Reply With Quote^^^
That's the spirit!
But do stick with it.
Plenty of people buy one, find it too hard and then get shot. It's a most rewarding pastime once you get the basics down and begin an understanding of music.
My humble offering
Bought last week. The start of the slippery slope methinks...
^^^
That's the spirit!
But do stick with it.
Plenty of people buy one, find it too hard and then get shot. It's a most rewarding pastime once you get the basics down and begin an understanding of music.
Cheers,
Neil.
I had an SG, lovely guitar, dropped it on my toe once, heavy guitar.
06 Mcarty Trem with the PU's changed out
98 EBMM Axis (from right after they stopped making them as EVH signature models)
Bog Standard 09 MIJ 62 Strat (and my favourite guitar)
'10 MIJ Richie Kotzen Signature Tele (the Tele that made me like Teles)
My pedal fetish
Originally Posted by rapidboy
I have a Greco SG that is a really superb instrument. Cost me £320 and to be honest, I think it's as good as any G****n I've played or owned. I recently dropped a pair of humbucker sized P90s into it and now I can't find anything wrong with it at all. Easy fix and well worth it!
Nice collection there Tekbow.....those pedals!
Cheers,
Neil.
Thanks Neil :)
yeah, the pedals i'm inappropriately proud of lol can never have enough wahs and dirtboxes
This satisfies my electrical needs. Picked it up a few years ago for buttons, covered in grime. A quick spruce up and.......
Excuse the pics, found them in a folder of pics from an old Sharp GX3 mobile!
F.T.F.A.
Who's been at the Silvo Bob?
Joking aside, that looks lovely.
Funnily enough my youngest son has a Fenix Strat in the same blonde colour. Lovely player.
I don't know if you know but Young Chang used to make the Squiers for Fender in Korea.
Cheers,
Neil.
Treated myself to this 1993 MIJ Squire Strat this morning.
Cheers
Foggy
^^^
Don't tell me it was a boot sale find Ian?
Cheers,
Neil.
Thought that I would keep the thread going with a picture of my new Warren Ellis signature Eastwood tenor
This is my fourth tenor (previous Gold Tone, vintage Harmony, Souresy Tele and Ozark electric accoustic) and has by far the best neck of them all - the main reason I chose it. Most tenor necks are too narrow for my taste - this one is just right. I am finding CGDA chords a bit of a stretch these days so have taken to Chicago tuning even though I have a few 6 strings. Ordered direct from Eastwood - great service, with a number of emails asking about preferences so that they could set it up to suit me.
Looks very similar to a Fender Mustang that a friend of mine used to have. The body shape is not 100% to my taste but it is certainly growing on me.
Just thought that I would share it with you.
^^
Yes very Mustang-ish.
I am fancying a Fender Jaguar or Jazzmaster myself but really have to get rid of my Ovation first.
Cheers,
Neil.
Come to the dark side...^^
Yes very Mustang-ish.
I am fancying a Fender Jaguar or Jazzmaster myself but really have to get rid of my Ovation first.
http://www.fenderjapan.co.jp/products_jazzmaster.html
http://www.fenderjapan.co.jp/products_jaguar.html
Now.. if you just put the model numbers into Google with "buy uk" with them, am sure you'll find some lovely grey market stockists.... Just saying ;)
As a matter of interest, this week the Eastwood custom shop announced that they are going to make a limited number of SG tenors this year - availability subject to deposit. Ive ordered the Bigsby version. Should be ready in May.
dropped my Epi Lp in for a pro set up today, a nd a couple of reasonably priced guitars impressed me although completely different in styles. Epiphone Broadway and fender aerodyne stratocaster (mij)
Anyone have any experiences of either of these?
Cheers, would be looking for second hand though.
Quite fancy a Squier Mascis TBH as I am a fan but I hear so many stories of funny set ups needed on the offsets and heavy strings required kind of puts me off a bit.
Cheers,
Neil.
My number one
I foolishly sold my Gold Tone TG18 five years ago. At the time they were really difficult to buy in the UK and I had to import mine from the States - which cost me a fair bit once shipping and taxes were added. Well, being as Ive always missed it I thought that it was time to buy another. Fortunately UK dealers now stock them. I got this one from Eagle Music
Lovely guitars for the money - the only downside being that they no longer fit a pickguard to this model. Ive ordered a custom made one from a chap in the States though.
Custom 22? 5 way rotary,so not a mcarty or DGT. Lovely!
