New User in Colorado

[ThePearDream]

Hi everyone, my name is Doug. I've been lurking around here for quite a while and decided to finally set up an account.
So, a little about myself...
I started playing guitar when I was 16, with a Samick Abilene Strat copy (I still have the body in a beater guitar). The first few years I had lots of time, but no money.
When I was 20 I joined the Army. I did five years as a SIGINT Analyst, with a year in Afghanistan. During that period, I had lots of money, but no time.
I was able to build up a respectable collection - lots of strats, MIJ Jazzmaster, a second Talman, a Breedlove, etc.
After getting out of the Army, I went to college on the GI Bill, so I had neither time, nor money. I decided to give up guitar to concentrate on school, and slowly sold off most of my gear to pay for tuition and rent. I only kept a a parts strat and my two Talmans and only played those 1-2 times a year. I got a Poli-Sci degree, realized I hated it, then got an Interior Design degree. Now, I work as an Interior Designer and am finally making a decent living again.
About two years ago, I realized that I really missed the guitar and I finally had both time and money!
So, over the last two years I've quickly built my collection back up (a bit too quickly for my wife).

I have a fair amount of experience with wood working and finishing and have a decent selection of tools.
So, I should have some (hopefully) interesting projects to share with the community in the future.

Here's my current gear
Offsets:
1995 Ibanez Talman TC420 - Metallic Red w/ pearl pg
1996 Ibanez Talman TC630 - Metallic Blue, matching headstock w/ pearl pg
2015 Ibanez Talman TM302 - heavily modified - Ivory w/ red pearl pg
2015 Squier VM Jazzmaster - Sonic Blue w/ parchment pg
2015 Squier VM Jaguar - AV65's & Staytrem - Olympic White w/ parchment pg
2017 Squier VM Jaguar Bass Special SS - black w/ tortoise pg
GFS Jazz style with strat trem & gold foil pickups - black w/ black pg

Others:
Strat with 1986 MIJ neck, 2015 MIM body & Squire CV50s - OTM w/ parchment pg
2016 Squier CV60s - BMM w/ parchment pg
2015 Squier VM Strat with TexMex - CFM w/ tortoise pickguard
Parts strat with lipstick pickups - Surf Green w/ pearl pg
Beater strat style parts monster, HSS - Sherwood Green w/ parchment pg
Parts Tele, P90 neck - Gold flake w/ black pg

Vox AV30

[ThePearDream]

Thought this would be a good time to test out posting an image.
Here is my heavily modified Talman reissue. This is the Tele variant with a mustang trem added and a red pearl pickguard that I cut. The neck and bridge pickups go to the blade switch and the slider selects between the blade switch output and/or the center pickup. I did a custom pu cover for the center pu from the pickguard material. I'm not digging the clash between the chrome bridge and nickel control plate, so I have a new chrome control plate coming any day now.

[losmarvins]

Wow! That Talman is gorgeous. Love the looks. Got any sounclips? And does the muestang trem work well with the guitar?
Anyway, welcome!

[ThePearDream]

Thanks! No soundclips right now. I'm actually not feeling the Strat type pickups that are in there now and am mostly using the middle (Buddha jazzmaster style with A3). The mustang trem works great though. Between a setup guide from this site and the stock locking tuners, the tuning is very stable. The trem sounds great and is lots of fun.

I may do a short build thread on this one and do a comparison between my two originals and this reissue.