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circa 1984 Tokai Goldstar Sound

I borrowed a lovely '80's Tokai from my friend Andy (many thanks!) and did a mild set-up on it for him, so this is a great opportunity to compare two contemporary Japanese products.

Both coming from the period where Fender was left cold-footed by the demand for a historically accurate re-issue of the models from the '50's and early '60's that guitarists craved in the early '80's and had set up the new Fender with Dan Smith at the helm with a view to producing the Fullerton re-issue series that started in the early 1980's.


While they were setting up, they brought in companies in Japan who had been producing the models that so accurately brought back the classics and  Fujigen Gakki were employed to produce the Squier brand and the JV series for internal Japanese consumption.

This satisfied the demand for these models until the USA plant could start producing them in quantity.

So here is a sound comparison between 2 of these guitars - the Japanese answer to the classic Fender models.

I'm using a Carr Skylark and attenuator here also.

2017 Gibson Les Paul Historic 1958

The 1958 Gibson Les Paul model. Never referred to as a standard but now the recipient of a fancy new sunburst finish adorning the book-matched maple cap on mahogany body.  This re-issue has exactly the same neck as the 1959 model released the same year and these were termed 'Standard Historic' during a confusing time when Gibson almost went bankrupt. They were a revision of the R7/8/9 line called standard historic and featured period accurate construction.

Now sold this 2017 Gibson custom shop 1958 standard historic in Iced Tea VOS with a beautiful plaintop was fitted with boutique PAF replica humbuckers made by Monty's in the UK.

I owned this from new and it was in excellent condition. No dings or breaks and apart from minor wear from playing which is not really noticeable, it was in beautiful shape.

The standard historic line from the Gibson custom shop recreated the mythical '50's Les Paul models down to the fine details, using a long tenon and period correct construction with aniline dyes for the neck and back. These dyes were known to creep into the binding and this has happened to this re-issue also.

It was and is a great guitar and I hope the buyer enjoys it as much as I did. Only the Huber purchase made me sell.

1959 Gibson Les Paul Junior

An original 1959 Gibson Les Paul Junior owned by my friend Brian and showing the battle scars of the 60 years of rock'n'roll it has seen.

Featuring a one piece mahogany body and mahogany neck with a dark Brazilian rosewood fretboard, it has survived very well but for a headstock break which seems solid indeed.

Things I can see that have been changed out are at least the tuner tips if not the two 3 in line tuner strips and the bridge which is a Faber. It has been re-fretted by Bob at GuitarGuitar Edinburgh and he has done an excellent job with no visible rips or glue marks on the beautiful Brazilian board.

The Faber bridge is sat on locking posts which also have been replaced and have a nut below the bridge to secure it.

I also think the knobs are not original. The whole thing blacklights a bright green colour but the knobs don't glow as you might expect from an old Gibson.

I would like to own this actually and I'm enjoying playing it a lot. Check out the feature on this and my 2019 re-issue for more photos and comparisons.

Warmoth custom made T-Style

This is a custom built guitar from a body and neck from Warmoth in the US and features a quilted top and flamed maple neck with a raked headstock and 24 3/4" scale length like a Gibson.

It was specified for 2 volumes and a tone but my pal Brian, who owns this, got in with a drill and added the 4th knob and now it's a Gibson style arrangement with the 2 volumes being nearest the player and the tones in line below.

The pickups are a Seymour Duncan Antiquity Firebird pickup and a Creamery Broadcaster in a traditional Telecaster arrangement. He was going for a sparkling and punchy tone and this certainly has that!

I don't know any more of the details but it must be chambered as it's so light and the neck is super flamed. really nice to try this out for a few weeks.

Takamine EG-332C

Made between 1994 and 2003, this Taiwanese Takamine features a solid spruce top and rosewood back and sides. It's a dreadnought guitar as made famous by Martin and a widely copied shape. This one has a cut-away for those meedley meedley solo bursts which you are never going to do but it's there if you feel that urge.

I was lent this by my friend Brian but he wanted to sell it so I sold it for him to a good guy called Joe for his son's Christmas. It's been re-strung with 11's and comes in a solid hard shell case and features a genuine rosewood fretboard and Takamine 3 band EQ piezo electric pickup system which sounds decent.

It's got solid intonation and the action is not too high but does offer some space for hard strumming and a bridge that shows no signs of pulling the top apart. It's actually not really got any dings and I did look quite carefully whilst I polished it.

I did a demo too and you can hear the guitar in action with just a room mic out front and with the addition of the pickup and just the electric sound into my Fender Twin Reverb with an SM57 on it.

Check out the pictures in the gallery below and clock on each for a full screen view. 

2017 Fidelity Guitars
Double Standard

I chanced upon this one in the used section and despite looking a bit like a normal guitar brutally sawn by a child into an odd shape, I spotted some premium hardware. Then I spotted the bridge and tremolo unit and the ash body and realised that this wasn't the usual run of the mill guitar. I owned this for a time and have since passed it on again.

I think this guitar represents a viable niche for small custom builders. Harking back to the late '50's and '60's, this looks for all intents and purposes to be a guitar made by either a small USA company or even a Japanese late '60's model designed to cash in on the boom in guitar-based pop and rock.

