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I've recently bought a HB PB50 bass. I rolled the fingerboard edges and gigged it last week. £105. unbelievable

I’ve had an itch to go full circle and acquire a classical guitar. There’s something about the sound of nylon strings that always seems so pleasant to my ears. Then I had a couple of videos come up on my YouTube feed that featured jazz being played on a nylon strung guitars, which pretty much sealed the deal. I didn’t really know what I was looking for, but a cutaway seemed like a good idea and as I had a bass to trade in, that pretty much set the budget. A little browsing on local (for a value of local, still an hour+ driving, each way) guitar shop websites and I settled on trying the Alvarez AC65HCE. This a hybrid model where the neck meets to body at the 14th fret, instead of the 12th and the nut width isn’t quite so wide. Went to Guitar Guitar in Edinburgh , tried it, sounded and felt good to me, so rather than do due diligence by trying some others, I bought it. With the trade in it cost me a whole £40, so I’m well pleased. What’s that, where are the pics you say? Very well… Big shout out to the staff at GG, Edinburgh, who couldn’t have been more helpful if they tried. Even after I had parted with my £s, they were quite happy to shoot the breeze about guitars and players. I’d definitely go back, despite the journey.

Very nice. I also like the idea of a classical guitar after a few years of playing and loving the ukulele, but have been put off by the wide nut. This looks like a nice compromise. Enjoy!

I'm no expert but what I do know is that it is a lot better than my older Hohner, and it was the best of all those that were thrust in my hands, both in feel and sound - it also happened to be the most expensive. None of those guitars were dogs by any means, which is a world away from my experiences some 40 years ago. After I parted with my cash the guys claimed that this £400 guitar holds its own up against more expensive guitars, and he was actually going to have this one for himself. I am extremely pleased, I just need to improve my playing!

I will do a build diary to document this when i get started, but am going to do a neck only p90 build. Going to use a humbucker size p90 so I don't need to increase the size of the rout on the body I have and to keep it flexible for the future. Will keep you updated.

I have recently surprised myself by buying a Rick-alike 360 Capri in light blue. I am a sucker for the aesthetics, but ultimately I do not think it is for me. However I LOVE the neck pickup on it. I understand that there are lots of other parts to the equation of THE TOOONE!!!1!!, but quite fancy whacking one into something else. What is it about them which makes them them? Is it just a bog standard pickup in a fancy case or is it something Rick exclusive? Here is a picture cos I know what we are all like.

That's not a normal Telecaster, though, is it..? It has an active circuit, and those little black switches have some effect, Shirley..? What make is it, and did you buy it new, with its current features, or has it been 'upgraded' by someone..? What do those switches do..? Learn to solder if you want, but not on that guitar before becoming proficient and capable, t'would be a massacre and a waste. It may well already have coil switching and/or phase switching. Pray tell...

Lots of fun, but probably complicating matters.

I cannot get the front plate off. So I opened the back. I perhaps should have mentioned that I have an Fernandes Sustainer pickup in there. I think I will take it to a grown up.

I checked my Tele by playing one which I knew to be correctly wired. Night and day difference.

Interestingly, I went back to my Telecaster this morning which is where this started for me. My Tele has a sustainer humbucker in the neck and a standard Catswhisker T birdge pickup. I had played my Tele and then the Ricker-thang a few days ago which is what started this quest. It turns out that my Tele is all sorts of out of phase. So the neck pickup on my Ricker-thang is not actually full of magic, it is just actually wired correctly Because I am not a guitarist I am not attuned to what "should" be happening. Every day is a school day. As usual, thanks for humouring me.

Hi folks. I am having a hard time choosing my next amp. I think I have dialed my choices down to these two amps: Vintage 1963 Supro (Valco) “Super 1606” Mezzabarba Z18 I have tried a Mezzabarba, and it was extremely good. But they cost over $3.000, so I don't think that is an alternative. Yet. There isn't much info on the web, so can anyone help me out here? Other amps are also welcome I havend decided if I wanna go digital either, when I think about it. I have looked at the new Quad Cortex and a bit at Kemper and Helix too, but I don't know. There all these menus, and you can scroll forever. Also, people says that you have to pay for good amp simulations and so on, so it's even more expencive. And I need a cab too... x2 for playing in stereo... I like to see stuff visualy so I know what the knob is set to. Then Kemper is the way to go. But its old. Maybe wait for them to come up with an answer to quad cortex? So I guess this is a double topic: tube vs amp modeller and two tube amps against each other

Well hello -like my name says, I'm an occasional guitar player I've got GAS like anyone else, I do have a nice guitar collection, Ibanez, Fender, Gibson, Musicman, etc, and what i love to do is trade gear so I can try as much stuff as possible. Guilty. At least my wife leaves me alone when I don't just spend too much... I mostly listen to blues, pop, rock, and some prog here and there. See ya!

