FrankAtari

Greetings to you all!

for future reference for myself and the community, I'd like to publish a list of the best shops to buy spare or after market parts.

Please contribute with the shops you know and use, and then I'll summarize all of the links in a single post. Please explain briefly why the shop is good and what they offer.

Hi,

did you manage to understand what the problem is?

On 28/01/2022 at 11:45, ezbass said:

I’d look at at the relief first. It might be that there is too much bow in the neck

Well I think I kind of did it, for the problem is largely contained. I'm rubbish with the relief so I just skipped that part and worked directly on the truss rod, empirically. The notes became flatter when tightening. Now even the worst notes are not sharper that 1/8 and many are fine. I'm not sure how close to the ideal pitch they should really be, but for now I'm happy. Probably it's worthwhile investing in a set of those nut files.

Moving the saddle up a little bit will probably make no difference, because the guitar is not buzzing, right? But it will not hurt either, so try, why not?

Go to the shop and have a word with them, however the problem is likely to be somewhere in the setup.

Hi Guys,

I think my telecaster has some intonation issues. Probably the whole set up needs some tweaking, however all in all the guitar is good. The problem relates to the first 11 frets where almost all of the notes are about 1/4 sharper than they should be. This is according to my boss digital tuner. The frets from 12 onward are in tune. I have no buzzing issues and I have a six saddle bridge. So what do I do? Should I work on the nut or is there a way to balance the saddles or maybe the truss rod?

Tnx

Hi there.

First of all I'd say that you guitar needs to be connected to an amp to sound good. The sound of the strings without amplification is not representative of you real guitar tone. Are you playing with an amp? A decent system?

Secondly you should try to explain better what you mean by dull. Consider that the three upper strings are physically different from the three lower strings and the difference is noticeable when you move from the the D string down to the G string. Again decent amplification and correct equalization should sort the problem.

But if the problem persists, why don't you just go back to the shop where you purchased the guitar and have a chat with them?

Good luck,

F

Hope this helps.

It's a good guitar, it sounds great. If it were a Fender, solid body, single coils and a different colour, I would consider it aha ah  just joking... good luck. 

On 23/12/2021 at 09:22, Jag said:

I then find myself wondering it is worth the additional expense when it will be used with an average amp like a Marshall MG15CF.

Well in my opinion it may be worth it if you know what you're buying and will stick to that guitar in the years to come.

Ok some time has passed, have you got a guitar?

On 18/07/2020 at 20:36, EdwardMarlowe said:

Let's be realistic: no matter how many enthusiasts work for a guitar company, no matter how much they love their job... it has to work as a business

Well I agree with Edward, it's all about the money to a greater or lesser degree. I personally would never buy a signature model. Yes I may go for a premium guitar sooner or later, but I don't want any signature on it. For me it's wool over your eyes, c'mon a luthier should quite well know how to make a musical instrument without being tipped off by a musician.

19 hours ago, EdwardMarlowe said:

Personally, I think it's great. I really like how Ibanez have done a bunch of these that are very clearly Fender in their DNA, yet still very distinctly Ibanez' take on it.

Yeah they did a very good job. Still when something new is introduced on the market you want to understand if it appeals to you, especially for that price. Fender feels a bit overpriced compared to Ibanez. Also you see people who buy a guitar and then upgrade and customize it with new hardware and electronics, sometimes even a new neck. You see, to me this is something that does not make much sense (but that's me because it all boils down to personal preference), I couldn't be bothered. But if Ibanez puts together a final product that features many prestigious after market components, it certainly catches my attention. Now is it worth it to splurge / waste / invest almost two grand on a guitar? Well again, it's personal preference, it's neither good nor bad. I'd go for it, my only concern being what else the market offers for that much. I'm also the guy who plays one guitar, I don't need more than one, and certainly not a collection. Anyway, to conclude it seems to me that Fender is copying Ibanez and Ibanez is copying Fender. Did you guys see the new American Ultra series? I mean, it's not a Telly any more.

18 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Tele with a whammy bar is some folks’ ideal guitar.

That's absolutely true, still it's not my cup of T ....ah ah aha!  I like the fixed bridge.

Yeap, that's the price range. I believe you can now get one for £1600.

Hi guys, I hope you're all well. Here is a new incarnation of the mythical Tele. I am impressed. I love this thing and I would appreciate if somebody could talk me out of buying it     I like the sound of my MIM telecater and I wouldn't touch anything about it for it really feels right for what it is. But this Ibanez is a whole new planet. What do you think of it?

Ha ha as far as my guitar gear is concerned in the last few years I've been spoiled by Santa but this very Xmas I didn't get anything special.

Welcome to the forum buddy.

So what did you get from Santa?

On 12/06/2021 at 17:29, Dad3353 said:

I've never used anything on any of my guitars, basses, keys or drums. Various fingerboard essences (all wood...), and some over fifty years old, now. No sign of issues with any of them. I think it depends somewhat on one's climatic conditions (high and rapid humidity and/or temperature swings...); in the UK or here in France I've never had, myself, nor any folks I know, problems. I have used Dr Duck's wax for cleaning, on occasion on some (rarely...), though. Things might be different for other instruments, such as db, clarinet or oboe.

