EdwardMarlowe

Very nice. What's different about the JD wiring, aside from the Strat pup in the neck? The JHS Vintage range is lovely stuff; I'd genuinely struggle to choose between the likes of a Squier CV and the Vintage 52. I'd probably be seduced by quite a lot of the Vintage range, save for the fact they don't do many of the more interesting looks left handed. For Gibby styles, I think they're far better value than Epiphone, and snapping at the heels of the very top Squiers for Fender types, while being markedly cheaper than either.

Interesting project. From experience, I's suggest you may notice playing this one unplugged it will have a darker sound than maple and the usual.... right up until you plug it in, and then any difference will rapidly diminish, especially once you start using overdrive and f/x. This looks cool. I have in the past toyed with the idea of doing something similar, except using second hand parts from ebay. Let chance dictate what crops up (especially being lefty). For now though I need to thin the herd or I'll be in trouble with a Higher Power who - quite reasonably - thinks I should play the ones I've got more before I buy more guitars!

Not a Tuesday, I know, but.... The Fender Noventa I: If they did a lefty (I don't believe they do at present), I'd be seriously tempted. I've always loved the sound of an LP Junior (Johnny Thunders, Mick Jones), but I feel much more comfortable with a Fender in my hands. This looks like somebody in Fender figured they'd have a go at making a Junior with Fender parts.... Wonderfully brutal, takes the Junior concept and makes it even more utilitarian. If Squier did a lefty of this, it would be an amazing modding platform... This Harley Benton Tele-style with filtertron type pickups looks cool AF: I like how these have something of the Barncaster vibe to them (the three in the middle, anyhow - that green.... yummy), while also that hint of Gretsch-style from the pups. It's be interesting to see one of these with a Bigsby. They do do a lefty I've seen (inevitably in the much less interesting finishes on the outside left and right). I wish they'd put a more conventional, standard headstock on them, though I suspect I could also be won round by the practicality of an inverted headstock (my first electric was a Hendrixed right hander, and the tuners on the bottom were actually much more convenient in many ways). While I've yet to play a Harley Benton, it's really interesting following them online and seeing the brand take established, classic designs and playing around with them like this. A pity that the Brexit upcharges have made it much less practical to take a punt on mail-ordering from Thomann. I'm pretty fixed on knowing what I like nowadays, but I'm wary of paying upcharges and import taxes I can't get back if something turns out not to be right. That aside, though, nice to see a brand emerging at this price point that has a real sense of character to it.

Looks really nice - a hint of Yamaha in the styling. I like it a lot. Not normally a fan of a cutaway on an acoustic, but this thinner body style really makes it work.

Robert Rodriguez' 1994 made for tv flick Roadrunners is on Youtube at present - well worth a look if you like some old-school, hardcore rockabilly (and a bunch of Link Wray on the soundtrack too). I've also recently discovered vids from an English guy who lives in Austria - under 'The Guitar Geek'. Seems pretty decent reviews.

Funnily enough, I'm a guitar player primarily who dabbles with bass - I joined basschat before I signed up here, but I post here far more. I have something in the region of a dozen guitars and have probably owned 15 or so altogether over the last 30 years. I've got three basses - a Squier Precision Special (a hybrid with a J neck, P body, and P J pickup arrangement), a Brandoni 62 spec P type Bass, and a rare, early natural finish Westone Thunder IA, all lefty. I have over the years discovered that the only bass that really bites me is a p bass. I'm intending to sell the Squier and the Westone. Eventually I'd like to buy a Fender Player P Bass in tidepool. If ever I got into playing out again, I might be tempted to save my pennies for a Ric 4003 in midnight blue. I'm also going to sell most of my guitars and replace those with another Strat or two (aim at present, a Tidepool Player and a ShiJie in Daphne if I can try before I buy and like it), a Gretsch type and a non-cutaway archtop of some sort, likely a Godin.