However, it was made in Cambridge by maker Matt Oram and I believe in 2017. Now, prior to me buying this and then investigating it, I knew absolutely nothing about the company or the products but in the USA there are loads of small makers: Fano for example, who specialise in retro styled guitars with select pickups and quality hardware.

It had mojo pickups and that Goldfoil was the thing which drew me to the guitar first. Both Mojo pickups: a P90 sized Goldfoil and a Gretsch style double bar filtertron sized bridge pickup with a 4 way rotational selector which selects both uniquely and series/parallel in the inner 2 setting. The series is big and fat!

I sold it mostly because I am saving for a new purchase and because I have too many guitars. How's that for logic?

2015 PRS SE Tremonti

Never one to pass up an opportunity for another guitar demo and a proxy GAS relief mechanism without the cost, a work colleague owns this nice PRS SE Tremonti model and it appeared dead on the bridge pickup. Luckily it was just the flimsy toggle switch contacts and I used a light abrasion and some de-oxit to clean the contacts to bring it back to life.

These guitars are made in Indonesia for PRS and it looks like the quality is pretty high bar the crappy cheap switch. It has a mahogany body and neck, rosewood fingerboard and inset birds. A PRS favourite wraparound bridge offers compensation and I have found these to be really excellent for tone and for intonation. They are featured on Paul Reed Smith's own signature model, so not a cheap bargain basement option. Value for money is high on this. I'm not sure what pickups are in this but they read over 10 k ohm as a DC resistance and sound pretty hot to me.

I could say that the nut was a bit poorly profiled it's true but the string height at the 1st fret is spot on and the neck is great  to play on. I polished the frets and added some Fretdoctor to the board and the frets are maybe a bit cheaper feeling whilst bending with slightly more friction than a core PRS but really, that's nit picking. It's pretty good indeed!

Here's a wee gallery for you:

I recorded this with my Carr Skylark and you can see in the chapters which settings were used but it was firstly clean then cranked with the attenuator and then adding a Benson Germanium boost. This was the setup for recording:

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You can see the settings for the overdriven parts below. The Benson was switched in on the video where indicated.

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Fender Rumble 40

A budget bass amp, primarily aimed at players new to the bass who don't want a huge expensive Ampeg SVT 300 Watt monster and 2x15" bass cabinet. Cheap and cheerful but actually surprisingly good!

I sold this to a pal at work who is taking up bass again after some time away. I have my Aguilar amp and twin 1x12" stack and I don't live in a expansive castle. Yet. So it went away. A satisfying purchase and a recommendation for this great wee amp.

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I bought this for £225 from GAK in the UK and thought it would be a good wee amp to get started with bass as it is smallish and very portable. After lugging valve amps, this is an absolute pleasure. Extremely light indeed and could easily be taken to small gigs and jam sessions.

It is rated at 40 Watts and has a 10" speaker with a ported front baffle. It has undergone a revision apparently into a V3 version and taken on the look of 2 different eras of Fender amps: a pre-1963 Fender logo adorns a silverface 1968-1981 cloth with brownface era knobs on the top panel. Quite a pleasing amalgam of Fender aesthetics.

You can pop the front grill off using the wee tag at the bottom right but it looks really good as it is actually. Give a wee tug on the velcro holding it on and the speaker is revealed. Now, a 10" speaker may not be the first choice for a bass amp but it certainly is not lacking in low end and I was worried about that. 

It has a gain control and master volume plus a 4 band EQ section and a distortion circuit too which might be cool but I'm concentrating on getting to grips with bass at the moment so will explorer further on but it adds a 'rippy' tone for sure and if you want a Jack Bruce Cream style distortion, this will provide a close approximation. Having a low mid and upper mid control on the EQ shapes the tone quite a bit and you can really get a range of flavours from a poppy rasp to a low dub rumble. It was so cheap too!

It has 3 selectable voicing to select a bright snappy tone, a 'smiley' mid cut and a 'vintage' voice. You can also combine voicings so there is a lot of flexibility here.

This wee amp is great. It has a cool styling to it, it's got no odd rattles and pumps out proper low frequency and would be loud enough for small gigs. 

In terms of size, it is deeper than a Fender Deluxe Reverb and maybe just slightly taller and less wide. I tried to show comparisons to other amps in the slideshow but it is easily moved, so for practice you can bring it out from a bedroom or behind a sofa, plug the kettle lead in the back and away you go.

2004-2005 Fender Japan 1970's Stratocaster

A recreation of a much maligned model - the dreaded '70's Strat!

Crafted in Japan with R serial, it dates from 2004 or 2005 and was probably made by Tokai under the direction of Fender. Nice big Fender logo and all the later period features. Unusual now as Fender reverted to focus on the models from the '50's and mid period  1960's subsequently.

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This is a guitar I borrowed from a friend at work and I did a set-up on it and cleaned the frets and fretboard, adjusted the truss rod and put new strings on. All the fun of a new guitar but without the expense.

It's a 2004/2005 Crafted in Japan Fender Stratocaster and has all the features of the Stratocasters sold after 1971: A 3 screw neck and micro tilt neckplate, a bullet truss rod at the headstock and is finished in a nice vintage white with a slab board rosewood fretboard.

