mcnach

🤣

I was only joking. What I meant is that since you built them, you had to fit the bridge/saddles and in doing so the intonation was set right for your strings/action... that's all

well, if you built them, then technically you adjusted it

and I found it sounds better if I turn the amplifier up a few notches 😛

... and it gets better the more you play it I forgot how cool Telecasters are! I still go for the whammy bar at times but I'm getting used to it. I brought the neck pickup up a bit and that improved the sound. I may still get something better there, but not in a hurry. Frets feeling much better too as they get used. The Classic Vibe my friend has is nicer. It's hard to describe, it just feels like a really good guitar... but he is very good setting up his instruments so his CV Tele is perfect. Once it's been given a little attention, I can't imagine this one being much different, except for the pickups. The CV Squier pickups are very nice. The SX neck pickup is just adequate. Don't get me wrong, it's fine as it is, which for the money is crazy. I just know it can get a little bit better. Thank you all for indulging me

I have used a couple of different stands to tilt combos/single cabs. My favourite is the appropriately named Stagg GAS 4.2: STAGG GAS 4.2 It's simple, adjustable, folds nearly flat, and less than £15. I used mine a lot and it's still in good condition. I also had the 3.2 previously, which folds completely flat and takes next to no space at all which is nice, but it's not adjustable and I found my CMD121P combo would wobble a little on it although it was stable enough:

A bit busy just now but I managed a good half an hour of guitar noises... The guitar is beautiful, flawless finish, I tried hard to look for cosmetic issues but found none. The closest was perhaps the fret slots, viewed from the side, the filler is a bit paler than the surrounding wood. That. And then I remembered how much I paid. It was in tune when I took it out (nearly, I did retune it, but I've heard bands play live with guitars that were more out of tune than this one straight from the box), which suggests someone tested it before postage, or maybe it was the display model (it was the last red one they had). Frets are pretty good. The action is set low enough (I'd like it a bit lower) and plays nicely everywhere until you get to around the 14th-15th fret where the strings choke a bit: it's usable as it is, but it needs a little adjustment so that it plays smoothly all over. The frets are not shiny, they look like the guitar has been out for a while, which again makes me think it was probably a display model, but if it was they really cleaned it up (or not many people ever tried it :D) , except for the frets. As such they feel a little 'scratchy' when bending strings, but I'm sure after a couple of weeks of regular use (which it'll get) they'll be just fine. Fret ends are smooth as... Neck is pleasantly wide and chunky. Not baseball bat style, just... the right amount of girth, for my liking. If you are a fan of the Ibanez RG series necks, you'll find this a bit too deep, but I think it's the right size. Oh and lacquered, beautiful 'vintage' tint. I love lacquered necks. I'll probably cut the nut slots a TINY bit lower. I was thinking it would need a new nut, as a lot of budget guitars come with pretty horribly cut soft plastic nuts, but I'm not in a hurry with this one. As it is, it plays well enough, a little harder than ideal, which is very clear when I switch to the PRS, but... £139! I am surprised I get something that looks as good and is perfectly usable out of the box. I haven't mentioned sound yet. It sounds... like a Telecaster. It's very good, especially the bridge pickup, it's got that edge that Tele bridge pickups have and it's lovely with high gain, which is what separates the meh from the yeah pickups. The neck pickup is a little polite and lacks a bit of 'sparkle' compared to my ideal Tele sound. It sounds good enough, but I'm looking for negative points and I can't find anything else. Ideally I'd have something a bit better there. I have a black pickguard for it... however it doesn't fit. It's what happens sometimes when you go for non-Fender derived clones. On the SX the neck pickup is mounted on the pickguard rather than straight into the wood underneath, which suggests a wide pickup cavity underneath (they often do that so that they can produce different models with different size pickups... humbuckers etc using a single body design). The bottom of the neck is also a couple of mm longer than a Fender-derived version, so the only way I can fit this pickguard is moving the pickup 2mm down, which may be easily done if the pickup cavity is large as I suspect. No biggie, 'though. One day I'll adapt it. If not... I can use the black pickguard on the purple Tele that I'm getting for my birthday in September Seriously... £139? Add a decent setup and this can be a seriously decent guitar. @madshadows you were right, it's a very pretty metallic red. Hard to make it justice on a phone picture.

ooooh... what did the very nice courier brought me today?

That's really cool, thank you!

Doh, I should have read the whole thread first. SPB-1 it was indeed I had that one on my old Maruszczyk Jake and it was nice but a bit polite for my liking. The EMG GZR may be more to your liking (it was for mine).

My SPB-1 looked just like that P pickup. There are other models that may look like those, but the SPB-1 is 'popular' enough, so I'd say there's a good chance that that's what it is.

Not necessarily *more* mids than your favourite roundwound, but their frequency profile is stronger on the mids, lower mids in particular. However, there's also different flats that sound very different from each other. Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flats are pretty bright with very strong mids, while Labella Flats are more about their 'thump', and Status ones are very dull (not in a bad way necessarily) but then you get Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats which are as bright as their nickel roundwounds that have been used for a while... It's a jungle out there!

No, @ikay was talking about the potentiometers, not the tone capacitor.

