Guitar Nerds Anonymous

Maybe I'm a bit out of the loop these days, but... My last band (coupla years ago) was pretty Copicat heavy and my mate bought a couple, one was £80 and the other was less than £60... He was patient tho' and bid on every single one 'til he got one... All were fine... Transexual flava tho'... ;]

Definitely the most authentic sounding piece of kit. If your mate still has them, tell him it wouldn't be a bad time to shift em with the Shadows reunion tour kicking off, those 60 somethings are obsessed!

Just checked on eBay... Fuck!?! Been thinking about getting one myself...
goes back to drawing board

^ Space Echo?

^ They've been going for big bucks for a long time...

Haha, indeed. The last one I sold (admittedly very clean) went for £800 to a Shad's nut. He came back a week later and upgraded to the VERY limited edition Charlie Watkins Gold copicat. And I thought old people couldn't afford their heating bills!

Digi reissue? Hard to tell the difference

Different pieces of kit. If you are looking for 50s slap back, and you have a valve amp then anything will do the trick, even a boss DD3. The difference becomes massive when you are doing longer repeats, then the difference in signal degradation matters. The copicat has the signature 'thunk' as the tape turns. Its so bad its brilliant.

Digi reissue? Hard to tell the difference

It is a nice bit of kit for live use.

@Dooks, if you are doing 50s stuff a compressor might not be what your looking for. If you have a small valve amp, I will assume you are pushing it to get a nice valve driven tone. Unfortunately you cant add much more in volume, it will just clip/add more gain.
What does work really nicely is backing off the volume on your guitar. This cuts the input, effectively cutting the gain on the amp. You wont lose much volume at first, it should just clean your signal. This is the old school way of doing it, saves you some money and the cleaner tone can often sound a lot nicer because the amp is still cooking without being overdriven.
With regards a compressor for 50s stuff. You would have to spend a lot of dollar on one that wont kill the sparkle that 50s music needs. A top boost will just drive your amp, an EQ pedal might work if your amp has a FX loop. Maybe try the BBE sonic stomp for added sparkle.

So you've never used compression as a boost? Hmmm, you're missing out I reckon! I think it works a treat. Especially one with a tone control because as you say, you can lose some top-end.

I get what you're saying and I think it might work with bigger cleaner amps (certainly did with my old Pro Reverb) but I'm playing a tele into a 30w WEM Dominator with a 15" speaker. It's crazy loud for a 30w amp. For the 50s stuff I run it dead clean but up pretty loud (with slap-back, reverb and tremolo of course!) and kick in the compression when it comes to solos or instrumental parts. It boosts the volume, gives it a nice smooth punch and really cuts though without breaking up. which is everything i need. I'm just after a nicer, less flimsy example of the same.

I've tried a straight clean volume boost and that tends to edge the amp into overdrive which (in this situation) I do not want.

For my other balls-out noise band I use similar sized amps and a clean boost into a tubescreamer for clean/a choice of two different drive sounds (just boost or just TS) and of course BOTH! for insano-sustaino.

I have an EQ pedal somewhere too. I'll try that as well but to be honest I think just adding signal (at whatever frequency) is going to result in overdrive with the amps and volume levels i'm using.

EDIT - sorry just saw some of the other recomendatiuons upthread. Will looky when I get home. Thanks chaps. Folky band rehearsal calling. Gotta run.

Has anyone seen or played a washburn r314kk. looking for a good folky acoustic....fed up with my eletric and spanish acoustic ones i have now. anyhelp would much appreciated

@Dooks, if it works for you, happy days. This is gonna sound like a right sales ploy, but i do have a BBE sonic stomp for sale as well as their opto stomp. Both going cheap as they are £100 pedals. PM me if your interested. The sonic stomp is an odd pedal- Its like taking cotton wool out of your ears.
The opto stomp is an otpical compressor, really subtle not like a dyna comp.