A very nice guitar! It has Gotoh tuners that I think are original, so that's not '70's Fender spec and a 5 way switch which didn't show up in the model until 1977 but it could be fashioned after one of those.

I have played some '70's Strats and they were all quite heavy beasts. This one isn't and I suspect it is made from basswood instead of the fantastically dense alder that Fender were using in the later 1970's.

It's a nice instrument indeed and I thank Mert for letting me borrow it for a while.

I'm plugged into a Fender Deluxe Reverb 65 re-issue in channel 1 set at 5 and play the first 2 part bit with the lead part into a Benson Germanium boost. Microphones are SM57 and Rode NT1-A into a Presonus Studio68C and recorded in Studio One with no added EQ or post compression or reverb. The reverb is from the amp and I use a Tone King Ironman II mini to keep the sound pressure lower.

2020 PRS McCarty

A 2020 PRS McCarty ten top in Yellow Tiger finish. A nice light back mahogany and bound fretboard with bird inlays. I really like the McCarty model. I tried the McCarty 594 and the custom 24 but the former was too Gibson like and the latter was purely PRS but I couldn't get on with the thin body or the tremolo position. So this came along and after some time, went away again!

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This guitar is from the 2020 range but has been upgraded by the shop to have a 10 top maple cap, Phase 3 locking tuners and an adjustable wraparound stop tailpiece.

I like the necks on the McCarty models. The 1999 one has a wide thick profile which is comparable to a Gibson but has its own feel as it feels wider. It's unique to PRS but can be confusing. In the current catalogue there are pattern thick and pattern thin and also plain pattern. Some models also have unique carves like the DGT and the McCarty 594. I tried the 594 and found it to be to similar to a Les Paul really although the neck was apparently asymmetrical, with more meat on the bass side but, quite honestly, it was like a Gibson. With the addition of the control layout and the switch, the 594 was not unique enough. If you have a Les Paul, then you already have that model.

This guitar has the pattern neck which feels like a '59 Gibson re-issue but slightly more V. It's a great neck - not too thin. The PRS pattern thick neck is on the verge of being too thin for me, so this neck is a grade up in feel. Comfortable for me.

This one got traded and I hope I don't miss it. It was so pretty but ultimately, I never got on with it.

 Sire Marcus Miller V7 Bass

The signature bass of the legendary Marcus Miller - a stylist without peer and a session great who long represented Fender but has moved on to partner with Sire from Indonesia and has taken on Fender and, in particular, Squier at their own game. And won.

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The Sire brand are represented in the UK by Andertons in Guildford, England and this is where I bought this bass. It is the V7 model with active EQ and features a swamp ash body, a maple neck with block inlays and a traditional Jazz Bass vibe. Even down to the pickup cover plate which was supplied in the box and I took the plunge to fit with my handy Bosch drill!

Here is the bass prior to my DIY shenanigans:

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And here it is after my careful taping off of the area and alignment on the pickup:

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I was always going to fit it as I love this look and it was the first thing I looked for in the cardboard shipping box after opening it. The bass came second!

So, the price was a bit more than a Squier but it has active EQ and takes 2 PP3 batteries - the sort you fit to pedals. There is a wee compartment at the back which has 4 screws and reveals the void for the batteries. I think they are wired to give a potential of 18V for the EQ system.

The bass is a twist on the Fender Jazz Bass. It's what Marcus Miller played before he went to Sire and I can see why he chose to move. Sire really have made a truly exceptional bass - not just for the money but in general. The quality is excellent and I particularly like the neck. It isn't as U shaped as the Fender bass I own and it feels very different but great to play. Very comfortable and the fret edges and fretboard are exceptional. The neck is maple and bound in black, with quite narrow frets but the edges of the fingerboard have been rolled to produce a really vintage feeling neck. I'm sure this is directly from Marcus Miller's suggestion. I think he has had a lot of input here!

It's light too. Much lighter than the Jazz Bass which I think is alder. Swamp ash is quite a figured wood and can indeed be light.

This one got traded through no fault of its own. I had 4 basses and this one was a hapless victim of circumstance. It never even got a demo!

Yamaha Pacifica 112J

One of the classic entry levels instruments of the modern era. Brand new they are £205 or thereabouts and this one was bought used by my pal at work for £80. Filling up my car with petrol costs more than that!

I offered to do a bit of maintenance and repairs on it.

Made in Indonesia, this features a real rosewood fingerboard which these days is a sign of prestige given all the Indian Laurel and Pau Ferro nonsense going about and an HSS configuration of ceramic pickups and a single volume and tone control.

I did some maintenance on it involving re-attaching the nut and feeding the fretboard with some fret polishing. fixing the electronics and the pickup connections to the 5 way switch and some wires which had fallen off the tiny wee pots and restrung it with 10-46 gauge strings.

I had to set the intonation and the string radius profile, which is 12" like a Gibson; quite flat for a Fender style instrument and it turned out to very playable. I didn't have the tremolo arm so left that well alone but did increase the length of the ground wire to the claw in the cavity.

It sports some rather nifty guards, reflective mirror pickguard and trem cavity cover to dazzle the audience members with and it sounds pretty good. 

