Tone. At Home.
#CoffeeAndKlon is my occasional Sunday magazine-style series, where I talk about whatever’s on my mind about guitars, gear, music and yes, sometimes my love of both coffee and the Klon pedal.
If tomorrow was going to be your last day on Earth, and you could spend it playing just one guitar rig (that you already own), what would you be playing?
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 30: My “Last Day On Earth” Rig”Got a short-but-sweet one, for anyone who’s after an alternative to the mighty Gibson Les Paul.
Andertons have just posted a video introducing Heritage Guitars’ Standard Series to their audience. Have a listen!
In terms of tone, I reckon it’s all there. To my ears, the H150 model sounded like a good Les Paul.
Let me know if you agree or not, in the comments below.
Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what guitars I’ve had my hands on, and what I’ve learned from the experience.
This post covers guitars I play at home for fun. I’ll cover the guitars that I gig with on Wednesday.
Previous articles: [2019]
Continue reading “2020 Review: Guitars For Home Playing”This conversation was originally posted to my Twitter feed.
Good morning, pedal fans. Let’s do another #CoffeeAndKlon. I haven’t done one of these in ages.
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 28: Three Stores, Three Stories”I’m really not a fuzz kind of person. They pickup and amplify all of the noise on the dirty electricity we have here. I don’t enjoy playing through spitty, broken tones. And about the only time I use the bridge pickup on my Strat is to make sure it’s still there.
So what am I doing with one? And what do I think of Fender’s latest fuzz pedal?
Continue reading “First Impressions: Fender’s The Trapper Fuzz Pedal”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what guitars I’ve had my hands on, and what I’ve learned from the experience.
This post covers guitars I play at home for fun. I’ll cover the guitars that I gig with on Thursday.
Continue reading “2019 Review: Guitars For Home Playing”By now, you’ve probably heard of Gibson’s notorious #PlayAuthentic PR and legal stunt.
If you haven’t … basically, Gibson published (and then pulled) an official video saying that the only authentic Les Paul is one made by Gibson, and that they were coming after other people who make similar guitars. Very shortly afterwards, there was a lot of publicity about them suing the owners of Dean Guitars, and then their failure to trademark aspects of the flying V body shape in Europe.
It was the beginning of a PR nightmare that’s still continuing to this day, as the new Gibson management continue to lurch from one PR misstep to another.
There’s been some backlash, especially in the form of ridicule. As always, there’s been some folks loudly declaring that they’ll never buy another Gibson, but mostly it’s served to knock the shine off the mid-2019 relaunch of the Les Paul.
Continue reading “#PlayAlternative: The Search Begins”This conversation was originally published on my Twitter feed.
This evening, I’m enjoying something a little bit different – a Mad Professor Big Tweedy Drive pedal. Boosting it with a Klon, and running it into a Blackstar Studio 10 6L6.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Mad Professor Big Tweedy Drive Pedal”Henning has been working his way through some of the Les Paul-like guitars you can buy from Thomann over in Germany. (They deliver all over Europe). Today, he’s published the last video in the series, looking at the high-end competition.
This video opens up with a Les Paul R8 owned by one of Henning’s friends, and it’s fair to say that it sets the standard for the rest of the video.
They’re all great guitars – as well they should be at that price!
This video does a great job of making a serious point. These are all hand-built guitars. No two will feel the same to play, or sound the same. If you’re ever lucky enough to shop for guitars in this price range, you have to go and try them for yourself, and find out which one calls to you.
Darrell Braun has posted an interesting look at two single-cut guitars: the Gibson Les Paul and the Gretch Duo Jet.
I can’t find the Gretsch Duo Jet on Gretsch’s website – or in any UK stores at the time of writing. Darrell’s Playing the G6128TVP model (I think), which seems to be out of production right now.
A shame, because that Gretsch compared very favourably to the Les Paul.
Watch the video to make your own mind up, and then please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment.