Rudi

I only was really interested in the LGX-SA as a guitar that met my spec requirements. But as it was SA ready I thought I should check that out too. Now I have crossed it off the list, I wont return to it. I would still be interested in the older non-SA versions but not now. Two guitars in two months is quite enough. I have undertaken to go to Devon to try out a Godin A6 Ultra, but as things stand now, its just for future reference. The Jackson Soloist is pretty much like this. I will never get rid of it. The later Elite is also a soloist and plays just as good, but it has active Seymour Duncan PUs, that are good for recording but otherwise not so great. They must be overwound because they are too bass biased. I can coach good sounds out of it, but its hard going. I may try to sell it this year. Its one of a ltd run so it will either sell quickly to someone who wants one (they cant be had anywhere now), or go unnoticed. If I cant make a reasonable return on it I will do something I would prefer not to, and get rid of the Seymour Duncans and put some passive single coils in there. That at least would increase its versatility to me. These are fast, but the fastest action I have ever known was achieved by Steve Perrett who fret dressed his Les Paul copy and set the action lower than I thought possible. I found it too low, and the tension too light. Playing that gave me nothing to fight against. I never even realised I needed that until I played his guitar. Steve was a long time regular on here on Songstuff for years. I'll meet up with him when I go to Devon. Steve enjoys fast playing. I no longer have that fascination for speed. There are many areas I wish to improve. Speed is not even on the list.

(other) whatevers available. paper scribbles, sometimes on PC, then printed and scribbled on. I think the scribble is the most important part.

Tom, I had to re-read this to recall the article properly. I actually write most of my lyrics without having an idea to begin with. I’m sure this has been discussed before. I certainly discussed it with someone. It’s not a song at this stage though. It certainly is a creative piece of work though. In itself, it’s just another process. No different to your way of beginning with a riff or chord pattern. The difficulty then comes in finding a way of putting those words to music. Most times I don’t. I just leave them there until I need them. Then I have to change the meter of the words, prune back the length of lines & generally decimate my nice words. Hopefully, I will emerge with a song that still has some semblance of the original sense I began with. James. Are you are still there? If so post a reply and then I'll outline the process for you.

I agree that the majority of time signitures work the way you describe. I mostly get the intensity by phrasing slightly ahead of the beat and calm by playing slightly behind it. Ahead = funk behind = blues A big generalisation I know but it seems to work mostly.

Curious about the Rowland guitar synths. I've just finished dong some research on them as I was seriously considering going for the Godin LGX-SA. Godin were claiming these worked on the Rowland synths 'such as the GR55'. Then I read a review on Amazon about from a fellow who had issues with the Godin XTSA trem, so upgraded to the LGX-SA only to find it didnt track with the GR55. He said he had to buy a component from a Californian electronics co. & fit it the GR55 in order to correct the tracking issue. This meant opening the GR55 and invalidating the Rowland warranty by installing a 3rd party component. By now he had spent a fortune and was pretty peed off. When I directed the attention of a Godin retailer to this, he blew a gasket and rubbished the reviewer and everything he had claimed (I only gave you the highlights here). I tried to contact both Rowland and Godin about this. Rowland provide no straightforward access to speak to them but Godin do. In a week a Godin customer relations chief confirmed the tracking issue with the GR55 and the 3rd party solution. He went on to say that the VG99 and new Boss GP10 did work ok with the LGX-SA. However, I had previously tried the VG99 and its latency issues put me off it for good. As for the Boss GP10, its just another box of the same old COSM type sounds with a 13 pin outlet. All this disillusioned me about the whole thing. Also my family had inadvertently done the same thing, but that's a different story.