I will return it and hope the owner likes it. I left the action as I prefer or a medium height as low action is unplayable in my opinion and makes a guitar sound really bad. I tend to go for the PRS McCarty set up which is 1.6mm on the high e and 2.0mm on the low E. That way the strings can actually ring out without choking.

Check out the gallery below and the video I made to demo the sounds.

2017 Gibson custom shop
'58 Explorer TV Yellow

I bought this from a great shop in Denmark I have bought from twice before and liked the look of the recent re-issues of the Explorer and Flying V that Gibson put out but not the price. The limited edition ones were fantastically expensive and the standard non aged variants released later were listed at almost £9,000! So, forget that and hence this...

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The Explorer is well recognised today. Not a moment of jarring shock. In 1958 though, it was different entirely and Gibson must have had a taste of an early batch of research chemicals from the Sandoz lab when Ted McCarty, then president of Gibson signed off the patent application for this design.

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Imagine the shock when this was brought out from the humongous case it must have been kept inside at the 1957 NAMM show! There was no Dimebag or Heavy Metal™ and the popular music must have been Les Paul and Mary Ford's agreeable jazzy pop at the time.

It made quite a stir alongside its brothers and sisters the Flying V and the Moderne. Maybe Albert Hoffman acted as a design consultant indeed.

It was made from Korina wood - very similar to mahogany and featured 2 then new Gibson Humbucker pickups, a volume for each and a master tone control. It also featured the Tune-o-matic bridge system and most models featured the droopy headstock that makes it quite tricky to reach the correct one to tune on the fly. As I have discovered.

Explorers and Flying Vs have been re-issued frequently but 1975/6 was the first time Gibson dipped their toes back in the Explorer market after the commercial failure of all the futuristic models from 1958. The Flying V had come back in 1966 and had undergone a design change with only the basic body concept surviving and Jimi Hendrix had used a custom ordered version in the late '60's but 1975/6 was the first time the Explorer came back.

This version is the most often re-issued style of Explorer and it is basically unchanged from 1958 but for the body wood. Korina is now seen as a premium hardwood and only now found on the historic re-issues as was done recently with the Collectors edition of a limited number of aged recreations with production numbers mirroring the original shipping figures. Needless to say, these were horrifically expensive and impossible to buy. 

More recently the custom shop have done Korina editions but, again, I baulk at paying £8 to £9k for one.

So this one is no less limited, having been one of the 4 colour variants of custom shop mahogany Explorers released in 2017 in the TV mahogany range of 50 each worldwide for each.

There was: TV Black Gold, TV Black Silver, TV White and this one, TV Yellow.

Just like the Les Paul Specials and Juniors, this has a see through TV finish over a solid one piece mahogany body (unlike the Korina custom shop ones released in 2021 I might add)

I sold this recently  to raise funds for a Two Rock Classic Reverb. I do hope I didn't make a mistake as it was really good!

1995 Squier Stratocaster Made in Korea

A guitar owned by my friend Ronnie; his first guitar!

I sought to fix it up and do a set-up, adjusting the truss rod, polishing and cleaning the frets and setting the action and intonation. I have bought a tremolo arm for it, a 6mm thread but we will see if it fits.

Quite the budget guitar but listen to the demo and see if you can hear any tonal deficiencies. I can't. It sounds great. The solid black logo made in Korea Squiers were the cheapest but although you can detect it's not the highest quality, it plays and sounds great to me.

The neck is very odd though. A beefy D shape but with the flattest fretboard I have ever played. Not my first choice to be honest but the frets are good and polished up nicely and there is no scratchiness or sharp ends at all.

2021 Lazy J20

A tweaked Fender tweed Deluxe with unique brownface era tolex and wicker grill cloth. Using 6L6GC valves and a GZ34, it offers more headroom and a beefier sound but still crumples nicely should you want it. 

This is Jesse Hoff's vision of the venerable Fender tweed Deluxe with the 5E3 circuit.

It's a 2 channel amplifier, normally featuring a pair of 6V6 valves in push pull and a single 12AY7 double triode with valve rectifier and 12AX7 phase invertor.

The Lazy J20 however has a pair of 6L6GC power valves and a GZ34 rectifier and features a plate voltage limiter (VAC control) and a reverb tank add-on plus Celestion alnico blue speaker.

Quite unusually, it is covered with brownface era Tolex and a has a nice wicker grill cloth. You usually see them fitted with the traditional Fender tweed Tolex and the standard grill cloth, so this one is nice!

 

It was nice up until the point it went on fire though. The mains transformer melted and I had to get it repaired at my cost. Plus the speaker disintegrated and then, later, the reverb unit started cutting in and out. I got it fixed but sold it.

 

It will be fine now but Jesse Hoff's sub standard build and dodgy design decisions left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

I won't be buying another of his products again, that's for sure.

I won' buy another one of his products again

It had a single tone control which is very useable and refreshingly simple. I have never owned a tweed circuit amp.

I play in the demo below, in order, a Gibson Les Paul Junior, a Les Paul and lastly an SC Relics T-style guitar, showing the sounds you can get with 3 different types of pickups.

 

The reverb is on a touch and I change the volume on the guitar only; not touching the amp at all for the whole demo. 

