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I had a 3 way one of those in my Tele. They are horrible, not only in working out the connections, but in general operation. I just replaced it with a decent, open design switch. If your friend is unwilling to spend a few quid on a decent selector, try some Google images for what wire goes where. Sorry, best I can do.

Hello chaps. A friend has asked me to fit some pickups on his cheapo strat. He had a pop first, but let’s just say it didn’t go very well. He’s under the illusion that I will fare better. The guitar is fitted with a cheap looking 5 way switch, the likes of which I cannot locate a wiring diagram for. Does anyone recognise it? Or have a wiring diagram for it? Or even a method for determining what wire goes where with a multimeter? Thank you in advance!

Long shot, but does anyone else here play upside down? No, not by physically being upside down, that would be madness, I mean a right-handed instrument flipped over because you're left-handed? Like most leftys, I first toyed with rightys belonging to friends but, instead of doing the probably sensible thing and getting a left-handed guitar, I just continued playing with the thickest E string nearer my toes and always have done. I have a few left-handed guitars now but I have to restring them which involves a lot of mucking about with the bridge for intonation purposes and changing the nut around, but it does give me ease of access to the highest frets as I don't have cutaway issues that I have with rightys. I don't think playing this way has caused me too many problems; I've mainly been a barre chord/power chord thrasher who has managed to get along with playing quite straightforward minor pentatonic solos and the like, though there are a couple of techniques that I've struggled with. I don't know if that's down to being an upside downer or just my general clumsiness

I haven’t lived in London for some time, so can’t help with a tutor.

Good evening, @Gcsltmc, and ... ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share. I can't help with your request (I'm in France...), but others will be along, so... Watch this space.

Anyone know any guitar teachers in the Bethnal Green area of east London and how much I should expect to pay for an hours lesson?

The marketing strategy / campaigns, the artificial status that is perpetrated on all media. Seems to manipulate people in excess and impulsiveness. "If you don't have the latest, something is wrong with you", mentality, like a fashion trend. 13 years ago, Eleven Rack units were the rage and going for a high price, now you can get them all day long for under $ 200.00 U.S. Dollars , all day long. As my Father used to say, " Headline News today, under the bird cage tomorrow ".

Good evening, @cyman1964ukg, and ... ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share. Simon... It's actually a lot more simple than you're making it, and you're very nearly 'there' with your current reflections in chord construction. The only issue is that you're looking for a 'mathematical' 'logic' that just is not there (and doesn't need to be...). Your starting point of creating with 'triads' (alternate notes of the scale...) works well for Major and Minor chords, and only needs extending a touch by adding the next 'alternate' note to the triad to get the Major 7th and Minor 7th chords. It's easy to visualise on a piano keyboard, adding the 'B' to the 'C' chord (the one below the octave 'C'...) creates the CMaj7 chord. This is consistant when doing the same to the 'DMin' chord (add the next alternate note, ie: the octave 'C'...) and you're crated the DMin7 chord. Continue for each diatonic note of the 'C Major' scale, using alternate notes from the scale, and you've got most of the chords needed for many, many songs. If we 'break' this chord system, and use a flattened '7th' (ie: 'Bb' instead of 'B'...) we get a chord which, when played, has a sonic tendency to want to 'resolve' to the CMajor, which is why it takes the name 'Dominant'. That Bb is not in the C major scale, but as it's a very powerful sounding chord, it has it's place in so many songs, from cowboy campfire songs to much early Bob Dylan stuff. It's a staple in the chord Pantheon. However, the chord naming of 'C7' tricks us into assuming that it's got a '7th' in it. It has not; it's a flattened 7th..! It's only through historical usage that the chords have these names, not 'logic', so get used to it..! As for extending further these chords, we are simply adding another alternate note from the diatonic scale, so, for the 'C' scale, adding a 'D' above the octave gives us a 9th', adding an 'F' is an 11th, then adding the 'A' is a 13th. No point adding further, as we'd only be repeating the notes we started with, but two octaves up. With these 'extended' chords, many other nots would be left out (usually the 5th and 7th...), as too many notes spoil the broth become muddy. I wouldn't worry about 'modes' for a while; they are not really 'mainstream', so get the basics down 'pat' before following down that rabbit hole. Interesting as it is, there's much more practical stuff to assimilate without delving further into It. Hope this helps. Douglas

