EliasMooseblaster

Pedals are probably the best route - tube screamer clones are available pretty cheaply these days. If that doesn't quite do it, there's a whole host of preamp pedals which you could comfortably run into the Yamaha. Joyo, Caline, and others do budget clones of the Tech21 "character" series, which I've found very serviceable for recording and/or getting vintage tones at sociable volumes! Do you have the tube amp already? Might be worth looking at load boxes / power soaks if you want a way to run it at lower volumes (or even into headphones). Thomann do a pretty good one in their Harley Benton range.

I mostly play Blues, but every so often I put on one of the early Danzig records, and I remember how good the original lineup were - not least of all John Christ's superbly evil guitar tone. From this article, I've gleaned that he put some PRS pickups into his BC Rich guitar, and it was mostly a mix-and-match of Marshall and Laney amps and cabs on the receiving end. So far, so good...but PRS make a lot of different pickups. Anyone reckon they can narrow it down any further for me? (Or have you had good results taking a different route?)

+1 - I have also had good experience with Wilkinsons! See also: Vanson, and Tonerider. I recently put a pair of Vanson's PAF clones into my SG copy, and I'm very pleased with the results.

It depends on your budget - and the size of your bedroom! - but you could do a lot worse than a Blackstar HT1. It's only 1W, but that lone watt can go a surprisingly long way, and the valve preamp produces a range of nice tones. Also has a headphone socket.

So I went and got myself a British Sound as well. Rather nice, isn't it? Whilst I'm mostly interested in coaxing a '60s Bluesbreaker-type tone out of it, I can see how the right twiddle of the knobs could start to take you towards "Hair Metal" territory! On the note, does anyone know what the Voice control actually does on this pedal? From a bit of judicial googling, I see it's basically a mid-shape control on the American Sound, allowing you to move between Blackface (mid-scoop) and Tweed (mid-boost) tones. Is it doing something similar on the British Sound, or is it more like a Presence control?

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!

I apologise for asking a keyboard-related question on a guitar forum...but it does involve guitar pedals! I recently found, to my delight, that I could make my not-very-fancy keyboard produce a more convincing Electric Organ sound by running the output through a Joyo British Sound (basically a Marshall-esque preamp pedal). Whilst I'm very pleased with this discovery, it's a bit limited if I want to sound like anyone other than Jon Lord. Now, I'm aware there's a range of pedals designed to simulate a Leslie speaker for guitarists. Just wondering - before I get tempted to spend a not-insignificant amount of money - whether anyone's tried running a keyboard through one of these, and how good/terrible did it sound?

I suspect it was down to snobbery / the right look, as you suggest! Well, quite - I'm certainly in no hurry to dine in the Pizza Express next time I pass through Woking!

The proof of the pudding is in the stealing of it?

Oh, good shout - I've had a BB-2 for something like ten years now, and it's a great pedal. The 'Blues' tone is a stonking good overdrive (pure Gary Moore!) and the Boost mode makes it that bit more versatile. Just a shame you can't switch between the two with a second footswitch, but back in 2010-ish I certainly felt like I couldn't grumble at that price point!

Couldn't agree more - I have a 1W Blackstar hybrid at home and even cranking that feels like risky business unless I know the neighbours have gone out! There's definitely a lot to be said for amps on the scale of the Blues Junior for the size of gigs most of us would have been playing pre-pandemic. Speaking of preamp pedals, that's exactly the route I've gone down for live-streaming while I've been unable to gig in a conventional fashion: no "normal" amp, just a Joyo American Sound running out to the desk. Sure, it won't respond quite like a real Fender amp, but it sounds close enough, and once the sound's been through the interweb tubes, and compressed through Facebook's streaming software, is anybody really going to hear that much difference? ...and on a note more relevant to the @RicLytham's OP: the Joyo British Sound pedal is supposed to emulate a handful of "classic" Marshall amps, and can be had for £30-40. You'd need something to amplify the output (another practise amp / small mixer with headphones / powered speaker / get creative) but if the "Voice" knob is as flexible as the one on the American Sound, it may be a good way to play with a range of tones and see if you can find the GnR tone you're looking for. Also worth doing some research into competing pedals which might get you there - there's quite a big market for pedals that emulate those tones on a budget.

