Leaderboard

Put it all back together, polished it up and it plays just fine. What a bargain

I don't think I've posted here before - I'm a member of basschat.co.uk, but after playing bass for decades, lately I've been singing and playing mandolin and octave mandolin. I don't actually play guitar, though I have a couple of guitar-shaped objects in my collection - an acoustic guitar bodied octave mandolin, and earlier this year a local guitar builder converted a copy of a Gibson SG to mandolin for me. I'm currently working towards a Rock School grade 2 acoustic guitar exam... with a mandolin!

Thinking that I ought to have a hollow bodied guitar for jazz I bought a Streamliner and have indeed given that Bigsby a wobble from time to time despite it being considered inappropriate within the genre.

I picked up a super cheap Ibanez S670 with a fake body for 1500RMB ten days ago and went about upgrading, fixing and customising it with chrome Gotoh hardware and Dimarzio Satriani signature pickups. I wanted to do a Chromeboy painted finish but it's not possible to do it well on wood bodies. The original Chromeboys had finish cracking and bubbling issues do to wood expanding and contracting with seasonal changes, the follow ups had bodies made of lucite not wood. So I did the next best thing - bought a load of mirror vinyl wrap online and found a friendly auto wrapping firm to do it for me after my own attempt failed miserably. The reflection isn't 100% sharp but only really noticable when you are standing closer than 5 meters. I'm planning on using the guitar for a show coming up on Jan 11. The good thing of vinyl over paint is that I can get it re wrapped if it starts to look a little worn.

Son(16) is a fan of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Cheap Squier Bullet Strat from Cash Converters and a Most-Marvelous Inter-Fret Job by @Andyjr1515 fella who sits (slumps!) at the bar in the BassChat Arms... (Blah! Blah! and Pics in a BassChat Tech&Repair post) https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/496955-microtonal-fretting-microwhat-but-sorry-not-on-a-bass/?do=findComment&comment=5264843 When 12TET and 20 or so frets just arn't enough... go 24TET and over 40 frets to play with!

Thanks everybody for your answers and contributions. Made some interesting reading, and some great model photos. Just before Christmas, I privately bought a Marshall amp. The owner asked if I would also take his old black and white Strat off his hands too for a meagre £30.... It was an exact double of the one in my original post with identical headstock and weight. Well...you can guess the rest! Cheers again for all of your input.

I think HB are great value guitars and worthy of modifying too...here is a Youtube video showing what I do to them:- Infinity Mirror Guitar v3 with hot rail pickup.

After a bit of work with fine wet and dry and a polish up with brasso, it transpires it's a Coxx Classix.

What a palava. OK so GC has been offline for a few days due to a mix-up in transfer of content from the old server (which was upgraded due to email notification issues on BC) to the new server. The old server subscription cancelled last week taking GC down with it. Then we had issues trying to get things set up on the new server. As you can see, we have managed to restore GC but the only back up on the old server was from January. Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry to any of you who had made the effort to post detailed or lengthy replies during that time, I've personally lost at least one lengthy post as well. If you need to flame, go ahead. We had to unravel a whole load of secondary issues to do with databases not working quite right, upgrades not installing quite correctly, DNS and nameservers not being what they should be. However, thankfully, we have made it through the other side and GC is faster and more stable than ever. I don't expect this perfect storm to happen again and thanks in advance for your patience and understanding.

Decided to get the Epi Les Paul 60’s Standard in Bourbon Burst I had looked at PRS but decided this is what I wanted. Out of the box the quality, setup was spot on and amazing for a £500 guitar. Sounds excellent and pickups are very good and sounds great clean and overdriven They have definitely improved since I owned an Epi Les Paul Plus Top Pro about 10 years ago this is as close to Gibson quality you can get without the price tag ! Awesome guitar

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.

Hi there! I just joined a new band called Sons of steel. This is one of our singles: Let me know your opinion about it. Thanks!!

This year a Joyo "Oxford Sound" pedal. So far I'm very pleased with it - lets me go straight into our PA without lugging an amp around.

