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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!

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...

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

Despite JH Skewes being somewhere in the process of potentially being wound up if they can't find a buyer (perf the wishes of the late John Hornby Skewes himself), they have gone ahead with the launch of their pedal range, all available here: https://ivormairants.co.uk/collections/vintage-effects-pedals I'm waiting for payday to pick up one of the delay pedals for a slapback echo effect. A naughty part of me, though, is sorely tempted to buy a tremolo, a reverb, a fuzz and maybe a nice overdrive as well to create an all-one-brand board. Madness, obvs, but ....

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.

Blinding call on the exact same Godin that I have but just Thinline... now to find a 'used' one!

What a cracking little unit! I've not fiddled with it exhaustively but it is not overly complicated by any means. Intuitive controls mean it will be easy to change the presets to the tones I am looking for. Straight into my RCF ART 372A, which is what I have been using for my bass. £38!! How is this even possible? Anyone want to buy a Fender G-Dec 30? I'll stick it in the classifieds soon.

Phase I instigated, just bought one of these. Looks just about as simple as can be and can't go wrong for under £40. I can't imagine taking my guitar playing on the road so just for home use. Nevertheless I have been using one of their wireless jobbies for gigging/rehearsing for 18 months or so and it has behaved faultlessly.

Hi Paul!

That's my new plan! Perfect, thank you.

Thanks Douglas.

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

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.

A common issue; one usual 'solution' is to tune down a tone, and use a capo on the second fret. This reduces string tension, so less pull on the belly.

I bought the Classic Vibe 50s Tele many years ago. All that remains of the original beast are, the neck and hardware, neck plate, control plate and scratch plate, although that’s been modded to accept the new neck pickup. The old body has become a small table and the old hardware is cluttering up a cupboard. Can’t help on the tuner ratio thing I’m afraid.

UPDATE: my Behringer SF300 has arrived. Does the job just nicely! Really useful having the three modes, too: I can see myself using the more "vintage" sound of Fuzz 1 the most, but the scuzzier tone from Fuzz 2 has been quite fun to play with so far. Popping the guitar into drop D with Fuzz 2 certainly gives a nice All Them Witches-type vibe! Thanks again for the recommendation!

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.

Here’s a few builds I’m working on at the moment……….

I'm sure there's probably some way of doing it; probably involving soaking the teatowel in epoxy resin or something like that.

Red-check gingham..?

Monty’s pickup has arrived… All parcels should arrive like this!

Here’s some new builds I’ve been working on recently…..

The Rotta T is coming along nicely….. I grain filled the headstock and fretboard black so I’m going to do the back and the rest of the neck after I’ve shaped it…..