EdwardMarlowe

It's likely going to take some time, but.... Looks like the tricky bit is going to be finding the right neck at a not too steep price - I want to keep the overall spend to sub £400 all done, as otherwise I might as well just go out and buy thed CIJ 68RI Strat. Got my eye out at the minute for a deal on a Vintage VS6 Icon in Boulevard black - surprisingly, looking at photos, thougfh that guitar is designed to replicate Blackie (obvs), the fake relicnig on it doesn't look a million miles away (per the rule of "from six feet and without looking for it specifically' ) from the wear patterns on Jimi's. Body on the Vintage is poplar rather than alder, but at least on screen they seem close enough as won't matter... Unless I stumble across something else in the meantime, a used VS6 might end up being a great donor base, with the advantage that the pickups are probably going to be worth considering keeping (or saleable, given the Wilkinson name; I'm liking to look of the GFS 60s pickups).

For years, I've been toying with the idea of building a partsacaster, especially since the likes of GFS now do very affordable, pre-loaded pickguards that would make it so much easier. The idea would be to build it out of bits I can easily buy, second hand,. keep the spend down..... but for a bit of fun, here's the twist: I want to make a reasonable replica of Hendrix's black 68 Strat with the maple neck. Not looking to spend a fortune, but part of the fun will be in finding something reasonably correct - like a 21 fret maple neck without a skunk stripe, right shape machine heads and such. It'd be *nice* to also have the "correct" routing under the guard, but to keep it affordable I'll probably compromise on details like pick-guard screw placement and body wood- type as necessary. Money no object, I'd do it all perfect, BUT then money no object I'd probably just phone Fender and have them build me a CS of the whole thing.... This is intended just to be a bit of fun where I can get pretty close to the right look (think if you were going to go out with a tribute band, though if I ever play to an audience of more than one it's more likely to be cause I got the cat and the dog to setlle in the same room...), but keep it on a budget. A big part of the attraction is that I am a lefty myself (one reason Hendrix was always an influence) and it'd be fun to for once not have that be a limitation as it normally is when I go guitar shopping. So.... looking for suggestions on any great websites out there that really break down the 68 so I can get an idea of what's involved in it. Also interested if anyone's aware of soecific models that could be a good source of bits.... like the Blackie-esque "Vintage" brand Strats (though I think that's way more reliced than Jimi's 68 was by 1970).

I've intrigued by the kits, but I'm not sure I have what it takes for the assembly skills... Do you know if those gyus do #em left handed, by any chance? I suppose it'snot much to Hendrix one of these, but I still prefer the socket on the correct side...

TBH, my professional opinion (as an academic lawyer and something of a specialist in defamation), unless you're in a position like Chapman's and you're advised that there's an actionable defamation, I wouldn't consier it necessarily wise to acknowledge that sort of criticism publicly. Rather than a rebuttal, he'd probably have been better off playnig the bigger man and telling his own online following to leave the kid alone, a la Mary Beard.

I don't much care for effects with bass.... too prog for me! I'm not quite as minimalist with guitar - I like the option of reverb (if it's not in the amp already) or echo (*echo*, not "wanky eighties delay"), and a trem pedal for occasional use. Otherwise, it's two or three boost / drive pedals, as for whatever reason I've realised I prefer to use a saingle channel amp set either ot claqn or edge of breakup, and add dirt to taste with one of two or three pedals over a multi-channel amp. I have flange and wah, but unless or until I decide to do a regular cover of voodoo chile slight return, I don't really use the latter, and the former is for the ocasional raygun noises. As a rule, I tend to prefer pedals(other than drive/ boost) to be much more subtle than "Oh, what's the effect they're using there?". I'll use flange or phase about as often as Steve Jones did on Never Mind the Bollocks (once, from memory, in Liar).

I suppose that's true to an extent, but I don't think Thomann have a storefront real world at all?

