Guitars, Guitars!

quote:

---

Any suggestions for a fast acoustic?

---

The fastest acoustic guitars I've played that didn't sound thin and feeble were made by Yairi. I think they're a fairly large Japanese company, but they manufacture to very high standards and many of their models include a rather decent pick-up system.

Thomas

Great news that your bass is as good as you hoped it would be. The guys seem to be a very professional and friendly outfit. Wish I was on commission!

Dozy

quote:

---

Any suggestions for a fast acoustic?

---

From what I can tell the majority of current guitars are pretty well made, and can be coaxed into playing very well. I am pretty competent and experienced in setting guitars up, whilst I am certainly not a guitar repairman I know how to do a pro setup well enough for many people to have paid me to do it to their guitars. I have a Epiphone AJ10, this is the cheapest acoustic in their range, it is made in Indonesia, and costs about 110 quid new. It is a nice budget guitar. When I bought it the shop had a few on display, I checked them out and all were pretty good, but I obviously bought the best. With just a little fiddling with the bridge height and a tiny nudge to the truss rod I have got it to play evenly without any buzzes or rattles with a string height of 3/32nd at the low E and 1/16 at the high E measured at the 12th fret. This actually puts it at the lower height end of the Martin factory setup spec! I use light strings (10s) and it plays really easily despite my being far more used to playing an electric.

My basses are both a fraction less than 3/32nd on the E string without buzzes!

I would recommend taking whatever guitar you buy to the best guitar tech in your town and get a pro setup job. It can transform many instruments from total planks into something really quite special.

quote:

---

Great news that your bass is as good as you hoped it would be. The guys seem to be a very professional and friendly outfit. Wish I was on commission!

---

Its way better than I hoped it would be! I owe you several pints worth of commission!

Tony.

Clive: I'll take the 335 I played one saturday. I'm in love.

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's a lot of tasty equipment out there in Naim land. What's everyone doing with it? Frustrated bedroom guitarists? Any gigging musicians?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm recording a lot with mine. We're doing a new Henry Fool album this year and I'm doing another Fire Thieves album and various collaborations. I moved from the bedroom into the attic

I. like Tony paid my dues in the Transit van (the we had a bus) the difference being that I left my band just before they were offered a deal as I hated the industry so much. One PR woman asked me ' Great songs, but could't you write more about love?' But again, like Tony, I wouldn't have missed it for anything. I now make the music I want, how I want, when I want.

Regards

Stephen

[This message was edited by Stephen Bennett on MONDAY 14 January 2002 at 12:25.]

quote:

---

I. like Tony paid my dues in the Transit van (the we had a bus)...

---

We dreamed of having a bus...

Tony.

I used to play acoustic many years ago. As I don't have a TV I need something active to do to fill the long winter nights.

Dozy

[This message was edited by Stephen Bennett on TUESDAY 29 January 2002 at 09:29.]

Yamaha Pacifica 12 string
Fender Squire P-Bass
Yamaha AXP-7 acoustic
1980's Japanese Fender Squire Stratocaster

congrats on the marathon fretless - it looks awesome, bet it sounds great too.

'never did get that J-Bass we talked about, although from the depths of our storage locker sprang my old Cort Steinberger Bass copy. Hey - it's a thru-body, which is kind of surprising. Oh come now what did you expect in a copy - composites? It's fairly weighty, the sound doesn't seem so lightweight (as you'd expect, for the mini-bod, at least)... and the twist in the neck isn't as bad as I remember. Plugged it in to the Trace and I was pleasantly surprised. The pots feel of good quality, not light and rattly like most cheap giutars I've looked at. The finish is a deep, rich black, with a couple or three character dings.

Now I must learn to play it. On the tech side I also need to look in to the wiring etc - seems one of the pickups is awol (it has a P and a J pickup)... the strings aren't so bad either (they might be rotosounds, although not sure if they make ball-end strings) - not bad after all for NZD100 four years ago. Oh, and sort out the jack - seems a bit loose. I have not forgotten those tips you gave on how to set up, so will spend a morning on it in a few weeks time.

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio

quote:

---

congrats on the marathon fretless - it looks awesome, bet it sounds great too.

---

It is fabulous. I'm really starting to get the hang of playing it too. Physically it is really easy to play, Shergold necks are stunning, so I have the action really low and fast, it’s the thinking in a new way that slowed me down at first. A fretless forces you to listen more, you don't just have to hit the right note, you need to hit the note right. I love the thing, so I have been putting in at least an hour or so each night.

I'm thinking of buying a Line 6 Bass Pod…

quote:

---

'never did get that J-Bass we talked about, although from the depths of our storage locker sprang my old Cort Steinberger Bass copy. Hey - it's a thru-body, which is kind of surprising. Oh come now what did you expect in a copy - composites? It's fairly weighty, the sound doesn't seem so lightweight (as you'd expect, for the mini-bod, at least)... and the twist in the neck isn't as bad as I remember.

---

Is it actually a direct copy? I remember Cort producing a lot of Steinberger influenced instruments, but all with a bit of their own "style" thrown in! One of my friends had a Cort which was a kind of Steinberger meets Strat kind of thing that I thought looked horrible beyond belief, but it actually played really well and sounded rather good too.

Describe the neck twist - I assume you mean the first fret and last fret are not parallel when sighting down the neck? If this is the case it is obviously not good, but can possibly be corrected by an experienced guitar repairer (it is out of my league). If you are referring to either front bow or back bow then a gentle tweak of the truss rod can bring the neck into correct relief.

