Alexander

My only advice (from a newbie himself) is to make your first guitar a build, from pre-cut pieces a la Warmoth. I discovered there's alot more to making a guitar than just bolting bits together, and that was without any real woodworking. My 2p.

Holy crap that's beautiful!

I might have a go at it - it's a great piece of music. I'd be worried about ruining it by widdling all over the top, but I think I'll have a go and see what I come up with, if that's OK.

My first ever guitar was a Kay 3/4 sized classical, which I strung with electric guitar strings for some reason, cut my fingers to ribbons for about a year until I got my first electric - a black strat copy by Columbus. It had a black painted fretboard, and over the years the paint all came off and left the wood beneath. I played that thing for hours every day, it was awesome.

Could you have picked a less heterosexual way to spell heterosexual?

That's awesome thanks dude - what are the preamps like on the simon and patricks?

Thanks dude. What kind of price do Simon and Patrick start at? Having difficulty locating a UK price.

Yeah I would buy second hand, definitely, if I found something really yummy, like a well looked after Takamine or something...

Thanks guys - this is all good info. That Yamaha looks nice, especially in the translucent blue... Yum. Off round town this weekend to try some of them out, I reckon.

Hi all, It's my birthday this week, and I thought I'd treat my self to a new electro-acoustic. I play a lot of acoustic gigs so I reckon it would be a wise investment. I've currently got a real old, knackered up Ovation held together with gaffa, and while I like the sound, it don't play too good no more! I think the neck's warped. Anyway, I was looking for recommendations from you guys - I'm in the UK, and I'm looking to spend £300 tops. Any thoughts? And don't say "build one"!

Bravo! I just learned more about US history than I ever did at school!

I think it's wicked in a kind of SRV way - the union jack looked a bit weedy if you ask me.

Wow dude you totally schooled that guitar! I think it's safe to say that guitar is now your bitch. Isn't it covered in soot and stuff now though? It looks like some of that black might come off on your hands?

Thanks dude, like I say it's not in the same league as some of you guys with your power tools and actual woodworking, but as I've been playing it the past week or so, it's rapidly becoming my favourite guitar - I think this is more luck than judgement in a lot of ways - the second hand neck I got off ebay is really nice to play and the motherbucker has more output than I'll ever need, but it's great fun playing a guitar that shreds so damn much. The real irony is that this was supposed to be my "test" scrappy guitar where I made all my mistakes, and the 02 was supposed to be the "real" one that I'd take out on stage and have as my first guitar. As it turns out, the 02 still isn't playable enough (some of you may have read my thread whining about the high action) and the tuning isn't quite stable enough to use the trem (mainly due to strings binding in the nut because I've not done a very good job of slotting it), so that's kinda disappointing. But on the plus side, I WILL fix the 02 up to be a speed machine and in the meantime I've got a new guitar 100% to my own specs that plays like a dream and I'm really proud of that.

You could say that about Bob Dylan as well - every cover of a Dylan song is better than the original IMO I don't like BM personally, because he's used the same guitar, and the same guitar sound for about 600 years. And it's impossible to tell him and his wife apart. I like my guitarists to show some invention.

That looks cool! What are the switches and studs behind the bridge for? I presume they operate the octaver? I had an idea to put leds underneath a strat pickguard, then drill lots of holes in it, so I'd be interested in seeing your in the dark pics here!

No sir. I just used a normal, crappy inkjet printer. Then you lacquer the paper which seals the ink, before soaking the backing off and sliding the decal on. It's so easy, even I could do it! Which is saying something.

Heh, yeah - I didn't actually know when I wired it up to be honest - but what they actually do is turn each half of the motherbucker series/parallel, then the third switch puts the whole shebang in either series/split/parallel. I'm going to change it around next time I change strings tho, so I can series/split/parallel each half as well.

You can just use spray lacquer which does the same thing. I used the same lacquer I used on the neck/headstock to "seal" the ink before cutting the decal out and sliding it on.

It's interesting to speculate how many people name the guitarists from their fave band. Of course these kind of things are very subjective, no? I would list my top 10 but I don't think I can list 10 guitarists I like to listen to!

Doh! I've done it the other way round, with on-on for each pickup and on-on-on for the "master" switch. Oh well, something to change next time I've got the pickguard off I suppose! Thanks a lot!

I just wondered how picky you guys were about things like action, neck profile, strings etc... I've discovered that the better I've got at playing, the more picky I am about WHAT I'm playing on... Your thoughts?

Right! So if I've got an on-on, an on-on and an on-on-on, it will give me series /parallel on pup1, series/parallel on pup2, and series/split/parallel on both. Right? Sorry I'm a bit of a dunce...

I printed it onto some waterslide decal paper, and just slid it on! Dead easy! I can post a link to the guy on ebay i got it off if anyone's interested (already posted it somewhere else on here I think). The humbucker is absolutely evil! In a good way of course... the clean sound ain't too great, but I guess that's the price you pay. It's incredibly hot tho - I've had to back it way off the strings just to get a clean sound out of it! And yeah, the maple neck was a bit of a fluke really - it originally had a neck with a rosewood board on it, that I changed because it was basically unplayably cheap. I'm much happier with the way the guitar looks now. And it plays like a beauty, most importantly of all!

Yeah I read that, but what do the other two switches do in that case?