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

Quick update to say I pulled the trigger on the Thinline Godin. It's new, coming from the States and even with delivery and taxes will be £300 cheaper than the best price I could find in the UK!

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.

Coming from the light side (basschat) and after having a friend of a friend show me how to get the most from my hx stomp, the other week I picked up an electric to try and learn… it’s from 1990 weighs less than 3kg and has switches on both knobs that makes it sound different- learning needs to happen !

Hi! It seems I joined a while ago but forgot. I started playing guyitar when I was in my teens back in the early/mid 70s the moved to bass. Now bandless on bass, I am about to pick up a guitar again for the first time in many years and have a few questions. I have had a Mexican Fender Telecaster for some years, stashed away in its case, and just recently bought one of these for a few quid at a bootsale which now sports a Tonerider PAF pickup and some new tuners. Hope to find answers to questions!

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

I missed the electro bit Yamaha Music London do the FX310A for £235

Yes to both, not helped by intermittent focus in my eyesight and a reluctance to take my reading glasses everywhere in case it brings on mid life crisis.

Or are your fingers too big?

I blame the advent of GPS. ...

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!

Hah! Lucky I'd just swallowed my tea when I got to "Rickenwaffe" - not heard that one before! Yeah, they are more on the ball than anyone I've ever seen about their marks. Ric copies of any serious closeness only exist in Japan that I've ever seen... the very occasional one on ebay disappears almost immediately. I'd love a Ric solod body - a 4003 bass even moreso, but I'm resigned to the fact I'll never be able to afford one (and even then I'd struggle to justify the spend, tbh). Part of me wishes they'd do a diffusion line, A Rickensquierphone. They'd surely sell well, given their absolute nixing of the market for any other options if it's a Ric you want. (The Harely Benton options are about the only ones I've seen, and they're so deviated from the original - even if nice instruments in their own right.... you'll not see a Beatles tribute act playing them the way I've seen them use a Squier to recreate Rocky, let's put it that way...). Another part of me rather respects Ric for deciding they're happy as they are rather than just chasing the lifestyle brand market, or otherwise squeezing their property for every last penny. It was a remarkably late registration attempt by Fender - real stable door / bolted horse stuff. Trademarking a shape wasn't an issue for them in 1951 -or 1954 - as it wasn't until 1960 that you could trademark a shape in US law. The first registered US trademark shape was the Coca Cola bottle, a shape they'd been using since 1916, so I doubt Fender would have had any trouble registering The Tele, Strat, and other shapes then. As memory serves they had the foresight to at least trademark the shape of their headstocks, though.... Similarly, they were behind the curve in the UK as well, where shape-based trademarks became an option under the Trade Marks Act 1994. Gibson seem to have been more effective here, though from my casual awareness of their legal efforts (not least the PRS case), most of their real protection falls in the zone of lawfare.... i.e. Gibson can afford to spend a lot more than most of those they go after, and fighting a lawsuit will most of the time be far more expensive than just tweaking your design a little to make it go away. Smoke and mirrors to some extent once you see the eminently sensible decision by the Appeal court in Gibson v PRS.

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

And it's done. Had to do a lot of routing to get the bridge located properly including plugging and redrilling one bridge post 1mm further way. The wiring was a challenge, I spent three days of eliminating possible causes to arrive at only one conclusion, the pickup selector switch was faulty. My midboost preamp didn't work and I wasn't going to spend a week trying to troubleshoot it, so I bought one only to discover that the guy who build it didn't include separate earth and -9v wires. So had to jury rig something up to provide the output socket with an earth connection, the boost is definitely warm but it lacks the glassiness I expected. So I have on order a genuine Demester Fat Boost (Tyler style) and at some point I will probably wire the switches so they are series, phase and parallel. Although they were fiddly to solder as well. However, after a fret levelling and proper set up, it plays very nicely and has more sustain than my other two strats. I have no idea why. It's quite a warm and loud sounding guitar as well acoustically. More aging is needed on the sides and back but I have other things to attend to in advance of being in the UK next month.