My number one
Yeh Cu22 with 5 way, WF neck and birds but standard apart from that.
Many thanx, I do love her
Wide fat is the way to go, great feeling neck
Not a great shot of all of them but see what you can spot :)
I see a couple of Jazz basses - and is that a Hummingbird?
Cheers,
Neil.
Hummingbird yep, and you can just make out the horn of a ES335.I see a couple of Jazz basses - and is that a Hummingbird?
You're missing a couple of P basses too ;)
My wife says I have too many, luckily I wear the trousers in our house! ;)
All you need to go.......
You carry a guitar around with you?
Seriously, that pic reminds me of those awful American ones that were posted on the old TZ featuring a cigar, gun and US passport.
Stick up some pics and info on your Gretsch.
Cheers,
Neil.
Friday the 13th was far from being an unlucky day, as I took delivery of my new amp, a Rift Amplification Tweed 5. I already have a great valve amp, my Fender Blues Junior which I bought specifically for the clear, Fender clean sound and the famous spring reverb. It produces beautiful clean tones but at 15 watts, it can become too loud for my neighbours. When the amp is driven, by turning up the pre-amp volume and reducing the master volume, the resultant tone isn’t that pleasant even at domestic levels.
I've been reading about Fender’s amp history in the obsessively informative book The Soul of Tone by Tom Wheeler. I’ve also enjoyed following a number of YouTube channels discussing the repair and building of valve amps, Uncle Doug, ElPaso TubeAmps,TubeDepotTV and BillM – the famous modder of Blues Juniors.
Having played through both solid state and valve amps, I find it fascinating to appreciate that valves, despite being a 110 year old technology, despite costing more and being inherently less reliable, produce better sounds. Playing the guitar through a valve amp makes me feel more connected with the instrument and the music. I’ve used the word “feel” and of course that’s a highly subjective statement, as is the argument about solid state being less responsive – but music is about feeling, not just what you play but what you’re trying to say.
There’s a directly analogous situation to watches. Mechanicals be they automatic or hand wound, are often said to have “more soul” than watches with quartz movements – the level of involvement is higher, your arm’s movement keeps an automatic wound, you hand wind a watch to power it, compared to merely changing a battery every three years. Again it’s a subjective point of view and most watch lovers would concede that a quartz movement is more rugged and far more accurate – but they'll still spend their hard earned cash on a mechanical. As it is with most professional musicians who prefer the older, more involving technology. Clearly though, there’s a place for both quartz and solid state, as with mechanical and valve, it depends on the task at hand.
I like the idea of going back to basics, keeping everything as simple as it can be and in terms of guitar playing, relying as much as possible on your fingers rather than effects to produce the music.
So after my reading and research, I knew I was looking for a lowered powered amp than the Blues Junior, so as not to annoy the neighbours too much and to enjoy overdriven tone when desired. Being a Fender man, it would have to be something from them. I enjoyed the idea of going old school which meant Tweed tone, for the sound as well as the aesthetics of the cabinet. The obvious solution given that list of parameters is a Fender Champ – the venerable, 5 watt practice / student amp, which Fender first released as far back as 1948 and revised many times until it was finally discontinued in 1964 – although it’s been revived in a variety of forms since.
I considered and found four ways to set myself up with a Tweed Champ.
First, I could buy a vintage model from eBay. There were several problems with this idea. Vintage Champs cost a fortune being highly sought after by both players and collectors. Original champs from the 50s or early 60s can cost £1,400 or more, depending on condition. Sadly for us in the UK they’re often located in the US, come with 110V US power transformers, so would require shipping and AC conversion. There’s also the doubt about who has done what to the internals since they were first produced. Like buying a pre-owned watch, it’d be wise to factor in the cost of a service, in order to ensure everything is as it should be. At least a vintage watch can’t electrocute you. For all those reasons, I decided the vintage option was too expensive and risky.
Second, I could splash out on a Fender reissue. For example, £900 would buy me a Fender EC Vibro-Champ – the EC standing for Eric Clapton who famously used Champs recording Layla and other hits. The EC amp is based on the original Champ circuit but adds a tremolo effect, which is something I don’t particularly like or need. While it’s still a doubtless excellent, hand built amp, £900 felt like too much money.
