EdwardMarlowe

THe Tanglewood is likely to be pretty good at that price. And yes, it will be solid. Tanglewood acoustics tend to be surprisingly good for the money at the lower price levels; I've not had a chance to try their much more expensive high enders.

The one downside I think about guitar playingb isa how negative guitar players tend to be when ticomes to new ideas. They all claim to be rock and roll and open minded.... yet they're the absolute worst at accepting any nerw concept. Any former Harmnoy Centrallers here rememer when the Variax was release and so, so many of them fell over themselves to be the first to sneer "enjoy your toy" at anyone who consdiered buying one? Yeesh. Whiel my own preferences are, I fully admit, mostly rooted in the 50s, I still love to see new ideas come out. Though I can't imagine owning one (save if I had *massive* money, then I'd buy one purely to play blues and country rock on), I do still enjoy seeing the craftsmanship gonig into thel ikes of a Dean ML. So, in the spriti of positivity, what new ideas have you seen in electric guitar world that you really like and would love to incorporate into a guitar you might own? I'll put up a roasted maple Fender neck for starters. I'd love a nice, solid-colour Strat with one of those. It'd also look pretty damn cool on an acoustic guitar...

So, uh ,yeah.... Couldn't find an existing thread on this. What's the vibe on the forum? Personally, I've always thought Gibson were mad to notp ut the "proper" headstock on the Epi models that are budget versions of the Gibson. I don 't think the "conterfeiters" argument holds up as theyseem more than capable of managing it without Gibson's help. Equally, given the price difference, who - I mean seriously - who in the market for a 1500-2K Gibson Les Paul would think 2oh, wait, I'll just buy that £400 Epiohone instead, bec ause it has the right headsatock shape"? Way I see it, Gibson always just shot themselves in the foot by making the Epi stocks more different - or, to put it better, less accurate than 99% of the budget models out there. I don't beleive for a minutred anyone who really wants and can afford a Gbison would buy an Epi instead if they had the same headstock, yet I know anecdotally of many people over they ears who've bought Tokai, Vintage, or whatever instead of an epiphone because the Epiphone, no matter how legit, is still, at the end of the day, a copy... and a less accurate looking one for the headstock shape than many others. Seems Gibson are now putting on the 2020 Epis a newer headstock which is a touch closer the Gibson, though still visibly and immedfiately different. I'm wondering how this is going to affect the marekt for used Epis too. I have a Korean (1998) Epi LP Std with a flamed heritage cherry burst top that I'm considering selling. For a long time, I've thought a selling angle might be that it's aesthetcially much closer the Gibson than the later Epiphones, though I wonder whether the new headstock will be more desirable? Or is mine now more collectable? I'm intrigued by Gibson's thinking. The Epiphone Elitist range was the last time I remember them doing something that I noticed really shook up the range. Shame those didn't last, though I do recall at the time thinking they'd made a mistake by putting quite an ugly heastock on them instead of the Gibby shape, and by badging them as Epiphones. Surely they shot themselves in the foot by making "expeisnve Epiphones" rather than "MIJ Gibson"? It's interesting Gibson have run shy of something like that with Fender's Japanese and then Mexican operations having been so succesful for so long. Gretsch are another interesting one in that they use the same brand all through the range, with the different series 2xxx (China), 5xxx (Korea) and 6xxx (Japan) in different price bands and qualities, yet they don't seem to need the "protection" of a "Wrong" headstock or budget brand to distinguish linesand keep selling the top end. Will Gibson change its operation after its recent money woes? Is this move with Epiphone the start?