Dedicated Follower Of Fashion - The Kinks

Hagstrom Deuce. (11-Feb-2015) It was always something of a regret that Gibson guitars seemed out of my reach. As a teenager I used to love the look of the SG but always felt the sound was inferior to the Les Paul. But even with Les Pauls I felt restricted by the small fingerboard and that shorter scale Gibsons have. Hagstrom, like nearly every other guitar maker, produce copies of the best favoured designs (ref: 60 Year Old e-Guitars Rule). What’s handy for me is that they make a couple with the neck specs I prefer. In fact the company presently produce no less than 17 models based around the Les Paul (3 x Swedes / 4 x Super Swedes / 2 x Ultra Swedes / 3 x Deuces / 2 x Metropolis / 3 x Northens). The Deuces differ from the others in that they are based on the less well known & less popular Double Cutaway models. Link Deuce at Hagstrom Website http://www.hagstromguitars.eu/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=326&category_id=56&Itemid=36 Specifications Body: Mahogany with 10mm Carved Maple Top Neck: Mahogany, set Fingerboard: Resinator™ Fretboard with Hagstrom Pearloid Block Position Marks Fretboard Radius: 15 Trussrod: H-Expander Tuning Keys: Hagstrom 18:1 Die Cast Scale Length: 25,5“ / 648 mm / Graph Tech™ Black Tusq XL 43mm nut Pickups: 2 x Hagstrom Custom 58 Pickup Selector: 3-Way Toggle 3-Way Toggle Switch Bridge: Long Travel Tune-O-Matic w/ Hagstrom Stop Tail Controls: 2 x Volume 2 x Tone Push/Pull Tone Knobs (Independent Coil Splits) String Gauge (Factory): D'Addario EXP110 (10-46) Hagstrom Case: C-51 (Optional) The page link (above) describes the Deuce as ‘A sibling to our Super Swede, providing ultimate fret access, a multitude of tonal options, and topped off with a classic yet timeless design’. What they mean is, the ‘Super Swede’ is a conventional Les Paul design whereas the Deuce is the Double Cutaway design. They are also siblings because they share the same scale length of 25.5” (The regular ‘Swede’ & ‘Ultra Swede’ have the conventional Gibson 24.75” scale). Try as I might, no nearby stockist could be found. There are a handful in the North of England and Scotland. Perhaps even they have none, as nowadays web pages advertise stuff they don’t actually have. It seems no-one likes to keep stock nowadays. To cut a long story short, I decided to take a punt and hope for the best. Further down the page are 3 links to web reviews. I could find no proper ones in English. Oddly Thomann of Germany were cheaper than everybody else. These don’t seem popular models, and I wonder if they may be running down their stock? I placed an order on a Friday afternoon and it was delivered (to my neighbour actually) the following Wednesday. Opening the boxes: I had ordered both guitar and a hard case from Thomann. They came together in one large box (not with the guitar in the case as expected). My first thought was ‘is the guitar in here? It doesn’t feel heavy enough’. I cut open one end and drew both items out. The guitar was in an additional separate box with polystyrene sections glued to support & protect the guitar. I opened the sealed white jacket containing the guitar and it looked perfect. But I was expecting something heavier and larger. The only independent review I read for the Deuce was for the chambered version, the Deuce F. That review warned that the guitar was a heavyweight at 3.85kg (8.5 lb). So as the regular Deuce is the same shape but solid, I reasoned it would be at least as heavy and probably heavier. In fact a quick (kitchen scales) check shows 3.54kg (7.8lb) for the solid Deuce. Strange. The Deuce is all mahogany like the Gibson on which it’s based. Les Pauls are of course, renowned for heaviness (typically 9-10lb). So the weight came as a pleasant surprise. It’s no doubt due to the more modest body size. It’s certainly not as heavy as my Jacksons, which are maple & alder. It’s comfortable to hold too, feeling quite natural and evenly balanced. I was immediately glad that I chose the TBS (Tobacco Sun Burst) finish as the black edges show up the cream (5 layer) binding nicely, and the flamed maple surface (this a 0.040” bonded top) looks classy. Thomann had only 3 finishes available. The others being Black or Desert-Haze. Now I see they have no more TSB’s left. It lends credence to the stock shifting theory. (My 1st choice would have been Amber Sun Burst if it had been available) It was in tune but only just. It was a tad sharp and the strings immediately slackened when I dashed off a couple of runs. I stretched the strings between my fingers and re-tuned. The D’Addario 10-46’s were fresh on as expected. The neck camber looked about right, perhaps a little straight. I think the luthier I know (Simon) would adjust it for a little more relief. The strings sit a little high at the nut and like most guitars, the Deuce has no zero fret. The neck is very good and better than anticipated. I was a little nervous about the Hagstrom Resinator™ fingerboard. It is a 50/50 wood-epoxies composite, supposedly having the feel and acoustic properties of ebony with improved structural and sonic stability. It also guarantees the elimination of wolf tones, not that I need be much concerned about that with a solid body. It looks more like ebony than the real ebony on my Hofner, showing a close fine grain perpendicular to the frets. The block inlays are perfectly flush with no sign of glue edges. In fact I’m curious as to how this was done. There are usually a few