leftybassman392

Thanks for the input so far guys. The Marshall did come across as an excellent amp, but at 21Kg it's just too heavy. The AS50D looks a bit more realistic in the weight stakes; I think I'll give it a run at the emporium. The AER would be a better fit for my requirements I think, and the reviews are very complimentary - pricey though! A bit more than I would ideally want to pay for something that wouldn't be working for a living is my initial thought. They have them in stock at PMT though so I'll give it a go as well.

Thanks for that Pete. Yes, it really does need to be as light as I can get compatible with a decent sound unfortunately. I have a history of back problems (o.k.(ish) ATM but always liable to flare up) and carting heavy equipment around isn't really an option. Actually I'd have loved to take home the Marshall A100 combo I tried it out on in the shop - I was little short of astonished how good it sounded - but it was just too big & heavy (not to mention OTT for my needs). There were some nice looking AER acoustic amps on display, but due to time constraints I didn't get the chance to try them out. If anybody has one or has used one I'd love to hear about their experiences.

I recently purchased a lovely little Faith parlour guitar (see the 'guitars' section), and am now interested in getting a suitable amp to play it through. In the shop I got to use a Marshall A100 (I think that's what it's called) which was very impressive, and were I gigging regularly it would be near the top of my list. I'm not though - it will be mostly playing at home, possibility of the occasional small-scale gig, also possibility of the odd bit of teaching. Needs to be fairly compact and (preferably) fairly light but good quality, full-range sound. Effects (reverb, chorus as a minimum), but probably won't need a mic input. Don't mind paying a few bob, but boutique is probably a no-no. Suggestions welcome. What are folks out there using?

Ah yes: seller bullshit. As the OP said, mostly perfectly understandable and mostly fairly harmless. Still, in for a penny:- 'Plays like butter'. Never understood this one either. You mean you've played your favourite slap bass licks on a slab of butter and find that the item for sale feels exactly the same? It does scan better than 'Plays like engine oil' I guess...

[quote name='Yank' timestamp='1510134027' post='3404136'] a short thin gauge from pedal to amp [/quote] That would be my prime suspect right there.

Just a thought: anybody seen the OP since the OP?

Always made my own mic and instrument cables using Sommer cable and Neutrik plugs. Typical cost for a 5m guitar cable would have been around £9 IIRC. Sold them to students too. Never, ever had a failure. If you can use a soldering iron you can save yourself some wodge. It's really not that hard. Never used any of OBBM's products, but everybody who has seems to rate them highly... Trick cables at inflated prices are exactly that.

As it happens I have just the guitar you need that I'm about to put up for sale - an RG470 circa 2000. Trouble is, it's a lefty.

Collected from PMT Birmingham yesterday (which just happened to be hosting a trade fair at the time and was like Butlin's on a bad day). The guitar is fantastic; beautifully made from solid woods throughout, great sound, silky smooth action, deceptively simple but excellent active preamp included in the price (£769 all in, and IMHO an absolute steal: in all honesty I wouldn't have quibbled at a 4-figure price tag). I'll hopefully do a proper review at some point, with an outside chance of some AV. We'll see how that goes though so no promises at this stage. (If anybody in the general vicinity of Birmingham has access to a half-decent recording facility then I'd love to have a chat...) More interestingly, Patrick James Eggle happened to be in attendance at the show and took a few minutes to have a chat with me about the guitar's background. Like all Faith instruments, it's made in Indonesia by a small family concern to Patrick's own design using a combination (in this case) of top quality Engelmann spruce from the US and locally sourced tonewoods. Every instrument that comes into the country goes through Eggle's own quality control system at his base in Oswestry (part of the Barnes & Mullins' facility apparently - hence the in-house status of the guitars I would suggest), and quite frankly it shows. On visual inspection it looks absolutely flawless and is possessed of some lovely detailing that has been extremely well executed (the edge binding, partial cutaway of a type I've not seen before and - what looks like - a genuine MoP inlay around the soundhole being cases in point). The action is smooth & silky, and without resorting to the usual dairy-based clichees it feels lovely in the hands. Suffice it to say that I'm looking forward to getting to know this guitar more than I can remember feeling for many years. As a by-the-by, I bumped into an old Lefty bass-playing mate I haven't seen for a few years. I doubt you'll read this Dave, but it was great to catch up with you.

