EdwardMarlowe

Good to see another southpaw in the house! (One of us! One of us!) I have my old Epi LP Std hanging on the wall, this makes me think what I should do with it. It's still at the point of not being worth enough to encourage me to part with it. I'm in two minds about keeping stock, or switching the pups for some nice HB-sized P90s, and adding one of those Bigsbyesque kinda sorta trems that don't need any permanent mods.... If I do go there, I'll most likely also have it rewired for Master Tone, Master volume, and individual pickup volumes. Much more sensible than the standard arrangement, imo.... (Looking at that Antoria also makes me wonder why Gibson never played the home advantage and gave their Epiphones the "proper" headstock.... ) A black guard would look nice on the Aria, though I'd check carefully first.... might be worth looking at the feasibility of having a custom one cut, as those Stratalikes often vary just enough from a Fender/Squier part for most of the readily available options to be an awful amount of work to not quite fit.

Be interested to see how this goes. I'm no fan of the six saddle Telebridge myself; much prefer a compensated three-saddle. Makes the intonation more of a compromise, sure, but they just have a mojo for me - which I haven't ruled out being largely cosmetic. Horses for courses, I guess; I would take the original three saddle every time over a six saddle in the same way as I love a Bigsby and loathe a Floyd Rose....

Bought it? For thirty quid, you stole it. A friend had one of these years ago - surprisingly nice for what was considered a very budget model. I loved the basic design - stripped back to MT & MV, and the switch in a sensible place!

I hear you. One day I'd love to go on one of those guitar-building courses where you put it together over a couple of long weekends, building from scratch with expert tuition and guidance.... We should one day have a GuitarChat get together at one of these.... This is a fantastic project, really impressive to see it coming together. I always wanted a guitar that is somewhere between a Firebird, an RD Artist and a Squier Supersonic. Fender 68 Strat style maple net with the CBG headstock, blue sparkle body. I did always say I wanted a bolt on, but seeing this I could imagine myself wanting to go for a through neck, that's something I've never had....

Quite so. Never had much use for anything above the 15th fret myself. But then my guitar heroes are Steve and Mick Jones, Johnny Ramone, Link Wray.... not yer Satriani / Vai types(talented as they undeniably are!)

Yes, good price for this. Looks very much like the older Epiphone LP Special, which also had a bolt on neck. I vaguely recall them being considered a good modding platform. A friend had one years ago (back around 2005ish), which I remember being impressive for the money. If memory serves, those Specials had one master tone and mater volume. I see Epiphone also now do a Studio that follows the spec of the Gibson LP Studio model - at about £500 new(!). Epiphones have significantly risen in price in recent years it seems to me - thought I still reckon Gibson should have bitten the bullet long ago and created a mid-tier Gibson line a la the Fender Player series....

My money would be on it being something of Japanese origin, predating the boom in Japan becoming a source of sought-after, high quality copies of Western guitars in the mid-late 70s / early eighties. My guess would also be late 60s, and quite probably a legit Ibanez. Market value is probably very low irrespective of its qualities as an instrument (at least until the next Jack White comes along and plays one...), but always nice to have something fun and different around. Could be interesting to try recording with.

"My guitar's so bright, I gotta wear shades..." Well, it scans... Those do look fun. I'm very tempted by the Recording King Dirty 30s over at Thomann. There's something about a cheapo acoustic as long as it plays well.... won't appeal to the people who buy Lowdens and what have you, but somehow those cheapies feel a lot closer to what Robert Johnson and the likes were playing back in the day. Reminiscent of that philosophy Jack White espoused in his White Stripes days, about buying cheap guitars because they tended to be quirkier and have "character". Be interested to hear how you get on with it if you do pick one up. Of course you will also be obligated to play some of your teenage Slayer faves on it for the craic...

Hah! ON some guitars that are particularly rare to see left handed, they look odd to me too at first glance! I think this is the first Mosritealike I can recall seeing that was actually available left handed - apart from Eastwood, I think they did one?

