EdwardMarlowe

Yes! THe one that replaced the frets with a stepped fingerboard, right? Only ever seen one of those in person - it was on sale in a guitar shop in - I think - Amsterdam in 2003. Never played one. I imagine it takes a bit of getting used to.

He's obviously donig it for the brand profile / advertising - that's a norm these days. Business gotta keep the money coming in. I don't mind it, though, tbh - I find him an easy watch / listen - informative, without the hard sell, and I tend to feel he's fair and honest in thse things - while sensaibly leaving it up to the viewer to decide between pricebands - e.g. Epi v Gibson. I like hoe he's open about his preferences for high end stuff, without being snobbish or dismissive of the affordable options.

Here's another one.... Remember Switch guitars? Somesort of plastic polymer body and neck? They wre all far too futuristic looking for me, but I liked the theory - the idea that you could alter the consistency of the polymer to imitate specific wood types, and achieve total consistency. Think about it - you want to be able to buy a Strat body that directly imitated the tone of, say, Blackie or Jimi's Woodstock Strat? Or you want to buy a Strat body for a project designed to produce a sympathetic tone for specific pickups? This is honestly the kind of stuff I think Leo Fender would be working on now, were he still with us. Guitarists will take a long, long tiem to convince of its value, but if I could buy a recycled-plastic polymer body (thus: green) that was cheaper than wood and had a ool look (like a glitter blue or something), that would rock.

The new price on those HB SGs is shocklingly low if they play as goodas they look! I didn't think anything could outdo the Vintage SG type for value, but.... In a year or two once I have their DC and SC LP Junior types, I'd like to see them do an SG Junior! Agree with exbass - I'm not a V guy, but that one looks very nicely done indeed. Some very classic V features, yet doing its own thing with the form too.

I suspect most of those things are designed as far as possible to only take sound from one input at a time - remember they were developed first and foremost as busienss options (in the main) - so as to get a good, clean sound.

Yeah, it just avoids a bit of excess noise. OTOH, if you're using a tube amp, I'd whack it to zero before you turn it on.

Tanglewood started off as a lower-price affair, but have streadily grown into a full range of imnpressive stuff, including higher end guitars. Their top end stuff I'd put up against anything in a similar price band. As for Epiphones, well... as I always say of any particular Epiphone, the relevant Gibson will be twice the guitar, for five or ten times the money. Up to you at hat ponit along the alw of diminishing returns scale you jump off the train... I can't claim to have based this on anything as I've not handled any of the 2020s yet, but I have a suspicion that Epiphone might just be very concertedly upping the ante as of these last few months, having been facing an awful lot of competition from some very good price-band alternatives in recent years. The new brooms at Gibson seem to be a lot more intune with the market than the previous admin.

p.s..... Looked Marlin up online - they were first made in East Germany (only very briefly in 1985) for British Music Strings Ltd based in Wales; 1986-89 they were made by Samick in Korea, then in 1989 Hohner bought the brand and shifted production to Cort in Korea.

I have fond memories of my Marlin electric, my first guitar. Marlin were a very successful, Korean-built range of guitars which, I believe were built to contract for Hohner (I have seen a few that carried a "Marlni by Hohner" branding). Their electrics were the reason that Fender initially introduced a Korean Squire in the mid-late eighties to compete on price, and then 1992 Fender introduced the Squier Silver series built in Japan. The Marlin Sidewidner, a Strat take-off, was outselling the Squier hands down in the UK over several years by severely undercutting the Squiers on price. Squier's early Korean guitars had also gone over to plywood bodies, whereas Marline used solid (basswood) - a fact mercilessly exploited by competitors (around the same time, Yamaha introduced the 112 with an advertising campaign based on "ask whether it comes in natural finish" - whichthe Squiers didn't; it even showed the back end of whaT was obviously (but not labelled as ) a Squier with the paint sanded back to reveal plywood. Squiers didn't come in ...). They were never quite as bad as it's now fashionable to believe, nor were most of them as good as the budget brand electrics avaialble today. For guitars that were everywhere in their day, you don't see so many of them appear for sale now; I' guessing al ot of them have over the years been handed down through families, ended up in basements or attics, or as wall hangers, or the Strat types have been parted out for various projects. The Marlin acoustics seem to have been rarer (Yahmaha's bottom line dresdnought was the big seller back then, and Tanglewood were beginning to take off...). A friend had a black one with an untinted maple neck and fingerbouard - a relative rarity on an acoustic guitar. Yours looks pretty cool. SAdly, for its rarity, I don't think it'll have much commercial value - I'd suggest sticking with it for now. See how you go with some lessons, then consider whether you want to repalce it or buy an electric. Squier are making soem pretty good guitars today. I heard good things about the Harley Benton brand (house brand of Thomann.de, Chinese made), though I would also highly recommend the Vintage branded guitars from JHS with the Wilkinson-designed gear. All great guitars that if you really get into it you'll likely want to keep as a 'back-up' for something more expensive. Love the red and Green o that Marlin, its' one I've never seen before.

