Leaderboard

Put it all back together, polished it up and it plays just fine. What a bargain

Quick update to say I pulled the trigger on the Thinline Godin. It's new, coming from the States and even with delivery and taxes will be £300 cheaper than the best price I could find in the UK!

After a bit of work with fine wet and dry and a polish up with brasso, it transpires it's a Coxx Classix.

What a palava. OK so GC has been offline for a few days due to a mix-up in transfer of content from the old server (which was upgraded due to email notification issues on BC) to the new server. The old server subscription cancelled last week taking GC down with it. Then we had issues trying to get things set up on the new server. As you can see, we have managed to restore GC but the only back up on the old server was from January. Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry to any of you who had made the effort to post detailed or lengthy replies during that time, I've personally lost at least one lengthy post as well. If you need to flame, go ahead. We had to unravel a whole load of secondary issues to do with databases not working quite right, upgrades not installing quite correctly, DNS and nameservers not being what they should be. However, thankfully, we have made it through the other side and GC is faster and more stable than ever. I don't expect this perfect storm to happen again and thanks in advance for your patience and understanding.

Yeah, I think that came in with the change of image, when he grew the beard and went all cosplay-biker. The one I always remember him with was the LP custom with the Confederate Battle Flag on it - back in the 80s when nobody in the UK really realised what it signified, and thought it was just sort of a cowboy flag (don't even get me started on the closet-racist idiots in the rockabilly scene who turn up waving it at weekenders, wearing their Golly badges and claiming it's just their "rock and roll rebel flag, nothing to do with racism" (not even the racism spewed on their own facebook pages - honest, guv!). Most of the surface of the guitar was sanded to the bare wood by this point. He used to claim in interviews that shortly after he'd had it painted, he saw the guy from Warrant with a flag guitar just like it, didn't want to be associated with him, and went straight to the garage with coarse sandpaper and the guitar in hand. I have a dim memory I read somewhere that Rory called that his "number 3" (or was it 2?) - number one being a vintage Tele that I think was mostly used in the studio. Great section on his instruments here: https://rorygallagher.com/instruments/ In early 2025, a statue of Rory was unveiled outside the Ulster Hall in Belfast: Some got funny about him being sculpted with the Tele at the time and not the Strat, but it was based on a famous photo of him playing live, with the Tele, at the Ulster Hall back in the day. Rory was much respected in Belfast for insisting on still playing there annually right through the peak of the Troubles when a lot of big names (including, notably, Belfast's own and one of the biggest pricks in the music industry, Van Morrison) just refused to go near the place. Big influence on the next generation of Irish guitar players, not least Jake Burns (who imo has never gotten the full credit he deserves as either a songwriter or a guitar player). It's interesting how Hank was a huge figure for a whole generation of guitarists, but that has very much not carried over to another generation. (I'm sure the same could be said for many of my guitar heroes - or, hell, even guitar in general for the kids coming after us now.) In an odd way, while yes most of us who are aware of the Shadows might think of the Strat first, I think he now has somewhat of a bigger following among Burns enthusiasts, for the obvious reason. Buddy Holly.... maple board, two tone burst, early Stratocaster.... nobody else comes to mind as fast. Arguably the most important man in guitar-based rock and roll, next only to Leo Fender. It Was Buddy who popularised not only the solid body electric guitar in mainstream rock and roll, but also the bass guitar with the Crickets, and the "two guitars, bas and drums" set-up that is still the basis of so, so many bands today. He very much comes to mind when I see a 70s Strat with the black pickup covers and knobs on white plate, especially with a white body and rosewood board. I vaguely remember him playing a signature model some time back that dispensed with the middle pickup... did he have the middle pickup unwired in his original? I've heard of a surprising number of players having quite unconventional wiring for stage guitars that is often much more limited than you'd expect from the standard look to them. I guess that's partly for aesthetics, and maybe not to give away a secret? Possible... the one in the top photo above looks white to me. I think natural was an official finish from 69, though, that was at the peak of its popularity in the 70s and into the 80s, so he may well have had one. Possibly it got more studio use? I've heard it said that when Jimi had a bit more money later on, he preferred black or white solid finish Strats for stage, and kept the burst ones for the studio, as he figured the solid colours looked better in B&W photos. Who knows, though... there's a lot of glorious myths that take on a life of their own (TV Yellow, Jimi's parakeets, and all the rest).

