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A topic for photos of folks' Builds. I'll start it off with a photo of the guitar built by Our Eldest, and finished (but are they ever really finished..?) the other day. It plays well, too... Over to you, then; show us your Builds...

Any excuse to post an image of my 66 Tele

It just wouldn't be right not to ask this...

I like Larry Carlton

Get some wood. Kicking off with a Martin from circa 1840 with original hard case, but a dodgy newer bridge... which will soon replaced with an original looking one when I get some cash!

OK - here's one of my recent lightweight builds. Built for my sister-in-law at 25" scale length and 5lbs 3oz total weight. Amboyna top, oak back (from her late mother's mantlepiece), maple/purpleheart/mahogany neck :

I don't even play these bloody things.

Sorry - I thought I’d replied to this. We spent a couple of hours at Richard’s. He set my daughter up in a soundproof room, with dozens of guitars, an amp and a couple of chairs, and told her to try out anything she fancied playing. She picked out a really lovely Gordon Smith GS1 (Les Paul Jnr copy), and decided on that. Richard insisted on putting it through his workshop for a full setup, new strings and a polish, and it was ready for collection a day later. Really excellent service, no pressure to buy anything, and just nice people.

Likes we have over on basschat, let’s see what y’all have! i like me some cheap German fun. This is my Te70 rosewood deluxe that i’ve Put a new neck on. The original neck had a couple of issues so I bought a new neck off eBay and finished it with tru oil. New neck needed a thorough shimming. Thinking I might get some new tuners and a fancy bridge. I figured the stars made me think of a Wild West Sheriff so it’s earned the name Sheriff Fatman as I love a bit of Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine.

Is the Crayola Builder in Lead Zeppelin ?😀

I really like the pencil one. Having worked in a primary school where you always end up with numerous short, coloured pencils, that continually break when sharpened, this seems like the perfect end for those unloved stubbies.

Fascinating...it would be interesting to see its strengths and weaknesses against the competition - especially head to headed with my own latest acquisition mentioned in my Nemesis thread on Basschat. To explain, just picked up my Gillett Contour 6 electric in Rocklite that has been doing the shows for the past two or three months. I'll do a full review thread as soon as I can find the time to fully put it through its paces

My under used MIJ 1954 Reissue:

Hi all, If anyone remembers the old usenet days of the internet then you might have come across me in the uk.music.guitar newsgroup. This GuitarChat forum looks like it might be a successor to the good old chats we had on UKMG way back in the days BF (Before Facebook). Been playing guitar for yonks, bought and sold more gear than is good for me, or anyone else, and just happy to chat about anything guitar related. I'm in the Heart of Scotland, Perth.

Haven't decided what to do over the coming winter, but here's a couple of instruments I've messed with so far. The first is a 4/4 cello from ebay. It had a broken neck and the scroll had snapped in half. I also replaced all the black wooden bits with proper ebony and improved the finish slightly. The second is my one and only elctric guitar made from bits purchased on line. Nothing fancy, but it works and I like it!

Andy has just dropped the guitar round and yes it is fantastic. The neighbours are gonna love me the next few days.

I know PRS can divide opinion, and they're often seen as a middle aged person's choice of guitar, but I'm middle aged anyway so that's fine. Here's mine just to get things started, it's not a full fat "core" PRS (I'm not actually a fan of the fancy ten top style ones), it's a PRS S2 Custom 24, so that's made in the same factory in the USA but without the carved top and a few other things to save money. It still has the set neck and the same quality control etc, but at a much more sensible price, and this was second hand as well. It's basically this: https://www.prsguitars.com/index.php/electrics/s2/s2_custom_24_2018. Not to be confused with the PRS SE guitars which are made in Korea, I actually traded a PRS SE 245 for this and it's a huge step up from the SE. It's the nicest playing guitar I've ever owned, I really like the way it looks - the picture doesn't quite do the colour justice - and the sound is just exactly what I wanted. I think it will be my #1 guitar for a good while. (I don't know why the picture comes out that way round when it's vertical on my PC, but it does't really matter. It is actually hanging on the wall, not performing some levitation trick!)

