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Post by peterbower on Sept 27, 2019 16:10:57 GMT
Hi Tone
Very impressive sound and great playing, food for thought as an up grade project, I will look into it
Will we see you Tuesday ?
Best
Pete
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Post by sandra on Sept 27, 2019 16:15:43 GMT
Check out Revelation guitars too as they are a little over £200 and they have 3 models that are strat lookalikes and a friend had one recently which he said he preferred to any of his other strats he has now or has had.
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Post by frankmarvin on Sept 27, 2019 22:33:24 GMT
To Ian ( six channel). as a temporary fix , instead of PTF tape, wrap the threads with cotton, you will find that it lasts 10 times as long, personally I drill mine out 7mm and insert a bit of plastic tube ( having slit it to fit) then screw the trem into that, perfect and permanent, arm stays where its put and NO wobble / play whatsoever, somewhere there is a video of this procedure on here from an Aussie guy, best thing I ever learned, I do this every time.
somewhere in the archives you should find the video showing the procedure.
just my two pennyworth.
regards, Frank
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Post by frankmarvin on Sept 27, 2019 22:41:54 GMT
Sorry, I missed the main subject, one of my better guitars is a Mexican Strat (1991 vintage) with uprated P/ups a solid steel heavy sustain block, modified trem ( as above) and good strings. (* often overlooked)
In the main I use an American Strat. but the Mex comes a VERY close second, complete for around £300.
I guess that's my three pennyworth now,
regards, frank.
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Post by peterbower on Sept 28, 2019 10:25:30 GMT
Frank, you may remember the EZEE-MUTE trem arms, the same as Hank uses, the guy that makes them is a member of my Watford Shads club, he also modifies zinc sustain blocks with a threaded steel insert, either metric or imperial threads, your choice.
Sandra, thanks, I will look into those guitars.
Frank, my initial quest was to look for a budget Strat copy rather than a cheap Fender or Squire, this was /is to be an upgrade project, so far the Harley Benton ST62 that Ian has told me about is heading the list.
Thanks Pete
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Post by peterbower on Sept 28, 2019 15:57:17 GMT
Just looked at the 'Revelation' Guitar site, I'm impressed, they have plenty of the old Hohner pedigree, especially the head stock
Pete
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Post by bor64 on Sept 28, 2019 17:59:00 GMT
Pete,
I've some Revelation guitars. They are better build then the much lower priced. I left them out to mention them because at the start of this thread you aimed to a lower budget. Don't forget Revelation tremblocks are also made of soft zinc. The Alan Entwistle pu's are also made by a OEM factory to his specifications, but better then the lower budget ones...hence the higher price. I reckon when you bought one, the upgrade project isn't in a hurry...
Cheers Rob
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Post by peterbower on Sept 29, 2019 8:22:03 GMT
Rob
I have found a shop not far from where I live who sells Revelation guitars, they have a RT-62 Strat in 3 tone Sun burst and Rose would neck for £200, I will go have a look and play. I am also looking around for who sells Harley Benton near me, as I must try them out. Thanks Peter
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Post by sixchannel on Sept 29, 2019 8:39:02 GMT
I think H-B is a Thomann brand name. Badge engineering. They even sell a Joyo ACTone with an H-B badge and cloned amps similarily. Ian
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Post by sandra on Sept 29, 2019 16:46:49 GMT
I think it was that model which my friend Ian Hugo had but in blue Peter. He got it second hand off Charlie's least favourite site but there was a bad chip on it that wasn't mentioned in the description when he bought it so he sent it back but he said it played and sound really well. They do one with 57 in the name and RSS which Steve Reynolds demonstrated on YouTube :
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Post by peterbower on Sept 29, 2019 17:23:38 GMT
Thanks Sandra, Steve comes to my Shads club in Watford some times as he doesn't live too far away, I will have a chat with him about the Revelation. I saw his band Wannabe Shadows earlier this year in my area and he was playing a Simon Neal Strat
Cheers
Pete
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Post by jimimac on Sept 29, 2019 17:42:22 GMT
Hi Ian here is what Sam replaced for me ) Replace the bridge with a solid steel Wilkinson bridge (same style of saddles but better quality with a full-weight block for better tremolo operation and return to pitch, better trem arm fit & feel) he had to move the bridge slightly forward because of the larger block.
jim
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Post by sandra on Sept 30, 2019 1:35:43 GMT
I spoke to Ian earlier this evening and asked him if it was the 57 or the 62 or the one which Steve shows in that video. He thinks it must have been this one : www.revelationguitars.co.uk/guitar/rts-57/It is the only model they do in blue and he said he had tried the same one Steve had but it wasn't as good as the one he had. Maybe it's the luck of the draw with cheaper guitars as I can't see why they would make similar priced models play or sound differently as you would expect them to use all the same woods and electrics with a slight difference in price for cosmetic bits such as the gold finished parts on the one Steve had.