Thinhing of re-kickstarting my playing by picking up a Cigar box guitar - undecided as of yet whether three or four strings. Get mysefl going on some slide. Any players on here?

That's be interesting. The Fenders are, I think, something else again, but it's interesting that the idea of a piezo hooked into a 'regular' electric guitar has never really take off for live performance - maybe most players were just happy with an acoustic simulator pedal, though surely the piezo would get closer the 'real thing'. I seem to remember that James Dean Bradfield from the Manic Street Preachers had some sort of piezo gubbins fitting to the ridge of his white LP back in the late 90s, but I don't recall any more details. PRS are the sort of company I can imagine convincing people to buy into that, though. In a good way, I mean. While they're not a guitar I've aspired to own myself, I've always been impressed with how they came from nowhere to being big enough that the big boys - certainly Gibson - saw them as a threat. I wouldn't be surprised if their SE range is what's behind the serious revamp of the ~Epiphone brand in the last few years.

Look nice - what are they? SEcond looks like it might be a Harley Benton, if I'm reading the headstock correctly? Got my eye on a couple of their Juniors currently...

I've hesrdgood things about the Bugera; I also heard there was anotyehr brand (might have been Subzero?) that was the same amp rebadged. DEfinitely will look out at those. The Subzero 10 is nice; I'm also open to the Harley Benton Tube 5, which is switchable to 1w. I really wanted the Fame / Joyo 5 watter, but that saeems to be sold out absolutely everywhere. I need to stop looking at this stuff til I sell a bunch of things (I have two big amps, a 2x12", four guitars and two basses to sell before I am "allowed" to bring anything new in... Decided a while ago that I'm just going to make the jump to a coupel of small tube amps, and if I ever manage to gig again, I'll buy myself a nice amp-repalcement pedal and possible a small cab for use in the absence of monitors. For home and recording, I think it's nice to have a 'real' amp, but I've slowly been convinced of the value of amp simulators in a live envorinment over the last couple of years. Bout three years ago I saws a guy playing heavy rock type stuff with a great tone, plugged into a laptop which was hooked up to the PA. Surprisingly good sound at a relatively low volume level too.

I wonder if they're starting with the pricey one to create a perception of "value", then down the track a couple of years we'll get an "affordable" verison and we'll see it as "an affrodable veriason of that expensive guitar", rather than "an expensive version of the affordable guitar", which could be a harder sell. If I was a session pro, I'd have one for acoustic sounds in my rack already based purely on ther demos I've seen, but yeah, they're priced for a pro as they are. Fingerscrossed for "Player Series" vrasions that include lefties in future. My only difficulty would be choosing between the Tele and the Strat.... If they did the Strat with a baked maple neck, that could be decision made...

I do like the looks of Reverend. I've considered the Strat-eque one with the three p90s before now. Fano are anotehr brand that really appeal to me - guitars that look very much like they could have existed back in the day, but didn't - that's bang up my street. I also admire Eastwood for that (not bad for lefties either), though I've not yet had a chance to play one. I hear they need a fair bit of fettling sometimes. I would love to have one of the Jack White Airplane types - there's something about those that gives me a real Link Wray vibe, like those bitsas he used to play assembled from a whole bunch of bits of the sort of guitars Eastwood take on. The other Eastwood I would definitely buy is one of the Johnny Ramone type Mosrite copies - I think they call it the JR Elite, a nice repop of Johnny's white Ventures II as heavily customised by himself. If they ever make that as a lefty... "Mosrite of California" (in Japan) who did the "official" signature never did. Tym in Australia did , I know, but I think he's called it quits now, alas. I never had a chance to play a Variax (they did do the niddle-range model left handed, but only that one). I'd be tempted by an acoustic version. In fact, if I was ever gonig to seriously get into playing out live with an acoustic sound, I'd have somebody like Gordon Smith build me a LP-shaped guitar with no cutaway (so the shape resembled a small O or Parlour model), with a thru neck, thru-body bridge, and two output jacks, with two toggle switches that sent output from the pick-ups (likely someting piezoish, and a body contact-mike) either both to the same socket, both to both sockets, or one each to one socket, and the ability to switch between each pup individually and both on together. With the right amplification system, that could get a goo acoustic sound with no feedback, I reckon. Either that, or send the signal from one socket to a small amp if no monitor is avaialble, and the other via a good acoustic preamp to the house PA. Im' sure somebody's alrady donig something like this, though... If those new acoustasonic Fenders had a MIM or Squier version, I'd be well up for it. As they are, they're just a bit more than I want to spend on a guitar, but I think they're a great concept.