micro-inches mismatch. Not here though. Perhaps they 5-axis machined the blocks already joined in, or at least surface dressed after joining. The whole neck is an impressive fusion of practicality and ergo design. You can’t just get this feel by dicking about and guesstimating. Of course, I choose the model based on my neck preferences, but I had no idea how well implemented they would be. It could just as easily have felt awkward to use. The neck is the part we see and concentrate on all the time. It’s the most important component on there. The swedes did a really great job with this neck design and the ‘resinator’ fingerboard material is just fine. There is an odd bit of fretwire protruding past the 12th fret. Not enough to catch my fingers on, and it can only be felt, not seen. It’s a common enough problem with new guitars as the coefficients of expansion of different materials vary when the temperature changes. I shan’t bother to fettle it back myself. This sort of detail, together with surface finish and joining is sometimes part of what separates cheaper guitars from the high end ones. The Deuce is a cheaper guitar made in China. Hagstrom do have a premier range called the Northen (not Northern) which are European made. No I don’t know where, but they do cost more. The frets didn’t feel perfectly smooth when bending strings. A polishing job for Simon in a couple of weeks time. I also had to hand tighten the grommet thread around the pickup selector. Again, no big deal but it’s another detail pointing towards the price point. The guitar certainly was quality checked (it has the quality sticker on), but the inspectors won’t have had the leisure to be as meticulous as those at somewhere like Godin or Rickenbacker. Bar strings, everything on the Deuce is Hagstrom designed and produced. There’s no 3rd party hardwear or pickups. There is therefore, an integrity of style throughout. So unless I find something poor, I really wouldn’t want to change any of this. Ok. It took longer for you to read this than it did for me to think of it. I didn’t wait too long to plug it in and see what it could do. What it did Instead of plugging into the amp I took it to the studio & tried it through the recorder. I listened to it starkly clean through NFMs. The tonal range is wide, with lots of bottom, most of which will probably be unusable. I could hear a distinct and massive difference to my other e-guitars. The controls are configured as the regular Les Pauls are. Each pickup has its own volume & tone control bell knobs. These feel a bit cheap but work well enough with no slackness or under/over-travel. (Earlier Gibson Double Cutaways had just one overall volume & tone control). The tone knobs also double as coil split selectors, by pulling them upward. As expected, the split coil was more pleasing to my ears. The best sound was both pickups working in unison. Something is odd though. The volume controls don’t seem to work consistently at this setting. The neck PU is full on unless turned all the way down at which point it cuts to zero. I have downloaded a PDF of the wiring diagram in case I need to investigate further. After this I cycled through all the BR1600’s tone patches (the same as on the Boss GT6). Some of them actually made sense now, which they seldom did with the Jacksons. That’s not to say they would be usable unmodified. The rockabilly sounds were particularly good. The acoustic ones sounded pretty good too. I even got a half decent jazz tone without trying too hard. The biggest difference was the warm low end tones. This is what I was really hoping for. The big hollow wooden tones were instantly there. I can get this using the neck single coil on the Soloist, but the Deuce has much more bottom end range. The oft publicised Hagstrom sustain was evident too. At the other extreme, the top end is present but with a much narrower range. I am not confident about the various claims made for tone woods. The warmth of the Gibson sound comes partly from the pickups and the shorter scale. The only thing the Deuce has directly in common is the mahogany build. I am now a little more convinced that mahogany forms part of this sound. I hoped it would be. The action was set pretty good. I lowered the treble side of the tune-o-matic bridge a little. The bass end suffered slightly with a little buzzing. The D’Addario strings felt different to the EB Regular Slinkys I normally use, but they are the same gauges I think. I might try an EB Skinny Top Heavy bottom set (10-52). That might suit it better. Accustomed to Jackson brightness as I am, it was easy to overdo the bass thing and fall into the mud. I emerged from the studio after two hours. It would have been longer, but this was a working day for me and I needed to eat & prepare for the morning too. The tonal qualities of this guitar are definitely going to be the most difficult thing to get used to, not the physical guitar itself. The research groundwork took care of much of that anyway. The tailpiece consists of heavy tone blocks through which the strings are threaded. These are seated on Perspex, presumably to protect the wood. The whole sub assembly is covered by a chrome plate which looks as if it was designed as a palm heel rest. I usually pick further toward the neck but decided to give ‘the rest’ a try and pick close to the bridge. It was a lot easier than expected. The strings have far less give at the bridge position but responded pretty well. This of course gave me a bright sound