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Yes, and there are probably parallels with the exotic car market and fine art as well. The number of people who can afford original vintage instruments and are interested in owning them will continue to dwindle over the next 100 years. And prices will probably continue to rise mostly because the demand is not driven by players so much as collectors. Gibson actually took them to court over PRS single cut models. Paul was in his element in the witness chair though and Gibson ultimately lost their case. Fender gave up rights to their body shape IP long ago. Endorsements are the most effective form of marketing. Fender have been guilty of buying competitors purely for their list of endorsees - I think it might have been Genz or SWR who were an example of that happening, I can't remember exactly. But it's why good brands die after being bought out by a larger corporate interest. Mark Gooday tells a good story about Fender's interest in Trace Elliot shortly before announcing they'd purchased SWR. Trace had to open up their books to Fender as part of the due diligence process...

In addition to the little Mustang (which I use as a practice tool because of the aforementioned play-along capabilities), I also have a little Bugera T5 Infinium which is perfect for home use. It has three power settings (0.5w, 1w and 5w) and does that valve breakup thing really nicely. I’d love a blues junior but to get them to sound “good” they’re just too loud for my needs

Lots of great kit out there at sensible prices. I guess it boils down to how important the sound is to you (and of course what your budget is). Being a recidivistic old fart, I would politely suggest that nothing beats a good valve amp for sound; no amount of electronic toys quite manages to recreate that valve magic IMHO. The downside is that they tend to be more expensive than solid state units. After a long and fascinating thread on the subject, followed by a series of instore try-outs (not really an option right now of course) I shelled out a little over £550 on a Fender Blues Junior IV. One other point; don't be tempted by power ratings: the 15w rating on the BJ IV is actually a bit more than I needed for home use (and more than enough for the recording projects I have in the pipeline). 10w will be plenty, and there are some very good valve amps out there with 5w - and lower - ratings too. If that nth degree of sound quality (not to mention hearing the sound coming out of an actual amp cabinet) is not such a big deal then plenty of good options have already been mentioned above. As always, just my opinion.

Hello there, Found what you all wrote informative. I have a marshal 50 amp, can't get the thing to give me the sound I want and have been lookin myself for something to use, just indoors for my own pleasure, but would love to be able to play a more meatier sound, just can't get it right on the marshal. Ive had a look at the spark thats newly advertised, but am useless with computer tech stuff, so want something I can mess with buttons or nobs and just make it sound great. I love playing a meaty sound like sabbath, iron maiden, accept type sound and will have a look at what you have mentioned on here. I have tried looking on u tube to get advice on how to use my small amp, but still cant get it to sound right... ...Thanks.... Kaz

Oh, quite a lot to tempt me - thank you for digging that up! I'm also kicking myself for not guessing why the two version of the EHX pedal were so named - of course, "K" denoted keyboards, and "G" guitars. (I blame it being Friday when I first started looking...) Quite encouraged to see that a lot of the others claim to be equally suitable for keys and guitars: if I'm going to invest in a pedal then that versatility is a definite plus!

Personally - and this really only is a subjective personally opinion - it's a rare Gibson I would find worth the spend. (Bear in mind, of course that the left handed options I see are more commonly the closing in on two grand end of things new; I'd struggle to justify that when I could go to a reputable builder and have something custom made to my specs for that....). These tributes look nice, though, and around the price that I'd feel comfortable with if I wanted a Les Paul again. Buying new given these price points, I'd stump up for the Gibson,. I'm sure the Epi is a fine guitar (I've never played an Epi I thought was truly "bad", beyond muddy HBs), but for my tastes Gibson have rather started to push the prices of Epiphones up. After yeas of them selling Epi as a budget brand, I'm afraid I find it hard to look at their new guitars and thing "expensive Epiphone-alike" rather than "Bargain Gibson!" If I was already going to buy a copy of a Gibson, I'd probably look at Vintage or Tokai instead, rather than spend more on something which, no matter how 'official' it is, is no less a 'copy' just a more expensive one. I still believe that's a major reason why Epiphone's Elite/ Elitist series failed - if they'd badged it 'Gibson Japan', I honestly think they'd have made a mint. Course, it's still very early days for these new Epiphones, so it's possible they will begin to hold their own moneywise. Proportionately, I think Epis always did (at least for the LP models) hold a similar proportion of their resale value to higher end (non-rare) production line Gibsons, but to me they're no longer worth the new prices given the range of competition out there. At least their marketing department have finally cottoned on to the impact of headstock shape in the market, though - always seemed a strange choice to me in a world where the market does care about these things that Gibson would give its own budget line a headstock shape that immediately made it less close a replica of the real thing than many other legit copies on the market (I'm not talking counterfeits). TL/DR: if I was going to buy a LP nowadays, the Tribute would be the one I'd choose, especially if available used.

So many choices these days! I have a 15w Fender Mustang which - for me - is the perfect practice amp. Looper, SD card slot to play songs to jam with, change pitch and speed. Loads of amp models and effects built in. Mine is one of the early models with their Fuse software (which I’ve never bothered using) but if the current crop are as versatile then they’re well worth it. Or buy a used older model. The Spark looks interesting but you’re reliant on the app and I don’t think it would work for me. So of your choices, I’d probably go with the Katana but that’s only if my Fender Mustang wasn’t available. PS I did have one of the little Yamaha TH amps (the acoustic version) which I moved on quickly. Even at low volumes it couldn’t handle any sort of bass frequency and it hated anything above whisper quiet. The electric guitar versions may be better but I would check before you buy....

Any of those would work nicely. However, it it were me, I’d go for the Katana as it offers all the modelling and effects you might want, has the headphones out you’ll be using most of the time, but will also give the option of going fully amplified (at different levels) if you want to ‘feel’ what you’re playing or if suddenly you want to jam with others.