PRS SE 594 McCarty Doublecut Turquoise Electric Guitar. In excellent condition! Basically mint condition. Not a ding or mark. Has just had a new set of Daddario 10s fitted. Comes with PRS SE Gig Bag.

Coming from the light side (basschat) and after having a friend of a friend show me how to get the most from my hx stomp, the other week I picked up an electric to try and learn… it’s from 1990 weighs less than 3kg and has switches on both knobs that makes it sound different- learning needs to happen !

Hi! It seems I joined a while ago but forgot. I started playing guyitar when I was in my teens back in the early/mid 70s the moved to bass. Now bandless on bass, I am about to pick up a guitar again for the first time in many years and have a few questions. I have had a Mexican Fender Telecaster for some years, stashed away in its case, and just recently bought one of these for a few quid at a bootsale which now sports a Tonerider PAF pickup and some new tuners. Hope to find answers to questions!

J. Bright, The Law Suit, late 1700s: There truly is nothing new under the sun...

I missed the electro bit Yamaha Music London do the FX310A for £235

Yes to both, not helped by intermittent focus in my eyesight and a reluctance to take my reading glasses everywhere in case it brings on mid life crisis.

Or are your fingers too big?

I blame the advent of GPS. ...

We're stoked to announce that we've launched some new multipacks... https://www.rotosound.com/blog/product-news/new-rotosound-multipacks/ These offer our most popular sets in 3- and 10-set boxes for cost-saving and convenience. Starting from £21.95 for the triple pack and £69.95 for the ten-set multipack, they're available now from UK dealers!

Have you looked into... https://www.submarinepickup.com/collections/frontpage/products/the-submarine Haven't tried these myself, but I have seen fingerstyle guitarists with far more expensive versions of this solution! The idea is that you can position this to pick up your bottom two strings, and send that signal out to a bass amp or suitable effect/preamp/etc.

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.

If anyone is interested there’s a massive guitar, amp and music memorabilia auction on 10th June in Corsham, Wiltshire spanning 5 days. Imagine owning 500 guitars!! https://www.easyliveauction.com/catalogue/5abe5b32c7710c2b409b15545ad1d718/0af8d24542e81eb9357e7ef448a6646f/the-guitar-sale-five-day-auction-including-the-gordon-gi/?currentPage=1

And it's done. Had to do a lot of routing to get the bridge located properly including plugging and redrilling one bridge post 1mm further way. The wiring was a challenge, I spent three days of eliminating possible causes to arrive at only one conclusion, the pickup selector switch was faulty. My midboost preamp didn't work and I wasn't going to spend a week trying to troubleshoot it, so I bought one only to discover that the guy who build it didn't include separate earth and -9v wires. So had to jury rig something up to provide the output socket with an earth connection, the boost is definitely warm but it lacks the glassiness I expected. So I have on order a genuine Demester Fat Boost (Tyler style) and at some point I will probably wire the switches so they are series, phase and parallel. Although they were fiddly to solder as well. However, after a fret levelling and proper set up, it plays very nicely and has more sustain than my other two strats. I have no idea why. It's quite a warm and loud sounding guitar as well acoustically. More aging is needed on the sides and back but I have other things to attend to in advance of being in the UK next month.

A common mistake is for folk to stick to the minor pentatonic when improvising, whether the key or chord is major or minor. Try and make sure you’re complimenting the chord by emphasising the 3rd note. A lot of players tend to play through the scales from one end to the other. Stand out from the crowd by making some interesting, intervalic jumps (Carl Verheyen is the king of this, check him out). Don’t be in a hurry to show your chops too early, build to a crescendo and release (the solo from Stairway is a great example of this).

Or, pretty much, exactly the same.