Definitely makes me consider buying more HBs, though - including the 51-style P-Bass. Wanted oneof those for years but neither Fender nor Squier versions were ever done as lefties...

I think that's the thing, yes - I honestly cannot believe a hellish sweatshop would be able to produce this quality. I suspect it's a case of Thomann having a big enough market to do economies of scale, they're dealing direct with the factory rather than going through a brand, so fewer links on the chain needing to make a profit..... No physical shop, so none of the overheads of running a traditional retail operation. Likely also they're still in the early years of building a brand, and are in the strategy of making a smaller profit on each guitar, so people come back for more. And if they buy a case or two, and maybe an amp, a few leads and the other bits once drawn in to Thomann..... I wonder too if part of the idea is to get people into the notion of buying a new guitar online. I've always stuck to buying in person when I can, guitars being a thing that can vary, but at this price it was low risk....

So it's here! Made a trip into the office this morning. I took some unboxing photos, like the kids on Youtube: Big Box. Tag on the inner box carries the all-important LH designation. I had a nightmare the day after ordering that they'd send me a right hander by mistake... Inner Box, opened: Note they included a hex key for truss adjusments (one assumes) - a nice touch. And here we are.... a real beauty! I know I was put off for a long time by the burst being the only colour option for a left hander. In person, though, it really is lovely. I think - if all finishes were available - I'd put this in order of preference ahead of the black, probably just about equal with the white (unless they did the white in proper Johnny Ramone spec....), and behind the red and blue. So that's a pleasant surprise. Quality of fit and finish is high - shockingly so for £156, and no shipping charge. The guitar has a nice heft to it. Not 70s LP heavy, but enough to feel solid, not something you have to baby. The finish is a little 'plasticky', which to my mind is very much in keeping with the style of the original Mosrites. Too high end a classic nitro finish, for example, wouldn't feel right somehow. Hardware is nice. The machineheads seem good, nice and firm but not sticky. Pots feel good, smooth but again not "loose" or rattly like they can be on some cheap guitars. Very positive, classy feeling switch. Tuned up easily (it was only a step or so out of tune to begin with, and all strings were in tune with each other relatively speaking, which seems positive. The bridge (which I know is a commonly replaced part on the hobbyist market) is the one bit of the hardware that feels/looks a little cheap, but I'm going to leave it on there for now and let the guitar bed in a bit in a bid to let it develop its own mojo and avoid rushing to replace bits because receive wisdom says they need replaced. Once tuned up, I gave it the go-over with a few bars of purple haze and - of course - Blitzkrieg Bop and Suzy is a Headbanger. This guitar LIVES for those big, e-shape barchords. (Root sixths? Root fifths? I've lost my theory...). Acoustically, it sounds good, and I think will bed in nicely. There was a bit of rattle at first - but then I took the plastic off the neck pickup, and that disappeared. I'll have to get an amp into the office and plug it up in coming weeks, but so far signs are all good. This is the first Harley Benton I've actually handled. I've been wary of getting caught up in the hype - across a lot of hobbies and interests over the years I've seen affordable / budget stuff get hyped up only to disappoint. This is of course only one guitar, but if it is indeed typical of HBs output, then I'm ridiculously impressed. Subject to the caveat I've not yet plugged it in, like for like I'd say overall this is on a par with the very best Squiers I've ever played - and a good one of those is great. Discount the cheaper-feeling body finish (which, as I've noted, I see as part of this style of guitar's vibe anyhow, so not in any way a negative). The really big surprise - pleasantly so - is the quality of the neck. Beautifully finished, feels lovely in the hand, not a single sharp fret that I've detected. That was my real worry there. I once bought a £90 Stratalike on eBay (mainly to get a feel for a certain neck profile and style - I sold the bits on a year or two later for more than the guitar cost me, funny old market...) that had so many sharp frets, playing that neck was like playing a hacksaw blade... The closest of all the guitars I have or have owned to how nicely finished this one is is my old American Standard Fender Stratocaster, which I paid £539 for in 1994.... According to the online inflation calculator, the USD50 that Johnny Ramone spent on his first, used Mosrite in 1974 would now be about USD300, or £240 in today's money, and this really is quite the bargain. I could at this sort of price be very persuaded to pick up a second one if HB expanded the colour range in their lefties, though actually what I'd rather they do is, using this as a base, create a Johnny Ramone model based on his customised Ventures II. I've for a long time also been looking at the HB DC Junior in dirty mustard. I see the lefty of the Fat version in red is gone now, replaced by a dirty mustard finish. I'm sort of torn between the two: I hear good things about the fat neck, but the pup in that one being a tapped HB is a real negative for me - the whole point of a Junior is the single p90. It's like putting HBs in a Strat... Maybe into the Summer when I've cleared out more space at home and played a bit more there I'll look at the standard version.... My next purchase really should be a new amp (I'm planning to sell my Vox AD120VT as I just don't use more than a tiny fraction of what it does). I'll probably start with the HB tube5.... I think that'll be all the amp I'll need for the foreseeable. TL/DR - really pleased with this guitar, especially at this price. It's got me excited about playing again, which is good as I've really neglected my guitar for quite a while now, with life getting in the way...