which could be useful given the Deuce’s overall warm disposition. The only problem with this is that I was constantly striking the pick up underneath with the pick. Hmmm… The pickups were another unknown. Hagstrom make a point to explain that the whole guitar is considered when determining tone. Matching materials & pickups to achieve a desired sound. In support of this, maybe that why they make so many versions? How much of that is hype and how much truth? I don’t know, but both are in there I’m sure. The pickups used here are Hagstrom Custom 58 Alnico 5 humbuckers, Made in Korea. They are designed for a warm vintage tone. Any downside to the sound? Maybe. I’m not hearing much subtlety to the sounds. It’s hard to pinpoint what this really is. I can control how much of the tone I change, but it’s not rewarding me with anything further. I cannot settle on a ‘sweet spot’ that feels just right. Maybe I need to live with it a while longer. The change in sound from what I’m used to is, after all, massive. So how much like a Les Paul is this thing? I’ve played LPs but never owned one. I suspect that the similarities are mostly superficial. In truth it doesn’t matter too much, but it was a consideration, and seemed like a good way to bookend a review. The Les Paul thing had come about because I had intended buying a pricey Godin instead. That also has a Les Paul styling. That's also an all mahogany construction. They were both pointing back to a common design precedent. What it doesn’t do I’ve been comparing it to a Gibson Les Paul, a Japanese Jackson Soloist and Godin’s flagship model, the LGX-SA. But the cost of a Deuce averages about £520 in the UK. As usual, USA costs are about 20% less. It’s cheap. Its finish and general attention to detail can’t compare with those guitars. It may transpire that it’s sound cant. But sound is an elusive thing and can’t be 100% relied upon no matter how much you pay. The sound will only be finally evaluated after the Deuce has had its live debut. But its components are good for fit, form and function, its materials are about as good as high ends and its design is excellent. In three months, if I decide that the pickups are a weak point, I’ll take advice from the pickup fellow. He will either modify or replace them. The same applies to the tuners or the wiring. I wouldn’t quite have this confidence with the higher end guitars. The carcass of the Deuce is worthy. We’ll see about the rest. It’s looking promising so far. Bottom Line I was lucky three times over. 1/ I took a chance on a guitar I had never handled. It paid off. Doing the right research certainly helped. 2/ I used a German supplier who saved me 50% of the cost. So it was really cheap. Thank you Thomann. 3/ It’s not important but I actually love the look of the thing. The gentle arched top; the rake of the neck; the feminine curved bouts and the flamed maple top. And the handling is only bettered by an even cheaper Charvette I used briefly in the 90s. These are the only proper video reviews I could find (there are a couple more for the Deuce F); none of which are in English. These helped me make the choice. Note: two TSB finishes in the videos have black PU mounting rings. The ones on mine are cream coloured. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K6dPWkexSg AMBER SUNBURST (Spanish) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbtzBeXZ5ng TOBACCO SUNBURST (German) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6tMxsfkoRY TOBACCO SUNBURST (French) Footnote: Oddly enough Gibson are making re-issues the Double Cutaway this year as part of the 100th anniversary. The less expensive ones don’t look quite the same as previous issues, having flat tops and coarse grained finishes. Update: (16-Feb-2015) I need to confess now that the sound reported earlier was not properly evaluated. The pickups still had the clear plastic surface protectors on (doh!). I haven’t tried it through the BR1600 again but I have tried it using it through the amp (Fender Stage 112 SE) on clean and gain. I also tried it using the Hughes & Kettner Tube Factor and the Line 6 HD POD 400. AMP only. Clean: With Bass, middle & treble all on 25%: More neutral than I had expected. The single coil sounds warranted a tad more mid and another 50% more treble for the neck. These needed retarding slightly using the bridge PU. All sounds produced were clear and even. AMP only. Gain 20%: Any attempt to raise the Bass or Mids made the sound more difficult to control at the guitar. The treble could be raised all the way to 70% (except for bridge PU only) producing a usable crisp bite. The tones are pleasant and darkly rich. Hughes & Kettner Tube Factor (AMP clean): Disappointing at all settings except at lower levels with 70% voicing (compression) used. This was a surprise. Picking attack sounded languid. Line 6 HD POD 400 (AMP clean). Used directly between guitar and amp produced reasonable enough tones but somehow produced some uneven string volumes. This was bad. I couldn’t correct this using the digital EQ. When I reconfigured the cabling to use the FX loop (send & return) it all became obedient and even once more. The custom patches took less editing than I thought they would (The Jackson Elite was more bass heavy by far). This setup should sound good live. Looking forward to trying it. I will before then hand the Deuce over to Simon who made such a good job of setting up & fret dressing my Soloist. I will try to remember to re-post at that time. Rudi

