EdwardMarlowe

Btoh make a decent guitar. The Chinese Epiphones were considered to be a step down from the Korean ones for the first year or two, but really by this point while some collectors still prefer the MIKs (here's hoping - I have one I'm planning to sell in a few months!), the Chinese ones are very nice guitars indeed. Personally, I have a slight preference for the Tokai - I find they tend to have better resale (YMMV, just my experience), better range of chocie of finish if you buy new rather than Epiphone (cosmetic preference, of course, but I'm just *so* over figured wood and bursts.... I'm a solid colour man nowadays). Tokai also laways look closer to a "real" Les Paul to my eye, as they don't deliberately make the headstock shapel ook markedly different or things like that the way Gibson do (obviously Gibby know there's a chunk of the market will pay out the money for the Gibson that might be happy with the Epi if it had the "right" headstock and a "MIC Gibson" type brand). But either, all other things being equal, will be a decent LP type. It would also be worth your while looking into the Vintage V100 model range. Cracking guitars with Wilkinson hardware; I lean to the view they're probably the best value LP type on the market at the minute, and at least sonically / tonewise, imo they can readily hold their own against the top end Gibsons at several grand a pop.

With their three price band rtanges, Gretsch are now playing a blinder. I've never had a Gretsch because of the megabucks cost of the Pro range, but the 5xxx Electromatic ones are really very nice indeed now - and, like Fender, Gretsch themselves show them enough respect not to push them as 'cheapos'. Even the 2xxx Streamliners aren't so bad - if i was looking for one I knew I wanted to rewire / fit with new pups and whatever, basis for ap rojec,t one of those could be the birdy. I'm currently GASing badly myself for the LE lefty G5240 in blue with the trem..... My number one next purchase was going to be a Player Strat, but I think this has jumped it in the queue..... Course, they'll likely not be around any more by the time I sell off a load of gear to afford it, but....

It's a nicer headstock, too. Not that that should matter, but....

Those Vintyage VS6s are really impressive. I used to play a lot with a guy who owned one, and I found it every bit the equal of the Epiphone models, though they sell for much less.

Remidns me of the Kramer semi with the diamond 'f holes' that Dave Grohl played for a bit. Doesn't a guy from Queens of the Stone Age also play a semi now? THen there was Malcom Young.... so this type of thing has a bit of hard rock pedigree. I've only owned Tanglewood acoustics, but I have handled a few of thyeir electrics and they are always impressive for the money.

And me.

Is that the model that's slightly smaller in the body than most Gibby semis? Looks great. Certain guitars to my eye just look far better with a Gretsch on them, to the point where it's worth donig purely for cosmetic reasons. (Also good for rebalancing a neck-heavy SG! :-) ).

Ah, Robby Krieger - surely one of the most famous and yet simultaneously under-rated players.... I love a bit of the Doors, have done ever since 'discovering' them when the film came out and a lot of their stuff was rereleased way back in 1991. I even once wrote a GCSE coursework essay about Jim Morrison, but that's another story. Fun Doors trivia: most unlikely Doors fan out there? John Lydon.

All wood is, ultimately, bio-degradeable. Unless you leave it in a damp basement / attic or bury it under compost for six months, I doubt you'd need to worry.... One of the big acoustic makers was experimenting with bamboo for acoustic tops a few years ago - I think it was Yamaha? I'd like to give it a try. Sustainable is good. Leo Fender would have probably tried it - for all folsk these days fetishise his "tonewoods", Leo just used what was cheap. Pine, ash, alder....

Interesting. My first guitar was a Kay acoustic, which looked a lot like one of those Gibson dreadnought styles with the twin, hippy / flowery scratchplates. Kay were considered a sort of also-ran model I gather back in the days when Japan only / mostly made entry-level stuff, but that said a lot of those guitars wre quirky and kinda cool and different. You'd likely pay a lot more today for an Eastwood replica should Jack White or the likes get into one! This looks like a fun one to play.

