NGD. Had been eying up something Strat like for a while and after trying many I seemed to get on with the Charvel neck the best. Settled on the Japanese made Guthrie Govan San Dimas model as the versatility of the pickups combined with the superb tuning stability from the OG Floyd/locking tuners/well cut nut and the more classic lines of the San Dimas over the Dinky ticked all the boxes. So far so good and can’t seem to put it down.

VERY Super Strat!

Is that a coil tap switch?

I like the idea of a Floyd Rose without the pain of a locking nut and micro tuners.

Ash body?

It’s a basswood body with just a (very) thin ash veneer for prettiness.

The switch is a single coil simulation which brings in an RC circuit on one of the coils which effectively removes it from the audible spectrum but maintains it’s hum cancelling properties. I must say this is the quietist guitar I’ve ever played from a hum/noise perspective, Even my other guitar with a humbucker is a noisy bugger when sat in front of my computer but this thing is whisper quiet.

The Floyd works extremely well and tuning stability is better than my non-tremolo guitars. I honestly never touched the tuners for the first week. The roasted maple neck with graphite reinforcement makes it incredible stable.

Smitten 😂

I might admit defeat and sell my only guitar. I’d rather play bass and I don’t have time for both. It also doesn’t help that the ceiling above my practice area collapsed and I need a bit of cash back!

This is the actual guitar…https://richtonemusic.co.uk/epiphone-sg-korean-2010-cherry-red-w-hard-case-2nd-hand/

I might stick in FB Marketplace for what I paid last year (£250) unless anyone in Sheffield needs a nice SG.

Smitten 😂

Yep, you know when its ‘The one”. That’s how I feel about my Tele.

I don’t have “the one” because I find some things hard to play on what might be ‘the one’ so have several ‘the ones’. A neck that works well for thumb over the neck punky stuff is a bit cramped for country soloing.

I’m still trying to produce melodies and lyrics for the cover-alergic band’s tunes. I’ve sent them one of my own to consider – do you think they’ll fire me?

Seems to work on youtube but not embedded?

Hello six stringers! I’ve been thinking about getting some demo guitar amps for work and was wondering what everyone would suggest along those lines. I’ve got as far as thinking that we probably need a Marshall, Fender, Vox and Mesa. And that they need to be all-tube and probably lower power but we’ll probably get an attenuator/load box for when we want power valve distortion at more sensible levels. Any suggestions? Hoping to not spend a million pounds but I know getting four valve amps won’t be cheap unless we find some in a skip! 😉

I’ve been thinking about getting some demo guitar amps for work

Where do you work? I want to work somewhere that has demo guitar amps 🙂

Can’t help on which ones, I’ve never even tried a valve amp before but I’m sure there are people on here that know loads about them!

Fender valve studio amps I’d guess you’d be talking about a Deluxe or Princeton Reverb. Think the Deluxe is 20-odd and Princeton 12 watts respectively. Aren’t they the classic ’silver face’ models?

BITD Princeton’s were definitely a studio staple (to run a tele through).

I have a 68 Custom Princeton Reverb and may be a >< bit biased…🙃

“Where do you work? I want to work somewhere that has demo guitar amps 🙂”

I have demo guitarists too! 😉 I run Barefaced Audio, we’re a (v small) UK manufacturer of guitar and bass cabs (and a pedal and some more electronic stuff soon).

When I get rid of all the gear I don’t use I’ll be doing my best to increase your turnover to the value of 1 cab.

Just had a bit of fun rocking out on ninjam (online jamming vst plugin). Just casually started out with a high gain setting and paying cherub rock by the smashing pumpkins. A really great drummer arrived, then a bass player. There are some great musicians on there….. I’d recommend it.

Sounds fun. I must try it.
I’m enjoying getting out and meeting guitar buddies 3 times a week for a few hours followed by a group trip to the all you can eat asian buffet once a week.
Makes a difference to be playing and learning with real folk.

“When I get rid of all the gear I don’t use I’ll be doing my best to increase your turnover to the value of 1 cab.”

Awesome! This is making me wonder if I should finally do an organised marketing campaign and this should be the message! 😉

🙂
I must post a list of the bits one here. Bass, guitars, Kemper Stage, effects it just goes on and on.

