EdwardMarlowe

Firewood - Les Paul, V, any old Gibson with humbuckers. Whatever has the biggest body, I supposed, and would burn longest would be ideal, but something with humbuckers and a burst with super-fancy top would be the best as it's a look I've grown to dislike so strongly that I'd have no guilt consigning it to the flames. Weapon? A Telecaster. I hear the pointy metal argument, but there's a lot to be said for the sort of blunt force trauma that something as solid as a Tele can inflict. Player? Wait, I already have the Telecaster, so....

The one that always comes to mind for me was the first one I saw pictured with in an American guitar magazine, back when I think he was still playing with Ozzy. Back in the days before he started to cosplay a Sons of Anarchy type biker, was clean shaven, and looked about 12. It was a guitar that had been heavily sandpapered back to wood across most of the body, but had clearly been a Confederate battle flag over black. The story he told was that he'd had it done then saw the guy from Warrant with a Dixie flag guitar, and immediately set to it with sandpaper. I doubt he plays that one out any more, though, given it's not a look which has aged well since.

It's definitely a really cool idea, like a viable alternative to tubes that's still notionally tubes, given the nature of the guitar amp market. There was a time I thought we might have to see the end of tube production for things to move on (or them become unavailable in the West - given they're all made in China and Russia now, not unthinkable, though frankly if / when *that * war happens, I doubt we'll be worrying about something as minor as amps. Assuming we survive it). I suppose the big question with amp developments now is to what extent alternative to amps begin to replace them altogether. I expect we'll always see people who want to use an amp (rather than DI trickery) in the studio, but on stage where a pedal board replacement (subject to a venue having decent monitoring and the rest) has obvious practical benefits.... I'm imagining a lot of working musos would love to do a tour where the whole band's gear, including the drumkit, could fit in a Volvo estate. Maybe for the big acts what we'll see is them still having the walls of cabs for show, but pedals replacing the '15watt combo they're actually playing through' into the PA... I suppose what I'm rambling at is which of the competing techs we now see will be the mp3 player, and which will turn out to be the Minidisc (lovely idea, but got overtaken before it could really establish itself).

Query for anyone who has ordered an amp from Thomann to the UK. Do they ship the HB amps with a UK plug, or do you need to pick up a new lead / converter?

I can play a bit like that - all lefties can of course, because the obvious - but it's not something I've ever seriously tried to develop.

What makes me wary is it's still only Vox doing them. I'm a bit wary of being too dependent on anything proprietary, because if the company changes direction or folds, then you're stuck for spares... On the topic of bringing stuff back ,though, I wish Vox would bring back the T series solid state bass amps they did back about twenty plus years ago. I bought a well-used T25 for a song on eBay around 2004, and it's been all the home bass amp I've ever needed. They did them up to a 60 (Al Gare used a T60 live and in the studio with Palookaville and the original Imelda May Band, and it was superb). Cracking warm bass sound that defied the tube nerds with its warmth. No idea how it would cope with effects tbh - I don't use them with bass - but lovely stuff. I'd like to try one of the newer Vox bass amps with the plastic(?) shell. Demos all sound great and they look to be very practical for carting around, even if they've lost something in the cosmetic department. Again, something like that housed in a big, square tweed box would be my ideal for the looks...

Yeah, with eBay, best to run a search for 'completed listings'. I've found in the last you can get better prices with a 'buy it now' than an auction, but you sometimes have to be prepared to let it sit available for a bit longer...

