Guitarists – if you had £500 for something new…

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:

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Been looking for a strat for years. After trying 6 different Mexican, American and Japanese ones, I got this 80s MIJ Candy Apple Red one with a Schaller trem – looking forward to cranking it through my fuzz into the Orange tomorrow at band practice.

A post shared by Craig Turner (@iamthebeerjesus) on Mar 7, 2020 at 10:47am PST

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.

santana by markwsf[/url], on Flickr

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 **** 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

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Another day, another #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

A post shared by Craig Turner (@iamthebeerjesus) on Apr 12, 2020 at 11:00am PDT

I did a paint:

If anyone wants to read an essay about it, it’s here: 🙂

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….

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Guitar surgery. New USA pickups for my Japanese Strat. Sounding good. Pretty much the same but more balanced – just what I was looking for. You will notice in the second pic that I test fitted the neck pickup but forgot the cover for it. Cue ripping the really delicate windings and ruining the pickup then having to chuck one of the old pickups in. Oops. I also need to get new control knobs as they are old and yellowed like the old pickups but now don't match.

A post shared by Craig Turner (@iamthebeerjesus) on May 14, 2020 at 11:07am PDT

Excellent Rob, showing us power chord and penta noodling types how it should be done. 😉