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Normally it's us who are supposed to be the entertainment but sometimes that gets reversed. I remember one gig my band did at the King's Head in Crouch End where the audience took over singing and we backed them instead.

I played at a Viking Festival in the middle of last year. I knew mine was going to be the first set on the weekend's music programme; what I didn't realise was that it was also the beginning to pretty much the entire event. So I played a set to a group of people dressed up in Norse togs, carrying drinking hons and replica battleaxes, who didn't yet have enough alcohol inside them to get properly rowdy. The most sedate bunch of Vikings I've ever seen, but a very friendly bunch.

I keep getting told off due to plectrums being found in the washing machine ...

Nothing worth doing should be easy, as there would be no sense of accomplishment. Stick with it, you won’t be disappointed. Getting those callouses is a real badge of honour with other benefits outside of playing. Picking up hot drinks or plates without flinching springs to mind. Although my favourite was removing a large wasp from a school staff room; I held it gently by its wings and watched it try and repeatedly sting my fingertips to no avail. The small, angry beast was released through a window, where it flew away unharmed to the amazed faces of my colleagues.

Easier for a band than a stand-up comic.... Not my gig, but this is too good not to recall.... I remember being in the Camden Falcon back in 1999, when that was the base of the Barfly Club (before it moved to the Monarch on the main drag, but I digress...). The much-missed Angelica were on stage, and as they often did, the girls invited the audience to 'heckle us - give us your best insult!'. Somebody in the middle of the crowd yelled out "You were clearly influenced by the Stereophonics!" Used to have some pretty bizarre audiences back in thed dayswhen I MC'ed a Rocky Horror crowd, but that's probably another story, not on a par with those of you who've done legit gigs!

Think you've made the right call there. I didn't realise they'd have those pickup surrounds on as well - probably enough going on without a pickguard as well! Have to say, the Fender-style neck on the Les Paul body shape looks a lot better than I'd anticipated!

Welcome to the forum! As mentioned above, a lot of us here are really bass players who dream of being “proper” guitarists 😀 so it’s nice to welcome someone who’s learning to handle all six strings right from the off 😀 Unfortunately, there’s no magic answer to help you develop your playing. It’s all difficult and a bit painful at first - but then it kind of clicks together and you don’t even think about it any more. So the only advice I can offer is.....persevere! Lessons are great - the online courses (of which there are many but the justinguitar ones seem excellent) are good but I would strongly suggest that you also sign up with a local tutor and take a few lessons on a one to one basis. This will help you develop good technique from the start and help to stop you developing habits now that may constrain your playing in the future. Courses are great but I think the real-time feedback from an actual tutor is invaluable to set you on your way. Enjoy the forum and let us know how you get on. If you have questions about gear, technique, gear, songs, gear or anything really - Including gear, we like talking about gear - then ask away. You’ll get a million different opinions and always be able to pick one you like, lol 😀 😎

Lost picks? I wouldn't know This is my 20+ year old Dunlop tortex pick (on the right) next to the same make and model bought a few months ago. Either they used to make them slightly smaller with a different shape or the older one has lost a couple of mm in height and width over the years. The old one is noticeably slippier as well. I think I must have knocked most of the tortex out of it.

long story: About 7 years ago a colleague in work asked me if I wanted his old guitar combo. He'd been sorting out his attic and found it and rather than chuck it away he thought he'd offer it to me. I went to his house to get it and he handed me a Guyatone GA-620, looked like a copy of a Fender Princeton Reverb, he told me it hadn't been switched on since sometime in the 70s. I took it to a guy in Bristol for him to switch it on for the first time, I didn't fancy the risk of electrocution. Brizzle guy replaced a couple of dead capacitors in the output and power sections, and replaced all the valves. When I got it home I found that the volume didn't really work, neither did the tone controls.. nor the reverb and erm tremolo... But there was sound and it sounded good. So I got on the internet and tried to search for info on the amp. But the only results to to photos of it I'd uploaded the day I'd got it. Life got in the way and the combo was put aside. A few years ago I decided to see if I could revive it. In the years that had past someone had sold the same combo on reverb.com and had uploaded quite a few photos, including a schematic! Not having the time to deal with it I printed the schematics and took the amp to a repair place in Cardiff. He had it for 3 weeks before telling me it wasn't worth repairing. I disagreed and asked what needed to be done. His reply was "buy a new amp". Not being one for defeat and being fairly handy with a soldering iron I went off and researched amp repairs. Last year I replaced all the dead oil in paper capacitors and lo and behold the treble control and volume started working. The bass control had a very minimal effect, but neither the reverb nor tremolo came to life. I bought another new complete set of valves, I then noticed that one of the valves was the wrong type. Stuck in the correct one and the tremolo fired up! I traced the issue with the reverb down to a dead driver transformer and the bass tone control was wired nothing like the schematic was laid out. So I put it back to how it should be, but still it was a bit ineffective. But the amp worked better and sounded awesome, but got noisy after about 20 mins. I replaced some of the valve bases as they were a bit knackered looking. Life got in the way again. Then last week a post on a facebook group alerted me to a tech who lived a 2 minute drive from me. Yesterday I called him up, "Bring it round now if you can" he said, "It'll save me from having to repaint my kitchen!" So off I went. Rather than leave the amp with him he started working on it as I gave him the above history. He checked the reverb driver transformer and it had indeed died. So he replaced it and replaced a suspect ground wire. Tested it and the amp now had a fantastic sounding spring reverb. It then took 2 and a 1/2 hours to diagnose the trouble with the bass control. Who ever had altered the circuit had also got the two capacitors on the wrong sides of the pot. Tech guy then said the noise, once the amp was warm, was a 95% probability of some of the old resistors going out when warm. He told me the best way to find which were causing the problem. He said he wouldn't do it for me as I'd obviously spent a fair amount of time sorting things myself and getting to know the amp. At this point in time I've spent about £100 in total on the combo, including over 3 hours of time and a transformer from the tech yesterday. About another £20 for some new resistors and the amp with be sorted. It sounds so good. Razor sharp highs and warm lows... It's been a long journey, that's not yet over, but I've learnt quite a lot about amps...

I had an eighties Fender Twin. Great sound, weighed a ton. Now I have a Fender Blues Deluxe, still heavy but sounds great especially when paired with an attenuator and a good guitar! 😁😁😁😁😍😍😍 I also have a sixties Gibson GA100, all original. Also sounds amazing with an original fifties P90 equipped ES5 or a Les Paul (any age, but a good one) not so good with a strat. I have a Line6 POD XT Live. Great for recording, doesn’t work for me live.