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Post by bor64 on Sept 30, 2019 7:06:22 GMT
Sandra,
Not only a luck of a draw with budget guitars, but also kinda with the upper class and everything in between. I've played guitars of 25gbp all the way up a few of 200.000+ gbp (think pre 61 Les Paul's). Sure to encounter a real dud guitar is relative bigger chance in very low budget, comparing with the higher priced... But I see my share of cr*p in all price ranges... Custom Shop guitars that where real dogs(Fender and Gibson), and believe me...pre cbs guitars are no magic stick either! I've played PAF humbuckers which sound really awful, they sounded thin and frail towards a single coil.. I've a few budget guitars and some of those outclass a few CS guitars I know...
Cheers Rob
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Post by peterbower on Sept 30, 2019 8:11:36 GMT
Rob, I have a couple of Tokai Gold Star Strats, one is made in 1984 and copy of a Fender 64 with a veneer Rose Wood fret board ( not a block board ) and made in Japan, body colour similar to Fiesta red. the other is a Korean made copy of a Fender 55 in 2 tone sunburst and maple 'D' profile neck true to the year. Both these guitars are better than some US Strats I have played and they are staying. Some times looking at brands other than Fender or Gibson you may find better
Regards
Pete
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Post by bor64 on Oct 2, 2019 9:23:53 GMT
Pete,
Your right, shopping on brands is not always the smartest way to go. People are to intend to shop first by eye.... To be honest when I encounter lots of electric guitars in a shop or at a music show...my eyes target first the fiesta red guitars. It's kinda embedded in my genes I guess...
Tokai is a brand that spot the ball quality wise and knew what musicians wanted. Mater of fact in the famous Fender 82 catalogue/brochure they used a re-branded Tokai strat to portrayed the vintage strats... Because the Fender USA Vintage wasn't ready on time for the photo shoot... When you zoom in at the guitars photo of the backside, you can see the Tokai brand on the tuners back, I kid you not!! That's why the strat on the picture has it's dot's in the twelfth position on the correct distance from each other and the "production" 57 and 62 guitars on to narrow space like post 64....
Cheers Rob
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Post by peterbower on Oct 4, 2019 12:02:19 GMT
Rob
My 64 Tokai has the narrow twelfth dot spacing. its an absolute copy to the nearest Millimetre of a Fender 64 even to the veneer board, no wonder Fender sued Tokai although that was more to do with the early Spaghetti logo on the head stock being too near for comfort according to Fender. Mine has the original Spaghetti logo. Talking of Fiesta red. there has been many discussions on this site about the colour, over the years I have seen many different tints of Fiesta red from Pink to Orange and everything in between, I think Hank's first Strat that Cliff got for him was a tad more pink than we see today, but I will leave that subject now as I don't wish to take part in any ensuing discussion, its been done to death already
Talking of Fender using a Tokai in a photo shoot, there was the famous ZZ Top album showing Billy Gibbons and the other guy holding Tokai Les Pauls, Apparently they had a beef with Gibson so used Tokai as 'up yours' to Gibson
I think Tokai proved that you don't need a Fender to get Fender performance and sound. I'm also not a dedicated Fender fan although I have several. I hate it when I see a Tokai that some one has removed the Tokai logo and fitted a Fender one, no no no,
Back to budget guitars, the Harley Benton around £200 is looking quite good for the money, but I suspect it would benefit enormously from some up grades and mods, looks like a good project guitar
Cheers Pete
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Post by Darryl on Nov 11, 2019 22:04:03 GMT
You could get a used Burns Marquee for your budget and have change.
I have an early one and I fitted Ironstone pickups on it.
A good guitar IMHO.
Regards
Darryl
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Post by bor64 on Nov 12, 2019 7:24:19 GMT
Hi Darryl,
I've one of the very first and that one had the bubblegum tremolo base bar...and yes the iron pivots bended and cracked the base bar. So a real craftsman on this site made me a real steel one, it cured the Marquee a standard in green-burst, a Marquee S in transparent green that I also bought direct of Barry Gibson (at a later date)had a proper trem system.
Cheers Rob
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Post by Darryl on Nov 12, 2019 8:26:20 GMT
Mine has a 2000 serial number and I obtained metal pivots from the USA free of charge. I only had to pay the postage.
Regards
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