Guitarists of Singletrack…

… there seem to be a bunch of us. Where are you guys going for a forum these days? There used to be one on (I think) Music Radar a while back but they suddenly closed it overnight.
Is it worth starting a thread on here along the lines of the F1 threads for guitarists & bassists to talk shit about gear?

The Gear Page is decent.

People on here have recommended the fretboard before.
I’m absolutely not disrespecting those forums, but that industry doesn’t seem to move as quickly as the cycling one and it’s very conservative. I find there are quite a few equivalents of “what tyre” threads.

httpss://www.thefretboard.co.uk/

The modding and making bit of the fretboard forum is good.

Agree on the modding and making on tfb. That’s my favourite part.

Ta. I’ll check them out.
And I’ll probably start a Guitar/Bass thread on here if I can think of a way to kick it off.

This is the nearset thing to a guitar/bass gear thread on here:

Guitarists – if you had £500 for something new…

Or it was until now if this thread takers off. So:

Checking out leboncoin.fr there’s a mass of cheap gear for sale at present. When people feel poor selling that guitar/ bass/ ampli they haven’t played for a couple of years is an obvious way of raising cash. I have my eye on an as new ESP LTD 1000T at 600e but confinement doesn’t end till 11/5 so I’ll have to be patient before phoning.

Please feel free to change the title of the
£500 guitar thread to something less specific, if people want to keep it going?

I’ve now spent more than that on a guitar, so the title is no longer relevant.* 🙂

Just amend it ‘Guitarists of STW’ if it helps…..

* £800 on an Ibanez RG550.
Purple, obviously.
It’s fantastic.

Just ordered the bits to solder up a clone of the Zvex Super Hard-on – gonna push the input on my old Orange

Brilliant timing!

After playing since I was 11 until 21 and in and out of bands, all my guitars were destroyed in a flood.

Now 38 I’ve just bought a Art and Gutherie Roadhouse, gonna re-learn my scales, and learn some blues now I’ve grown up a bit.

Dabbled on and off for a few years on acoustic, then electric six string. The electric is a Christmas present I bought for my daughter about 14 years ago. It cost 40 quid and came with a little amp. Typical bargain basement strat copy. It sounded pretty tinny through the amp but I took it along to a lesson once she’d grown bored of it. In a proper amp it sounded pretty good, so I took it to a luthier mate who set it up properly, and I managed to find a set of vintage fender pickups for it. For a forty quid guitar plus thirty quid for the pickups it plays really well. I also bid on a Digitech GNX 3000 modelling board, and played it through that and some headphones for a while.I eventually drifted away as I was no longer having lessons and had got stalled with it.

About 12-18 months ago I started again. I realised what I had lacked was motivation and determination. Getting my head around barre chords meant I started to learn the fretboard properly, and threw myself into learning more theory. I have the Digitech plugged into the PC, play Youtube backing track videos and jam along wearing headphones. I then remembered I had bought an amp, which needed a thorough clean and fettle. That then prompted me to get a looper pedal, and noodle along to my own backing.

Can of worms fully opened, I then realised the tracks were missing basslines, and the lockdown pushed me into bidding on a ratty old Encore 4 bass. It was in grim condition when it arrived, but what did I expect for fifty quid? I cleaned the grime and gunge off it, and ordered a new bridge, nut, screw set. I’ve spent a week learning to play it via online lessons, and have now signed up to Fender Play’s 3 month deal. Happy days.

I’ve picked up learning the guitar again during lockdown. Been working my way through the Andy Guitar lesson programme. Been having Zoom lessons with guitar playing mates too.

Rescued my acoustic from the attic, which I played for a few weeks. I’ve then bought one of the Squire Classic Vibe Telecasters…

When I bought junior his first electric guitar in 2012 it was one of those butterscotch blond Classic Vibe Teles. After an hour or two in the shop it was one of those “what’s the catch” moments. This guitar is as well finished as any other guitar in the shop up to £1500, plays better than any of them, sounds like a Tele should (his 2012 came with Gotoh tuners and American pickups but mine I bought later came with cheaper tuners and pickups). I buffed the neck with very fine wet and dry used wet on mine because I found the neck sticky with sweaty hands.

He played it until the frets wore flat from all his vibrato and bending and then I found a replacement neck made two days later.

An exceptional guitar regardless of price.

There are some stunners out there at the moment. I’m stuck away from my kit apart from my ratty shredder (a Mania through neck with Floyd Rose – not really my style of guitar, but was cheap S/H) and playing it through a MK2 Korg Pandora or Guitar Rig on the Mac.
I thought “sod it, I’ve got time now” so a James Tyler Variax 59 rolled through the door with a bunch of amps and pedals.

