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Ooh that’s a fine instrument! As it happens the gretsch is only just over budget. I gave £699 for it. Feels much more expensive frankly!
Love both the gretsch and that semi. I have an early 80s Japanese aria pro which I also upgraded with iron gear blues engines.
Massive soft spot for gretsch guitars, one day I may get one!
Since I have a LP, Strat and Tele, the only electric that's missing is a nice Gretsch or similar. And those blue hollow bodies are both amazing-looking and are not helping my itch.
Loving the Electro Harmonix Canyon delay pedal, and their Tone Corset Compressor. Anything left over on a Ibanez Tube Screamer.
Absolutely my go to pedals.
Re the blue Ibanez - I was actually after a "Violin Sunburst" - so this one will be up for sale eventually when the right coloured one crops up for sale - either with the Blues Engine pickups or with the originals back in and the Blues Engines transplanted.
well tomorrow one of these bad boys will hopefully be turning up to my door
boss katana 50 mkii
cannot wait 👍
My nephew got one of those Katanas for Christmas. Great sounds out of them, and pretty simple to use too...
Did someone mention Gretschs? I'm going to be selling my Cadillac green hollow 5420T if anyone's keen. In fact, I'm trying to shift a load of gear this spring - I'm trying to cut down on the 'Ooh, that's a bargain' pile of guitars that I impulse bought and replace them with fewer, quality numbers... We'll see though 🙂
And I did just 'accidentally' buy a PRS Vela... just because it was the limited edition satin nitro version that I didn't buy a couple of years ago and regretted ever since. Didn't want another to get away.
I have time on my hands during the day at the moment, I think tomorrow’s plan is to pop into guitar guitar and try some les Paul’s out, my problem is I’ve seen the crimson guitar, scion model. It’s about the same price as a LP and heartstoppingly pretty..
it is however more than £500 so I apologise for de-railing the thread!!!
oh.. those gretsch guitars are amazing.. I’d love a sparkle jet..
I tried a Yamaha THR amp recently. I don’t need it but I could be so close to buying one. Brilliant sound at the level I need at home.
Had a play with a Katana in G4M recently and although it was lovely, the Blackstar ID60 TVP I also played made it sound pretty soulless. Managed to pick up a Blackstar ID30 for £100 sh, and I'm in love. Never heard such a dynamic, versatile modelling amp of that size.
Anyone thinking about buying a modeling amp realy needs a tolerant shop and time on their hands. It's a lot of faff with EQ, amp models and effects to get your sound. Don't just buy the one that's nearest on the standard settings because with a bit of effort you might find one of the others does better. Some of the Youtube vids just prove that you can make any amp you don't want to like sound shit. Pete and Rabea from Andertons have done a good one though that seems to get the best out of all of the ones I know:
I've been hankering after a Japanese Strat for years.. decades maybe?
My friend who works in a local guitar shop texted me to say they had a lot of second hand strats in.
This was the first one I tried, but I played about 6 back to back to make sure I was getting a good one. Shout-outs go the American Standard which had nicer pickups, and a seafoam green Mexican one in a nitro finish but I didn't like the neck.
Got this Candy Apple Red 80s MIJ one for a measly £400:
It sounds great unplugged and I love the Schaller trem - as stable in use as a Floyd Rose but less finicky about about set up and I prefer the quick release trem arm.
The neck is great, feels very natural to play. My only criticism is that the pickups are slightly weak. Met a guitar tech friend in the pub last night who confirmed those guitars benefit from a pickup and pots upgrade, so I might get hold of a USA scratchplate. But I also might not - sounded good at band practice yesterday - can still hear the strat tone through a wall of fuzz and will probably work well in a whole band mix.
Oooh that looks lovely. I always wanted a strat in that colour, in fact I’ve just last night taken my (black/rosewood) MIM Strat apart and stripped it to paint it Candy Apple Red.
Off-topic(ish) - but does anyone have a recommended source for decent quality pots ?
