EdwardMarlowe

Thanks, sounds cool. Next time I change pickups on anything, I'm very tempted to go over to the GFS Kwik-plug system, give the option of switching between a couple of options. Oh! Lovely, but.... Yeah, same issue for me. Ironically, thisl ooks like the same price as the CV50s Tele, so buying a used one of them and converting seems the closest option. I looked at the MIM version a few years ago ,but same issue - no lefties. Always seems a shame to me Fender don't make more of the Esquier. For a player looking forf something really stripped down, it's arguably evne more utilitarian than an LP Junior.

How much of this is oiginal - just the neck? Looks great. My current "wants list" has a 50s CV Tele on it because I want to rewire it as a Broadcaster. If I could manage another, I'd be consdering rewiring it as an Esquier. Always thought it a shame Squier don't do a Squier Esquier.

It seems this is a case of the laws of market forces applying.... That said, it's also easy to miss the sheer level of skilled work in creating a convincing relic of any sort, let along replicating a specific insturment right down to the wear... There's two sig models I'd love to have - the MIM Fender Joe Strummer Tele and the Mosrite Johnny Ramones models (all variants). Alas, never see nay of them left handed. I'm in the process of putting together a plan to build my own Hendrix 68 Black beauty to as reasonably accurate a Fender match as possible.At present it looks doable for around £500, but 55% of the budget will be on the neck as it sits as I don't want to compromise on a 70s-style bullet truss, and it's surprisingly difficult to fidn anywhere that does a 68 spec Strat neck.

Yeah, it's a shame. Phenomenal guitars. I think it's a mix of things - they've never had any interest in making "budget" models (and they stamp down had and fast on anyone else who tries it too close) - so the price of entry is abit high for people. I think they also suffer a bit from their main associations for many players being the BVeatles and the Birds; a lot of folks don't realise just how versatile they are. Obviously you have Lemmy with the basses; Glen Matlock was also a Ric man in his original Pistols days (though he played Fenders during the reunion gigs. I believe now he's mostly switched to guitar because of a bad back?). One of the boys in Joyrider (1990s Northern Ireland alt rock / punk band) played a Ric 360, cracking sound. I think far too often a particular style of guitar gets (at least visually) associated with a certain style of music, and so guitar players, being an inherently conservative breed, avoid it if it's not their style of music. We're lucky Buddy Holly didn't do that!

Got my eye on one of those Godins - the one with no cutaway and the neck p90. Ity's jockeying for position as "next buy" against a Player Series Strat and a Gretsch 5420 or similar.

I reallyl ike the Starla. I've never much cared for their usual 'type' as I'm not a figured woods et cetera man - Fender cusotm coloursand Eastwood styled oddballs would be more my aesthtetic of choice. That siad, I do admire the craftsmanship in the PRSes, and they are undeniably good for their type. I really like the simplicity of their electronics and hardware; that wraparound bridge is a thing of beauty. I've never played one (never seen a lefty in person), though I'd love a shot at playing one of their recent takes on the Strat type, be interesting to compare it to my Fender. I suspect the neck might be a little too wide/flat for me by the look of them, but I actually find the notion of such a successful company as they have become in the last thirty odd years doing their own reappraisal of such a classic an interesting exercise.

If you're in the UK, Tanglewood are a very good place to start looking, brand-wise: https://www.tanglewoodguitars.co.uk/ Style of music is a significant one - I'd be looking at buying a very different acoustic if he's into, say, Bob Dylan versus Oasis versus Robert Johnson. Somewhere that specialises in acoustic and folk insturments like Hobgoblin would be a good place to start as well, depending on where you're located. I'd also ask whether a pick-up in important - it's not, imo, as big a difference as it used to be, but it is sometiems still the case that you can get a better quality pure-acoustic for the same money as an otherwise similar electro-acoustic. A pick-up could always be a later present if desired. (Personally, I also prefer the idea of adding a pup to an acoustic as it's easier to fidn an acoustic I like that way - I don't care for the look of a cutaway on an acoustic guitar, which most dedidcated electros have).

