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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.

Hi,everyone, I'm new to the site so thanks for having me,my wife made me join so I bore someone else,Sorry.

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.

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.

Thanks Douglas.

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.

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.

Have you looked into... https://www.submarinepickup.com/collections/frontpage/products/the-submarine Haven't tried these myself, but I have seen fingerstyle guitarists with far more expensive versions of this solution! The idea is that you can position this to pick up your bottom two strings, and send that signal out to a bass amp or suitable effect/preamp/etc.

Thanks, I'll check them out!

That's where I'd start. Seems a good idea to see if that one can be perfected first rather than going to the expense of another. Particularly given that buying from a brand with a traditional wholesale-retail business model is likely to end up with needing to pay about double what the HB cost to get something of an equivalent quality.

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

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.

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....

What it says on the label. I'm interested in what other folks want in an amp of any sort that isn't on the market yet (no reason other than a discussion - alas I'm not in a place to make it happen!). I'm not opposed to valves per se, but equally, I've never been a tube purist. If it sounds good, then it is. I absolutely welcome the idea of an alternative tech that can't be distinguished from tubes, on the basis that that isn't just "reinventing the wheel". It would bring a lot of other benefits - lighter to carry around, more manageable volume, and, well - I don't think tubes are going to be around at an affordable price forever. But the practicality of carting it around and convenience go a long way for me. I've said for a long time I'd welcome a good modeller that instead of offering eleventy million different sounds did one sound really well. I have a big Vox AD120VT. Gorgeous sound, as good as any of what it knocks off, BUT I've only ever used one or two sounds from it. I don't like onboard effects. I use effects less and less nowadays (I'll keep all my old pedals, but really all I want now is a decent, classic od, clean boost, tremolo, and echo/reverb). 99% of what the Vox can do is wasted on me. Fender have in more recent years produced what appeals to me in their Tonemaster series. Of that lineup, the Twin Reverb really appeals - money no object, I'd have one of those already, and be waiting to jump on the Tweed Twin and Tweed Champ versions as they arrive. That's the sweet spot for me. With that sort of tech here and new models on the way, my thoughts have turned to tiny, on the go practice amps. The killer app for me now would be something the size of the Positive Grid Spark Go, but simpler. Sounds like a Tweed Champ, decent volume (The PGSG does have the right volume level for me), headphone socket, and a 3.5mm line in. The Go sounds great, but it's got a lot of functionality I'd never use. The bigger strike against it is the lack (if I've picked up the spec right) of a 3.5mm line in. I'd like something that could be a hotel room amp sort of thing, but also function as an external speaker for my mp3 player and tablet on the go. Both of these devices do have blutooth, but I vastly prefer to use a 3.5mm cable instead, which makes a very marked difference to battery life. So that's what I'm waiting for happening in the amp market: a pocket-size, 1 watt Fender Tonemaster Champ with 3.5mm line in and a line out. Given the leaps and bounds in tech since I got my Smokey amp twenty plus years ago (still fun, but not a 'serious' amp, more of an effect than anything), it should surely only be a matter of time?

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.

A good point indeed; there is certainly a risk. Since then I have used it at some jams and it had plenty of volume on the clean channel even with the attenuator on 1/2 power.

Update * New Origin Rig

Thanks for the replies! I'll stay with the SB-2 for now. Re. the H8 - yes, we are effectively doing live band recordings in our practice space - then transferring the files to a computer for editing in the DAW. The problem with using the combo jack was we had 4 jacks to plug in and only 2 jack sockets

From what I've read, Vox think that it is indeed a sort-of direct equivalent. I'm not sure if it's catching on, though. Recently, I purchased an MVX150C1 (Nutubes in preamp and power amp) but I think they're discontinued; the one I got was the last in stock at PMT and at a discounted price. I've not had chance to try it at a jam, gig or rehearsal yet but the tone seems good to me and I'd guess that it would be loud enough (150W class D 1x12"). Whilst they were generally available they didn't appear to be very popular, as far as I can tell. I've also got a VX50 GTV (Nutube in the preamp) and this has proven to be loud for its size and very portable.

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 agree about the valves argument. I do like valve amps but can't work out any way to use them effectively at different volume levels, so I have always been drawn towards solid state and modelling for both the benefit in weight and also that once I set my sound I just use the volume knob (on both guitar and amp) to actually control the volume level and not just add gain. But, like @EdwardMarlowe I only use one or two sounds, rarely use effects other than on board reverb. My ideal would be similar to above. I really like the look of the Tonemaster series, but it seems a huge amount of money to pay for a modelling amp. A smaller Tonemaster Champ with a decent XLR simulated out for PA, 3.5mm line in and headphone out would suit me perfectly, even better if it had some digital reverb and a slapback delay. I do use the Blackstar Fly for pretty much all my home practice and it sound ok for home, so almost a 'quality/boutique' version of this that I could use as an interface into PA as needed would be very nice.

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.

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.

Got that one in before the guitarists start arriving.