The James Tyler is stunningly good. Forget the Variax element – the guitar is built in the same Korean factory as the PRS SE models that we get over here and it is pretty faultless apart from the tuners not being quite up to the rest of the gear in terms of quality.
The serial number says it was built mid 2017 and all I’ve done in the week and half since it arrive is gradually adjust the truss rod 1/8th of a turn now and then. A
Plays like a dream for me with a big fat neck but a stunning sculpted neck joint and pick ups that work well and clean up a treat when you drop the volume slightly. I have a late 90s PRS Artist 22 stoptail and feels pretty close.
Most impressed with it.

James Tyler Variax:

Mania thingie:

Oh and the standout purchase for me was a Yamaha TRDII10 amp. Found on cheap. The sound is excellent, I can stream music to it and use my cheap eBay wireless and also deeo twek the sounds with the free ap. Plus I can wirelessly stream from it to Cubase on my iPad.
Found it for £220 new. I know I’m late to this particular party but I can see why they are so popular. It’s always around and so easy to just switch on and play. I don’t need any leads or toys.
That’s it hiding behind the guitar.

Oh and Orange are doing a free guitar course too at the moment…

https://www.musicradar.com/news/learn-rock-guitar-for-free-with-orange-amplifications-pioneering-online-course

Speaking of amps, I love the look of the Yamaha THR series but I really want to use a looper pedal. If it had an external looper pedal it’d be perfect. But you can’t use a looper with the Yamaha without sacrificing the wireless (which is one of the main draws).

So what do I want?:
Good tone for quiet playing or headphones (I play with headphones 95% of the time). I don’t need anything loud. Clean tone / crunch / mild lead is all I really want. I’m not bothered about getting loads of different tones.
FX loop or looper pedal built in
Some sort of line input to jam with YouTube/ Spotify tracks (Bluetooth is OK).
Wireless (except headphones) if possible – I want it to be super easy to pick up and play.

Any suggestions?
Fender Mustang GTX would do it but some of the reviews of the sound are pretty scathing. Yamaha as above won’t do a looper pedal. Katana?

Obvs I just need a Kemper floor pedal…

Buy a looper pedal and get the £35 wireless set up I have. (Down to £30 at the minute)

Hmm, interesting. How long do the batteries last?

They say 5-6 hrs but obviously over time they will die down. I’ve not used them so far for more than three hours in one go yet.
I view them as a home use thing.
Here is the Amazon link (back up to £35.99)

Any suggestions for a powerful (150->200W) amp head that can do both guitar and bass? And doesn’t cost too much.

Have got an old Orange OR120 (putting out about 200W according to my amp tech pal who fettled it for me) and a bass 4×12″ with twin inputs that can handle 400W total.

Wanting to set up a twin head rig for guitar and bass. Have a couple of 15W heads I can pair up for guitar or use the Orange on its own, but the Orange doesn’t quite have the oomph for live bass. So want to pair it with something else – but that I can also run along with the Orange for guitar at bigger gigs (outdoor etc). A Hiwatt or Marshall Superbass or Major would be cool, but too expensive. I’m thinking more <£250. I’d think Sunn Model T but they have are very £££s now.

Anything out there. Maybe a Trace Elliot or something like that? Or an old Selmer PA head. Or are they really expensive now?

@superficial I have a fender Mustang GT 40 and it sounds pretty good to me despite the tiny speakers. It can’t compete with my bassbreaker 007 tube head and cab with a 12″ speaker, but for bedroom levels is fine, and has a headphone jack, and you can use your phone to change models etc. you need the foot controller for looping though. The trick is to play around with the settings, instead of the factory defaults, and mine is at head level when I sit down to play

Guitar recording setup by guitardodds[/url], on Flickr
Really enjoy Ben’s (Crimson guitars) videos on You Tube so snapped up one of their Descendant Raw guitars recently and can’t stop playing it.
The pic also shows my current recording setup:
Blackstar Artisan 15 or Orange Rocker 15 Terror, into
Boss Tube Amp Expander, into
Apogee Elements 24, into
Mac Mini.
Jiggery Pokery in Logic Pro X (not pictured)
then out via Shure SRH1840 headphones into me lugs
Yamaha MSP10s in pic really just for show now I have a real job and no studio space separate from the house. First time I turned them on my wife complained about the noise immediately. I now mix exclusively in headphones.

Thanks a bunch mate! After seeing that Descendant Raw (very nice looking) I went onto Crimson Guitars website and made the mistake of looking at the Luthiers tools section.
A quick rummage and I found I could get £250 of gear in a basket without trying. So I closed it and walked away…
Very addictive this tool buying lark.
I like that site, seems to be a lot of good stuff on there.
I’ll be checking out his videos later.

