Lets look at our guitars thread

[Nik Gnashers]

W124 said:

Using this today. It’s my main session acoustic. A Brook Teign. Best acoustic I’ve so far found. Gets used day in, day out. And not just by me. Rock solid.

Brook are, in my opinion, the best. Not cheap though.

Oooooh I do like that.

Nice to finally see a quality acoustic amongst the sea of strat lookalikes, and Fender/Martin acoustic dross.
Brook are in my top 10 favourite guitars, and I rate their sound very highly.
I'm a Lowden fan/owner so I do like that particular sound, very balanced, lots of natural harmonics, rings like a bell ....

[Mastodon2]

Nik Gnashers said:

Oooooh I do like that.

Nice to finally see a quality acoustic amongst the sea of strat lookalikes, and Fender/Martin acoustic dross.
Brook are in my top 10 favourite guitars, and I rate their sound very highly.
I'm a Lowden fan/owner so I do like that particular sound, very balanced, lots of natural harmonics, rings like a bell ....

There's no need to be a knob about other people's guitars.

[W124]

Nik Gnashers said:

W124 said:

Using this today. It’s my main session acoustic. A Brook Teign. Best acoustic I’ve so far found. Gets used day in, day out. And not just by me. Rock solid.

Brook are, in my opinion, the best. Not cheap though.

Oooooh I do like that.

Nice to finally see a quality acoustic amongst the sea of strat lookalikes, and Fender/Martin acoustic dross.
Brook are in my top 10 favourite guitars, and I rate their sound very highly.
I'm a Lowden fan/owner so I do like that particular sound, very balanced, lots of natural harmonics, rings like a bell ....

Thanks.

Quite a harsh response, but a fair point I think. Fender/Gibson/Martin et al do make some good guitars - but their quality control is laughable.

My strat is a Fender Japan, 1986, 54 copy. Extrad. No American Fender guitar I’ve played gets close. But you could buy another one, and it would be just as good. Buy a US Fender or Gibson guitar unseen - you might get lucky, but probably not.

That said, I’ve got a Yamano Gibson ‘97 Les Paul Standard. One piece body. Hand selected by the Japanese distributor. Supposed to be the best quality, second golden era guitar you can buy. It’s a pretty terrible guitar. Awful thing. It’s very beautiful - and useful for showing off at sessions. Never gets recorded though.

There’s no rhyme or reason to guitars - but you can short circuit this to an extent with companies like Brook. They just don’t piss about. Similarly, pick up a JV, SQ or Fender Japan guitar up to about 1990 - and you can be sure it will be good.

[OldSkoolRS]

W124 said:

Similarly, pick up a JV, SQ or Fender Japan guitar up to about 1990 - and you can be sure it will be good.

Yes, I've got a 1982 JV Squier Strat and it plays beautifully, though to be fair it's like Triggers broom with the refrets and rewiring, etc over 42 years of me playing it. More recently learned to do all my own fretwork, set up and even spraying, but I still found it disappointing that I had to do a lot of work on a MIM Jaguar I bought just after lockdown...plays great now, but I really shouldn't have had to do that.

Funny that my mid range Gretsch is very nicely put together and fell into the same price bracket as a MIM Fender.

I don't mind seeing similar guitars on here though as it's an inclusive thread, so I won't be a knob about others putting the more popular stuff on here.

[Yahonza]

languagetimothy said:

As well as the usual electric full band thing, I’ve been working with some guys on more casual, well less loud, to be able to play small bars, restaurants or whatever. So, four of us, me guitar /vocals. Another guy keys / vocals, a bass player and a percussionist.

I will mostly play acoustic, either thru the PA or my ASD50. I already had a midrange Martin electro acoustic and a Fender as a spare but didn’t really like the Fender. Now I had a good excuse

Just bought this thru Thomann. Martin gpcx2e. Yes it’s their lower end, Mexican. Top is solid spruce rest is HPL.. actually sounds very good and close to my other one plugged or unplugged. Pretty happy with it. Maybe a small set up and some of the fret ends are a bit rough. This was €864 with martin padded gig bag. Plenty of others in that range and less but I knew it would sound good plugged in.

I like these entry level Martins, especially the ones with cutaway. Here is mine, a Road Series, Sapele all through, very solid feeling, and sounds good amplified. The pickup system on these is really good. It has 12's on it though and I'll probably change them to 11's.

[languagetimothy]

Yahonza said:

I like these entry level Martins, especially the ones with cutaway. Here is mine, a Road Series, Sapele all through, very solid feeling, and sounds good amplified. The pickup system on these is really good. It has 12's on it though and I'll probably change them to 11's.

Very nice, I had a look at many including something similar to that. Eventually I just had to make a decision as we have a pizza restaurant gig next week. Good to have an excuse. And yeah I’ve been impressed with pickup systems in these. Not sure about the sound hole tone and volume controls, my other one has two simple dials on the shoulder along with a tuner “screen” The other one….yeah I know looks much the same but isn’t.

[franki68]

Anyone any experience of fgn brand guitars ? It’s the Fujigen factory own brand and they look phenomenal value for money especially used and I have my eye on one .

[lockhart flawse]

Never played one but the guy who runs Whitstable Guitars said on Facebook recently that an FGN guitar he had been playing recently was the best guitar he had ever played.

