EdwardMarlowe

I never warmed to ZZ Top (the "showmanship" always put me off, and when I saw them on television acting as if they were the mos hilarious people the world had ever seen because the only member in the band called 'Beard' was the one who - get this - didn't have a beard, I would have cheerfully shot the lot of them), *but* Billy Gibbons is a very gifted player. I'm always impressed in interviews too how many younger names on that general scene have such good things to say about how he complimented them or mentored or encouraged them: you can always tell someone is secured in their own ability by the fact that they want to share the joy, and help others make it too, rather than talk themselves up at others' expense.

I was always impressed with GFS pickups in the past - https://www.guitarfetish.com/Stratreg-Sized_c_579.html . At that sort of price, you could order a few sets and play around with them,. They have some sort of plug and play / no-solder wiring loom available, which would let you swap around pups fairly easily to really see what your guitar likes best....

Nice find. (I'd be torn between realising the profit now and keeping it as an investment!)

Doesn't everybody?

TBH, I wouldn't think too much about it; any half decent 9s or 10s (Ernie Ball, D'addario, w.h.y.) should do the job, bearing in mind that whoever buys it will most likely turn around and rip the straight out to fit a set of their preferred strings....

I've often wondered what a HB sized p90 would sound like in one of those....

Very cool, would like to hear that!

Not had a chance to try one of these yet, but I've decided that my old US Std that I bought new in 1994 (three-tone burst, rosewood board) needs a maple board stablemate (Tidepool is calling)). Curious as to what the necks feel like. Specifically, much as I love my old Strat, the neck on a late model Squier I've had lying around feels much more comfortable to play - rounder, narrower at the nut, not the wide/flat feel of the Fender. I might one day retro fit it with one of the 50s Player type necks, but.... What's the Player like on that score? I hear it feels much more akin to the older MIM Std necks, which were typically more like the Squier?

Very nice indeed. Does he play it through a guitar or bass amp? It would be interesting hear this paired alongside a traditional bass, perhaps with this one being used to play the root notes in the form of power chords / fifths.

Thanks.

I've seen fake Epiphones in Beijing. Little surprises me!

One of those people who actually changed my life: Also a major inspiration behind my own Tele, which happens to be a CIJ 2006 71RI model. I'll post some photos of that beast another time, none to hand now...

Thanks, I'll have a look at that. I see they have a lefty Godin 5th Ave, which is a condenter,

Certainly in my limited (played a few, including a 1978 one that I wish I could have bought as a penniless undergraduate....) experience of SGs, they do sit well - I don't recall the neck dive that they were supposedly notorious for being an issue.

Interesting notion. I think there's an argument to made that the Telecaster is, perhaps, more workmanlike that the Strat, but I don't think that makes it any the lesser. Indeed, to my mind there's something much classier about something that is simpler, more refined, that somehow makes it feel more expensive. Where perhaps the budget angle comes in is that if you're wanting to sell a Tele type and a Strat type for the same money, particularly at the lower end of the price scale, the money goes further when the design is simpler - two pups not three, no trem, that sort of thing. FWIW, much as I feel there's a place for everything on their scale and that Fender do it perhaps better than anyone else in terms of multiple price-points, I often think of Squier as the closest thing to what Leo had in mind originally: giggable, easy to repair and upgrade, at a very affordable price.... I've owned Fenders from the MIA, CIJ and Squier ranges; love them all. Currently eying the tidepool Strat in the Player series.... Back to the SG, though, I totally agree it's a lovely thing - if anything, I appreciate its simplicity as classier than a fancy top LP. If I were buying an SG, I'd definitely be looking to Gibson, whereas for an LP type I tend to feel the money is better spent elsewhere these days. And yes, an SG can do anything an LP can do.... though that's probably rather more in Clapton's hands than in mine.

Still have a weak spot for the big headstocks - Hendrix thing. One day I'll buy a used, black CIJ 68RI and Hendrix it for myself....

I've always liked the single pup guitars precisely for their limitations, but then with most guitars, tbh, I'v always tended to find the one truly great sound buried in that particular instrument and then run with that....Maybe because my formative few months were on acoustic? SGs are a great punk guitar. Not sure, tbh, why LPs tended to outnumber them on the classic punk recordings, except maybe the notion some people have that an AG is a sort of stepping stone to an LP?