My 1991 ES175, neck break courtesy of my son. Bless him, he still apologises about it to this day, even though the accident was ten years ago and I’ve forgiven him. I think that’s what he finds hard. I didn’t get cross about it, said “Accidents happen, it’s ok” and got it repaired. It’s as old as he is. The amp is an early sixties Gibson GA100, all original. Amazing sound when cranked and paired with some P90 equipped beastie. Then there’s the custom shop tele (custom artwork on the scratchplate) and a Squier JV strat with ...50s spec Tonerider pickups, CTS pots, switchcraft jack, 5 way selector, full cloth wire, an original 1950s Astron Hymet wax/paper capacitor, on a custom shop mint green pick guard, strung with flat wounds - sounds and plays fab at a fraction of the cost of an original. I use the Fenders with the funk band and my Gibson R9 Les Paul with the swing blues band. I’d like to use the 175 as well but often find I don’t have enough space on stage! Main amp - Fender Blues Deluxe That studio of Octatonic’s is SO much tidier than my music room!

Fine, fine guitars. I owned an original run McCarty and a Swamp Ash Special, both were fantastic players with bags of great tone, although eventually I found the ergonomics weren’t for me. I also had an SE singlecut later on which was better for me as a design and was stunning value for money. I’ll see if I have any pictures stored somewhere. EDIT: None of the Swamp Ash Special sadly. However...

Guitars: Studio:

When i used to work in 'the shop', the amount of guys who'd come in saying how they started on these and are looking to go onto "something better... like a squier" 😪 Personally some varieties of this model line are far superior than some of the shit that's pumped out now at double the price. I've got much love for Yamaha for what they do.

I thought it would be cool if we could share our favourite YouTube channels for backing tracks. I mainly use MyDarnJamTracks and Elevated backing tracks on YouTube. I think those are the two most popular and their tracks seem to be very well produced. Well, share what you have!

So many... in sort of no particular order... Gordon Giltrap - right at the top of my list Gary Moore Steve Howe Phil Keaggy Wes Montgomery Alex Lifeson Ian Bairnson - Pilot, Kate Bush and The Alan Parsons Project Brian Robertson/Scott Gorham - The Classic Thin Lizzy line up! Stevie Ray Vaughan Larry Carlton ...that’ll do for now.

Nothing, absolutley nothing, no way do I need anything else, no man don't tempt me. I'm back off to Bass chat

If the online guitarists I know all sign up then off topic will be just a big list of closed threads

Here's the thing, I have massive Gretsch GAS, but I don't play guitar in any bands (at the moment), therefore, I can't justify spending large wads of money on unnecessary musical instruments. Colour me sad . However, as an inveterate guitar tinkerer, there's always a compromise to be had and, in this instance, a Bigsby to be fitted! Colour me pleased .

Love it when people get creative.... Any others out there?

I’d call it free improvisation. There was a lively discussion on this a while back over on Basschat, but it is a movement with quite a long history. A lot of it’s best known exponents are horn players such as Lol Coxhill and Evan Parker. Amongst guitarists, best known are people like Derek Bailey and Fred Frith in his wilder outings. Very much an acquired taste of course and not really for anybody who likes to know where the one is, but it does have a following. For the curious, there’s plenty to choose from over on yoochoob. Not for the musically faint of heart though; you have been warned.

I love stuff like this. I wonder if anyone could tell the cardboard strat from a wooden one in a blind sound test?