That happened to me last month. Its a cruel and demoralising thing to happen

Hanginaround - Counting Crows

I found some info. GAK is in Brighton, not far away but they have no stock. When they did it was £599. Guitars are more expensive in the UK. They quote radii as 10-13" compound. http://www.gak.co.uk/en/parker-p36/5076?gclid=CJqFo87L5MMCFQXmwgod8pEAJw http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/smithtone/p36.html I cant find the link for the neck width quote above again now, but obviously it was the nut position. Back to the Jx16 tone.... Can you hear the extra resonance we discussed better with a ear on the guitar body? I've been doing this with the Deuce. I've never heard sounds like it before. Completely different from the other guitars.

I know of no book I can recommend, but I have a suggestion. The song format is something you should understand. You dont literally have to understand how many bars are used, but for most of us its largely instinctive. Why not pick a song you are very familiar with and write down whatever you need to understand it. By this I mean chords, lyrics etc. When you can play it confidently, change the melody. If you cant because the original is too distracting, then change the chords. Change major chords for minor ones or whatever. The format then will be familiar and give you a starting point for a new melody, If needed you can keep the same melodic format & meter. It would be good to record the new melody/ when done then change the rhythm or phrasing of the melody. The whole point is to play around with the mechanics of the song and emerge with something original.

I've not seen it before. Looks interesting but the 1.65" fingerboard width is far too narrow for me. I have the Deuce now. Not quite finished my write up yet. I was going to put it in the guitar area. I havn't managed to sell a guitar yet.

I havnt got the last 3 ! which has never happened before, I like these to be obscure but I dont want to scrutinise lyrics and get a potted history of the artist just to do this.