I would guess that part of it is that PMT are primarily brick and mortar stores where you can go in and haggle, whereas the internet 'works different'. I'd also expect thnigs to be a little more expensive in a bricks and mortar store because of increased overheads, though not £300 different. Doubtless lefties are a little more expensive to make because of retooling, lower demand and such, but I do also feel we often get the shaft in pricing because we don't have the same range of options. Things have improved in many stores, but evne twety years ago it wasn't uncommon to walk into a guitar shop and them not have a single lefty in stock. I badly miss Holiday Music in Leytonstone....

I wonder (not got the tiem to watch thed video just yet, so he may address this) whether part of it is a genfered psychology thing.... Women, by and large, don't seem to obsess over some of thed crap men do - "OH, I nee a dozen guitars to have a palette of sounds" and that rot. Maybe htel adies gravitate to wards that model because it has a wide array of sounds and they just want to have a nice guitar and play it?

Ah, I'd assumed they were all under the plate as per standard. presumably, though, that lets you access the pots without having to take the whole plate off, which couldc be handy.

They all look nice. Interesting variation on the LP shape - I detect a touch of Telecaster on the neck end of the body, I think. What's under the rear plate on the red fixed-bridge S type?

I think you could be right to some extent re bass players.... Bass is my second insturment, though I'm one of the hardcore bass luddites - if it's ain't a P-bass, meh. I mean, as I get older I'm mellowing - I'd love a P-bass with a body the shape of a Gibson RD Artist. I would prefer a maple board over a rosewood one, because, as Dee Dee RAmone once put it, "they bounce better." That 'wram stone' looksl ike a really interesting concept. Clever ona number of levels - if it takes off, it could sell to a lot of people who already have tube amps they love. More to the point, I could totally see it being hugely popular with guitar techs on major tours, where the reliability of solid state would be very welcome indeed. That would be interewsting to try.

True story: I owned a plectrum for about ten years before I owned a guitar!

Quite so - there's something about bass players that they've always been much more open to new ideas.... Maybe with only four strigns to worry about (most of the time, anyhow) they have the extra brain space to cope with other bits? Funnily enoug,h one of the guitars I'll be selling is a Westone Thunder IA (Matsumoko-built) with onboard actives. Flick on the boost, and it sounds like the best sort of SG.... exactly the sound I always wanted in a Les Paul but could never find.... I instinctively shrink at the idea of active pickups., but I ouldn't honestly tell you why. I think it's one of those "But these go to eleven" mental blocks... IT's intersting that the original Clapton Fender sig model with the mid boost was designed so it stayed on permanently.... I alwayswodnered if they could have achieved the same thing another way without the need for a battery.... probably not, as I'm sure Fender are pretty on the ball no these things at that level!! I'm liking the concept of the Vox Nutube on paper. If they can guarantee the future of those and were also able to produce a convertor plate so they could plug in in place of "normal" tubes, I think they could havea killer app that would reach that paert of the marketr that will orever be "tubes good, digital baaaad".

Yes, that's clever.... I'd love to see the insdie of it if ever you open it up. Specifically, I'm wodnering whether it could retrofit on another guitar designed to take that kind of two-post bridge....

Very nice. Remidns me how it was - I think - PRS Who repopularised the one-piece, wraparound bridge.

Yes! THe one that replaced the frets with a stepped fingerboard, right? Only ever seen one of those in person - it was on sale in a guitar shop in - I think - Amsterdam in 2003. Never played one. I imagine it takes a bit of getting used to.

He's obviously donig it for the brand profile / advertising - that's a norm these days. Business gotta keep the money coming in. I don't mind it, though, tbh - I find him an easy watch / listen - informative, without the hard sell, and I tend to feel he's fair and honest in thse things - while sensaibly leaving it up to the viewer to decide between pricebands - e.g. Epi v Gibson. I like hoe he's open about his preferences for high end stuff, without being snobbish or dismissive of the affordable options.

Here's another one.... Remember Switch guitars? Somesort of plastic polymer body and neck? They wre all far too futuristic looking for me, but I liked the theory - the idea that you could alter the consistency of the polymer to imitate specific wood types, and achieve total consistency. Think about it - you want to be able to buy a Strat body that directly imitated the tone of, say, Blackie or Jimi's Woodstock Strat? Or you want to buy a Strat body for a project designed to produce a sympathetic tone for specific pickups? This is honestly the kind of stuff I think Leo Fender would be working on now, were he still with us. Guitarists will take a long, long tiem to convince of its value, but if I could buy a recycled-plastic polymer body (thus: green) that was cheaper than wood and had a ool look (like a glitter blue or something), that would rock.