Wouldn't surprise me. The older I get, the more I realise 99% of the electric guitar market is about selling branding an intangibles far over the actual, physical product. It does seem to vary by location, though: players in the US on average still seem to be much more likely to be emotionally invested in the idea that a guitar made in the USA *must* be superior, or is somehow otherwise "the real thing". Which I suppose shouldn't be surprising given that's where the electric guitar boom started, and so there's a sense of "loss" that those aren't dominant in the market any longer - as opposed to being "only" another import product as they are for us in the UK.

I am a musician and teacher based on the west coast of Ireland. I teach online lessons across Ireland, the UK and the rest of Europe. I play electric, Acoustic and Spanish guitar in a variety of styles. My influences are diverse, from Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd to John Williams, SRV, Rory Gallagher and Tommy Emmanuel. Music was my 2nd love, but it's the one that never left me. (a good line for a blues).

Steady on, it's not like some of them need extra reasons to slap a premium on a five quid set of parts.

Gordon Smith, although better known for their Gibson types, also do a very nice Tele - https://www.gordonsmithguitars.com/shop/stock-guitars/blaggards/ TBH, though, I'm not sure that's how I would go. Clearly you're not looking for a more affordable alternative to Fender's US or CS ranges if you're thinking of spending that sort of custom money anyhow. Now, this is only a personal opinion, but.... for me it would depend a lot on what you want. A tele is such a utilitarian design that if what you want is the standard set-up Tele, it seems to me madness to spend custom-built money on it. If that's the only way - you want something really offbeat like the Jack White signature, or a Trussant Steelcaster, or you have an original 52 that you want to clone so you can leave the vintage piece at home and play a facsimilie out.... then, sure. But if what you want is "just" a Tele, it seems to be it's hard to justify spending vast sums on it.... I'd buy whatever MIM / Tokai / whatever you like and maybe rewired if you want, or track down a CIJ Fender that's good to go as is. (IMO, the top end Japanese Fenders are as good as anything form the US, typically wired the same with the same specs, and usually cheaper - nut much harder to find.) Unless you want something that's just not available otherwise, imo having a custom built Tele is a bit like having a Saville Row tailor copy a pair of 501s for you. They'll be an exquisite example, but....

Many thanks for the feedback both. Seems that what I want to achieve isn't quite in the remit of my amp. I might just go back to my comfort zone of 90s solid state.

I used to have a set of "hot" humbuckers in my SG...not bad for coaxing more distortion out, but the clean tones never sounded quite right! A producer once told me that overwound pickups seemed a bit of a waste of time to him, "when there are so many easy ways to hit a preamp harder these days." I could have gone on about how the higher impedance changes the centre frequency of the circuit and therefore the overall tone, but I thought [a] he had a fair point, and [b] the people enthusiastically refitting their guitars with hot pickups probably weren't thinking about the nuances of LRC circuits...

That is indeed my plan. In addition to some fret and electronics work a new plate on the front should be involved.

I went and looked it up: sorry, I think I was mistaken! It looks like, for the longest time, Strats have had tone controls for the neck and middle pickups, but not the bridge. Apparently - and I think this is where my confusion stems from - more modern Strats have the neck & middle wired to the first tone, and the bridge wired to the second. Which is...interesting...I can't imagine wanting to use that bridge pickup without being able to roll off some the treble!

Good afternoon, @Hydra19, and ... ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

Decided to get the Epi Les Paul 60’s Standard in Bourbon Burst I had looked at PRS but decided this is what I wanted. Out of the box the quality, setup was spot on and amazing for a £500 guitar. Sounds excellent and pickups are very good and sounds great clean and overdriven They have definitely improved since I owned an Epi Les Paul Plus Top Pro about 10 years ago this is as close to Gibson quality you can get without the price tag ! Awesome guitar

What a cracking little unit! I've not fiddled with it exhaustively but it is not overly complicated by any means. Intuitive controls mean it will be easy to change the presets to the tones I am looking for. Straight into my RCF ART 372A, which is what I have been using for my bass. £38!! How is this even possible? Anyone want to buy a Fender G-Dec 30? I'll stick it in the classifieds soon.