Like a lot of kids I did the classic 'start on a cheap and crappy second hand acoustic' to convince my parents I'd stick at it long enough to be worth investing in a guitar and an amp (and the subsequent noise...). My first acoustic was a £30 used Kay; my first electric a second-hand Marlin Loner (I think - looked like a Jackson, HSS, it was right handed so I Hendrixed it, only right handed guitar I ever owned thus far). I thik I paid £70, from memory, for the Marlin and a 10watt solid state Sound City branded amp. After a year or two I replaced the amp with a 'Park Son of Marshall', which I'm sure cost sometging approaching £100 from memory, and wasn't bad at imitating the Marshall sound. Starting on an acoustic does build up your finger muscles and it's also nice to appreciate both forms, but I think things have changed these days. That said, the quality of what you can buy for sub £200 these days (my starter £100 in 1991 is worth £216 and change in today's money) is ridiculous compared to back in the early 90s (which in turn was light years from the early 70s). Nowadays, I'd suggest that if Little Johnny really wants to play electric, start him on one. Something like a Squier Affinity or a Harley Benton Strat or Tele new is a great starting place; if the beginnier is more Gibson oriented, the Vintage brand SGs aree pretty bloody stunning for relative buttons new (I'd buy one of those over the Epiphone every time). Better bargains to be had used if there's someone in the household who knows guitars or has a friend/relative who can help out, though if the budget can stretch to new for the guitar, it'd be nice to start with something new, especially if it's a big Christmas or birthday present. Amps-wise, things are so, so much better than the days when I was a beginning in 90/91. Back then, it was a cheap (and often nasty) solid state every one started on. now there are soem fantastic sub £100 modelling options, and if you're going to go tube, there's the like of the Harley Benton Tube 5 for someting around £120. Pedals-wise, no need to jump for boutqiue stuff, or even pricier items like back when. I've bought a clutch of pretty imrpessive little mini-pedals at twenty quid a pop on average over the last couple of years. Sound just as good as (if sometimes *different* than) much more expensive pedals. I realise I'm working here on the assumption of a kid starter. I'd say the same for an adult, boradly, except if you're surer you'll stick to it it might sometimes be worth spending a touch more. These days, though, many absolute beginner instruments are as good or better than a lot of what I used to see being played out professionally by bands who had yet to hit the big time back in the 80s.

Yes, definitely, try them all - good place to start is with a mixed gauge pack of Dunlop Tortex - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6-Dunlop-Tortex-Standard-Guitar-Picks-Any-Combination/270999292863?epid=0&hash=item3f18d10bbf:g:TNUAAOxyBXNSUcTI I like Tortex becasue they hold their shape, thouygh if you just want to strum hard, the greater flexibility (but lack of 'snap back to shape') of nylon might suit. I started out with .46s, figuring them would help me avoid breaking strings, and they strummed easy. As time went on and I learned how to better control how hard I hit the strings, I moved up to heavier picks - 1mm, then 1.14mm. Another option you might like to try are the Dava Control picks https://www.davapick.com/ Tend to be al ittle bit more expensive which is worth bearing in mind if you're in the habit of losing them all the time, but... The design of these allows you to vari the effective stiffness of the pick by varying how you hold it, giving the effect of playing with a variable pick thickness. Some models have Delrin tips - the kind of plastic that many picks like Tortex are made from. I'd say invest a tenner in a range of these - couple of Davas, a few cheap nylon Jim Dunlops, a few Trotex, try 'em all, and see what wiggles your wire. The chances are that you'll find your tastes vary a bit as you ecome more confident on the instrument.

Were they ever made in the UK? I'm not sure. My understanding alwasy was that they were a UK owned brand - like JHS's Vintage - but were never manufactured here. I don't know if they started in China, but I do seem to recall that they wre getting rave-reviews about Chinese-built guitars long before a lot of the bigger names shifted to MIC from Korea and Japan. Starting sometime around the midddle 90s they built up a reputation for making outstanding acoustics, especially when they started doing all-solid models like the (from memory) TW15. You do have to spend quite a lot more on an acoustic, imo, to get a better guitar (as an instrument). I've never owned one of their electrics myself, though friends have. Back in the day they were generally pretty decent "for the money", and shooting at the low end Hondo / Marlin/ Hohner Rockwood type stuff. More recnetly, they seem, especially with the semis, to be closing in on Epiphone and a lot of the better, mid-market "budget" names. Interestingly, I see they're noe repositioning themselves in the market, if their website is anything to go by, as a high-end acoustic brand as well as budget options. I would guess that guitar to be most likely to be a maple or spruce ply on the top.... partly for budget, but also for design reasons: I recall reading even the high end Gretsches with a hollow body but built in (non-floating) pups and electronics were built with ply tops as once amplified it's less likely to feedback than a solid archtop. Could be worth dropping the company a line - their contact details will be on https://www.tanglewoodguitars.co.uk/

The earliest Daisy Rock models were tiny heart and flower shaped bodies with small necks - really, they were aimed at <10 year old girls. The later models, such as yours, definitely were a much better idea. I rather like the Susanna Hoff / Bangles model, myself. Bonnie Raitt's signature Stratocaster was made with a slightly narrower nut and smaller neck to better accomodate smaller (on average) female hands. I'd say that and more chambering (for weight relief) is where it's at for the ladies. Sbutle differences, and, I would say, sell them "for the guitarist who prefers a smaller neck / lighter bosy" rather than "here's one for the ladies - it's easier to play, so you can sound just like the boys!"

