There’s a Gibson Tribute Firebird on Facebook Marketplace in Wigan if that’s any good to you.

I guess it’s gonna be hard to try one before you buy, so a used Epiphone to see if you get on with the shape would be the ideal bet. All I ever listed after was a proper Les Paul but when I finally got one I realised it wasn’t the best fit for me.

IMHO, if you’re gonna spend that much money on an unknown, go and try one.

Heh heh, brilliant plan @eddiebaby!!!

“…If you want the fire bird vibe in an easier shape then ~Ivison Dakota…’

£4,250!!!

Looks ace but more of a LP vibe to me, plus it’s not a “Gibson” – Remember this is a case of irrationality here, no room for actual logic 😉

Ok, so Gear4Music have the Epiphone Firebird for £549 to order which is £100 less than others with deliver for 6th May, one day after I turn 46. I followed the advice and decided to go for this one, and then put my name on a waiting list for the ‘proper’ Gibson. Hopefully by buying it now, when the stock come in they’ll fulfill preorders first and I can get hold of it at the lower price than GAK etc al…

Damn, now youve got me looking. Just looking!!!

https://reverb.com/uk/p/gibson-firebird-studio-non-reverse

The more I look at guitars, the more thankful I am that I started out a bassist because there are so many more awesome looking guitars – if basses were like that my house would be full of them! Thankfully the ergonomic nightmare of basses (if you play like I like to) massively shortens the list of ones that look cool and play well…

That Firebird is a prime example – it’s sister bass the Thunderbird also looks really cool but they are not great to play unless you’re 7 feet tall or just want to bang out 8th notes as it dangles around your knees.

I’ve been looking into building a guitar pedalboard for work demo and recording purposes – I seem to be getting sucked into these JHS pedals that contain multiple clones of the Tubescreamer (9 versions!), Big Muff (6 versions), and Rat (9 versions). Fully analogue signal path with a microprocessor switching loads of components in each.

Was going to get a compressor pedal and reverb too but then realised I’d have no modulation pedals (unless I used my bass pedalboard) so maybe I should get an HX Stomp for the compression, modulation, delay and reverb? Plus we can use that for amp/speaker modelling demos with both active and FRFR guitar cabs.

The more I look at guitars, the more thankful I am that I started out a bassist because there are so many more awesome looking guitars – if basses were like that my house would be full of them!

Same. There are endless awesome guitars available but luckily I don’t know how to play them.

I have a Mexican J and a Squier P and I can’t really justify anything else and there are no basses that I really lust after. I’ll probably by a Stingray Special one day and then I’ll be done.

My most likely next purchase will be one of the DIY kits from Thomann just so I can do a crazy paint job without wrecking anything expensive.

maybe I should get an HX Stomp for the compression, modulation, delay and reverb?

I think this is a good thing once you’ve got more than 2-3 pedals. It just gives you loads of options. Want to try a phaser for a specific song? No problem. Want a different Reverb? Fine. Want a weird delay? There are loads to choose from. Want to A/B a loop via different cabs? No problem, it’s got a looper built in. Plus it makes it really easy to record – just plug in via USB using an amp/cab sim.

Gear4Music have the Epiphone Firebird for £549

That looks great, but I wouldn’t count on it arriving on your special day…

Danish Pete jamming over a loop with a single pickup Esquire. Darn it sounds good with so many tones.

He could make a 50 year old Eko acoustic with 1″ action sound good

I may just have a guitar to sell him then…

This has been quietly doing my head in over the last couple of weeks. Closest I can get so far with the camera running……

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrIoMYRO0PI/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

The irony is that Peter Green probably played it that way once into the tape and never played it the same way twice!

Tone is the guitar straight into the orange rocker I posted before if anyone is interested!

Sounds bloody good to me!

I’m trying some Hendrix this week

plus it’s not a “Gibson”

True

Much better than any Gibson I’ve played but a pencil must be lead

I impulsively bought a SC20H and SC212 and instantly regretted it!* I’d not realised that there was only one channel and no foot switch for clean/OD. So I’ve decided to cancel the order and am now looking at DSLs. I’m torn between a 20 or 40 and will most likely go combo. I think the 40 has better options for the 2 channels but do any of you have any real use experience please?