I have a Steinberger Spirit I bought nearly twenty years ago. Mine is the GU type - the ones shaped a bit more like a guitar. It's also one of only two left handers I've ever seen in the UK. It was privately imported waaayyy back when they were being sold by MuiscYo. It was completely counterintuitive in some ways - totally *not* my aesthetic style - but at the time I wanted a guitar I could transport easily in hand luggage, and this hit the spot. There are a lot of travel type guitars that achieve being compact by reducing the scale. The Steinberger has a 'proper' scale (from memory, I think it's more Gibson than Fender), with a full size neck. The size reduction is achieved by the headless design, and the body being significantly smaller. (More so with the paddle ones.) 24 frets was interesting to try (I'm very much a 21 frets or GTFO guy, though being left handed I often have to compromise and accept that ugly little 22nd fret overhang on a Fender type). The headless set up while ,frankly, to my eyes utterly fugly, can't be faulted in terms of ease of tweaking the truss, and it stays in tune, especially in a gig bag, like no other guitar I've ever owned (and I've had some great ones on that score). The hardware is good stuff - particularly impressed with the bridge. The push-in arm works very well, it's stable, returns to pitch beautifully. The little leaver arrangement that renders it a de facto fixed bridge otherwise is clever and also works wonderfully well. All done and said, I can't fault it at all. If Fender made one that just, well, looked a bit more like it came out of the 50s, I'd consider it. It's a cracking guitar that plays like a full-size one but has the overall physical size of a banjo. That all said, I'm going to be selling it over the next few months. I have too many guitars, want others, and need to sell some stuff to realise both space and the funds for buying them. If I had limitless space and funds, though, I'd probably keep it around. I still think it's ugly, but I really warmed to it as a piece of design, and it is nice to play. The Brompton bicycle of guitars...

YES! That's exactly the one! Thanks, that was driving me daft. Could see the logo, just not remember the spelling.... like not having me mental reading glasses on.... Funnily enough, I always thought the Tyler headstock shape wasn't bad, but that it would look much better without what was a very 80s looking logo to my eyes. Subjective aesthetic preferences are subjective, of course, but the guitar in the OP shows to my mind how much nicer a very similar shape looks with a different approach the labelling.

Headstock reminds me of another brand that used to do spins on the Fender style - James Taylor? Something like that? This looks nice. Have the vibe of a middle / late 60s piece. Interesting idea to have a compound radius board on something so otherwise retro looking.... Though I suspect that sort of thing wasn't so unusual in practice in the days when all necks were finished by hand? Looks like it'll be a blast to play. Enjoy!

Basswood is another one a lot of people get sniffy about, though Fender Japan used that in a lot of solid colour bodies over the years. Mosrite too, as I recall... both the original US guitars and the Japanese product that later adopted the "Mosrite of California" name. I have at least one guitar I know to be basswood, and it's grand.

Poplar does have the reputation, though Fender used it in Mexican made guitars for years on the bodies, so it can't be all that problematic! Bee interesting to compare it to laurel and rosewood. I've got both of those in fingerboards on different guitars, and I'm not convinced there's any particularly appreciable difference.

Thanks. Wow, looks like something much pricier - there's no obvious "budget" tell up against, well... something much pricier right beside it! Sounds like a HB type approach. Enjoy! How are you finding the poplar on the fretboard?

What is the gold top? Nice looking machine.

Tanglewood make a lovely acoustic. Their dedicated a/e models are also nicely appointed with the appropriate Fishman guts. The buzz about the Harley Benton brand seems to include their acoustics - I've yet to try one. Simon & Patrick make nice acoustics. Although there's still imo a bigger quality gap between the two ends of the acoustic market than there is with electrics now, I lean to the view that it's not as big as once it was. As with electrics, which you can get for two to three ton these days is ridiculously impressive compared to where the market was thirty odd years ago.

Nicely done. The paint job looks great - like a 'closet classic' relic.

I'm loving this all. For years I've wanted something very much like that for plugging in headphones or hooking up to the PC at home. I've not bought anything as yet because I'm not really interested in most of the potential they have - years ago, I bought a Vox Valvetronix (still got it). The original, blue cloth one, size of an AC30, 2x12. Thing is I only ever used one amp model, and I don't bother with the built in effects. Something like this, though, I might be more inclined towards as at that price, as long as the sound I want is good, it doesn't matter so much more of it is "wasted"....