To better appreciate this event, I would refer you to a previous post here, where the 'back story' is quite fully related, so doesn't need repeating here. Skip it if you're in a hurry, but you'll be missing out. Soooooo... I've just, in the past few days, taken delivery of a new (to me, but not quite...) guitar that has been on my 'bucket list' for over half a century. A fellow member of our sister site (Basschat...) passed me a link to a site where this quite rare guitar was for sale, in Sweden. After looking up my finances (it was not cheap...), I contacted the Seller I 'bit the bullet', and, after some tractation over acquisition of a hard case for shipping, it finally arrived, safe and sound, snuggling up nicely in a brand new case. 'OK', I hear you ask, 'but what guitar is it..?' You'll have guessed if you'd read the post in the link above; it's a Hofner President Thinline E2 Florentine, from the late '60s, the same model that I foolishly 'let go' in my stoopid youth. Yippee..! Here's the photos I hastily took as it arrived... Pleased..? You betcha; pleased as Punch. I'm now struggling to get back to where I was, all those decades ago, trying to play a chord-melody version of 'Misty'. By a horrible coincidence, I had trimmed my nails, on both hands, and will have to wait a while before playing that way, as I have done since year 'dot', with only fingers, so I'm struggling at the same time with the use of a plectrum. It's all good, though, albeit extremely slow going. I have a Chromebook for displaying a Pdf of the version I'm using (from a Sandy Sherman YouTube video; just about the best and most accessible I've seen...), but as soon as I think I've assimilated a few bars, I turn the page to continue, but have forgotten it when I turn back again. I'm using my usual method of learning the 'outro' first, so that I'll be working into 'known' territory as I move forward, but, for now (it's been only a few days, but...) I'm finding it quite a job remembering only these dozen or so bars. It'll come (it has to..!), and I find the neck of this guitar to be exactly fitted to how I play (perhaps 'muscle memory' from all that time ago, when I learnt on that first President...). Anyway, enough rambling; back to the Chromebook for another session. I'll see about better pictures if/when the weather picks up, for outdoors lighting. Bye for now... Douglas

When singing a melody through, in your head or out loud, try to pick out the highest and lowest notes, when you get to them. That's when to pick up the guitar and find those notes, and only those notes. That'll determine where on the fingerboard the rest of the melody lies, so, having established the extremes, now find the initial, starting note, keeping in mind these extremities. Does this help..?

If you can afford it and it will make you happy then do it. I personally am a tight arse and even if I could afford a Gibson (I can't) I'd never buy one because I'm a klutz and it would be an expensive thing for me to damage, same goes for a Ferarri, I'd have door pockets full of crisp packets and I'd no doubt kerb the wheels parking it.

There is a chap on Instagram named Ohms in Hawaii and he posts beautiful guitars on the beach like this photo: There are hundreds of posts just like this one, these photos really warmed my winter mornings.

What about selling it and buying a nice gift for the donor, or explain to him that you aren't getting on with it and ask if he would mind you selling it. You could offer him all or some of the money minus any expenses.

Here it is, about to get treated to a good clean and some new strings. Setup seems spot on but I’ll check it all and set the pick-up heights to suit. The overall finish is superb - not just for the price but for a guitar of any price. The binding is lovely and clean with no gaps or flaws that I can see and the fret ends are super smooth (the frets need a good polish though). It needs a good clean up and some oil on the fretboard and I may swap the volume and tone knobs for black ones at some point but I do think I’ve blagged a real bargain for once

Apologies for the two months absence - super busy with life stuff! I hope anyone who's still around from last year are keeping well & have had a good start to this year! On my front.. bad news is I didn't have time to record updates or really progress much through modules... However.. good news is I still managed to put in circa' one hour practice pretty much every day which has just helped me further cement the early foundational stuff as well as the new things learned in the first module of grade two, which I've now completed between the start of Jan & now... in the next module I'm about to start I (finally) start taking a first look at the F.

J. Bright, The Law Suit, late 1700s: There truly is nothing new under the sun...

We're stoked to announce that we've launched some new multipacks... https://www.rotosound.com/blog/product-news/new-rotosound-multipacks/ These offer our most popular sets in 3- and 10-set boxes for cost-saving and convenience. Starting from £21.95 for the triple pack and £69.95 for the ten-set multipack, they're available now from UK dealers!

If anyone is interested there’s a massive guitar, amp and music memorabilia auction on 10th June in Corsham, Wiltshire spanning 5 days. Imagine owning 500 guitars!! https://www.easyliveauction.com/catalogue/5abe5b32c7710c2b409b15545ad1d718/0af8d24542e81eb9357e7ef448a6646f/the-guitar-sale-five-day-auction-including-the-gordon-gi/?currentPage=1

Wouldn't surprise me. The older I get, the more I realise 99% of the electric guitar market is about selling branding an intangibles far over the actual, physical product. It does seem to vary by location, though: players in the US on average still seem to be much more likely to be emotionally invested in the idea that a guitar made in the USA *must* be superior, or is somehow otherwise "the real thing". Which I suppose shouldn't be surprising given that's where the electric guitar boom started, and so there's a sense of "loss" that those aren't dominant in the market any longer - as opposed to being "only" another import product as they are for us in the UK.

here is the current board with some diys and some stock pedals. More diys kicking about and more Boss to add on a new board for part of my rebuilding the rig of my youth

I’d love an L5, or an ES175 at a pinch, but I’m quite attached to my kidneys.