*Also partly financial reasoning as I’m only just getting back into this guitaring again and think a DSL will be more than enough for me at the moment.

If you like the Marshall overdrive sound then the DSL is a good choice. However the SC20H and the OD pedal of your choice is more likely to get you the sound you want. I’ve got a JCM 2000 TSL, the clean channel is ace, crunch channel typically overdriven Marshall and the lead channel frankly a fizzy unusable horror. A Tubescreamer on the clean channel gives a nice overdrive at the click of its footswitch.

All the Marshall amps I’ve used have been toppy and the Marshall lead circuitry accentuates that. However, the clean channel with plenty of gain and volume gives that classic Marshall sound. At painful volume levels though, I hope your home is well sound insulated and you have -20db ear plugs because that’s the kind of volume they sound best at.

What are you going to use it for? I’ve never yet used my Marshall on stage. It’s a hoot to play in rehersal but I’m lead vocal and second guitar – The stage plan for our next gig shows me with Fender Bassbreaker 45, 112 Orange cab, a pedal board and a Shure SM58 – because that’s the sound the other members of the band approve of.

New Amp Day! I was driving from Folkestone to Somerset via Milton Keynes Tuesday/yesterday, so I thought I might as well make a stop at a few guitar shops. First time at Anderton’s (impressive stock, staff didn’t seem that interested) and then popped into Rock Hard Music in MK (bizarre and blokey place with a massively sweary guitar tech just out of sight obviously struggling with a repair. Finally popped into PMT in Cowley/Oxford and had a great time. Nice selection of gear and happy to listen to my demands – basically, I’ve got loads of big amps and gadgets at home (too many to be honest), but I’m after a portable amp to take round to a mate’s house for the odd blues jam. Even my smallest setup is still a pedalboard and micro amp into a cab, or a surprisingly heavy Epiphone Valve Junior in a Blues Junior cab. Or an HX Stomp and a powered PA speaker.

I was thinking something like a Tone Master Princeton, but was open to other ideas like a power-amped pedal as I have a superlight and awesome Barefaced 1×10 cab (of this parish). I ended up trying a Deluxe Reverb TM (they didn’t have a Princeton, though I did see one at Andertons) and a Blackstar Amped 1. The PMT staff were super nice and I was able to grab a guitar of my choice off the wall and noodle away in a soundproof booth with both amps. The Deluxe was lovely, Very hard to get a bad sound out of and loud as you like. However, it’s still too big/clumsy to carry half a mile down the road – I think the Princeton is too, to be honest. So I went for the Blackstar Amped 1 – 100W powered pedal, (with FX loop and 500mA power for other pedals) – it’s harder to get a stunning tone out of, but not really that difficult, and it’ll go from super clean (and loud!) to (just) 80’s rock sounds with the twiddle of some knobs. There’s one preset, which effectively means it can be used as a two channel amp. So now I can have an ‘amp’ with reverb in a gigbag with a guitar and carry my 1×10 – job done!

Of course I don’t have a guitar with me, so I’ll have to wait for a bit to give it a proper try at home. And I may yet get a Princeton or Deluxe for home playing in the future. Very impressed with those. Anyway… ta daaaa!

nice – that will pair up with your HX stomp too because you’ll be able to use the HX as your effects options into the amp

Yes, there’s a flat response amp option for just that kind of behaviour. I’m hooked on the HX Stomp Litigator amp model…

See? I’m already building it into a bigger pedalboard…

See? I’m already building it into a bigger pedalboard…

Well you do have a reputation to maintain 🙂

What are you going to use it for? I’ve never yet used my Marshall on stage. It’s a hoot to play in rehersal but I’m lead vocal and second guitar – The stage plan for our next gig shows me with Fender Bassbreaker 45, 112 Orange cab, a pedal board and a Shure SM58 – because that’s the sound the other members of the band approve of.