While you’re here, would something like this be overkill for a domestic spare bedroom?

No

I think he needs a dolphin tattoo on his right ankle, otherwise ’tis good.

I picked up this old Hohner tele a few years back, and been learning on it, but recently noticed there was a lot of crackling when adjusting tone/volume etc.  I dropped it off yesterday at a local guru, who cleaned up the pots with a quick spray of something or other, but then checked out the pickups and action etc.

The pickups are apparently 100% fine, so we’ve agreed to him fitting a better 4-way to give it a bit more options.

My question is (as this has triggered some ideas for me) – what are the best, good value for money upgrades for an old guitar?

In no particular order: strings, locking tuners, graphite nut, lessons.

New strings getting fitted when he’s done with the pots, and action sorted as well, as one of the saddles was quite a bit out.

I’ll look into the locking tuners and nut.  I was getting lessons for a while, but just couldn’t afford it long-term (£40 per week soon mounts up, esp when MrsB is completely indifferent to anything musical)

never had a problem using non locking tuners once I learned to fit the string correctly
graphite nuts are ok but do nothing a little bit of pencil dust does just as well
best thing for any guitar is a proper setup and a bit of fret dressing as required

hard to tell by the pics but the pickups look very close to the strings, this can kill sustain and
cause the notes to have an odd sound as their vibration is affected by the magnets.

3 way is classic on a tele, if you are unhappy with the tone there are changes to the components on the tone control to change things, the parts cost a few pence and loads of info on line.

Slotted vintage tuners or locking are both fine in my opinion. If the 4 way is to give the option of parallel/series switching for the middle position then definitely go for it.
I’ve modded my Tele a lot electronically but the mod I really want to make is to reverse the control plate to put the volume at the front, the tone in the middle and the switch at the back to make violining easier.

If the 4 way is to give the option of parallel/series switching for the middle position then definitely go for it.

That’s the plan! We demo’d another couple of other guitars, both tele-copies that he makes, one with the 4-way, one with a standard 3-way but a slightly punchier pickup setup and then back to mine.  Having the 4-way seemed to make more of a difference, to my ears anyway.  The current pickups are apparently really good quality ones, so whilst it was tempting to get something new in there, he didn’t push that.  A proper setup, new pots incl 4-way for now.  Looking forward to getting it back sometime soon.

Sounds good. I went 5 way in the end have a second bridge only position that actually bleeds in a small amount of neck to reduce the degree of ‘ice pickiness” but the series /parallel option is the win for me.

Bored waiting at the computer for some work to arrive so I downloaded the ToneX free desktop app.
Blimey it is good. If you have a way of pugging your guitar into a mac or pc then try it. (I have a bottom of the line Focusrite Scarlett). It is also available as a free iOS and Android app.
Its a capture/profile device like the Kemper or Quad Cortex with a wide range of gainy and clean FREE amps, 20 in total, with lots of control plus a noise gate, compressor and reverb plus added controls for mic placement.
VERY impressed with the sounds. i haven’t A/Bd it with the Kemper yet but for a free package it is amazing. Just trying to get it to speak to Garageband now so I can add effects.
I’ll try to record a couple of bits this afternoon when I get time.

to reduce the degree of ‘ice pickiness”

I assume you’ve already got the big orange condenser “Sprague Orange Polypropylene Capacitor 400V “, if not try one. Stack type “noiseless” pickups are a little less ice pick too. I use a coil tap so I can go full ice pick on rock and rollers.

Hi Ed

I assume you’ve already got the big orange condenser “Sprague Orange Polypropylene Capacitor 400V “, if not try one. Stack type “noiseless” pickups are a little less ice pick too. I use a coil tap so I can go full ice pick on rock and rollers.

I have the Monty’s guitars loom with a “soviet 0.022uf Paper in oil capacitor” and Twisted Tele pickups. Can be a tad bright at times, this mod just fattens the sound slightly if I want. It also has 50s wiring so you don’t get the treble roll off on the volume pot, so maybe that’s where it really helps.
It just sounds good and is another option.
Definitely my favourite guitar. I never pick up the Strat anymore, I just swap between the Tele and the JTV for humbucker sounds.
So the Strat is going along with the Precision Bass. Not sure about the Baritone yet. It does bring something different to the table.