I'm not familiar with one, but just a thought.... aren't Sigma's models all based on Martin guitars? If you know the equivalent Martin model, that might help in the search?

Funnily enough,h one of the thnigs I have to cleaqr out are the bits I bought years ago to build a p90 Strat that never happened.... I was gonig to do it the 'easy' way with two HB-sized p90s. Though I think a sort of Strat version of a Junior would be very cool - just a dog ear p90, an on/off switch and a volume knob. Funny how after they took the Esquier up to two pups with the Broadcaster, Fender never got into the idea of single-pup "student" models the way Gibson did, though I suppose Fendr was always a touch more affordable by design already.

Quite so. A warning to everyone who buys into the nonsense that acid can aid creativity.

It's interesting how often cheaper brands are actually donig something interesting moreso than the big boys. Partly this is, to be fair, due to the market being problem the most inherently conservatice consumer goods market there is, but a lack of p90s seems to me to be a real miss in Fender's Player line-up, for example. I'd love a Strat with three p90s (even three JM pups, which are not quite the same thing), or a Tele with one in the neck.

Stumbled across this website a couple of days ago - https://www.boobooguitars.co.uk/ They sell reject / seconds guitar body and necks (F style, typically) for a fration of the price of what they might other wise cost. Some have dings or knots in the body, but all seem fairly priced. For anyonel ooking for bits on the cheap for a project, especially soemthing like a Barncaster, worth looking at.

Yip. Cross between that and the Single-pickup Rickenbacher 425 model.

I love seeing pictures of cool oddball guitars. Things like the Squier Supersonic, for example. BEing as lefty they're rarely an option for me, but I enjoy that they're out there still. Here's the latest I've seen: The Lindo Rosetti. A lefty in that seafoan / surf gren woyld be very tempting! https://lindoguitars.com/product/lindo-rosetta-gloss-electric-guitar-black/

I've only used a very standard, two-finger wallhanger for one guitar before now (got three of them up on the wall, two in my ounge, one in the bedroom. Interested in those angled ones on a row - when we're able to move house, probably after the looming recession, I hope to have a home ofice I can keep my guitars in, and I'll want to hang them like that. (My current display ones are 'toelrated' having been instaleld in my bachelor days, but I don't imagine I'll be permitted more in 'public' areas of the current flat.

Glad you found one and like it! I stil think Vox made a huge mistake not keeping these on.

I'm hoping for a MIM version eventually.

Here's a secondary thought to the original question: for how many of us did these life-changing record experiences happen when the recod was just out, and how many folks had an experience more like mine, where the record in question was one that had been around for some years already? I think the luick of the draw had something to do with it for me - by the time I had turned sixteen, I'd already soured on mainstream pop and the metal genre, which I'd seen through as not only hopelessly misogynist, but contrary to all its claims also wildly conformist. I think prior to Nirvana andthe grunge revolution, around 98% of what I listened to was by atists who were either dead or otherwise defunct by that point (hanged later on, and I got to see a lot of reunion gigs by bands I loves like the Stiff Little Fingers and many more - even the Pistols themselves. THe Clash, alas, no - but I did get to see Joe with the Mescaleroes in 99, 00, and 01; in 01, last tiem I saw himj before hissad death, Strummer closed the set at Brixton Academy with a roof-raising cover of Blitzkrieg Bop, in tribute to Joey Ramone who had died only six or seven months prior. I thought I was going. Few acts could ever math that emotion. (The Pogues were one.... let's just say Christmas has lost a lot of its appeal sine 2011).

Left handed options for the standard Tele type seem to be limited to the black with rosewood and natural with maple 52 style. If anythingl ike as good as people say, at that money they're insane value. Certainly a great start point to see if a Tele is for you.