I have a studio in an old barn at the end of the garden which backs into a pub garden so noise isn’t much of an issue. As I said I’m getting back into playing again after hip issues mean biking is limited and after an electric setup in addition to my acoustic. I’ve ordered the Epiphone Firebird and just pulled the trigger on the DSL40CR, and PEDL-91016 which should open up the onboard options a bit more.

I went a different route to a Marshall tone.
I posted this on the Gear Page at the weekend.

Even more in love with my GTK Core today.
I took the Origin Cali76 and Revival Drive Compact off the miniboard and just ran a Dirty Little Secret into the front of the Core. The DLS was in Superbass mode and on 9v. Drive was fully wound up, bass totally cut with the mid cut slightly.
In the Core I had a single Transparent amp block with low gain and the output level up a ways. The cabs I changed to 4×12.
The effects were a simple pan delay a very light stereo chorus just for ‘width’, a bit of room reverb and crucially the Mastering Fx on Live Comp mode.
Those three FX set to use the three footswitches and then with the volume, tone and 5 way switch on the Tele I can go from an almost acoustic clean sound with light chorus sound to an awesome Marshall crushing Crunch.
I keep forgetting how dynamic the DLS is and the Transparent amp in the Core was a perfect pedal platform.
I could gig all night on that one amp model and guitar.
Brilliant.
I’m going to do a lot more experimenting with the Mastering Fx.

I can record from this or run it into an FRFR or Barbie’s PA and to me it sounds and feels great. I’ll try to record some samples later when i get back from work.

That’s a pretty thorough tour of guitar shop Chipps! We’re actually working on some active Barefaced guitar cabs so I hope to have a tidy solution for any pedalboard/modelling focused players soon – which is also why my in-progress guitar pedalboard will have a HX Stomp (ordered by yet to arrive) so we can delve deeper into that stuff.

I appear to be quite firmly hooked on playing guitar – it’s a mix of randomly working through the chords on popular songs, and figuring out what chords/parts to play on the songs I’m recording with my band (that has no guitarist but I think needs some guitar on recorded versions – although I think bass/drums/vocals will work as a live thing.

Everyone who said “you need a Tele” – yes, I’m pretty certain a now do! I’m playing a 1991 Squier Strat (unplugged) at home, which is fine for training my fingers and figuring stuff out. On bass I always took a one bass approach but with my limited guitar skills and the wide range of styles/tones I’m after I’m feeling that the (Sire L7) Les Paul and Gretsch 5420T (big hollowbody) would be well accompanied by a Telecaster for the more angular/rhythmic parts (my funk, reggae, afrobeat, post-punk etc influences appear to be coming out on some songs).

Just been ‘mugged’ on the way home by a pub venue asking me to do a gig with a singer acquaintance who has been playing some of our jamming tracks to them.
She wants them to let her sing over techno backing tracks and me do live guitar on top of it.
I’m really not too happy, would have been nice to be warned. They did give me a lot of beer though.
And that was nice.
Should I call her Yoko?

Nah, just play the gig. Junior hates it when I play over his techno tracks, I hope you do it better than me.

Can’t hear the word Yoko without this playing in my head:

Did anyone do the Dyfi Enduro when they use to have a local DJ with an incredible slap/funk bass player who would jam over the top of the tunes? It was a great show. I think Squarepusher has done similar stuff, but this was obviously a mate who played incredible bass, would find the key and then just funk his way over the tracks. It was brilliant!

And – @chiefgrooveguru – can you make me (well, not just me, can you make…) a neat, vertical 2×10 please? Otherwise I’ll have to buy one of those nice Blackstar St James vertical 2x12s as they look nice and my lunchbox amps can sit on top. 🙂

“can you make me (well, not just me, can you make…) a neat, vertical 2×10 please”

Absolutely! We’re basically just adding models to fill the niches when people ask for and then order them.

So I spent quite a long time playing three different Tele’s today, MIM Player, MIM Player Plus and MIJ. Really liked the Player Plus – great neck, good balance (hefty body), sounded good unplugged and lots of tone plugged in – series setting is great for heavier stuff, plus all the usual Tele sounds and no hum.

Yep, I think Player Plus is the sweet spot in the range.

