Guitar Nerds Anonymous

Following on from my last post here, just ordered a pair of Creamery Dark Line pickups for the neck and bridge positions. Just came to the realisation that by the time they arrive and I’ve got round to fitting, this thread (and all the others) may not be around to update. 🥲

I got a nice cotton one for my new SG after a lifetime of bog standard poly woven jobbies and really love it! Plus it's a nice red and black tweed that looks spot on on my red and black SG 🙂

I like the sound of those quick adjust straps. PMT have the brown cotton down to £19 so I just ordered one.

Thanks for that, just ordered one too 👍

Original Fuzz make some really nice straps. Very uncheap, however.

Anyone tried one of the Heritage Ascent range? The H-137 or the H-150 LP. Have to say for the money I'm tempted to get one just to see, it sounds really good!

https://youtu.be/E_H8PjvvAbs?si=gYPtj0fLEVIAfK7L

My rule of thumb with cheaper instruments is, if you can get your hands on it and try it (even unplugged) you will soon know if it's worth a punt.

A nicely made guitar with good playability can always sound good, worst case scenario you will need to swap pickups but on the other hands, good sound alone might still be coming out of a badly finished, unenjoyable instrument.

Add to that that on the whole cheaper=less QC and therefore less consistency, so you might get a great copy and a not so great one. Having said that, the guy in the video seems to be an absolute Gibson nut but also very honest in his assessment - if he's impressed it should be for good reason.

To add to the options, I have recently picked up a lovely Epiphone SG Classic (two P90s and full batwing pickguard) and I've been super impressed with how well it's made, how it plays and how it sounds. I believe Les Pauls STDs go for similar prices to my SG, so a second hand one should be around that 250, maybe 300 mark (I paid 280 for mine), so if you're on the lookout for a nice, cheap LP those might be worth a look too! Especially the recent ones with the much nicer headstock get great reviews and people seem to find them every bit as good as I've found my SG and might be easier to find one to try in person?

Thanks mate. I agree with all you've said. Might get a peach, might get a total lemon! The Epiphone SG's are really nice, I've had to stop myself several times. I've got an SG but apart from borrowing a cheap LP copy for a few weeks when I was about 17 (which was an absolute plank) I've never spent any time with an LP. Hence I fancy one of those Heritage Ascent. I might take a punt on one.

On a seperate cheapy note
My Squier Classic Vibe 50's Telecaster (bought direct from Fender for £258 last November, they're now up to £370 ish) has what I think is a bit of a dead sounding top E string. Open as well as fretted. So far I've done the following:

New strings
A replacement Wilkinson Compensated (Brass saddles) ashtray bridge
I've adjusted the pickup heights they are both pretty much level and same height
I've adjusted saddles to intonate. The three saddle setup is a bit of a compromise but overall intonation is pretty much there
I've raised saddles for action. It's probably slightly on the higher side but it's OK (I've played around with the treble side of the E/B string saddle, raised and lowered to see if there's a huge difference)
I took strings off and rubbed graphite pencil into each strings slot in the nut (I don't have any fancy purpose made nut lube or anything)
Finally I adjusted neck relief and took three 1/8th of a quarter turns counter clockwise (checking after each turn)

It's playing much better, almost spot on, but the top E still sounds a bit dead to me.

Any thoughts, could it just be as simple as a duff top E string? The cheap vintage style tuners aren't the best. Planning to swap them out for some Gotoh at some point.

Tele's with binding yes or no?

Yes

My favourite strap I've ever owned is an Ernie Ball Polyspun in Raven Black. Supremely comfortable but perhaps not quite special for a gift...

Could be the nut? Only contact point left to investigate... could be cut a touch too tight?

Could be I guess

Low E string buzz at the 12th fret too. Adjusted bridge height and truss rod. Wondering if it's a slightly tall fret. I don't have a straight edge, might have to buy one of the tool thingies

Dead sounding string could mean insufficient break-angle over the saddle or nut. Have you got a string tree?

It's funny you mention that. Both the B and the E are under a 50's style round string tree and both sound a bit muted when played unplugged 🤔

Fret buzz on the Low E at 12th fret was a high 13th fret. Knocked it back down and problem solved.

This pedal is superb

1 Attachment

Always fancied trying one of them.

/for people who play at home I can't recommend a Torpedo Captor or equivalent enough - pair it with a head if space is an issue and you have a real sounding/feeling amp which you can also take to a practice room or gig and records effortlessly.

They do an 8 ohm and 16 ohm version. I'm assuming a 2x12 Celestion valve combo would be 8 ohm?

I've seen those on the Soundgas IG page a few times. Looks really nice.

I’d been using digitech x series OD and distortion as my main rhythm gain sounds, but the distortion in particular wasn’t really cutting it and doing the “step on both to switch from one to the other” move hasn’t been great for me, I’m pretty clumsy at switching.

This has replaced the hot rod distortion, and I think will now sort my main rhythm tones in one box. Sitting the OD before hand in the chain lets me use it to ramp up the low gain setting a bit, which is handy, and it takes my boost and fuzz pedals well too

Got, got, need.

They always sound very nice when I hear demos of them.

I’ve just had a lovely afternoon rejigging my board and various settings. It’s got such a lovely textural break-up to it, and responds to the guitar volume really well (which I never use, but may have to start). Band practice on Tuesday night so we’ll see what happens with some really cooking valves

It really depends - luckily both my amps are 16ohm and the once I'm planning to build has a 4/8/16 switchable output transformer, but it's hard to assume. My AC30 has 2x12" Celestions but is 16 so always worth checking the amp's external out (or internal in some cases as there could be a jack linking the internal speakers in combos) but the back of the amp will always tell you what you need.

On the topic of the Broadcast - I've used the single switch one a couple times and loved it! Got a PCB for one in a drawer that I need to get populating at some point...

Oh, and I've asked for one of these for my upcoming birthday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-R4OHxQdIk