Matt P

I'll echo this, go for whatever of the 3 suggested brands your local music shop sells, standard nickel plated (unless you have a nickel allergy in which case go for stainless steel) there are youtube tutorials showing you how to change strings or if you've got a guitar playing friend then buy them some biscuits or a beverage of their choice and get them to show you how to change them. if the guitar is new then the strings will be ok for a while yet, give them a wipe down with a clean cloth after each time you finish playing and they'll last longer before they need replacing. In a year or so you might decide you want to change the gauge but until then your main focus should be learning the guitar. Matt

And Facebook has just popped up a memory that I took possession of the tanglewood 16 years ago today! (3 years after first agreeing to buy it.)

legally they have to supply mains powered items with a uk plug of some type, I've had some items delivered with an adapter ready fitted (mostly fixed lead items) and others they have included a separate uk power lead (this comes up on the invoice as a separate item with a price of 0.00. I'm not sure what they do with items that use a separate power adapter as i've only ordered 240v stuff so far. what are you thinking of ordering? Matt

I'm afraid not, this is one that's definitely staying, It's the only semi acoustic i own and my son has now taken up guitar and has his eye on it as well. I have a bad habit of not selling guitars, I think over the nearly 30 years i've been playing i've only sold maybe 3 or 4 guitars, and many have been to friends on the understanding that if they ever want to sell i have first refusal. I have a bit of a hoarding problem when it comes to guitars. Matt

yup, it's not going anywhere soon! Matt

unfortuntely on this guitar (a very early tanglewood semi) there isn't much spare cable on the pickups so they would need to be cut fairly close to the pickup which isn't ideal, i've grown to love the pickups that are fitted now, the Les Paul suits better for the higher gain parts and the semi has had some flatwounds fitted for a more mellow tone. I'm also wary of cutting and re-connecting coaxial cables, i tried it when i was young and it never worked well so i've just avoided it ever since! Matt

I've not come across an Epiphone ES335 with coil taps (but this doesn't mean that they don't exist), all the Epiphone humbuckers i have come across have been 2 wire as well so not possible to split them. it's also worth pointing out that 335 style guitars are possibly the most difficult guitars to work on when it comes to electronics as they generally have no back plate so the pots and switch have to be loosened and then fed back through the f-hole to be worked on, certainly my least favourite job and the reason I never swapped out the pickups on mine even though I had a set of seymour duncans in my parts drawer (they got fitted to an Epiphone Les Paul instead) Matt

I've swapped out a few humbuckers over the years and always end up using the Seymour Duncan JB, just seems to work for me, can roll off the volume for a cleaner sound or full on for some grit. As @ezbasssays there are very good sound demos on Seymour Duncan's website, I imagine dimarzio etc have similar demos on their websites. Matt

hello and welcome! that's a great looking guitar. It's not totally clear from the photos exactly what is going on but it should be easy enough to decipher the problem there are excellent wiring diagrams on the seymour duncan website HERE you will need to convert the colour codes on the seymour duncan site to the jackson version, there is a great page HERE with all the different colour codes on. i would follow the wiring for each pickup and see if it differs anywhere, it is most likely just a bad connection or a loose wire. do you own a multimeter? if the wiring looks ok then checking the resistance of the pickup is the next test. if you don't have the kit then it's time to find a tech, fi you give us an approximate loation then someone might be able to suggest one, or even offer to look at it for you. Matt EDIT - the switch is another possible issue, they are prone to getting dirt/corrosion on the contacts, give it a good few switches and see if that makes a difference, it might be worth cleaning the contacts, just pulling a strip of brown paper through them can be enough to get them working again.

If you have a good guitar shop locally I'd give them a call and see what they have in stock. I'm not familiar with the exact guitar you have but from a quick google it looks like a smaller boded guitar, similar to a APX Yamaha? My personal preference for hard cases is Hiscox, they publish internal dimensions on their website HERE Hiscox cases are not cheap but they are robust and lightweight, you might find that a perfect fit case isn't available but a bit of rolled up towel usually takes up any extra space and is useful to wipe the guitar down before putting it away. I've had good luck buying Hiscox cases secondhand from facebook and eBay, getting the seller to take some internal measurements or asking exactly what guitar it was used for previously helps to work out if it's the right one. Another place to look is Thomann, they often publish internal dimensions for their cases. Matt

i've never heard of Insect damage to guitars, Have you tried moving the guitar to another room and see if the sound follows it? Acoustic guitars will pick up and amplify sounds very well, I'd put my money on this being the case here, the ticking was always there (a clock or watch probably) but the guitar has amplified the previously inaudible ticking enough that it's now noticeable. Matt

I have both, as far as i know they are both still in production? the difference is that the silver has a switch to go between soft and hard clipping. It's been a while since i played with them so I can't give any comments on the sound. Matt

I have one of the JTM622 2x12 combo's, bought it back in the late 90's used (i think it's a 1997 model). It's been pretty reliable, it was my main amp for about 10 years, mostly playing in church and the occasional gig, lent it to a friend for a series of Blues gigs and it performed very well. I replaced all the valves once and had to re-solder the input jack once. I did have a few issues with it losing volume and the tech had trouble diagnosing the issue, but i think it was more that the tech wasn't that good. It's currently in the back of the cupboard as i'm not playing guitar much and have bought a little Laney LC15R which is more suited to the type of playing i am doing but i have not intention of selling the JTM as it sounded great, i now know a much better tech so as soon as i have a good reason i'll get it re-commissioned and it will be my main amp again. the tones were more blues than rock, one tech described it as AC30-esque and raved about it. Matt

if i were in your position i wouldn't put anything on the fretboard, find a reputable local Luthier and take it there for the new frets, (taking the other one along as a reference is a good idea) normally a maple neck is lacquered to protect it (Musicman being the major exception to that rule) the wear is a sign that you've really played it and presumably enjoyed playing it, i would leave it as a badge of honour, people are paying extra to have that kind of wear faked on new instruments. if you give us a general idea of wher you live (rough area is enough eg north London or just the county) then we might be able to suggest someone locally that can be trusted with the re-fret . I certainly can suggest a couple of people local to me in the north east of England. Matt

I'd probably want to play it before handing over any money but i do like a budget guitar. my main acoustic is a McIlroy (northern Irish handbuilt by the ex head of the Lowden workshop) so has a hefty pricetag (about £3k now i think) but a cheap chord travel guitar gets almost as much use (got it free from a local facebook group as it needed a setup to get it playing well) and the McIlroy just doesn't work for playing the blues so a Gretsch Jim Dandy with 13's is brought in for bluesy stuff. I've been looking at the recording king guitars as well, i really fancy one of the resonators buy don't have the space in my house for another guitar. Sometimes a cheap guitar can really surprise with a great sound, and equally i've played some big name guitars with huge pricetags that felt totally meh (most of them Taylors) Matt