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Hah! Lucky I'd just swallowed my tea when I got to "Rickenwaffe" - not heard that one before! Yeah, they are more on the ball than anyone I've ever seen about their marks. Ric copies of any serious closeness only exist in Japan that I've ever seen... the very occasional one on ebay disappears almost immediately. I'd love a Ric solod body - a 4003 bass even moreso, but I'm resigned to the fact I'll never be able to afford one (and even then I'd struggle to justify the spend, tbh). Part of me wishes they'd do a diffusion line, A Rickensquierphone. They'd surely sell well, given their absolute nixing of the market for any other options if it's a Ric you want. (The Harely Benton options are about the only ones I've seen, and they're so deviated from the original - even if nice instruments in their own right.... you'll not see a Beatles tribute act playing them the way I've seen them use a Squier to recreate Rocky, let's put it that way...). Another part of me rather respects Ric for deciding they're happy as they are rather than just chasing the lifestyle brand market, or otherwise squeezing their property for every last penny. It was a remarkably late registration attempt by Fender - real stable door / bolted horse stuff. Trademarking a shape wasn't an issue for them in 1951 -or 1954 - as it wasn't until 1960 that you could trademark a shape in US law. The first registered US trademark shape was the Coca Cola bottle, a shape they'd been using since 1916, so I doubt Fender would have had any trouble registering The Tele, Strat, and other shapes then. As memory serves they had the foresight to at least trademark the shape of their headstocks, though.... Similarly, they were behind the curve in the UK as well, where shape-based trademarks became an option under the Trade Marks Act 1994. Gibson seem to have been more effective here, though from my casual awareness of their legal efforts (not least the PRS case), most of their real protection falls in the zone of lawfare.... i.e. Gibson can afford to spend a lot more than most of those they go after, and fighting a lawsuit will most of the time be far more expensive than just tweaking your design a little to make it go away. Smoke and mirrors to some extent once you see the eminently sensible decision by the Appeal court in Gibson v PRS.

Worked for Steve Jones back during the Vicious era... More realistically, might be worth looking for ideas at what Jack White was using live with the White Stripes for their more acoustic numbers like Hotel Yorba? Even with the clean and acoustic sounding stuff, he had a huge tone that sounded great despite lack of a bassist there.

Tht's what I'd do. I mean, these day it seems the best way to sell on 90% of ST types is to part them out anyhow, but a whole new plate that can be swapped over and back if needed is how I'd go. Depending in what pickups are desired, I'd be tempted to set up a plate with the fittings for something like the GFS kwikplug system, and dabble with two or three different options.

It looks really nice. The simplicity of a classic, solid colour finish on a Strat type is underrated, imo. Iconic. I like a tight neck pocket on an F type if I can get it, but honestly it's purely a cosmetic thing IMO. Long as in the end there's a good, tight bolting to the body and it doesn't wiggle around, it's functionally good imo. What do you mean by 'set from the factory so as not to work'? You mean at all? Or do they do that thing a lot of players used to do with the six screw Fender trem of setting it flat to the body which means it only works in one direction (instead of floating), the trade off being it's a little more stable in tuning? Interested in this project. In the past I might have shied away from the idea of a project like this being a money pit. These days, though, the average ST type sells for more parted out, and a full Fender-branded player will always be saleable... I think it's a good choice. Be interested to know how you get on with siting the Fender guard, given the inevitable slight variances between brands with screwhole positioning and such. I've been eyeing the HB ST types for a while. For now I'm holding off in he hope we eventually see an upgraded model in the vein of the ST Modern Pro, but with a vintage spec... As a baseline, an equivalent to the spec of the ST25th, but with SSS, a maple board, 21 frets, and a rounder radius (ideally 7.25, I'd settle for 9.5). Something like that I'd love to pick up as a project like this. The ST62s are great, though. For upgrading, they're a great idea IMO. Price of a used Squier, and you couldn't buy a decent body and neck as new parts for what they sell the entire guitar for before you buy the upgrade bits.

Belatedly - thank-you, much appreciated.

Ouch! That *is* a gouge. Though I suppose the "buyer's premium" takes some of the sting out of it for the seller.

I'm halfway hoping somebody like Thomann would buy the brand and run it in the same way as Harley Benton. HB's higher end stuff these days seems to be edging in the direction of very modern specs and designs. If that's how they want to really evolve the brand, it could be a strategy to buy Vintage and use that as a different project to do something similar - high quality, wholesale type prices direct - with a much more, eh... vintage spec and appearance. Working with care and the right factories, there's already an established market for Vintage which has some crossover with HB, but not entirely. The other option might be for them to take on Vintage with a perspective of making it all about the "Proshop" guitars. Set up and run properly, they could be a serious, sub £1,000 alternative to the Fender Modshop. Last I specced a 50s style Strat on the modshop out of curiosity, it was coming out at around £1800, which seems fairly baseline (and a little too close to some of the Custom Shop prices for my tastes). I'm told that Vintage's Proshop baseline is about £600. They could offer a lot for that with Thomann behind them. It's a thought, anyhow. Vintage are certainly still working for now as a going concern - they still have the pedals on the way, so it certainly looks like they've not given up on finding a buyer.

