EdwardMarlowe

So.... are you saying you want it to *sound* but not *look* like a Strat? I was going to suggest Brandoni in N London if you wanted a non-Fender product (I have one of their P basses and it is beautiful), but they don't stock so much in the way of a superstrat. Main thing is a decent set of single coils; for me, it's not really a Strat-type once you put HBs in there.... (highly subjective, I know!).

That does seem an odd inclusion with this. I could see it more if it was styled a bit more.... rawk, but for something very acoustic-styled, it would surely have been more logical to go for something like a built in reverb or tremolo, maybe echo/delay. Drive does seem an odd part of the package, especially as its the one thing that pretty much all players have already. That said, I can see where they might be coming from with this if the aim is to create a guitar for a covers band that need to be able to go through the house PA.

Bought and sold a few cheap copies over the years to try different neck shapes and pups, but the one I still have is my US Standard from 1994. Saved for two years to afford it, ordered it in July that year. It had to come in from the States as I wanted a lefty three tone burst with rosewood board that neither the shop in Belfast nor Arbiter in London had in at the time. I remember picking it up on the 25th anniversary of Hendrix performing at Woodstock (the rosewood / burst choice was a direct Hendrix influence at the time). Still got it. If ever I was in the position where money was no object, I'd have Fender make me a new neck with a slightly narrower nut and soft-V profile; I always found it just a tiny bit wide for optimum comfort. It also has the old, blocky saddles they put on the two-point trem back then. Ugly as sin, but I liked to keep the old boy all-original so I keep them on there. Funnily enough, it always sounded a bit too "polite" somehow back when, but it has aged beautifully. That dreadful anemic look the maple used to have back then has also faded to a nice, light amber hue now. Lovely old axe with a lot of mojo, and in beautiful condition as I never really gigged. Time has come that (once I've sold some bits to fund it) I want a stablemate with a maple board; failing the availability of a left handed Classic Player 50s in LPB (never a spec offered), I foresee a Player Series in tidepool coming into my life within the next eighteen months... hopefully with a matching Player P bass too.

Interesting concept. I remember when the Variax first came out and all sorts of gearheads would line up to sneer at it and call it a 'toy'. This looks more conventional. I can see it being very cool for a session player to take for recording if it's got the sounds nailed, tough for live performance, in all honesty I doubt the average audience member really registers anything more than clean or dirty. Still, for the player woh wants a wide range of sounds in one guitar, I can see it having its uses.

Pub rates sound about right for a small members club, if what you mean is something in the old working man's club mould. If you're talking Soho or the Groucho type primate members' club, I'd up it. Cutting them a good deal (without undervaluing yourself - it's amazing how many people these days can't see the value in live performance and think a band should cost what a DJ does) might help ensure regular bookings, I'd have thought.

I was on Harmony Central for many years, but broke the habit when they changed the software and I could no longer log in. Tried contacting the management there, but their system wouldn't let me do that either because I wasn't logged in.... gave up in the end. Scanned it a while back, and it still seemed to be the same, hard right macho bollocks anyhow, so I decided no loss and moved on here. This place being UK-based is a huge plus, especially as the UK guitar mags are generally just too pricey to buy every month now (and still far to full of stuff I either can't afford or get excited about only to see the inevitable "no left handers".....).

I never warmed to ZZ Top (the "showmanship" always put me off, and when I saw them on television acting as if they were the mos hilarious people the world had ever seen because the only member in the band called 'Beard' was the one who - get this - didn't have a beard, I would have cheerfully shot the lot of them), *but* Billy Gibbons is a very gifted player. I'm always impressed in interviews too how many younger names on that general scene have such good things to say about how he complimented them or mentored or encouraged them: you can always tell someone is secured in their own ability by the fact that they want to share the joy, and help others make it too, rather than talk themselves up at others' expense.

I was always impressed with GFS pickups in the past - https://www.guitarfetish.com/Stratreg-Sized_c_579.html . At that sort of price, you could order a few sets and play around with them,. They have some sort of plug and play / no-solder wiring loom available, which would let you swap around pups fairly easily to really see what your guitar likes best....

