All I have to say on the tone wood debate is, try one of these

http://guitarcollecting.co.uk/2009/01/05/bond-electraglide/

Not a scrap of wood on the thing and sadly Mr Bond is no longer with us. I'm sure he had a opinion on the whole notion. His guitars sound and play divinely.

I'll be buying one in the week and never worrying about worn frets again. The micro tonal possibilities of the things are seemingly limitless. Like having the best of both worlds, fretted and fret less.
The things are completely carbon fibre, one piece, and still go out of tune. Why? Because strings at tension sometimes slip. Or more accurately slip over time. It happens. It's why power cables sometimes need to be re tightened.

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If I respond to the bait, may my nads be placed under Keith's left foot on your signature. Once bitten, twice shy, and my last bite has just healed.

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"There's an arse for every chair"

5 guitars
7 amps
4 dogs

THey are amazing looking things Niki, but I disagree with you about the playability i'm afraid. I had one for all of..................ooh...........5 weeks abut 15 years ago......I hated the thing! It was all gizmos and gadgets and playing chords was fine but trying to play lead just was tooooo hard for me with the stepped frets, and bending was nigh on impossible..................

I hope you have more luck with it then I did but I just couldn't stand the thing I'm afraid............

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speak slowly I'm a drummer too!!

And I proudly lack a stick or a kazoo up my arse...........

After a hour in a shop with one last Tuesday all I can report is, perfection. Ok when playing chords you do have to be particularly carefull with finger placement. It seems to exaggerate what would be a badly fretted note on a fretted guitar, as a slightly sharp note. Price you pay for accuracy though, I suppose.
So Senior Wookie, how did it sound? Any recollections? And more importantly, how much did you pay for it?

The man was from up your way, Andrew Bond. A scots lad. Man deserves a plaque or stature or something in my view.

BMW-KTM.
Why doesn't a mahogany strat, with P90's and a stoptail/wrap around bridge. Remember this
sound like a les paul?
Easy answer, scale length. The increased tension affects the way the strings vibrate more than anything else.

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Don't get me wrong, Niki, it sounded great!! I played in a little blues band at the time and I had it going through a Peavey Backstage Plus and when I was rhythm guitar it was brilliant fun.....it also impressed the ladies............. but I graduated to lead the week I got it.
Fair to say my lead playing wasn't great anyways but it does involve a different technique, that is, a technique where OD, distortion and wah wah don't hide any bum-notes or innadequacies anymore.................... I wonder how I would get on with it now...........nah, I'm too lazy to be that accurate with my playing........

What did it cost me........................ NOTHING!!!!! A friend's old man had it and gave it to me when he was selling all his gear for some reason

Even worse though......what did I sell it for??? Holy crap I'm cringing just thinking about it.....I don't even know if I can bring myself to say..............

deep breath, count to 10.......................an Epiphone Strat copy and a MArlin bass amp.............(wookee runs away and cries into his pillow!!!!)

Needless to say, neither of them lasted any length of time and the guy I swapped with, well he's laughing all the way to the nbank now isn't he.............

AS a side, was there not some iffy Roland copy of this thing at one point too?

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speak slowly I'm a drummer too!!

And I proudly lack a stick or a kazoo up my arse...........

Oh my living word, a epiphone strat copy (the guitar that finally got me into strats. And I'll still state they're crap, despite loving em) and a barf barf Marlin bass amp???
I'm looking at many spondoolicks on this one, just to make you feel a little worse about that youthfull endeavour.

Weep and weep some more mate. I've done similar.

BTW the ladies like the smooth yet rippled texture of the fretboard. Far nicer than the regular ribbed kind.

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(still weeping)

Niki that has brought up many painful memories that I had buried in the recesses of my mind until I opened that darn link in your post...........................you have traumatised me then rubbed it in by your remarks on my old Marlin................ sorry can't even try to act straight on that comment!!!!! Yup they were both dogs of gear!!!

ACtually, if I remember rightly the Marlin got nicked.....................

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speak slowly I'm a drummer too!!

And I proudly lack a stick or a kazoo up my arse...........

Hahahaha Imagine the fury of the poor sod who went to the trouble of nicking that marlin when he got it plugged in later on.
Too funny.

You must have made it sound good!

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Yo Niki....did they name the guitar after the motorcycle or vice versa. There's an interesting trademark issue. Wonder if it were ever challenged?

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"Another day in paradise!"

THat's it!!!!!! We spend years scrimping and saving, sacrificing food and clothes to get our hands on relics and vintage tube amps when the answer to the 'ultimate tone' is an Epi strat through a mArlin 25w bass amp!!!!!!

Ashtone, your quest is ended, Niki and I have it!!!!! THe answer is as much glue and different sheets of plywood with a large banana headstock that could knock over large animals going into a bass amp that was designed as a cheap copy of a cheap copy amp!!!!!!!!!



edit due to wookee's inability to spell due to his excitement!!!

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speak slowly I'm a drummer too!!

And I proudly lack a stick or a kazoo up my arse...........

Doc, sadly Andrew Bond's guitars didn't get the recognition they deserved. I think any lawsuit persued by Harley Davidson would have been money down the drain. That said the name Electraglide suits the guitar more than it does the bike. Which perhaps should be named NoiseyLurch

Wookie I'm not joking mate. After selling two plexi stacks, a Dean from when all Dean made were one off's. A Charvel model four and more rack gear than you can shake a dirty stick at. To pay for a wedding that didn't see the loan for the honeymoon out. A friend turned up with a Encore Strat as a encouragment to get me back playing. The thing had the wildest twist on the neck. I scrapped together enough for a zoom 4040 and ran it into a Alba stereo.
It got me smitten with three singlecoils though. When I'd previously dismissed strats as boring. Also I wrote some of my favourite songs on that set up.
Tone has a lot more to do with perception than it does with the wallet.

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Hey I'm with you 100% of the way on that. I still remember when I nailed my first 'real' learned solo (WOnderful Tonight) on my £40 Encore from Argos (single HB with a single vol pot) through my Flyspeck headphones..................I thought it sounded amazing!!!!!!

I think tone has a lot to do with where you are at! WHEn you play good stuff from a heartfelt place the sound you make emphasises it. You played that guitar when you none of your 'good' gear left and how good did it make you feel to have a guitar again?
You're so right. I came on here and saw all these guys buying high end 'dream' guitars and amps and got a little disenchanted with my stuff(big green eyed monster) and started the whole tone search again..............

I love my setup again, my beat up STrat, my Kay Les Paul and my dodgy, fake Tele through my FM 65 and my Vox pathfinder. It sounds to some purists as an amateur setup and SUre I would love to get my hands on a Twin or an old BAssman but I have spent years creating my sound and tone with what I have.

I would like to have seen that guy's face though..............the Marlin did sound like a duck farting in a polluted pond!!!!

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speak slowly I'm a drummer too!!

And I proudly lack a stick or a kazoo up my arse...........

Oh Sir your powers of description far surpass my own! Couldn't help but adore that comment.

You're right though and put it far more eloquently than I do. If it touches you and continues to inspire, then why change. Good, bad or whatever. I can't help think I've forgone a lot of inspiration over the years on the quest for a 'big boy rig'.

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See...ask an expert, and you get an expert's point of view.

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"Another day in paradise!"

My daughter as well...1 year.

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"There's an arse for every chair"

5 guitars
7 amps
4 dogs