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.

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!

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.

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

For anybody considering a Goldo DG offset tremolo I got it to work great (there’s nothing on their website or YouTube I’ve looked none stop) I placed an long Allen key under the D shaped string anchor point leaving just enough room for the ball ends to go in the tight fit, brought all the strings to tension from the low to high E equally then A to B etc and it set the “floating point “ then removed the Allen key and tuned to pitch, voila !!!! If everyone is aware of the principle then great but I wasn’t. There’s more travel with this unit than standard offset ones though all the nut groove attention needs to be done like any other trem .

Godin generally are very under rated as a brand. They make some excellent instruments.

Very nice. All the best with it.

Good evening, @Paul S, and ... ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

A good shout-out for the F310, but be aware that it is an acoustic guitar. If you want an electro-acoustic, Yamaha offer the FX400, but at a higher price (£255 from Thomann, for instance...). Do you really need the 'electro' part, though..? For 'playing out', it's very useful, but for home use, the only real advantage is for recording, and even then, it's not the same sound as using an external mic. Your call, of course. The other makers cited are very good, too, especially second-hand, where one may get a better instrument, if there's enough knowledge to judge the instrument offered. Hope this helps.

https://guitarbomb.com/klon-lawsuit-dismissed-bill-finnegan-behringers-zentara-overdrive And so it's all done.... the case has been dropped, "with prejudice" (i.e. they're not allowed to reopen it at any later stage), and no money changing hands. Ironically, the rare version of the pedal is now likely to be the Centara labelled phase, as Behringer recently started labelling them the Zentara, with a Z. I wonder if those will be worth anything in future, what with many buyers hoping to land a future collectable seeking out the first, Centaur labelled, run. Decent result, overall... Behringer have (very cheaply) further refined legal precedent on the limits to how far they can copy something that's no longer in production. It'll be interesting to see if the Klon people attempt to bring out a new line of "the real thing". As a postscript, Youtuber KDH (who is being credited at breaking this story which everyone else seems to have missed) flags that the AI search facility on Google denies that this happened. Now *there's* a bubble that can't burst fast enough.

I think it might be an age thing. I'm getting increasingly grumpy with technology this last couple of years...

Well played, Sir! Maybe there will be fewer acts late on now, though, if it's easier to fins the venues.

Good evening, @Iain Douglas, and ... ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

I recorded this about 12 years ago. I did all instruments but acoustics EngineeringMixing-OmarRock-Soft_Rock_Ballad_Mix.mp3

I figured it out. Sire T7. Nice.

So... My Thomann box arrived a couple of weeks ago. Got around to opening it today. And looky what we have here...

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

Have you ever thought of taking the Fusion to a guitar tech to set up? Maybe they can get the neck closer to the way you want it. I'm surprised that the AS53 doesn't stay in tune. I have an AS73 and it stays in tune pretty well - just the occasional slight tweak needed. I would imagine it has the same hardware as the AS53.

Cor, that’s cleaned up really nicely; result!

Thanks fo the advice. I'll check out somewhere to take it in Manchester when I'm back from hols and get it checked out and set up. Hopefully it's something simple. Thanks again