I had one of these (just sold it recently on ebay actually). They work really well if you prefer the amp 'feel' but not the weight. The sound great (if you want that tweed Fender tone - and who doesn't?) and will output into PA too for larger gigs. But you do have to treat it like a valve amp. The louder you get, the more gain and adjustment you need etc. It doesn't react like a solid state amp in my opinion. I let it go purely for the reasoning in my previous post. I wanted a consistent sound into PA or active speaker that I could have at any volume with no knob twiddling. Although I don't gig much any more, my home setup is now the same as my live setup, I have a Yamaha active 12" PA speaker and my rack effects that I can use for both bass and guitar (and ukulele etc). I can use this as a standalone, or leave the speaker at home and use IEM as required. So I now only have a small Fender frontman amp for small 'front room' type jams with friends.

Hi all, I’m after a bit of help if poss please? I’m looking for a gift for my husband for Christmas - he currently already has a Gretsch electric and a Martin acoustic - he’s mentioned he’d like a Jaguar but has also sent me a pic of a Mustang… (I’m clueless as you can probably tell) but also wanting to keep it a surprise as he’d never guess that would be my gift to him… my budget isn’t massive in terms of the guitar world (maybe £400?) but which is a good pick? I’ve heard classic vibes are good for the money? Any other advice? I’m open to new or second hand. Thanks so much.

You may have seen elsewhere in other posts that I have been asking all sorts of questions ahead of a potential upgrade, well today I bit the bullet. After much research, asking questions and visiting several guitar emporium today I picked up a rather lovely Lag T88 electro acoustic for a bit more than I was planning to pay, however I am absolutely over the moon with my purchase. I hadn't visited this local music shop previously and I was delighted with the service, right down to the fact that my wife was offered a seat as she struggles to stand for too long due to severe arthritis in her knees. The sales guys listened to my story and then proceeded to thrust a selection of guitars into my hands and being as my abilities are limited took each guitar back and played the same pieces on each guitar so that I could hear the difference. I wasn't sure that I would hear much difference between guitars unless the difference in price varied by thousands rather than just a few pounds. My wife and I quickly discounted the lower price ranges around £200 and in the end plumped for the most expensive, and the clincher was that the difference between the last two was that the cheaper of the two was of natural satin finish and my final choice is gloss finish. I really liked the satin look finish but the gloss finish has a much fuller sound. When I told a guitar playing friend that I was looking to upgrade he said that you really need to hold a guitar before buying and that once in your hands you would know it is the guitar for you, these words are so true in my opinion. Finally back to the sales guys who offered me some advice on my playing and I may even book the odd lesson or two now.

If I were in the market for a combo right now, I’d be all over this - https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/477611-roland-blues-cube-never-used-minty-condition-model-bc-hot-vb-33w-now-£275/

I wouldn't say I love it, but I do really like it. For me, it's the portability. I have a guitar lesson after work once a week and can sit in the car for half an hour beforehand and practise. It sounds decent enough too. Obviously it's not going to be as loud or full sounding as a larger amp, but it's good enough for my needs.

I’ve been in the audience when the guitar players were using Kempers and they sounded great. However, I have heard that on stage experience can be ‘off’ as they lack the ‘feel’ of a valve amp. For my part, I used to use a lot of Tech21 gear (still use their preamps for bass) and never felt that they were lacking in on stage feedback, so I’m I do wonder if a lot of players do a lot of hearing with their eyes. The downside with valve amps and especially vintage ones is the maintenance and their susceptibility to damage when being lugged in and out of vans, etc. in addition, eventually the supply of valves will dry up, I understand, that with the current situation with Russia, valves are harder and, therefore, more expensive to acquire. If it were me, I’d grasp the current modelling nettle and get the box I felt most at home with. This is tinged by having a buddy who uses a Kemper for guitar and bass duties and he loves it. Either that, or find a solid state amp that I really liked the sound of; YMMV.

