Tone. At Home.
It’s been a quiet month.
The second hand market … is a bit weird right now. It’s become all-too common for asking prices to be close to (or even above!) the original retail price. It isn’t just rare or vintage gear that’s seeing high prices, either.
Instead, I’ve focused on trying to make the most of what I’ve already got – especially my Telecasters. I think it’s been a month well spent.
Continue reading “New Arrivals – February 2021”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”I think this month is mostly going to be defined by what doesn’t arrive.
It’s a good job really, because the car needs some repairs. Whether or not those parts arrive this month or not remains to be seen. [They did not – Ed.] Right now, it’s a really bad time to be repairing or replacing pretty much anything.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: September 2020”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”This month has been a month of two very different stories: guitars and pedals.
On the guitar front, I’ve been very fortunate to find a couple of guitars that blew my socks right off. Proper love-at-the-first-note through an amp fairytale stuff. Fairytales don’t always have a happy ending, mind, so do check back in the months ahead to learn whether these do (or don’t)!
Pedals have been much more of a mixed bag. Good deals have been hard to come by this month, with a lot of people chasing a smaller pool of 2nd hand gear. Maybe it’s the summer months, or maybe it’s the renewed uncertainty here in Britain atm? Either way, I hope things pick up.
I’m doing something a bit different this month. Rather than try and squeeze my first impressions into 3 or 4 paragraphs (to keep these ‘New Arrivals’ posts short), I’ve started breaking them out into separate posts that I’m linking to from here. It gives me a bit more space to talk about each piece of gear. Do you like it? Or do you prefer the ‘all-in-one’ format I’ve been using up to now? Let me know in the comments below.
Continue reading “New Arrivals For July 2019”This conversation was originally published to my Twitter feed.
Arrived this morning … will the Sovereign from Wampler prove to be the king of drive pedals? Spoiler alert: no. It’s a finicky pedal to dial in. Got some great sweet spots though. Let me walk you through them …
Continue reading “#SecondBite: Wampler Sovereign Distortion”This conversation was originally published to my Twitter feed.
I picked up one of the new Fender Vintera ‘60s Modified Teles today. I don’t care that it’s made in Mexico. It’s a good guitar.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Fender Vintera 60’s Modified Telecaster”Chappers and The Captain have done another of their blindfold challenges: can Rob tell if a guitar is a Fender Telecaster, or a T-style from another brand?
Every time someone on the forums insists that guitars don’t sound that different, or that the differences aren’t that great, I want to make them sit down and watch videos like this. It’s not always easy to tell them apart after YouTube has processed the audio, but in person – and importantly, through a great amp – the differences are real, both in tone and in feel.
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed this video.
Shane’s posted a demo of the new-for-2018 dual humbucker Squire Contempoary Series Telecaster. Check it out.
A Squier with a satin finish neck? That alone is likely to make it a popular choice. Squier necks are known for having thick glossy finishes that can be a little sticky for some players.
It’s hard to say how good this guitar sounds. The clean tones, and the dirt tones with the volume rolled down sound nice and clear. The full fat tones? Not so much. Shane does say that he thinks the guitar does sound clear, so maybe what we’re hearing is the effect of YouTube’s audio munging.
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Shane’s video.
Dan and Mick have posted a video all about Dan’s new Fender Custom Shop Telecaster 52 Reissue, and how it compares to the Custom Shop 63 Reissue that he’s been using on That Pedal Show for the last couple of years.
This video is full of surprises: side by side, the 52 reissue doesn’t sound anything like they (or I) expected. It’s nowhere near as bright or sharp as a modern maple-boarded Tele would be, and of course it doesn’t rock like Dan’s red Tele famously does – yet it still has its own thing going on.
Even if you’re not into Fender Teles, it’s still worth watching just to watch them geeking out over gear, and trying to learn licks off each other. There’s an important lesson there: it’s no different to the last time you and your mates did exactly the same thing.
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed this video.