It should be understood that each amp manufacturer, each model, and each technology, have, inherently, very different tonal responses to controls in the (very different...) pre-amps, so there is very little commonality between them. The settings, and range of result, cannot be equated from one to another. The reasons are as varied as the amps themselves : solid-state does not behave as valve stuff, and EL84 valves do not behave like KT88's etc. The effect of 'gain', 'master volume', tone controls differ; some tone circuits are 'flat' with the control at centre, some with the control max anti-clockwise, some (many..!) are never really 'flat', whatever the setting..! All of these factors make every combination of amp-cab useful for its own range, but maybe not so good at another. What sounds good at home may well not have what it takes on stage; even less so on a stadium stage. It works both ways, too; the only way to get a Marshall stack to belt out 'that' sound is to crank it, which makes it a poor candidate for bedroom practice in a town centre high-rise block of flats. In sum, it's 'horses for courses'. One amp for home, another for rehearsals, maybe another for gigs... This is one (of many...) reasons for the advent of Fx pedals in the first place : the ability to 'dial in' the required tone at any volume. It doesn't surprise me at all that the Classic 20 doesn't 'cut it' on stage. Despite having the same power valves (EL84...) as the Vox AC30, the circuits and cab are not at all the same, and the tonal response are chalk and cheese. You can never get a really clean sound from a Classic 20, at pretty much any volume; that's not how the circuit has been designed. They don't do 'loud'; certainly not the 'loud' that an AC 30 does. What are your options..? Find an amp which has the tonal variance that you need, in all the situations, you'll be playing, or have a different amp (and settings...) for each usage, or start building a pedal-board around an amp which ticks most of your boxes. It's not really a case of 'SS' v 'Valve' v 'Modelling'. It's just that all rigs have their upside and downside. Such is Life. Hope this helps.