@eddiebaby – that Mania is lovely, the birdseye timber is gorgeous, and I do like through-neck guitars with the contrast timber either side.
The James Tyler is a nice piece of work too, I see what you mean about the neck/body joint, that’s a bit out of the ordinary; I can see a bit of the PRS influence in the body shape as well.

Sorry @eddiebaby, yeah I struggle to resist myself. Ben’s done a few builds customizing the kit body and necks they sell which I’ve been tempted to have a go at building, but with the cost of the tools I would inevitably buy it is MUCH cheaper to just buy a ready build guitar.

that Mania is lovely, the birdseye timber is gorgeous, and I do like through-neck guitars with the contrast timber either side.that Mania is lovely, the birdseye timber is gorgeous, and I do like through-neck guitars with the contrast timber either side.

Yup, saw it hanging on a pub wall and fell for it and the rest was history. A great guitar like my Strat in that I don’t car about throwing it into a bag and walking down to a jam night.
No idea what the pretty wood is. Flamed and Birds-eye in the same piece is a bit weird. Somebody suggested Bubinga but I’m not sure.It has a solid mahogany centre with healthily tick caps front and rear.
TBH I bought it because the through neck reminded me of the Grateful Dead’s Alembics from back in the late 60s.

https://reverb.com/item/14772474-alembic-stanley-clarke-deluxe-buckeye-burl?pla=1

Finished the current edition of the paper yesterday, put the bins out today and its too wet to do much so been playing with the Variax aspect of the James Tyler.

Point 1: Give me a banjo and I end up doing Hayseed Dixie inspired versions of Stairway and More Than A Feeling.

Point 2: Acoustics and 12 Strings end up as Wanted Dead Or Alive. Instant DropD makes for stupid solos.

Point 3: Everything with a Sitar morphs into some terrible composite involving Madonna’s Beautiful Stranger. Harmonic Minor scales with drones soon lead into bagpipe fusion too.

Point 4: 3.5 hours of too much pointless fun. I was supposed to be trying to improve my music theory.
No Variax tomorrrow!!! Nor the looper.

I’ve been playing since I was 19 – now 55

Most of my disposable income has gone on music toys

All my time has basically gone the same place

I wouldn’t trade my investment for anything

I’ve had a great time with it all and would do exactly the same all over again

My forum of choice is TDPRI for guitar and gearslutz and the gear page for everything else

Plus YouTube is a gigantic timewaster

Any suggestions for a powerful (150->200W) amp head that can do both guitar and bass? And doesn’t cost too much.

Have got an old Orange OR120 (putting out about 200W according to my amp tech pal who fettled it for me) and a bass 4×12″ with twin inputs that can handle 400W total.

Wanting to set up a twin head rig for guitar and bass. Have a couple of 15W heads I can pair up for guitar or use the Orange on its own, but the Orange doesn’t quite have the oomph for live bass. So want to pair it with something else – but that I can also run along with the Orange for guitar at bigger gigs (outdoor etc). A Hiwatt or Marshall Superbass or Major would be cool, but too expensive. I’m thinking more <£250. I’d think Sunn Model T but they have are very £££s now.

Anything out there. Maybe a Trace Elliot or something like that? Or an old Selmer PA head. Or are they really expensive now?

Genz Benz second hand on ebay.

I’ve got a 600w shuttle that I put through a pair of 2×10. Mine are 8ohm so it was running at 300ohm I never needed about 50% on the master volume. Thats with a loud drummer, two loud guitarist and a keyboard.

The 600w and 900w Shuttle and streamliner- same amp with less controls- seem to be sub £300 with a 1200w shuttle max going for just over £300!

I don’t gig or play in a band any more, but the shuttle is staying just in case 🙂

Sold prices on ebay

New Amp Day!!!
Final part of my Line6 masterplan arrived today.
A DT25 2 channel 1×12 valve combo. Just the 1 12AX7 in the pre amp and 2 EL84s at the back end but the 12AX7 is voiced by either a HD500 or I can use one of 30 preamps (4 loadable per channel).
The tone comes from the power stage designed by Reinhold Bogner that lets you run Class A/B or Class A and choose Pentode or Triode configuration, all analog in the power amp and all programmable to match (or otherwise) the pre amp.
They sound great and even have a low power mode that turns down the valves to bedroom levels but still uses them for the tone. Never gonna be the same as blowing air through a cab though.
Lets hope it rains a lot at the weekend as I don’t want any distractions….

That Genz Benz won’t work. Way too powerful (only got 200W capacity in the cab for head #2) and will likely sound like ass for guitar.

Think I will go for a Sound City L120. Seems to be a Marshall/Orange hybrid with heavy duty transformers and 6x EL34s, so should peak out ~ 180W when cranked. About £350-400 for a head. Paired with the Orange OR120, I should be moving some serious air.