I totally agree. It really depends on the climate, and the wood, etc. I use a little bit of wood wax for antique furniture. I wanted to try it as an experiment and thought "go to hell, if it works it works, if it doesn't it doesn't" everything seems fine. It is actually very good.

On 27/10/2021 at 02:34, leftybassman392 said:

Guitarists can spend years trying to get the sound they have in their head out of the guitar.

Hi there, thanks again for your help and for the video. I do know Guthrie Govan and like him a lot and he's such a nice guy. The sound in that video is indeed another example of the tone I like. It's a tone I'd like to be able to use sooner or later simply because I love it. There's no other reason really. Well I certainly got enough information to keep me busy for a while, although for now I'll have to go on playing with my Telly twang   

On 27/10/2021 at 00:14, Stub Mandrel said:

You need masses of gain, on the amp and on the pedal. Consider investing in some cheap pedals (e.g. Behringer Tube Overdrive a tube screamer clone) or maybe a fuzz or distortion pedal rather than just overdrive. There is delay or chorus in there too, as a minimum use some of the amp's reverb. Once you are close to the sound you want, you might upgrade, or feel you don't need to.

 

Bad news is that Yngwie uses stacked humbuckers in his guitars, tele PUPs are pretty weedy single coils that give the classic thin, biting sound, even more than a Strat. That's one reason why they aren't popular with shredders.

 

Best thing to do is dial gain and tone controls (especially the mid range) to max, then back things off to get the sound you like. You don't get a sound like that by pussyfooting around.

 

If you can't hammer on a note and get a creamy distorted sound you won't get anywhere near that video.

Hi Stub Mandrel, I hope you're doing fine. Thanks a lot for answering my question and contributing to the topic. I see you know my Quilter that's good. And you opened my eyes about Yngwie modded guitar, that makes a lot of sense. Everybody here has agreed about the limits of the Tele and the lots of gain thing, so that's the way to go. For now, since this is my first electric guitar (I used to play the classic guitar though) I'll stick with my system which I like and experiment with the settings. When I feel the need to upgrade my gear I will consider a Boss GT1000. Thanks a again for sharing your thoughts.  

Hi there, this latest video is great. Your guitar sounds amazing. What is your gear by the way? You know guitar model, overdrive or whatever? Thanks for offering to listen to my tone. I'll try to record my guitar. I am not sure how, but I'll try. Actually my tone is very good (in my opinion) I have a decent guitar and cople of good pedals. The only problem is that it does not sing like yours, when you play I can't hear any plucking. That is not the case with my guitar, which is fine, but I would like an optional tone apart from my standard, if you see what I mean.

Hi leftybassman392,

thank you so much for your contribution to my topic. Let's start from the end of your comments. You're right sometimes I wonder if I am swimming upstream with the Telecaster. But it is my first electric guitar and I wanted something with a fixed bridge, also musicians I really love use it (eg ted greene, Mike Stern, etc.). I don't like metal and distorted sounds too much. Ideally I would play blues, mellow jazz, neo soul, etc. I like single note playing. This is why I still think the telecaster is ok.

My tone is great and I don't complain about the guitar being a guitar. Most times I love hearing the plucking of the single notes. Still I have often heard on youtube etc a tone that I am trying to replicate. Yngwie Malmsteen is an example, but thousands are using it.

Now if you go to minute 28 of the video you'll hear the sound of my guitar (more or less)

 if you go to minute 8 you'll hear what I am trying replicate

I've learned something from ezbass' contribution to this topic. After experimenting with my gear as much I could as he suggested, I now see that at the end of the day, tone like technique is something that you develop slowly as you grow as a musician. With the electric guitar you can create your music and can create your tone according to taste. That's it, it's gonna take some time. Pedals don't work like switch, good tone on / off.

Thanks a lot for your advise, it is much appreciated. I'll try to play slowly and see what happens. I like improvising but it's gonna take a while before I get something decent out of my guitar. I also checked your youtube channel and it's very good you've a nice collection of videos. What I find challenging at present is to understand how to set my guitar. It sounds good, but you can hear the single notes being played, like the classical guitar. I was told to buy overdrive and compressor but still I can't get that nice violin like sound.

Tnx a lot you're a mine of information. I do really appreciate your help. I'll try everything you just mentioned above and see what happens. So basically playing the guitar is the easy part, tweaking is tough.

Anyway yeah I am looking for the "singing violin tone" and I'll slowly look into fuzz effects, if you say it may help.  

Bye for now,

F

Not at all, it's great help and very much appreciated.

Wow I got almost there. I did crank the gain up and turned the compressor off. I was trying with low gain settings and didn't realize it was a mistake. At least I've learnt that it's probably just a matter of tweaking my knobs.

But I still have a problem. The sound has become musical and the guitar whines, great, but still I can hear the notes being separated by the pluck of my picking, no matter how gentle I try.  Basically the notes pop and then whines. Can I get rid of the pop?

Tnx

Hi Ezbass,

thanks for your understanding

this is all I have:

amp head quilter 101 (with headset, as I don't have any cabinet)

telecaster with 2 single coils

OCD overdrive

BOSS compressor cp1x

and I also have a MOOER RADAR  but it is not in my chain