Third, I could buy an amp kit and build my own Champ. These are available from a number of suppliers and obviously cost a lot less than vintage amps or expensive Eric Clapton endorsed re-issues. I was tempted but was forced to acknowledge my own limitations. I can solder – although it can quickly become fiddly but I could probably follow instructions to build the circuit board. But I know I cannot work with wood – apart from screwing together Ikea furniture. I definitely cannot work with metal – chassis drilling would end with holes in wrong place and dangerous shards pointing at strange angles. I would have enjoyed making the electronic circuit but the final result would have ended up in a wonky chassis, stapled into a cabinet looking like an amateur duck house. In addition to the cost of the kit, I’d have had to buy many of the tools – so that option was eventually discounted, primarily on the grounds of my own sanity.
Finally, I could buy an amp from someone who knows what they’re doing. There are amp builders who recreate famous amps from the likes of Fender and Marshall, as well as designing their own models. One has to be careful, since some cheeky folk take a kit made by someone else, make up the amp and sell it on, sometimes transparently, sometimes not.
Then there are builders like Chris Fantana at Rift Amplification who hand build from scratch, not using kits, who keep as close as possible to the original circuit design, use quality components and hand pick the valves as a set.
I first noticed Rift Amps via their eBay channel when searching for Tweed Amps and was struck by all of the positives I’ve just mentioned. A 100% feedback and a professional looking, customer focused website increased my interest. The Tweed 5 amp itself was precisely what I wanted. The right power level for a flat dweller. A simple, traditional model based on the definitive Champ 5F1 circuit, which Fender had used from about 1956 to 1964. For a small amp originally intended for students, it found favour with professionals especially during studio recordings. So the Tweed 5 was based on a classic, newly built by a professional. Result. This shot below exemplifies how neat the soldering and cabling on the circuit can be when done right – trust me there are plenty examples on the web of how not to do it, they look like how it may have ended up if I’d bought a kit.
It was still quite a difficult choice to make. I already had an excellent amp but finally the lure was too great. The decision was made when I saw the offer of a 10% January discount.
Rift’s amps are hand built to order so it took four weeks for my amp to be built, burned in, tested and sound checked. It arrived on the 13th, at about 2:00 pm and lucky for me, none of the neighbours were in!
As with anything new I tested it thoroughly. I pushed it louder than I would normally be able or want to play it, just to see what the over driven tone was like. It’s “only” got an 8″ Jensen P8R AlNico speaker but the sound was awesome and much bassier than I've experienced with other amps with 8″ speakers. The sound is so much bigger than the size of the amp suggests, the open cabinet back definitely helps and reduces boxiness.
It’s difficult to describe tone without being able to hear it – I’ve nothing to record with – but the words I’d use are woody, clear, responsive and articulate. You can hear the pick attacking the string. It’s dry tone is not boxy especially when playing chords. I do like a little reverb in the mix, being used to the Blues Junior’s spring reverb. I don’t have a reverb pedal but my MXR Carbon Copy delay works really well with the amp. A gentle slapback setting on the pedal really fits well with the Tweed tone. I had a huge smile when I first found the perfect setting for my ears – the amp at 6 and all the pedals controls set to 9 o'clock. A great advantage of the Tweed 5 because of its 5F1 circuit heritage, is having two inputs. The first is louder for single coiled guitars like my Telecaster, the other reduced volume for humbucker equipped guitars. The tone in both is great and the quieter input will prove handy for practice.
The amp has three valves, – left to right – a 5Y3 rectifier (it converts mains AC current to DC) a 6V6-GT power amp and hiding in it’s metal case, a 12AX7 pre-amp valve. In the background, you can just make out the magnet of the 8″ Jensen P8R speaker and it’s cable plugged up into chassis. This shot also provides a good view of the clean, neat and solidly built, pine cabinet – finger jointed just like Fender made them.
I've probably wittered on long enough and will maybe put up another post when I've had more time with the amp. But I’ll finish by saying thanks to Chris for a great buying experience and for producing such a great amp.
Last edited by dkpw; 15th February 2015 at 23:12. Reason: typos
A friend of mine asked to see the valves glow - indeed they do.
Nice little amp.....sound just like the design of the two little amps I use as a stereo pair. They are called SJ Audio Ants. Based on an old Gibson design from the fifties using 5Y3 rectifier, 6V6s and a couple of others. I bought two; one with a 12 inch Celestion Greenback, the other a Cellestion Alnico Blue.
Lovely sound, if a little raw (not quiet, you understand) it chatters and hums along to itself! But a great blues tone. I use them split from a Vox Tonelab pedal, for stereo effects.
Paul.
Congratulations dkpw. I've seen those rift amps before, they look immaculate if pricey.
