EdwardMarlowe

Interesting concept, the thinline dreadnought. Never seen one before, but the logic seems to stack up: thinner but wider, probably has the same volume inside as some smaller guitars.... The impression I have is that the top is about the tone, the depth gives more in the way of volume. The worst acoustic I ever played in terms of tone was a Martin -one of those Martin backpackers. There was just something.... off.... about the sound, which I always figured had to do with the tiny, oddly-shaped top. Me, I'd love to see an acoustic jumbo with a 2.5" deep body and f holes instead of a traditional acoustic soundhole. Not a style you see around these days outside of specialist jazz archtops, but I think it would be cool. Somehow a budget version appeals more than a high end type because it would be closer to the scuzzy guitars played on those early blues and proto-rock and roll records.

That's definitely the ideal, but I think it's a bit of a vicious circle, really: online places are able to sell cheaper, so a lot of people buy from them, so more bricks and mortar go out of business, so more and more of us have to go online as that's the only option.... With better stuff, it worries me less as the instrument is much more likely to have had some proper attention, as distinct from buying budget bottom line where a lot of places will sent it out without unboxing, or even have it drop-shipped. I think the fact that the private second-hand market has been so taken over by online sales has also helped to normalise it. Course, I am perhaps less freaked out by this (even if I agree it's not ideal) because being left handed I've so often hand to commit to buying something without having seen it. Before I bought my US Std Strat in 1994 - and after two years of saving for it - I found one with a maple board (I wanted rosewood) in a store in Belfast. That was the sole example I'd had the chance to play before I ordered mine, and was financially committed such that once it arrived, unless there was an obvious fault, that was it. Also worth noting that the Distance Selling Regulations (unless or until they are thrown on the post-Brexit bonfire) mean that if you order something from a store online and don't like it, you are legally entitled to return it without having to give any reason as long as you do it within seven working days. Yes, if there's no fault and it is what you ordered you have to pay for that return postage, BUT for a lot of folks that might be worth the gamble over the old situation where you love something in the shop but get it home and try it with your own gear, and it's a dud...

All depends what you're after sound-wise, though the most impressive I've encountered was the Fishman Blend, which from memory combined an under-saddle with a mic-based one tucked under the soundhole for the best of both varieties. Unless you want to go for a dedicated amp, I'd also suggest a decent stomp-box style DI/processor. A friend had one some years back that was an Award Session Gordon Giltrap signature model that was very impressive indeed.

Aha! Yeah, sounds like it's a function of the headphone jack and the direct line-out being one and the same. Interesting! I wonder how many people buy these used (or don't read the manual when it comes new) and think there's a fault in it! Nice design once it's explained - be interesting to compare the sound in phones with an otherwise identical amp with a regular headphone socket...

That does sound odd! There must be a reason for it, though, if it's designed that way!

As memory serves, these were designed so they could be used either as an amp on their own, or as a pre-amp (I believe May's original is exclusively a pre-amp). Could some wiring quirk around that be why the headphones work oddly that way?

Which size is the Supro amp second from right on the shelf there? I'm seriously considering the 1 watt model once I've sold a bunch of stuff....

Honestly not sure. I'll tell you one thing I've really grown to dislike, though: cutaways on an acoustic guitar body. Purely a cosmetic thing. Same as I don't like the look of the neck angle from the player's pov on a Les Paul, or a slimmed-down neck joint on the back of a Strat, or a 22nd fret on a Fender style. Some of these are not dealbreakers, but I really wouldn't want an acoustic with a cutaway.

What I always liked about Cobain was how his playing served the song rather than dominated it. That's something I prize as when I listen to music I want to hear a band working as a whole - I'm just not interested in listening to one part dominating the whole and drawing all the attention, all the time.

The Mooer series are really cool - http://www.mooeraudio.com/product/Pre-amp-18 If I were looking at playing out again, I'd be tempted to pick up a couple of those plus the respective power amp pedal, and either use those with a monitor direct into the PA, or I suppose use a nice 1 or 2 x12" cab with them. A lot easier and lighter than lugging a tube amp around!