Right, let's try that update again now the server is back up. So there have been a lot of purchases in the last five years mainly due to the sale of a business venture. It's been a lot of fun trying out different gear as you do but reality is starting to bite and I'm running out of space! Guitars: Ibanez AWD83T: In the original post above, I mentioned an Ibanez AWD82 and a few months back I snagged an AWD83T (with trem) on a japanese auction site for a couple of hundred quid plus shipping. It must have been part of an estate sale because it arrived sticky with nicotine stains and rusted strings. However after a bit of cleaning up and new strings, it's a total honey. The factory installed bridge pickup sounds tight and mean when cranked. The bridge pickup could be a little mellower but it still sounds jazzy and the neck is straight as an arrow making for low action. Can't recommend these guitars enough. Sounds better than the Yamaha SAS II I also had my eye on (basically the semi hollow version of the MSG/Image). The Clean Machine: Over the summer two years ago, I took a week out with Jon Shuker to build a body and install the electronics I had been hoarding for a guitar that is intended to satisfy a curiosity about the Aria RS Esprit that was made famous by Alan Murphy and Yngwie Malmsteen in the eighties. It featured Alembic licensed bridge and neck pickups and low pass filters plus a boost feature. I bagged a set of three genuine Alembic Activators off Reverb for 150 quid a few years back and Nuno at Lusithand deserves a huge shout out for customising a set of his DLPF circuits for guitar (and his customer service follow up is nothing short of outstanding as well). Not wanting to rest on my laurels, some Graphtec piezo saddles were installed on the Wilkinson VS100C trem and connected to a Ghost Acoustiphonic preamp. A rotary selector switch was needed to select between 5 pickup positions and the piezo. It still didn't deliver quite the sparkle I was looking for and I theorised it might be because the soft neck wood was dampening some of the higher frequencies. So more recently I had a custom graphite neck commissioned from a guy I know in China and installed it last weekend, it provides more sustain and a more pleasant bell like chime to notes, definitely gets me closer to where I wanted things to be but still lacks a certain something of the original. The really interesting thing is the impact that the filters have on the timbre of any overdrive or distortion, it's surprisingly versatile for recording at least and it's possible to get lots of interesting and not unpleasant sounds when messing about. The sensitivity of the filters make it a little impractical for live use though. Al Knight Hitmaker replica: As much as I like this guitar, it's sort of paid its dues and my tastes have moved on since. So it'll be up for sale over here at some point in the near future. Plays great and sounds exactly like Nile's guitar on the first Chic album. Yamaha MSG Deluxe #1: This was the first MSG I purchased, it's a transition model has the Mach 2 headstock but Mach 1 control locations. It's a little lighter and brighter than number three and in better condition. Not quite as smooth sounding and doesn't have quite the same depth of flame in the top but it's still nice. In a pinch, I would put it up for sale though to make room for other toys...and probably have sellers remorse as a result. Yamaha MSG Deluxe #3: Bought a long time ago, it was the third MSG purchased off Ebay (I think). Number 2 was a sunburst deluxe that was ultimately sold because it was light and bright sounding. This one by contrast is smooth sounding but with a nice midrange punch, even more so after installing my favourite Armstrong pickups so it will do rock and jazz with a flick of the pickup selector switch. Unfortunately the fine tuner screws started wearing out in the proprietary RM Pro trem and the only available replacement bridge chassis was black (off an RG). I actually prefer it in black. Yamaha MSG Standard #4: Originally I bought this because I wanted a simpler guitar and wanted to see how much of an improvement a tune-o-matic style bridge might make to the sustain. I picked it up for cheap because it was in desperate need of a refret and fingerboard dressing. So I took out the frets, carefully reradiussed the 13" radius fingerboard to a slightly flatter 12"radius and installed new frets. As it turned out, the bridge didn't make a whole lot of difference however, I installed some PRS Mira pickups in and it's an outrageous, raw rock machine when paired with the Marshall rack gear. However it may go up for sale in the medium term as the lack of a belly chamfer makes it uncomfortable to play sitting down and while it does rock really well, other guitars can fill the same niche even in a slightly different way and offer more versatility. Kleinberger: I've completely changed my mind about this guitar after trying it through the Marshall rack! While it may not have the most scintilating cleans, when it's cranked there's a real girth to the midrange that punches well above it's relatively small (but wide) size. However, I have another build with a sustainer planned so may let this one go at some point...after I've sorted out a case for it. Rig 1: Guitar rack: This will do pretty much anything from mid eighties onwards. It sounds tight, modern, smooth and well