Anyone tried the Sub Zero brand tube amps from Gear4Music? Not the tweed amps (look nice, but seem to be solidstate), but thre navy blue tolex ones. Got my eye on the 10watt Sub Zero Valve 10, which must sure be worth a punt at £150? Still got half an eye out for ther Joyo, but they are listed as sold out everywhere.

I haveheard that the Podcan be a bit confusing, yeah. The Vox I linked to was the original Tonelab - they came out around the same time as or shortly after the first, big, blue grillecloth Valvetronix series amps. The 'SE' stage edition came out shoertly thereafter, it was essentially a combination of the Tonelab and the big VC12 footboard for the amps. It does seem, looking at their new range, that they have shiftred very much towards being footpedal-based interfaces - as I said, I'm assuming this is because so many players felt more comfortable with treating it like foot-pedal FX, rather than the format of the original, which looks to me much more in the same thinkspace as a recording desk. It's true also that Vox were very much at the forefront of something I think we're only starting to see begin to gain traction now - the idea of having a small box on the floor to generate tones, and relying on the PA for doing the 'loud' bit. I do think ,though, it's a shame that few companies are going the route of this "baby recording desk" style. The plus part is that these older Tonelabs seem to hold their used value fairly well if you ever wante to move it on again, and the buil;d quality is such that I wouldn't worry about them being OOP.

No worries. A lot of the Vox ones now are designed for floor use - I guess so they could be used live, orf for players who prefer to use stomp boxes on the fly. The original one like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/274358975605?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=274358975605&targetid=876739461253&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9045886&poi=&campaignid=9437781569&mkgroupid=98509560649&rlsatarget=pla-876739461253&abcId=578896&merchantid=6995734&gclid=CjwKCAjwt-L2BRA_EiwAacX32f7xpT_BVQ7i9D5B2oEkLvoNz2CxD3JqLofRFiEkpVJXlNkJPlxtWxoCrg0QAvD_BwE might be more what you're after if you can find one used. The Line 6 Pods were designed to plug in to a udb, if memory serves. Never used one, but they were big news a few years ago.

I'd recommend a VoxTonelab something or other. I've owned one of the big, AC30-sized original Valvtronix ampsfor years,and the sound quality isfantastic. I'm going to sell it soon, but only because I just don't getthe use out of it. For anyone needing the volume and the range of tones and effects, it's outstanding. Same tech in the Tonelab bits, which I've considered for playnig with recording online. TBH, in the unlikely event I ever went gigging again, I think I'd be looking more to something like thisrather than humpnig a hefty amp around. If you're looking more for a pedal that can double as an amp sim / DI and give you "one, good sound", I'm hearing surprisingly good things about the Joyo range.

Fun fact: The ukelele industry is a by-product of guitarists accepting that airlines are simply incapable of transporting guitars safely, and picking up something they cancarry-on to play on holiday. I may have made this up, but.... if I manufactured UKes, it's how I'd sell 'em....

Nicely done. For now, I'#m very, very happy with my stock 2006 CIJ 71RI Tele, but if ever I could justify another, I'd probably look at finding a used Squier CP 50s Tele and having it rewired to Broadcaster specs, and maybe either a Squier Affinity or the equivalent Harley Benton Tele, pull the neck pickup, fit a vblank guard, switch the Bridge pup for something very ballsy, and wire it as an Esquier.

I can remember being impressed by instrument smashing antics in my younger days, but the older I get, the more it just seems like a dreadful waste of a guitar some kid who is desperate to learn but can't afford one would probably be veyr grateful to receive. THe great irony of electric guitar players is that the more they want to be seen as rock and roll wild men, the more inherently conservative they are in relation to their guitars. I mean, I'm talknig about people who in 2020 still think it's clever to claim "rap is not music". The same people who fell all over themselves back in the day to be the first (or the tenth, or the thousandth.... ) to say "enjoy your *toy*" any time anyone bought a Variax (not a real guitar, y'know, because it didn't use "real" pickups, or even have fake ones so it would "look normal"), sneered viciously at these when they were announced. Gibson fans don't want Gibson doing anything it wasn't already doing by 1959. Born a generation or two earlier, they'd still be sneering that solid-boies weren't "real" guitars. In part, Gibson's lifestyle marketing asa 'heritage' brand hasalso helped to ensure that this is the market it primarily panders to. Result? THey try anything new, their market won't buy it, andmost of the rest of us couldn't afford it anyhow. That's the pwoer of branding, I guess - and the double-edged sword. I'd say that's why they were "unsaleable". I'm sure they could have shifted the lot at £100 apiece, but it appears they would rather not risk their brand being cheapened that way. This publicity stunt is clearly designed to hide their "mistake" in terms of what their market will buy - ande perhaps a coded message to that market that they recognise their "mistake" in trying anything new.