Hi there, This is my first post here, so please be gentle with me. OK, so I have been playing on and off for decades (40 years), but I would say I am pretty much still a beginner, at best an intermediate player. I was originally self-taught and only got to sonngs involving strumming chords, although I longed to be able to improvise like some of my friends could. So, in these early days (my teens), I knew chords such as A, C, D, E, F, G, Am, Bm, Dm, Em, A7, B7, D7, E7, G7. Whilst I understood the happy/sad difference between major and minor chords, I had no idea that there was a specific, consistent 'rule' (i.e. in this case 'flatten the third') connecting the major and minor chords. I didn't even realise that these chords were made up of 3 notes! It was a total parrot-fashion learning experience for me. I knew then that the chord 'Cmaj' was often abbreviated to just C. Now, zoom forward to today, and I know that major triad chords are actually created using notes 1-3-5 of the major scale and notes 1-3-5 of the minor scale are used for the minor scale (moreover, that this is equivalent of the 1-b3-5 notes of the major scale). However, the terminology used in the naming of these chords now has me utterly confused. Where Cmaj is the same as C, Cmaj7 is not the same as C7. Instead, the seventh chord with no major or minor indicated (e,g, C7) is called the dominant 7th. So, instead, there are these relationships: Cmaj : 1 - 3 - 5 (also known simply as C) Cm: 1 - b3 - 5 Cmaj7: 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 C7: 1 - 3 - 5 - b7 (also known as C dominant 7th) Cm7: 1 - b3 - 5 - b7 And this is just the first few chords!!! I suppose if we never refer to the chord C as just 'C', but always call it 'Cmaj', we could write these out as follows: Cmaj : 1 - 3 - 5 (only ever referred to as Cmaj) Cmaj7: 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 Cm: 1 - b3 - 5 Cm7: 1 - b3 - 5 - b7 C7: 1 - 3 - 5 - b7 (also known as C dominant 7th) I'm not too sure I'm putting my point across too well here, but I am trying to find a 'system' of my own which gets me out of the confusion in the bold font above. Now consider the tons of other terms, like diminished, augmented, suspended, never mind the other 'number terms', like 6th, 9th, add9, 11th, 13th, 7th flat 9, 7th sharp 9, etc and it all becomes a minefield!!! I mean, are we supposed to know what a 'dominant 7th' sounds like and how it differs from a 'major 7th'? That concludes my question about terminology. What I meant by formulas is where can I find a complete list of formulas for all these different chord types? These could be expressed as 1-3-5 (note numbers), C-E-G (key of C. note names), and even as 2W-WH (intervals in terms of Whole and Half Steps). What I meant by MORE formulas is where can I find a complete list of formulas for all the different scale types and modes? Again, the Major scale could be writted as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, for Cmajor scale CDEFGAB(C), and in intervals as W-W-H-W-W-W-H. Indeed, are there only formulas for chords and scales? Are there other formula that are important to know? And no, I don't mean relatively complicated formulae that related string mass thickness and tension to frequency, but rather the stuff we need to know as aspiring guitar players. I suspect that I am overthinking all this, but I feel that a solid understanding of the underlying theory of music, which I wish I had known years ago, helps with one's own playing. Recently, I considered buying various wall-charts showing chord diagrams, scales, circle of 5ths, etc, but I was surprised to find comments by buyers claiming that these were erroneous! So, my question on the formulas is can anyone here please recommend a good (highly regarded and accurate) book which would have all the formulas for chords and scales (and other?) collected in one place? If you have read all this, thanks for your time. I appreciate any responses that I might receive. Cheers, Simon.

70448601 made USA Gibson Les paul. Anyone know how old. I think maybe 2010.

Decided to get the Marshall Origin 20 head and matching 212A cab Very impressed as a pedal platform amp Using a Boss SD-1 in front results in great 70’s AC / DC tones at lower volumes for home use

Excellent !

As Kiwi says, if you’re going for a trad, bolt on Tele, any tech can put one together for you, in fact, you could do it yourself if you have any DIY skills and just have final set up done by a tech (fret levelling, etc), this is pretty much what I did with my Tele: Squier neck & tuners; bound body from a UK supplier; DiMarzio pickups with the voicing I was looking for (DiMarzio were brilliant with their recommendations); Hipshot bridge; various other spares I had laying around. Everyone who plays it is blown away by the playability and tone (I was very lucky with the Classic Vibe neck).

Pretty much every UK luthier can make a tele. They are the simplest popular guitar to construct. Most of the sound comes from the pickups so body woods can be anything from pine to ash. Just choose one closest to you, pre-purchase the neck and pickups and get him to make a body to suit.