How to choose a guitar? The easiest way is to go to some shops and try out a couple in each (any more than 3 can become confusing). What about when you have a pretty good idea of what you like already. 17 years ago I spent 18 months looking for a replacement for my Strat. I came away with a Jackson Soloist that is still the best fit for all my needs. However, there are some things I don’t like. 1/ Floyd Rose Bridge. These cost about £215. So I definitely paid for something I didn’t want. It’s now completely disabled, having two blocks of wood filling the trem cavity. 2/ I’m not too wild about rosewood fingerboards. There is no problem as such but my nails gouge out tiny bits *, and over the years it shows. I like ebony. Ebony is nail proof. (* my string bends pull, rather than push, bringing the nail in contact with the fret material. This sort of thing occurs when you don’t take guitar lessons) 3/ The image of a metal guitar doesn’t bother me. I use it for what I want to play and it delivers with aplomb. It does confuse the public sometimes though. But I don’t particularly care for its shape or colour (black). When looking for another gigging guitar, I really wanted something a little different. Certainly not to replace the soloist, but serve as back-up. Also, sometimes the punters get confused when they see a ‘metal’ guitar used in a ska & soul band (snigger…chortle….). Fenders? I love the Fender sound more than any solid bodies. I can’t get on with those tight radius narrow necks though; and I have really, really tried. Flatter frets are more solo friendly. Gibsons? You bet. But they have short (24.75”) scales and all humbucker PUs. Should I try to get used to a short scale? Dunno. One day I may get a real cheap Epiphone and experiment for a while. The shopping list then is determined by these specs. Here they are. 25.5” scale Wider fretboard. 1.69” min at nut (but string spacing not remain narrow like the new SGs) 15 or 16” radius (or suitable compound radii) Fixed bridge. Single coil pick up. At least one, and at the neck position. Sound simple? Well, just try & scare up this sort of animal. I found only one direct match. it’s the Hagstrom Metropolis-S http://www.hagstromguitars.eu/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=2118&category_id=15&Itemid=7 Otherwise the closest I could get were humbuckers with split coils. There’s not many of those either and they are all shy. Here are a few candidates: Peavey Predator: Cheap and pretty good quality. If the retailers are all correct they are made (variously) in Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia. Who knows if one is better than another? The trouble is that in the UK there are almost none. Hagstrom Deuce: Similar problem to Peavey. Almost no stockists. Godin LGX-SA: Expensive at £1,500. It’s also very high tech with direct Synth access. There is one stockist 130 miles away. After weeks of deliberation and stock searches I decided on the Deuce. For the longest time however, I thought I was buying the Godin. I think the Deuce is poorly represented (on the web generally and at stockists) precisely because it doesn’t look like one of the iconic ‘few’. *The Double Cutaway Les Paul doesn’t look like a Les Paul. It was only in production briefly so not even Gibson managed to market them effectively. Perhaps when faced with this option, buyers would reason ‘If I’m paying money for a Les Paul, then I want it to damn well look like a Les Paul’. The Deuce is the least reviewed or demo’d model of all (Web & YouTube). It’s difficult to find also, appearing on so few retail web sites in the UK (the US, as usual can get everything). All this meany I had to take a chance and order one blind. I'll post a review shortly.

