Crusoe

I'm a bit late the party here, but instead of suggesting a guitar for an upgrade, I would ask "do you like the sound of your current guitar?" If the answer is yes, then I would ask what you want from an upgrade. If aren't sure of an answer to that, then you just want to buy a new guitar for the sake of it. There's nothing wrong with that.

As for electrics, you could go for a second hand brand name guitar and get something good for the money, or you could try a new Harley Benton. You get a pretty decent guitar for not a lot of money. 

I'll post an addendum that it sounds great through headphones!

5 hours ago, EdwardMarlowe said:

Strongbow and Black, down the Northgate.... that brings back memories of our pre-formals!

Ace of Spades on the jukebox upstairs and condensation on the dance floor mirror, in the night club. Sadly no longer there. It burned down a few years ago. I have a couple of photos somewhere of a very drunk Darren Calwell in the 'Gate, on his 18th.

2 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

Good afternoon, @IanNeedsHelp, and ...

 

 

 

Dark green Marlin guitar : Absolute opposite of 'my' style of instrument, and active, to judge from the LED's and battery cover. Missing its vibrato plate, and just a little 'scruffy-looking'. Assuming that it's all in good order, and the electronics work, an enthusiast could pay maybe 200€ or so, maybe more if it's a unique or rare model. I've seen one or two advertised at over 1000€, but no idea if they were really sold at that price.

Really? Good grief. I remember friends having Marlin Sidewinders when I was younger. They weren't terribly good back then; comparable with Encores or maybe low end Squier (Squier would have been considered better quality, maybe just because of the Fender association). We didn't know much about guitars back then (I still don't ), so maybe it was better quality than I remember, but I do know that it was terrible for going out of tune. The hardware just wasn't very good. 

13 hours ago, raven1313 said:

for real or are you just messing?

It just made me think of Olde English Cider. I can't imagine that would be too good for your guitar... or your liver. 

I'm not sure what model that Fender is, but I'd say it should be worth a good few quid. The Grote and Marlin will probably be worth a couple of hundred quid each, at the most - Marlin were a cheap beginners' guitar when I was in my teens, over thirty years ago. Some people might buy them for nostalgia's sake, but they aren't a great instrument. I've no idea about the Barclay or the Paramount, but I think they should be worth a few hundred quid each. The Paramount looks quite nice. I'll be interested to see what someone who knows more than I do thinks. They are all definitely worth more than £20.

Just messing.

I was upstairs earlier and could gear my daughter mucking about with my guitar downstairs. She was trying the pedals and I could hear her gigling as she tried them. She couldn't work out how to turn the looper off, though.

I always preferred Strongbow

Welcome Dave. I'm in a similar boat. Had an acoustic for years. Bought an electric last year and started lessons about 8 months ago. I'm still rubbish though.

7 hours ago, EdwardMarlowe said:

Is that one of the Harley Benton boards? I was looking at those, but couldn't get my head round the sizes, whether they'd be too big... that one looks like it  would be a good size for me, though... Used to pick up pricier (but still production run) pedals, but these sort of minipedal Donner / Mooer / Moskey are my favourties now. The Moskey Golden Horsey is a cracking little Klon Clone. No idea how close it is to the original (never had a chance to actually try one of those), but it works for me. Too a long time to learn it, but what works best for me is just a *little* dirt, so it's not quite clean (you know, like when a radio isn't *quite* on the right frequency... just a bit...off.... ), and then it gets dirtier the hard you hit the strings... The MGH is great for that. 

 

It is one of the HBs; the Spaceship 50C. Its 500mm wide and comes with the bag, velcro etc. 33 quid, so it's not going to break the bank. I have the power van strapped underneath it.

I never knew you took piano lessons.

She likes a bit of Nirvana and as a result of Stranger Things, has a go at Master of Puppets. She was even trying Misirlou. She downloaded a tab app today, so has been trying things, few of which I recognise. Its mostly stuff she's heard on Spotify. 

I had a weird one tonight. I had my amp on and noticed voices. I couldn't work out where they were coming from. Eventually,  I realised the sound was coming from the amp. I then worked out that the guitar was picking up a TV or radio signal. Bizarre.

I'm only a bedroom player, so don't have much in the way of pedals. The board is from Thomann, as is the case. I won the D'Addario tuner. The Blues Crab is a great little drive pedal. The Donner Dark Mouse is a rather good distortion pedal, supposedly based on the RAT. The Horse Classic Chorus is a cheapie from Amazon. Does me for all I need it and the Donner One is a basic looper.

I've been waiting on this for two months and today, it finally arrived. First impression, out of the box, is that it feels like a solid, quality little amp. The cloth grille looks and feels much better than the included black plastic one. There is a nice sturdy brass screw to hold the strap on. The volume knob is plastic, but it turns well enough. The presets button is also button, but gives a nice, positive click when pressed. The body is covered with a thick rubberised layer and feels good in the hand. Size wise, it is tiny. It's shorter than my phone, about the same width, but obviously deeper. So far so good. Now how does it sound. Straight off when I plugged it in, it didn't sound fantastic. It is pretty loud, but it is sort of tinny. There are four presets on the hardware and a lot more on the app, once connected to your phone. Its never going to compete with a 10, 15 or 20 Watt practice amp, but for a little amp that you can sling in your guitar bag or case it's great and that's the reason I bought it. Currently,  I'm away for a few nights, every few weeks. If I take my guitar, I have to bring my amp. My amp is only a 20Watt practise amp and isn't large or heavy,  but I usually have to bring my laptop and a monitor, an overnight bag and sometimes my camera, so having the Go will be one less thing for me to have to carry. I'm sure I'll be able to get a better sound from it once I start playing with the settings. If you are looking to buy a replacement for your practice amp, this isn't the one for you, but for something to take when you don't want to lug an amp about, it's ideal.