For what it's worth, I did make my own Harley Benton in the past, with a kit like this: https://thmn.to/thoprod/115992?offid=1&affid=1771 It's really cool to make and I gotta say you learn a lot by building your own guitar. And tbh the quality of HBs now are insane for the price... I'd recommend that to anyone who wants to start or needs a cheap guitar on the side (travel etc). It's not Fender quality of course, but it's still pretty, pretty good

This weekend was supposed to be finishing...off the bodies. As planned I routed the unfinished body for the Kahler trem. I did have a template prepared but lost the nerve to use it after checking against my linework on the body and finding things weren't totally square. I wasn't sure which to trust more but I went with the line work. So I removed the guiding woodwork from the template and stuck it directly to the guitar body and made sure it squared up. It turned out kind of OK although it still doesn't look square, it's still better than the template. So I reached a point where good enough had to be good enough, so long as the bridge sits in the right place. I also decided on a dayglo camoflage pattern for the Mean Machine. I liked the juxtaposition of a pattern designed to hide something against colours that were designed to be seen. Yesterday I coated the body in dayglo pink and was really happy wiht how it turned out. No drips, blobs or runs - thanks to putting the can in some hot water for 10 minutes before I used it. For the camo, a bit of online research online suggested laying down the lightest of three colours first and then applying two more through stencils on top. I found a camoflage stencil and printed it out on two sheets of A3 for cutting out and the lightest colour out of either green, blue, purple or pink was pink. I cut out and reinforced the stencil for both stencils and found a need for low tack double sided tape to keep the stencil close to the surface and minimise excessive blurring. However after spraying this morning, the whole thing was a total write off and for multiple reasons. 1) The combination of pink (as the lightest) and the next lightest (blue) make the guitar look more like eighties hair metal than something ironic and urban. Plus the blue on top of the pink is so dark that it makes the final, darkest purple lighter. It's not what I was hoping for. 2) I was impatient with stencilling the back coat. The front coat was touch dry but I didn't realise it was still soft. So it has marks from being laid on the cardboard backing. I know, I should have put it on something like tooth picks or can caps or something. 3) The flourescent paint isn't opaque. Dayglo colours don't seem to play nicely with each other so any finish that involves layering on one top of the other is not really going to work without white undercoat. Plus, trying to get a layer of colour to line up with the under coat while there are blurry edges is adding another level of complication that can probably only be best resolved with extra time to cure and masking tape. Camo is really too much faff to mask off with tape, and the thin, flexible masking tape I have doesn't stick anyway. I've tried. 4) The undercoat revealed all sorts of minor dings, scratches and over sanded edges anyway, which I thought might be hidden by subsequent layers but weren't. It's not that big a deal for my own guitar but I want to do better. The factories can do it with minimal effort so I probably can, too. Hmmmmm, you live and learn I guess. But it's going to mean at least a 2 week delay to assembling the guitar because the acrylic needs so long to finish gassing off and harden - assuming I continue to use acrylic. Either way the whole lot off is going to get sanded off and I'm going to start again. Maybe the original spray bomb idea was still the best after all. However I'm going to abandon super glue finishes on bodies as anything other than sealer because it's time consuming to apply and sand evenly and consistently over curved surfaces. Using a sanding tool also sometimes creates more problems on the body sides than it solves because of the speed, even if I think I'm being careful. So...in terms of alternatives to superglue there is 2k sealer but that still leaves a question over primer. One is to go back to the japanese made 'Mr Hobby' undercoat ontop of superglue sealer. But its pretty expensive and provides a standard of finish that is way smoother than the 320 grit I really need. It's more than is needed. Another idea is to use 2 pack polyester resin. Over the summer I made a guitar with Jon Shuker. After applying sealer Jon went and thickly applied a mystery finish which I sanded back. It had drips and runs in it which surprised me because Jon is pretty skilled in applying just the right amounts of finish. Jon later revealed it was 3 pack polyster resin (resin + catalyst with a separate accelerator) diluted with acetone for spraying thickess. . A quick search on Google revealed that sprayed resin was quite the health hazard requiring a full hazmat suit and ventilator with air supply. He said it could be brushed on which seems to be a safer option. Polyester resin is really cheap and easy to find in China so that may be worth a try just to see if I can lift the standard of finish before the colour coat is applied. In other news, I started on the cavity cover for the other body, where the sustainer PCB would go. I was surprised at how difficult it was to find 3 ply acrylic sheet online so settled for a 2mm thick plastic trem cover for about 70p which is just big enough for the cavity cover. And it's thin enough that I can glue some sapele veneer to it and sand it flush once shaped to fit. Then seal with superglue and primer. I'm having to improvise with final sanding that shape though owing to a lack of benchtop sanding tools.

