Leaderboard

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

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.

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.

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.

Pool gigs. All the cool kids are doing them. In other news, aren't phone keyboards crap and too small?

I concur with the advice above : one speaker cable with a 1/4 mono jack at each end is all that's required. It can be plugged into either of the cab sockets; these are doubled up to give the option of linking to a second cab, if desired. This is called 'daisy-chaining'. Probably moot in your case, but one should be aware that the total impedance of cabs connected in this way must not be below the minimum impedance of the amp. Two 8Ohm cabs connected in this 'daisy-chain' fashion would present a 4Ohm load to the amp. If the amp supports this, all well and good. If not, expect costly 'magic smoke'. The 'Baby Bomb' pedal amp, for instance, will not support two such cabs (the output socket is labelled : 8-16 Ohms...), but your single cab should be fine. Ignore, then, the second cab socket. Hope this helps.

PRS SE of almost any description although my personal preference is the hollowbody first followed by the Swamp Ash HSH. Having said that, when I fancy a new guitar, I make one. This might sound like a dream but its happened every year for the last few years now as I've developed confidence and a couple of them are REALLY good. However I'm now caught between running out of space and not wanting to sell any. Honourable mention for the Ibanez AWD83T, amazing guitar for the price used. One of those gems that deserves more recognition once the neck pickup has been swapped out for one from the more modern Artcore range.

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.

So... My Thomann box arrived a couple of weeks ago. Got around to opening it today. And looky what we have here...

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

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

PRS SE CE24

I think Behringer just got a little too close to the original design. I am very much a fan of Behringer, by the way. I ordered mine from Anderton’s, as it was the only place that had them in stock, two days before the lawsuit was announced. I told my wife that they would start being worth more because of the lawsuit, and the lack of stock in many places (Anderton’s were the only ones that had them in stock and not back order) but that was to justify buying it… I had no idea that the prices really were going up. Maybe I should have ordered two? I certainly won’t be selling mine, it’s a excellent pedal. I suppose, what I could do, is build my own (which had always been the plan before the Behringer came out and all the massively positive reviews for it), and if it’s close enough, I could sell the Behringer.

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 )

They don't really unless they're just playing one bands songs e.g ACDC. Nothing wrong with SS amps though, the Peavey Bandit 112 has been a long held secret find and they're still available for peanuts. The Yamaha G series designed by Paul Rivera was one attempt at including a parametric eq on a guitar amp to help emulate different responses. But perhaps something ahead of it's time as well. The UK's own Session amps were well regarded even if the owner did occasionally go on anti-valve rants. Plus...with modellers or profilers becoming more popular, pedal board amps are experiencing some popularity now with any players who want to stay with traditional cabs.

Thanks fo the advice. I'll check out somewhere to take it in Manchester when I'm back from hols and get it checked out and set up. Hopefully it's something simple. Thanks again

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.

You can't go far wrong with an Ibanez, whatever the price point, and this model has an excellent reputation, especially as a starter guitar. There are many models on the market in this range of prices; this Ibanez has nothing to fear from such rivalry. A matt black finish may be subject to marks from use, rather more than a gloss finish, but that's about the only remark not in its favour. Ignore the 'hype', for this and any other that piques your interest, and try it out yourself. You're not likely to be disappointed. Hope this helps.

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.

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 ".

I haven't used those particular DI boxes before but I have used others and have and use several Zoom recorders for different applications. The H8 wouldn't be my choice for multitrack recording, it is more of a compact field recorder to capture band recordings, podcasting away from your desk etc. But it will do the job fine as long as you don't need the extra functionality. If you are at your desk, just use it as an audio interface and make all the corrections and parameters in your DAW. But I don't think you will need to run the DI at all, you should be able to plug straight into the combo jack, they are meant for guitar level signals and have switchable Hi-Z. Should be no problem if you have an onboard preamp or powered pickup. If it is just a passive pickup then you are still be able to plug in if you increase the gain enough but accept that there will be additional noise. There isn't a massive amount of EQ etc in the Zooms themselves so if you don't want to export into computer then your editing options are limited (not always a bad thing!) so you want as good a signal as possible going in. My own solution is to get an old Zoom 504ii acoustic effects box off eBay for like £25 and use that to boost and modify the signal as best I can before it gets to the recorder and ignore the PC until final mastering.

This involves hammering, pulling off, using hand repositioning while using open strings to ring before repositioning hands and fingers. I leave the fingerings up to each person who tries it. Please, enjoy !!!!

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.

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.

It's worth exploring 2 widely used open tunings: DADF#AD - basically an E Maj open tuning but a whole tone down. I think Joni Mitchell used that quite a bit. The other obvious is DADGAD and Tony McManus is an exponent - he has some vids on Youtube and explains the whole thing very well. I've personally found some care in choice of strings / gauges is important as dropping a whole tone on the low E (for example) it can easily become sloppy. I suspect the devotees have guitars set aside and set-up for the above tunings. I recommend Tony McManus 'Introduction to DADGAD' on YT (YT prevents me from embedding that vid here, but it's easy to find). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl9q6dFOpA4

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.

The pictures don't do it justice. The guitar looks impressive out of the box. The fender pre-wired pickguard looks amazing I have to say, it's creamy, not white, which will match everything better with a more pronounced vintage vibe. Colour scheme apart, the guitar is actually very good, above my expectations. The only real problem is that the pocket won't fit the neck like a glove. The neck was out of alignment by a couple of mms and I had to fix that, relying on my eyes and the distance of the strings from the edge of the neck. Question: is the loose pocket a big critical issue? However, half of the Strat pocket is not even there by design hence the pocket will never hold the neck very tight and always have to rely on the bolts. Also I went mad today and I took the guitar apart to the smallest screw to rebuild it tomorrow. It's an ugly duck in need of love but all in all it's a very solid purchase, with lots and potential and most importantly I love it very much. Anyway I will go through all of this when I write my review. The tremolo is set from factory not to work (so they can save time in balancing it with the strings etc) and the electronics were very noisy. More to come on HB... stay tuned.