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Nice! I've recently had an urge to try some LPs again. Fortunately, I've managed to resist - so far. Right then, guitar sorted, what are you looking at amp-wise?* *Be aware that I am an inveterate facilitator, who likes to live vicariously through other people's GAS.

Well that all worked out exactly as planned. Oh hang on. No it didn’t. I went to the shop yesterday, fully intending to buy an Ibanez AR520. I tried it and very nice it was too. Problem was, the “hollow” bit doesn’t really make a massive amount of difference other than making it lighter. So, I looked at the AS range which then got me looking at Eastman semi-hollows which then got me thinking that I might as well look at Epiphone ESes which then brought a nice Les Paul into my eyeline and I remembered that one of my favourite guitars was a Les Paul Studio that I traded about ten years ago and always regretted it and I’ve had other LPs since but none of them were as good as that Studio and why would that be? And I worked out that, compared to other LPs, I liked the pickups and the shorter-than-fender scale length and the chambered body and the lack of binding and what I hated about the Traditional that I’d had was the pig-iron weight of the thing and the fussiness of the binding and the robot tuner nonsense and the thick gloss finish….. so I forgot all about the semi-hollow thing and started looking at Studios but they don’t do the plain dark wood one any more but then I spotted this…. Satin finish, no binding, medium output pickups, light weight and - to my eyes, a very nice honeyburst colour. Basically my old Les Paul Studio but in a lighter colour. Sadly, by this time I’d moved along the row, away from the Epiphones and the headstocks had changed; There among the dozens of mega-bucks Les Pauls was this. The Tribute. And it is, to me, the perfect Les Paul. Build quality is really, really good, the weight is ideal, it’s aesthetically pleasing, it plays beautifully and it sounds awesome. And at just under a grand, not the silly money that Gibson usually ask for. Gas has now shifted to amps….

Hi all, I’d been on the lookout for a back up acoustic guitar to my well gigged Crafter GE-7 which has been my only gig-worthy acoustic for the last 20 years (fingers crossed it hasn’t let me down yet). Wasn't looking to spend big bucks on a spare. But spotted this rather lovely guitar for sale locally for £40 including a stand! It’s a 2006 Yamaha FG512SJ - from what I can tell these were made in Taiwan for the Japanese market. It needed a bit of TLC (a loose machine head and missing it’s endpin, a replacement for which is in the post at the moment) and benefited from a good clean and a restring but wow it’s great! Like a good Yamaha acoustic, it’s loud, bright and very easy to play. I’m on the lookout for a sound hole pickup now to make it giggable and very much looking forward to how it sounds onstage (I had a fairly basic Fishman pickup many years ago which I suspect got sold with its host guitar at the time. Bummer. Will keep looking.) I love a good instrument even more when it’s something cheap and cheerful that punches above its weight!

They stock them at Gear4music in York I think (you're Hull based...?), you just need to ring them with a day or twos notice to make sure they've got one on the showroom floor. The stock on their website is for online sales, so could be in their York shed or their European one.

When I bought my Fender Superchamp, it was toss up between that and the Roland Blues Cube. Given that I’ve subsequently had a little valve problem (the amp, not my waterworks, than you very much) and that the Fender is now discontinued, I rather wish I’d gone for Roland. A chunk of change more that the Boss, but a great amp, although it only has reverb IIRC. The Katana seems to be very highly thought of; probably the way to go.

Great to see Richard Thompson get a mention.

If I had to pick 3 guitarists... Today's would be: Donald Roeser aka Buck Dharma, Johnny Marr, Jonny Greenwood. With the following honourable mentions: Wilko Johnson, Mick Green, Peter Green, Nick Drake, Richard Thompson, John McGeoch, Ed O'Brien....

The pre-amp in the guitar is switched on by the insertion of the jack plug, The jack socket uses the barrel of the jack plug as a shorting circuit which bridges the sleeve and the ring, allowing the battery to feed power to the pre-amp. Remove the jack plug and this short no longer exists, so the pre-amp no longer receives voltage, and the battery can rest until the next time. If the jack is left too long in the socket, the battery is drained, which is why one has to unplug the jack when putting the guitar away. There is no good reason that I can think of for using stereo (RTS...) jacks for guitar or bass, and for those with a pre-amp (your electro-acoustic...), this switching function is defeated, as there is no short-circuit created between the sleeve and the ring. Use a mono jack, as one should with all guitars and basses, and all will be well. You've just been lucky so far that stereo jacks work at all, as they are far from optimum in mono jack sockets. Hope this helps. Douglas