EdwardMarlowe

TBh, I think for me personally the feel - and even the look of a guitar - makes as much of a difference, maybe, more, than the sound. When I life an LP style guitar, my approach, my own associations, both conscious and unconscious, with that style as distinct from a Strat, a Tele, my HB JA or MR Classic are so specific that I approach the instrument in a different way, and that every much informs what and how I play. There are guitars out there I could never play my best on because I hate how they look so much. (Though that can be overcome: years ago I bought a Steinberger Spirit as a travel guitar, before the restrictions changed and anything bigger than a violin case had to be checked in hold baggage - and although it was a purely utilitarian choice, an appreciation for how it actually worked so well gave me a new appreciation for its aesthetics.) Yes. Look and feel are, if anything, underrated as reasons to buy / not buy particular guitars.

I think sometimes guitars also change a little over time. It's much more obvious with acoustics, but pickups and things age over time too... I think too there is just a lot to be said for how a guitar wears in ,feels in the hand over time. The hand will sense those tiny, minor differences that the eye can't see. It's like when you have a favourite pair of shoes, and you buy an identical pair from the same brand a few years later, they'll not be quite the same or feel just quite the same until broken in. A lot if it is also psychological, imo. I once had the opportunity to play Hendrix's Black Angel, the custom lefty Flying Vee. When I played Purple Haze on it, it felt like that song was just in there. Part of that will doubtless be that Jimi played that number on there so many times, there will be those wear patterns, for want of a better way of putting it, but also - handling a hero's guitar? A mystical object like that? Bound to be something all in the mind with it. I don't even like other flying Vs....

Yeah, looks just like natural wood figuring to me. Nothing to worry about.

I expect initially it was down to building down to a price point. With the growing reputation of the brand and the buzz around the spec of the 25th range, though, they'd surely be mad not to at least consider a 'plus' version.

It'll be interesting to see where it goes. Vintage feel like a clear direct competitor for the higher end HBS, at least, bearing in mind that's probably what they'd retail at if being sold via the normal wholesale / retail distribution model. I'd be very happy to see more HBs of a type I fancy in and around the £250 mark (in the real world, that would be £400-450ish in the usual retail chain) if it meant just enough of an upgrade spec. I'm hoping they eventually do more of the Grestch-style Big Tone in CC colours, and left handed... I remember when I was first learning, guys who'd been playing since the seventies waxing lyrical about the quality of 'beginner; instruments. Squier especially - and that was the early nineties, when pretty much all Squiers were plywood bodied, not something I could see them being able to sell now... The really interesting thing is how many more affordable brands that would once have been "or beginners" are now repositioning themselves as "serious" instruments. Vintage are a little more expensive than once they were, yes - though still cheaper than the top end Squiers and middle-range Epiphones as appropriate. Notably, thought, their marketing has them as "guitars for the working musician". It feels to me like the days when guys in bands felt they had to have a Fender or a Gibson to be seen as serious are behind us, and the more expensive, US-built stuff especially is increasingly viewed as luxury rather than 'professional musician's necessity'. Part of it of course is how manufacturing has come on - with advances in CNC, and designs like the Tele having been around so long, the actual cost of putting together a good working tele type now, for example, isn't what it was. Certainly be interesting to see what happens with HB like this. Given how much cheaper their business model lets them be, can you imagine what HB could do with, say, an ST type they could sell for £400? I just hope if they go that way they do their higher end versions of the same wide range, and don't make it all about SCs, or Fusions, or any one type.

They've rolled out the SS frets across a few of the SCs, I see; nice stuff. I hope they do that with some of the other, bolt-neck styles, STs, TEs, JAs especially! TBh, I wouldn't think about any upgrades for a while - just live with it for a bit and see what you think. If you find you want some specific other pickups then I might throw in a new wiring loom at the same time, but in truth I'd just live with it for a bit and see i you feel it needs any actual changes - a lot of folks who have them don't seem to want to switch anything out.