Very cool. Reminds me a bit of when Taylor built a guitar out of palette wood just to prove that the build quality mattered more than so-called "tone wood". This sort of thing is going to become more important going forward, given environmental concerns. I am reminded a little too of the Switch brand guitars that were made from plastic polymer. THe possibilities there are something. Wheres with organic components you have to accept a certain level of variance, with these you could vary the composition to switch up the body sound, and then guarantee that one will sound the same as the one next to it. The thing will be convincing the luddite guitar player market - I remember being on Harmony Central when the Variax first appeared, and the mockery was vicious. One guy bought one and half of them fell over themselves to be among the first six dozen to post "enjoy your toy". Always thought that was ironic, given ho much more open to the new bassists are. Me, I'd love to have the option of a cool plastic body for my Strat (hell, plastic is what the pups are mounted in already.....). Enviro-friendly plastic, natch....

Been seeing these on eBay recently, and they look lovely. My existing Tele is a CIJ 71RI which I adore. I'd love to have a second one in a more 52 spec, but can't really justify the spend. At well shy of £300, these start to look very sexy, especially if they match up at least to the Squier Classic Vintage series, which I've previously been eying-up, but still find expensive at around £400, given I'm an old fart who remembers when you could buy a Japanese Fender Tele for three hundred, and who bought my US Std Strat new for just over £500 (granted, in 1994!).

I'm not the technophobe that some are, but I like to have an idea of new tech before I go there.... My main amp is still one of the original Blue-Cloth Vox Valevetronix, the big AC30 sized one. Lovely beast, and In especially love using it with the built-in attenuator. Still, I'd also like something more portable for out and about, headphones, office and such, and I've been considering the MV series for this. Were I to have the chance to gig again, I'd likely pair it with a large tweed speaker cab for a 50s American aesthetic. (In truth, I'd be tempted to repalce the VT with this set-up, but it's such al ovely, flexible old beast, and no longer in production). Anyone tried these? Hoe do the clean and Vox ones compare? I like my clean tones to sit just on the edge of breakup; it sounds like the 'clean' one might be just a bit too clean for me? I have no aversion to pedals for dirt, but I'd like an amp that can have that clean-just on the edge of dirty sound that I associate with early rock'n'roll and rockabilly (think, e.g. 'Brand New Cadillac', or Tran Kept a' Rollin').

Worth noting, perhaps: Strats have a very distinctive sound, whereas when you listen to the first two Zeppelin albums, there are tracks where nobody can tell whether Page is playing a Tele or a Paul, and he can't remember. While it makes little logical sense, it took me years and actually owning a Tele to realise that the sound I thought I wanted from an LP (basically the Steve Jones NMTB sound) I can actually get far better from a Telecaster in my hands!

Depending on how fragile his nascent masculinity is, I seem to recollect that Daisy Rock (branded as 'girl guitars', but actually very decent instruments in their own right) were designed to have narrower board and slimmer necks, and overall be lighter, with the ladies in mind. There are certainly models I'd like in their range, like the Retro H - , or the budget-Ric vibes of the Bangles sig model: I seem to remember first seeing a Squier Vista Series Supersonic in my local guitar store in 1997, desperately wanting one, and going so far as to trying to see if it would work 'Hendrixed' (this was the dark era in which Fender was as crap as everyone else at offering lefties)..... my recollection is that I found the 24" scale neck very cramped by comparison to my US Std Strat (a 94 model). Might be good or small hands. If all you want is to get him started on the 'music is fun' thing, there's always the strumstick - https://strumstick.com ; Ukelele is a cheaper option.

IMO, owning both, not *hugely* in th neck - the bigger variation I find is in the bridge. A Tele bridge is much ballsier imo; more in yer face, whereas the Strat is quite polite and has to bed pushed harder to play angry. The real gem of the Tele for me, which cannot in any way be replicated on a Strat, is the middle position with both pups on. That's heavenly.