TBh, I don't know... I've never been a one for replacing strings all that regularly. Mostly just when they break or when the guitar needs the sort of good clean and gonig over that requires taking the existing ones off...

A good SG always sounded to me the way I wish an LP would. None of the mud I always end up finding with LPs, somehow. Though the ultimate Gibson for me would be an LP Junior, single cut.... except with a thru-neck rather than a glued-in.

On the flipside, it probably makes your signature guitar a lot more within your reach than for many! Nothing wrong with liking the classics, imo; some things are so popular as to become 'run of the mill' for good reason....

I suspect you'd get a very different list, in terms of players, depending on whom you ask. A non-player would likely reference more populist musicians like the Beatles; these days, does anyone other than guitar players really even reference Van Halen at all? For me, I'm not honestly sure which four I'd narrow it down to, but I would certainly say that there are a lot of big names in guitar world that I wouldn't pick if it were up to me to choose those who were most important to *me*. Hendrix, for sure. Johnny Ramone. Chuck Berry, and maybe..... Joe Moretti? or Link Wray.... I'm sure amore common version would have Clapton, Harrison and Page, or maybe Beck. As to the men behind the guitar as a physical instrument as well as those who defined how we play it........ sticking to the electric guitar cause it's just easier, for me the giants would be Lester Polfus, whose ideas on the solid body concept influenced Leo Fender, whose guitars and amps were played by Buddy Holly who took what had been viewed as a country guitar into rock and roll (as well as establishing the two guitars, bass and drums lineup), and Jimi Hendrix, who reinterpreted how it is played to the extent that, now closing in on fifty years after his death, he remains adirect and primary influence on current players to an unmatched degree. Maybe that's my four?

Of all the shops that came and went in Belfast over the years, my favourite was always Matchetts, near City Hall. Still a great place if I drop in when I'm over there; bought a few amps, pedals and my beloved 1994 US Std Strat (L/H) in there over the years, as well as mutliple leads, picks.... you know the drill. Since I escaped from NI, another place that opened there and is nice to drop in (good range of Tokais, from memory) is the Belfast Guitar Supplies(? Something like that) in Shaftesbury Square. Back in 2006, I wandered into the Reading branch of GuitarWorks, as they had a lefty CIJ 68 Strat and 71 Tele in the window. Sat for over an hour with a lefty friend and we played both. I loved the Strat, but I just adored the Tele. Six months later when I went back and had the money, it was still there waiting for me... Here in London, Denmark Street is still ok to wander through, but asad, sad reflection of its former self (and still crazily overpriced). Bought a coupl of guitars and things in Holiday Music in Leytonstone years ago - loved going there because they had a whole room of lefties, claimed to be the biggest stock of left handers in Europe. No idea what happened to them: they moved to Essex about ten years ago, so place you couldn't get to by public transport (I don't run a car - pointless, living in central London), and they now seem to have disappeared. PMT opened on Old Street last year; not been in there yet, but they look like they could be a good bet as I renew my interest in playing.

Depends what you want. really. I realised years ago that I don't feel any real interest in the whole 'palette of sound' thang; I prefer my guitars to be fairly simple.... Well, I mean, I like Strats, but.... There's only so many options you can load into a guitar before they become nice and everything, but most people won't use them. I guess a lot of guys buy into the Les Paul Sound thing, and don't feel the need of the other bits. I'm sure it might appeal to other people. I wouldn't buy a Gibson expecting it to sound like a Fender, but if the coil tap makes those HBs sound like Gibby's real star pup, the p90, well...

Started off with nines, later realised I preferred 10s (on electric, at least- heavier on acoustic). Largely agnostic about brand - one set of strings are much the same as the next to me. Used Ernie Balls a lot over the years, also D'Addario at one time (I liked their environmentally friendly packaging, with the strings all in one baggie and then colour-coded on the bead; later stopped buying them as I didn't care for what I saw as their overly misogynist advertising), Rotosound, or whatever was cheap. Would like to try flatwounds on guitar as I love them on bass, but so far the prices I've seen are very 'you WHAT now??'.

Knew I'd forgotten somebody important - DANIEL REY!!!