Thanks Douglas.

Yep - I think you're right about the Gretsch. Not worth trying to sell it, and it does have sentimental value - it was the guitar that got me started, albeit fleetingly. I stopped playing it in 1973, but started playing bass in 2005.

For those swimming in, perhaps..?

I concur with the advice above : one speaker cable with a 1/4 mono jack at each end is all that's required. It can be plugged into either of the cab sockets; these are doubled up to give the option of linking to a second cab, if desired. This is called 'daisy-chaining'. Probably moot in your case, but one should be aware that the total impedance of cabs connected in this way must not be below the minimum impedance of the amp. Two 8Ohm cabs connected in this 'daisy-chain' fashion would present a 4Ohm load to the amp. If the amp supports this, all well and good. If not, expect costly 'magic smoke'. The 'Baby Bomb' pedal amp, for instance, will not support two such cabs (the output socket is labelled : 8-16 Ohms...), but your single cab should be fine. Ignore, then, the second cab socket. Hope this helps.

Absolutely, it's about selling dreams...as in 'buy this and get closer to living the dream'...whatever that dream is.

I think Behringer just got a little too close to the original design. I am very much a fan of Behringer, by the way. I ordered mine from Anderton’s, as it was the only place that had them in stock, two days before the lawsuit was announced. I told my wife that they would start being worth more because of the lawsuit, and the lack of stock in many places (Anderton’s were the only ones that had them in stock and not back order) but that was to justify buying it… I had no idea that the prices really were going up. Maybe I should have ordered two? I certainly won’t be selling mine, it’s a excellent pedal. I suppose, what I could do, is build my own (which had always been the plan before the Behringer came out and all the massively positive reviews for it), and if it’s close enough, I could sell the Behringer.

Anyone know any guitar teachers in the Bethnal Green area of east London and how much I should expect to pay for an hours lesson?

Pick up manufacturers charging more for special tone wax

Totally agree. Like you a 6120, Setzer Sig or Hot Rod would be awesome, but

They seem to be doing well enough to stay in production. They're not going to fly out the door as a cheap alternative - there's very little price difference. But I wouldn't be entirely surprised if they did start to catch on more broadly. It'll be interesting. I suspect there are a lot more ofc them out there being used on the road than we're aware of. You know the drill - established acts / operations who've had enough of the weight / hassle of a tube amp on tour, these look close enough the average punter isn't gonig to notice.... (on some scenes, the look is as important as the sound. I've seen acts get dismissed on certain scenes for not having the right look - can be especially so on the rockabilly scene where a lot of acts put out vinyl because some of their fanbase won't buy CDs). Younger kids now seem to have come up with a range of new bands that have gone beyond the "tube good, else bad" mindset, so we'll see what they go for. If that's amps at all, that is. We've speculated on this elsewhere on this site as well, but it's not unthinkable that amps as we know them could be out-evolved by alternatives. PAs now are better and cheaper than ever before. The old, macho idea of The Big Amp comes from the days hen you needed that be heard and PAS weren't great. That's no longer the case. I've seen a number of acts recently who used pedal format pre and power amps on footboards, and plugged right into the PA. In the West End musicals in London, a lot of the guitar players have been using stuff like Line 6 Pods for years (when Buddy was last in town, they had empty cabs out front for the look, and were all hooked up to Line 6 pods out of sight). Maybe if younger bands and their audiences get past certain visual expectations, we'll see bands arrive with pedalboards under their arms, and set-up / tear down becoming vastly quicker for everyone. If it still sounds great, I'm not at all opposed to it. My own next move no is, I think, gonig to be a small pedal board with pedals for reverb, gain, preamp, into an A/B box that leads to a headphone pedal amp and a Mooer Baby Bomb preamp. Thinking of tying one of those tweed JHS Vintage 1x12" cabs at about £100 with that, could end up being a solid rig for me as a home player. In the unlikely event I ever played out again, the cab could then go or not depending on availability of monitors. I could see that becoming a norm. The tech is already there - it just needs to convince guitar players who have a tendency to luddism.