That said how much do we value tone and compared to most watches are fantastic value for money.
TBH I've been having thoughts about a valve amp but most are so bloody loud and a lot of the smaller cheaper ones are frankly crap.
Enjoy it.
Cheers,
Neil.
Nice setup Paul - I've seen some old Gibsons being refurbished on some of the YouTube channels, until then I never even knew Gibson had made amps. The Rift compared to my Blues Junior does have more hum when idle but as the circuit's based on a 50 year old design and being class A the 6V6 is on at 100% all the time, it's to be expected and it's certainly not an issue.
Thanks Neil. As you say, compared to watches, amps and guitars are generally more financially attainable, although I have my eye on a couple of Fender Custom Shop Teles that cost a pretty penny.Congratulations dkpw. I've seen those rift amps before, they look immaculate if pricey. That said how much do we value tone and compared to most watches are fantastic value for money.TBH I've been having thoughts about a valve amp but most are so bloody loud and a lot of the smaller cheaper ones are frankly crap.
Enjoy it.
It wasn't until I saw that Chris @ Rift had offered a 10% January discount that I was persuaded to go ahead but you do end up with a hand made amp and a lifetime warranty. Some of his larger models are certainly not cheap but can be on a par with current Fender re-issues, which of course are not hand made or adjusted.
About valve loudness, it's true which is why I went for a 5W Champ - old school and with a decent speaker - I was practising Wonderwall last midnight at low volume but still had a great sound.
I have 3 amps at home that I don't think I've switched on in over two years. I use the computer for everything now.
With headphones (required with sleeping baby in the house) I don't notice any drop off in quality and the ease of tone selection makes it a no brainer for me.
I'd quite like a bigger valve amp, but I don't use the HT-5 I already have.
I have 2 Blackstars. HT1-R, HT5-R. The HT1-R lives in the living room and is the go to amp for quiet rehearsals. The HT5-R goes out for louder stuff and works well.
I also have a Peavey Classic 30. I've had loads over the years but tend not to play much guitar professionally, so the amps I have are good for me. Guitars however...
While we're talking amps....you can just about make out my Carlsbro Fat Boy 30W in my photo i use for guitar. Great little amp. I'm totally sold on valve for guitar, I've had vintage AC30's, Silverface Twins and a Marshall Blues breaker combo in the past...wish I'd kept them.
For bass I compromise with the Orange Base Terror, valve Pre Amp for tone, solid state power amp for easy of carry to gigs.
Sell 'em or trade for watches?
Amps do take up a quite a bit of real estate especially if not being used.
Cheers,
Neil.
I'm running a Blackstar HT1-RH through a 4x8 Blackstar cab. Absolutely brilliant little amp and i'm rating that against an Ephiphone Junior (Head and Cab), Vox Lil' Night Train, Vox AC4TV, Blackheart Killer Ant, Marshall JTM-1H, and Orange Micro Terror. Does everything you need it to and it cranks up to a reasonable volume (no, not 'hello Wembley' loud). Great cleans, dirties up nice, i love it.
Like this...? :)
Close, like this....
HT1-RH, the last 'H' mean 'Head' rather than combo.
Similar to my Gretsch :)All you need to go.......
Our small selection
Slightly better picture of my TG18 - now with Taylor custom shop rosewood pick guard fitted........
Great sound for such a small body - considering that it is missing the usual guitar bass strings too. Listening to the recording that was made of me playing it in a 300 seater venue in 2009 I am quite amazed at how the sound punches through bearing in mind the grand piano and amplified vocals that I was accompanying.
That's better, now we can see them.
Above a radiator though??
Cheers,
Neil.
Quick!Above a radiator though??
I don't allow them to have the heating on that's what jumpers are for !
QUOTE=Neil.C;3430778]That's better, now we can see them.
Above a radiator though??
[/QUOTE]I don't allow them to have the heating on that's what jumpers are for !
QUOTE=Neil.C;3430778]That's better, now we can see them.
Above a radiator though??
You've done the cutting in but when are you going to get the roller out ;)
Of course - and very nice too!Close, like this....
HT1-RH, the last 'H' mean 'Head' rather than combo.
here's a couple of mine.
Les Paul...
BC Rich Bich I tinkered with quite a bit...
And a 339 that is now set aside for my little one, he might need to grow into it...
^^^
Les Paul Supreme?
Love the 339 - Pelham blue?
Cheers,
Neil.
hi Neil,
Yes and yes!
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