1

(17 replies, posted in Electric)

whilst I think you generally get what you pay for in guitars I think the manufacturing in far east and China has had a significant effect on the quality of guitars over recent years. The only thing that I find on the lower priced guitars is the quality of pickups is often poor.
I need another guitar like a moose needs a hat rack, I have Fenders and Gibsons etc but I liked the look of the Reverend range of guitars. Sort of Jaguar / Mustang shapes.
I recently bought a Reverend Charger 2x P90 for £269 (Special offer) from Dolphin music including hard case! The quality of finish and components is amazingly good for the money. It was playable straight out of the box. Sounds like a fat sounding Tele, no naff wooly sounding pickups here.  Cracking guitar for the money.

2

(4 replies, posted in Electric)

Southpaww51
if you are getting hums you may have an earth problem somewhere. check the earths on pots and jack socket etc. Also the screening maybe poor if the wires have been soldered on and off a few times.

3

(1 replies, posted in Other string instruments)

Does anyone know of a chord chart for Citern.
For the un initiated a Citern is a bit like a Mandochello / Bouzouki but with 5 courses of strings tuned in unison.

There are numerous tunings for Citern I use EBEBE or DGDGD.
Anybody else that plays one and has any info it would be appreciated

4

(87 replies, posted in Other string instruments)

If "Mandolin is Italian for "out of tune" Then banjo must surely be latin for un-tunable.

5

(87 replies, posted in Other string instruments)

I have been playing mandolin for a number of years and would advise anyone taking it up to learn the arpeggios and scales, actualy quite simple realy. It allows you to do the fills and runs inbetween other instruments. In fact I rarely play whole chords, single notes have a sort of chord feel due to the double stringing.
I have several Mandolins but my favourites are a Godin A8 Electro acoustic. and Pickard acoustic (with a deanmarkly bug in it)

6

(8 replies, posted in Guitars and accessories)

The Shubb has been my favourite for 20 + years. If you use classical steel string and electric guitars they have a model to suit. There is a flat one for classical a standard curve for acoustics and some electrics and a more radical curve for tighter radius electrics. They also make a special one for Dobro and Mandolin.

7

(7 replies, posted in Electric)

I use to have a Guitar shop I have tried the test with a whole bunch of Fender / Squier Strats
We had a bottom of the range Squier a Korean made Gold Series Squier
Mex Strat,  Jap Strat,  USA Standard and a USA Strat Delux. they were all plugged into a 2 channel amp and tried on clean and distorted chanels without altering the amp settings.
In terms of how they were to play the USA Delux won hands down.
But for all round sound quality all three of us that were there voted the Jap the best sound. The second best sound was the Korean Squier then the USA Delux then the Standard then the Mex then the beginers Squier.
But to conclude I bet if you tried it with another bunch of strats the results would be different. Because I think the truth is that no 2 guitars sound the same. Some of the sound is down to set up string type etc

I used to set up guitars for a living and within reason you can put pretty much any guage of strings on to your guitar provided you set the neck bridge and nut up to suit the guage. For instance I use 15s on an acoustic for playing slide guitar that I use in a C tuning. For this of course you have to open the nut slots etc
The differing alloys phos bronze or 80/20 etc seem to suit different guitars.
My Lowden sounds best with phosphor bronze 12s. But my Taylor sounds dull wth phos bronze and works best with Elixir 11s. I think the different alloys produce different overtones. Maybe the oscillate in a different manner, ask a metalergist.

As someone who has played for a lot of years ithink the range of acoustics and electrics for that matter that are great value and very playable is quite amazing. I suppose we have the chinese to thank for that. I used to own a guitar shop some years ago and the beginer level guitars are now much better quality than they were say 10 years ago and 1000% better than 30years ago. My best advice if you are buying from a shop is take someone with you that can play reasonably well and forget what it says on the headstock and open your ears.