Definitely a 50s type repop. According to Reverb, the Japanese ones are anywhere between £700 and £1000 depending on condition; asking price for a US model goes up to £900 to £1500, again it seems depending on condition. Did the US versions have a 'made in USA' transfer on the back of the headstock? I know at some point Fender's US range stopped and started putting 'made in USA' on the front - at one time the US models had 'made in USA' on the front while the Mexican and Japanese guitars had it on the back, but I don't know what the deal was with this specific one. Could be worth owner sending an email to Fender to establish which model - ime they're pretty good about responding to that sort of thing.

Yeah, I wouldn't risk hanging them on a stud wall unless you're into the studs. I have three up in my place currently, with a circular base to them. I made sure to put the two screws 'top and bottom' rather than left and right as it anchors it better.

Very cool. Is this intended to have an archtop-type sound (without the feedback, obvs)? It's not every new design I like, but this for me has the perfect balance of being something that looks genuinely different and yet also with a truly vintage aesthetic.

Not yet, but it's been in my Amazon wishlist for a while!

I think that edge of 'artificial' look is why I quite like it! Nice to see a maple board on this sort of thing for a change, too.

Funnily enough, I was watching that film Yesterday at the weekend, and they had a scene on this - a musician saying he was not into creating an image, the label bod stating that if you don't construct an image, then your lack of one becomes your image. I've seen all sorts work for an act, but context is definitely important. I remember going to a black tie do years ago and being very disappointed when the band, such as it was, turned up to perform in ratty jeans and old faded t-shirts. Not sure whether that was meant to cock a snook as we squares or what, but for a covers duo formed to play exactly that sort of function it seemed a bit of a miss-step. Nothing on the eejit drummer I saw perform once as a wedding, though, who made a show of turning up in ratty jeans and a t-shirt with a tuxedo print on the front - and then proceeded to vocalise how clever he believed himself to be for not owning a suit.

At this point: - Custom Strat with the normal appointments you'd expect on a Player type but a 21 Fret, baked-maple neck with a 7.25 radius and soft V profile. Pots per the 50s style, with two extra mini-switches to given the option of bridge and neck / all three pups, and mute. - Nocaster Type Tele, wired like a 'Broadcaster' - Gretsch 6120 - One of those Teles with a single p90 in the bridge, otherwise set up like a 51. - a non-cutaway archtop of some sort. For am amp, the fantasy is something that look exactly like an old, tweedy Fender 1x12, with solid state guts that are indistinguishable from tube in sound, and can switch between a 5w and a 15w tube equivalent (both in sound and volume). NO on-board f/x - unless you count reverb, though I can live without that. Single channel. F/X wise, a decent reverb pedal (if none on the amp), a slap-back echo, clean boost, a decent classic OD, tremolo. For bass, the ideal is even easier: My Brandoni P-type A Fender 57-type P Bass in LPB A big, tweedy bassman type amp, solid state. *Maybe* a Ric bass for the odd occasion I come over a bit early Glen Matlock. And I've always fancied the idea of a P bass with a slab body shaped like either a Firebird or an RD (but otherwise still a p-bass in every aspect, including a bolt on neck).

The Zoot Suit SG was an interesting design from Gibson, well outside their usual comfort zone. Me, I'd love to see an SG reimagined as if made by Mosrite, with that German carved edge.

The top of the line Premium model I remember as looking nice, though they only did the mid level left-handed. For my preferences, I'm more leaning towards the Fender Acoustasonic range these days, hoping they eventually do a Mexican version of those.

Never used anything on maple. Have used a bit of oil on a rosewood board, though more for aesthetic reasons (to try and darken it a bit) than anything else.

I see the June deadline has been extended - probably as a result of pressure group complaints - but best to get in asap.