defined. It can do practice volumes as well as performance. Rocktron 300A compressor: This was my first piece of Rocktron equipment and it got broken before I had a chance to try it when a friend plugged in the wrong power supply (it takes AC not DC). So the power caps were replaced and it works fine now. I found it needed some careful dialling in and it sounds OK but not quite as clean as the DBX. However it sits ahead of the Lexicon MPXG2 in the guitar rack now so it does the job it needs to. I probably need to spend more time with it dialling it in. Lexicon MPXG2: I've had two for DECADES and I love them, especially with the R1 foot controller. The only thing on the market that comes close and then offers slightly more versatility with the extra loops is the TC Electronic G system. The MPXG2 was way ahead of its time; the effects chain and routing can be configured at will into parallel, left and right signal paths and in any order. The only limit is processing power, so loading it with compressor, detuning, wah, chorus, delay, and reverb probably isn't going to swing. I took the R1 into my tech earlier this year, and he replaced a lot of worn switch contacts and reconnected the slave power through the 7-pin DIN cable, so now it's as responsive as new. Mesa Boogie Triaxis preamp (x2): One v3 with the v1 British mod in Lead 1 red and the other is slightly older V2 and a little more worn membrane front but it has the recto board which gives recto tones in Lead 1 red. The MkIII (Lead 2 red) is the sound that has been in my head ever since I started learning guitar so both are staying put for the foreseeable future. Just amazing pieces of kit, there's not a bad sound in either of them. Rocktron Intellipitch: Given the limitations of the Intellifex XL (see brelow), I bought this purely for its modulation including 8 voice chorus. It's a fairly rare beast, not many were made - certainly not as many as the Intellifex. Again, like the Intellifex, it lacks a certain sparkle so best suited to parallel signal chains rather than in series, but I have taken all of Leon Todd and others' tri-chorus settings and manually programmed them in. Mesa Boogie Fifty Fifty power amp: I did a gig dress rehearsal with the Marshall 20/20 and it wasn't quite loud enough, so ended up getting a Mesa Boogie Fifty Fifty for about half the price of a 2:90. It almost makes the 20/20 redundant for practice due to it's high (50w) and low (15w) power settings and sounds a little smoother. But it's a lot heavier so I don't know how much of a practical improvement it actually offers. Joyo 112V cabs (x2): Currently loaded with Celestion Neo Creambacks (which aren't available in China), I'm using these with the Kemper pedalboard at the moment but I'm tempted to put the V30's back in as I'm not planning to gig them in the future since getting the Thiele cab made. So the lightweight Thiele cab will stay with the rack and the Joyos with the Kemper pedalboard but the Thiele cab will be gigged regardless of whether the Kemper or the rack comes along too. Rig 2: Vintage I like to use this for songs before the mid eighties. Eagles, Toto etc. Pedalboard Xotic XW1: I originally bought this instead of a Crybaby because it didn't produce a volume drop when disengaged and it can be tweaked to sound like other wah pedals using the tone and Q controls. After I got it, I learned it was a favourite of Paul Jackson Jr and this year, Steve Lukather has been using one with Toto. At the moment I have it set up based on Paul Jackson's settings from one of his YT videos about the pedal. Keeley C4 compressor: This has replaced the Effectrode simply because there is no power bank available on the market that I can run the Effectrode off, so it always needs to have it's own separate power supply and that's really too inconvenient for live use. I did have a Joyo Dynacomp in place before but the footswitch was too noisy and there was some crossleakage under high gain. The Keeley is well made, it fattens and squashes the signal without sounding too intrusive. There are a lot of different kinds of comps on the market designed to appeal to many different tasts but I have no regrets buying this one. Initially I had it in front of the gain pedals but I may just experiement with putting it after. Xotic AC Booster: I had been playing around with various cheap TS and Klon style pedals as boosts into the Amptweaker but while they all fattened and articulated the mids nicely, they were a little flat sounding. So I bought the AC Booster and as soon as I plugged it in, there was some extra harmonic saturation that I had never heard before. It sounds good with the Concert II but really shines when pushing the PRII, the saturation from both seems to synergise into this rich mid range with some lovely thick harmonics and the tone controls allow tweaks to taste. I know some keep the drive below 12 o'clock but I've found that around 1-2 oclock delivers more saturation. Nobels ODR1: I got this pedal to trial but fell in love with how articulate it stayed even with higher gain settings. No wonder it's the favourite of producer/guitarist John Shanks. It also has very juicy levels of harmonic saturation which is enhanced when boosted with the Xotic AC booster. I almost prefer the combination to the sound of the Tight Rock. And into the PRII this combination sounds even better. Amptweaker Tight Rock: See