TBH, when it comes to something in the Strat mould, I would tend just to replace the whole lot (with a new plate, ideally, if you can get one that fits right). That way if it doesn't work out as planned, it is a matter of a few screws and a single soldering end with the jack socket to revert to standard. Handy if you wanted to sell later on and not lose on the cost of those mods - or I suppose you could also sell the original plate and put tht towards offsetting the cost of the changes.

Stainless steel frets aside, I suspect the most obvious difference in the end will be which version of the LP shape you prefer, given that (for legal reasons) both vary the outline somewhat. The SC series is one of the HBs I've not handled in person, but online it does look like the body doesn't nip in *just* so much as the original in the middle, and the upper bought comes out further and then back in, rather than round - think a Les Paul trying to be a Telecaster in that specific area of the body shape. The Vintage to my eye is somewhat closer to the shape of the LP, with the only really obvious difference being the sharper horn. Of course, if being as close as possible to the Gibson is what you wanted, you'd probably be looking elsewhere. That said, I really like that the HB does vary that little bit more - it gives it a feel of being it's own take on the LP style, much like the LTD LP style guitar. YMMV. Quality wise, without having played both back to back, there's room for the HB to be a little better imo. Bear in mind they're basically offering you wholesale prices at retail: I suspect this would be a more expensive guitar than the Vintage were it retailed under the traditional model. The TL/DR version is that if I were looking for a new LP style guitar without spending crazy money, I'd be looking seriously at the HB. If you[re going to be pulling the trigger in the next week or so, do look at the 25th Anniversary model - the spec on that range is impressive (I have the JA25th and it is a lovely, lovely thing indeed), and it's only available until end 2023.

It's a very long time since I played out anywhere, so can't comment on direct experience. I suspect were I to be a gigger, the average punter wouldn't notice. It'd be interesting to get an impression from players who do but don't know the brand before... Online, views seem to be split between those who've played them and think they're very decent for the money, putting them up against Vintage (by JHS), Squier CV, Fender player Series... directly, and as "upgradeable" to hold their own against much more - and on the other hand. those rubbishing them because 'Made in China + racist idiot', or a refusal to believe anything cheap could be good. I've yet to see anyone from the latter group who'd actually played one... FWIW, though, while I can't comment directly on experience with HB, I tend to find musicians who actually play out for a living are vastly more open minded about instruments, and themselves vastly more likely to be playing "budget" gear. The gearsnobs I've encountered have almost exclusively been comfortably-off hobby players, or sometimes guys in originals bands who sneer at anyone who plays covers, and are bitter that "wedding bands" can make a living while nobody wants to hear their obscure prog originals.... :D

Yeah, was just saying this to a guy on the Facebook HB owners' group page. He's done all sorts of mods to his TEs - basically treated them as buying a neck and a body pre-attached. Even if that's all you use from the original, it compares very well to the likes of Warmoth imo, and you can probably put some very nice guts in it without spending more than the difference. I think last I looked the necks I was interested in on Warmoth were alone well over the cost of a TE52 or the likes.

Doesn't it? I can hear my debit card breathing a sigh of relief at the lack of left handers!

Interesting they told you that *after* you parted with the cash (imo, makes it less likely to be 'just sales talk' - not to cast aspersions on your dealer, of course!). It's amazing what's available in that price range now for acoustics, perhaps even moreso than the improvements in affordable electrics over the years. With an acoustic, it's definitely worth paying that little bit more for something you find better, given it's not so easy to 'upgrade' them with other bits like an electric can be...

Just been idly looking at this myself. I'm intending next year to pick up a HB TE52, and fancied running this mod on it, just to be a little different. I get that if you literally just flip it over, you're just inverting everything as you note. You can either rewire it, or the alternative is to replace it with a new, pre-wired plate. Good information here - https://myguitarlair.com/reverse-telecaster-control-plate/ I actually came across this thread as I'm planning next year to do exactly the same thing myself with a HB TE-52. I'll probably just buy a pre-wired plate for simplicity - in which case I'll go for one with a four-way switch, adding the option of having both pick-ups together in series or in parallel. Next I have to figure out whether I need something custom made for a left handed guitar...