A common mistake is for folk to stick to the minor pentatonic when improvising, whether the key or chord is major or minor. Try and make sure you’re complimenting the chord by emphasising the 3rd note. A lot of players tend to play through the scales from one end to the other. Stand out from the crowd by making some interesting, intervalic jumps (Carl Verheyen is the king of this, check him out). Don’t be in a hurry to show your chops too early, build to a crescendo and release (the solo from Stairway is a great example of this).

Or, pretty much, exactly the same.

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.

I am a musician and teacher based on the west coast of Ireland. I teach online lessons across Ireland, the UK and the rest of Europe. I play electric, Acoustic and Spanish guitar in a variety of styles. My influences are diverse, from Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd to John Williams, SRV, Rory Gallagher and Tommy Emmanuel. Music was my 2nd love, but it's the one that never left me. (a good line for a blues).

Steady on, it's not like some of them need extra reasons to slap a premium on a five quid set of parts.

Gordon Smith, although better known for their Gibson types, also do a very nice Tele - https://www.gordonsmithguitars.com/shop/stock-guitars/blaggards/ TBH, though, I'm not sure that's how I would go. Clearly you're not looking for a more affordable alternative to Fender's US or CS ranges if you're thinking of spending that sort of custom money anyhow. Now, this is only a personal opinion, but.... for me it would depend a lot on what you want. A tele is such a utilitarian design that if what you want is the standard set-up Tele, it seems to me madness to spend custom-built money on it. If that's the only way - you want something really offbeat like the Jack White signature, or a Trussant Steelcaster, or you have an original 52 that you want to clone so you can leave the vintage piece at home and play a facsimilie out.... then, sure. But if what you want is "just" a Tele, it seems to be it's hard to justify spending vast sums on it.... I'd buy whatever MIM / Tokai / whatever you like and maybe rewired if you want, or track down a CIJ Fender that's good to go as is. (IMO, the top end Japanese Fenders are as good as anything form the US, typically wired the same with the same specs, and usually cheaper - nut much harder to find.) Unless you want something that's just not available otherwise, imo having a custom built Tele is a bit like having a Saville Row tailor copy a pair of 501s for you. They'll be an exquisite example, but....

Many thanks for the feedback both. Seems that what I want to achieve isn't quite in the remit of my amp. I might just go back to my comfort zone of 90s solid state.

In the end I was able to bag a nice Japanese Fender, which is now having some work done on it.

For that, you'd want one of those Janie Hendrix endorsed Jimi Hendrix Epiphone Stratalikes. They're super rare - and if you've ever seen one, you'll know why.

If the nine figure lottery win ever came in, I'd order my dream trat from the Custom Shop, certainly.... but only if Fender agreed to put a Squier logo on it, because that would amuse me no end.

Looks like a nice bit of kit. Hope you have fun learning on it!

At least it wasn’t a bass, where that sort of thing can be a real bash to the wallet. You can still use those strings of course (if you can stop that slippage), you’ll just have to put up with poor intonation on the G string. That said, I’d just bite the bullet and get some acoustic strings, your ears will thank you.

It would help explain that scene in Spinal Tap, though.