Ooh, that Jag looks very tasty!

Nice guitar! I remember first hearing of Lag about thirty years ago. Electrics, in that case - some very Superstrat type guitars with a lot of work put into the maple tops - like PRS had started out making an answer to Ibanez. I've never played one of their acoustics, but I gather they are very nice indeed. Enjoy!

I’d put the univibe before or after the trem pedal and the GE7 after those. As to the comp pedal, that rather depends on if you’re using as an effect (Summers/Gilmour vibe) or just to even things out. If as an effect, after the wah, if as ‘smoother’, just before the delay. But that’s just me, it’s what sounds good that matters and how all the fx play with each other.

Oh no, that's a pity.

Gutted, just found out apparently they close thier doors for the last time on Christmas eve, owner retiring.

I am now thinking that this might be an interesting build to do. I have come to the conclusion that I just don't really like my strat and have a spare tele and hardtail strat body that I haven't used yet. Rather than do yet another Esquire build I might try this first and see how I like it. Just need to decide whether to use a strat sized humbucker for a little extra body like the photo, or maybe even a p90 instead of a normal strat neck pickup. I have most of the parts and will use the neck of my current 1979 Aria strat so that I can re-instate the original body if required.

Always good to plug a shop if they've given good service, as we are usually quick to let everyone know if we've had bad service.

OK, then I recommend that you learn the Dark Art of guitar set-ups as soon as practicable, as you'll be needing those skills, to get the best from your new, or any other, guitar. Douglas

Apex Music in Earley, Reading https://apexmusicshop.co.uk/

Lovely guitar. Health to play. What shop was it?

Yes, makes a real difference when you get good service and good advice. Goes a long way. And a lovely looking guitar. Good purchase.

The Squier Classic Vibes are really good guitars and not just for the money, in fact I think they punch way above their price point. As to whether a Jaguar or Mustang, you hubby has clouded the water with the pic. Both are good and around your budget. Based on the ability to upgrade the hardware in the future, I’d go Jaguar, as they are more readily available and a wider range of upgrades. Also, the Mustang body is quite small and can feel a bit toy like at times (I use a Mustang bass, which is the same body size, and am 6’ ). You could rib him a bit about sending you the wrong photo/giving it the wrong name, if you want to get some clarification. Who are his guitar heroes? This is often a good way to find out what someone wants:Johnny Marr - Jaguar; Kurt Cobain - Mustang (sort of). Hope that helps.

Most physical shops will already have looked at an instrument and made sure it didn't have any issues with action etc before putting them on display. An online service where they are just shifting boxes will be different and minor remedial action may be needed, but most new instruments are decent from the factory and only need minor fettling to get them right for personal preferences. But any reputable shop will sell a good instrument off the shelf (if it wasn't, they would have sent it back). As Douglas says, if you see and play it in person, you shouldn't need to do anything to it. If it feels right, it feels right. If something feels off then it isn't the one for you. Feel free to negotiate about anything, the smaller the shop, the more flexible they may be about including soft case, spare strings etc but don't pass up a nice instrument just because you don't get a case.

I've got a stereo amp, the Vox AD120VT. Original, blue cloth version with the big 2x12 box. Same size / form factor as an AC30. The stereo effect is surprisingly pronounced despite the speakers being so close together. It does have the advantage of convenience - one box, not two. There's also consistent balance across the two channels - though obviously if you want a deliberate effect of two very different sounds, then two amps is still your birdy. For recording, as you note, there'd be no difference - it's all about mixing the channels. Live, if you're going through a PA would be much the same - even miking, just mic up the two speakers separately. For the most part, it makes little odds to me - I don't care about the sort of effects that benefit from the stereo function - indeed, at some point I'm going to sell the Vox on because I prefer a much simpler amp, and I barely use the vast majority of its functionality, just set it two Twin Reverb mode and dial in a little break-up.... it's wasted one me.