Big_Stu

[quote name='funky8884' timestamp='1352030754' post='1857902'] Its my 2002 model, one owner ( me ) I bought it new and it sat in its case for 8 yrs only being played for about 4 hours in total. Late last year I spent a while setting it up, replaced the Truss Rods, Impregnated the neck laminates with glue and set the neck straight and it plays so so easily ![/quote] That's horrific! Do you put it down to the storage conditions - or another duff Rick? From what I was told by a couple of lutheirs it does have at least a hint of being stored flat & with the strings under tension - or maybe the complete opposite depending on your POV & how accurate those luthiers were.

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1351986074' post='1857681'] If you're coming from the city centre then you need to go past the zoo to get to guitar guitar... But the point still stands---they're pretty close to each other.[/quote] Well it has been 6 years!

The two mentioned are the two biggest; but they're all fairly well spread out so it depends how far you want to go and what for. The two I went to the most are owned by the same folk, Scayles in Patrick Square which is a part of Clerk St/Nicolson St (the main road that goes into the city from the south and comes out over Waverley train station). It deals in mainstream new gear, Fender, Marshall & they have a used shop around the corner called Live Music, which you could strike lucky in - or not. I liked them because they'd always do deals if you are seriously interested in buying. There was also Rikki's near the foot of Leith walk which can occasionally have interesting used gear in but isn't worth a trip specially. hint: if you decide to "have a bus trip to the zoo", it'll just happen to go past GuitarGuitar which is do-able if you get day ranger hop on/off tickets.

If was the thread I'm thinking of I seem to remember it was heavily in favour of snatching the hand off the offer to work on a cruise ship? Your call obviously, but I'd be interested to know if it was simply - and possibly with hindsight (wonderful) - undeserved loyalty to the band you were in?

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1351896045' post='1856816'] Have you got a printer? Pop to hobbycraft & get some beige 200g paper & print a cheque. What about a P.O? fair enough it costs a few £ more, but if it's gonna get you the gig... [/quote] This is the closest you'll get immediately, A cheque is just a promise to pay same as a bank note. If you put all of the details on a note & signed & witnessed (if need be) it's valid.- convincing them of that is another thing. I know someone who many years ago paid an outstanding poll tax bill written with a cheque on a pair of knickers. It was accepted - begrudgingly. edit; alternatively, since I presume you don't need it tonight - the postal order idea is good since if it's not needed you'd be able to cash it back in yourself, or you can go to one of the band's banks that does Sat. opening tomorrow and get a banker's draft (last I heard they charge about £12 for one though) - or at a push - in the distant past when I worked in a bank we had "mini-cheque-books" holding just 5 cheques which the bank stamped up with your details while you waited - this [i]may[/i] not still apply since they're trying to do away with cheques though.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1351875716' post='1856527'] a sparky sounding amp like a Pioneer A400[/quote] Some of us still have one though it's the "X" version and very neutral; which is just as well as it has s*d all adjustments on it ..........apart from vol.

V nice job! There's nothing like having a guitar or bass that you've made your own by adding or subtracting over the years!

Have a good look over the Eltax speakers. I bought my son a pair, forget which model, out of Edinburgh Richer Sounds for his first (and only so far) separates system. They were very poorly made, veneer peeled away soon after buying revealing the body to be some kind of compressed card or coarse mdf possibly. Sound wasn't that great either thru the Cambridge audio amp he had.

1,348 Posts in just a year??!! Blimey - and I thought silddx could talk!!

Sorry Rob - you can't take that user-name; it's already used by some guy off Last Bass Outpost, always banging on about how bad active basses are - and how a bass should only have 4 strings - you know the type. You'd have more sense I know!

[quote name='Matt P' timestamp='1351798385' post='1855633'] i swapped from a pair of budget KEF floorstanders to a pair of Castle Durham 2's sitting on Atacama stands, the speakers were 60 quid from a guy up the road and the stands were a local ebay find for about 20 (including the atabites filler) the difference was huge, the floorstanders sounded fine in my old rented house but in our current living room they sounded useless, i tried positioning and port plugs but nothing helped, sold them to a friend and they sound pretty good in his living room. the only problem with the castles is the lack of spare parts[/quote] They used to be made in Skipton, Yorkshire until the name was bought out by a Chinese company. Mine are Castle Severn 2's & cost me £600 after a 10% discount for cash. Had an issue with them about 2 months later & was put thru to the guy who actually built them.

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1351791674' post='1855499'] Mice can do a lot of damage inside a speaker cab! [/quote] Yeah, apparently they're partial to wire insulation.