OK and here it is, my new Ltd M403HT superstrat. As some of you may have seen elsewhere on here, I've been after a guitar for that neck, single coil Strat vibe that wasn't necessarily an actual Strat, and this is what I've ended up with. It's a 2016 Korean model, basically in "as new" condition with a solid mahogany body, flamed maple top, maple bolt on neck, rosewood or pao ferro fret board (the current Malaysian ones are pao ferro but I think the Korean models had rosewood - it certainly looks like rosewood to me anyway), a pair of Seymour Duncan STK -S4 stacked single coils in the neck and middle positions , a TB-14 Custom 5 in the bridge, a hard-tail bridge with through-the-body string anchoring and Grover tuners at the other end. Controls are a 5-way selector, a single volume and a single tone. First impressions were that it looked really good and played OK - the previous owner had the action set far too low, the pickup heights were all over the place, and the tone knob was coming loose but after a quick setup, everything is much better although I'm finding the dead-flat fret board a little unnatural feeling but no-doubt I'll soon get used to it. The Custom 5 in the bridge is a perfectly good pickup but I'd had one of those in previous guitar and knew what to expect with that. The S4s are amazingly quiet with the hidden coil doing an excellent job of cancelling any hum (in fact they appear to have less noise than the bridge humbucker), tone-wise they sound pretty much like your standard single coil pickup, perhaps a little warmer, but I will give them a go one day with this second coil shorted to ground to see if it makes any discernible difference to the sound - if it does, I'll probably then replace the tone pot with push-push or push-pull so that I can have this as a switchable option. General workmanship is pretty good - the fret ends are nice and smooth (more so than my previous Korean made Fenders which needed a mini-workover with a small file and some wet'n'dry), the strings and pickups line up on this one unlike an earlier one that I almost bought, although I can feel the slightest of lips on the nut where it's less than a hair's width out of alignment - one day I'll probably have go at fixing this too (anyone know if it's possible to easily remove the nut and reposition it on these without damaging either the nut or the guitar?). I've got a new set of NYXLs coming in tomorrow and I'll write a more detailed review when I've put those on and given the guitar a thorough setup. Update - it's now been re-strung with my string of choice, the fretboard cleaned and oiled, the pickup heights adjusted and the relief / action / intonation all setup. So what do I think now? The bridge pickup is great for heavier stuff - a little scooped but not too much (the NYXLs help smooth that a little but emphasising the mids and high mids while toning down the bass and extreme highs a little) and the neck and middle pickups are great for the funky rhythm stuff when played together. As I've already said, the build quality is good for the "street price", certainly on a par with my other Korean guitars but it just can't quite match the feel of quality that you get with a full-fat Japanese ESP. It might sound like a cliché but when I play my Japanese ESP Eclipses, they don't feel like guitars - they feel like a part of me while this feels like … a guitar. A good sounding, well balanced guitar but still a guitar none-the-less. The main reason for that, I believe, is the neck - while it's beautifully smooth and shallow, it's just a fraction wider than I'm used to with a flatter fretboard - no doubt if a I give it a chance and play it as regularly as I play my other guitars, I'll soon get used to it, after all I can switch quite happily from a 5 string Spector Euro 5LX bass to a 4 string EBMM Sterling and then to an ESP Eclipse 6 string electric guitar. Update 2 - I've now re-aligned the nut, and the pickups (the middle pickup was slightly slanted and the bridge humbucker was slightly off centre), and now I'm feeling happier. I'm still finding it a little un-natural to play but I've only had it a day so give it some time ...

I’m a huge Tele fan, much meatier than a Strat in all the positions IMO. Every home should have one 😊.

Seller- Guitar pick included Buyer- Does it need tuning?

On the flipside, it probably makes your signature guitar a lot more within your reach than for many! Nothing wrong with liking the classics, imo; some things are so popular as to become 'run of the mill' for good reason....

Mine would be a Thinline Tele with a bound top, but with a belly contour and a forearm chamfer. It would be fitted with P90s.

It may just be a ratty old Eko from a jumble sale or a cosseted James Olsen original but this is the place to show off your guitar collection... I've got a couple of electrics, a couple of acoustics and some other bits and bobs... here they are. Now time to share yours! Fylde Gordon Giltrap signature Brook Tamar 010 (Gordon seems to think it’s OK!) Gordon Smith G90 prototype Gordon Smith Gypsy SS Brueko ukulele Fylde Octavius bouzouki

I am closet guitarist. This is my third guitar. I have an Ibanez SA and an steel string acoustic, but I couldn't resist this one. An Ibanez 1977 lawsuit-era Les Paul. It needs a bit of love, but in the meantime I can take the opportunity to learn to play.

With an instrument like this, it would be wise to take it to a reputable, competent luthier, to have it inspected, repaired/restored if necessary, and set up for how you'll be playing it. Think of it, not as a cost, but as an investment, as the guitar will be good for another half a century or so. It's quite normal for any quality instrument to benefit from a check-up now and again. A good workman will know exactly what to look for, and how to remedy any flaws. Just my tuppence-worth; hope this helps.

Mick Ronson, always loved his tone John

And in the meantime I made a bit of progress with the fretboard. Cut a couple of swifts for the 12th fret: Then used a precision router base on the Dremel with a 1.5mm bit: and installed with epoxy mixed with Macassar dust: Dots fixed either side and sanded smooth with the radius block: And that's all up to date as of this morning

OK The thing I've done before is using decorative banding to bind the fretboard with. It gives me the advantage of looking like a multi-layer veneer demarcation without the faff and risk of wavy lines of trying to do that: The second thing is something I haven't tried before. Because the neck is from an offcut, it isn't deep enough to give me top of body to bottom in two pieces. And three pieces of maple stacked together could look a bit naff! So I've added a lump of decorative wood. To make it look like it was meant to be there, I've angled it. Won't know until I carve it what it is going to look like, but worth a try!

