Blastronaut

@Gemmill just articulated what I was getting at far better than I did. I'm not trying to make any grand point, it's just one of the few things that fucks me off with some bolt-on necks. Is it not just as easy to have it at the headstock and just have it uncovered? Ah fuck, well that makes more sense and a genuine thanks for that. Just showed myself up for the absolute dinosaur I am. I have seen those but forgot they were a thing. Sorry @Andrew I'll concede this one, it's clearly a better design.

On guitars like this (that have the little slot in the pickguard) I get your point and can see the logic, but it leaves you limited what key/wrench you can use. Far to many guitars though don't even have that slot and you've no option but to pop the neck or remove the pickguard which is even more work. I don't mean to sound pedantic or take a cheap pop at your new guitar, it's just getting into truss rod season here and that arrangement is one of my pet peeves. I'm probably missing something though.

Glad for that 3rd photo. I was squinting at the first two thinking "what inlays?". Looks like a nice bit of kit though. This isn't a criticism but just reminded me of something that baffled me for years: why do so many strat style guitars have the truss rod adjustment at the heel? Is there was a reason beyond discouraging shitheads that don't know what theyre doing from fucking about with it? As an aside, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I'm so far out of the loop that I had to look up Nick Johnston only to find he's had Guthrie Govan, Marco Minnemann and Paul Gilbert play for him.

I never went all that far down the pickup rabbit hole but there's a UK company called Legendary Pickups that might be worth a look. Really reasonably priced for handwound pickups. Don't really know the guy personally but my missus went to college with him and he seems to know his stuff. My daughter bought a Miku Pophead recently. I had no idea it was an anime character outside of that ridiculous Korg pedal.

Is Chappers still involved with their marketing? I'd bet my mortgage that he also thinks of financial matters in terms of bottles of black label.

Holy fuck, that's fairly reasonable. Dunno where I got 800 from. So for 800 I could get this and 20 bottles of black label?

Well fuck. Now I'm going to need to find a way to sneak an £800 set of headphones into the house without anyone noticing. I'm a pretty self conscious player at the best of times and despite my rhetoric I actually hate playing at volume at home. My main amp even has a built in attenuator to take it down to from 45w to 1watt and it's still too loud through a 12" speaker for me to really feel comfortable getting the valves hot at home. Its not even my family that are the worry and I couldn't care less about my neighbours but I just don't want to be "that guy". I'd call it paranoia and blame it on all the grass I smoked in my teens and 20's but I'm told I was always a worrier. £800 on headphones is a big purchase though. My good cans were bought around 2004 for £40 and still going strong. I'll sound like a dick here but limited edition units on fire sale would give me the fear. I've got a lot of time for Jack Orman though, just shitty to see people pass off his work as their own without giving credit. A name drop in the sales pitch and I'd call it Kosher. Its an original design but only in the sense that someone has taken a few Lego blocks to build something without mentioning it was built from Lego.

Nice. If you run them both as boosts (just dial back the gain/drive on the NUX) it's will likely be close to what the Vertex is doing, but with a mid hump rather than an mid scoop. Other side of the ballpark but I've been eyeing up a Schecter S1 Elite that's up for sale locally. Never knew it was a thing but I really want one.

Ha, no way! I'd What model have you got? From what I can see the original was in a silver enclosure and looked a lot like the NUX, the "SRV mod" version is the same but black and then there's a "Supreme" model with a whole load of other shit tacked on. I'd normally jump to Mason's defence and say that's just how the anolog pedal scene is but he doesn't looks great in this to put it mildly. Graphics and name are quite similar (both things that can be trademarked and protected) but the circuits are totally different (even if it was identical would be the one thing that's really hard to protect legally). Ive liked most of the Line6 stuff I've used bar their early Spider amps. the early pods and modulation pedals were really cool and the new stuff looks much better. I just made the mistake of buying a 2x12 Spider 2 and could even give that fucker away. Ignore everything I've just said about digital and message me for discount rates on 60 year old analog tech.

