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If you can find a Copicat that works for less than £100 I'll have 5!
(ready's spoon for serving of humble pie)

And probably more controversially, get an old 90s danelectro and use the neck pickup. Its all the 50s sound you could ever want without blowing your brains out on a Gretsch.

@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.

My first espresso machine was a second hand Gaggia classic that was apparently broken. £2.50 on a new group head seal fixed it. Id say thats what probably wrong with your machine, but I guess woolworths group head seals might be slightly harder to come by.
I used a CKS manual grinder, and apart from the time it took, I was happy with it. Easy to adjust and got fine enough for espresso.
The Gaggia classics are sturdy enough and replaceable parts easy enough to find that a second hand buy shouldn't be a worry.

Think of all those wooden lats used in ladders that blokes would be up and down all day with hods full of bricks on their backs. They wouldn't want them to fail would they? Of course they have been replaced with ali ladders, but they worked well enough for long enough. I think they are more than strong enough.

If possible, ask the company sending the item to mark the cost of postage on the box too. I got some stuff sent from America and was informed that I had to pay VAT on the postage cost, and as there was no sign of that cost, they estimated it at £38 (actually £7).
One company in America that I have ordered from was wise to this and marked all contents as second hand gifts (not cycling gear, guitar stuff). I guess they are only risking the loss of profit if the item goes missing, they can only claim for the loss of the second hand gift as apposed to the posh stuff that was actually sent.

How do jammy? Im that other guitar building geezer that was at the bike jumble in Leeds. I made a few wooden bars out of various different timbers. My strength and load testing wasn't so scientific, I just jumped on the fuckers. They didn't break. I laminated mahogany with walnut (straight grain mahog with harder but less uniform walnut) and got some fairly stiff wood, fnarr.
How are you going to bend them? I laminated mine first, then turned them, then attempted to steam them very unsuccessfully. Either the wood got hot enough and the it de-laminated or it wasnt hot enough to bend.....

Im on the hunt for a 90s USA P-bass. Specifically looking for bright red (torino red is its current name but i don't know what they called it in the 90s, poss moroccan or dakota) with rosewood board.
Im sure I can remember every stonewashed denim pop rock band in the 90s playing them, but they seem to have disappeared into the bad taste vaults.
If anyone has one, or sees one in a shop, please PM me. I am interested in other colours if anyone see's anything thats in just as bad taste.

I'm troubled by the opportunity to swap a slightly sentimental Gibson LP Standard for this:

Argh.

How old is the Les Paul? If its 90s, then keep hold. If its 80s swap it. Both Ricky and LP will hold their value, but if its a 90s LP Std then it will start going up in value faster than most in the coming years.

How is the tokai junior? Was thinking of getting hold of one of those. Did you get a reply from the ivory guys?

I recently bought some Royce hubs. My order was delayed. Not because of some problem with the shipping dept or because he was waiting for parts from China, but because he was busy sorting out hubs for a national charity cart race. This made me quite happy to wait!
Royce seems to me to be one of the few, true 'bloke in his shed' style companies making quality kit.

The Logan is probably worth around the £400 mark if its working. We haven't sold a Pianovox in our place for a while so i can't give you a very accurate price.

Oh, and he came in second on the Hot Laps comp after what apparently had been one hell of a late night in the hospitality lounge at the Bike Radar HQ. That was against some fairly decent riders who had spent the last month training for it.
No idea about tickets, it all seemed a little ad hoc. He just decided to tell everyone his intentions and when asked where he was going to do it, replied 'erm, well moscow is the best place to do it, but if its gonna be anywhere its got to be the home of british cycling, Manchester.'
Plus, if i knew, i wouldn't tell cos i want to go, and you'll all beat me to the ticket hotline.

I just got back from Bike Radar Live festival. I saw Obree and Stephen Roache being interviewed. Obree confirmed he will be aiming to go for the hour record in October/November time, but has no fixed date. Even better, he will be attempting it at Manchester! He said his first consideration was Moscow, because the steeper banking there leant itself to the hour record. However he wanted to keep it an entirely British affair. Good Lad!

Cheers Mooks, Ive been grinding my own, but not roasting. I guess the Gaggia at that sort of money is better at making coffee than I am. Ebay here i come.

I've been using a stove top for ages now, but I fancy an espresso machine. What are your recommendations for between £100 to £150 new or likely second hand prices?

I have standard 32 spoke on the miche low-flange and they are a noticeably smoother ride than the V's, but I would definitely not say they were spongy. I live in a very hilly area, so i put them under a fair bit of stress, I haven't experienced any flex. I don't think going down to a 28 on the front would make that much difference for normal riding.

I've recently had some of these built up, so far a very nice ride, a lot less harsh than the deep V's I had before, not so confident about giving them as much abuse as the V's though.http://www.bicyclemagic.com/product/1442/DRC_700C_Classic_Alloy_Double_Eyelet_Rim

Big Kudos to Sam and Mule! Really good piss up, and apparently there was some kind of racing involved.
Great vibe though, everyone was really friendly. Maybe next time i wont try buying rounds with the biggest guy at the event, riding to the station after huka's felt like i was in some kind of starwars X wing scene!

nice one!

I'm gonna be making some mallets for the lads up here in Leeds. I used to work at a ski place so I'm tapping up a mate for some ex rental ski poles. Whats the best way of attaching the pole to the gas pipe? Seen some on here that look like it has a nail knocked through. Any tips?

Long time no ride wi you guys, i better make the effort! I'll come take some more pics.

Ayup Tom, did i tell you i build guitars? I was thinking about experimenting with building some rims. If you want to help me out with a bit of technical input you can have the proceeds. Get back to me on fgleeds.

At least tell us when you've finished knockin one out! Don't leave us hanging. How was it?

Multiple voted, just pushed it from 14% to 15%.