Hopefully, she'll get interested in it, although the other day she said she wasn't sure about getting an electric guitar (she doesn't know I've bought it). She has an acoustic that she never touches and alluded to this. I said that if you have the guitar sitting out on a stand, you are more inclined to play it. Fingers crossed. If she doesn't get into it, at least I can nick the amp 

I wonder how I would play a finger picked version of "South of Heaven"...

The little amp has arrived. I opened it just to check that it works and had a very quick play through it. It's very light, but the knobs, buttons and switches all feel fine. It sounds great. I played through the a few of the presets they all sound superb. There's a built in tuner, which will be useful for my daughter. It's all boxed up again until her birthday.

That looks great. I'd forgotten that you are a lefty and it took me a second to work out why the photo didn't look quite right 

2 hours ago, randythoades said:

Quite an interesting question... probably mirrors questions about styles of music you like and what guitars you probably chose to own. I bought guitars that I saw in the hands of my favourite players until I found out what I liked and what I didn't. Very few of my favourite players used Gibson guitars so my journey pretty much started with a red strat, then a black strat, then a sunburst, back to a red one...kept repeating for 25 years with the odd left turn into Gretsch.

 

But I know what you mean. I always associate certain players with certain guitar, despite them playing other plenty of other models too, but not signature guitars:

 

Hank Marvin - red Strat

Chuck Berry - red Gibson ES355

Eddie Cochran - orange gretsch

Brian Setzer - orange gretsch

Carl Perkins - LP gold top with bigsby

Billy Gibbons - that furry esquire type thing...!

Dave Gilmour  - black and white strat

Buddy Holly - sunburst strat

Clapton - black and white strat

Knopfler - red strat

SRV -  sunburst strat

I'd say quite a few people started playing on guitars they didn't actually like to play, because their favourite guitarist played on one.

Another one I've just thought of is Billy Duffy, from The Cult and his white Gretsch. Wiki does show him playing that, but the first picture on the page shows him with a black Gretsch. 

I can't believe I forgot about Slash. I always associate him with a sunburst LP and Zakk Wylde with a bulls eye LP. Funnily, I looked up ZW on Wikipedia, where there are three pictures of him playing guitar, none of which are a bulls eye Les Paul 

I'm not really talking about endorsements or signature models. I'm thinking more along the lines of how I always associate the likes of Keith Richards or Bruce Springsteen with butterscotch Telecasters, even though I know I've seen them pay other guitars.

I was just thinking about how some guitarists and bassist get known for using one particular guitar and how odd it is to see them with a different model. This came about after I saw a meme over on Basschat which showed Freddy Mercury with a white Tele and Brian May with a black Tele. It occurred to me that I don't remember ever seeing Brian with a guitar other than his Red Special. Are there any other guitarists you associate with a particular guitar (not just a model, but a specific guitar)? I was doing a bit of googling and discovered that Brian has occasionally used replicas of the RS.

Last weekend, my daughter asked to have a go on my guitar. She heard me play a single note that reminded her of something and asked me what "that song is? You know, the one that goes (hums tune I don't recognise)". Eventually, after a few more clues and using my dad psychic abilities, I realised she  meant "Misirlou" by Dick Dale and the Deltones. SO I worked out the notes for it and she spent most of the weekend trying to play it. Now, she has never really played guitar before and had a strumming action similar to a stuck windmill sail, but she was enjoying it. She also had a go at Master of Puppets and a bit of Nirvana. Then when I was out of the room I heard a couple of recognisable tunes and realised that she was looking at one of my books and was having a go at "Sex on Fire" and "Cigarettes and Alcohol". I was impressed that she was having a go and even managed to produce something recognisable, so I've decided to get her an electric guitar of her own. I've ordered a Mooer Hornet modelling amp (£105 from Thomann) and today went down to the local guitar shop to look at one of the new Squier Sonic series Telecasters (I considered a TE-62DB from Harley Benton, but wanted to get a guitar from a shop that would be set up already, without having to worry that I might have to return it or pay for a setup). I went in and asked to try the black model. The guy got a cable, got the guitar, plugged it in and left me to it. I played for a bit and then started to examine the guitar and that's when I noticed a lump out of the finish where my arm was resting. I had a notion that they only had one black one in stock. I pointed the chip out to the guys in the shop and they were gutted, not at me obviously. The guy I'd been dealing with even said that he wouldn't have minded if someone had done it and said to them. To damage the instrument and hang it up again before walking away is just a really sh***y thing to do. Anyway, they've ordered a new one for me and it should be here within the week.

Welcome to the forum.