Fishypaw, what sort of guitar do you have?

i just noticed this post as i sit here burping (scuse me) after dinner and watching the winter olympics (such an exciting life i lead).

at the moment i have one broken, cheep, acoustic that is waiting to be repaired and a fender stratocaster.

the fender is a mexican built one (taco-caster, some call it). it was a lot cheeper than the american made ones yet is made the exact same with the same parts but cheeper labour. i am well pleased with it. it has a sweet action and a realy nice fender sound. the pickups are the bog standard and if i have enough money at a later date i may upgrade them.

i use a sturdy metal 'zoom' effects box (not one of the low range plastic ones) which was a lot cheeper than buying individual effects. it isnt great but good enough for me just now and has a nice wha wha peddle. again at a later date i plan to buy individual effects pedals. i love hendrix and know how he got his sound, i just need to wait till i have enough money to buy the effects.

i also love Jimmy Page and have dreams to own a classic les paul. i'd love a 60s model or maybe a 70's one. again when i can afford it i WILL buy one. as long as a classic is kept in good condition it is a good investment. u probably know that.

the best thing i have just now is a WEM classic amp, a Dominator Mk 3. it is atleast 30 years old and ofcourse a valve amp, and also in almost mint condition. apparently these amps were designed and built to work with fenders and emphasise that amazing fender sound, which it certainly does. the story of how i came about it is a good one. when i'd bought the fender i had a basic transitor amp that was ok but didnt do the fender justice. i had been saying to a few friends, for a few weeks, that i wanted a classic vavle amp if i could find one that i could afford. one day a few weeks later i was helping a friend in his lockup. next door to him, outside the neighbours lockup i barely noticed an amp that was hard to see as it was covered in a thick layer of dust and didnt look much. i said to my friend that that looks like a decent amp hidden under the dust and he said 'oh my neighbours are throwing that out, have it if u want'. my 1st question was is it working and he said he didnt know. so i said to him if we can plug it into a power point and see any life from it i will have it. so we plugged it and it started to hum quietly, which was a good sign. so i took it home. i plugged in my guitar and it worked for a moment but then i could see sparks coming from one of the valves as the amp started to crackle badly. so i switched it off and thought to myself either its just a valve needing replaced or worst case senario the electronics board is almost knackered. i went to my local guitar shop and told one of the older guys there what was happening and he said its probaly just the valve. so i bought a valve that cost £10, took it home, plugged it in and to my great joy the amp worked as good as new. i then researched it and found out that the last one was hand made in 1973 by a famous amp builder that had worked for hendrix and that currently a mint condition one like this, after i'd cleaned it is worth over £300. at that point i made many praises to the great guitar gods in the sky for answering my prayers in such a fantastic way.

it is a realy loud amp too. i cant turn it up to more than about 3.5 (it goes up to 8 ) without deafening myself and fearing that the walls will come down. i dream of being able to play it in a hall or outdoors one day and see how loud it can actualy go and play with the feedback.

i nearly forgot to ask, do u play urself?

You did well on the Amp. But I wouldn't have been phased, even if the thing exploded. I love to tinker in the guts of things. My wifes Ghetto Blaster tossed it in, so I'm converting it into a Guitar Amp at the moment. It's got a great set of speakers in it!

I sort of play. I got into music about 20 years back, but let it slide. I actually know stuff-all about Guitar makes and values, etc (but do realise 'classic models' are worth a $um) . I was very keen on music technology for a while. My kids recently got to the age where they've taken a bit of an interest, are beginning to learn some stuff, so the gear is slowly resurfacing.

Both my kids have done a couple of years of Piano/Keyboard. And my eldest is doing Singing and Flute this year. My youngest is getting into Guitar, and has dusted off my old Bass. I'll shortly be buying her a 3/4 steel string accoustic. And if I can convince the Wife for more $'s, one with a pick-up.

Other crap I have lying about are: Technics dual keyboard organ, Roland SH-101 mono synth, Roland EP-50 weighted piano keyboard (midi), Yamaha DX-21 Poly Synth, and Tascam 4 track. I've lost track of a couple of bits through loans, valve amp, Gibson Copy guitar, and my headless bass.

My ability to read music is pretty shitty, but I make do. I can program a sequencer far better than I can play keyboard. Although my 'Toccata' is pretty nifty( get those Organ sounds up full blast!). My Bass playing is not too bad, it's received favourable comment, but it's not extensive. I suppose I can be satisfied in that I've turned down a couple of band offers (college bands). But I did do some recording with a couple. And from memory, some of my Synth music was used in an Amateur Film project.

Flute not the best, but I'll brush up on that with my eldest this year. Probaly what I'm best at is Bagpipes of all things. A guy at college taught me. I don't have my own Pipes, but have a couple of Practice Chanters. I manage ok at such classics as 'Mull of Kyntre', Amazing Grace', and some marches and other things, that I have no idea what they're called. Good for driving the neighbours nuts!

I'd like to add a Midi Synth Module, Effects Mixer, Digital Multitracker, and some Foot Pedals to the collection, but we'll see how the kids get along first.

This is what my Bass looks like: . An Ibanez 2354 NB-3L, I believe. It's pretty much in mint condition. Manufactured no later than 1973. I have no idea if it's worth anything, but it's my pride and joy. So that's something else I'll be brushing up on this year. Been doing some 12 bar blues with my youngest. Hope to get into some Marillion riffs, or The Models maybe...

a nice bass that must be worth a few bucks. plus sounds like u have enough other bits and pieces for a small band.

i know the basics of how to read music much like i know the basics of italian, but cant really read it or speak it.

apart from being taught a couple of basics i have mostly taught myself. i play more by instinct than anything else. i love blues and know the basic blues scales. i love jamming along with other peoples music. in my opinion blues is the basis of almost all modern music. 90% of dance tunes follow the basic blues structure and cord sequence.

i have had a couple of bands offer me positions but i didnt like their music so didnt bother.

one thing i notice is that because i have taught myself, i have a good feeling for music that some 'better skilled' people dont have. for example my sis is realy good at piano but her playing to me sounds robotic and doesnt have the emotion that i like to put in.

funny u mentioning Marillion, makes me flash back to my teens. they were my fav prog rock band, i had all their singles in 12" pictures discs and saw them play live. i still love rock music but went off prog rock. Led Zep and Bon Scott's ACDC have to be the best rock bands in the world i recon. i love the rough and dirty sound that ACDC had and Zeppelin were just sublime.

to finish i believe it is our duty as the older generation to teach the youngsters of today what good music is by letting them hear the greats that existed before they were born. keep up the good work

My kids are always telling me off, because they've got some 70's/80's tune locked in their head! My Bass is a bit lighter than the one in the pic. I've done a few searches on the net, but haven't found a reference with a value.

I got into Marillion rather late. I don't think they were too big here. But once hooked, bought all their albums, and then bought them all again, when they were re-released with the second CD of Demos, and Rough-cuts (Grobschnit, I believe is the German word). Not as keen on the 'post-Fish' era tho'.