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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.

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.

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.

Good evening, @danhkr, and ... ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

I had a block that was non-magnetic so it wasn't steel. not sure what it was but it sounded good, only after researching did i find out it didn't have a steel block and I added one. I did notice a bit of a brigther sound, but nothing drastic and it didn't change the voice of the guitar too much but it was an improvent to my ears

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

Basically the same principle as those Steve Vai Ibanezes - the Floral Gem, I think was the name? At least I'm sure I remember reading that's how they were done in the 90s. Facking LOVE this build, though. If young Robert Cray had had this to bash those vamps with in Sinners, he'd have walked away with a lot more than just a guitar neck in his hand.... @Dolando, are you building these for sale, or just a one-of? It's a stunning piece. I'd love to see one in a black guard on black body with red and ivory pinstriping...

OK, well now I am tempted to try another...the Behringer does the job, but I wonder if a more faithful Big Muff clone might be closer to what I'm after!

Behringer can be fun. I like my Centaur! I know OP's request is sorted, but for anyone else looking for ideas, I'd also suggest Mosky, particularly the Big Fuzz: They have quite a few fuzz pedals, but this one would be my pick as it offers a couple of different runs at the obvious Big Muff sound (which went through several generations each having their own thing). Edited to add: it comes it at about forty quid as of November 2025, widely available on eBay, Amazon, and the rest.

Off the top of my head, Keef, Dylan when he's in that mode, Joe Strummer, Johnny Ramone, Elvis.

IIRC the two jack sockets are for if you are hooking up another cab (I could be way off base here and I’m more than happy to be corrected by those who know better/for sure). However, just plug the micro amp into either socket, you’ll be fine.

Good evening, @Iain Douglas, and ... ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

Been modding my Strat recently, thought I’d share in case helpful… First off - as I’ve not got the best technique, and don’t play that often, I was sometimes hitting the selector switch and volume knob, which is a nightmare for recording. So I took out one of the tone controls, and now have one volume and one tone and a nice gap where the original placed volume knob was, and the ‘F’ from a Lindy Fralin sticker to cover the hole. The switch was easier, just gave it a bend to stop me knocking it Next up - put in a ‘Gilmour Switch’, the best thing for me being you can have the neck and bridge pups on together, almost like a Tele. You can also have all 3 pups on together. Very simple mod if you can solder. That with a new bridge pup (Dimarzio FS-1) and I think my ‘61 AVRI2 is doing good

This might be the crux of Behringers defence. If Klon haven't been selling them and making profit, Behringer might say how can Klon claim damages when they haven't been losing money...and the Behringer circuit is in all likelihood an emulation rather than a copy knowing that timbre can't really be copyrighted or trademarked. In the PRS vs Gibson battle, Gibson's case hinged on there being the potential for confusion between the PRS single cut and Gibson LPs which didn't really stand up to the scrutiny that was eventually applied. Klon's lawyers may come back and say 'copyright or trademark infringement' based on the potential for confusion (depending on what is actually registered as a trademark) Or get a Digitech Bad Monkey :lol: Yeah I went there.

Have you ever thought of taking the Fusion to a guitar tech to set up? Maybe they can get the neck closer to the way you want it. I'm surprised that the AS53 doesn't stay in tune. I have an AS73 and it stays in tune pretty well - just the occasional slight tweak needed. I would imagine it has the same hardware as the AS53.

OK I think I've reached the end of the road with this one. Or at least I've gone as far as I can... The Ernie Ball VP Jr arrived and works great although there isn't enough space on the already quite generous pedal board for it. Over the weekend, I also discovered someone selling Eventide Pitchfactor for about 230 quid online and so pulled the trigger because it does Eventide Harmoniser detune. So that has replaced the TC Electronic 3rd Dimension. And a second Pigtronix Echolution arrived as well but I may have actually over cooked it a little because just one can handle stereo AND both the RV500 reverb AND the pitchfactor have delay as well...hmmm. Slight buyers remorse perhaps. The only thing left in the set up is another pair of Loudster power amps which I'm in no hurry to buy right now given the Marshall power amp does the job adequately for practice purposes. I'll post a pic of the actual pedalboard once I've finished the re-wiring. Now I should probably go and learn some songs...

Thank you! From what I had read 1:18 seemed to be what I thought I would need, but I don’t know what the ratio of the current tuners are, and my muggy head didn’t think of simply doing what you suggest… So now I have a place to start with the tuners. As for gilding the lily, I’m doing it because I like doing it. It won’t cost me much. I think the pickup set is less than £30. I can’t remember what the switch costs. I have everything else already. It’d be nice to have a humbucker as the bridge pickup, being able to split it should, I hope, mean I get to keep the Telecaster twang. I like the idea of the versatility. Being able to go from playing Reba McEntire to Metallica (or, more lately, Rocky Horror Picture Show tunes) without having to change guitar, would be handy!