IMHO (and there are many differing views on this) with a bass you should be able to slide the playing end of a light gauge pick under the string at the 12th fret when the string is fretted at both the first and last frets. Much more relief than this and you fight the thing when playing, any less and it will almost certainly buzz. You can get away with an almost totally straight neck on a fretless.

Tony.

I played a friends 80s Precision fretless on sunday. Sooo lovely. A fretless is my next purchase - then i can do away with musicians!

Anyone played an Ashbory bass?

Regards

Stephen

quote:

---

Well, I've finally got my previous generation digicam, so here are the pics of my guitars - including my new ES335 - yes, I did it!

---

Result, it looks really cool. I've never played one, so thankfully have no idea at all what I'm missing. I'm interested to know what acoustic Clive ends up with…

Tony.

quote:

---

Anyone played an Ashbory bass?

---

No, but I know exactly the thing you mean. It’s a kind of very short scale fretless with nylon strings and some kind of piezo pickup. I imagine it’s a doddle to play in some ways, the string tension will be low, and the action should be easy.

The area I reckon it will prove quite hard to play is in hitting the right note pitch. The shorter a string the less distance between the notes, therefore logically more precision would be require to hit them, especially higher up the neck. Certainly with my fretless I have a far better hit rate of getting the right notes lower down the neck than higher up. It is where the gaps become small that I mess up.

The Ashbory would be an interesting instrument to try out.

Tony.

Cool.

I was at the front and foolishly ducked - else I could have had a handfull of bits. OK - maybe faceful of bits.

John Entwistle was playing a funny looking bass - long necked, black with LEDs. Weird. And, boy, can he play it.

Anyway - nice to know there is some talent here. I'm afraid all I could do was the smashing it bit - leastwise it would have sounded best with smashing feedback rather than my attempts at playing.

Jonathan

Do that to my 335 and he deserves to die.

Stephen

Regards

Stephen

quote:

---

Ever heard the one about the Hendrix Tribute band where the guy set fire to the wrong strat? I.e his beloved original 60's model rather than the pawn shop special?

---

I find this kind of thing so funny. Even with bigger bands the guitarist usually makes a rather unsubtle guitar change for the last song, and you are sitting there thinking "ok, that guitar is going to get it later…". Tribute bands are even worse, the guitar that gets it is usually a real shed, often the guy is really struggling to play it, the guitar probably deserves it in these cases. I hate tribute bands.

There was a really cheesy sort of progressive metal / inadvertent Spinal Tap tribute band from Liverpool years back when that kind of thing was even more unfashionable than it is today. The majority of their audience was comprised of people like myself who played in the local indie bands, and went along because their gigs were absolutely hysterical, they also had their own hard core following of people who were somehow immune to irony. They had the lot, 15 minute songs about goats, wizards, druids, etc, fake blood, fire-eating, and ultra low budget guitar smashing. You knew when the guitar smashing was near, the guy had learnt the art of reassembling the bits, so he could often smash the same guitar at a few gigs. Predictably the thing stayed in tune for about 13 seconds, which is not a high percentage of a 14 minute song it has to be said, but that kind of added to the experience. God I miss them… they rocked at number 11.

Tony.

How about some Tribute band names?

Cumbersome, Fake and Trauma?
0151? (For Tony...seen Becky yet?)
Hard of hearing School?
Teardrop wets my knee?

Stephen

[This message was edited by Stephen Bennett on TUESDAY 29 January 2002 at 15:07.]

quote:

---

humbucker style guitar though. Not sure what to get - but it wont be a real Gibson 335 unfortunatly. Not keen on Les Pauls - lovely guitars but heavy & too 'rock' for my taste. I want feedback at '2'

---

Not sure what that says about me!

Stephen

quote:

---

For Tony...seen Becky yet?

---

No, not since you asked. Good that her name cropped up with all this talk of fretless basses. Becky is an excellent fretless player, she never plays for effect, in fact most of the time you would not realise she was using a fretless. As far as I know the fretless is her only bass (its an Aria SB1000). I remember years back the band I was in doing a gig with Benny Profane, I also had at the time a SB1000, and I snapped a string, so I asked could I borrow hers - I had absolutely no idea the bloody thing had no frets (it has fret lines, so at a glance looks like it has). I made a right bloody racket that night…

Dead Cowboys haven't played for ages (even by their standards), and whilst the guitarist (Greg) is a regular weekly drinking buddy, Becky seems to have gone to ground a bit socially after having one of those baby things last year. I will ask Greg when they are doing anything next.

Dead Cowboys are one of those bands who are in a happy state of semi-existance, they hardly ever rehearse, but sound great when they gig. They really are a good live band. The CD is pretty good, it got 4 stars in Uncut, so its obviously just one star away from being perfect!

Check out www.deadcowboys.com

Tony.

Rico, You must try a Rickenbacker 4001. On mine it had 'Rickosound' on the stereo output socket Ricobass = Rickosound....

Maybe we should have a Naim Forum bass players convention?

Bob (The bass)

Thanks for the link Tony - Becky baby? Yikes! You wont see her till it's 16. I had a listen to the DC previously - Scouse country - whatever next?

Low notes rule

Stephen

PS Tony - nice floor.........

Tony, it is a neck twist rather than a truss-rod thing. I have intentions of taking it to a guitar repairer in the future. Pete played it a week or so ago and found it easy to play, and liked the action... and although he didn't rave about it in the same terms as his old Ibanez after your setup, he seemed more comfortable playing it - I guess the twist isn't bad.

Bob

I dig the 4001's clicky sound. And of course, then there's one of my bass nutter heros to mention...

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio