EdwardMarlowe

I had a Squier Standard Strat for a bit that I blocked the trem on. Decent guitar, one of the late 90s models. I just stuffed a synthetic wine cork between the block and the body; the difference it made in sustain and resonance surprised me a lot. My old 1994 US Std Strat does well on that front with the trem set up floating, though in recent years I've come to prefer my trems set flat to the body. I would love to try a fixed bridge Strat to compare to a blocked-trem. Apparently back in the eighties when Fender did the Clatpon signature model they did debate making it a fixed bridge, but Clapton wasn't convinced it would sound the same as a blocked trem. I'd love to see some hardcore research into trem blocks (anything on youtube on this? I've not quite found a good vid yet...). I've seen a lot of folks switch out the slim block in various Harley Bentons as a perceived upgrade, while others are very firm that it doesn't make the difference traditionally assumed.

Blue Ridge make a good looking instrument. Still got my fingers crossed they'll discover left handed players one day.

Off the top of my head, Keef, Dylan when he's in that mode, Joe Strummer, Johnny Ramone, Elvis.

This video from the Guitar Geek covers it pretty well. My own opinion is that Fender's target market for these is the player who absolutely will not consider a Squier, but who is on a tight budget that won't quite stretch to a Player.... basically the 2025 equivalent of those in the early 90s who couldn't afford an American Fender but would buy the bottom-rung Japanese Fenders because they were Fenders. (Easy to forget now that since they became much harder to get hold of in the West the MIJ/CIJ Fenders are highly sought after, but at one time they were "only" the MIM of their era.) Spec-wise, though, these are basically the old Mexican Standard spec, except with a two-post trem (I have a minor preference for the six-screw myself, but that stopped being a dealbreaker when Fender put the traditional-style saddles on the two-posts instead of the UAF block saddles like on my old American Standard. I've never wanted to switch them out on that because I've kept it all-original, but they really are ugly....) The 21 frets is great - I *wish* the Player series had 21 instead of 22. I never use the extra fret, and I don't like how it looks. Some (most of whom would likely never noticed the difference had they not been told) have sneered at the body being poplar, though Fender used that widely on its Mexican guitars from the mid nineties for about a decade. Looking at the elements of the spec on these that are different than the Squier, I think they're worth the extra - I'd likely buy one (though I'd maybe change the tuners for Fender's vintage-style drop-in replacements - Pro Gear? purely for aesthetics) but for the limitations of the range. The Squier CV is a great guitar and would be the obvious choice if the cash difference matters, and/or you desperately wanted a more vintage-specced guitar. The only thing stopping me picking up one of these Standards is that there are no left handers at all in the range. I'm actually more disappointed in this in relation to the basses. Eventually I'd like to be able to pick up a P and a J from the Player range, but the Standards would do just as well for me... plus the Standard J has the added bonus of a maple board with *dots* being an option. I'm well aware left handed guitars area minority sport, but it's amazing how many things Fender could have sold me over the years if they had been an option. As it is, I've increasingly been buying Fender-influences instruments from other companies.

J. Bright, The Law Suit, late 1700s: There truly is nothing new under the sun...

Oh, I always have my reading glasses to hand. I find it impossible to resist another accessory.... (plus I have one pair of distance glasses and two pairs of reading glasses for the price of a single pair with varifocals, which I firmly resisted despite (or more likely because of) the optician trying to give it the hard sell.

https://guitarbomb.com/klon-lawsuit-dismissed-bill-finnegan-behringers-zentara-overdrive And so it's all done.... the case has been dropped, "with prejudice" (i.e. they're not allowed to reopen it at any later stage), and no money changing hands. Ironically, the rare version of the pedal is now likely to be the Centara labelled phase, as Behringer recently started labelling them the Zentara, with a Z. I wonder if those will be worth anything in future, what with many buyers hoping to land a future collectable seeking out the first, Centaur labelled, run. Decent result, overall... Behringer have (very cheaply) further refined legal precedent on the limits to how far they can copy something that's no longer in production. It'll be interesting to see if the Klon people attempt to bring out a new line of "the real thing". As a postscript, Youtuber KDH (who is being credited at breaking this story which everyone else seems to have missed) flags that the AI search facility on Google denies that this happened. Now *there's* a bubble that can't burst fast enough.

I think it might be an age thing. I'm getting increasingly grumpy with technology this last couple of years...

Pool gigs. All the cool kids are doing them. In other news, aren't phone keyboards crap and too small?

Well played, Sir! Maybe there will be fewer acts late on now, though, if it's easier to fins the venues.

Thanks both, much appreciated. @Dad3353 - I discovered Ohmmage when look at hifi... I'm not the most technical of people and it still blows my mind a bit, but that's helpful to know! I do plan, though, to stick to just the one speaker to keep the noise down - if I ever have a house where I can go louder, I'll be looking at a "proper" amp. Mind you, it's impressive what you can get in a pedal form factor these days. Once they get past an inherently conservative generation of guitar players, I wouldn't be wholly surprised to see fewer and fewer bands using traditional maps on stage (save rich ones with roadies and a 'look' to maintain, of course...).

So... I have a Mooer Baby Bomb pedal power amp (which I'll be using alongside a Joyo American Sound and a reverb pedal). The plan is to pick up a speaker I can for using with this at home. I do already have a Vox 2x12" cab which might well get sold owing to it being probably too much for home use in a small flat; also looking at one of the Vintage 1x10"s. Both flavour have these two sockets in the back for speaker input: For reference, the BabyBomb has this, single output jack: What sort of cable do I need to connect this to the socket on the pedal? I can find lots of quarter-inch jack speaker cables for sale online, but they all have one lead at both ends. Does that make a speaker with two sockets unsuitable, or do I just use one of the input holes on the speaker, or....? All steer gratefully received. I've only ever used a combo amp before (the 2x12 came in a deal as a matching price with my Vox AD120VT, but I've never used it as the Vox itself is more than loud enough on the 1 watt setting...).

For electric, there's all the obvious Harley Benton options. I'd suggest, unless he has a strong preference otherwise, something F oriented rather than G style for sheer durability's sake if it's gonig to be lying around a shared space here it might get knocked over... For acoustic... there the price difference will be much more noticeable, though all the same imo there are a lot of very decent acoustic out there at the budget end, especially if you're willing to spend as high as £300. Sigma are Martin's Squier, in effect, so might be worth considering from that pov. I've long been a big fan of Tanglewood acoustics, and the Vintage brand have some very nice acoustics around the £300 mark. May be some sale bargains there if the brand are being wound down. Just a thought, though... Might be worth considering something a little left field here. A very decent, single-cone resonator can be had for £500. That's something different than the Martin when he comes home, and a brass or steel bodied resonator might just prove a lot more durable in some comedian at a dorm party thinks they're John Belushi. Not exactly a 'silent practice' option, but nor is any other acoustic really.

I bought a Crybaby about thirty years ago. Like a lot of my pedals I've never seriously used it (I've somewhat moved away from anything more than the odd bit of Tremolo, echo/verb, and decent drive options. Still can't bring myself to get rid of any of my other pedals just in case, though.... and I'm still a bit tempted by that Joyo... they do nice pedals. I picked up an American Sound last year to use with a head phone pedal and a Mosky Baby Bomb 30w pedal format power amp. Very nice pedal for a silly low outlay. That looks interesting - how durable is it? I remember being tempted by a Dano one that looked like an old Cadillac, but it was a plastic body that made me leery. I looked at Vox back in 1995. Nearly bought one, but the Crybaby was significantly cheaper and I wasn't sold on the difference between them. I paid £75, if memory serves, for the Crybaby, while the Vox was £100 - those in 1995 prices, which would in real terms be twice that now. Looks like Vox, like a lot of players, have made it cheaper over time.

Hah! Lucky I'd just swallowed my tea when I got to "Rickenwaffe" - not heard that one before! Yeah, they are more on the ball than anyone I've ever seen about their marks. Ric copies of any serious closeness only exist in Japan that I've ever seen... the very occasional one on ebay disappears almost immediately. I'd love a Ric solod body - a 4003 bass even moreso, but I'm resigned to the fact I'll never be able to afford one (and even then I'd struggle to justify the spend, tbh). Part of me wishes they'd do a diffusion line, A Rickensquierphone. They'd surely sell well, given their absolute nixing of the market for any other options if it's a Ric you want. (The Harely Benton options are about the only ones I've seen, and they're so deviated from the original - even if nice instruments in their own right.... you'll not see a Beatles tribute act playing them the way I've seen them use a Squier to recreate Rocky, let's put it that way...). Another part of me rather respects Ric for deciding they're happy as they are rather than just chasing the lifestyle brand market, or otherwise squeezing their property for every last penny. It was a remarkably late registration attempt by Fender - real stable door / bolted horse stuff. Trademarking a shape wasn't an issue for them in 1951 -or 1954 - as it wasn't until 1960 that you could trademark a shape in US law. The first registered US trademark shape was the Coca Cola bottle, a shape they'd been using since 1916, so I doubt Fender would have had any trouble registering The Tele, Strat, and other shapes then. As memory serves they had the foresight to at least trademark the shape of their headstocks, though.... Similarly, they were behind the curve in the UK as well, where shape-based trademarks became an option under the Trade Marks Act 1994. Gibson seem to have been more effective here, though from my casual awareness of their legal efforts (not least the PRS case), most of their real protection falls in the zone of lawfare.... i.e. Gibson can afford to spend a lot more than most of those they go after, and fighting a lawsuit will most of the time be far more expensive than just tweaking your design a little to make it go away. Smoke and mirrors to some extent once you see the eminently sensible decision by the Appeal court in Gibson v PRS.

Worked for Steve Jones back during the Vicious era... More realistically, might be worth looking for ideas at what Jack White was using live with the White Stripes for their more acoustic numbers like Hotel Yorba? Even with the clean and acoustic sounding stuff, he had a huge tone that sounded great despite lack of a bassist there.

Tht's what I'd do. I mean, these day it seems the best way to sell on 90% of ST types is to part them out anyhow, but a whole new plate that can be swapped over and back if needed is how I'd go. Depending in what pickups are desired, I'd be tempted to set up a plate with the fittings for something like the GFS kwikplug system, and dabble with two or three different options.

It looks really nice. The simplicity of a classic, solid colour finish on a Strat type is underrated, imo. Iconic. I like a tight neck pocket on an F type if I can get it, but honestly it's purely a cosmetic thing IMO. Long as in the end there's a good, tight bolting to the body and it doesn't wiggle around, it's functionally good imo. What do you mean by 'set from the factory so as not to work'? You mean at all? Or do they do that thing a lot of players used to do with the six screw Fender trem of setting it flat to the body which means it only works in one direction (instead of floating), the trade off being it's a little more stable in tuning? Interested in this project. In the past I might have shied away from the idea of a project like this being a money pit. These days, though, the average ST type sells for more parted out, and a full Fender-branded player will always be saleable... I think it's a good choice. Be interested to know how you get on with siting the Fender guard, given the inevitable slight variances between brands with screwhole positioning and such. I've been eyeing the HB ST types for a while. For now I'm holding off in he hope we eventually see an upgraded model in the vein of the ST Modern Pro, but with a vintage spec... As a baseline, an equivalent to the spec of the ST25th, but with SSS, a maple board, 21 frets, and a rounder radius (ideally 7.25, I'd settle for 9.5). Something like that I'd love to pick up as a project like this. The ST62s are great, though. For upgrading, they're a great idea IMO. Price of a used Squier, and you couldn't buy a decent body and neck as new parts for what they sell the entire guitar for before you buy the upgrade bits.

Belatedly - thank-you, much appreciated.

Ouch! That *is* a gouge. Though I suppose the "buyer's premium" takes some of the sting out of it for the seller.

I'm halfway hoping somebody like Thomann would buy the brand and run it in the same way as Harley Benton. HB's higher end stuff these days seems to be edging in the direction of very modern specs and designs. If that's how they want to really evolve the brand, it could be a strategy to buy Vintage and use that as a different project to do something similar - high quality, wholesale type prices direct - with a much more, eh... vintage spec and appearance. Working with care and the right factories, there's already an established market for Vintage which has some crossover with HB, but not entirely. The other option might be for them to take on Vintage with a perspective of making it all about the "Proshop" guitars. Set up and run properly, they could be a serious, sub £1,000 alternative to the Fender Modshop. Last I specced a 50s style Strat on the modshop out of curiosity, it was coming out at around £1800, which seems fairly baseline (and a little too close to some of the Custom Shop prices for my tastes). I'm told that Vintage's Proshop baseline is about £600. They could offer a lot for that with Thomann behind them. It's a thought, anyhow. Vintage are certainly still working for now as a going concern - they still have the pedals on the way, so it certainly looks like they've not given up on finding a buyer.

(It'll be interesting to see if the final auction prices are similar or different to the given hammer prices here. Not quite sure how those work, are they start prices or reserves or something in between?)

Some nice stuff there, especially among the handful of lefties. The 15% buyer's premium up a few just enough to look a little less of a bargain than the hammer price, but yeah unless they charge very little for postage that could quickly eat the rest of the difference in price for buying a lot of the sub-£800 options new. Interesting to see nonetheless. A lot of the prices reinforce my long-held opinion that while a big brand name will definitely help sell something on the used market, proportionate to purchase price having an expensive American guitar alone won't guarantee that it retains more of its new value. Non-limited Gibsons seem to depreciate at about the same rate as Epiphones. My old American Standard Strat would notionally now, after thirty years, sell for more that I paid for it in terms of the figures, but once you adjust for inflation, I'd still only be realising about 60% of the purchase price in real terms. Were I local and had a bit of money to burn, there's a few things I'd be sniffing at there... the 74 Strat (always fancied one from my birth year). Those do actually seem to be gonig up in value beyond inflation - in the early 90s you could buy a 70s Strat or Tele for £300, while a pre-CBS Would be about £1500. Even adjusted for inflation ,both of those are far above that value in real terms now. The Godin Kingpin looks great in black (I'm seeing red and ivory pinstriping on that....). I'd love also to try one of those Hendrix Strats - I think that model was originally marketed as the Voodoo Vibe or something along those lines... Always fancied one because it was a left handed guitar sold strung right handed. Wouldn't be any work at all to have the nut flipped, another strap button added, and have it set-up as a lefty. The mirrored logo would look great in that context imo.

That's where I'd start. Seems a good idea to see if that one can be perfected first rather than going to the expense of another. Particularly given that buying from a brand with a traditional wholesale-retail business model is likely to end up with needing to pay about double what the HB cost to get something of an equivalent quality.

This set-up (though whether SD provided the hardware I couldn't say) was on the MiM Jimmy Vaughn sig model Strat. five way with the middle position giving neck and bridge instead of the middle pickup. Tone pots were also rearranged, with the middle-tone pot redirected to the bridge instead. As memory serves, the other one remained on the neck alone per vintage spec (by the time of the American Standard from 1988 on, the version I have, Fender were wiring the first tone pot to cover neck and middle both, with the second pot being a passive TBX circuit designed to cut/boost bass / treble as directed, though habitually I've always kept mine in the middle-notched 'off' position....). Lovely, soft V neck on them too. I'd have bought one of those like a shot if they'd done them left handed, but of course no dice from Fender.