The Corvus always somehow put me in mind of a cut-down Ovation Breadwinner:

I don't know, I think that variety with high-end quality and reliability probably appeals to a lot of guys who do the pub residency / wedding act thing (especially in the duo format that government regulation rendered the norm some years ago - though the last I heard that had changed again?) . Tell you what, though - a resonator version would be cool af. Doubt I'll get the chance to play one, though - this is exactly the sort of thing they never make clouty-handed.

Yamaha have always produced remarkably good stuff at the cheap end; a lot of people's first guitar, especially acoustics has been a Yammy that was cheap - but didn't necessarily sound it. If anything, I wonder if that's why they're not more widely-loved at the top end, because everyone thinks of them as "great cheap guitars" and so the spendier ones get overlooked?

So.... are you saying you want it to *sound* but not *look* like a Strat? I was going to suggest Brandoni in N London if you wanted a non-Fender product (I have one of their P basses and it is beautiful), but they don't stock so much in the way of a superstrat. Main thing is a decent set of single coils; for me, it's not really a Strat-type once you put HBs in there.... (highly subjective, I know!).

That does seem an odd inclusion with this. I could see it more if it was styled a bit more.... rawk, but for something very acoustic-styled, it would surely have been more logical to go for something like a built in reverb or tremolo, maybe echo/delay. Drive does seem an odd part of the package, especially as its the one thing that pretty much all players have already. That said, I can see where they might be coming from with this if the aim is to create a guitar for a covers band that need to be able to go through the house PA.

Bought and sold a few cheap copies over the years to try different neck shapes and pups, but the one I still have is my US Standard from 1994. Saved for two years to afford it, ordered it in July that year. It had to come in from the States as I wanted a lefty three tone burst with rosewood board that neither the shop in Belfast nor Arbiter in London had in at the time. I remember picking it up on the 25th anniversary of Hendrix performing at Woodstock (the rosewood / burst choice was a direct Hendrix influence at the time). Still got it. If ever I was in the position where money was no object, I'd have Fender make me a new neck with a slightly narrower nut and soft-V profile; I always found it just a tiny bit wide for optimum comfort. It also has the old, blocky saddles they put on the two-point trem back then. Ugly as sin, but I liked to keep the old boy all-original so I keep them on there. Funnily enough, it always sounded a bit too "polite" somehow back when, but it has aged beautifully. That dreadful anemic look the maple used to have back then has also faded to a nice, light amber hue now. Lovely old axe with a lot of mojo, and in beautiful condition as I never really gigged. Time has come that (once I've sold some bits to fund it) I want a stablemate with a maple board; failing the availability of a left handed Classic Player 50s in LPB (never a spec offered), I foresee a Player Series in tidepool coming into my life within the next eighteen months... hopefully with a matching Player P bass too.

Interesting concept. I remember when the Variax first came out and all sorts of gearheads would line up to sneer at it and call it a 'toy'. This looks more conventional. I can see it being very cool for a session player to take for recording if it's got the sounds nailed, tough for live performance, in all honesty I doubt the average audience member really registers anything more than clean or dirty. Still, for the player woh wants a wide range of sounds in one guitar, I can see it having its uses.

Pub rates sound about right for a small members club, if what you mean is something in the old working man's club mould. If you're talking Soho or the Groucho type primate members' club, I'd up it. Cutting them a good deal (without undervaluing yourself - it's amazing how many people these days can't see the value in live performance and think a band should cost what a DJ does) might help ensure regular bookings, I'd have thought.

I was on Harmony Central for many years, but broke the habit when they changed the software and I could no longer log in. Tried contacting the management there, but their system wouldn't let me do that either because I wasn't logged in.... gave up in the end. Scanned it a while back, and it still seemed to be the same, hard right macho bollocks anyhow, so I decided no loss and moved on here. This place being UK-based is a huge plus, especially as the UK guitar mags are generally just too pricey to buy every month now (and still far to full of stuff I either can't afford or get excited about only to see the inevitable "no left handers".....).