Nothing wrong with playing both of course... Plenty of folks around here do and it doesn't seem to have done us any ha haha ha harm.

Update: NGD. I've had the call and will be picking it up tomorrow morning. Pics and a review in due course.

Bought a lefty Shuker from me today. Easy transaction, paid in cash and a thoroughly nice bloke. Thanks Rob.

Is this really the first PMT in London? Maybe I read the OP wrong, but if it is then that's one of the more surprising facts I've learned recently.

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1508497712' post='3392578'] Because I might have to, not because I want to I'm afraid. [/quote] Not good news. Hope you can find another route.

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1508422158' post='3392090'] I haven't quite decided yet, but I have a Faith Neptune that I may decide to part with. It has recently been upgraded with Gotoh locking tuning keys too. [/quote] Care to share why?

Welcome from another son of Kent. Where are you in that fine county?

A few years ago I did a series of articles on music in ancient Greece, and was very surprised and somewhat humbled at the overwhelmingly positive responses I received about it. I've recently been thinking about doing a kind of follow-up. At the time of doing the Greek articles I was interested to find out more about the development of musical scales from the ancient Greek period to the present day but for various reasons never had the opportunity to develop it into anything of substance. Now though I have time on my hands: hence this thread... I've had a few thoughts as to approach and content but most of the details still need to be worked out, and as before it would need to be presented in a series of relatively digestible chunks. One other thing: by it's very nature a topic like this is bound to have significant mathematical content, but as before it should be possible to present it in such a way that the more arithmetically challenged will be able to skip those sections and still get the gist of the topic. That said, anybody with a half-decent grasp of fractions & ratios should have little trouble. It's a subject that has always fascinated me (and I'd be doing it primarily for that reason), but I am aware that the natural audience for this kind of thing is likely to be small. So, what do folks think? Please feel free to offer thoughts and suggestions - any and all sincere opinions will be welcome.

Thanks Skank. B&M are certainly the UK distributor but I hadn't realised they even had an in-house brand. Provenance seems to be very good with the involvement of Patrick James Eggle. My local PMT has a righty Mercury from the range I'm looking at for well under £800 so I'm optimistic about getting change from £850. As luck would have it the window display at Forsyths had the Mercury sitting next to a PJE original parlour (a very plain, unadorned instrument with a cedar top at a whisker under £3k). For a brief moment I did actually think about getting a quote for a PJE lefty, but apparently he doesn't make acoustics any more. No, I didn't know that either.

Thanks for the help guys. Looks like we may have a NGD in the not-too-distant future. Pics will be posted in the guitar porn thread as & when.

Slightly OT, but we have an ad blocker and I've noticed a recent increase in the number of sites that can detect when you're using one and won't allow access to their content unless you turn it off. My response: "Fine, I'll get the information I need somewhere else."

Anybody know anything about them? The reason I ask is that I've had a hankering for a nice parlour guitar for some years, and while in Manchester the other day I chanced on a shop called Forsyths on Deansgate, which happened to have a Mercury in the window. I was kind of tempted, but having been out of the loop on recent guitar developments I hadn't heard of them. The guy in the shop was very helpful, and let me try out one or two of their (unusually large stock of) Lefties. Unfortunately none of them were parlours. The Faiths I looked at seemed very well made and were reasonably priced (around £900 for a top of the range model). Unless something truly cataclysmic happens in my life I won't be gigging it so it will be for personal use only. Any information folks could impart will be gratefully received. While you're at it, I also liked the look of their Auden guitars. They don't seem to make a parlour model but again the ones I looked at seemed pretty good. Anybody? TIA

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1507743615' post='3387689'] The world of blues fingerpicking (yes I know it's technically a rag but hey! who's counting?) is a closed door to most modern guitarists but there's some seriously good players out there. We're away for a few days ATM, but when I get back I'll dig some out. [/quote] Follow-up now that we're home - here's a couple to get you started: [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q2lgtHgoFk"][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q2lgtHgoFk[/media][/url] [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1aUizaS19o"][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1aUizaS19o[/media][/url]