Great amp - I have one myself! I haven't tried to connect it to a PA, but I have found it has enough power to do small gigs by itself. Depends on the size of the gigs you're doing, I guess, but there's a DI out on the back which should keep the sound engineers happy if you wanted to hook it up to the house PA. The tone of the amp is nice, and the built-in reverb is also pretty good. There's a chorus effect on there as well, though I've never found much use for it. Also turns out - after I lent it to a friend for a few gigs - that it sounds really good for amplifying a violin, too.

I've been doing a regular series of livestreams since the UK first went into lockdown. More recently I started combing the videos for highlights, and found this version of BB King's classic, which I wanted to share with you:

Love what you've done with the contouring! If you're putting it to a public vote, I prefer the less "busy" look of the separate bridge and pickup surround - not that I have a strong dislike of the other option. Looks like it's shaping up to be a really beautiful instrument.

I've not bumped up against it myself, but I did pick up a little anecdote when I was shopping around for a resonator on Denmark Street. There was a Dean in one shop which really looked the business - tri-cone, all-metal body, etc - sadly, it was about double my budget at the time! The chap in the shop told me that a guitarist had been in a few months previous and absolutely loved it, but then he said he wouldn't be allowed to use it. Apparently said guitarist played in Jools Holland's band at the time, and the word from on high was that if he wanted to play a reso on the show, it had to be a National or a Dobro. Which, if true, struck me as a bit ridiculous: the only thing which looked noticeably different about this Dean was the badge on the headstock, and would viewers really write in to complain if there were a different maker's name on the head*? * Actually yes, yes there is probably someone sad and bored enough to write to Auntie Beeb about something so trivial...

'afternoon. Is this still available?

"...before being placed into hot oil for 3-5 minutes."

Glad we could help! I hope your search for your ideal humbucker guitar is fruitful and, above all, enjoyable!

Not wishing to be obtuse, but it sounds to me like you might just be looking for a couple of humbuckers. Switching two single-coil pickups into series effectively gives you a very wide-field humbucker, and the tone will be very similar: a bigger output, but with more emphasis on the mids than the highs. (Yes, it technically gives you a boost, and if your amp's close to saturating then it will produce more grit when hit with the series/HB signal...but it's quite a different tone. My own experience of using the coil-tap on my Tele to go between cleaner and dirtier tones wasn't a particularly successful one!) You can get hold of twin-humbucker Strats, which I'd expect to sound pretty similar to a standard one rigged in series. Are you interested in using the single-coil sounds at all, or were you mostly looking for the sounds of the two in series? I'd be surprised if you couldn't get a twin-HB with a coil split, which would add neck and bridge single-coil sounds - you'd be missing the middle position, I realise, but it depends how dispensable you consider that one!

Very interesting reading - thanks for the link! I take your point about the inlays: I know the holes were already there, so they (probably) had to do something with them, but I expect a wood inlay would have looked nicer. But I guess it was an artistic decision to make a "feature" of them. Looking at some of the photos, I certainly wouldn't have guessed that they joined half a dozen pieces for the top. But yeah, selling them for upwards of seven grand...feels a little bit cynical. I know you're paying for a lot of expert workmanship when you buy a Taylor, but to fork(-lift) out that much and know that it was made from discarded pallets just makes me feel like you're partly paying for the novelty of it.

^ I second Mr Marlowe's comments! (Though I hadn't heard about the Taylor palette guitars - I'm intrigued now)

You might be onto something there - I've not paid it much mind, as I know Fender, Gibson, and their devotees often fetishise all things "retro," but I did briefly wonder whether the new "Vintera" range might have been driven partly by the success of the Squier Classic Vibe series.

Yes indeed - guitarist in my other band has a rather interesting Deluxe Tele as one of his main gigging guitars, which is fitted with a pair of P90 copies (Duncans, I think). Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's not a Fender, but a Squier. (And still sounds bloody good)

There's also a chance you could save yourself quite a lot of money here: could these limitations be fixed with a good setup? Yamahas come with a pretty good reputation across the board; I do wonder if a few professional tweaks from a luthier/guitar tech might unlock the rest of its potential. (Unless you just want another guitar, of course - I don't think any of us would judge you for that!)

Those basses look gorgeous! (Not sure how I somehow missed the build threads over on BC...) I'm looking forward to seeing how the new guitar comes out - those piano panels polish up a treat.