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I totally agree with this; my Takamine is fitted with these ... ... I have 'etching fingers', which rapidly turn steel or nickel-steel strings to red rust; these 80/20 bronze strings suit the guitar perfectly, with the added advantage of being the same gauge as my electrics and semi-acoustics, all fitted with nano-web sets. They last, for me, much longer than any other make of strings; I previously had to change in less than a year, but these were fitted over a year ago now, and are as good as when fitted, although I admit that I don't play my acoustic every day. It's a joy when one finds the right set for any guitar or bass; I'd even extend this to establishing the best heads for an acoustic drum set..! I used Remo Ambassador heads for decades, but the later choice of Evans Genera and G2 heads made a world of difference..!

If, as you say, it's minimal, I wouldn't worry about it at all. There are many guitars (even acoustics...) that are not symmetrically balanced anyway, so even if the wall mount was 'plumb', the weight could well be offset. I've never heard of a guitar neck being affected by being hung this way; they are pretty solidly constructed. If it's only an aesthetic thing, I'd leave it alone. It would be possible to redress things a little, without taking the wall mount down, by winding a piece of cloth onto one side of the mount, as packing, to have the guitar 'plumb'; I'd surely not bother. Hope this helps.

I'm not sure that there are any guitars that are excluded from playing 'metal', but if I take that to mean roughly Strat-shape, with a pointy headstock, I'd start by looking at the Thomann B-stock offers. 'B-stock' means that someone ordered one, then sent it back, normally, but they are perfectly sound, and carry the same guarantee as others. It's a way of getting a bit off the price. Here's a link to some I'd suggest fall into your criteria (between £200-£300...)... Thomann 'Bargain' ST-type guitars, with no vibrato, UK prices ... Feel free to play around with the filters on the left, to see what else is on offer. There's nothing wrong with Tele-style, Les Paul-style, SG-style etc guitars either for metal (maybe avoid archtop though, as a beginner...). All of these guitars hold their tuning, and can be used in any style, including metal, of course. There are many other suppliers than Thomann, but this is an easy way to see and compare what's on the market, from the comfort of one's own home. Nothing beats trying out various instruments at a music shop, once one has an initial idea of what to try out. My personal choice would be a Squire Affinity Tele Deluxe (I prefer humbuckers...), like this one ... Thomann Squire Affinity Deluxe ... ... or this one ... Thomann Harley Benton Fusion T-HH ... Spoilt for choice, now, eh..?

SRV by Eric Johnson. Took a me ages to get the main parts down and I don’t have the chops to nail the main solo. Still revisit it occasionally, which then becomes also a feat of memory, as alluded to by @Dad3353.

It’s been a progression really, so I’ll list them as they came into my consciousness. Les Paul - I was raised with Les in the house, the sound of guitar, front and centre was different from everything else. Hank Marvin - The Shadows were on my turntable a lot with records that I’d inherited, guitar front and centre again. Crosby Stills Nash & Young - The live album, 4 Way Street, made want to learn to play. Eric Clapton - Hearing Layla for the first time was a ‘wow’ moment, I wanted to play like that. I became the biggest fanboy, but can’t stand him now Paul Kossoff & Santana - I didn’t have fast chops and these guys showed that note choice and feel were just as important and I could actually play their lines (at least I thought I could). Eric Johnson - The master of electric tone IMO, I can’t play or sound like him, but still my favourite player. Carl Verheyen - Introduced me to playing bigger intervals for solo breaks, pulled me out of the typical, pentatonic rut. Brian Setzer - I was asked to join a rockabilly band, so started to listen to Brian, completely changed my style. These days, I’m more into rhythm playing and guys like Cory Wong and John Mayer for their rhythm chops are more my thing. As I play mainly acoustic now, I’m also developing a better appreciation for Jimmy Page’s acoustic playing (I think he plays electric like he’s falling downstairs, too messy).