Both pots on my PRS Santana SE have died, a couple of weeks apart from each other (weird I know - but I just removed both from the guitar and tested with a and they're genuinely borked - mostly open circuit with the odd glitch to "normal"). They are Axetec push-pull units, cost a fiver each - wired up for coil splitting which I don't use much so just want a normal (i.e. not push-pull) decent pot this time.
Any ideas that don't cost £20 a switch but aren't bargain basement either - circa a tenner ish ?
A left handed Malmsteen Strat is on my wish list but way more than £500 ☹️
I like the look of the new Boss waza headphone amp or the positive grid spark amp both look pretty good.
Markwsf, I replaced the wiring on my aria pro es and bought pots from RS.
Have you tried cleaning them? A squirt with a switch-cleaner (something like this) can resurrect many seemingly dead pots...
I’m sure I’ll be corrected but aren’t CTS pots the go to guitar pots.. about £6 in both 250 and 500khz
cleaner can sort out dead pots, but if they’ve been heavily used the Internal track can be knackered and no amount of cleaning will fix that!!
Thanks - some CTS pots ordered from axesrus.co.uk.
In case anyone's interested, I was curious so dissembled one of the problem pots - internally all is fine, but there's an intermittent contact between one of the input lugs and the track. When "flexed" resistance is as expected, otherwise it's open circuit.
What pots did prs fit to the SE?
Nice red Strat ^^
Merci monsieur
What pots did prs fit to the SE?
I'm not sure - they don't have any brand markings on them. They're not the ones that failed by the way - that was some cheap aftermarket ones. The original tone control is still fitted so I'll take a closer look when rewiring it to fit the new CTS ones. This is a 2007 Santana SE by the way, not one of the newer ones.
This isn't mine - just a pic on ebay from someone who's selling one right now.
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Had this since 2016, it's a shade under £500 and I absolutely adore it. It does everything.
2016 Mexican Fender Duo Sonic
Humbucker in the bridge, single coil at the neck. I swapped the neck pickup for a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound. Its so versatile with the split coil setup. Blues stuff, funk, rock, jazzy sounds. Only proper metal is outwith its range but I can still get some classic metallica sounds out it.
Junior used a Telecaster with a low-output 50s replica single-coil pickup in an ash-tray bridge for metal. He got "his sound" with a really clean but low output signal from the guitar and lots of amp gain. The bottom end growl from his Tele is quite something to behold. We tried higher output single coils but they squealed horribly when we cranked the amp (despite wax potting). We tried humbuckers and they had a muddy bottom end. We also use stacked single coils for gigs where interference can be a problem - but for recording the single coil won hands down.
Educator, I like you - seriously, I like to read what you write in general.
But that post, combined with some of the videos you've posted suggest you do not have a ****ing clue when it comes to metal.
Humbuckers 'too muddy'..wtf? OK Boomer with no treble response in your worn out lugs.
I don't mean to be mean, but.... You really don't get it.
id buy an acoustic but if it had to be electric a G&L
LOL, I'll have to do a video of junior playing some full-on metal on his classic 50s style Telecaster, Yourguitarhero. He's in Berlin at present which makes it complicated. He's quite good at producing and mixing etc. He's given up playing in bands and was doing quite well as a techno DJ until the corona virus cancelled all his bookings. He's got one thing on spotify if you want to judge, try key words "blame the mono".
This was when he was 17 and just getting into his metal phase, strangely his full-on metal phase seems to be absent from the Net. He's the one in the white T-shirt. OK, the bass is virtually absent from the video filmed on a phone but see what you think of the tone around 14:17. Tele + Fender amp with Vintage 30s.
Here is my new toy (and Duncan the Doorstop in the background...):
It's an Epi Dot Studio from Ebay - way below the £500 threshold...I've wanted a 335 type guitar for ages, but they tend to be spendy and quite blingy. The stripped down looks of dot studio really appealed to me - no fingerboard inlays, no scratchplate, no chrome pickup covers etc.