On Saturday we had a work party where we provided the entertainment. About six weeks ago I rounded up a bunch of colleagues and proposed we do a song together. Below is the result: 52fb7b34b4790dbaf517c3d5cce802d3.mp4 It was my first time performing on guitar and I used the instrument mentioned here: All sorts of technical issues that I won't bore everyone with but the band had no right sounding as good as this recording suggests. I originally rehearsed with a 4U rack containing my beloved Triaxis and MPXG2 into a Marshall 20/20. But there were 60Hz hum and phasing issues so I swapped the rack for a Kemper and used a profile of the Triaxis instead with only marginal improvement (no more phasing). The Kemper went into two Hotone Loudster Class D power amps sat on a pair of Joyo 1x12 cabs loaded with Celestion Neo Creambacks. The speakers struggled to disperse, but this shouldn't have been too much of an issue if we had been given PA support. Unfortunately the video stops just before I move up front for the solo guitar breaks. I did the thing though - one foot on the monitor. No hair in the wind unfortunately.

The was a 7” single that came with some guitars bought from catalogs like Kay’s and Littlewoods ect. I think it was titled “Gary and friends”….and it was basically a fictional recording of a new band tracking a song in the studio…bit by bit, doing overdubs, hearing the producer asking for thongs from the band….i think the b side was the completed song……it was hugely inspiring for me in 1980 as but was in a band, but yet to record…. it may have come with a CMI precision bass….not 100% sure.. does anyone remember it? Or better still, have a copy?

Ah yes, I see. You could use a multi DI such as the Behringer Ultra DI800 as that would give 8 DI inputs and 8 balanced XLR outputs into the H8. A much cheaper option than changing your interface.

Hi. I'm thinking about getting a telecaster made for me aka Nacho etc. I've been looking for someone in the UK but the choices seem pretty slim. Can anyone recommend a UK maker?

Hi! I'm looking for a BC Rich Mockingbird NJ series in white with a Kahler tremolo, or a one with a Quadmatics bridge. It can be also any other white Mockingbird from the 80s or 90s. Let me know if you know anyone who would have a one for sale. Dream one would be the one on the photo.

Good evening, @XinDi-WaRRior, and ... ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share. We, on this Forum, have all, without exception, started from the same 'zero' baseline, so we know where you're coming from. We all learn differently, with differing objectives and time constraints, but it is 'easy' for no-one. There is no secret that the best way to get started is with a one-to-one guitar tutor, even if it's only for a few lessons, as this paves the way to setting realistic, obtainable objectives with the right techniques. One essential, for any beginner, is to obtain a large supply of Patience, and keep it topped up at all times. One learns in stages, and there will be moments when progress seems slow, or even regression. This is normal; there will also be 'light-bulb' moments when things become blindingly clear, and one realises that progress has, indeed, been made. I'll end with my usual 'words of encouragement' ... It's the first forty years that are the most difficult, after which things sometimes tend to get slightly easier.

Hello I’m Simon, 51 from the Southwest of the Uk and a complete noob with guitars and have a love hate relationship with my guitars. I started practicing in December 23 so just over a year, self taught using Justin Guitar app and have reached the end of Level 1 of the beginners course (3 levels in beginner) I know probably 8 chords and the sticky 3,4s they use a lot for Oasis songs. I am currently learning songs, about 4/5 I am trying to improve on but it’s slow, I enjoy everything about Guitars, their history, watching videos online about how it all started, brands, woods used and the difference in sound all the while knowing every guitar is unique whatever it’s composition. Strumming is my issue, up strums mainly, the sound rubbish to my ear. Ive been playing Mad World, Get Lucky by Daft Punk, Songbird by Oasis, Stand by me and although it’s a bit beyond my level , Wonderwall as it trains my little finger (ouch) I guess I’ve been at this part of my journey for several months now with little movement although I’ve just started to learn One by U2 Ive reverted to mainly downstroke at the moment to try and simplify my learning routine. I also do a couple of basic starter scales, platonic or something it s called lol. Anyway I’ve been looking for fresh inspiration and perhaps some pointers, I have found pointers given to me by Facebook groups utterly complicated and just no help at all. I used to love forums and the slower pace, so fingers crossed. BTW I have bad GAS, perhaps I could get to the stage where I know more songs the guitars I own………Yup I am blessed to own two electrics and erm…..many acoustics which range from a project 1940s German parlour through to a 2023 Taylor…….. look forward to being part of the community I have questions galore Simon aka XinDi (had the online name since music sharing groups back in the early 2000s and it’s stuck )

Manhã de Carnaval (Black Orpheus) is often played in slow bossa nova. I wanted make solo version of this song with little bit more groove in the rhythm. I've played this for some times in my gigs and added more improvised solo parts to it. I think it works nicely and it's fun to play. Video Tabs Cheers, Mikko

Big Trouble from Steve Vai, when he was David Lee Roth's guitarist. If you have a bunch of CD's, this device can let you slow down the music with out affecting the pitch and you can add a footswitch to backup the song , 5 seconds maximum to go over and over, until you get it right.