Useful blog here (not mine, but the info is good) on the process with links to the form to get to your GP by 23rd June for the Type 1 opt out, and an online link for the Type 2. Doesn't seem to be any online way of doing Type 1, unless your GP surgery set it up (but unlikely!). https://medconfidential.org/how-to-opt-out/

Yeah, huge developments there since 2012. In a few months' time there's going to be a huge leap forward: to date, China has always stuck to a sectoral approach (specific rules for specific areas), but the end of 2021/ early 2022 will see the arrival of the Personal Information Protection Law, China's first omnibus data protection law. Basically an equivalent of the EU's GDPR, and very. very similar. There's a big likelihood this could be enough to take China over the edge for the EC to declare it as having "adequate protection" equivalent to the EU. The commercial drive for this is huge, of course, as China wants to expand its ecommerce market into Europe and would love an EU trade deal. I'm sure there's room for objective criticism, though it's kind of a speck / log thing coming from the UK, where - no longer fully bound by the GDPR - the government is currently on a serious data grab of your personal health information - if you don't opt out by 23rd June, they will take all your GP's information on you forever, and there's a separate one for the national NHS. All snuck out undercover of the pandemic - and none of it would have been remotely legal until 31st January past.

It definitely varies from scene to scene. A lot of the retro / vintage scenes are particularly unforgiving that way.

Yeah, that's the general idea... a sort of grand experiment to see whether the notion of "tonewood" really is bunk. Though I can see why a lot of companies would have a vested interest in squashing that....!

Oh, for sure there's a difference between laminate and ply - I think I was more getting at the notion there that a good guitar doesn't have to be all-solid. What intrigues me is the idea as to whether a really great plywood guitar could me made. Like say Fender threw their custom shop at it, absolutely everything totally high end - would the ply render it crap, per conventional wisdom, or is it the case that low end build and other components made as much or more of a difference. I agree that for the industry to find an eco-friendly plastic that sounds good would be a huge shift - obviously changing wood-type is easier as it's still wood, still requires the same skills... which probably makes it unlikely to catch on for now, as if there's no demand, I can't see anyone wanting to make the investment...

This. All the this, in the world.

Almost everything I've ever done I've had a little bit of a rush. I've been teaching law for twenty years now; in about twenty minutes I'm going online to do a lecture for a class in Beijing on Chinese Data Protection Law - been teaching this for over a decade now, and I'm legit getting an adrenaline rush right now.

I do recall having mixed experiences, but I'm not fully ready to rule out the possibility that many of them were crap because they were budget, starter guitars built down to a price, rather than because of the plywood. (The Taylor pallet-wood guitar springs to mind here.) Not unlike the three-bolt neck on a 70s Strats got the blame for lesser quality in that period, when in reality it was far more to do with CBS's poor attitude to QA. A lot of high end semis use ply / laminate, partly because it's easier to mould, yes, but also because it's apparently less prone to feedback... What I keep coming back to is that with a Strat especially, the pick-ups are mounted in plastic, ultimately - the pick guard, which surely reduces the significance of the wood.... One thing I thought was fascinating was the Switch guitars. German company, I think. They were a bit HR Geiger in look for me, but the technology was a fascinating idea. They reckoned with the polymer they could cut out the organic variation common in wood guitars. By changing the make-up of the polymer from which they made their bodies, they could simulate different wood types, and once locked on something that sounded good, they could reproduce it every time, guaranteed. They bombed on the market, though. A mix of being too different on one hand and aesthetics on the other, I think - they had a very 80s Superstrat vibe at a time when that was very much not a big seller. Never got a chance to try one (never saw a lefty), but the concept was fascinating. In some ways, not a million miles from what Steinberger were trying to do with carbon fibre, or Ovation's fibreglass bowlbacks. It does make me wonder about the future of 3D-printed bits. If it played and felt the same, how many here would be up for a plastic guitar? I think it would be a hard sell to the mainstream, but for those who like something a bit different like Jack White's Airplane... They also sold the Switch guitars as environmentally friendly in the same era when Gibson were backing off some woods and experimenting with the 'Smartwood' guitar. Not sure how truly green the polymer plastic was - though the perception of plastic not being EF might have been a challenge for them. Interesting to see now there are more wood-types being considered - I remember seeing a Yamaha bamboo acoustic. I have a feeling though that aside from the odd exception, non-wood becoming a norm is a ways off yet. At least unless there's a new guitar hero of the level of a Hendrix emerges playing ply or plastic...