And so to shaping the braces (basically parabola shaped to retain the strength but reduce weight) and tweaking the shape of the braces to get the top to resonate with multiple harmonics at as many of the required frequencies as possible - tap tuning. For anyone interested in this black art (which I only scratch the surface of personally - I know when it's right but I don't know how to get there other than by accident), this is a long but very instructive video. The last 15mins or so has him actually doing the tweaking and by golly you can hear the difference at the end!: https://youtu.be/Ei5-DkVTrEE Mine has ended pretty much where his began (then again, he sells his guitars for many thousands of pounds) but is certainly more resonant that when I started with a number of distinctly different notes, with at least two harmonics, ringing out when various parts of the top is tapped. On this dry fit, you can see that some of the non-structural braces disappear to nothing - and where that happens matters!: The straight brace at the top and the long cross braces are structural and will extend into the kerfed strip, which needs cutting away: As will be seen later - the outside join will actually be cut away! So the glue joint of the kerfed strip itself has to be a good one - but remember, the top and back are curved. So they need sanding at an angle to provide a good gluing surface and tight internal join: While I can see both sides (ie, before the top is glued on), I need to similarly prepare the back. First a purfling strip is set into the join line: That is scraped smooth and then the back braces are put on. The back has a 15 foot radius spheroidal curve so has its own radius dish. The bottoms are radiused to fit the 15' dish in the same way the top braces were radiused to fit the 25' dish: I pre-shape the parabola so use spruce offcut strip to act as the pressure beams for the go-bar struts to press the back into its proper shape in the dish: And then the dry-fit tweaking of the back join is done in the same was the top was: Thread is ALMOST up to date. Next post is gluing the top and back onto the sides which is where I've just got to.

Hi, I thought I'd start a thread for discussion and sharing Cab IR's. Obviously I'm not suggesting we should share anything other than those which are freely available. So Cab IR's. The latest digital witchcraft in helping us chase the holy grail of tone or just another con? To my ears, there's no doubt at all that changing a Cab IR in a patch on my unit can makee a massive change to the tone and overall sound of the patch. But..... is it really a Marshall 1960x/Mesa/Fender/Ampeg can with an SM57/SM58 on/offcentre - well I have no idea as I've never had the ability to try all the millions of possibilities and options that now exist. To me, if it sounds good, sounds as you want it to, then it's the right thing to use. Accuracy of 'modelling' doesn't really matter to me. Much like the whole amp modelling debate. Oh, I use a Mooer GE200 which I think is extraordinarily good value for money. It's Amp Sims are as good as I need, it's small and really simple to programe and it takes Cab IRs. What's not to like? Anyway, here's a link to a load of Cab IR's I've collected over the years - fill your boots! https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Vyly3Doh4F3_x2xN4VnpvjnqlRrnR4ms

They are excellent players. Most Yamahas are.

Hello, I came here from theFretboard.co.uk because I thought it would be cool to be part of the famous basschat.co.uk. Well, nice to be here!

I believe this is around how the site handles https. Theres a setting somewhere but i cant get on at the moment. Ill see what i can do

Maybe a right handed one

Many will have seen my presence on Basschat, so I thought I would join in over here too. Started out on guitar, and have alternated between guitar and bass in bands for years, though latterly, only playing bass in bands and guitar, at home on my recordings,c and one or two bits that my guitarist can't manage on our recordings. The band is Charms Against the Evil Eye. I do setups and some amount of electronic fixing- guitars, amps, pedals. Some of my job is surface mount electronic rework, so I can tackle a lot of that type of stuff too. Guitars: 74 SG Special (mini humbuckers), 93 Eggle Berlin Pro, 96 Squier telecaster, Godin Solidac, GS-1 12-string, Art+Lutherie Ami parlour. Amps: Sessionette 75 retro-tone mods, Trace Elliot Super Tramp, Ashdown CTM15

Just signed up here then went straight back to Basschat to check that I haven't just changed my BC avatar to 2 telecasters.

It'll remain "for now", I'll work something out!