1964 Fender Jazzmaster

1964 Fender Jazzmaster with neck date of late '63. I bought this from ATB guitars.

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This is an almost mint pre-CBS spaghetti logo Jazzmaster in such good condition it might pass for new!

Frets are vintage Fender, so low but factory fresh. I did change the nut as it was too low and I could hear a dampening of tone due to the height above the first fret.

Clay dot markers on this L series beauty.

I have also added the Staytrem bridge and tremolo arm with collet too but have the originals safely stashed inside the original blonde case.

Quite a different sound to the Jaguar; more output from the pickups and a more aggressive bright tone but having the typical offset 1 Meg ohm potentiometers, a rolling back of the volume takes the edge off the brightness. I always run about 8-9 on the volume pot on offsets as you always have somewhere to go if needed. Beautiful tremolo system as always on these guitars.

There is some shrinkage to the pickguard as is normal for this original material.

This guitar is sold now. I consigned it with my friend Joni from JTKM Studio and was sold to a lucky guy in the UK. He has a good one for sure. Just the best condition Jazzmaster around I'll bet. Showroom condition. Plus it sounds fantastic!

I prefer the shorter  scale Jaguar though and I sold it for a price I was happy with.

Atkin OM37

This is a hand crafted UK made OM or Orchestra Model guitar made in the style of an old Martin. This has the same scale length as a dreadnought but a smaller body shape and is a fantastically popular body format. Traditionally, it shares the body shape of a 000 guitar but was made originally with a 14 fret neck  as opposed to 12.

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Atkin guitars are based in Canterbury in England and were founded by Alister Atkin in 1995. They have now grown to a small company of about 7 employees and they make some really cool and fantastic sounding acoustic guitars and now a range of electrics too.

I was looking at a few Martin OM and 000 guitars but they are really quite expensive and sound good but I asked guitarguitar in Edinburgh to get in an OM37 from Atkin to see if it was better. It was certainly cheaper and given the Dollar versus GBP issue, it would be cheaper and more cost effective to buy British. Plus buying British from a small builder is a thing I totally support.

I sold this guitar to Dan who can play it way better than I could. It went to fund my Telecaster Custom

The scale length is the same as my Martin but the neck is a bit more chunky and it comes with 12-53 strings as standard so it feels a bit easier to play. A Martin has a certain prestige but in terms of sound, the Atkin was way better than the OM and 000 Martins I played. Really quite noticeable actually!

It's aged with a nitrocellulose finish and a really nice selection of woods and a compensated saddle and a nice distinctive light streak in the ebony bridge. Easy to find it it's stolen!

In the shop I compared it to an Atkin L36 and I had a tussle in my mind as to which one was the better and I concluded that neither was better; the OM37 was more for me but that L36 was so sweet. More mid punchier but still with the zing and presence of the OM. What an amazing builder.

Have a look at their website and read about the company and their models: Atkin Guitars

I will do a sound demo but my thoughts are that, in comparison to my Martin dreadnought D-28 style, the Atkin OM37 is almost as loud but has a sweeter midrange voice. It doesn't lack in bass and still has that beautiful resonance that the Martin has - even just playing a simple D chord. When the note ends, you half expect to hear a reverb trail. So much harmonic resonance is going on.

Check out the demo below for how it sounds...

2016 Fender American Vintage
'74 Jazz Bass

This is an American Vintage '74 Jazz Bass made in 2016 and made to replicate the great basses of the mid 1970's. The era of Funk, Disco and Fusion! Things were as different from the '60's as the '70's  are from today.

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I owned this American Vintage Jazz Bass for a few years and always thought it was great. Period 1974 features and all the Fender covers too! A real looker. However, I want a Precision Bass for that 'thumpy'  sound and I sold this to pay for it. have a look at the photos and video.

2017 Martin D-28

In 2017, Martin guitars decided to refresh the model line-up with revised construction techniques and set about doing this with the venerable D-28 model. The other models followed in 2018 but this guitar paved the way for the Martin standard models available today.

Featuring the new forward shifted X bracing pattern - a bracing invented by Martin, this D-28 has non scalloped bracing brought towards the sound hole to accentuate the vibrational energy. It was rearward in the old days to avoid the tops popping off or something as the players went to heavy strings to try to compete on louder stages. Have you ever heard a banjo up close? It's bloody loud!

Other changes were the move to open gear Grover tuners, an aged varnish on the top and new creamy binding and most significantly a new neck shape: the high performance profile. This is the neck we feel today on all Martin bar the vintage recreations and it's a slimmer neck than previously with a modern taper and ‘Modified Low Oval’ profile. This is the profile on all of my Martins and I like it. It's not the neck shape I like on electrics but for an acoustic which tires the hand more anyway, it reduces fatigue for me. It's a neck you need to try. Any standard model now has this profile.

I did try a 1937 re-issue a while back and the neck got really fat towards the heel and it was tough to play and the V profile did my hand in after a while as there was no support for the pad of my hand. It may have been a deeper profile but the V just irked me even after only a few minutes of play.

I bought this beauty used and at a great price. It had been played daily apparently and you can hear the hours of play in it as it has a sonorous and loose bass but without dreadnought 'boom'.