Lovely job on that. You clearly had the patience to go gently with the clean-up, especially on the headstock, and it has paid dividends.

About ten years ago I'd have said Fender MiM and PRS SE were good there, though increasingly their new price is pushing higher and pulling up the used price with them. The new Fender Standard series have been much-mocked by people keen to write them off as rebadged Squiers, but that's grossly unfair. The Guitar Geek did a video comparing one directly to a Squier CV Series Strat, and they are different beasts - different factories, different innards. Now whether somebody wants to pay the extra for them might be another matter, but.... They've clearly been introduced for a specific target market, that being players who can't stretch to the price of a Player Series (street price, I'm very rarely seeing those new for under £600 nowadays), but looks down on a Squier. I have a feeling these could be a sleeper that will be a great buy when they start to filter onto the used market. While made in the Far East, the specs are basically a rerun of the pre-2018 MiM Standard Strat that was replaced by the Player Series - poplar body, 21 frets, 9.5 radius, 42mm nut, slightly hotter pickups, full size pots. If they did a left hander I'd be seriously considering one of the 'Candy Cola' models with the maple board... as it is, if one came up used stupid cheap, I'd buy and Hendrix. I wish they would do one of these with a six-screw trem and a big headstock... then I'd *definitely* be looking for a Hendrix project. Harley Bentons I love.... but would be wary of buying used. I've seen one too many "optimistically priced" on eBay, at well over the new price. Those that do sell seem to go for so near the new price that unless it was a model that was out of production (like the 25th Anniversary limited edition Jazz Bass I really wanted, but lost the chance to buy when our then dog needed her tail docked after she bit the end off it, bless her), I don't think it's worth going used. Squier are always worth looking at used, especially the Classic Vibe series - which, yeah, I'll stick my neck out and say are Fender's purest realisation of Leo's concept of an affordable, giggable guitar that can be cheaply maintained and repaired. Not the very *best* *guitars* Fender have ever made, but in terms of VFM as a working player's tool.... I've seen very good deals on the 2xxx series Gretsches used. They tend to be just a *little* more generic in sound, a little less the distinctive Gretsch difference than a 5xxx or especially the Professional 6xxx series, but they are great guitars in their own right, and they have that very cool vibe going on - immediately different from yet another F or G style. JHS's Vintage brand tend to go surprisingly cheap used, and for the money are an excellent buy. If you like the Gibson styles, their earlier models tend to be just a little closer the "real" shapes, especially the SGs. Their SG style ones are a real hidden gem. Their Fenderalikes tend to look much more like the real thing in the body, though if you can try before you buy as the necks aren't for everyone. They tend to favour a US-style 43mm nut over a more vintage 42mm nut. Some folks find that matters, others don't. MiM quality, selling used for Squier money. The 'Icon' series can be a nice option if you like the relic look buy don't want to pay out the big money. Up close they're not the same as the Fender relics, but thy have the general look from a few feet away, and if you like the relic vibe, they're a bit of fun, affordably. As long as you're not left handed you're gold - they're as piss poor as Squier for lefty provision.

Just thought of Robin Ford - Fender Espirit ( although these days sometimes a Tele or PRS)

Thinking that I ought to have a hollow bodied guitar for jazz I bought a Streamliner and have indeed given that Bigsby a wobble from time to time despite it being considered inappropriate within the genre.

I do as well, but when I was looking for photos I kept finding ones of the pale wood and wondered how much that was used and I just assumed it was ivory paint under the stage lights?

UPDATE: my Behringer SF300 has arrived. Does the job just nicely! Really useful having the three modes, too: I can see myself using the more "vintage" sound of Fuzz 1 the most, but the scuzzier tone from Fuzz 2 has been quite fun to play with so far. Popping the guitar into drop D with Fuzz 2 certainly gives a nice All Them Witches-type vibe! Thanks again for the recommendation!

Red-check gingham..?