Hi GrooveGuru – just a thought, what about Kit amps? If you need valve powered heads then you could get a kit one and get someone good with a soldering iron in your firm to wire it

https://modulusamplification.com/gts-20-plexi-20-watt-valve-amp-kit-3393-p.asp

one of those for a marshall amp and something ‘blackpanel’ for a clean tone would probably do you – and you could save money by putting together a simple cab for them and buying valves on ebay etc

@eddiebaby Have you seen the new Tonex pedal? Really tempted as have been a fan since trying the demo before Christmas and now have Tonex Max and the Axe I/O interface. Would be great to replace the models in my HX Stomp using the FX

…and purchased Tonex pedal. Was downloading some captures from ToneNet last night and there are just so many great amps on there decided to get this for my live setup. Going to need a couple of FRFR cabs now.

@guitarhero
Morning mate. As you can see a few posts above I really like the sounds on the demo version.
I haven’t seen the new pedal and won’t until they hit Andertons but I do have a few views on it based on the video reviews and my experience with Capture/Profilers.
I’m a bit saddened by the lack of an FX loop but it is exactly the same as buying a valve amp with out an FX loop, and it’s not like that ever held back guitar music until about 25 years ago when they started becoming popular.
So this is going to shine in the loop of a multi FX like you intend to use it in your stomp and also with pedals before and maybe behind. Again Jimmy Page and Jimi H and Jeff Beck spent a lot of their early careers putting all their effects in front of the amp and their sound is still highly sought after.
Would I buy one though?
Not really. I have a Kemper Stage and love most of it to bits. The profiled sounds can be great and there are a lot of very high quality profiles out there. After playing a bit. I think the Kemper without any of the fancier built in effects doesn’t sound better than the ToneX, what it does is feel better in subtle ways. The sounds do seem more dynamic and this translates to feel as playing style and dynamics bring out more of the ‘amp’ feel.
But after owning one for over a year I wouldn’t buy a Kemper now because it doesn’t really fit my needs.
Profilers don’t fit a lot of peoples needs but look at the roster of bands using Kemper on world tours for major artists. Same goes for AxeFX and maybe Quad Cortex (but that is still too new to have a lot of users yet).
If you have amps you want to profile and can capture with any drive pedals you want then profiling is great, buy buying profiles can be a pain.
I have a lot of great profiles. The best is a free one from Kemper profiling a Morgan AC20. It sounds better than any amp I have ever tried, the profile is perfect and responds well to real pedals and the Kemper’s great drive and fuzz emulations.
What it can’t do is turn up the “amp” gain to distort it. You can’t really on most profiles or captures. You can wind the gain down a bit to clean up a dirty amp but the sound you have can’t usually be turned up dirtwise more that 2 or 3 notches, after that it sounds weird.
My Kemper is going and it will go easily enough as a lot of people seem to want what it does well. I’m keeping my BOSS GT1000 Core.
Stomp sized it is responsive has great sounding amps built in and if it can’t accurately nail a Mesa Boogie MkIV neither can a Helix nail the awesome Boss original amps built in. The Natural and Boutique models combined with the MDP processed X-Crunch, Supreme and X-High Gain are outstanding. Responsive and very versatile with ‘feel’ for days. And of course so many amazing Boss effects built in with 32 bit processing at 96K.
I’m sure I’d feel equally excited about a Line6 unit if I had one and was looking at a Helix LT for ages but the price suddenly hiked up during lockdown.
Either way I’d go down that route for amp tomes instead of a profiler now.
And in your case I’d suggest a look at the BOSS IR-200 amp and IR Cab Sim to add to the amps in your Stomp.
https://www.andertons.co.uk/boss/boss-ir-200-amp-ir-cabinet-pedal

Its all down to your ears and what you like though. And if you get one and don’t like it you can return it at Andertons no problem or sell it on as these will shift in lorry loads.