It plays really nicely and has great sustain - only issue is that the bridge positioning seems to be fractionally out, and it's not possible to get all strings correctly intonated.
I'm loving it, and for only £210 of your finest pounds....although the other half has now told be so stop panic buying guitars....
Did a little lockdown job. Rewired my mono Marshall bass 4*12 to be switchable stereo or mono (same as the 1960 cabs) so I can run two amps at once.
Had to cut a new hole for the bigger switch plate but other than that the job was surprisingly easy as internal wiring was very close to the guitar cabs
Quite enjoyed setting one amp to be a little overdriven and the other clean and then mixing the two via EQs - so you can have the low end driven and the top clean or vice versa, or even have the mids high on the driven amp but then scoop the clean amp to add clarity across the lows and highs
I did a paint:
[img] 
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If anyone wants to read an essay about it, it's here: 🙂
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/my-lockdown-project-complete-guitar-content/
Candy Apple Red and Lake Placid Blue are the best ever colours for Strats.
Nice job!
Is this the guitar thread now btw?
Excuse the lockdown hair but found time to record this. Pretty hard to play 🙂 Probably not anyone's cup of tea, but Bach is the best.
We have so many guitar amp and bass threads now that we need a sub forum.
Lol I know, no idea where to post this.
We have so many guitar amp and bass threads now that we need a sub forum.
They should definitely do one. I'm sure there used to be a coffee forum. I'm sure @chipps would be up for it 🙂
WOW rob8624 that is impressive, how long did it take to get that monster down?
I'm still battling with Romanza, I like to play all styles, only six months in but I luckily have a very accomplished teacher.
Feel free to upload more, far more interesting than looking at pictures of amps and bloody guitars.
@rob8624: I’ve waited a long time to find a reason to post this...
At least you’ve the excuse of lockdown for the hair (oh I suppose, was the seventies...) 😉
I do like Bach...
Nice playing!
I put USA strat pickups into my Japanese one as they were a bit underpowered.
As well as damaging one of the new pickups and having to stick the Japanese one back in the neck position, I can barely tell any difference! Though I think it's a bit more balanced between the pickups which is what I wanted.
Not sure if it was worth the money/effort though....
Excellent Rob, showing us power chord and penta noodling types how it should be done. 😉
Cheers!
twinw4ll - I'm working on the whole suite which it is from, I learn't the Prelude last year, this Fugue took about 6 months to memorize the score and to get to that standard and needs some work still. I've played classical from childhood but this is the most challenging piece I've attempted, both technically (there are some big stretches!) and musically. It is very complex, like most fugues, but this is a inverse retrograde fugue, so the repeats are backwards and upside down, excuse the theory talk but only Bach does that shit. It's tough to get your head around.
metalheart - yea amazing set of videos, Julian Bream is my all time favorite guitarist of any genre, probably the greatest of all. His enthusiasm and sheer love of playing is amazing, and when Benjamin Britten decides to write stuff personally for you, you know you've made it 😉
Edukator - haha! I do love a power chord also! 🙂
i bought a squier bullet mustang for the princley sum of £122.00 inc delivery.
had read a lot of good things about them so decided to get one (in black).
it's bloody great i have to say for the money 🙂
it plays and sounds great (well i think it does anyhoo).
here is a pic of it with my j mascis and squier jazz bass.
damn it pic didn't work
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HZx7iVwKWvNdHrv26
here is the link to pic
I just picked up a 95 MIJ Jazz Bass on eBay for 400. Some fairly significant damage to the finish on the front, but my dad is going to refinish for me as that has become his retirement hobby. Sounds absolutely amazing though and just needs a bit of a truss rod tweaking to get it perfectly setup. As well as being a valuable professional addition....it's going to be awesome from a sentimental point of view having my Dad refinish it.
It's currently Candy Apple Red.... we're going to see what it's like when stripped and either just lacquer it or go for a sunburst refinish.
My MMus Thesis was based around the British pieces that Julian Bream commissioned! Rob I assume that you're familiar with the Walton Bagatelles?
