ezbass

Not experience with them here, but I like that I now have a great excuse for a new guitar, “Something’s wrong with one, Honey. I can’t fix it, I need a new one.” Genius!

Humbucker sized P90s are your best bet. I maybe wrong, but I think 250k ohm pots are preferred for single coils. However, that doesn’t mean your current 500k ones (I assume) won’t work. It seems that some folk like a combination of both https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?256168-What-Pot-value-for-P-90-s-250k-or-500k&p=3387239

A lot of folk on Basschat (my self included) bought and were/are very impressed with the Yamaha Sessioncake. It was a pretty stonking deal at the time, £10 + carriage and now, unsurprisingly, sold out at that retailer. However, even with the now higher price, you could buy one of these and stick your preferred FX in front of it.

Ad Dad says, Yamaha are a pretty safe bet for any musical instrument at any price point, I've certainly never played a bad one.

Here’s the thing, you can spend as little as £50 or as much as £8k+.

Hmm . The only thing I can think of is that the ball end is dangling a bit free and isn't sitting against the bridge correctly.

It could be that it’s twisted. Take it off and put it back on again, trying to keep it as straight as possible (perhaps wind it around the peg a little before seating it in the bridge). The other option is that it’s a dead string (it happens). If the restring doesn’t work, you can always buy a single string to replace it, a damned nuisance to be sure, but perhaps something you could take up with the manufacturer.

Hi Lisa, What sort of budget are you looking at?

There is the Epiphone specific hard case but it’s not cheap https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/epiphone-940-e519-es-335-hard-case?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1ZCg2fDK6QIViK3tCh1LSQt8EAUYAyABEgL8CPD_BwE

Firstly On the guitar front, I can’t help you I’m afraid. It looks decidedly ‘80s with that Kramer Superstrat styling.

First of all - welcome to GC. Now let’s seen if we can help. It’s your floating bridge that’s giving you the trouble here I think. What’s happening is that the string tension is pulling the trem bridge up and as soon as it does this the strings go out of tune against each other, which is exacerbated by the increase in string gauge (regs are 10-46 I think). It depends on whether you want to keep the bridge floating or not. Having it float allows for up bends as well as down. If you want it to do this, I’d take off the back plate, and tighten the screws holding the spring claw about half a turn maybe. Then go back and retune the guitar, which will take time, as each time you tighten one string, the others will lose their tuning as you are experiencing. However, if you bring them up to pitch equally so that they’re there or there abouts, the differences will become less and less until it holds tune across all 6 strings. It takes time and is often irritating, no matter how long you’ve been playing (they will also go out of tune as they settle in too, but that’s part of playing the 6 stringed beast). The other method is to have your bridge set up for down bend only. In this instance, tighten those claw screws down so, that the bridge doesn’t lift when you bring the strings up to pitch, this will lessen the de-tuning effect of the strings on each other, although you will still get a bit, this is easily corrected with a bit of tuning adjustment. However, there is a knock on effect of altering your bridge setting in that it can affect the height of your bridge saddles and the action might feel a bit different in that it’ll be a bit higher if you ‘lock down’ the trem for down bends only. There will be plenty of YouTube videos that will show you how to do all of this. I hope that helps.

Surfing the guitar based web, as you do, and came across these https://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/soap-bar/fantom-p90-dog-ear I see expenditure in my future

Another beauty, the figuring on that yew is amazing.

First of all . Our very own @Andyjr1515 builds all sorts of guitars, this is one of his acoustic builds... I imagine he would be able to answer your question.

Well that’s an eclectic bunch. I like them all for different reasons, but the skateboard lap steel is my favourite and I don’t know why. I like to tinker with my guitars and basses, but this is whole level above my fiddling; kudos.

Ah ha! You can tell when someone has experience of forums when they list all their gear; nice work and nice collection. Still early days here, but it’s starting to pick up steam.

As we are acquiring new members, some of whom are beginners, I wondered if it might not be a good idea to have a library of videos aimed at those folk staring out. Therefore, I thought I’d start the ball rolling with a couple from Rick Beato. You may not like his style (I run hot and cold with his channel) but there might be something useful in these two videos. I always think that you should take what you need/works for you from these type of things, as sometimes one can spend a lot of time trying to nail one of the ‘important’ techniques described when it might not apply to your playing. Anyway, on with the show... And, as a bonus, one from Rhett Shull...

DiMarzio pickups never fail to deliver IMO. I have DiMarzios fitted to my Tele. GLWTS.

It’s always going to be a case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Ah, but behind that lurks the beginning of a callus. Don't forget to take it easy when they get sore, it's frustrating, but pays dividends in the end.

I initially used what pick felt right as a beginner, but eventually moved to what gave me the best tone, which meant thicker for my purposes (at one point I played with a 2mm Tortex). I still mess around with various picks, but always seem to come back to a Dunlop Jazz 3 (as used by Eric Johnson and Joe Bonamassa). It’s a personal choice at the end of the day, as is how you hold it; Robben Ford uses a conventional shaped pick but uses it upside down (as does Dave Kilminster IIRC). Invest in a pack of various gauges and see which one you like to the tone & feel of best, but be prepared to chop and change as you develop as a player or as the song or guitar dictates. Then there’s fingerstyle, hybrid style, thumbpicks, fingerpicks, metal, plastic, GAH!

Shame about the biographies stipulation, as Andy Summers’ One Train Later is a great read and insight into how he, as fundamentally a jazz player from the beginning, was in so many bands of others genres but still had his own, totally relevant voice in those settings. If the type of book you’re looking for exists, I’ve never come across one. I imagine any generic ‘self help’ book would suffice, in that they often deal with self belief, focus, etc. Hopefully, others on the forum may be able to offer more guidance/suggestions.

I don't suffer with this condition or anything like it, so I can offer no first hand advice I'm afraid. However, I'm thinking a way forward might be to try using a thumb pick, but hold it like it's a normal pick until the tremors kick in and then use it whatever way will allow you continue playing until they subside or develop a style of your own with said device, part Oldfield/Knopfler, part you.

@backwater Lovely bound Tele (not that I’m biased you understand ).