Main thing is not to let the shills like Rhett Shull force their latest is best philosophy. I’m sure Mary Spender and Pete Thorne will be along too…

Addition: A way to get around the limited tweakability of amp profiles is to have lots of them for a given amp at different gain and tone settings. You find one close to what you want and then play around to your heart’s content.
My Michael Britt profile pack for the Grammatico Steel String Singer has 80 profiles to wade though…

@eddiebaby Never tried a Kemper so can’t comment but I have tried Tonex obviously and have purchased the pedal based on being the best amp in a box sounds I’ve heard to date, and that includes expensive forays into load boxes and IRs on the amps I have.
On the subject of the You Tube reviews/adverts, it’s got a bit out of hand and I think the Tonex pedal could be the most hyped release yet. As you say if it ends up falling short of expectations then it will only help resale but my metric with these is do the sound inspire me to play and with the Tonex it’s been a resounding yes.
I think running it in the FX loop of the Stomp is a good solution. Would work well in the loop of a Plethora X5 too.

As you say if it ends up falling short of expectations then it will only help resale but my metric with these is do the sound inspire me to play and with the Tonex it’s been a resounding yes.

Thumbs up to that!
Didn’t realise you had pulled the trigger on it. Lets us know what you think of it when it arrives.

My question is (as this has triggered some ideas for me) – what are the best, good value for money upgrades for an old guitar?

A full setup inc new nut (if required) and fret dress is one of the better things you could do.

The series mod on my Tele is really cool – I use it a lot. Mine also has a push-push switch for in / out of phase – I could take or leave that. Sometimes the out of phase stuff sounds cool but mainly for background / ambient parts.

The spray your tech will have used is contact cleaner (sometimes just IPA). It might work for a while but if the pots are old they may well need replacing. New pots are pretty cheap and will get rid of the crackle for good.

New pickups can completely change the sound so would be a worthwhile upgrade if the rest of the guitar is good. But if the current pickups are fine, it might be a bit more expensive than you’re looking for.

I might change that bridge to a vintage tele bridge, but mainly because I like how they look. I think some people believe the extra brass in there changes the bridge tone but I don’t know about that.

Depends how much you want to spend, the above stuff could easily run into £400+ which is obviously daft if the guitar is only worth a few hundred. I don’t really know much about Hohner.

I have two sets of Tele pickups for sale, new V Mod 2s from my American Pro II (£35) and a set of handwound Bootstrap Palo Duras (£50) also a new (boxed) Gotoh ashtray bridge with Gotoh Intune brass compensated saddles (£40 for the set).
Photos available for any interested Tele lover. Also have a set of Fender compensated saddles £20

I also have the wiring loom from my Am Pro II. A 3 way switch with tome and volume pots, the tone has a push pull switch for series parallel switching in the middle. Also has the output jack. I have the wiring diagram too but the loom is pretty much wired and just needs the pickup soldering in place and a ground wire added. £15

@eddiebaby and @guitarhero Interesting discussion, I bought a Stomp XL a few months back and was initially disappointed with what it would do. I write / record a lot and don’t use my amp much anymore, after descending a similar rabbit hole of attenuators, Captors etc. It took me a while to twig that the Stomp is not an amp, doesn’t behave like one, and is only a starting point. Once I had come to terms with that and started to chase the sounds I wanted, rather than how I got them, I am now enjoying it far more. I use Reaper with an SSL channel strip plugin to tweak it, with a hefty high cut to tame the fizziness. I now get a consistent set of tones when I play, and it is now clear what the weak link in the chain is, me 😁

I am dabbling with snapshots now and that seems to be the way to go for variety. An expression pedal has improved things further as I can now control the gain / delay / etc whilst I am playing without making loads of very similar presets.

The next thing is to try it through the FX loop of my amp, which I am sure leads to a whole new even bigger rabbit hole 🐰

Sounds good. I was going to buy a Stomp but the price had jumped by about £150 between the batches so I went for the GT1000.

I hate most of the 250 presets but love the ones I create myself. I usually create lower gain clean or edge of breakup and stick stomp boxes in front for the more driven sounds and the GT does have some nice Boss pedals in there. More than enough effects in the Boss. Shame I only tend to use reverb and delays.

Hi folks (again)
I contacted Tom and asked nicely and now we’ve got a musical instruments section in the classifieds so I’ll photograph my stuff and stick it on there. There will be special STW prices obviously.