I’ve just been thrown a curveball by investigating Reverend’s range. I like the guys at Reverend, they’ve always made interesting guitars and basses, I tried a semi-hollow with P90s a few weeks back and that played and sounded great – and they gave me a Wattplower 2 bass for helping out with some ideas on the Mk 2 version. And I’ve spotted they make a Tele:

Reverend Eastsider T

Similar price to the Player Plus. Love that shade of blue! No series switch but a phase switch – and series could easily be added.

If you get that I have the wiring loom for an Am Pro II Tele you can have. A push/push on the tone pot switches the middle position between series and parallel. Should drop straight in, also has a Fender treble bleed built in.

That would be super cool Eddie, thanks! Have just dropped the boss at Reverend an email…

Has anyone got any top tips for taming feedback?

The band I’m in plays quite loud and feedback is a part of the music, but I’m finding my setup is *very* prone to it, to the extent that it’s squealing if I’m not actively playing. What I’d like to achieve is a graceful descent into harmonic feedback.

The other guitarist in the band doesn’t have this issue (at similar volumes) and I’m not sure whether there’s some setup tweak I can make to tame it a bit.

Any suggestions on where to start looking?

Use less gain ( maybe not realistic)

Get in the habit of turning your guitar volume knob down when you’re not playing

Stand with your guitar as close to 90 degrees to the amp as possible Instead of parallel to It

Stand further away from your amp if possible?

Use some kind of noise gate pedal?

Realistically different guitars feedback different amounts. Anything hollow obviously is bad but different pickups do as well. Generally single coils are worse than hum buckets but even between different single coils there can be a real difference. For example the pickups in my jaguar are way worse and more microphonic than the p90s I have in a different guitar. That might account for why your other guitarist has less issue?

Do you always use the same guitar, and if not does the problem just affect 1?

Microphonic pickups are sometimes an issue which can be helped with things like wax-potting or tape wrapping to stop vibrations moving the windings. A guitar tech may well be able to sort this, or pickup manufactures like Bare Knuckle offer this as a service. Alternatively, different pickups may help.

Alternatively reducing the resonant frequency which causes the feedback can help – look for a parametric eq pedal which allows you to select the frequency and width of the band which it affects.

The feedback you do want is the sound waves vibrating the guitar strings – you get that by holding the guitar in front of the speaker. It’s in tune with whatever notes you’re holding down.

The feedbacks you don’t want are body boom, pickup and electronic feedback. Body boom is when the guitar body vibrates, a real problem with acoustics, generally a low frequency that the body resonates at. Pickup feedback is often loose wires on the pickup windings vibrating, a high pitched squeal. Potting the pickups in wax may or may not cure it. Electronic feedback is whan single coil noise gets out of control, again sQuealing.

I’ve got some really nice sounding high output single-coil pickups that I can only use at low gain and without distortion pedals. I’ve learned to use stacked single coils on stage, either Seymor Duncan or Fender N3 in my Teles. The Strat I flick to position 2 or 4 if it plays up. The P90 and low output vintage Tele pickups are usually OK but sometimes… .

Hmm, thanks folks.

The parametric EQ suggestion is one I’d not considered, that could be worth exploring.

The guitar has humbuckers, although of course the pickups could be microphonic to some degree. Maybe the other guitar player wouldn’t mind my running his guitar through my signal chain to eliminate the guitars that might be worth a go!

At the moment I’m tending to use my tuner as a kind of “kill switch” which is ok for periods of prolonged quiet, but less useful when I’m supposed to be doing e.g. stabs over the other guitar’s main riff line.

If it does feedback squeals when your hands are muting the strings then surely it has to be a pickup issue?

That’s a good point I had not considered.

Ugh. I really dont need any excuse to continue window shopping the Bareknuckle website.

You can wax pot them at home – I’ve not done it myself but it looks pretty easy:

https://www.stewmac.com/video-and-ideas/online-resources/learn-about-guitar-pickups-and-electronics-and-wiring/wax-potting-pickups/

Nice guide, thanks 👍

I had also seen reference to wax potting but the how-to I looked at made it sound a lot more intimidating! This does look doable for DIY. I might give it a try.