Had a seriously shit week so this is arriving tomorrow
just needs a bit of a truss rod tweaking to get it perfectly setup.
Let me know how that goes, the Jazz has a very thin neck which doesn't resist heavy strings very well. The neck can end up with the relief being concentrated at the narrow end, and a high action needed to avoid buzz.
PRS SE are a nice guitar, well made.
Hope it cheers you up
I've had a few Jazz basses over the years....struggled with my MIM to get the action too low....the other (US) was bob on.
@racefaceec90 would be interested to know how you are getting on with the Mascis Squier. I've been looking at the non-signature ones and might pick one up. Wondering if the Mascis is worth hunting down (no stock locally) simply because I like the colour better, although I understand it has a hotter pickup.
I ended up spending a little over £500 on an ESP LTD 401. I'm amazed that this thing is less than £1000. I've had a Les Paul Custom, and a SG Standard back in the 1990s, and this just plays better.
The neck is thinner than the baseball on the Les Paul, and the body is about an inch thinner.
The 39th PAF Dimarzios are lovely too.
It needs a decent setup though! That's next on the list.
I also bought a little Art and Luthrie Parlour guitar for some blues at the start of lockdown. Lovely big sound from such a little thing.
Tom B -
Yea dude, I am! Love them, although not everyone's cuppa tea! That's amazing you must know so much about the great man.
bob_summers
by all accounts the classic vibe jazzmasters are exactly the same as the j mascis apart from the colour and pickguard (am not sure if the pickups are different or not tbh?).
i love the guitar i have to say. the neck is quite thin but i have small hands so is easy for me to play (i think the neck is based on rory gallagher strat neck).
the guitar does sound good and can definitely be used to play most types of guitar sounds/styles. i moetly play through a boss gt-1 multi fx pedal and headphones and you can get some great sounds out of the guitar (only my bad guitar playing is the downside in the equation lol).
full on metal might be a problem but not impossible.
the main reason i went for the j was that i heard that they were going out of production and my localish guitar store had one in stock (had been interested in the j for quite a while too as i love dinisaur jr/ j mascis).
i hope that was of some help.
Ha not overly!
If you've not already read it, check out the biography of him called A Life On The Road.... a really fun book.
I don't even own a classical guitar these days....I need to rectify that!
Thanks @racefaceec90 I'd read, I think, the pick-ups are higher output and the neck is satin rather than gloss? Neither of which matter to me, I just like J hehe
Just found out my LGS is actually part of an online store so should be able to get one for me to try out.
bob_summers
enjoy the guitar when you get it and let us know what you think 🙂
Not quite £500 but one of the best guitar-related purchases I’ve ever made.
I’m blown away by the great tones this thing has at any volume. Dead convenient to use, too, especially with the wireless dongle. The amp works on battery which I didn’t think I’d use but it’s great just sitting next to it and failing in some tones.
My problem is that we have a small terraced house and my only practice time is after the boy’s asleep. I’ve recently been using an iRigHD and Bias FX via my phone which works pretty well, but headphones are no substitute for an amp. Now I can practice without disturbing anyone but with great quality.
Honestly game changing for me 🙂
@rickon did you buy that Parlour direct from them, or did you pick up the second hand one that was on thefretboard last month?
@superficial yep I found mine to be a bit of a game changing amp. Only got the 10 with no wireless or battery.
Don't suppose anyone is interested in an Orange Tiny Terror I am looking to sell?
It's the Jim Root one - I think the best sounding one as it has a really wide usable gain range and a 3 band EQ. Owned by me from new and comes with the padded carry case. Power valves have been recently replaced with some JJs.
Only selling as I need to buy a few bits and pieces for my new van.
Drop me a PM if you'd like to discuss prices.
Won one of these last week.
Have to say I'm growing rather fond of it. It's not perfect, but £500 for a USA Gibson is pretty good although not as good as free obviously 🙂
You jammy, jammy bastard!!
Looks great.