A bit late I know but .. just add more bass to your guitar tone and dismiss the need for bass completely! Works for some modern bands today

Eeps. Be interesting to hear what it sounded like.... if he'd played it anyhow and it had sounded good, the web wold be full or people arguing about how best to melt the wax in your pickups, and what tonal difference it made to do it with them still in the guitar, whether to let the wax stay on the sound board because mojo tonez....

That looks great. Gordon Smith make superb guitars; I owned a single pickup Gypsy many moons ago, an absolute Gibson Junior killer.

Hey thanks for the info, and as you say, a nice project. I've been slowly removing the paint with fine wet and dry and it is woirking. I'll report back when I have it finished.

@Kiwi I only saw your comment just now, apologies. In the end I got a Vox MVX150C1; this is great, other than being a bit heavier than I'd like.

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.

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.

It is often a good idea to replace the wiring at the same time, but not a necessity. Keeping the wiring installed shows you where to solder the connections, and to be honest, investing another £50 of wiring and pots into a budget guitar means you will have spent more than the guitar is worth. If you do go for it I would suggest getting a new scratchplate and just wire the new bits all onto a new plate. Then you can remove it and replace the original one when you sell the guitar and upgrade to a new one.

Best and certainly cheapest option would be the Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz, which is a shade north of twenty quid new, or about fifteen quid used (and there are a lot of them about). Like many Behringer pedals, it's essentially a copy of a Boss pedal, in this case their FZ2 Hyper Fuzz, which being discontinued, is hard to find in good nick for less than three hundred quid. The Boss FZ2 is sort of a copy of the Univox Super Fuzz, and an original one of those would be hard to find in good nick for much less than a grand. So, for the price of a round of drinks in a pub, you can get that classic Hendrix Univox Fuzz and the Big Muff sound as well as more subtle overdrive and level increases with the Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz. Thus you can get more modern tones such as Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins etc as well as that Sixties and Seventies stuff by changine the modes and tweaking the control knobs. A lot of people get hung up on Behringer pedals being housed in ABS rather than metal cases, but don't let that put you off, ABS is very tough; you'd have to be a right lead-footed clumsy git to ever break a Behringer pedal case (and even if you could manage to do so, you've broken a twenty quid pedal), which is why I'm happy to have four of the nine pedals on my board be Behringer ones, because they are decent, reliable and as noted, most of them are basically knock offs of Boss pedal circuits with a few additional whistles and bells added, but for considerably less dosh. Although the sounds out of the SF300 are good and very versatile, it does have one slight downside compared to the Boss Hyper Fuzz, and that's the control knobs, which are a tad smaller than those on the Boss and a bit more closely grouped together, but they kind of had to do that becuse the SF300 has an additional three-position mode select switch which gives you a choice of Fuzz 1, Fuzz 2 and Boost, making it a bit more versatile than the Boss. The Boost means you can sort of use it as an overdrive-ish type of pedal as well, so it can even be a bit Klon-ish. However, be aware that the size of the knobs makes it perhaps less than ideal in a gig situation for quick changes on the fly on a dark stage mid-song, but if you are happy to set and forget it for each tune and either kick it on or off as needed, it's not really a major issue, and for 'bedroom' playing or home studio use, this is a non-issue. So for twenty-odd quid, you really can't go wrong with something offering you all those options in one pedal.

I drink tea, we've been drinking tea in the family since before I was born. There is a sort of ritual to making a pot of tea, with the goal, every time, to be able to drink what we call a 'magic cuppa'. How does one create this delight..? I don't know (I wish I did..!). Our tea is excellent, and litres of it are drunk daily, but only once in a while does a 'magic cuppa' appear. Is it the water..? The 'standing' time..? The temperature of the mug..? A combination of dozens of subtle factors..? It's wonderful when one comes along; all the more so for it being a surprise. Why do I relate this..? I rather think that, with music in general, and guitars in particular, there's similar 'magic' at work. Why is it suddenly 'there'..? Again, I wish I knew. I'm of the opinion that these maestros that play so well have, each in their own way, 'cracked' the code, and are able to (most of the time...) bring out this 'magic'. How to acquire this skill..? Maybe it's in one's DNA, maybe one has to sacrifice black goats on mountain tops at midnight, maybe ... If you enjoy trying, carry on with your researches and experiments, but it's not given to everyone to have all the abilities in all domains. Keep cracking on with what you succeed in, too; there's doubtless at least some 'magic' in your other guitars that needs to be brought forth. Your call.

Never used one, but for solely rhythm work, I think it’d work rather well. There must be a reasonably priced clone to make giving one a go not too onerous.