ezbass

Shame, but there are plenty of other brands and designs out there. For me, the hunt is often the best bit.

Totally agree. Like you a 6120, Setzer Sig or Hot Rod would be awesome, but

That looks great. Gordon Smith make superb guitars; I owned a single pickup Gypsy many moons ago, an absolute Gibson Junior killer.

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

Yeah, most likely the selector is faulty, loose wire or duff switch.

Ibanez make good guitars at every price point, so it’ll be decently built. The pickups will probably be voiced quite hot, given the genre the guitar is aimed at, but if you don’t like them, you can always upgrade them at a later date. However, you’re probably going to be using a lot of gain on the amp or through pedals for metal/rock, so a lot of your tone is going to come from there and will colour the guitar’s tone significantly. That being the case, it’s all about how it plays.

I’ve owned some awesome SS amps, nowt wrong with them IMO.

An EQ pedal could achieve that, like one of those 6/10 band graphics. However, I suspect that your amp may still react the same way, as it will still be receiving less/more signal. I’d be more inclined to add an overdrive pedal that will add the gain tone you’re looking for for lead, etc and then going back to your clean tone (or less driven) when off. You might find that the right pedal could be an on all the time effect, as it might react to the guitar’s volume knob in the way you’re used to. If that was the case, you could just have it on top of the amp with a short lead to the input, giving the feel of a guitar straight to the amp. EDIT: Overdrive pedals = massive rabbit hole

As Dad says, different amps, different responses. I once asked an amp tech the difference between 6L6 and EL34 power stages (typically Fender vs Marshall). He surprised me with the answer. He told me that biggest comes from where the tone stack is in the circuit, either pre or post preamp valves (Fender and Marshall are different). Couple that positioning with different output valves and output transformers (often overlooked) and you very different responses to the input. The name of this very knowledgeable amp tech - Brinsley Schwartz. I was a bit awestruck at the time, having seen him numerous times live, but he was the nicest chap and happy to nerd out on his favourite subject.

Great guitar, Fender should’ve stuck with it.

So many brands to choose from, pretty much everyone has a good showing in that price range (if you include Squier and Epiphone as Fender and Gibson). Often overlooked are Gretsch, who have a good range of instruments in this range. There are even some rather nice PRS SEs too, but they go over the £500 mark pretty quickly. EDIT: Doh! I missed the word used . However, I think my post stands, except that some Fenders will definitely come in under the £500 mark and maybe some of the budget end Gibsons (faded series?).

Just kidding, we’re just not like that here. After 25 years in office tech and all that binary ones and zeroes, it’s either right or wrong baloney, I know it isn’t actually like that. S**t happens, normally for no good reason. Good to have GC back. Sorry about the conflagration at the beginning of this post, please accept this for balance -

I had a 3 way one of those in my Tele. They are horrible, not only in working out the connections, but in general operation. I just replaced it with a decent, open design switch. If your friend is unwilling to spend a few quid on a decent selector, try some Google images for what wire goes where. Sorry, best I can do.