Taking up any musical instrument is a permanent learning journey, there’s always something new to take on board, be it a scale, chord, technique , whatever. However, as Dad says, it should be enjoyable. When I first picked up the guitar as a youngster, I was taught some chords and I had a book or two, but what I did most of all was learn tunes that I liked and wanted to play and I didn’t get too bogged down with scales and theory. This may not have been the wisest course with regard to musical proficiency but, 50 years on, I’m still playing and playing tunes that give me pleasure, not what some book, course or latest internet craze tells me to. What makes you smile, when you’re playing? Do that more and the other things you want to learn, but give you trouble at the moment, will become easier. You may not ever perfect everything to your personal standards (who does?), but you will perfect some things and that’s not bad.

Spend your money on lessons? If you become a better player, the difference in tone is only audible in back to back testing by musicians. Everyone else is just listening to the notes.

you might call me Fender Fluid lol

I'd have to have friends and the ability to socialise to do that also frustratingly I can't drive which limits my location options a bit. This is something that makes me want to find people I can play with, support, encouragement, and some accountability to keep practising when I want to give up. I think that is something that would really help me. This gives me pause for thought. I do have a few physical restrictions that I've taken into account, but keep thinking I might be able to overcome to a degree. I've never really thought about not trying to play in every style. I kinda felt that in order to be good and happy with what I can do, I'd have to be good at every style and know all techniques, etc and not just a few. @Dad3353 I'm having weekly lessons and he is a good tutor, teaches in schools, which probably helps him deal with me as I have the intelligence of a small child. He has played professionally in the past. The last two lessons I've bought up that I'm getting worse and struggling more and he had noticed so we went through some different bands that I like to find songs that I may enjoy learning and I was given the tab for them to practice. I've also download yousician in the hope it will give me a bit more structure to my practice. Thank you for the help and for taking the time to read through my post. I really do appreciate it.

Everything that @Dad3353 says above. It happens to everyone, whatever their skill level. Sometime, just taking a week off really helps. For some reason the brain digests everything when you aren't even playing and suddenly you make a jump forward without even realising it.

You give no inkling as to time scale here; are we talking days, weeks, months, years..? 'Plateauing' is a well-known phenomena in the learning process (not just instruments; it occurs in many other fields...). How to avoid it..? Difficult. What to do..? Work through it. For how long..? No idea, as it varies even for oneself. One or two tips, however... 1 - Practice little and often, rather than super-long sessions. Two bouts of fifteen minutes each, per day, are worth more than any two-hour stint. 2 - Little..? Did I say 'little'..? OK, but regularly. This is key; every day, with no exceptions. 3 - Start again: Pick up your very first method book, or first lesson notes, or whatever you started out with. Go through it, from the beginning, as if you're starting again. Do the exercises diligently (no cheating..!); it'll get you back, rapidly, to where you are now plus a bit more. 4 - Pick up your instrument as a 'leftie' (or 'rightie', if you play 'leftie'...); that how it felt when you began, and shows that progress has, indeed, been made. 5 - A bit more difficult, but essential... Arm yourself with a big bucket of Patience; all players, at all levels, need this, and need to fill it up regularly. Learning is a Long Game, and never finished. Just when you think you know it all, you realise that you don't. This is Normal. 6 - Set yourself achievable goals (targets...). A song to learn, a technique to attempt, a genre to bring on board... Give yourself a decent time scale for it, and add it to your practice schedule. Go through the basics, go through your next lessons, then have a go towards this target. Every day in short sessions, going back now and again over older stuff. It'll work; we've all been there. Now for my tried and tested 'words of encouragement'... 'It's the first forty years that are the hardest, after which things sometimes tend to get slightly better.'

I bought myself a semi acoustic Ibanez Atcore to get the "in between" sound that I like. It also has the vibrato arm if you want a bit of shimmy. I love it but my better half doesn't as she can hear me practise, even when I'm wearing headphones (obvious to guitarists but not to her indoors who thinks that headphones should eliminate all the guitar "noise"!) I also got a Nu-x Mighty Plug headphone amp which can be used with any electric guitar to add effects and power wired headphones, earbuds and a small powered or battery amp/speaker such as the Marshall MS-2C. There is an app called Mightier that upgrades the Nu-x for use with a bluetooth phone for allsorts of tuneable effects.

Just as an update after pricing up the different options. I have decided to just leave it alone and not improve (butcher) a nice guitar just for the sake of it. I will clean the pots and sell it as is to let someone else enjoy it. I will buy a gift for my benefactor and get another guitar with the money, which will then hold a more emotional attachment and something I would actually play. Maybe I will go looking for a new acoustic or even a tele with humbuckers (heresy)... who knows.