Hi everyone! We've just announced a big change to our electric and acoustic guitar string packaging, so wanted to share the news and get your feedback. Please reply with any thoughts you have! Rotosound Unveils Bold New Packaging for Guitar String Lines Redesigned packs bring clarity, colour, and heritage to the forefront Iconic British string manufacturer Rotosound is proud to reveal a fresh redesign of its electric and acoustic guitar string packaging. The new look delivers a clean, modern feel while paying tribute to the brand’s rich legacy of serving music’s rebels, rule-breakers, and pioneers. Rolling out this month with the Rotos product line, the updated packaging will appear across other lines in the coming months. At the heart of the redesign is a celebration of Rotosound’s storied heritage. Created in-house using the company’s own archives of catalogues, advertisements, and vintage string packs, the artwork draws directly from designs dating back to the 1960s. For example, the Jumbo King, Tru Bronze, and Super Bronze sets repurpose graphics directly from one of the company’s earliest string packs. The aesthetic also draws inspiration from the visual language of early British rock and punk — including album art from Decca Records and the use of bold typography — connecting the new look to a lineage that includes The Who, Pink Floyd, The Clash, and The Damned. Function Meets Familiarity with a Splash of Colour One of the key goals behind the packaging refresh was to improve product differentiation. Previously, many Rotosound string sets shared a similar visual identity, making it hard to distinguish between different lines — for instance, a regular gauge nickel set like Roto Yellows and an acoustic Tru Bronze set. The new designs give each line a unique visual identity, making it easy for players to find exactly what they need at a glance. Despite the fresh appearance, brand familiarity has been carefully preserved. Longtime Rotosound users will recognise the brand logo, gauge information, and key descriptors in their familiar positions. The British flag still adorns each pack — now in a clearer, refined form — representing the company’s proud tradition of UK manufacturing since 1958. Still using airtight foil pouches — containing the strings, a silica gel sachet, and nothing else — Rotosound’s packaging remains one of the industry’s most eco-friendly, with 90% less packaging material than other packing methods. To further streamline the experience, gauge-specific colour coding now links sets across different lines. For example, all 10–46 gauge sets, regardless of series, share a yellow theme; 9–42 sets are pink. Notably, packaging for the acoustic sets now match the colour of the string material itself, allowing players to connect what's on the outside with what they’ll find inside. Designed with Players in Mind Rotosound consulted players and retailers to better understand what information was most valuable on the shelf. The result is a dedicated product information box, placed uniformly across the new packs, which makes it easier to compare materials, instruments, and tonal profiles. Short, descriptive summaries have been added to help players understand each line’s sonic characteristics, whether they’re chasing warmth, brightness, or vintage feel. New endorsees have also been added to Rotosound’s impressive artist roster of legendary and contemporary acts — from Jimi Hendrix to Blur, AC/DC to Idles. Last but not least, a QR code on the back of each pack links to extended product details, recycling advice, and GPSR compliance information, giving players more insight — and more options — than ever before. Rolling Out from the Factory to the World The new packaging is shipping now, beginning with the Rotos line. Other sets — including British Steels, Jumbo King, Tru Bronze, and more — will update gradually as retailers replenish their stock. Players around the globe can expect to see both old and new designs side-by-side on the shelves of Rotosound’s dealers across the world during this transition period. About Rotosound Since 1958, Rotosound has proudly manufactured music strings in the UK, becoming a name synonymous with tone, quality, and innovation. A favourite of legends past and present, Rotosound continues to power the music of tomorrow with strings crafted for players who dare to be different.

I’m a huge fan of Behringer, but I sent my Hellbabe straight back. Unfortunately it seemed to suffer every malady that got brought up in all the bad reviews. A real shame. I ended up with a Joyo pedal and it’s really good. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B085PXY3L2

Thanks, I'll check them out!

The guitarist in my band bought an Ibanez that he'd been looking out for after I passed the link to the auction on and I bought a six-string fretless bass (for just under the lower estimate). Postage isn't cheap (about £50 IIRC) and I went down to pick up the bass, and collected his guitar while I was at it. Buyer's premium was around 25%. With a seller's premium of about the same, the buyer pays around double what the seller receives, which puts Ebay's buyer fee in perspective. There were quite a few 12-strings, which makes a change. I am a bit tempted by the idea of a 12-string solid-body but managed to resist. The guitar: The bass:

I use a Seymour Duncan 'semi' super switch, I can change position 3 from middle pickup to bridge and neck.

All change again !! I've been trying out the Hotone Ampero products, surprisingly very good !!

Yep! Therein lie the important chord tones, which will add flavour to your soloing.

It’s odd, I’ve always hated the look of Telecasters. I went into the local shop looking for a Stratocaster, preferably white with a maple fretboard. They had three that matched and all were between £100 and £150, which was fine because I am no guitarist… £360 later, I came out with one of these: And I love it! Not enough to leave it alone, though. I’ve already changed the bridge saddles to Gotoh, brass, compensated barrels. Which I think look a bit nicer.

