor vs Maton vs Cole Clark feud I’ve been having with some mates over the years.
I love my Taylor 
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I love my Maton em225c. My wife bought it for me after my old Stella broke in 2001. Tried a Taylor at the Melbourne Guitar show this year and didn’t like it as much as the Maton Messiah.
Last year I bought a Gretsch 5655 which has generally been pretty good. My amp is a Mustang III v2 which I have a lot of fun with. I know a lot of people look down on digital amps but for my meager abilities it does the job well and sounds great under most circumstances.
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Which model?
Picked up the Cream Reverb 15 yesterday. Had a choice of a few grill cloth covers, liked this red and black one best 
I took the English made Creamback speaker over the Chinese Greenback but am able to swap over later if I want.
Love the reverb and also the tremolo, which is something I wasn’t really after but it seems so well integrated. Probably more a Fender sound compared with the Vox I parted with so will need to get used to that and might miss the Vox “chime” a little for a while, but what a great little Aussie hand built amp.
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Bump!
So it’s been 12 months since this thread was active - has everyone been playing?
I’ve been playing for almost 25 years now, I learnt from mates when I was on school, and we’d buy guitar mags and learn stuff or work out songs from the radio and then get together and teach each other. We were really into grunge but it didn’t matter if it was Sonny & Cher - as long as you could play it on guitar (elec, acoustic/classical/12 string) it didn’t matter.
A couple of my good friends were getting classical lessons a the time so they had some technical stuff to show me and lots of easy songs to get started. But mostly our weekends and parties and just hanging out were mainly passing guitars around showing each other what we’d learned or showing off new gear etc.
Anyway, this continued through Uni and into married life until I basically stopped seeing my old uni and school mates and then had kids and basically played occasionally but didn’t learn anything for about 5 years.
Anyway 12 months ago I picked it up again and started jamming on my Cort acoustic and my Samick Las Paul copy. My Peavey Rage amp was rooted so I went at bought a Fender GT40, and when my birthday came up I bought a nice and shiny grey-black PRS SE Custom 24 with split coils etc. Frigging loved it and was really getting into blues improve when one of my mates bought me a guitar lesson for my birthday to go with it.
So I went along and the teacher really wanted me practicing on my acoustic to improve finger strength etc and just so we could get more done in our lessons (less ■■■■ turning). So then for Xmas a went and got myself a nice Cole Clarke acoustic. Its all Blackwood, grand auditorium shape/size with cutaway. I think its the AN2EC-BLBL, and I’ve played it every day for the last year, and I’ve just completed a year of fortnightly lessons (@ the sprightly age of 40).
Some songs I’ve been taught (some of them I thought I knew but only a dumbed down or incorrect version, or only part of the way through, others I’d barely heard of) are : Californication, Blackbird, Tears In Heaven, Road Trippin’, Everlong, Yesterday (in DADGAD), Game of Thrones theme, Let Her Go, Hey Joe, Little Wing (Intro), Under The Bridge, Stairway to Heaven (was actually only learning this to practice hybrid picking only to realise I’d only ever bluffed my way through the song).
In that time I’ve also sprung for a mexican Tele which is the complete opposite of my PRS and perfect for just grabbing off the hook and playing unplugged while laying back on the couch (as well as getting all the different tones when plugged in).
Anyway, I’m loving playing and recommend anyone who feels a bit stagnant to try some lessons, it will help set goals and you’l be able to learn some things that would just be too hard if you were just staring at the tab by yourself.
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Had one of those CCs - they really are a nice guitar - you loving it?
Yum. Jealous.
A PRS will be my next, (and likely last) Guitar.
Fair bump! Just been having my occasional pick and strum as usual when I can find the time. I’m not inclined to take up proper lessons at this stage, but I have found some of the Youtube lessons for specific songs pretty good. Some also not so good, but that’s to be expected. I was watching a Dire Straits thing on Fox last week and I realised that I have a very similar picking style to MK (with less than half the talent), thumb and mostly 2 fingers, occasionally three. I started off using a pick, but just gradually gave it away and now when I occasionally give one a go again it just doesn’t feel right.
I did acquire another guitar since my last post - was given a Fender 12 string for my 50th birthday 
Seems very well made but needs some playing in and is a harsh reminder of how soft my fingers have become. Also bought an Electro-harmonix Soul Food Overdrive to play around with - first ‘transparent’ overdrive for me, does a pretty good job.
Will follow up with a pic or two.
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Haven’t been playing much last few months. Probably need a new axe to get me interested but just way too much cash going into other things right now. Maybe for my birthday next year…
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New guitars are great inspiration. One thing i love about mine is i tend to want to play different stuff depending on which one i pick up. Amd different effects make for good inspiration too.
Otherwise, for me, the best motivator is learning something you really want to learn, thats at an appropriate difficulty level. Too easy is boring, too hard to make progress is discouraging.
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