Gibsons are too delicate at the neck joint to use in anger like that. I'd opt for a Telecaster every time. Good enough for Keef....

It's already happening. My brother's kids are ten and thirteen, and they already cannot conceive of a pre-internet world; they were born on 2006 and 2010. This year my final-year undergraduates were born in 1998/1999, and none of them remember dial-up internet. I'm 45 now; I first used the web in the Summer of 1995; I was 22. There are already adults who can't remember, or weren't even born in a pre-web era and can't begin to conceive of it. My parents, both in their early-mid 70s, remember television as 'new' to them in the early 50s. My mother has a very vivid memory of the first time she saw a television at the age of two, in 1949. I believe that the technology your grandkids will be unable to imagine a world without is likely to be something we don't expect to see in our lifetimes - like convincing VR. The interesting thing will be whether they know what TV (as traditional, linear broadcasting) or landline phones are, as I don't think either of those will last much beyond the next decade, if at all. Contemporaries of mine have had to explain the concept of a rotary phone to their kids when they see one in a museum.... they were the norm when I was a kid until I was about six in 80/81 or so - and we were the first anyone knew in our village to have a push-button phone because my dad worked for BT at the time (or GPO Telephones as it then still was). MY brother's kids don't see the point of landlines - phoning a building to see if the person to whom they wish to speak is in it rather than just phoning their mobile...

I'd definitely be open to adding some user-reviews if you go down that road.

Ohhhhh....... ok, to cut itg to three, let's try Daniel Ray, Joe Moretti and Link Wray as the three current big influences. (Les Paul was definitely a guitar player, though!)

Buy what you like, all other things being equal... I'm at the stage now, after nearly thirty odd years of collecting bits and pieces, that I'm going to sell half my guitars and a lot of other bits I collected for projects (pickups, couple bodies, necks, amps) cause it's just not my bag. Mostly stuff I bought to have a 'range' of sounds,whereas now I'm no longer interested in things like humbuckers, fancy wood tops, and such. Selling to buy more of what I do like... Dont buy 100watts of Marshall stack for home use. Even if you live 100 miles from anyone else and all other parties in your household are deaf.... it'll still be too loud. Hell, with the way PAs have come on since the 60s, a 100watt Marshall stack isn't necessary for evne Wembley. Buy an amp that lets you get the sound you want at the Guitar-wise, I'm not entirely against sig models. Hell, if I could find a Johnny Ramone model that I can afford left handed anywhere, I'd have one. If you're thinknig about any Les Paul, it's already basically a sig model. Personally I don't think the Slash one is worth the upcharge, but a Slash fan may disagree. Aesthetically I prefer the goldtop a long way over any burst (and a plain top vastly over figured wood).... but for me the HBs on a Les Paul are deal breakers - I'm a p90 guy on them. If you can afford it and it makes the difference, though, buy the one you want. If you've got the cash, don't buy the cheaper one *only* because it's cheaper if you're then always gonig to fell you settled for second best and it's not what you really wanted. Half the battle with a new guitar - and this is truer than most folks would admit - is hows it looks; if you don't look at it and want to play it, will you be inspired to pick it up? I've got an LP hanging on the wallof my lounge; looks great, but I've not been inspired to lift it down to play in, I think, about eight years now. My old Strat, on the other hand. I'll often lift even just to hold it... All done and said, your 'gut instinct' shopping list sounds to me exactly what you really want - though no harm in trying theo ther guitar, of course....

Not wrong about China. Those CVs are good enough to carry the Fender name, imo. To be brutally honest, the only thing that would make me hesitate about paying retail for one of those is thatfor just about £100 more I could buy a MIM Fender. The CV Squiers are close enough that if they did label 'em Fender, they might fidn them a threat to the lwoer endo f the parent brand...