I can think of a few guitars that would give a smaller or narrower neck option, though most will be pricier. The Bonnie Raitt Strat had a pretty narrow neck (designed to her original, and in particular with female players in mind as they tend to have smaller hands, and Raitt wanted to attract more women to guitar). Johnny Ramone's Mosrites had narrower than average necks, which he liked because he played almost exclusively barrre chords. A number of Fenders and Squiers are short-scale, including Duosonics, Mustangs, and Supersonics. Alas, all of these will be pricier than OP's set budget, even used, BUT.... Squier have now introduced the Bullet Mustang HH, with a 24" scale and somewhat smaller neck like all Mustangs / Duosonics: https://www.fender.com/en-US/squier-electric-guitars/mustang/bullet-mustang-hh/0371220548.html https://www.fender.com/en-US/squier-electric-guitars/mustang/bullet-mustang-hh/0371220548.html My first inclination, TBH, would be to find a way around it and gradually get used to the "normal" necks as it won't limit your choice of guitars so much going forwards. THat said - and speaking as a left handed player - a limited choice is always better than giving up, so if it makes that much difference...

Interesting to read this experience with your equipment. My church is a large, Georgian building, and when it comes to the hymns, if you listen very closely, the balcony are just a fraction of a second ahead of the main seating area in the ground floor, owing to the organ pipes being up on the balcony. It's a fascinating delay if you notice it - though you have to be listening out carefully for it or you wouldn't notice. These aspects of the relationship between the physical space and the player's equipment are fascinating, imo.

I rather liked the bass that was a sig model for ones of the guys in Blink 182, I think? It was a J bass body and neck, but with a single P-bass pickup and pots. A real 'could have been'. That sort of thing is fun. I don't think I've ever been completely put off a guitar I'd otherwise have liked but for the name association... Oh, though.... There is that Lowden "budget" (for them) model that's branded a 'Sheeran' Guitar... Eh.

Those look like really nice little amps. How are you finding the - "microtubes", isn't that what they call them? - compare to 'regular' tubes? I've read a lot about them, but not had the chance to try one. Did sound like an interesting evolution of the technology, though - especially if they could develop them to fit into an amp built for standard tubes.

Interesting guitar. I have a couple of Westones which I plan in due course to sell. They're not the most fashionable style these days, but Matsumoko made guitars are starting to develop something of a cult following, so the value is slowly picking up. The wide, flat neck is definitely something that isn't entirely for me - though I'm told it's great for eighties-style shred stuff like Vai and Satriani and such. The active boost engaged on my Westone Thunder I-A, and it sounds fantastic, like a great Les Paul or SG "should" to my ear (in my hands, they always sound like mud). Good bonus them taking pp3 batteries as well - this modern trend at the high end (see e.g. the US Acoustasonics) to have a guitar charge an inner battery like a phone has too much potential to go wrong, imo... With the eighties retro thing having been fashionable in almost all other areas for so long, it's only a matter of time imo before these Matsumokos become hugely sought after. KNowing my luck, their value will sore the week after I sell mine!

Nice. I've not played any of the new Epiphones since they changed the headstock ,but it does seem clear that they are pushing upwards in the market; if all I read is true, they are closer these days to the lower-end of the Gibson line than ever. The studios have a nice, clean look to them. I always liked white in an LP, reminds me of Steve Jones' Never Mind the Bollocks LP (a 1972 Custom, that one - maple neck and all!).

I'm not entirely opposed to the concept. I'm not big on Les Pauls, but they're still the original signature model... There are some nice features I've seen come out of sig models over the years; I'd have loved a Jimmy Vaughn Strat if they'd have made a left-hander, and even moreso a Johnny Ramone Mosrite. They can be limiting - it is, after all, a guitar that has been specifically designed to suit another player - but all dome and said they do often produce a guitar that is that bit different from the other versions on the market, and that sort of variety is always welcome imo.

To me it's only a Telecaster if it has a three saddle bridge. All else is voodoo, in a *bad* way. But yeah, it's always nice to see some new ideas. I particularly like it when new ideas also come in a retro package.

Fender's strategy has been very clever in many ways, imo. Why fight to have the market recognise your Gretsch copy as just as good as Gretsch when instead you can just buy Gretsch and sell Gretsches?