Not new, no. I still can't get over how Epiphone prices have skyrocketed.... Never understood why Gibson would never produce a 'Gibson Japan' or similar, rather than keep pushing on with runs of YouWHATnow? expensive Epiphones (there's brand perception for you!), but they must know the business better than I do. Used, well.. Tokai you occasionally see a used bargain on one of the Chinese or Korean models, though Tokai seem to be increasingly rare over here now. I have a Korean Epiphone Std, a really nice one, from 1998 I bought new for about £350. I wouldn't be confident of getting north of £250 for it (hell, if it would sell for £500+ it'd have been on eBay long ago!). Vintage still seem to come in under £300 here and there used - I've seem some as low as £150 or so, but the brand is definitely picking up recognition. New, all three are much pricier than HB, though I'd consider them its direct competition still in term of instruments as distinct from price band... (back to the benefit of Thomann's business model for these!).

Could be. If this one was intended to be a more 'vintage' spec, they might have installed narrow / tall frets like Fender did way back when. Medium-Jumbo and Jumbo frets seem to have started becoming much more of a norm on everything into the 90s?

Edit: I misread your post, but you're right - the big plus of Shubb is all the spares available! https://shubb.com/support/ https://shubb.com/product-category/replacement-parts/ hubb.com/product/delrin-cap-dc/

Well, if you think about it, headphones are, ultimately, just a pair of stereo speakers. I've played my LP through my Vox bass amp. It does sound a touch different than via a guitar amp, but it works. Similarly, I have a Vox 2x12 stereo cab that I keep toying with the idea of trying out with a hifi. It will work. It'll sound different than a hifi speaker set, because it is voice primarily with a guitar's frequencies in mind. Same with headphones. I would expect guitar-specific headphones to be designed to specifically work well for the frequencies a guitar runs at, whereas hifi headphones are designed to cover a wider range of sounds well. TBh, though, I doubt I could tell you which was which in isolation. I'd expect to hear a *difference* against each other, but what sounds *better* will depend on the individual human ear, and the subjective preferences to which it is attached. All done and said, if I was sinking serious money into headphones dedicated to use with a guitar amp, I'd at least look at guitar-specific phones. If I wanted phones I could also use for more general purposes, I'd probably be looking at the hifi stuff. Both will do the job for a guitar amp just fine, they'll jut be voiced slightly differently.

I think it matters more for some types of sound. There's a Rick Beato vid on Youtube where he shows how, contrary to the popular opinion that "heavy equals teh tonez", if you're a shredder playing with a lot of gain and distortion, lighter strings actually give you a clearer tone. Maybe that's why Brian May plays, if memory serves, eights (how he doesn't snap strings all the time mystifies me, especially given what he uses for picks...). I started out with 9s. The first thing I did with my first electric was restring it (it was right handed, I'm a southpaw and Hendrixed it - left-handed guitars were a whole lot rarer, especially used, in 1991). I kept snapping the high e, so after a bit I started buying a separate 10 and putting that on for the high E. Meant it was a lot close what I was using for a B from a 9 set, and felt a little different, though no derogatory effect on the sound. Eventually I just switched up to tens all over, and have been happy with that since. Over time my pick of choice also went up from a .46 to, nowadays, anything from 1mm to 2mm, which works fine with 10s - guess I've figures out the right 'grip' as to not snap 'em all the time now.

Indeed. I'd be looking at a quality steel (or brass?) trem block replacement if it's the cheaper zinc type in there. Otherwise, don't see any need to replace the whole thing, unless you luck into a deal where the whole unit with a quality block is cheaper than the block alone.

Yeah, I spotted that bridge too. I did wonder whether Aria had done a series where they used better hardware, but you are probably right it's a later replacement. Which suggests a previous owner enjoyed this guitar well enough to take the time, effort and expense of that modification. There may be others - I would expect they at least did a good set-up on it, but I wonder too if any of the other big plus points you've noticed were down to the same owner's investment? Be interesting to have a look under the guard to see if there are any signs of anything being changed there.

Yes, Epiphone, Tokai and Vintage also all make a great LP type, but HB's vfm is such a no-brainer, that'd be where I'd start too.