EliasMooseblaster

'tis me indeed - thank you very kindly! (Fair point re the popshield - I probably should have thought of that before attempting such a close-miced vocal!)

Indeed, that helps enormously - you may have just saved me a lot of money! Fortunately I have a large diaphragm condenser, with appropriate outboard phantom power, which I'd actually been thinking about connecting before, to add a bit of "ambience" to the sound. I might give that a try on tomorrow evening's live stream.

A very good point - I looked at some demos after posting the above, and was struck by how many people were using guitars with piezo bridge pickups! Mine both have magnetics: one has a magnetic pickup of unknown provenance in a "lipstick" style housing, built into the body; the other has a Fishman Neo-D which I pop into the soundhole when I need to amplify it.

I realise a lot of modern acoustic guitars have preamps built in; unfortunately mine don't. Mine have passive pickups, which I use for live performance. Whilst the sound is perfectly serviceable for plugging into a PA system, I wonder if an outboard preamp might improve things. The (possible) need has become a bit more pronounced as I've been live streaming over the last few weeks, where I've been plugging the guitars straight into a little Behringer mixer with very limited EQ and no effects. The tone isn't bad, but I wonder whether a preamp/DI might "bring it to life" a little more. I see that companies like Behringer and Hotone make inexpensive preamp+DI boxes...anyone know whether they're worth a punt?

Guitars? Four. In the electric corner, a Mex Fender Tele and a Vintage VS6 (SG copy). In the acoustic corner, an Epi AJ-100 and an Ozark resonator. Basses? Erm...I had to stop and count. You can probably guess where my primary loyalties lie.

Thanks very kindly for the link. That does sound like a really nice bit of kit - I can see why you're enjoying it! I thought the neck-middle combination sounded particularly nice. Reminds me of a time when three-pickup Teles seemed to be much more commonplace*. *About 15 years ago, maybe? Or did I just imagine that?

Subtly interesting design: if your eyes first fall on the top of the body, you could be forgiven for thinking it was a Strat, but if you were start at the bottom corner, you might reasonably assume it was a Jazz bass! Is this a new series they've released? I'd be very interested to hear how it sounds.

Think you've made the right call there. I didn't realise they'd have those pickup surrounds on as well - probably enough going on without a pickguard as well! Have to say, the Fender-style neck on the Les Paul body shape looks a lot better than I'd anticipated!

It's a lovely idea - perhaps if you were to extend the scope to other heavy-but-fragile items? After all, how many of us have ordered glassware or ceramics only to have them arrive upside down, with chipped rims and broken handles? I'm sure a body like the MU would back it if musical equipment were listed as a specialism. There are probably enough horrifying pictures of splintered violins and cellos floating around social media to make such a service seem appealing!

I played at a Viking Festival in the middle of last year. I knew mine was going to be the first set on the weekend's music programme; what I didn't realise was that it was also the beginning to pretty much the entire event. So I played a set to a group of people dressed up in Norse togs, carrying drinking hons and replica battleaxes, who didn't yet have enough alcohol inside them to get properly rowdy. The most sedate bunch of Vikings I've ever seen, but a very friendly bunch.

Hmm...in their current states, I'm personally inclined towards the one with the pickguard, though I might change my mind once the neck is on!

I do like the way this Tele's going! Only question is: will it cover your picking hand with rust when you play?

Well, bugger me. I had a similar experience to Mr Marlowe above: I assumed that the sound I preferred was the Gibson. I was really quite surprised when it turned out I'd enjoyed the Vintage more. There wasn't a great deal between them, though: listening to the two neck pickups on a clean setting, I honestly thought I was struggle to hear much difference at all. It was only when the bridge pickup got involved, I preferred the slightly deeper, fuller sound of the one on the Vintage. The Gibson one just sounded a bit tinny to my ears, particularly in the middle position, where it didn't seem to complement the neck pickup as well as on the Vintage.

Is that 'Blackwaterside'? Lovely playing - the metal body certainly gives it a very different tone.

Is this peculiar instrument in your possession? I'd be very interested to hear how it sounds!

Possibly better known these days as the theme from Peaky Blinders, this track originally came from Let Love In, which is, at least to mind, one of the Bad Seeds’ finest albums. Arranged for acoustic guitar and voice:

I remain very pleased with mine: it's still making all the right sounds (as far as I can tell), and its 9V DC socket works as well, which is the only issue I've had with cheap pedals previously! I'm no stranger to the cheaper end of the market as I also own a couple of Joyo guitar pedals, and only recently moved on my Behringer BDI21 for bass (issues with the aforementioned 9V DC, among other things). I know what you mean - there is a slightly liberating feeling of "well, this only cost me £30; if I don't like it, I haven't lost very much" - not to mention the spirit of "well, of course I'll try it with all the controls maxed...if it bursts into flames, I've only lost £30..."