Mate, that's still a massive help, I'll fire it up on that Dano specific forum and maybe they can give me some answers. I'm currently in love with a little partscaster I built with a friend...so smooth. Thanks for the help! Ethan

I've actually got an order for the Epiphone atm, however between the retailer/carrier who have appeared to have lost it somewhere between Germany/UK im now awaiting a refund. The loss shipment has given me pause for thought on the gibson because the epi is pretty much out of stock everywhere. I like the 60s Standard and while the epi rolls in at an affordable price compared to over 2k for the real deal. Was just wondering where the Tribute sits? Yeah its bugger not being able to try out feel it. Guess its youtube for me. Thanks for your opinion.

I remember the Gibson case well (followed it out of both personal and professional interest). I wasn't surprised PRS won on Appeal. The first instance decision was nonsense - nobody spends that much on a guitar without having a fair idea what they are getting into, and the idea that anyone in any way would assume the PRS was a Gibson is bunk. Pretty transparently Gibson were trying to shut down a competitor who made them feel threatened, imo. Otherwise, Vintage would be a better rand to sue (look a lot more like Gibson, and really are a "copy" rather than "inspired by". That said, what I meant was guitar players were like "ok, fine, it's the PRS version of a Paul, that's cool" - the same people, by and large, who went apeshit when PRS did their version of a Strat. Granted, it was a step further away from *most* of what PRS is known for, style wise (it seems everyone has forgotten their early 90s EG models, which are pretty damn close to these, if less blatantly "our version of the Strat), but still.... why was one shrugged at and the other the apparent crime of the century in the eyes of so many? I don't think for a minute that any of them thought twice about the Gibson v PRS case. Fender, if memory serves, did register their headstocks as TMs in the mid 50s, though they couldn't do that in the UK prior to 94, or much of the rest of the world as shapes weren't registrable as TMs until the TMs At 1994 (in the UK). Prior to that, it would have been the much murkier common law issue of passing off / goodwill in the overall look and such. AFAIK, they can still protect the headstock shape now, but yes they lost everything else about the look of a Strat or Tele long ago. (As an aside, it amuses me that the headstock is the bit they're still able to protect, given that was the one bit of the Strat that they ripped off from somebody else, arguably - see Paul Bigsby's early prototypes.) Endorsements are an interesting thing. Definitely true that they sell product; Gibson and Fender so rarely advertise outside of the hobbyist press, but they continue to dominate the market largely because they got there first - all yer heroes play F or G, so you want F or G and when the next generation make it b ig playing F or G because their heroes did the new raft of kids in the audience want 'em.... self-perpetuating loop. At least we have some more variety in the market these days, but still. It's what makes me laugh a bit about people who whine and complain about "me too" brands.... generally exactly the same people I've often seen say they *would* buy X, but for "that ugly headstock - why can't they do a nice one, it's just not as good looking as the Fender..." Another thing that sort of intrigues me is how I've also long been intrigued by Fender's approach to these things: they might dabble with a few oddballs under the Big F for those who won't buy anything else, but they prefer to buy entire brands rathe than compete, then let the brand be what it was. Why copy Gretsch when you can own Gretsch? I see they've even revived the Starfire range that they killed off when they bought Guild, though interestingly now it's being sold as "Guild Starfire" with Guild on the headstock - a stratification of the main brand same as has worked for Gretsch. But I'm digressing here.... If some big name played Shijie, they could take off right enough. I remember Hagstrom becoming much higher profile after Pat Smear played one in Nirvana, and we'd probably not have brands like Eastwood around if Kurt Cobain, Jack White et al hadn't popularised a lot of those defunct sixties oddballs like Airplane and Univox. Let's not forget "Mosrite of California" (nothing to do with the original Mosrite company), who owe their entire existence to the Ventures and Johnny Ramone.

Ha, well that rules me out!

Of course, they’d get a head start by letting an influential member of a well-known guitar forum have one for review purposes.... Just sayin’ 😁

I believe they're open to doing work for a big brand, though TBH I'd rather see them succeed on their own. I have a feeling it's going to be the 'Made in China' image they're going to have to get past more than being a new brand, but we'll see. Asia has shed the image it once had. Fender Japan took a bit to be viewed as well as it is now - ironically, I think it took Fender shifting its European / US targeted midprice line to Mexico for the Japanese guitars to really start to be prized. Korea was very much loo0ked down on at a time, now it's China.... I wonder if Chinese manufacture will begin to getsome respect when the very cheapest stuff moves again to Africa? (not impossible, especially for an EU market, and Chinese conglomorates have been investing heavily in several central African nations over the last decade). It'll be interesting if their new UK representation can get them reviewed in the UK guitar press, that could be a big help. While the right to stamp "Fender" on the top end would certainly help them shift units, I suspect there's a niche market there for people who like the idea of a Suhr or similar, aren't wedded to the "big" names, but can't justify spending two grand. I suppose it all keeps coming back to the same thing - whether there's a market that connects with what they are trying to do or not. If I can sell off all my old stuff for what I think might be possible, I may well spend some of it on one of these, though obviously not sight unseen. I wouldn't buy *any* guitar much about £200 without getting a chance to play it first, even a Fender custom shop.

If by '8' you mean the string gauge, that's extremely light, and will, in any case, be more difficult to keep in tune for any length of time. In my distant past, I once had a Burns Bison, on which I put a set starting with '7'; it was unplayable, just a cobweb. Your call, of course, but '10' would be my recommendation for most solid-body guitars, and a bit beefier still for archtops. If all that ironmongery is to stop the bridge flapping about, I hope it works. Leo Fender may have approved, or he may not..!