EdwardMarlowe

Strongbow and Black, down the Northgate.... that brings back memories of our pre-formals!

I hear you. I can well appreciate the quality of high end acoustics, but in all honesty (even moreso than electrics) however beautifully made they are, a lot of them just feel somehow soulless in my hands. I suspect in part that's down to the realisation as I get older how much of the music I really love was written and recorded on "budget" stuff. I sometimes think we hobbyists get hung up on "better / best" gear in a way that working musicians don't, at least not in the same way. Those little Gretsches really appeal to me; the only reason I don't already have one is they don't make 'em left handed. I've seen a few converted (peeling off the scratch=plate sticker I *might* be able to manage myself, but I'd be wary of messing with the nut....), but with the Recording King available lefty, it seems a better idea. What's the state pf play with Lowden these days? I remember all sorts of rumours when George left, then there was Avalon(?), then he was making "George Lowden Guitars" - is he still involved at all now? Also stumbled across the facebook for Kitara electrics - they look really nice. Beyond what I can justify these days, but definitely something I'd be looking at if I was in that market.

Oh, yeah - way back in the day. I wish I'd discovered Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard much earlier, I'd love to be able to play boogie woogie like that now, but I don't think I have the patience / time / coordination any more... That is the big bonus of the web - for kids so motivated these days, it's a great way of finding cool old / niche stuff. (Mind you.... old..... *our* music..... I taught kids this year - final year undergraduates that will be graduating next month - that were born in 2002.... Kurt Cobain was dead by then over three times as long as Hendrix and Morrison were when we were born. Nirvana is like Elvis for them, in terms of relative timeline. This gives me the willies..... I make it a point to tell them their youth disgusts me. They think I'm joking...)

Heh! Sounds like there's a bit more of an interest developing there - bodes well for the birthday! Thanks - that does look a manageable size. That's the line I've been looking at, thinking of going for the flightcase one for ease of storage. All my pedals / strings/ tools / bits are currently stored in a flightcase box that was once set up for a drill; my dad picked it up somewhere in the early 90s, and we sliced out the foam internals so it's a foam-lined big box now, great thing. Almost like a record box, handy keeping everything safe in my chaotic flat!

OHHHHHHH I just discovered on the Googles that this is indeed a five minutes with a screwdriver job..... I also note I discovered Harley Benton via this forum. When Mrs Marlowe catches up with you lot of enablers, there's going to be hell to pay....

Welcome! Which HB is that? I have my eye on a couple, for different reasons - the nice Custom parlour type, and the Dirty Thirties Recording King for a rude and rasty old school blues sound...

Hope it goes well! I tried to interest my late cats in plucking the strings years ago (I had these crazy notions of trying to record them, sample it into something...) but couldn't get the into it at all. Not tried this with the dog, but she'd probably try to eat the guitar. Bless her, she's enthusiastic about *everything* but about as subtle as half a brick.... When I was twelve, Iasked for a keyboard for Christmas. My parents spent a small fortune one something really nice, but despite several years of piano lessons I just never took to it. I think the problem, ultimately, was I got big into guitar music, then didn't have the motivation for keys. Could be with a n electric around if that's the stuff she listens to, she'll take to it more than the acoustic. Is she still a bit young for Riot Grrl? WE're surely due a revival of that and the grunge end of things now, aren't we? All the 90s stuff I've been hearing about the kids getting into now has been more the Britop end of things, but we're doubtless one more episode of The Gallaghers away from that getting old....

Is that one of the Harley Benton boards? I was looking at those, but couldn't get my head round the sizes, whether they'd be too big... that one looks like it would be a good size for me, though... Used to pick up pricier (but still production run) pedals, but these sort of minipedal Donner / Mooer / Moskey are my favourties now. The Moskey Golden Horsey is a cracking little Klon Clone. No idea how close it is to the original (never had a chance to actually try one of those), but it works for me. Too a long time to learn it, but what works best for me is just a *little* dirt, so it's not quite clean (you know, like when a radio isn't *quite* on the right frequency... just a bit...off.... ), and then it gets dirtier the hard you hit the strings... The MGH is great for that.

I remember Boss did one in the 90s that had a bunch of inbuilt stuff, then you could clip in three outboard Boss pedals to tweak it to your preferences (more modulation, more varied drives, whatever). I think it was aimed at players who already had a bunch of pedals and could be persuaded to try midi.... not sure it ever took off, though?

Where do folks find these smaller pedal boards? I was looking at the Harley Benton one with the flightcases on Thomann, but they seem awfully big for what I had in mind (about five small pedals, most of them around the size of the Golden Horsey).

It's be interesting for us southpaws to hear what is there - though without know what "local" means....

Those Zipps looked fantastic. Danos are still around, though they seen only to do limited runs of limited designs these days (and used ones are shockingly pricey - I wish I'd bought a U2 RI in Camden in 199 when I saw it new for £150; now they go for twice that, at least, used often.) I wonder how long it will be before we see a Harley Benton take on the Dano concept? If their (lovely) Mosrite models have done well, that might be a logical next step...

Anyone using the Harley Benton Tube 5?