Yeah, I'd second that, actually. If I've gone into guitar shops to try an amp or pedal, I usually grab an Epi SG off the wall as it's the closest thing they have - so I've tried a few! - but it's never made me feel like I was missing out with my VS6. (If anything, I've come away thinking it played better than some of them...)

I went all-valve on my bass gear a few years ago (Ashdown), but I've only got halfway there with the guitar setup - got a Blackstar HT-1 for practise and recording. I know it's a hybrid, but I wasn't gigging enough on guitar to warrant a bigger amp. If that does change, I'm tempted by the Laney Cub series - anyone else had a play around with those?

Ah yes, Gibson/Epiphone style bridges are great fun - you should see their infamous "three-point" bass bridge, which literally falls to pieces if you turn it over with the strings off! In the case of the Les Paul, the actual "bridge" part is the bit in the middle (so closest to the pickup), and the bit that goes right at the back is usually called the tail-piece, or stop-tail. The break angle is the angle that the string makes between the two - basically you want the tail-piece to sit lower than the bridge, so that it's pulling the ends of the strings down towards the body.

My experience of Vox amps is that they're bloody loud for their rated wattage, so I imagine it would have enough juice for small gigs and rehearsals! I had a Pathfinder 15R for a few years, and the few gigs I did with it, I certainly wasn't struggling to be heard. Afraid I can't comment on the ins and outs of the model you've got in mind, but I think as long as you like their "baked-in" tone, Vox are a pretty safe bet.

I might have to buy one of your signature models! I'm a sucker for a good-looking SG, and there is something wonderfully aggressive about the ones with P90s. I might be tempted to have a trem retro-fitted to mine, though. Maybe one of those Bigsby ones, like Robby Krieger had on one of his SGs.

I've been using a Seymour Duncan Woody to connect my acoustic guitar to various amplifiers over the years. More recently, I've grown increasingly concerned about its low output (another thread on this sub-forum, incidentally!) and wondered whether to replace it. At my last gig it failed on me completely - the sound guy couldn't appear to get any output, and a short trawl of the internet has led me to a forum full of other disgruntled users opining that the Woody's construction isn't very robust, and when it does work, its low output has left them relying on an outboard preamp in a lot of circumstances. So: what would the acoustic enthusiasts on here recommend? I want something which: - is easily removable OR doesn't obstruct the soundhole. The pickup is for live use only; in the studio I prefer to mic the body. - sounds good for folk-blues fingerpicking - doesn't cost an arm and a leg. The guitar is an Epi AJ-10 with a few modest upgrades - it would seem silly to spend more than a couple of hundred quid on a pickup for it! Over to you...

How about an SG? Very similar beast to the Les Paul - two humbuckers, Gibson scale length, etc., but a *much* thinner and lighter body. The Epiphone SGs are pretty good, and I've been bashing away on a Vintage VS6 (https://www.jhs.co.uk/vintage-vs6-reissued-electric-guitar-cherry-red-gold-hardware) for years now - great value for money, especially with all the Wilkinson hardware! Plus I've always thought they look more badass than LPs...

The classic Black Sabbath guitar sound is a Gibson SG into a Laney valve amp - obviously that would be quite an investment, but one of the key differences in the tone will be the fact that the SG has two humbucking pickups*, and those do sound quite fundamentally different from the single-coil pickups in a Telecaster. It's a thicker, more bass-heavy sound, but you can approximate it by using the neck pickup, turning the tone down a little, and keeping the guitar's volume up. Now to your amp: does it have a "Gain", "Drive", or "Input Volume" control? Getting the overdrive under control can often be key to these things - in my experience, you can usually get a decent overdrive tone out of smaller practice amps, but they can also sound quite "fizzy" if you set the drive too high. Have a play with the overdrive at lower gain/drive/input vol settings - you want plenty of crunch, but you also don't want to lose the definition in your sound (if you don't have gain/drive/input on the amp, you can turn down the guitar's volume to tame the overdrive). As for the amp's EQ, I'd probably start by backing off the treble a bit, and experiment with the bass and mids to see how it sounds - I'm afraid it's hard to be specific without knowing the amp myself! Hope that's of some help - let us know how you get on! *well, probably P-90s when they recorded Paranoid, but those sound more like humbuckers than Fender-style single coils!