I wish my dog could talk, because with her ears she maybe can hear a difference I can't.... You'll hear a lot of talk about "tonewoods" with guitar. Now it's fair to say a mahogany and maple Les Paul sounds very different from an Alder or ash bodied Strat. Thing is, that Les Paul might also sound quite different from the next (suposedly same model) Les Paul, and ditto for the Strat... Wood is organic, and thus prone to variations - any two pieces of wood even from the same tree might not be quite identical. That said.... I personally hold to the opinion that with modern pickups (by and large much more consistent than they were back in the days when they were all handwound) and amplification, the electronics have far more influence on tone. Every minor change in spec will, arguably, have an effect on making up the overall tone, but for the most part it'll be the electronics, the amp, and any effects you use which will be the most signficant. I would say wood type makes a much bigger difference with an acoustic guitar sound, especially if miking rather than using a soundhole or under-saddle pick-up. It's worth noting that the early Led Zep stuff was a mix of Les Paul and Telecaster; nobody now knows which is which by listen ing to the records, and Page can't remember... The differences from one guitar to the next may be minimal for a listener, of course, but what I think can matter more is the look and feel to a guitar player. Frankly, how my guitar looks does matter to me; all other things being equal, of any two guitars I'll pick the one I like the look of most. When I play, some things I prefer to play on -hell, even some days I just prefer to play my Strat, other days my Tele. Both sound the same thorugh my amp and pedals to anyone else, really, but beause each "feels" (half of it psychosummatical, at that) different to me, I tend to play differently on each, so evne if a listener can't hear a difference, it does affect how I play and so I suppose you could say it affects how I sound in an indirect way. As a new player, I'd concentrate less on what a guitar is made from and more on whether you like the look, feel and sound. You'll naturally gravitate towards certain things. A lot of my guitar heroes played a Les Paul, but (Juniors aside)I just can't get excited by them any longer - I'm definitely a Fender man, and I can get the ' Steve Jones Les Paul' tone I want very easily through godo amp and my Telecaster. There are just so many different options with guitars and bits these days that I think if you tried all of them to see what is"best" you'd go mad. Try as much as you can, see what you enjoy, buy that. It might be the guitar your utter hero played, but if it doesn't work in you hands and you don't enjoy playing it, there's no point. As a last thought in this steam of consciousness, I can't help but wodenr why I've never read a discussion about the effect of the scratchplate material on the tone of a Stat - after all, the pickups in a Strat are fixed directly to the plate, not the wood....

I wonder is that why Clapton had the midrange boost 'always on' built into the wiring of his sig model?

I've only owned one guitar with actives - a Westone Thunder I A. The active boost seems to give the humbuckers a bit of a kick in the pants - makes them feel a little "hotter". It'sd not unlike using a midrange booster pedal to give the guitar a bit of extra kick fo a solo. It can also produce a more pleasing soyund to the ear if you like that midrange boost and you're not getting it from the pedal end. (Personally, I prefer passive pups and to tweak the tone at the amp end, but ymmv). The only real drawback with actives is that they can eat batteries...

If it's not too late.... I agree with ezbass. THe p90 is both narrower left-right and longer top-bottom than a HB, so it wouldn't just be a case of making the hole bigger, you'd need to fill it a bit too. By far simpler to go for a HB sized p90. The GFS Dream 90 is a very affordable and very good trad p90; if you want something a little hotter, try their Mean 90. https://www.guitarfetish.com/Humbucker-Sized-Guitar-Pickups_c_26.html In terms of wiring, I'd just buy a new loom from GFS and carefully store all the original stuff so you can return to standad if you ever want to sell.

I just wish I could try one - everyone I hear of who has tried them with an open mind seems to rave about them. If I ever gig again, I could definitely see gonig that way, unless I instesd went the whole hog and used an amp-sim pedal.... (which is fine unl;ess you have no monitors, I suppose).

A Colleague of mine is a skilled uke player (among other things). Goes by Professor Chris on Youtube. Good fun. I've been tempted to try a bit of uke, that might be away of doing it.