I've always stuck to the view that a budget guitar - as long as it's half-decent - will sound better with a great amp than a high end guitar with a budget amp. A lot depends on what you're looking for of course. Once you get past the basic of a guitar or an amp being solidly built enough to be durable - and the guitar feeling good when being played - it all becomes about subjective differences in look and sound. My little 20w Squier Amp I bought for £39 in 1998 (and which is still kicking around, for all the others that have come and gone), back in the days before switchable wattage and when my old Fender Performer 1000 (now long gone) was just too loud when my parents were in, is solid, reliable, and has never let me down. It does everything an amp needs to do - picks up movement from the string via the pickups in the guitar, and turns them into a sound. Not many, likely, are going to choose that sound over a boutique tube amp sound, but what you're paying for there in the end in a tangible sense is the difference in the look of the amp, and the sound. I do think that the amp has something more of an effect on the sound than the guitar - 60/40, 70/30 amp/guitar? Maybe. With guitars, I don't tend to struggle to find a sweet spot. It helps that budget guitars are getting better all the time. Also, my aesthetic preferences swing firmly to Fender styles, and solid colours over 'natural' finishes. I dislike fancy woodgrain finishes and such. This does very much mean that I can find guitars that do everything I want in the Fender Mexican range, or equivalent. The only real limiting factor that often pushes me beyond budget is that many of the guitars I really like simply aren't available left-handed below a certain price. If I had a grand to spend on a guitar and an amp, I'd be looking at a guitar around £400-£450ish, and an amp in the region of £550-600. My current amplifier is a Vox Valvetronic AD120VT- the big, ol' blue cloth original with the 2x12", looks like an AC30. In due course I'm going to sell it on. Sounds fantastic, but I really only use one or maybe two of the Fendery sounds on it. As I don't these days play out (and much as I don't like to think it, probably never will again, now in my late forties), it's just not ideal for me any longer. I even have the rare VC12 footboard for it, which will also be sold. The plan is to replace it with a small tube amp. In an ideal world, I'd love a tweedy Fender Pro Junior type 15watter, but I know I need something smaller. I'm going to push the boat out and pick up one of these Supro 1watters in the nice tweed finish: In the event I ever played out again, I'll either look into the bigger version of this Supro, or I'll go the route of those pedal-amps. I'm about to embark on the task of selling off two third to three quarters of my guitars (I've owned around fifteen over the years, currently have about twelve), cutting it back to just the US Strat, the CIJ Tele.... and *maybe* the Epi Les Paul (though the Epi staying is predicated on not being able to sell it for a decent price, I'm really quite over Les Pauls tbh. Love the sound of them played by other people, but that sound, it turns out, only comes to my hands via a Tele....). I'm planning then on using some of the cash realised this way to pick up a few new guitars. The ones I have my eye on are a Godin 5th Ave archtop, Gretsch 5240, Fender Player Strat in Tidepool, Vintage V52, and *maybe* a Gretsch 2622 if I can get away with it.... I might actually reverse the Gretsch order, though, as the 2622 in gunmetal is really calling me. I'm seeing it with some red and white pinstriping on... I'd love one of the Tidepool Player P basses as well. Going to be keeping my Brandoni P Bass, which is a three toneburst with rosewood (matches my old US Strat nicely). Suffice it to say my "dream guitars" nowadays are all pretty much budget models. If we won the crazy-money lottery win thing, I'd maybe think about a couple of top end Gretsches from the 6xxx series, though even then I'd probably want the cheaper models if I ever did get into playing out again. TL/DR: I'm a total advocate of buying a decent guitar and a great amp.

I tend to find if you want something that sounds classic and not too "metal", as a rule it's best to avoid anything sold as "distortion" and go instead for "overdrive". Over the years I've found quite a few I like, and of which any decent clone should do the job - the Ibanez Tube Screamer, the Klon Centaur, Danelectro did a nice classic overdrive in their range of metal-bodied pedals. About twenty years ago a friend and I went pedal shopping to find her a nice overdrive pedal. We tried everything on the market at every price, and eventually narrowed it down to the Boss Bluesdriver and the Marshall Bluesbreaker II. In the end she bought the Marshall because they both gave the same great sound she wanted, but the Marhsall was half the price. These days, I'm fond of the mini-pedals from the likes of Donner and TC electronics. cheap, solid, and so far (although I'm not taking them to gigs and stamping on them every night) completely reliable.

Big money. It's interesting though that a lot of established companies who haven't gone for the retro trend before now (if this was just chasing what's popular on the market, they'd have done it a decade ago) are now it seems starting to bring out their own riff on the classic Fender designs. Personally, I think it's great. I really like how Ibanez have done a bunch of these that are very clearly Fender in their DNA, yet still very distinctly Ibanez' take on it. It seems to me that the Strat and Tele styles are now such established classics that it's like a dreadnought or a parlour guitar... I'm just not now someone who I think will ever drop GBP1600 and such on a guitar, BUT if I stumbled across a lefty of one of these models I'd definitely give it a go. I've always been impressed by the quality of Ibanez guitars I have handled, even if they aren't my bag in features / look. As to the trem, for me the true joy of a Tele, and what makes a Tele a Tele is the three saddle bridge and the pup mounted therein. I do like that they have thought to mount the pickup in a metal surround here. It's almost like a modern version of a Tele with a Bigsby, kinda, sorta. Not for me, but I can see it appealing to many folks. The fixed bridge version appeals more to me. Trems I like visually on a Strat or anything with a Bigsby, but actually using them I can take or leave. For whatever reason, finger vibrato seems to come more naturally to me.