Took me way longer than it should've to realise you meant the kids mum. Thought for a second there might be some Oedipus themed in-joke wasn't aware of. Back on topic to a few pages back and all this chat about the Steel String "Dumble" style pedals. Sure I outed Tom's NUX as a Tubescreamer and Andrew's whatever it was called as also another Tubescreamer but with with a bit more going on, so it's only fair I follow that up by taking a pop at Vertex. Their "Steel String" turned out to be two of Jack Orman's Mini Boost pedals in one box, with a big muff tone control tacked on (Jack is one of the old school legends of the DIY pedal building scene). Looks like they've revised the circuit more recently and are now marketing it to SRV fans but I can't find much on what they have changed. Then there is their other Dumble style pedal, the Vertex Ultraphonix Overdrive which is a a fairly straightforward ZenDrive clone. I appreciate nobody asked for any of this but I just stumbled on this worthless knowledge and it seemed somewhat relevant. I had a Cube about 20 years ago that had a great clean channel and decent onboard effects, the other amp models were a bit iffy but still usable. Then one of those Line6 Spiders which is up there with the stupidest things I've ever spent money on and put me off the whole scene. Its a whole new world now though and has me wondering if I should've listened more to my lecturers that insisted I was wasting my time obsessing over ancient analog tech.

I was about 7 when my folks split and wouldn't be half the layabout I am today if it wasn't for the bloke a few doors down that played guitar a bit and threw me some SLF tapes. If that prick had headphones I'd likely have went down a different path and wouldn't be here having this conversation. Bollocks to headphones. Let them hear Hendrix. I do like those Katanas though. Even entry level digital stuff is now easily better (more versatile and consistent) than the ancient tech it's emulating.

You're looking at this the wrong way @Tom. This kids Dad has just fucked off. Blasting Hendrix riffs is morally the best thing you can do to help without getting actively involved.

All I can mind about him was his spectacularly poor planning for the England Italy final. Think he bought four cans to watch it at home on his own and had finished them before halftime.

Ah yes, all the best music is just one continuous note that lasts an entire month. Nailed it, the end to all pain and suffering to take concert pitch down a quarter step.

I'm no authority on valves but as long as they're on spec and biased properly it shouldn't matter who makes them. Any differences in the production process or "quality" would likely just affect durability rather than how they sound. Your guy likely biased the valves properly and that was the difference you heard (unless that amp is cathode biased, where you don't really have to worry about biasing when changing valves). I was wrong about Japan and USA btw but you can sub them for Slovakia (JJ's) and Mexico (Groove Tubes).

Easy there @Tom. There's still loads of non-Russian companies producing valves. Germany, USA, Japan and China off the top of my head. I'm surprised to see Mullard on that list though, wasn't aware the new Mullard valves were Russian. This looks like EHX just shitting their pants a bit because they went all in with Sovtek.

Analogman out there desperately trying to tie in his Germanium "B.A.R.T" transistors (Big Ass Russian Transistors, his own clever acronym) to Ukraine rather than Russia - neglecting to mention that none of that shit has been manufactured anywhere since the fall of the Soviet Union - is quite possibly a new low for the guy.

Not saying I wouldn't drink it but the branding on that Pale Ale screams 90's Kwik Save.

Not sure how relevant Renton's bowel movements are but it seems @Ken could do with a history lesson.

Doubt he's got much much use for it tbh but it's good propaganda to remind the west he's still a huge nuclear threat without having to actually launch any nukes. If his troops are really there though it's likely to flank Kiev from the north and the nuclear narrative is just a bonus to remind the rest of the word how much of a psycho he is and give NATO an easy out for not intervening.

Aye exactly. Fuck practice, I'll just get fucked on lsd and play barefoot. Worked for Jimi.

Aye, if Hendrix did it it must sound better. Bollocks to the fact Hendrix only to that so he could fuck about with the springs with his hand. Those two twats are so full of shit but I can't hate them since they probably drive a fair amount of the interest in the clones I punt. I play fairly low slung so that backplate is staying on. Don't want any painful accidents if try any tremolo dives in my pajamas.

Aye, I think he's just highlighting that it's 99% just electronics and pickup height that make the difference. Funny that none of the guitar builders mentioned pickup height and all emphasised things like wood type and density. Edit: agree it's all in the hands too but that's a different arguement. Love that he had two fucked honda engines lying around his barn too. "Naw keep them, I might need them one day for some mad guitar tone experiment".

Excellent video dispelling a lot of myths about "tonewood" and other such bollocks. The last 3 minutes is the money shot but honestly the whole thing is worth a watch.

*Doug Stanhope voice:* This is is why I drink.