above. Still my favourite high gain pedal. It's not subtle but does plexi and 6505 with almost no noise. Crowther Hot Cake: This was inexpensive and I was really curious about how it sounded after seeing PRS use one. It's sort of half way between fuzz and distortion with a really grungy character if you push the gain into meltdown terrirtory. But back off and it's a very thick and warm fuzz/overdrive. Mine is from the mid noughties so has all the blueberry switch and different options for selecting different versions in previous runs. This one tends to swap places with the Joyo. Joyo American Sound JF14: I mentioned above how good this pedal is and I ended up with two but only really use one. I keep coming back to this one, there isn't a lot out there to beat it apart from the pedal it copied - Tech 21 Blonde. It can do astoundingly god versions of Twin and Deluxe amps and when the mids are pushed using the character, mid eq and drive it will get near Super Champ. Just a great pedal but the components aren't as durable as they could be. TC Electronic MImiq: This is a recent purchase with a view to starting the yacht rock board. Basically it replicates the sound of double tracking using two signal paths with one subtly affected by variations in delay and microtuning. I haven't played around with it much yet so don't have a lot to say about it yet. Zoom MDC70: This was a cheap way to access a trichorus sound. It has a patch that copies a TC Electronic Corona tri chorus setting. It's possible to add two more patches for a total of three accessed with a single button press. I don't have a lot more to say about it at this moment but I'm temped to see how well it can cover the trichorus+micro detune that was made popular by Mike Landau and his frdge of rack effects in the eighties. Mooer Ocean Machine mk 1: There's not a lot out there which can compete with this in bang for buck. The delays are pretty good, the reverb has an artificial sounding presence and I generally turn the shimmer control to zero which kind of reduces the transparency as well. Still, it's not likely to be noticed in live settings. A mark 2 version has been released which updates the algorithm and improves the effects quality but I haven't checked out whether the shimmer is better. Once finances permit, I have plans to overhaul the pedal board and make it more schmoo focussed. So the drive pedals will probably stay but the delay and reverb will be handled in one signal chain by an Eventide Time Factor and Strymon Big Sky, and modulation in another a Free The Tone Triavatar and a Yamaha Magicstomp for SPX90 style detune. Fender Concert II + 1x12 extension cab: Originally in an earlier post, I had planned to let this one go but it's found a purpose in supplying high volume Fender cleans. This was my first Fender and it took eight years to bring it over to China. Cleans are classic blackface, David Gilmour used a bank of them for Live Aid. There are some critics of the distortion but I like the overdrive on mine. It's got tweedy bite to the midrange but sounds smoother and warmer. It's also loud for 60W and, to make it push even more air, I commissioned a custom matching cabinet if I ever want to gig it. Originally the combo came with an Eminence Red White and Blues speaker but I've put Jensen N12Ks from a Tonemaster Twin instead for yet even more midrange articulation. The extension cab is from lightweight birch ply and even with the Jensen installed, it's a two finger lift. Can't say that about the Concert itself though. Fender Princeton Reverb II: I've said a bit about it in the original post. It sounds slightly richer and more saturated than the Concert II but doesn't get gigged due to its lack of power. It's also in fabulous condition and I wouldn't want to risk any road rash. Rig 3: Kemper Profiler pedalboard This was set up for portability (despite weighing at just over 10kg) and is essentially self contained from wireless to power amp. Guitar on back, Thiele cab (with neo cones) in one hand and this in the other makes for a single (just about manageable) load out. I also use this for practice due to it's versatility. First in the signal chain is a standard Shure GLX16 wireless. I've been impressed by the range, and have been able to go walkabout in a 600 seat venue already with no drop outs. Battery life seems pretty good too. Next is a Digitech Freq Out - mentioned in earlier posts, it's essentially a pedal for creating artificial feedback. The onset control is a little twitchy and the effect is unnaturally sensitive to disturbance from incidental noises and changes in volume, but for sustained and undisturbed power chords it does the trick. Then the signal goes into the Kemper which is set up with a bunch of amp profiles in song related 'performances' - basically scene shifts in different parts of the song, or a single setting for one song. I tend to have a bunch of classic amps and then some profiles from the preamps. I've found the profiling process adds a certain sweetness and extra midrange during the profiling process which has led to some profiles sounding better than the real thing. Inserted into a loop in the Kemper is a Line 6 M5 for any effects that the Kemper doesn't have, Dimension D for example, and it's connected via MIDI so specific effects are selected with specific 'performances'. Lastly, there are two Roland EV5 pedals connected for volume