Yes, his is very true - and the reason why I don't think we'll see the end of the traditional amp in the immediate future - though I suspect for Big Names an awful lot more of them will gravitate to playing in front of a wall of empty cabs that are just there for show... Smaller bands (and bands made up of the usual guitarluddites, of course!) will still need an amp... though if the pedals are good enough, maybe that amp might be a much lighter and simpler ss or similar than the tube monster it might once have been (luddism allowing).

Be interested to hear how you get on with that. I'm currently in Beijing for a week with work and by this point 99% of websites I normally use have been banned out here, so I'm doing a lot of online window shopping filling downtime.... Been thinking of a little, pocket-size amp that could be used with a guitar on the go, or as a speaker for my mp3 player (the latter being the more likely use out here, though as the project here flies me business class and thus I can have two hand luggage bags, I'm now having lunatic thoughts about buying a Harley Benton banjolele.....). I spotted one of these amps mentioned in an article on Guitar.com - https://guitar.com/guides/essential-guide/how-to-build-ultimate-portable-vanlife-guitar-rig/ They seem well impressed with it. Another contender for me - as I'm a sucker for its looks - is the Fender 57 Mini Twin: This little Fender has it all looks wise and would do what I want for guitar, but might not be so clever for an MP3 speaker. I'm not fussed on blutooth (I prefer a cable connection to save battery life), but I don't know how successful a 3.5mm to 6.3mm jack cable for my mp3 player into this would be....

Score on the amp! I had a "Park Son of Marshall" G10R many years ago when they were first out (I think they dropped the Park band some years ago now). Those Marshall solid staters were pretty good for a solid, rock sound. Very generous of your colleague, and a great amp to start on. Should pair very well with the LP Special.

(FWIW, I think a pedal amp that can go into the PA is also a good idea for a back-up when gigging. A decent one with which you are familiar will always be useful in case of an amp letting you down. Either plug into the PA, or a borrowed amp (on which you can just swt it up flat and let your familiar pedal do the work...).

Interesting thread. It's been a long time since I played out so I don't currently have any call for this, BUT if ever I did gig for fun, I'd be seriously looking into a pedal-based amp solution that would let me hop on the tube with a guitar case or two and an amp in my pocket. I've long suspected this sort of thing will come to replace the big amps on stage; these days (and it's been the case since the 90s, really) there's just no technical need to have a bunch of amps on stage. Of course, I'm sure there'll still be a lot of acts will switch to a non-trad amp solution while maintaining a bunch of empty cabs on-stage for the look.... FWIW, I remember reading somewhere that the guitar players in several West End shows, most notably the Buddy Holly story and I think, from memory, also the guys imitating the Shadows in Summer Holiday when it was around back when, had empty cabs on stage for the look, but were using Line6 Pods hidden out of sight for the actual sound. My feeling is we'll see more and more of this live, with "the real thing" relegated to the studio. What will be interesting to see will be how it affects the market, big amps like 100w tube stacks having originated in the days when that's how you got heard in a big venue. Now the PA can do all the work....