Nice find. (I'd be torn between realising the profit now and keeping it as an investment!)

Doesn't everybody?

TBH, I wouldn't think too much about it; any half decent 9s or 10s (Ernie Ball, D'addario, w.h.y.) should do the job, bearing in mind that whoever buys it will most likely turn around and rip the straight out to fit a set of their preferred strings....

I've often wondered what a HB sized p90 would sound like in one of those....

Very cool, would like to hear that!

Not had a chance to try one of these yet, but I've decided that my old US Std that I bought new in 1994 (three-tone burst, rosewood board) needs a maple board stablemate (Tidepool is calling)). Curious as to what the necks feel like. Specifically, much as I love my old Strat, the neck on a late model Squier I've had lying around feels much more comfortable to play - rounder, narrower at the nut, not the wide/flat feel of the Fender. I might one day retro fit it with one of the 50s Player type necks, but.... What's the Player like on that score? I hear it feels much more akin to the older MIM Std necks, which were typically more like the Squier?

Very nice indeed. Does he play it through a guitar or bass amp? It would be interesting hear this paired alongside a traditional bass, perhaps with this one being used to play the root notes in the form of power chords / fifths.

Thanks.

I've seen fake Epiphones in Beijing. Little surprises me!

One of those people who actually changed my life: Also a major inspiration behind my own Tele, which happens to be a CIJ 2006 71RI model. I'll post some photos of that beast another time, none to hand now...

Thanks, I'll have a look at that. I see they have a lefty Godin 5th Ave, which is a condenter,

Certainly in my limited (played a few, including a 1978 one that I wish I could have bought as a penniless undergraduate....) experience of SGs, they do sit well - I don't recall the neck dive that they were supposedly notorious for being an issue.

Interesting notion. I think there's an argument to made that the Telecaster is, perhaps, more workmanlike that the Strat, but I don't think that makes it any the lesser. Indeed, to my mind there's something much classier about something that is simpler, more refined, that somehow makes it feel more expensive. Where perhaps the budget angle comes in is that if you're wanting to sell a Tele type and a Strat type for the same money, particularly at the lower end of the price scale, the money goes further when the design is simpler - two pups not three, no trem, that sort of thing. FWIW, much as I feel there's a place for everything on their scale and that Fender do it perhaps better than anyone else in terms of multiple price-points, I often think of Squier as the closest thing to what Leo had in mind originally: giggable, easy to repair and upgrade, at a very affordable price.... I've owned Fenders from the MIA, CIJ and Squier ranges; love them all. Currently eying the tidepool Strat in the Player series.... Back to the SG, though, I totally agree it's a lovely thing - if anything, I appreciate its simplicity as classier than a fancy top LP. If I were buying an SG, I'd definitely be looking to Gibson, whereas for an LP type I tend to feel the money is better spent elsewhere these days. And yes, an SG can do anything an LP can do.... though that's probably rather more in Clapton's hands than in mine.

Still have a weak spot for the big headstocks - Hendrix thing. One day I'll buy a used, black CIJ 68RI and Hendrix it for myself....

I've always liked the single pup guitars precisely for their limitations, but then with most guitars, tbh, I'v always tended to find the one truly great sound buried in that particular instrument and then run with that....Maybe because my formative few months were on acoustic? SGs are a great punk guitar. Not sure, tbh, why LPs tended to outnumber them on the classic punk recordings, except maybe the notion some people have that an AG is a sort of stepping stone to an LP?

TBh, I don't know... I've never been a one for replacing strings all that regularly. Mostly just when they break or when the guitar needs the sort of good clean and gonig over that requires taking the existing ones off...

A good SG always sounded to me the way I wish an LP would. None of the mud I always end up finding with LPs, somehow. Though the ultimate Gibson for me would be an LP Junior, single cut.... except with a thru-neck rather than a glued-in.