Although obvious for all to see, when researching guitars at the end of 2014 and this year, I was struck by the sheer scale of design copies out there. I knew there were a lot, but I had underestimated how dominant those designs really are. It’s sobering to realise that the overwhelming majority of guitars are copies of a handful of models designed in the 40s & 50s by Gibson & Fender. At first I was bemused and idly wondered ‘why don’t they make anything a bit different?’ I now see that I was being naïve. The truth seems to be that these are what sell. Who makes all these copies? Everybody does. The only notable exception I can bring to mind is Rickenbacker. This is probably because they are old, iconic and were in there at the first. But then so were Gretsch and they make a lot of Les Paul lookalikes. Ok, there is a small difference between a ‘copy’ and a design style. A copy just tries to look as much like the original as possible, whereas with design style, the maker tries to put his own stamp on the product. The point is they are all derivative . We can all find exceptions. This minimalist design looks like a roof aerial. http://gittlerinstruments.com/ The main two style icons are obvious: the Fender Strat & Gibson Les Paul After that, just as predictable are Fender Tele & Gibson SG These are then followed by the various Gibson semis, from the 335 on down. But it’s those main handful that are being endlessly perpetuated, and it’s been going on for 60 years now. Not all Gibson/Fender original designs caught on of course. Nor have later ones. I cant recall if Fender had any other than the Stacaster. Gibson’s tried several; Explorer, Thunderbird etc. but they were only intermittently in production. Those too have been copied, but the copies fared no better than the originals. Rickenbacker: There are some copies but the company takes a dim view of this. http://pages.videotron.com/guitbey/fakenbackers.html Maybe if they had a more relaxed attitude, Rick copies might actually be good publicity for the company and create more demand for the real thing? I suppose this ultimately reflects on us. No matter what we as individuals like, this is what the collective us have decided upon.

Well I have ordered it now. Its a Hagstrom Deuce. I hate ordering anything blind. I've only done it once before, but I couldnt find a Deuce inside a 500 mile radius. So I hope its ok. http://www.hagstromguitars.eu/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=326&Itemid=36 I thought I was going for a Godin LGX-SA for a long while. It would have meant cancelling my holiday, which I was prepared for. But a straightforward spec comparison shows that these are remarkably similar. Both are entirely mahognony body & neck with split coil humbuckers. My spec list was: scale: 25.5 neck width: 1.69" (43mm) at nut radius: 15" or more. Or similar compound radii. fixed bridge: single-coil pickup I only found one model (out of hundreds) that actually met this. Its a Hagstrom Metropolis-S (it has single coils) But a couple more had split coil humbuckers, so that was close enough. It will have to work for its keep. It will be a backup for gigs.

If you dont record with a PC, can you use this with PC as an instrument? Presumably with a keyboard attached.

1/ Finding new gig venues 2/ Finding drummers

I'm not going to tell you

I'm also looking at another guitar. I'll post something up in a day or two. I'm also trying to sell a couple. I have a Yamaha acoustic advertised on Preloved, and my practice guitar is up on ebay uk. I really wanted to post a video of it but I dont see that provision anywhere. I dont plug anything in when practicing. I only do that in the studio at home.

I havnt tried playing anything except jazz on the Hofner yet. I will get around to it no doubt.

I cant imagine you’ld be doing too many string bends on your JX16. But it’s good to know you could rely on it if you wanted to. You wouldn’t like my HCT-J17 setup at the moment. The combination of a higher action, heavier gauge strings and the Torres scale length makes playing a challenge. It most certainly will not do string bends. Even vibrato is nigh on impossible. When I need to change strings I will take it to the luthier I know and ask him to set it up nicely. He likes archtops and has an old acoustic one himself. Sometimes I wonder if I could get accustomed to a shorter scale length. It would be great because it would bring so many superb guitars within my reach. I certainly would like to try out a Durham J17. I came across this a while ago. It’s a reasonable summary about scale. I can’t attest to everything he says, but it’s essentially about right. http://www.guitarplayer.com/miscellaneous/1139/5-things-about-scale-length/13523

I don’t understand the issue here. The loss of enough tension between nut & bridge would be a problem, but what is happening with the tailpiece exactly? This is exactly what I found with the HCT-J17. Just as you describe, it’s a residual resonance that enriches the sound. This is a major part of the appeal of the sound for me. It keeps me playing longer and it makes me ssllooww down… No bad thing at all. When I tuned down a tone to make it easier on my fingers, some of this was lost and I stopped enjoying playing so much. So it’s now back in concert & its staying there. That was a good account of your new box. It’s the sort of thing newer players might find educational too. Not technically, but just about forming an understanding & a ‘relationship’ (for want of a better word) with a new instrument.

It seems paranoid. I said this once, so I own it. I actually feel pity for what become of their minds.

ahhh..! Thanks for enlightening me Dan.