Stub Mandrel

Of course plywood necks would probably look awful take this example...

Or this Gibson Zoot Suit...

Plywood trumps most if not all tonewoods for rigidity and stability, it just falls down on three counts -  aesthetics for most people, weight and cost - using cheap materials undermines pricing strategies.

I have two plywood guitars, they both have several faults but none of them are plywood related, rather to other budget aspects of their designs. I also have a blockboard bass which is very nice, thank you.

And if this sort of thing is superior to a single piece of wood, surely even more plies would be even more superiorer...

I just found this, which proves why I should stay on Basschat and stick to playing the bass...

On 26/05/2021 at 14:15, Skinnyman said:

Well, do you?

I occasionally give a rosewood board a light oiling but I understand that there are other schools of thought on whether this is a sensible idea.

So… do you?

I applied lemon oil to the rosewood fretboard of my 1976 Epiphone acoustic.

By the morning it had shrunk so badly, all I could do was retune it as a ukulele.

And so the lemony terror spreads its influence. Having caused a major outage on Talkbass, followed by turmoil on Basschat this could be the end of poor guitarchat.

On 30/05/2021 at 09:51, Skinnyman said:

Here we are, the morning after my first gig* as a guitarist and I’m wondering what I was worried about.

Apart from the fact that it got really cold when the sun went in** which made fretting a challenge at times, everything went fine and the GR55 was incredible (hilarious watching people looking for the sax player when I did the solo in Dancing In The Moonlight).

A little tense before we started but any nerves there were, as @ezbass predicted, vanished as soon as I played the first note.

Thanks all for the wise words. 
 

*Private party outdoors, socially distanced and within the guidelines.

**That happens.

Well that's not very exciting.

I was hoping you'd throw up on the front row or something.

Or try this search

Guitar or bass I take about half an hour of stumbling around before I can play comfortably solo in front of a few people.

Put me on a stage or in a rehearsal and I''m fine straight away.

On 15/11/2020 at 22:10, Dad3353 said:

The fastest way to build up speed is to slow down

THIS

On 15/11/2020 at 22:10, Dad3353 said:

Get a metronome

Careful, he'll get a sense of timing and you'll turn him into a bass player...

'Cross training' by playing another instrument will make you better on both. Contrary to what you might expect the effect of different strings, spacings and chord shapes will actually broaden the very specific set of skills you are developing. Basically it stops your brain from getting in a rut. Things like playing with a capo or the same tune in a different position help too. I won't say I'm brilliant at all (any) of the instruments I play but I never get confused by which one I'm playing.

But it sounds like an excuse to buy a new acoustic guitar to keep at your parents to me

Start a Coronavirus thread and don't let @Dad3353 moderate it.

Things will soon perk up

Overtime you will build up callouses - pads of thicker skin. Every time you blister you will lose what you've gained as the outer skin seperates.

As @Dad3353 says, take your time.

Back in the '80s I bought a Squier Indonesian Telecaster because my Hohner start got nicked.

Over the years I added a DiMarzio stacked humbucker my brother gave me, cheap Gotoh copy tuners (the Squier ones were truly awful) and lastly a genuine Fender Tele selector knob to replace the annoyingly round one. Most annoying has been the single-ply back scratchplate that looks like a bit of ring-binder cover.

This week I invested less than £15 on the bay to get a mint green scratchplate, vintage through body bridge and ferrules.

I also added some light relicing ... I think it looks great, downside I've had to order another £15 worth of strings and 'vintage' tuners.

Just need to work on my playing...

My eclectric (TM) guitars. Tele was a consolation I bought to make up for having a pink Hohner strat (prezzie from my brother) nicked, its an indonesian Squier from the plywood body period. Tokai SG was a prezzie from my other brother:

The freaky explorer with its hand hacked from plywood body and neck from a skip got a new eBay body which appears to be best balsa wood...

The IBanez got its hardware upgraded - my bro gave me a Di Marzio 'buckjer and a Gretsch pickup:

My first electric was the K-2T, s/h just afetr Running Free came out, modestly upgraded from shite to not-quite-as-shite:

Various acoustic things, strumsticks were prezzies for my brothers. ~1975 Epiphone acoustic was my 21st birthday present from parent chosen when I found it in a s/h shop while at uni.

Fixed a buzz like that on a Vox amp once. Unclipped each valve in turn and wiggled it in its socket...

Could also be a valve with something loose inside.

On 12/04/2020 at 20:25, Skinnyman said:

who’ve influenced you or had the most profound effect?

Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze was what made me want to play electric guitar.

Neil Young - because he not only enjoys playing it, it sounds like he enjoys playing it.

My brother because he can teach more a  few sentences than any YT video.

I'm a bass player really but @Dad3353 told me to come and raise hell....