and wah and the outputs from the Kemper go to a pair of Hotone Loudster Class D pedal amps that put out 85w a side. They are fairly modern sounding as you might imagine but that's a good thing on a crowded stage, less volume is needed due to the extra articulation in the mids and highs that the Class D circuitry offers. The pedalboard then goes into a Custom 2x12 Thiele designed cab which was optimised and loaded with Celestion V30s which are chunky, heavy things. If I need to gig it in the future, I may just replace the V30s with Celestion Neo Creambacks because of lighter weight and extra articulation from neo magnets. The optimisation of the Thiele port might be a little off but I'll live with it. Other stuff: Ibanez TSA5 combos: One failed on me completely after a power cap exploded and burned the PCB beyond repair. So it got basically tossed out. The other one was getting quieter - maybe also the power caps were on their way out. So I gave it to a colleague at work and it sat under his desk for a solid 7 months. Grand Princeton Tweed combos: These replaced the TSA5s and were made by the company who supplies Peavey with its Classic line of amplifiers. Hand built and point-to-point wired. Pretty loud for 5W and well constructed but I don't really need them any more so they are up for sale. Carvin Quad X preamp (sold): Leon Todd wasn't particularly impressed by it's nine valves but I quite liked it for versatility and organic sound - sort of half way between the rawness of a Mesa Studio and the punch of a JMP-1 but not sounding like either. I discovered a lot comes down to valve choice and EHX 12AX7s sounded great in gain positions. However I kept gravitating to other preamps not because the Carvin was bad but because it wasn't quite the sound that was in my head. Burman GX3 preamp: Mentioned above, I still haven't tried it with the Pro501 (which is for sale in the UK) This does a lovely, almost fuzzy overdrive, almost with the midrange of a Tweed but with more bass. I haven't yet tried it with a rack-mounted power amp either and that could get interesting. Marshall JMP-1 + 20/20 EL84 power amp: Currently up for sale where I am. It's a great sounding preamp by itself but when paired with the 20/20 power amp, together they deliver that classic Marshall roar heard on thousands of rock albums. The nostalgia hit when listening to it being played is almost overwhelming and the JMP1 can do any Marshall amp made before the early ninties from JTM to Plexi to JCM800. Mesa Boogie Studio preamp: was my first purchase and originally it was intended to nix my lust for a (heavy) Mark III. I had the studio preamp in a rack and really didn't like the sound of it when recording. But paired with a rack power amp, it sounds much tighter and less brittle. As nice as it is, I still preferred the versatility and slightly tighter sound of the Triaxis so it's currently up for sale. DBX 266XL compressor: I read online reviews about how coloured this compressor was but when I actually tried it, the warmth and smoothness was surprising. Lexicon MPXG2 seemed to play nice with it as well so it got transferred over to the studio rack where it has been ever since. Really like this one, highly recommended. It may get transferred back to the guitar rack at some point. DBX 215 graphic eq: I don't have much to offer on this. I generally use it for enhancing the sound I get out of the studio monitors, not much more than that. The Yamaha HS5s I have are fairly honest sounding so while they're great for mastering (which I never do) they lack a little sweetness and punch. Rocktron Intellifex XL: I got this for schmoo - a name for that chorusy, reverb-drenched, clean eighties strat sound made famous by Michael Thompson, Dann Huff and Mike Landau. Have to be honest I was a little disappointed by the sound quality, it's not as hifi as the Lexicon MPXG2 and the settings are more limited than the earlier 'Intellifex Online' version. I can only detune in increments of five on the XL where the Online allows detuning in increments of 1. The lack of subtle detuning makes tri-chorus difficult to achieve. Apparently this was done to provide more ROM memory for a more variety of patches. I'm currently troubleshooting the new studio rack, which has been set up for parallel effects so I will see what kind of improvement there is in sound quality in the short term but I get better reverb and crisper delay from the MPXG2 so the Intellifex is currently up for sale. Lexicon MX200 multi effects: This was only 45 quid and I had it in my studio rack for a while until it was time to reconfigure for parallel processing and then it stopped detecting input signal. I have no idea why, and it needs looking at. But basically, it offers Lexicon quality delay and reverb for relatively little money on the used market because there are so many of them around. A bit of a secret. Behringer Virtualiser: I bagged this after seeing it pop up in a number of online reviews and have to say it's quite impressive for the price. There's a transparency and fidelity to the reverb that is almost immersive. It's used in the studio rack for sweetening. There is a whole bunch of other stuff not included because it's not in use, for example an Empress Parametric Eq, Adrenalinn III, Digitech Bad Monkey, Mosky Silver Horse, Joyo Dynacomp etc. All currently up for sale and not significant enough to discuss.