It's fascinating how commonly cloned the Klon is, down to its legendary status. Any number of them out there, really. I got an email in yesterday telling me my pedal from Thomann is now on the way - we'll see if it's the original version or something new. I kinda wish I had ordered a few now! According to online reports, this is the new version (which may be what I'll receive): https://guitarbomb.com/behringer-rebrands-klon-clone-centara-overdrive/ Same housing, slight change of name and logo. It strikes me with some amusement that if this doesn't settle the lawsuit, this could become an even rarer version (maybe we should bot order more of them.... if I had an original couple of Klons now, I'd be selling them to buy a Gretsch!). Legalities aside, it still feels to me that Klon are taking the piss suing over an albeit very close lookalike of a pedal they've declined to put on the market for seventeen odd years....

I have the Silver Horse and would recommend it for anyone wanting an alternative boost to a TS. However I'm using an old Xotic AC Booster for that function these days, there's slightly more harmonic saturation available.

Lovely job on that. You clearly had the patience to go gently with the clean-up, especially on the headstock, and it has paid dividends.

Haha, will do

This looks to be a 335 copy, fitted with Artec 'filtertron-type' pick-ups. Probably a little more 'chimey' than standard humbuckers; not particularly outrageous as a choice. Your ears will judge. You may find some info inside the body, using a dentist's mirror or such; sometimes there are maker's marks or pencilled information. Worth a look..? To strip the paint from the headstock, the simplest way is to rub it down with sandpaper. You could, of course, merely paint over it, if it's the finish you want to change. There's unlikely to be any info beneath the paint; this was probably, originally, just a cheap copy from the Far East, or maybe bought as a kit. Worth spending some time on, but not worth spending too much money on. A nice project, and a Good Find.

Hey, Sorry for the late reply on this. This in on my ESP which is a Strat style body so I would say yes it would fit, no modifications were needed to fit it however I did have to remove the trem setter and change the tension spring setup. These are heavy tension springs, nothing special, as I remember they are original Fender springs. I haven't really noticed any tonal change as I have 2 shit ears thanks year of playing far too loud !! but I would think that because of the extra mass and more direct body contact that there would be more sustain. It's certainly easier to adjust and simply looks a lot better than the original claw and screw setup. It was a bit pricey though at around £70 but in my opinion worth the money.

Just kidding, we’re just not like that here. After 25 years in office tech and all that binary ones and zeroes, it’s either right or wrong baloney, I know it isn’t actually like that. S**t happens, normally for no good reason. Good to have GC back. Sorry about the conflagration at the beginning of this post, please accept this for balance -

I see I haven’t posted here since 2023 when I put up my Taylor 12 string which I have since sold. Replaced with a Taylor Grand Pacific 517e Builders Edition. Matt finish wild honey burst.

Just thought of Robin Ford - Fender Espirit ( although these days sometimes a Tele or PRS)

I have friends that bought some Mosky overdrives and they're good. But I can only attest to owning the Mosky Pure Buffer and it's a good buffer, so good that I moved my two VHT Valvulator 1's to my rack. My friend bought the Golden Horsie and it is just as good.

Looks beautiful! (The Hofner, not the delivery guy)...

I'm not sure that it's as simple as all that. The neck profile is a factor, I'd agree, but comfort, playability, 'feel' and more are also major factors, and the real solution when choosing on such criteria is to try them out yourself. Not easy, I'm aware, but if it's so important to you, you'll avoid an awful lot of disappointment (and financial loss...) if you 'try before you buy'. I realise that this is difficult when deciding on a used instrument several hundred miles away, but them's the breaks, I'm afraid. Another option (one I adopted many decades ago...) is to not be fussy about such things, and adapt to whatever comes into your hands. I've several guitars and basses, acoustic and electric; I don't even think about profiles and such; I just play 'em. OK, not very well, but that's not the point. It has certainly made choosing instruments so much easier..! Hope this helps (but that seems unlikely ...).