And you try and tell that to the young people of today....

Certainly we're living in a golden age for cheap pedals to try.... When I started back in 91, there were a couple of very cheap and nasty pedals avaialble - Annyone remember Arion distorition pedals?, and then it was a jump up to DOD and Boss prices - Boss were pricey comparably for me then; DOD seemed to keep their prcies down over the years, but by 93 when I bought my first pedal - a EH-Sovtek Big Muff Pi - £45 was still a fair spend for someone not working full time (more than half a week's wages in my then student job!).

That's the birdy. I remember an ad in Guitarist (UK) about 1993 ish for a "Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face" from one of the big stores in London, selling them for £39. No ideaif that was a new run or NOS or used or what, but I wish I'd bought some of them then! All i recall is they were the original size, and silver. New production models were later red, beofre the mini-seriescame out. Only pedal thqat looked cool on a board were the 1990s/eearly 00s Roger Mayer 'rocket' shaped pedals. Not sure if those are still around?

I must watch that video in full later on. Skimming the intro, I suspect I'm on the same page as that guy - I've always been dubious about the idea of paying a fortune for high end effects when actually as long as there's a basic levle of build quality / reliability, the only significant difference between boutique and mass market, "cheap" pedals is subjective taste regarding the sound. Best bargain I ever got was one of the original 1994 Electro Hamonix-Sovtek Big Muff Pi pedals - the green one with the battery operation (no slot for an adaptor). Still got mine, mint, in the wooden box it came in. I paid £45 in 1994; I gather I could sell it for anywhere between £400 and £500 now. I wish I'd bought half a dozen of them back when!

Roland have done well with them. I 'd love too to try one of those Award Session BluesBaby amps that claim to get the tube sound but are all solid state. One of the most interesting ideas I've seen in recent years has been the Vox 'Nutube' technology. Be interesting to see how that takes off.

Yeah, I have a TW15 full size I bought nearly twenty years ago for £150. I'm assuming it's not the same guitar as the one they're currently selling for RRP £700, but it's a hell of a guitar, all solid, for rally not very much money at all. I remember the Baby coming out not long after the Taylor Baby (ironically, I was torn between the Tanglewood TW15 and the Taylor Big Baby until I got a deal on the TW at half hte priceo f the Taylor.... never regretted it.). It's a shame they've dropped off the electric, but may it was just too much competition. They are supposedly "Britain's best selling acoustincs", though, so...

Boss / Roland are generally on the money with modelling. I also really rate the Vox Valvetronix stuff (especially the early, blue cloth ones). The only downside to a good modeller, imo, is if you won't get the benefit from it all. I'm gonig to sell my Vox AD120VT (the AC30 sized one) for the simple reason that I just don't need the variety it offers... these days, if I was puttnig serious money into an amp for gigging and recording, I'd actually be looking more at the Rooland bluescube type range: all the benefitsd of modelling, but with a simpler format. But that's just me - give me something that sounds like an old, tweed Fender and I'm happy. If you want the range, a modeller is a great way to get there.

Never owned one, but tried the Behringers and they do seem to be a decent knock-off of the obvious Boss models if that's what you're after.

Very nice. I have a vague memory of seeing that version of the logo onthe first Tanglewood I ever encountered: a £100ish acoustic a friend at school owned in.... I think 1990ish. The modern logo was around by the time I bought my bowlback electro acoustic in 1994. You won't see many with the headstock that's on this one; I'm pretty sure Gibson went after them for that! If their website is anything to go by, they've more or less givne up on the electric guitar market now, with just one model of electric bass and three (hardware wise) vaguely Strat-type but original designs. Not to my tastes, but there you are. Clearly it's been their acoustic ranges that have taken off, and it does seem the acoustic world is a bit more open to new ideas than the electric world. so. Another model worth looking out for a vintage one if you like Teles was their Quomaster, a short-lived Tele model based on Francis Rossi's famous Tele. A Toploader (like Page's 56...), which appealed to me at a time as I'd have lokely instally a bigsby. They sell for £100-£150 usually. I've also seen a very nice burst '62 Custom' version with string-thru traditionsal bridge, though I';m not sure that was a Quomaster (as seller claimed) rather than a different Tanglewood T type model. I have heard that at one time they were looking hard at donig a high end line of electrics to go along with the "Master built" acoustics, but while the sample guitars turend out great, the retail price was gonig to e too high for what they could sell the brand at the time.

TBH, I never thought that was an especially bad idea.... All done and said, I'd rather have some sort of outboard device that could do all that but built into a string winder, but ti seemed to me it got more back lash than it really deserved purely as an idea. I suppose it's the case that few of us change tunings al that much, but...