It also has antique white binding, not herringbone and it has a simpler aesthetic compared to the fancier binding. Of course it has a Sitka spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides and non-scalloped bracing for a more forward vintage tone.

Whether all this makes any difference at all is unknown to me but I was told about the trade-in at GuitarGuitar and that it was something special and it was. I played it for some time, put it back in the case then got it out again. Quite a number of times to be honest and went back the next day to buy.

See the  demo below!

The Gibson Killer. Harley gets a buff!

There is a brand of guitars whose name is not spoken in the Temples of Tone™. 

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You can see that I have already added a PRS wraparound and the previous owner added Wilkinson Grover copy tuners. Rather crappily it has to be said.

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Ouch. Pretty hopeless really. So I started a wish list of parts I was going to buy. First off was the tuners and it made sense to get some Kluson style tuners as were originally on the guitar when new it seems from the ripped and tattered holes the previous owner left. Cue WD Music and some vintage style Kluson tuners and conversion bushings.

Remember - these guitars are all metric. 10mm holes in the headstock. Vintage style Klusons won't work with that hole diameter so you need to use conversion bushings to bring the diameter down to a smaller imperial diameter. This is what it looked like after:

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Much better! Cleaner vintage look and quality Kluson single line tuners. They fitted the holes pretty well. I just had to glue one bushing in as it was a bit loose. The rest pressed in without any problem.

So now the list was added to. I wanted to do the lot, so I bought:

  • Mojo P90 dogear pickup and paper in oil 0.022uF capacitor

  • TonePros wraparound bridge

  • WD Music bell knobs and thumb bleeder pointers

  • Crazyparts 500 kohm pots in TVT taper (which I had already left over from another project)

  • TinyTone tort pickguard and backplate made exactly as the Benton one. I sent it in and they copied it

I got the TinyTone pickguard and just like the Explorer one, it was perfect!

I highly recommend them by the way. Any pickguard you want they will produce an exact copy of. Fantastic.

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Now it was time to wire in the pickup and the new pots and capacitor.

Slight problem. The CTS pots were too big for the existing holes as the guitar had some Indonesian Alpha pots installed. So out came the drill and I set to work.

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I actually gave up and shot it with a replica MP40. Shut it! It's fine. You try doing it. I should have used a reamer but I don't have one.

It's all going to get hidden anyway. I wired up the new pots on a bit of cardboard first using the holes as a template. Just like the sellers online who sell overpriced harnesses. Tip: buy a soldering iron. it will save you a lot.

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The ground wire was already installed in the bridge posts which were M8 metric and I had bought a metric TonePros bridge so didn't need to strip them out luckily so the earth was ready to be soldered to the volume pot on the left and the pickup on the lower lug of the volume. I was going for '50's wiring initially and you can see the capacitor is attached to the middle wiper of the left hand volume pot.

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All installed with the pickup wired in. This is '50's wiring like a Gibson historic model as seen below in the graphics by Fralin pickups who make super P90 replicas. You can see the difference is only the connection of the capacitor with respect to the output between 50's style and modern wiring.

The sound difference is huge though. With '50's wiring, the volume control and the tone control are really interactive and the tone control has to be balanced with an increased volume for any effect and warmth to be heard. I tried it in '50's style but switched over to modern as it sounded better in this guitar. 

You can see above in the photograph that it's wired '50's style.

Note the paper in oil 0.022uF capacitor too. Very cool!

Every guitar is different though but I liked the ability to wind down the tone and hear an increase in warmth. It might have been the TVT taper in the pots but in the Harley Benton I went for modern wiring. All you do is re-solder the left leg of the capacitor to the bottom lug of the volume pot.

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The pickup was from Mojo and it's the first time I bought from him. It came quickly and came with a few goodies: a pick, sticker and sweeties which I immediately scoffed.

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The Roswell P90 was measured and compared to the Mojo. The Roswell is actually a decent pickup - made with an alnico V magnet and it sounded quite good. The Mojo reads a bit higher and I took a chance that the Mojo would sound better. Now for the embarrassing bit.

The guitar has a shim for the pickup to boost it up and in my attempt to mount the new pickup, I mounted it normally in the cavity. Then added the shim and cover, only to find the pole pieces were sunk below the cover level so I unscrewed them to be flush with the cover and it sounded crap!

No bass  and a horrible weedy sound. I was very disappointed in the Mojo until sense returned.

The shim goes under the pickup! Oh dear. Just not thinking really. With the pole pieces withdrawn from the magnetic field, all the tone drained away. So I mounted the pickup on top of the shim and screwed the pole pieces back into the pickup and used longer screws to hold the pickup onto the body. It came with short screws so I ordered Fender bass pickup mounting screws which had the same head but were twice the length.

This was a bit daft but bear it in mind if you have a dogear P90 that you want to raise up using one of the form fitting shims.

So of course, the pickguard and backplate were fitted too. I picked the multi-ply tort and I think it looks really cool.

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Next was the bridge. Unlike the Gibson, the Harley benton bridge posts are paralled to the body, so to get proper intonation, you need an SG Junior style wrapround not a 1958-59 style. I chose the TonePros because it has adjustable intonation and a locking system and comes in a metric M8 post configuration too.

