Congrats! It sounds like you made a great choice. I'm glad to hear you did test out other models before you picked "the one".

Jay Frisby - Palmer, Alaska www.myspace.com/jayfrisby

Steph, I am the self proclaimed king of the professional quality "budget friendly" guitar. There are lots to choose from. You could find a great guitar from either company but the requirement is that you play several of them and select the best PLAYING one from the bunch. I lucked out on my Highway One Strat; the only one in the store but it had the mojo. Oppositely, my Baja Tele and LP Special came to me because I had played just about everything in the shop before I stumbled upon each of them including multiple of that model.

It sounds like you may have selected those two particular guitars primarily on looks, which in my experience won't bring you as much satisfaction as selecting an instrument based off of playability and sound.

That being said, I feel like you stand a better chance of getting a quality instrument by going with the PRS but Epiphone is capable of putting out a great guitar too. It should all come down to which one inspires you more.

Jay Frisby - Palmer, Alaska www.myspace.com/jayfrisby

While I have seen some substantially more involved rigs than yours, It is still a rather long signal chain. Do you ever find yourself wanting to trim the hardware down and get back to the basics?

My setup is fairly simple: VHT Valvulator II > BBE The Wah > Electro-Harmonix Soul Preacher > Keeley DS-1 > Xotix BB Preamp > Denelectro Cool Cat Fuzz > Mesa-Boogie Express 5:50 > Moen Shaky Jimmi > Visual Sound H2O > Boss DD-5 > Ernie Ball Volume.

I find myself wanting to cut most of the effects chain and a little bit of the pre-amplifier section. Most of what is there is true-bypass and I use the line driver to make up for what isn't. I even use strictly George-L's cable and after all that there is still a bit more magic when I go into the amp with one driver and put one delay in the effects chain.

Did you go through similar internal conflict before you found a good compromise between versatility and tone?

Jay Frisby - Palmer, Alaska www.myspace.com/jayfrisby

http://www.tdpri.com/ is a great site if you want info about fender guitars.

Jay Frisby - Palmer, Alaska www.myspace.com/jayfrisby

(continued)

Ever since I picked up the guitar I have been involved with a guitar forum, mainly guitar.com (before it was sold and ruined) and Jemsite.com. I credit a lot of my progress and almost all of my technical/set-up/repair knowledge to the fine people who took the time to give advice or write “how to” guides. I would love to see this place become a Christian oriented version of that, with a twist. Obviously the twist being the creation and support of someone we all admire and respect.

(And I promise, I am not trying to hi-jack your blog. I work on Alaska’s North Slope and have a lot of spare time on my hands in the evenings)

Jay Frisby - Palmer, Alaska www.myspace.com/jayfrisby

No worries. We all wish we were as busy as you living the life of a famous musician. I don't think anyone here would blame you for taking a hiatus when needed.

Obviously you are the reason people come to this website; if we just wanted to talk about guitars I'm sure we would all end up at any of the other numerous guitar forums on the web.

That being said, I personally feel it would pay greater respect to (what I perceived as) your intention for this website if the conversation was carried on and the learning continued while you weren't able to post new blogs.

(To be continued)

I agree, it was a good interview and you did do a good job. On a more concerning note, am I the only person in the world still interested in this website? Either I arrived a week too late or the rest of the community just isn’t carrying on any conversation without Mark around?

Please, if you are out there, let me know I'm not alone!

Sorry Folks, I forgot to sign in before i posted that.

Jay Frisby - Palmer, Alaska www.myspace.com/jayfrisby (free music, give it a listen)

I would have to go with my Highway1 strat. It has an odd assortment of upgrades and modifications but she is a killer. in current form she has a set of Fralin Blues Specials, Sperzel locking tuners, a Callaham vintage tremolo (which ended up getting blocked with a piece of Brazilian cherry) and a wiring modification which allows me to turn the bridge pickup on in any switch position. I can get the neck and bridge pickups in series, middle and bridge in series or all 3 pickups at once in addition to the normal options. It sounds fantastic.

A single coil guitar? Doesn’t sound very versatile but I find that with the right settings on the rig behind the guitar, single coils are just as big and bad as humbuckers. In fact, I am having the P-90s in my LP special replaced with 5% under wound’s because the P-90s have too much out put when I have my amp and effects set for my strat and tele. Am I getting off topic now?

Jay Frisby - Palmer Alaska www.myspace.com/jayfrisby

While I am by no means a professional guitarist, I have been playing in churches and Christian bands for the last 8 years. I too share a general lack of dedication towards practice. I hope this blog will help inspire me to get more serious about it. I find my truest inspiration and most honed ability when I am in the presence of God, and I love the dependency that brings me. But on the other hand God has given me a gift to be able to use these hands to make music and I shouldn't treat it like a casual hobby.

I was lucky (blessed) enough to have a guitar teacher who taught me how to play the GUITAR and make music rather than the norm. The norm is to teach kids the chords to a few songs, then sight read and maybe learn a couple of scales. Thus far I have gotten by on my ear and ability to improvise but if I dedicated myself to improving my skills, the music I could make to glorify the Lord would only be that much better.

I will work on a training schedule; something close to what I used to do years ago when I had fantastic chops; and post a comment on Marks next blog about his routine.

Jay Frisby - Palmer Alaska www.myspace.com/jayfrisby