Leaderboard

So..... I cracked and ordered one of these beauties a couple of weeks ago. Should be shipped in September or late August: I really want one of the JA60CCs in blue as well - the blue one I'll mod with a trem. They're not in stock currently either - I'm trying to hold off in the hope that post 2023, they do the anniversary spec as a DLX model in the CC colours. I'm indifferent on the "upgrade" of the body from basswood to alder, and the locking tuners instead of the standard, but stainless steel frets is a huge plus imo. The difference in price, once you take out the £20 gigbag is about the same as the upcharge for ss frets alone I've seen elsewhere. This sort of spec applied as a "DLX" model would be great elsewhere too - would love it on a 50s-model Strat type with 21 frets. (Probably my little, odd quirk as a player. It's not a deal breaker per se, but I do have a very marked preference for a 21 fret neck, shorn of that little 22nd overhang. I almost never play above fret 15 anyhow.... ) Left handed, with the 25th style specs, 21 frets, and a (roasted) maple fingerboard, LPB body... I honestly would buy that over the Tidepool Player Series strat currently on my want list... I'm really keen on the matching J bass for this as well - let's see if I can clear some space out at home to justify it before end 2023. I know it's easy to get carried away with "budget" guitars, but for a hobby player, this sort of spec could really be the perfect sweet spot between stock spec and price. Of course, HB's 'factory to buyer via Thomann's operation' makes all the difference. One of the best things is how broad their left handed range is. I just looked at Squier's website by comparison, very limited range. A lot of the big names are the same. Ironically, as a general rule I've often found over the years that the "copy" brands cater better to lefties than the "originals". I'm actually quite excited, to a sad degree, to be able to buy an LE like this. My old american Strat, bought new in 1994, was a 40th anniversary year American Standard. The AS guitars right handed that year had, as with much of the range, a special logo badge added, but for whatever reason (shape, probably) it was not put on the left handed models that year - nor anything in its place. HB score for remembering the lefties here! Full review to come when this lands. I've gotten a little excited about the offset shape all over again after watching one of Iggy Pop's guitarists wielding a brace of Fender offsets on Saturday night...

I know many people place a lot of stock in the invisible hand of the market, but I often think there out to be a rule against people listing readily available items for sale on eBay at much more than the item is readily available for new... I was recently thinking this about this auction in particular - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165726661876?hash=item2696142cf4:g:jDwAAOSwAEtjSbSd&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0PXzv7Zcej2j53JwUAg%2FDYoACkhdAnErAgNVtYnfHpQz%2BjmwFF6Miu51SMPwiWNpEzPzxC4GvGctYAwpc6pV%2BH9Deeb%2FkS8pHq6Y1VImTeKunSf%2BY%2FvgNX%2Bp061TA3BuBDl1kpMPKVoRfSUASUZUhz%2BKrnZh31Froo%2BaQZ2JrGvEQv4VeYjjJ8vCyQA6P5qk0ctmiwLXN7gtTIPSEeo0y%2F8xudHuzMGtB8StLDpdpz%2FeJwk96lCYJ%2BMZwgVVHiRDlcA2o4UL1MqdOx%2FzuMRQQc8%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR4bk5emkYg - Available new on Thomann for £150 odds, start price here £325, and today I stumbled across this rather special auction: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225640944287?hash=item34893f929f:g:Y-wAAOSwDvZkmles&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4LEU%2BJbiDArpHgtRyTZ1mHGF6P9ga13h3f9TlpkKgylkHqwhim%2BCoe3y%2FkR6cHumMKwlZfx1ZFoMp0ccIaj1S4z9QILFHk7vWLxiY53L9t2ijJlNqlasQ2nnkgkPGHtMfAfMLyXDLhUAaSHiMmnzV28OBz5qsPsny2sWvDyGHi0ZZB6TTOy1mUcfN51Vf0ItVZWmO9f7l%2FBTlsGslmquhU%2BBwxv%2FEs7Y%2BkFNAfx3L3zFMTfUAK3GYswkcZRgtJ8q1ndjmVVu67mbqtmrHzB13c2Ff1Q0bUKo0Vb%2Fs%2F%2BwFeH0|tkp%3ABk9SR-7VzOmkYg Just over £800 (plus seventy odd quid shipping from Japan!!!!) for a HB bass that sells for £100 new. I mean, they're great, but that seems.... optimistic. These are just stock items, not the expensive used ones people are trying to claw back the cost of putting big money pick-ups in or whatever... Anyone else seen bizarros like this? The only honest explanation (i.e. not trying to rip somebody off or money laundering) I can think of is "Of course, dear, I know I have too many guitars. I'll list some on ebay and if they sell there I suppose I can part with them......" <Puts them on ebay at a crazy price noone will pay>. Or maybe people who don't want to sell, but think that putting a crazy high reserve or start price but asking for offers is a good way of getting an idea of (or raising) market value?

So without getting involved in a lot of unnecessary background, I did a bit of digging around reading online about stainless steel frets. Found this article, which is pretty cool - about the whole process at Sweetwater in the US: https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/do-stainless-steel-frets-make-a-difference/ (Plus props to the lady doing this in what is still all too often an overly male-dominated world.)

Done, I hope I pass, I was up all night revising !!

That'll be great! Met Matlock at Rough Trade East a few weeks ago when he did a solo appearance / Q&A / signing. Lovely guy. He picked up on the accent and mentioned he would be doing this show. Naturally I made a complete tit of myself mumbling "you wrote songs that changed my life, thank-you." He was probably thinking "Bloody Pistols fans, I've done so much else!"

Excellent. I'm going to see SLF at Custom House Square next month, with Peter Hook & The Light and Glen Matlock on the bill.

I had a weird one tonight. I had my amp on and noticed voices. I couldn't work out where they were coming from. Eventually, I realised the sound was coming from the amp. I then worked out that the guitar was picking up a TV or radio signal. Bizarre.

Sounds about right. No harm to the fella, but he can be overwhelming negative to the point where it comes over more like a Stewie Griffin rant than anything - even if some of his points are fair enough.

I think he has watched a lot of YouTube videos and decided that you have to be annoyed about everything when making content.

Aye. His videos can be interesting (I watched the one on Ed Roman the other day), but he's a bit tunnel vision about everything. On the spectrum, I think. (Which all men are, of course, to some degree - hence male hobbies. Like me wanting the same guitar in all the colours.....)

He gets on my wick.

The Voice of the Mysterons.... That's the sort of thing as could give you the willies til you figure out what's happening! For years, we lived right in front of the RUC station in Whitehead, with its huge radio tower. I didn't take up the guitar til we'd moved to another house, but it did make me wonder what could have happened if I'd had it then. (My mother did claim to hear the odd snatch of radio signal, through her amalgam fillings from it.) HB are lucky that kid who's raging at them on Youtube over microphonic feedback (same one as started the feud with Rob Chapman a couple of years ago) didn't have that experience. Makes me think, though, there's another feature that those little travel amp-blutooth speaker combos should work in - DAB radio. That'd be a killer app...