That Fishman operation looks the business! In terms of one of these over an electric, for me the appeal is purely the combination of that vaguely Gretschy look (well, if you squint at it....), and the acoustic sound, which will be different than you'll get from magnetic pups in a regular electric guitar. Course, past a certain point, in a live context few in the average audience will notice the sound difference or care, but...

Heh, yeah - I know you're not a fan. In this case, I'm sort of eying up one of the HB Jazzmasteralikes; they come as stock with a Gibson style bridge and tailpiece two-piece arrangement. I think the trem piece would give it a much nicer aesthetic flair. The other option, of course, is to ditch that for a one-piece bridge, and find some nice cosmetic studs to screw into the holes for the tailpiece! If it were workable, a pair of dice or something on there could look cool...

Reverb is a start, though the completed listings on ebay is often more realistic.

I gather that the Dusenberg Les Trem II, an aftermarket trem design that gives a vaguely Bigsbyesque look as a straight swap for an 81.5mm tailpiece, fits exactly onto a Harley Benton HB35. I have my wye on a different HB with a G style bridge and tailpiece... You see where this is going.... Anyone know if all HBs that have this arrangement use the same spec brideges and tailpieces? The guitar I have in mind is only about 130% the price of that trem, but that sort of mod feels much less uneconomical when it's so reversible...

I think if I was going to get seriously into that sort of vibe, I'd be tempted by something like the ESP LTD TL6: Comes in a range of colours. The natural looks a lot more acousticy; the colours, especially solids, start to take it more in a Gretsch sort of direction. The left handed option comes in black alone; I'd be tempted to get one of those and have it pinstriped. Course, if the point is to have the visual of an acoustic for the incongruity with a brutal rock sound, that's not the way to go. Something with a piezo would likely be easier to manage from a feedback perspective, as you could get one of those foam soundhole inserts. Not sure anything similar exists for fitting round a soundhole pup...

I know! I looked to see if there was a way to report it to ebay, but no dice. Pretty sure they used to have something that said "price gouging" in their report categories. I would get it if it was a rare / oop colour, or they'd stopped doing them left handed or something, but the model colour and all is on the Thomann website for about £100 or more less than the start price there.... Hate the thought of someone getting caught out by that, especially some young kid saving up for a guitar, or somebody's granny or whomever.

Nice - that combination of the Western US military star and a black Tele puts me in mind of Joe Strummer, Punk Rock Warlord. My HB MR Classic arrived recently, this is is being unboxed: Is it just me, or are some people on eBay going a bit mad with these? I've just seen one of the F-Offset-types HB on eBay with a start price not far off double what Thomann has them in stock for!

Interesting thought - I don't doubt it. I wonder how much it's a product of things like engineers getting involved in designing guitars, and the fact that over time we've simply been able to better measure these things. Technically, at least.... I've always been wryly amused by people who'll pay big money for superior hifi equipment that yes, on paper is better, and yes, that can be objectively measured..... but when it gets to the point that the human ear can't distinguish it.... TBH, I also suspect a lot of this has to do with it being a very male-driven industry. There's a viw that all men are somewhere on the spectrum by default, and it's hard to refute that when you look at the difference between how men engage in hobbies and how women do it... Vibrato is something I'll ort of use if it's there, though mostly I'm very much a 'give the bar a wobble at the end of a number' kind of player. Fingerbending vibrato seems to come more naturally to me. I don't much miss a vibrato if it's not there. TBH, the real reason I'd love a Bigsby is just the look of the thing - it's pure art. I don't need to actually use it. Their most practical purpose imo is curing the neck dive on an SG.

Give it a go! If memory serves, that's not a million miles away from what Kim Deal did in the Breeders. FWIW, waaaaaayyy back in the early mid 90s, height of grunge days, I once plugged a Tanglewood bowlback (a TM-07NC, as memory serves) into a Fender Performer 1000 via a Sovtek-EH Big Muff. The result was.... brutal. It is a sound that will very much appeal to a particular mindset, but the hardest bit was getting the feedback under control. It really HOWLED.

I rather like the guitar. The vocals, less so. Opinions will vary on how successfully it pulls it off, but it sounds to me like it's very much Hendrix influenced. It has the emphasis on rhythm and the fuzz/ wah combination which, imo at least, became his signature sound. The really big debate is whether you put the wah or the fuzz first in the chain - and whether it makes a huge difference. Good article on that here - https://screaminfx.com/tech/wah-before-or-after-fuzz-pedal.htm FWIW, Jimi always seemed to prefer the guitar to go into the wah before the fuzz. If you want a more uniform sound, there's always autowah, though that's a more limited effect by its nature too. Not bad, just different.

This guy might be able to help with that...

A parts-assembly one would also be interesting.... As very much a Fender/Fender style man myself, I would love the idea of something in between - pre-done necks, bodies with pre-cut pup / neckpocket / bridge / et al routes, but a huge, square blank otherwise so they could be cut into a custom shape... that would be interesting. (Wonder why that's never been on the parts market before - unless I missed it?). The set-up course sounds great, too - that's something I can see me benefitting from in a big way.