Nines or tens are pretty much industry standard in my experience. That's for a 'regular', concert pitch tuning. One you get seriously into metal type drop tuning regularly on the fly, I'd go looking for something like.... was it Hipshot do those bridges where you can flip a level to switch to drop D or Drop C and whatever and then back without having to spend time retuning?

Nice guitar! I remember first hearing of Lag about thirty years ago. Electrics, in that case - some very Superstrat type guitars with a lot of work put into the maple tops - like PRS had started out making an answer to Ibanez. I've never played one of their acoustics, but I gather they are very nice indeed. Enjoy!

I'd compare the price of the two options. Years ago I had a Tanglewood dreadnought top suffer a crack. I had a tech add a thin patch on the back to hold it and stop the split getting any worse, and that worked well (with no discernible impact on the sound). Sounds like your top is far enough gone that a replacement might be as easy as repair, especially if the labour time (likely to be the most expensive bit of any repair ime) is about the same...

Sounds like an interesting idea. If it can fit (should be able to from what I can see online), a Submarine Pro in the middle (and so the option of sending output from the same guitar to another amp / direct to the PA) could be a fun variation too - https://www.submarinepickup.com

Very nice gift idea - and those Classic Vibe series guitars are really nice. IMO, they could as easily be labelled "MiC Fender" as Squier... If hubby is a big Nirvana fan, the Competition Mustang model is styled after the 60s Fender model that Kurt Cobain played on Smells Like Teen Spirit. https://www.fender.com/en-GB/squier-electric-guitars/mustang/classic-vibe-60s-competition-mustang/0374079502.html If you can stretch just a tiny bit over the RRP (should be somewhere selling it cheaper than the £449 quoted on the Fender website, though) - the Limited Edition Squier Classic Vibe 60s Jaguar in silver sparkle would be a nice choice, in that being LE it won't be around forever, so it's a guitar that is sort of tied to a particular Christmas in time as well, which would be nice - https://www.fender.com/en-GB/squier-electric-guitars/jaguar/limited-edition-classic-vibe-60s-jaguar/0374092581.html

I loved those Zip guitars. Would have bought at least one, but they didn't do a left hander. Pity.... maybe HB will pick up the torch there!

I heard some of the early ones were nice. The really collectable ones now are the first range of 'Vintage' brand guitars from JHS which were styled "Encore Vintage Series". These were the ones that Trevor Wilkinson first worked on and where the Wilkinson version of the Fender trem first dates from - 1995. Not long after that the Vintage brand started in earnest. I see on JHS's website now the Encore brand still exists - actually looks like it's more of a range than I think there's been for a long time. Vintage has been lifted right up to be challenging the MiM Fender range (with the sort of online following Harley Benton has in these parts), and now even has its own lower-priced range, the Vintage Coaster Series (priced somewhere between the Vintage and Encore guitars). My first electric was a Marlin - they had a brief moment in the sun in the very early 90s when for just one year they outsold Squier in the UK...

Yeah, the dear old Strat is a design I keep coming back to. What I love so much about it is it's so iconic, and yet the design was, in the first instance, very much about form following function, which produced such a beautiful form. Says a lot too how it's been so adaptable over time for all sorts of different tweaks (chamfered neck joints, different trems and pup combinations, and all the rest of it), yet still remained identifiably a Stratocaster.

I love the look of that! Custom build? Looks basically like an Esquier but with a Strat form-factor....

Nice thing about a Strat mod using a whole new guard is that you can also retain the option of very easily reverting to standard if you want to (or, indeed, if you're certain that won't be an issue, sell the original plate complete and wired in order to fund the new version....).

I've had similar experiences. The feel (sometimes even the look - all psychosomatical...) of a different guitar leads me subconsciously to play in a different way or to play different things... By extension, I suspect that different things just feel 'right' on different guitars... What was it recorded on originally, do you know? Something with a similar neck shape (so it - irrespective of the player - 'feels' better on the type of neck / guitar feel it was written / recorded on... Not sure I'm articulating that so well, but you know what I mean?

Sounds like standard LP-type wiring?