It was a long time ago, but if memory serves, I did both without any particular problem (save wait time from the US).

My Epi LP is a 1998 Korean; back then the more traditional Gibson tuners were still on them. These Grovers were a common mod at a time (for "real" Gibson too, I seem to recall); Epiphone switch to them as standard across much of the range at some point after 2000 - I remember it being seen as an 'upgrade', if less traditional in looks. The Chinese factory opened in 2006, and production in China and Korea overlapped for a bit - I think the last of the Korean guitars were built by 2009. As you'd expect, a lot of the people who used to say the Korean Epiphones were rubbish imitations of the US guitars would now tell you that the Korean ones are the ones to seek out, and are far superior to the Chinese ones.... (I've seen similar over the years with varying production moves across Fender and Squier). There are any number of guitar forums online where you'll hear about one beating another. Best as I can make out, Chinese QC was spottier than it had been in Korea in the first few years, but they quickly got up to speed. Yours would have been a "Les Paul Standard" in Gold Top finish. Back in the day, there was much less distinction between different models, different tops and such ax there is now - mine was a Standard when bought, it would now be considered a "Plus Top" and a few quid more expensive for it. Very decent guitars; the HBs are a touch muddy for my tastes, and mine has the tone knobs whacked hard in the treble direction every time it gets plugged in. If I was going to get serious with it, I'd probably switch out the pups for HB sized p90s, add a Bigsby, and rewire the pots so as to have one master tone and a master volume alongside the individual volume for each pup, Gretsch style. As it is, I'm kinda over Les Pauls. I'm in two minds about selling it, but fi the suddenly started reaching £500, it's be out the door sharp... Long term, the interesting thing is what will happen with the value of guitars like yours and mine that have the older headstock. I don't think it will ever be collectable - just too many of them around - but I'm hoping the market price isn't forced down now that Epi have a design closer the Gibson (even if they still refuse to go the whole hog and put a proper Gibby shape on it).

For electric, the first strings I bought were Ernie Ball Super Slinkys, but I learned over time I could never get on with nines - always snapped the high E. Spent several years playing nines with the high E switched out for a ten, before moving on to tens where I have stuck ever since. Ernie ball for years, though I've also bought D'addario, Rotosound, and a few no-names as and where price was better. On acoustic, I can't honestly remember what I bought last - I think it was D'addario? I bought Dean Markleys for the first few years, but some time in the... I think it was the late 90s? - they had a whole string of pretty sexist to outright misogynist ads they ran in the guitar press, particularly the US mags (the absolute nadir being one romanticising a rock and roll guy cheating on his wife on the road), which was enough to put me right off buying them again. In truth, I've never found any difference in my sound - or had any significant difference from brand to brand in terms of quality. Tuned in and stretched, they're all much of a muchness to me. I did like it when some had different coloured beads to distinguish which string was which at a glance; D'Addario I remember combining this with putting all the strings in a single baggie and a cardboard outer package, selling it as greener, alongside not acid-washing their strings. I think that was first seen in their ad campaign sometime in the late 90s, shortly predating the Gibson 'Smartwood' series, if memory serves. The big deciding factor for me with strings remains price. Typically go back to the EB all other things being equal, habit, I suppose, but there's nothing I'd pay more for. I also don't change my strings unless I break 'em or have had to remove them to give the guitar a good clean. At some point over the next couple of months my CIJ Tele 71RI is due a damn good clean, and that could well include changing the strings for the first time since I bought it in 2006.... My Squier bass still has its original strings that were on there when I bought it in 2001. In fact, of my three basses, I've never changed a string on any of them.... not even so much as bought a spare set. That would be different if I played out now, I'm sure, but my punk rock and roll band never happened, and I'm too old now to do more than regret the death of my rock star dreams. Bah humbug. As to whether string gauge makes a difference, I chanced across this video some time ago and found the experiment fascinating - not least after all these years of the received wisdom being that the heavier your strings are, the better your "tone". (Which seems to belong to the same set of mythologies that wank on forever about the tonal effect of the wood type in a Strat body, yet pay zero attention to the, uhm, plastic scratchplate which is the only thing the pick-ups are in direct contact with....): For those of us who play clean or with only a touch of traditional overdrive, I lean to the view that playing comfort is the most important thing; for those who like BRUTALZ METAL DIZTORSHUN, this could be a game changer in terms of having that bit of clarity in the sound.