[SmithCorona]

I understand the top end ones are phenomenal instruments.

[BIRMA]

It just goes to show that if you make a cheeky offer sometimes it works. I bought this Fender Custom shop 7 of Heaven for a really good price (there is another on e-bay for the normal secondhand price) but I paid considerably less for this. Lovely instrument strings through body ( from my bass playing days) so it's a hard tail. Although made in 1995 it hasn't been played I suppose the £7K price tag put a few off. Anyway it's a lovely looking guitar that plays very nicely. I'm a sucker for matching headstocks.

[W124]

That is rather splendid. Reminds me of an ESP 800 series strat that I once had. I’m an absolute sucker for gold hardware on electric guitars.

[SD_1]

Anyone know how straightforward it is to get a pickup fitted to an acoustic guitar? And any recommendations of good ones? Not looking for one of those things that goes over the sound hole, I'd like to keep it as standard looking as possible. Guitar is a Martin HD-28.

[singlecoil]

SD_1 said:

Anyone know how straightforward it is to get a pickup fitted to an acoustic guitar? And any recommendations of good ones? Not looking for one of those things that goes over the sound hole, I'd like to keep it as standard looking as possible. Guitar is a Martin HD-28.

If the bottom of the bridge slot is flat then you will be able to fit a purpose made piezo pickup, you will just need to drill a narrow hole for the pickup cable to pass through. You'll want a pre-amp and battery so you will need to cut a suitable size rectangle/s in the side of the guitar to accommodate those, then a jack socket. Usual thing is to replace the end-pin with a purpose made jack socket which will disconnect the battery when the jack plug is removed.

It's a while since I fitted one but I daresay you will find there are kits with all the parts included on the market.

Slot needs to be flat because the pressure exerted on the piezo will affect its output, so if one area of the slot is higher and pushing harder on the bridge then those strings will be louder than the others.

[slopes]

BIRMA said:

It just goes to show that if you make a cheeky offer sometimes it works. I bought this Fender Custom shop 7 of Heaven for a really good price (there is another on e-bay for the normal secondhand price) but I paid considerably less for this. Lovely instrument strings through body ( from my bass playing days) so it's a hard tail. Although made in 1995 it hasn't been played I suppose the £7K price tag put a few off. Anyway it's a lovely looking guitar that plays very nicely. I'm a sucker for matching headstocks.

That is a lovely thing

[franki68]

franki68 said:

Anyone any experience of fgn brand guitars ? It’s the Fujigen factory own brand and they look phenomenal value for money especially used and I have my eye on one .

Well I’m going to go for it , the beauty of buying online means if I don’t like it I can send it back .

[franki68]

Just arrived , it’s an ‘expert ‘ model and the build is flawless .
I took a punt (it’s a used one but mint ) on the basis of I didn’t like I could send it back .
I paid near half retail but even at full retail it is outstanding value.

[Mastodon2]

franki68 said:

Just arrived , it’s an ‘expert ‘ model and the build is flawless .
I took a punt (it’s a used one but mint ) on the basis of I didn’t like I could send it back .
I paid near half retail but even at full retail it is outstanding value.

That looks great. FGN used to produce guitars for Ibanez, they're very well regarded by those in the know.

In other news, my second Virginia arrived, this one is flawless. Here it is along with my Yngwie Strat. It's amazing how similar and yet different these guitars are. I am madly in love with Strats these days and what a time to rekindle my love on the 70th anniversary of the Strat.

[cherryowen]

Mastodon2 said:

That looks great. FGN used to produce guitars for Ibanez, they're very well regarded by those in the know.

In other news, my second Virginia arrived, this one is flawless. Here it is along with my Yngwie Strat. It's amazing how similar and yet different these guitars are. I am madly in love with Strats these days and what a time to rekindle my love on the 70th anniversary of the Strat.

Following on from your previous "Virginia Strat" post, by coincidence a couple of days later YT "suggested" a video I may like which was EJ talking through all the changes for his '54 Virginia. His attention to detail is astonishing.

In other news, I've pressed the button on a proper Strat "thing". See, I've always been a bit........"stout" so to speak and never got comfortable with a Strat. I've lost a couple of stones in the last few years, so can now "fit" one. Not a Fender or G & L, and should be with me by Wednesday to the latest.

[SWoll]

Looking for a bit of advice chaps. I've done the usual rounds over the years and looking for something a bit different to add to the current collection.

Came across Gordon Smith guitars as the idea of something made in England appeals, and have found what looks to be a really nice, recently built, used example for a reasonable price. I've put the spec through the GS configurator and it's about a third of the original cost as a pretty high spec.

Obviously they aren't an easy guitar to get you hands on in order to get a feel for them so I'd be interested in thoughts from anyone who has one.

Also, if I do go ahead I'll have to organize the shipping myself as too far from me to collect, any advice on the best option?

Thanks in advance all. .

[singlecoil]

SWoll said:

Also, if I do go ahead I'll have to organize the shipping myself as too far from me to collect, any advice on the best option?

Thanks in advance all. .

You can buy decent suitable boxes from ebay, get the sender to wrap in a load of old newspapers, squashed cardboard etc. Pacelforce are the only people who will insure it for appropriate money at a reasonable extra cost, get them to collect it from the sender.