Get an old Watkins Copicat (less than £100 on the 'Bay), instant 50s with the right set-up... It's actually all in the fingers tho'... ;]

its all about the maestro echoplex. your all wrong !
i have one its the nuts. pricey if found though
not for 50s slap back mind...

Has anyone seen or played a washburn r314kk. looking for a good folky acoustic....fed up with my eletric and spanish acoustic ones i have now. anyhelp would much appreciated

Yes! A friend had one, or at least a model very very similar to it. The finishing on it was unbelievable and it had quite a rich baritone sound. Very nice guitar, really converted me to Washburns in a big way.

Yes! A friend had one, or at least a model very very similar to it. The finishing on it was unbelievable and it had quite a rich baritone sound. Very nice guitar, really converted me to Washburns in a big way.

I no looks very rich from the photos ive seen, must look even better in real life. Hows the neck on it? i noticed that the palour guitars have a point on the neck. Should be ordering mone next mouth i hope. How does it sound? baritone as in somewheere between bass and tenor?

Yeah his had the v neck too - not a problem if your technique is reasonably good. I think because his was walnut bodied it had a particularly earthy timbre, obviously its not really baritone but it just gave more colour to the bass and middle. Enjoi!

nah wont be a problem i dont think. Ah can imagine what it would sound like. do you no where your friend picked his or hers up from? i dont want to import it over from the us? thanks i will do once i get my hands on one!

Yep he got it from this unbelievably cool shop in Bristol. It's fucking weird. Imagine if Hilary Stone ran a shop in the style of Bernard from Black Books and you're halfway there. No guarantees as to what he's got. In fact, no guarantees that you'll even be let in. Or try this exclusive marketplace?

haha thanks for the help. Ah haha he is a nut case. love black books only thing good on tv id say. i think i will just give him a ring unless he has cut his phone cord like dear old bernard.

Good luck either way - stick a photo on here if you track one down.

Thanks man. i will so as i get it.

@Dooks, if it works for you, happy days. This is gonna sound like a right sales ploy, but i do have a BBE sonic stomp for sale as well as their opto stomp. Both going cheap as they are £100 pedals. PM me if your interested. The sonic stomp is an odd pedal- Its like taking cotton wool out of your ears.
The opto stomp is an otpical compressor, really subtle not like a dyna comp.

hmmm. interesting man, thanks. lemme do some researches ja? before i get into that though, when you say "they are £100 pedals" is that as in "to you guv" or "that's what they were/are new in the shops".

ta

al.

oh and cheers for the tips and thoughts. always appreciated. tis exactly what i was hoping the nerd thread would provide!

Yep he got it from this unbelievably cool shop in Bristol. It's fucking weird. Imagine if Hilary Stone ran a shop in the style of Bernard from Black Books and you're halfway there. No guarantees as to what he's got. In fact, no guarantees that you'll even be let in. Or try this exclusive marketplace?

this looks amazing!

Totally Dooks. Did you read this?

Popped in on a sunday afternoon, just visiting Bristol for the weekend. Old fashioned style shop stocked most pleasingly with vintage gear from floor to ceiling. Proprietor (steve? Gandulf/Roy Wood-you'll see!) most helful. Even though we were just window shopping he took us through three floors of his most cherished stock, you got the feeling that he wouldnt like to see some of these guitars go. Interesting items included some particularly tasty late 50s/early 60s Gretsches (duo jet and tennessean) some mosrites and guilds, and of course a staggering number of old gibbos. Amps wise he had a lovely condition tweed champ numerous twins and an old tan ac15. This shop is defintely worth a visit but its not at the bargain basement end of the market obviously. He had a particularly nice fender musicmaster guitar. A real enthusiast just how a dealer should be.‎

Guy obviously got him on a good day! We should do a shopping trip. Nothing is out on display, just hundreds of incredibly inviting old hardcases stacked up everywhere that you can open up and be jaw-droppingly staggered about the contents. FUN.

@Dooks, thats what they are in shops, Ill do em for half that plus postage. Im not in LAARndon.