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I didn't use the posts as it was already metric and just used the screw in part. The pointers and knobs fitted well too. All imperial CTS style dimensions. You need to be careful about buying the parts for a non USA guitar. They are mostly metric.

So. What does it look like now? How does it sound? Was it worth it considering I spent considerably more on the parts than the actual guitar?

The answer to the first question:

The answer to the second question will be forthcoming in my sound demo and the answer to the third is subjective but personally, I say absolutely yes. It is the equal of the Gibson. One more addition will be a bone nut as soon as Bob from GuitarGuitar finds a spot.

The Mojo pickups is super funky. In fact, the whole guitar has this vibrant squonk to it. A fat squishy sound that was there before the upgrades actually but has been brought out even more.

Hear what it sounds like now in my demo below!

The final icing on the Benton cake has been the addition of a custom made bone nut courtesy of Bob Mould, the person I go to first for set ups and jobs I can't do such as fretwork, nuts and all things luthier related.

He works out of GuitarGuitar in Edinburgh and is highly recommended. Also very busy but I suppose that is a good thing as an indication of how good he is. Here's the final puzzle piece:

2020 Squier Affinity Strat

Another guitar I offered to do some maintenance on. This 2020 model had suffered some neglect. looking at you Mr. Burns!

It had a notable concave bow which by itself made it unplayable but also was caked in Finger Cheese™. I had thought to bag it all up so the owner could make a tiny disgusting candle from it...

The frets were tarnished, the tuners loose. the jack socket rattling around and the strings were the original strings from new. Except they weren't new by any means.

Anyway, I like a good challenge. here's what it turned out like:

So the thing about this guitar is: it sounds fantastic!

It doesn't sound promising with ceramic pickups and cheap hardware but goodness me, it sounds great.

So much so I did a comparison video that says so much more than I can with words, so watch it below. I also did a standalone demo through my Friedman JEL-20.

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2012 Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul R6

This recreation of the transitional 1956 model Les Paul  features the P90 pickups from earlier years but sees a shift away from the single piece 'wraparound' bridge/tailpiece combination that was a feature of the earlier models after Gibson dispensed with the troublesome archtop derived trapeze arrangement seen on the earliest iterations.

The ABR1 and stop tailpiece was a new a much improved addition for the player and allowed a more accurate setting of the intonation and is still a mainstay of the USA range and the Custom Shop output.

However, this model has the P90 from the previous years and only really got the new Humbucker pickups from 1957 onwards, so quite a unique arrangement.

Soundwise, it has all the funky midrange of the P90 with the playability of the later models. The P90 really does sound good. It lacks the hi-fi qualities of the humbucker but has a certain funky 'honk' to it which endears this style of pickup to many.

This particular guitar is also on the way to becoming one of the examples with a greenish tinge to wear areas - a reaction to play which affects the copper particles in the finish. You can see this in the photographs above. Gibson doesn't make huge numbers of these models and even rarer is the 1954 style with the wraparound combination bridge and tailpiece and some say these sound even better.

I bought this from my friend Brian, who has a 1954 re-issue and although he is a Les Paul fanatic, having two of these was too much even for him, so he relented and allowed me to buy it from him!

I have since sold it to a nice chap from Edinburgh to raise funds for another more expensive Goldtop.

Watch a demo of this guitar below and remember to select 1080p for best results.

2010 Gibson custom shop 1957 Goldtop R7

A 2010 Gibson custom shop R7. The model is a re-issue of the model which preceded the Les Paul sunburst that aficionados cream themselves over: the infamous 'burst.

This was purchased from Peter at Guitarhunter.dk and had 2019 Custombuckers installed. I sold this to fund another '57 Goldtop.

This model re-issues the 'Goldtop' and, to all intents and purposes, is the same guitar as the hallowed 'burst that in original vintage form can command the price of a small house. Quite why is a question that only a select few of shadowy figures seem to know and often results in original goldtops being stripped of the finish in the hope that underneath there is a semblance of centre matched flamed maple onto which a sunburst finish can be sprayed. This of course results in a many fold increase in worth and the concept of a 'conversion' whereby a perfectly respectable older model is bashed into the shape of a 1958/59 model in order to either dupe a gullible purchaser or to satisfy the cravings for this magical unicorn guitar that apparently conveys mystical powers and authentic mojo™

This is a lovely example of a re-issue sold with Burstbucker 1 and 2 pickups and a lightback finish.

The Burstbuckers sound fine. Quite mid heavy but a good sound. However, this was purchased with the intention of trying out some modern PAF re-issues and I have a test with Gibson Custombuckers, OX4 and Creamery sets, the outcome of which has resulted in one of them staying in!

Have a look here to see the test.

After the test I fitted aged hardware from Crazyparts in Germany: an aged ABR-1, stop tail with studs and thumbwheels. I also have new knobs from the same place to replace the current ones as one of them is cracked. In went some 2019 Alnico III Custombuckers too.

I also fitted some new potentiometers from Crazyparts with a soft taper.

Notable on this is the absolutely huge C shape neck. Just massive. It's a completely different neck to the '58 and '59 re-issues I have and even bigger than the 1968 re-issue too. It takes a bit of getting used to.

2017 Fender '51 Nocaster Heavy Relic

A 2017 Fender '51 Nocaster in a very nice heavy relic finish. A lovely chunk of ash can be seen beneath a very thin blonde finish. Just so cool!

It features a 65 C neck, a Seymour Duncan Antiquity humbucker in the neck position and a 51 Nocaster bridge pickup and I haven't seen many of these at all. It seems an oddity in the catalogue so it's quite unique.

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The Fender Broadcaster was Leo Fender's gift to the gigging country musician. Light and easy to plug into one of his new amplifiers, it allowed the musician to play without feedback and attain a level of clarity that freed up an entirely new style of play with single notes and double stops, resulting in the chicken picking sound we all know.

But dastardly Gretsch came along and complained about the Broadcaster model name, citing their largely forgotten drum model that shared the moniker but spelled with a K as in Broadkaster.

Confusing right?

You walk into a store in 1951 and order a BroadKaster drum set and end up buying a new fangled electric guitar. A very easy mistake to make.

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However, the law suit didn't happen and Leo Fender changed the logo on the guitars by snipping off the Broadcaster bit and for a time, the model wasn't designated by a name - hence 'Nocaster'. 

That's what these originals are known by now. Soon the model was renamed as Telecaster which was better anyway as it fitted in with the technology obsessed 1950 vibe and was matched well with the super space-age Stratocaster in 1954.

In 1951 though, the Nocaster existed and this is a representation of it. 

Featuring slotted screws throughout and beefy, fat single coil pickup in the bridge position, this model plays with the history and has a '65 style Strat C neck. Quite chunky but without the soft V shape that the other '50's Fender re-issues have and most notable, a Seymour Duncan Antiquity humbucker in the neck position. This is a PAF style addition which found its way into many guitars as a modification and Fender have seen to imagine this guitar as a well used, heavily played recreation.

I was gifted this guitar by my friend Brian and I am very grateful for his generosity. I was going to refuse but look at it!

So I accepted. It sounds amazing. The humbucker adds a depth that the stock pickup hasn't got and turns the middle selection into a beefy but zingy delight.

Thanks Brian!

I have done a demo you can watch below. Select 1080p for the best sound!

Broadcaster Replica

This was an auction bought guitar from Gardiner Houlgate, an auction  site based near Bath England. I spotted it in the catalogue and was impressed at the level of detail: great looking aged finish, what appeared to be a onee piece ash body and a whole collection of slotted screw hardware. I decided on a maximum bid and entered the fray on the day. I was at work but work can wait right?

Anyway, a few tense moments later and I was successful at my maximum bid. I was helped to organise a courier by Gardiner and Houlgate and awaited receipt of the guitar. It looked like this:

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The description was as follows:

 "Good Broadcaster type Partscaster electric guitar, comprising Fender and other parts; Body: butterscotch finished body, relliced to a high standard, body manufacturer unknown; Neck: Fender 50s style maple board neck with rellicing Frets: good; Electrics: working, pickups appear to be vintage reissue Fenders, CTS pots dating to 1992; Hardware: Kluson style tuners, age correct replica barrel knobs, aged control plate and bridge plate, black guard and screws also aged; Case: Fret King gig bag; Wight: 3.39kg; Overall condition: good "
 

Immediately I didn't like the neck. Very very thin and not like a what I assumed was an early Fender neck shape. No matter, I continued on and plugged it in to discover the neck pickup was open circuit, although it made sound. It was obviously a 'zombie' pickup; no bass at all and a very quiet thin sound resulting from only an inductive coupling in the coil where a complete resistive circuit should have been measured. I removed it and, sure enough it was open circuit.

However, the bridge pickup was fine at just over 7k ohms and I figured the rest of the guitar was quite nice.

Even better when Luke Hobbs, the Gardiner and Houlgate guitar expert offered me the refund of the saleroom fee which was 25% of the hammer price. Very good indeed and kudos to Luke for that. It brought the price down to my maximum bid price of £600.

So I decided to go full throttle on this one.

I got in touch with Scott Cameron of Golden Era Guitars and asked him if he had any chunky Telecaster maple necks and he had an Allparts TMO-FAT neck which he would sell to me finished with nitro, aged and with nut, frets and tuners, ready to put on. This is a chunky 1" to 1" first to 12th fret neck. 

I have the new neck now and have it installed. It wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be as the neck pocket was slightly too narrow, so after some cursing and feverish sanding, I was able to get it on and aligned. Just goes to show that all parts are not  created equal. I suspect the body to be at fault here but it all worked out so all is good.

The thing is, this Allparts FAT neck is massive!

I wasn't sure how big it was going to be and people warned me, even Scott at Golden Era Guitars where I bought it but did I listen?

Of course not.

Look at this...

Oh boy. That is one beefy neck. It's also a huge 'C' shape so big fat shoulders too. It's honestly the biggest neck I have ever played. Feels OK though I think.

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Scott at Golden Era Guitars did a really great job on the nitro finishing and the subtle ageing and I think it sounds better.

I did a follow-up video therefore to try and record if any significant change was noticeable and you can see the video below. Watch in 1080p for the full affect.

Of course, the neck was too big for me in the end and my other Partscaster Tele was much better so this one was sold. It's really good though and I hope the new owner enjoys it.

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