Those Line 6 DT amps are very nice – good choice.

Talking of Bogner, my latest fritter was on a Bogner La Grange pedal. Amazing tones – really good Van Halen 1 cranked plexi stuff (even has a Variac switch)…
Trouble is I also recently got a Boss MS3 multi effects/remote loop box in an attempt to slim things down. All that has meant that I now have TWO pedal boards. One more gadgety than the other. All good fun though… 😊

Wooooo!
Finally got to carry all the gear up to the garage and after checking the neighbours would be out doing their daily exercise I turned it up a bit.
I’d almost forgotten how load 25 watts of valve can be.
The crunch breaking into clean when I roll off the volume is pretty much what I’ve always wanted and the higher gain sounds vary from scooped metal to classic rock depending on what preamp I use.
Only just started playing with the valve modes (Triode/Pentode and CLass AB/Class A) and haven’t started on the negative feedback options.
Great to be able to run electric through the combo and when I go for an acoustic it automatically routes it through to the FRFR Soundsource.
So much more tweaking to do and I’m really bummed that I can’t have it turned up all day.

Oh well. Back to the real world.

Oh and the Mania came along for the ride too with the new Floyd Rose (licensed!) working well.

Eddiebaby- sounds like you and that amp need to get a room when lockdown ends- a practice room ; )

When I bought junior his first electric guitar in 2012 it was one of those butterscotch blond Classic Vibe Teles. After an hour or two in the shop it was one of those “what’s the catch” moments. This guitar is as well finished as any other guitar in the shop up to £1500, plays better than any of them, sounds like a Tele should

Sounds about right. After a work colleague has bought an Affinity Tele I did a bit of reading. I found the “Chappers and the Captain” videos on YT by Rob Chapman and Lee Anderton. They blind tested 4 Strat models; the Squier Classic Vibe was the cheapest by some margin (two of the others were custom shop models) yet both would be more than happy with it. The same seems to apply to the Tele range.

I’ve not dared to go back and watch any more as their videos seem great but there are loads and all seem quite long. I could easily lose several years of my life learning stuff I don’t need to know about guitars, amps effects etc that I’ll never get to play.

https://www.youtube.com/user/RobChappers/

Same with bass’s when Scott from Scotts bass lessons did some comparisons, with a squire and a custom shop. They did sound slightly different, but it wasn’t that one sounded better than the other just a slightly different tone.

I went for a Mexican fender rather than a squire just because they have a resale value if it turns out I don’t have the patience or ability to learn. Funnily enough I think if I was more sure that I would commit I would have bought a squire and spent the extra 300 on something else, maybe lessons.

Anyone got some recommendations for (or are selling?) decent strat pickups?
When i bought my Japanese strat I tried loads – it had the best unplugged tone and neck, but the pickups were a bit weak compared to others (USA and Mexican strats).
So, looking to replace but don’t want to spend TOO much. Soundwise, I’d like it to still just sound like a classic strat, so not looking for pickups that are too hot or stacked humbuckers or anything.
It’ll be used on stage, possibly with some high gain fuzz, so don’t want something that will squeal.

Looks like I can get something like this (Fender Noiseless ones) for £100-ish second hand: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Set-of-three-Fender-Vintage-Noiseless-pickups-for-Strat/402251229598

Would I maybe be best looking for a whole USA pickguard? Could be the pots etc aren’t up to scratch on mine either?

How about companies like Tonerider or Iron Gear? Does their stuff stand up to live playing or is just for bedroom nerding? I have a GFS pickup in my Les Paul that I really like

My TC Electronics Plethora turned up and it is gert lush!
Running 4 cables into the DT25 or in the loop of the POD HD500 or into Abelton Live it just seems to bring something new to the tones.
No distortions or overdrives but all the pitch, delay, Chorus, reverbs, tremolos you could want.
Any five at a time stored into a virtual pedal board (one of 127), edit a pedal and just 3 knobs are available BUT you can load 75 variations of each pedal type into the board so the reverbs go from a simple spring to big lush cathedrals with added shimmer rising octaves and so much more, the template for on of the Steve Vai reverbs has over 30 different variable you can edit on the bluetooth app so if you want to play you can, otherwise just activate pedal edit on the board, scroll though the 75 presets to find one you like, twiddle the knobs and away you go.
All the push buttons double as control pedals. Applying pressure can vary what ever you like such as whammy effects, delay feedback, reverb swells.
Unlimited possibilities. Or just a simple variable pedal board.
I’m in love with a new toy (again).

Interesting! Seems similar to the Nova System I use, but much smaller. No 4CM on that though.