SX: https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/434753-i-want-a-cheap-telecaster/?do=findComment&comment=4185136

Fiiinally... the guitar is on its way. Credit where it's due, they kept me informed all along that it would take a bit longer than usual and kept in touch during the week as if I were buying a top £££ instrument. Hobgoblin Music, thank you.

one thing is clear: we have a LOT of time in our hands and we enjoy overthinking things

That's brilliant! I have a little version of that, just a heavy block with a couple of fixed arm crocodile clips, but that's great! I need to get me one of those

Ideally yes, but not every gig venue has a suitable PA in place and not every band has a big enough PA for those situations. It's not often that I *need* a pair of Two10 cabs, but I've played enough where I would have struggled without. Having said that, a lot of people never find themselves in that situation, but many are so you can't generalise and say that what works for one person should work for every one. In addition, it's not just the volume. I get a better balanced stage sound with a couple of Two10, I guess the minitower allows the bass sound to be better distributed on stage without needing to turn up to compensate. I've used a single Two10 in a small bar (Glasgow's Clutha 2) in an 8-piece ska band without PA support and while it was not earth-shattering it did reasonably well (two would have been better though). Those cabs (One10, Two10 etc) are really good.

in a nutshell a bit like quoting the blurb from an audiophile company about their superior power cables...

hmmm, if it *stays* within the bridge then it actually dampens the vibrations and would reduce sustain, so that's not the explanation. I can see how a BBOT bridge can reduce the vibration because it's got relatively loose saddles that can vibrate a bit and absorb part of the energy. More solid bridges may improve the duration of the vibration. Solid being the key word, although one way to make something sturdy and rigid is making it more massive. Personally, I haven't noticed any more significant differences than the differences I think I've noticed after dismantling and reassembling bridges (I used to try different pickups by loosening the strings and removing the bridge, then reassembling). If there's a consistent difference, I haven't noticed it and as such it's not one that makes me lose any sleep. BBOT or high mass bridge? I don't know. I just want to make sure I have a bridge. Preferably in a finish consistent with the rest of the hardware

Not a fan, in general, but I like what you did here. Cool tune too!

I don't know about the Trace Elliot, but 1x10 cabs tend to be on the small side and not give you a lot of oomph although some can work as a stage monitor. Personally the smallest I've used has been 1x12 cabs. The smallest was actually a MarkBass CMD121P combo. The cabinet is very small and a lot of it is taken up by the amplifier, yet it is surprisingly powerful, so some 1x10 cabs should work. There are many fans of the Barefaced One10 so it clearly works for some, maybe the TE does too. It'll depend on how loud the stage sound is. I always like to have quieter stages, but it's not always possible when you share stage with another 6-9 people For that reason the smallest I use these days is a 2x10: it's only marginally more hassle to carry than the single 1x12 I was using before (TKS S112) and it works well. When I can I still like to use two, beyond volume you get a kind of 'presence' that's hard to get with smaller cabs, without needing to be loud. I use a Precision often (well, a Schecter P/J or a Sandberg P/MM, but usually just on the P pickup alone) as well as a Stingray. Unfortunately I cannot really record the sound from the speaker other than with a little Zoom H2 recorder which will not make it justice. I can record the DI... if I finish tidying up (I moved house recently) and connect my USB interface etc again. I make no promises, I have lots to do and garden/barbecue seem to take priority these days but I really want to be able to record again soon as my main band's only action these days is through sharing recorded ideas (it's an originals band) and I can't contribute... This weekend looks like rain, maybe I'll be able to get my stuff out and set it up. But it would be purely DI into a Focusrite Solo into Reaper, perhaps using the Joyo American Sound too, which sounds ok in the mix but it's not as good as what I get from my speakers. edit: doh! I also have a Squier Precision for a more 'precisiony' sound (the Schecter and the Sandberg are Precisionesque but they have their own thing going on... the Schecter Model T has active EMG pickups and the P is a bit closer to the bridge than usual, and the Sandberg VM4 has the P in reverse orientation... The Squier has a Fender Original pickup right now -it's waiting for me to have time and install a passive EMG GZR- and that gives a more 'classic' Precision sound.

Ah, yeah, it's a bit of a trip from where you are Indeed, I think the BAM200's USP is definitely the size and price. It doesn't sound bad at all, it's just not the most exciting amplifier but it never tried to be. It's quite decent, 'though. Yes, it's a bit 'meh' compared to a 'full fat' amplifier but it's not bad at all and you can simply use it as a clean amplifier while using a separate small preamp to provide your favourite 'colour', and still be a smaller package than any other normal amplifier. I was experimenting a little last night with the Joyo American Sound in front of the BAM200 with bass, using the EQ and a little touch of overdrive on the Joyo pedal and it sounded mighty. From the amps you mentioned, my heart is on the MarkBass LM250 because to me that's a proper amplifier (and it's still compact, no doubt about it, just not 'pocket sized') and it's got a complete set of features... and I love those VLE/VPF controls. The TCE BQ series is not very different from the BAM200 in terms of the basic sound, I think, but they add other features so they may be a bit more capable. I have also used a BH500 that a friend used to have. Frankly, if you're not going to use the Toneprint features, I'd stay with the others, although it's nice to have the tuner built-in. If you like the TC, and you don't need super small, perhaps you could find a used RH450? It's about the same size as the BQ, more or less, and it's a clear winner in terms of features. I had one and I didn't love it as much as other amplifiers I had, but it was not a bad amplifier and look at what you get: 3 programmable presets, a very capable yet easy to use compressor (one knob!), built-in tuner, programmable EQ points, 'tube tone' control (when turned high up I didn't like it very much, but it was cool for lower gain settings)... I think the LM250 sounds better, but it's just my personal preference. In terms of features, the RH450 is hard to beat. I have absolutely no experience of Eden, I'm afraid, so I can't write another page about them

Yeah, with this small size I guess the whole chassis *is* a heatsink Hmmm, Elf + One10, that sounds like a great combination (I gig with Two10 cabs usually).

a Stevie Wonder Tribute!!! That must have been so much fun!!! File me under "extremely envious"