I just bought a guitar is it rubbish?

Speaking of Teles…just discovered the American Ultra which replaces the Elite. I should hate it, but it’s totally got under my skin.

I’d have to sell three guitars to justify it and would likely still be financing a good chunk depending on what I got for them.

1. Epi Firebird (the good, ‘Inspired By Gibson’ one). It’s cool AF but is that big in the case I almost never get it out. Still, I always wanted one.

2. Vintera 70s Tele (with faux WRHB in the neck). A really great guitar, that has upgraded wiring and a non-standard phase split, but I’d have to shed a Tele to justify and my Baja goes nowhere.

3. Epi 56 Gold Top Standard (double P90s). Again I love this guitar - I’ve upgraded both the guts have all been upgraded as has the bridge. But I have a JJN Les Paul and a Gibson Standard.

Would I regret it? I’d still have a decent number of guitars left.

Wise choice

After owning a Dean Evo XM for 14 years (and not doing nearly enough with it), this year I've finally started putting in some more serious practice. To reward myself for sticking with it I bought myself a Harley Benton CST24T (Thomann.de house-brand)
It's a PRS knock-off, but at less than a third of the price of a real PRS and it looks absolutely stunning (Ocean Flame, a greenish blue). It even played great right out of the box (to me at least). I've always wanted a PRS, but given my "level" of playing I could never justify to myself (or my wife ) to buy one. I'm amazed by the quality of such a "cheap" guitar.

And then I also bought a Nux Mighty Plug Pro headphone practice amp, which is brilliant for "silent" practice.

Yeah, it's not rubbish, it's bloody great:



And one for Quaddy, I also bought a bass a couple of months back. Which probably is rubbish, but was incredibly cheap and does the job:

elstoof the tone is spectacular.

Now I just need to learn to play good 😁

I’m absolutely being hit by GAS at the mo.

Have been playing my American Special Strat all week, and have been inspired to actually woodshed and get back some of the skill and knowledge I’ve neglected for a couple of years.

I think the instrument has reached the peak point where they get to after a few years and a certain number of hours and they are worn in. It feels like putting on your comfiest old jeans.

The ma-hoo-sive CBS headstock, satin finished maple neck, I love it, and have finally come to quite like the huge fretwire on it as its own thing.

But now I want one in Olympic White which is just ridiculous. No production models appear to have the big headstock, so I’d have to Mod Shop it, which again is ridiculous.

Send my credit card thoughts and prayers or contact my loved ones to stage an intervention please.

In other news I’ve been enjoying my Mono ‘The Tick’ bag, although have found it very overpriced for what it is. My Mono double gig bag also cost a sh*t ton, but you can feel the quality there. The Tick is still a decent bit of kit but it doesn’t feel as premium as the bag it’s on. However, I’ve found this little extra boxy bag clinging to the neck portion and I’ve found it very useful at both practices and gigging. Apparently a common thing is the Velcro straps failing over time so I’m going to be careful to remove it as little as possible and hope that this prevents it.

At my recent gig it had charging leads, my tie, sandwiches, a bottle of Volvic, set list, spare plectrums, ear plugs, my sunglasses (it was bright in the car!) and other ephemera in it. There’s also a pocket with sleeves I had a vape and my nail clippers in (for some reason the nail on my middle finger always grows rapidly and gets in the way of E-form chords). Basically it was really handy having a ‘bits bag’ attached to the case really tidily without having to handball another bag in. Recommended with the caveat that it’s a bit of a rip off if you have a compatible case.

I’m gassing for a Squier Classic Vibe Jaguar, of all things. Gas is wild

I don’t really get on with Fenders and offsets have never been on my radar, but my daughter wants to learn a bit of guitar so the scale might be better for her hand size. Now I’m PUMPED at the idea of one. It’ll be good to put one on tick to work on my credit history here too, at least that’s my man math justification

I wish I still had my first guitar, Epiphone Les Paul from about ‘96. Bolt on neck, pretty sure it was a bit of a clownburst finish and the humbuckers were probably singlecoils

Well it finally arrived. Definitely some sort of backlog issue with DPD, and it just turned up with no time slot text in an unmarked van - reckon they’ve had subcontractors in to help. Anyway…



It’s wonderful. The shaved heel joint isn’t as big a deal as they’ve made out, but the neck is amazing to play. It’s satin on the back too. Trem is the most responsive I’ve ever tried that didn’t have Floyd written on it. Pickup tones are Uber Strat and it has options for bridge/neck as well as all three.

I wasn’t expecting *quite* so much metallic flake in the paintwork but it’s very nice. Quite stunning against the mint green pick guard in the flesh. I don’t think the colours are quite right on this photo.

I’ve not pulled the cellophane off yet as I’ll leave it until I replace the tuners with a set of locking ones, and get these puny 9s off the thing. However I’ll play it for a few days before that.

Got three of the things now, probably need a Tele to balance it out. I only have two

I did like Morello’s l, but Nuno was tasty as ever there.

Tell you who would have made it better - Noel Gallagher.

That was quite a necro post from August!

HNGD El’s youngling.

Chance to form any impressions of sound etc yet?