Some of the Guitars cluttering up the house...

GAS is a cruel mistress, but she's a lot of fun

Well, that went to plan. Not. I was all set to get me a nice little Revstar when our local guitar shop advertised a new (well, NOS strictly speaking) Cort CR250 for £299. Other than being a bit dusty and needing some new strings (thrown in as part of the deal), it’s immaculate. Nice weight (well under the weight of a Gibson LP), beautifully made and sounds epic. It’s now mine. I still want a Revstar, mind.

That is a Fazley Midas FLP318GT. Fazley is Bax Music's own in-house brand of guitars; they are pretty decent guitars for the money, and that one sounds great. Mahogany body and neck, poplar fretboard. I was considering swapping the P90s on it when I ordered it, but when I plugged it in, the P90s surprised me with how good they sounded, so they are staying. I will be putting some Grover tuners on it though and I might stick some upgraded wiring, pots and switches in, but for the moment it's doing okay as it came.. Considering they are 143 quid new (I paid a 126 quid for that one because it had a minor blemish on it), you can't really go wrong with them. I paid a ton for a second-hand plywood Columbus Les Paul copy with a bolt-on neck nearly forty years ago, so it just goes to show how far we've come these days in terms of bang for your buck. :

A few tips that I may adopt for my playing/practice I think! It's good to see others progress and to be able to see that I am not alone and am having the same progress and struggles as others. @ShawnE thanks for sharing your progress it is inspiring and encouraging. Alan

Good evening, Shawn... Good to see these videos continuing, and your progress, too. Well done, for both; neither are simple. A couple of remarks, if I may..? I see you naming the notes as you play them; try to sing the note at its proper pitch as you name them, so that you're singing 'E', 'F', 'G' etc at the same time as playing the note. It will help train you ear to hear notes in pitch for years to come. No great singing voice needed, just get the pitch right, corresponding to the note you're naming and playing. It will become easy and instinctive very quickly, although the first sessions may not feel comfortable. Try it for a couple of weeks, maybe, to see..? Next remark : when strumming the 'big G' chord then the 'D' chord, try not to play the lower 'E' string with the 'D' chord. That note ('E'...) does not belong in the 'D' chord. An option is to try to 'mute' the lower 'E' string, but it's best if you can train your right hand to only play relevant strings. Just a thought, something to have a look at and be aware of, that's all. Lastly : with those oddly-named 'stuck' chords, it's less important to memorise the names (although that's useful, too...) than to listen to, and understand, what's actually happening. You're playing the 'G' on the lower 'E' string, then a 'C' on the 'A' string, followed by a 'B', then the open 'A'. The overall effect is a descending sequence of notes; if each resulting chord has to be named, it's always possible with all of these '#', 'sus', '11' etc, but the musical reason, and the important bit, is the descending line, not the chord names. Just sayin'; don't get hung up on the names, just listen to what the notes you're playing sound like as you play them. Again, you're doing fine, but be sure to hear the music you're playing as well as the technique. Oh, yes, there is another thing... Listen to the Pink Floyd track a few times played by the maestro, and play along to it, you'll find that your timing is slightly 'off'. The single notes are fine, followed by a little shorter 'strum' than you're playing. Just a detail that listening to the original will sort out. There, that's enough abject criticism from me; now go an make a good pot of tea. You've earned it. Good Stuff, keep on keeping one; meanwhile... Have a wonderful day. Douglas

A present for myself : a piezo_pre-amp kit to install into my acoustic (holes to be cut into the sides, and the capteur to be fitted under the bridge...). I'll then be able to record without recourse to a mic.

i used one continuous oak board (easy cuts) to make this: lots of sanding, some stain, etc. I used the scraps to create supports for the bottom side (given the stomping): i used a 1 3/8" hole saw to cut an opening for wires. i then took that plug and split it in half to make posts, to wrap the excess wire: on the underside, i used wire ties, tacked into the wood, to secure the power lines: in the far corner above, you can see i velcroed the transformer onto the underside. then, velcro on the top, and on the pedals, and a $6 leather handle: then, rubber feet on the bottom, and wire it all together. PS this is not representative of my pedal setup, this is just for testing! i'll post the actual rig soon. it's made it through 6 gigs. hopefully more to come (we have about a dozen lined up!). what i'd change- it doesnt stand on it's side, probably because of how heavy pedals are. to put a stand plate on one side would mess with the aesthetic. what i'm thinking of adding- maybe a shoulder strap so i can make one trip from the car to the studio. i can send plans if anyone wants.