I was talking to an employee at one of my clients whose day job is as a helicopter mechanic - a metal basher to be precise. But he told me he has a business on the side hand-building guitars in carbon fibre. He makes acoustics, solid and semi-hollow bodied electrics and mandolins. Everyhing is in carbon - body, neck and even the fingerboard.
I found a couple of demos on Youtube.
^^^
That's novel Simon. Does he nick the CF from old rotor blades?
Joking aside as I would imagine CF is inert I guess all the guitars of the same style/equipment would sound the same as opposed to wood which varies quite a lot?
I had an Ovation years ago. The company founder Charles Kaman was a helicopter designer/ engineer and the bowl back was made of aerospace type composites.
Kept slipping off my lap!
Cheers,
Neil.
I have been down the guitar rabbit hole again recently and come back up with a couple of guitars, so thought it only right to include them here.
The new ‘uns
That’s an American Original Telecaster Custom 72 RI in ‘Mocha’. The blonde one looks nicer but this was cheaper. It has a remake of a proper CuNiFe Wide Range Humbucker after Fender stopped using CuNiFe for magnets years ago
Fullerton made G&L ASAT Classic Bluesboy from 2016. Came with all the relevant docs and G&L case too.
And the old ones:
Custom Shop Telecaster Custom 72 RI ‘Closet Classic’
Quite what I need with 3 neck humbucker Teles is beyond me. But whatever.
USA Std Strat. Was black and white but I turned it all black to match the CS Tele
Epiphone Dot (335) with a Burstbucker and a Rio Grande Texas Humbucker. Last of the Korean made guitars, owes me £230 from Thomann in 2004 and whatever the cost of the Pearly Gates I fitted to the Les Paul I took these pickups out of. Also don’t panic about playing it like I did with a proper ES-335.
Patrick Eggle (not to be confused with Patrick James Eggle) ‘New Wave’. All maple, very bright. Needs fixing.
Martin HD28-V. Bloody love this guitar but would still swap it in a heartbeat for an HD28-VS or a D28 Authentic 1937.
Crafter Lite something or other. Bought it from a Cash Converters type shop in Northampton for £30. It had a pick up fitted and a hole drilled next to the heel for a volume pot, plus the top is coming away from the side around the bottom bout. These were about £100 in 2005 (because I bought one that I subsequently gave to a ex-girlfriends daughter) and rose to about my £215 by the time I found this. They sounded great for the money as it was probably one of the cheapest solid-topped guitars you could buy at the time.
Swapped out three of the chrome ferrules on my Thinline Tele for nickel ones. I use it for jazz mainly, and as some readers will know, the wound strings on a Tele can rob half-diminished chords in the lower register of some of their melancholy - unless you use flatwounds, but I generally don't.
I find that nickel mitigates this a little, possibly at the expense of a touch of sustain.
My wife bought me the Lazarus Epiphone for Christmas! I'm really looking forward to that arriving.
This will be my first Epiphone since my second ever guitar, a Epi Les Paul in 1994 (I have a few Gibsons now :) )
Hi all
A chap on facey markeplace advertised several guitars, All rubbish but one stuck out like a sore thumb even though the pics weren't very good!
This guitar as it turns out was made by a local cabinet maker of 27 years that also worked at Lowden guitars and Avalon guitars in Ireland!
It's prototype number 01, Looking at the makers website, He appears to have only made two guitars, This one was given as a freebie to his neighbour when he was moving out for putting up with the noise from his machinery but on the proviso that he kept it and didn't sell it!
I contacted the maker about the guitar, This is how I know!, Apparently after my email to him he thought the guitar may have been burgled from his old neighbour and messaged him to ask about it, The guy sent a load of guitars including this one to a charity shop!
The maker is understandably pretty miffed about it!, It has problems now though with a high action, It turned out that there was amassive underbow in the neck, I tightend the trussrod which has improved playability but is still a bit higher than the optimum!
I feel so bad for the chap that I probably will let him have it back
The guitar was only £30
By the way, I have replaced those skanky old strings!!
John..
Just curious to know what electric guitar strings people use.
For years I've been playing Ernie Ball hybrid slinky's (9-46) on longer scale necks and skinny top heavy bottoms (10-52) on shorter scale necks. However recently I've tried Fender Original 150's vintage nickel (9-42) on my G&L ASAT Classic and much prefer them. Extremely comfortable to play, great full tone and reduced finger noise - plus they don't cost a fortune and they seem to last a bit longer too.
So what strings do you prefer?
Cheers,
Gary
Fender Original or Super Bullets 10/46 on the Stratocaster. Martin Authentic Light or Martin Clapton Phosphor Bronze 12/54 on the Washburn acoustic.
Had a new incoming recently. I think I'm ready for my mullet now
Hi Gary, nice to see you.
I generally prefer 10's on Gibsons and 9's on Fenders.
The Les Pauls have D'addario 10- 46
The Strats have a bit of a combination:
70's Classic has D'addario hybrid 9-46
60's Classic has Rotosound 10-46
US Standard has Fender 250L 9-42.
I'll be honest, I can't really tell a lot of difference between the decent brands and tend to buy what is on offer.
Cheers,
Neil.
Thanks Simon, you obviously have stronger fingers than me!
Don't forget the skin tight Spandex!
Hi mate, good to hear from you too. Hope you're well in these strange times and give Dot a big fuss from me.
I only bought the Fenders strings as they were under £12 for a pack of three. Plus my Strat has Fender strings (don't know what sort) and it's so easy to play.
Cheers,
Gary
New arrival today, a Taylor GS Mini koa. Until I tried a few last week I hadn't played acoustic for over thirty years but I have fallen a little bit in love with this one. I particularly like the pattern/grain on the ebony fretboard.
Your memory serves you well Neil! I've had mine for a good few years now. I've tittivated it a little, but still haven't got around to the Gotoh tuners yet. There's a few pics in this thread.
F.T.F.A.
My recent addition - Gibson Les Paul 1959 Reissue.
Plays like butter!
Talking of Les Pauls, it always used to bug me how Americans called them 'Less Pauls'. I then realized that as the guitarist Les Paul's full name was Lester Paul, the 'Less' pronunciation is obviously the correct way (and of course the way Les Paul himself would have said it). Just one of those British things, I guess, along with Braun, Porsche etc.
Enjoying these Les Pauls. I went and found a picture of my old CR8.
I found an Art & Lutherie blue cedar top acoustic at bootsale for £50, Have to say, It was the best acoustic for the set up and tone that i've ever owned/played, Loved it right up til the day my son borrowed it forever!
It needed a pick guard, I put some real cheap coloured Chinese strings on and it still sounded good- Better when my lad played it than me!!
John
While I'm at it may as well post another pic of my '04 Standard I took recently.
Cheers,
Neil.
Fender Classic series, '60's and '70's models.
Cheers,
Neil.
This is a Korns! (Most probably a Korns from 2003) You can't believe what it says on the tin of course! A lovely thing (top of the range when new) and has sat since being purchased, many moons ago (still has the protective poly on the pickguards):-
A new set of strings and a fettle of the knife edge trem ("gold" arm still sat in its original sleeve, along with the allen key for the "gold" bridge adjusters!) and she is a very pretty and practical thing.
I "Hank"ered after one for a long time when I couldn't afford one! Now I can!
Last edited by tixntox; 16th February 2023 at 15:47.
My current 3:
- Gibson Custom Shop 1959 Les Paul Standard
- Fender Stratocaster Custom Shop
- Taylor 414ce Acoustic
Excuse the messy wires!
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