I honestly don't think I could cut it to just three.... In no particular order, my favourites are: 1] Hendrix has to be in there - I'm sure he's a formative one for all of us left-handers especially. Certainly got me to push past the bullshit from every guy who really just wants to sell you a right handed guitar and claim that it's not a 'handed' instrument - or, my favouerite, "You'll havean advantage with your stronger hand on the fretboard" (Yeah? So why don't *you* all play "lefty", then, genius?) 2] Johnny Ramone and Daniel Rey - Ramone for the minimalism, Rey for basically any lead guitar you ever heard on a Ramones album. Also, Rey for that hint of the surf sound on Sheena is a Punk Rocker. 3] Steve Jones and Mick Jones are both guitarv titans in my world. JonesS's crowning glory is that riff on God Save the Queen - a defiant, punk rock answer to the staid, rock and roll establishment best represented by Queen with their take on a song of the same name. Jones M for those wonderful Clash melodies, rooted in old school rockabilly, not least his absolute owning of the definitive rendition of I fought the law. 4] Dick Dale would be an influence on how I listen to guitar even if he weren't left handed, but again being a fellow Southpaw (even if he played it all funny....) helps to inspire. 5] Link Wray. If I can *ever* play close ot sounding like Link Wray, I'll die happy. Primal, true, beautiful. 6] Chuck Berry has to get a mention in there; Johnny B Goode was the song that made me want to learn to play guitar. (Via Back to the Future originally, yeah - except evne back when I never liked it when he drops the melody in favour of all that Van Halen wankery.) 7] Joe Moretti's lead guitar playing on Vince Taylor's Brand New Cadiilac is as near the pure spirit of rock and roll that it's possible to get. (The only track that I think comes as close to fun for me to jive to is JLL's Great Balls of Fire.) If ever there was a single track that summed up everything I find joyful about guitar, it's that one. Moretti was quite the player, worked with a number of big names, but even if this was the only thing he did it still makes him, for me, one of the most important guitar players in history. If an alien civilisation landed and put a ray gun to my head and asked me which should avoid being erased from histroy forever, both from that point on and all memory of it wiped to - BNC or the entire Beatles back catalogue, I'd wave bye bye to Scousers without a second thought. BNC was probably the first true "British" rock and roll recording, certainly it was part of a wider British rock and roll boom that was prematurely killed off by Merseybeat. It hasn't dated the way the Beatles did; BNC Still sounds fresh and alive today. Beyond those direct influences... Equipment wise, Lester Polfus. I don't play anything like his stuff (and I am *so* *over* Les Pauls despite many of my heroes playing them), but given his many influences across recording technology, overdubs, being one of the pioneers of the solid body....I'd say he had more influence on pretty much all of us and how we experience guitar music than most folks. Leo Fender would also come in here, but for the fact that he couldn't play a note. And that's not a bad thing - I honestly think that had Leo been a guitar player, he'd never have come up with the engineering marvels he did. Maybe also Robert Johnson.... I recently worked through his back catalogue again, and somewhere in those 29 songs I can hear a touch of pretty much any guitarist sicne who has ever been worth listening to. Johnson is, I would argue, the ultimate root of guitarp laying as we know it. Other honourable mentions: John O'Neill (Undertones), Jake Burns (Stiff Little Fingers). Buddy Holly. Bob Dylan is a huge part of why I play acoustic the way I do. THere are lots of more recent players I really like, but these ones mentioned here were my formatives. Really can't dilute it to just three.

Working in academia, my job has carried on as 'new normal' - basically all teaching has gone online, and I'm busier than ever as this form of delivery is markedly more labour intensive. I've not had achance to lift a guitar for weeks. We also entered lockdown abouyt a fortnight before hte official requirement owing otm y partner's health. So far I'm actually just fine with it - I'll miss the events I'd otherwise have done, and my teachnig in Beijing isn't as much fun delivered online (I'll also miss my businessclass flights - #firstworldproblems ). Guitar wise, I'd like to find the time to get organised to sell off a lot of bits (though as most of it will be 'buyer collect', I'll have to wait for a while to sell proper), as I can't buy anything new until I do, and there's two Harley Benton's Imma seriously GASing for. More productively, if I can find the time I'd like to work through some online lesons, including learning to play 'I fought the Law' properly.

This is thesort of thing I'd love to see one of the guitar mags take on. TBH, I'd find thatfarmore interesting than any interview or tuition column...

Which makes me wonder.... Surely the ultimate test would be to swtich the electronics out of each guitar and out them, wholesale, in the other one. The Gibson with the vintage guts in in would be particularly interesting - would a blindfold test have a player find it a "downgrade"? How different are the non-electronic differences with exactly the same wiring, switches, pots, pups? That would, surely, be the ultimate test of the differences as thats' the bit you can't just buy and 'upgrade' aftermarket...

Oh... my first guitar. A Kay acoustic dreadnaught that aped one of the hippier Gibsons. Looked exactly like this one: Bought it via a smalls ad in the Belfast Telegraph, December 1991, for thirty quid. PLayed it every chance I got. About twenty years later, it was donated to a church charity; it's somewhere in Africa now, hopefully some kid is still enjoying it as much as I did. I was sentimental about that, it being my first guitar, but sometimes you have to release them back into the wild and let someone else pick up the mojo....(Ironically, I see they're now collectible in some circles and starting to make money!)