There will be pictures! All being well, it will arrive at my office on Tuesday; I'll see it the week after at some point. No amp there yet so it might be a bit before plug in.... unless I can turn up my old Squier 10w SS amp, and I'll take that in to stay there.... After that, the project will be to clear out my spare-room office properly, and sell enough of the current collection that I can take this one home without trouble. The sticking point remains my old Epiphone Les Paul.... I'm over Les Pauls, but this one is just a bit too nice to see for what it would go for. Id the 1998 era MIK LP Standards (with "collectable" original Epiphone headstock! ) ever start selling for enough to buy a Player Strat or Gretsch 5420, though....

After months of holding out in hope Thomann would come round and do their MR Classic Mosritealike in a solid colour, I happened to notice today they've dropped the price on the existing model to £165. Today being payday, I jumped on paypal in three and.... I'm having it delivered to the office til I can convincingly say "bigger boys made me do it"... Off on a work trip Friday, so I won't see it til earliest 5 June, but excited. All the MR Classics are markedly cheaper than they were; I hope this is them making way for new stock rather than cancelling the model. Still hoping they do a white one patterned after the Johnny Ramone Ventures II... and the blue and red ones lefty.... at this price, if I get on well with the first, I would buy one of each of those.

The connector might give some information too; East Block / Soviet guitars had a totally different jack socket arrangement than our Western norm.

Yes, my guess would be some sort of c. 1960-1977 budget guitar,possibly made in Japan, quite possibly altered in shape. One of the Buzzcocks boys played a Woolworths guitar cut up not unlike that in the early days. Looks like it could be a lot of fun if it works.

Nice. Never had a chance to playa Reverend, but they always look great. I'm a fan of that mix of design cues that look like the guitar belongs in the fifties, but isn't styled after any one specific model or even brand.

If I ever got seriously into playing country, I'd do it on one of these, just to be 'different' than the herd. Similarly, if I ever went hardcore Blues, I promised myself I'd buy a Dean ML (get rid of the FR, though!)

May be wrong - no expert, as this was never my style - but of all the Jacksons and Charvels I've seen over the years, sharkfins seemed to be a fancier trim for the more expensive options, with others in the line being more cosmetically stripped back . utilitarian. c/f Gibson.

I've not had a chance to try one as of yet. The US models are well out of my priceband. The MIM appeals a bit, but they don't do lefties (so far, the only lefty is the US made Tele shaped one). The MIM IMO has one clear winning feature over the US version, which is that it takes a 9V battery instead of an internal cell. This does mean you need to buy a couple of rechargables BUT OTOH, they are switchable so you're only ever the time it takes to switch a battery over before playing resumes, rather than having to charge the guitar. This would matter to me. Good rundown on the differences MIA v MIM here: https://blog.andertons.co.uk/labs/fender-american-vs-player-acoustasonic-telecaster Personally, I'd like to see a high end Squier version which was like the MIM without the traditional "electric" pickup. The bigger appeal for me would be its capability as an electro-acoustic; I don't have any use for the "does both acoustic and electric sounds!" option. Can see that being helpful for someone who wanted an all-singing, all-dancing guitar for covers band type work, though. I'd love to see a version with a bigsby and the magnetic pickup replaced with the sort of neck pickup you see on a traditional Jazz archtop.... Sorry, I know this isn't exactly the sort of answer you were hoping for, but might be of some value if you're looking at whether to buy one...