If it’s heading to the U.K. they include a U.K. power lead

The marketing strategy / campaigns, the artificial status that is perpetrated on all media. Seems to manipulate people in excess and impulsiveness. "If you don't have the latest, something is wrong with you", mentality, like a fashion trend. 13 years ago, Eleven Rack units were the rage and going for a high price, now you can get them all day long for under $ 200.00 U.S. Dollars , all day long. As my Father used to say, " Headline News today, under the bird cage tomorrow ".

Hi there, This is my first post here, so please be gentle with me. OK, so I have been playing on and off for decades (40 years), but I would say I am pretty much still a beginner, at best an intermediate player. I was originally self-taught and only got to sonngs involving strumming chords, although I longed to be able to improvise like some of my friends could. So, in these early days (my teens), I knew chords such as A, C, D, E, F, G, Am, Bm, Dm, Em, A7, B7, D7, E7, G7. Whilst I understood the happy/sad difference between major and minor chords, I had no idea that there was a specific, consistent 'rule' (i.e. in this case 'flatten the third') connecting the major and minor chords. I didn't even realise that these chords were made up of 3 notes! It was a total parrot-fashion learning experience for me. I knew then that the chord 'Cmaj' was often abbreviated to just C. Now, zoom forward to today, and I know that major triad chords are actually created using notes 1-3-5 of the major scale and notes 1-3-5 of the minor scale are used for the minor scale (moreover, that this is equivalent of the 1-b3-5 notes of the major scale). However, the terminology used in the naming of these chords now has me utterly confused. Where Cmaj is the same as C, Cmaj7 is not the same as C7. Instead, the seventh chord with no major or minor indicated (e,g, C7) is called the dominant 7th. So, instead, there are these relationships: Cmaj : 1 - 3 - 5 (also known simply as C) Cm: 1 - b3 - 5 Cmaj7: 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 C7: 1 - 3 - 5 - b7 (also known as C dominant 7th) Cm7: 1 - b3 - 5 - b7 And this is just the first few chords!!! I suppose if we never refer to the chord C as just 'C', but always call it 'Cmaj', we could write these out as follows: Cmaj : 1 - 3 - 5 (only ever referred to as Cmaj) Cmaj7: 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 Cm: 1 - b3 - 5 Cm7: 1 - b3 - 5 - b7 C7: 1 - 3 - 5 - b7 (also known as C dominant 7th) I'm not too sure I'm putting my point across too well here, but I am trying to find a 'system' of my own which gets me out of the confusion in the bold font above. Now consider the tons of other terms, like diminished, augmented, suspended, never mind the other 'number terms', like 6th, 9th, add9, 11th, 13th, 7th flat 9, 7th sharp 9, etc and it all becomes a minefield!!! I mean, are we supposed to know what a 'dominant 7th' sounds like and how it differs from a 'major 7th'? That concludes my question about terminology. What I meant by formulas is where can I find a complete list of formulas for all these different chord types? These could be expressed as 1-3-5 (note numbers), C-E-G (key of C. note names), and even as 2W-WH (intervals in terms of Whole and Half Steps). What I meant by MORE formulas is where can I find a complete list of formulas for all the different scale types and modes? Again, the Major scale could be writted as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, for Cmajor scale CDEFGAB(C), and in intervals as W-W-H-W-W-W-H. Indeed, are there only formulas for chords and scales? Are there other formula that are important to know? And no, I don't mean relatively complicated formulae that related string mass thickness and tension to frequency, but rather the stuff we need to know as aspiring guitar players. I suspect that I am overthinking all this, but I feel that a solid understanding of the underlying theory of music, which I wish I had known years ago, helps with one's own playing. Recently, I considered buying various wall-charts showing chord diagrams, scales, circle of 5ths, etc, but I was surprised to find comments by buyers claiming that these were erroneous! So, my question on the formulas is can anyone here please recommend a good (highly regarded and accurate) book which would have all the formulas for chords and scales (and other?) collected in one place? If you have read all this, thanks for your time. I appreciate any responses that I might receive. Cheers, Simon.

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!

Never really got on with Strats until fairly recently. I've had a few over the years which I didn't really connect with and ended up givig them away, but in the past year I got two which I do like and will keep. The first was a Sunn Mustang, which if you know anything about those, is a license-built Fender Strat made in India for the European market in the late Eighties. That's a very good guitar indeed. Finding that I liked that Mustang, it prompted me to get another Strat, a 1980 model which I relicked the living crap out of and tarted up with a few parts, and that one I really like too. You can see me playing that one through an MG15 here. I guess the moral of the story is, sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs.

Monty’s pickup has arrived… All parcels should arrive like this!