Welcome Alpro!

Welcome alpro - got any fixin' stories?

I have this Antoria 628-12E that my school gave me and I really want the six string to go along with it, I don’t care if it’s the e version or not as I know that’s probably incredibly rare,

Thanks, I'll check them out!

They can be contested, yes. And potentially lost. Back in 2021 Fender tried to trademark the stratocaster body shape but the application was denied after a load of other guitar makers appealed including Schecter, Dean, ESP, Suhr and others. (Not Charvel though, because they are now owned by Fender.) But basically the collective contested on the grounds that the strat body shape had been widely copied over the last 50 or years and Fender didn't object the. So why try and trademark a property now that they had no problem sharing before? Incidentally, public Rights of Way operate on the same basic use-it-or-lose-it principle

Found s/h (in France...), all under £150... Fender Super Champ XD..? Ibanez TSA 5..? Blackstar HT-1R..? Fender Champion 600 Bugera V22..? Blackstar HT5..? Nothing similar near you..?

That's a fair point. Perhaps I'm not looking in the right place to find a valve amp at a decent price. Cheapest THR30 I can see is £300. If I go for the THR10 then it's £150. Is that doable for an all-valve combo? I guess size is also an important factor: an all-valve combo will come with at least a 10" cone compared with the THR that can fit on a shelf. I can do without much of the other fanciness that Yamaha have included in the box: I've been burnt with the Amplifi.

I'll admit to not understanding; if the sound you're after comes from a small valve combo, with reverb, why not look for and buy a small valve combo with reverb..? It would cost no more (possibly much less...) than the Yamaha, and solve the issue, no..?

I've seen puff pieces online for this thing, and I don't trust any of them. Are people using this amp here? What are people's experience with them? A few months ago I tried a valve amp for the first time after years of using emulators like the Line 6 Amplifi. I can now believe it when people say "real valves cannot be properly emulated", particularly compared with emulation tech from 11 years ago. However the march of progress continues and I'm curious how something recent such as this Yamaha combo stacks up on that front. I wouldn't say I have particularly sensitive ears or a definite tone that I'm after, but I was shocked at how much nicer a guitar sounded with a clean valve combo plus tube reverb. To be frank, I wish I'd never tried that valve amp as now I have a real itch for a better tone. I've been looking at Ashdown all-valve guitar amps but something cheaper would be more appropriate for my ability.

AIUI that's why John Hall and the Rickenwaffe rabidly enforce trademarks, because if they don't then the trademark could be lost.

What looks very much like the M-Vave branded equivalent of the Lekato WS-90 has come up on AliExpress for under £30 (until the 27th of August). I've ordered a set as my WS-50 receiver is getting slightly temperamental around the micro-USB socket and I like to have a spare set. I use them primarily for bass, but also for guitar on occasion. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006613115406.html - I'll report on it when it arrives.

I remember entering the competition in the NME to win that guitar. I also remember not winning and thinking that the winner’s tiebreak answer was pretty good (I loathe the NME because…) and a worthy winner.

https://www.guitar-auctions.co.uk/news/75/Jimmy+Page’s+1957+Gretsch+6120+to+Be+Offered+in+September+2025+Guitar+Auction Doesn't appeal to me for many reasons (one of them being that it'll be very, very expensive) but one of you millionaires might fancy it. For anyone wanting some lower level celebrity instruments, there's a few guitars being sold from Martin Lee's collection - so they've seen stage use with Brotherhood of Man. And other guitars etc from Clapton, Knopfler, Townsend, Rea, and Jack Bruce. https://www.guitar-auctions.co.uk/sale/248/the-guitar-auction---day-one---artist-associated-guitars-%26-equipment And plenty more in the other categories of that auction. Some interesting ones - several cricket bats, a couple of Parkers. Nowhere near as many 12-strings.

The guitarist in my band bought an Ibanez that he'd been looking out for after I passed the link to the auction on and I bought a six-string fretless bass (for just under the lower estimate). Postage isn't cheap (about £50 IIRC) and I went down to pick up the bass, and collected his guitar while I was at it. Buyer's premium was around 25%. With a seller's premium of about the same, the buyer pays around double what the seller receives, which puts Ebay's buyer fee in perspective. There were quite a few 12-strings, which makes a change. I am a bit tempted by the idea of a 12-string solid-body but managed to resist. The guitar: The bass:

Good evening, @alpro, and ... ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

Hello everyone,I've just joined cause I like fixing guitars old and newand picking up info on them. I don't play, but am learning and it surprises me just how many people love guitars,

This is interesting. I've found cheap Ernie Ball strings on ebay in the past and wanted to avoid buying them. Their price was around 5 pounds for pack. I have decided to buy strings from reputable guitar store but on ebay as well. And below I am attaching pics for you to compare. Both packs were bought from guitar stores on ebay but both packaging look different and this brings my concerns. Send picks of you strings! Look at the tonality bars and silver strip at the bottom of packaging.