Kiwi

There are all sorts of reasons behind why a retailer will choose a larger margin. Some of them under their control, some of them not, some of them are about sales tactics and others are about simply charging what they feel they can get away with. There are a couple of vintage and rare shops around the country who will charge significantly more for an otherwise unremarkable (and not vintage or rare) instrument because people will accept higher margins in return for outstanding customer service. Sometimes shops will set their asking prices higher and allow themselves to be negotiated down...unless the customer is not that patient or discerning. Then it's all pure profit. And even if they are negotiated down, the agreed price may still be a few percent above retail price for other shops but often the negotiation process provides the shop an opportunity to explore the customers needs and background further giving them an opportunity to develop the relationship a bit more. Sometimes retailers (especially on Ebay or Reverb) will ask outrageous prices because people will then go on forums and give them free advertising by complaining how outrageous the prices are (Starbucks get names wrong on cups for the same reasons).

Welcome aboard - most of us aspire to do the same. Hope you find being here useful and helpful :)

So basically, stop the floating bridge moving by putting a block in of sufficient thickness that it sets the bridge level. Tune it to pitch, remove the block and adjust the spring attachment plate to bring the guitar back into tune. That is, screw it in to make the strings go up in pitch, unscrew to make the pitch go down. When the strings are back in tune it'll be properly set up with balanced tension. You probably can't do much about the amount of tension itself unless you put on lighter strings. I'm not quite sure why as the tension on my MSG is a bugger and I have to wrestle with the trem for any extreme warbling. I think it might have something to do with how stiff the neck is. A stiffer neck resists string tension to a lesser degree...or something like that. I remember trying a PRS and Ibanez Saber/570S and the trems were a breeze. I didn't have to fight them so much.

An early Dean Vendetta perhaps?

Have you set up a floyd trem before?

Lol, yeah I was thinking there was something else about working with yew but couldn't remember it. You just reminded me! 😷

For guitar maybe look at the Graphtec Ghost acoustiphonic. But there maybe cheaper options on eBay, they're not hard to build from scratch, either for an experienced tinkerer. https://graphtech.com/pages/ghost-pickup-systems

Yeah definitely get a buffer preamp. Even if the signal is loud enough the impedance issues may make it sound trebley. The buffer pre's aren't expensive on Ebay and a cheap one should do the job.

Along with crab apple and olive, yew is very tricky to dry because of its convoluted grain. That's quite some achievement.

Daisy Rock did the same thing maybe ten years ago. Andertons, a music store here in the UK, invested in the company with the intention to sell the instruments through their store and distribute them. Major backlash resulted from women guitarists who felt patronised. It seemed like a good idea but... Skip to 7:22 for the story.

I play drums left handed to make things even more complicated. Can't get my right hand to lead around the toms but I can do everything else ambidextrously.

I've seen reviews for the Mosky already and they've been very complimentary.

Ding dong Apparently the guitar is tuned to a G7sus4 open chord - the first chord in a Hard Day's Night by the Beatles.

Some players choose plectrum gauge to compliment their playing technique e.g. thinner, blunter plec if they strum hard. Or a harder, pointier plec if they want to play fast with a lot of control. Everything else kind of fits somewhere between those two extremes. Most common gauge is about 0.6mm but I tend to play with 0.5mm because I'm still a little heavy handed and weak fingered on my right hand. Heavier plecs tend to move around in my fingers too much. I would suggest finding something that works for you and sticking with it. Being used to a plec, whatever it is, is important for developing your touch.

Acoustic is a cheap and convenient way into the learning process but unless they're set up properly and well made, they can be cumbersome to get around on. But I agree with Dad3353 in that passion is the motivation and if the aspiration is electric then it's better to get an electric in the first place. When many of us were in the 12-14 year age range, good quality was hard to find (if not impossible) but these days there are extremely servicable instruments and amps available to all but the most miserly budgets. My Ibanez TSA5 amps were less than a hundred quid and are superb, a nice Harley Benton guitar would be a few hundred quid and be great for a few years.