The new price on those HB SGs is shocklingly low if they play as goodas they look! I didn't think anything could outdo the Vintage SG type for value, but.... In a year or two once I have their DC and SC LP Junior types, I'd like to see them do an SG Junior! Agree with exbass - I'm not a V guy, but that one looks very nicely done indeed. Some very classic V features, yet doing its own thing with the form too.

I suspect most of those things are designed as far as possible to only take sound from one input at a time - remember they were developed first and foremost as busienss options (in the main) - so as to get a good, clean sound.

Yeah, it just avoids a bit of excess noise. OTOH, if you're using a tube amp, I'd whack it to zero before you turn it on.

Tanglewood started off as a lower-price affair, but have streadily grown into a full range of imnpressive stuff, including higher end guitars. Their top end stuff I'd put up against anything in a similar price band. As for Epiphones, well... as I always say of any particular Epiphone, the relevant Gibson will be twice the guitar, for five or ten times the money. Up to you at hat ponit along the alw of diminishing returns scale you jump off the train... I can't claim to have based this on anything as I've not handled any of the 2020s yet, but I have a suspicion that Epiphone might just be very concertedly upping the ante as of these last few months, having been facing an awful lot of competition from some very good price-band alternatives in recent years. The new brooms at Gibson seem to be a lot more intune with the market than the previous admin.

p.s..... Looked Marlin up online - they were first made in East Germany (only very briefly in 1985) for British Music Strings Ltd based in Wales; 1986-89 they were made by Samick in Korea, then in 1989 Hohner bought the brand and shifted production to Cort in Korea.

I have fond memories of my Marlin electric, my first guitar. Marlin were a very successful, Korean-built range of guitars which, I believe were built to contract for Hohner (I have seen a few that carried a "Marlni by Hohner" branding). Their electrics were the reason that Fender initially introduced a Korean Squire in the mid-late eighties to compete on price, and then 1992 Fender introduced the Squier Silver series built in Japan. The Marlin Sidewidner, a Strat take-off, was outselling the Squier hands down in the UK over several years by severely undercutting the Squiers on price. Squier's early Korean guitars had also gone over to plywood bodies, whereas Marline used solid (basswood) - a fact mercilessly exploited by competitors (around the same time, Yamaha introduced the 112 with an advertising campaign based on "ask whether it comes in natural finish" - whichthe Squiers didn't; it even showed the back end of whaT was obviously (but not labelled as ) a Squier with the paint sanded back to reveal plywood. Squiers didn't come in ...). They were never quite as bad as it's now fashionable to believe, nor were most of them as good as the budget brand electrics avaialble today. For guitars that were everywhere in their day, you don't see so many of them appear for sale now; I' guessing al ot of them have over the years been handed down through families, ended up in basements or attics, or as wall hangers, or the Strat types have been parted out for various projects. The Marlin acoustics seem to have been rarer (Yahmaha's bottom line dresdnought was the big seller back then, and Tanglewood were beginning to take off...). A friend had a black one with an untinted maple neck and fingerbouard - a relative rarity on an acoustic guitar. Yours looks pretty cool. SAdly, for its rarity, I don't think it'll have much commercial value - I'd suggest sticking with it for now. See how you go with some lessons, then consider whether you want to repalce it or buy an electric. Squier are making soem pretty good guitars today. I heard good things about the Harley Benton brand (house brand of Thomann.de, Chinese made), though I would also highly recommend the Vintage branded guitars from JHS with the Wilkinson-designed gear. All great guitars that if you really get into it you'll likely want to keep as a 'back-up' for something more expensive. Love the red and Green o that Marlin, its' one I've never seen before.

Thinhing of re-kickstarting my playing by picking up a Cigar box guitar - undecided as of yet whether three or four strings. Get mysefl going on some slide. Any players on here?