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1351788275' post='1855440'] there seems to be some cracking advice floating around on this thread so if I can go off on a slight tangent, my present set up is a rega turntable, Arcam Alpha 1 CD player , NAD 3130 amp and Celestion F30 speakers, and I hardly listen to it because I'm fed up with hearing all bass drum and no bass guitar, any ideas anyone?[/quote] Dingus has pretty much nailed it I'd say. If you're keeping the kit you have try to position your speakers as he's described if you can; I've got floor-standers too which I was recommended to have about 8-10 feet apart with the listener at the apex of a triangle in front at about 12-14 feet away. Despite my other half not liking the idea I tried to toe them in; so that that instead of pointing directly forward they slightly face each other so that the sound from them "crosses over" about 3 feet in front of the listener. It depends on the speaker as to whether they improve matters - for me it did - in spades! The clincher was then sitting them on slate blocks about an inch or so thick.

My Hiwatt head & cab were kept in a leaky lock-up for almost 18 years constant. The amp chassis was rusty as hell when I bought it - and others who bought cabs at the same auction report bird & mouse nests found in them. The first year at this address I kept the amp over-winter in the (concrete) garage, in an SKB case, wrapped inside a box made of loft-insulation and that was wrapped inside a duvet I bought specifically for it. Before I put it away I placed one of those anti-damp tray gadgets in it which is filled with a silica type crystal; when it took it out in the spring the tray was [i]still[/i] full of water. The amp & cab are kept permanently indoors now - how the heck the speakers lasted 18 years in those conditions I do not know. Even in winter, daytime heating & night time cooling plus body heat from people using the out-building can cause condensation on metal surfaces which will introduce water near the cones; personally I wouldn't risk it, or if I did I'd do as I did with the cab - and get a bigger tray of crystals.

Almost every charity shop will have an old generic acoustic nylon strung guitar in a corner somewhere; I think it's a law! Depends how cheap you call cheap, but I've seen those kind of things hover around £30 and a low as a fiver.

All of the above; though Dave Hill of Slade in an old fan club lesson session he wrote said it was to help a learner guitarist who didn't know as many chords; but if was good enough for the mighty Albert Collins then it's good enough for anyone (though his was more to help his unique tone).

I've seen a cheap-ish copy of one - possibly Vintage - which is the low profile one. It's a record shop that's diversified into guitars so I don't think I'd get much of an audition opportunity. Once bitten twice shy now........... and my other half counting the cases & gig-bags (not quite but it feels like it ) Though I have just offloaded my SG to a collector so I'm due one.

[quote name='steviedee' timestamp='1351592845' post='1852918']I just need some budget speaker stands (and so it begins)! [/quote] Ain't that they truth! The aim where possible is to have the tweeter at ear height, assuming you're seated when listening. Richer do a few budget stands of various sizes. I had the hollow metal frame ones, fill them with sand & then enough water to just make it damp - some prefer to use lead-shot which some hi-fi shops sell for that purpose. I did the sand option & sealed it with blue-tack to stop it drying out. If "other half" permits you could try isolating them on concrete garden slabs - especially if they're on a wooden floor. I've got floor-standers now, on blocks of slate I bought from a roofing place before they split them.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1351626218' post='1853491'][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Y7VJGFrFo[/media][/quote] Thanks for that - it was amazing, gave me a few playing ideas to investigate - & also some posture to improve on I think. This tune especially brings back many happy memories of many Wolfstone gigs; one of the highlights of 24 years of my Edinburgh living - though I don't think Ivan is using a bowl-back on this one, or if he is it's shallower one - it's the one I remember first noticing one being used the year before. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIwuwGj3cro&feature=related[/media] ..........also some classic 90's mullets from hell.

It was also a bugger to find a gig bag to fit properly.

I bought my bowl back in a sale about 5 years ago. I wish I'd shopped around more & found the one with the lower profile bowl. I like the sound in either mode, and it's a lovely neck but that bowl gets a bit wearisome after a while, either stood OR sitting; I was agreed with by my optician last week too. I think either Jeff Lynne or Ivan Drever in his Wolfstone (in EAEAEE!!!) days were the first I saw playing them, but that was a good few years ago. Are there still any fans of these around?

With two EPs coming up & one in the bag is it not worth making an album, maybe with some video tracks? Or are you finding that EPs sell better/ more cost effective at gigs?

This thread has obliged me to more or less have the EP on a loop this afternoon. My other half is heavily into Dead Can Dance & says she likes Kit's recordings a lot. I do massively enjoy hearing anything that's outside my normal sphere of listening - and this is seriously good..

At least two mentions here as to what can happen if you don't look after your wood; http://www2.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/10-things-you-should-know-about-frets-0705-2012.aspx it's already been said in this thread that the lemon content is to remove built up finger gunk, the rest of it stops the wood drying out & shrinking. I'm gonna go with a company's opinion that's been making high standard (comparatively speaking in some eras) for around 100 years or more rather than sweeping generalisations and heresay. But it is all about personal choice, your gear, treat it how you like - and pay for the refrets & repairs as & when.

I might try that with the next full change. It's one of the early Washburns, about the same depth as a Tele with some kind of composite/ceramic seal around the inside of the soundhole. It has very little acoustic volume, so it's good for quiet practise but really has to be amplified. It's useless for an unplugged gig - I tried.