advertisement


Guitar talk: acoustic, bass, classical, twelve string? You name it! Pt II

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hmm. I want to learn blues and some fingerpicking and stuff that will transfer to my electric guitar. Not sure a classical guitar would work for that.

My other question is where is the sweet spot is in terms of getting something I will like and enjoy playing by spending the least but not so little it's limit or sounds meh. Overall though I suspect I can get away with a pretty cheap acoustic.

BTW Today's TPS is the one from the ATB guitar shop.


The ES-125 derivatives are a great halfway between an acoustic and an electric and have that archtop compression for the blues sound. See the 14th fret neck joint. Fully hollow. I think there's an Eastman, among others. There's the Epi Century too but they were sh*t out of the box, or a Casino perhaps...

ylikbjklotr6nkjq2ndo.jpg
 
That's the pretty much the sound that Knopfler took on for the Brother's in Arms sound too. Wasn't Ronson fantastic? He'd have been on the way out at the time of that interview.

An incredibly talented bloke That he was almost single handedly responsible for the arrangements and sound of Lou Reed's "Transformer" speaks volumes.
 
Straight from the parks department at Hull City Council. To me, he was done over by Bowie to a large degree
 
Then again I have just seen this one and am tempted.

https://www.andertons.co.uk/sigma-s000m-18-all-solid-electro-acoustic-guitar

Looks like a good deal and I like the smaller size. Indeed given that an acoustic for me would be all about sofa noodling, the smaller the better adn I also wonder about palour guitars.

In the mid-late 1970s Martin were importing Sigma guitars, and some of them were better than what Martin was putting out at the time. I wish they were still available here, I'd be very satisfied with their D-28 copy.

Martin have long since recovered from their '70s quality slump.
 
Straight from the parks department at Hull City Council. To me, he was done over by Bowie to a large degree

Ooooh.... I can do a minor name drop here ! ..I used to go drinking with Maggi Ronson..his sister.... Polar Bear , Spring Bank for you in the know.

A lot of the Hull scene drank in the Polar Bear and the visiting players gravitated there so you would have people like Micheal Chapman and Bridget St John in there.
 
In the mid-late 1970s Martin were importing Sigma guitars, and some of them were better than what Martin was putting out at the time. I wish they were still available here, I'd be very satisfied with their D-28 copy.

I'd never heard of them until quite recently, and then came across this solid bodied LP type one for sale locally:

https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/1974-sigma-mij-les-paul-plus-case-very-rare-/1342826144

Impressive looking things - and rare as hens teeth.
 
They were made by Tokai. From the spec, on the ad. that one looks like one of their high-end Love-Rock / Les Paul models branded as a Sigma. That puts them pretty much on a par with the best stuff Gibson were putting out at the time (or at the risk of being a tad controversial..ever since :) )

edit : there's a single solitary one on eBay at present:

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=173969812668

Double cream edge binding front and back (four layers if you look closely), plus the diamond shaped inlay on the headstock means it was a costly thing to make. If you also take a close look at the binding on the neck, you can see little nibs (edges of the binding) up over the edge of the frets - which puts it on a par with the ultra high-end Tokais - but at about half of the price. Lousy photography: black guitars are notoriously difficult to photograph and the seller hasn't even bothered his backside cleaning it properly, but underneath that is a seriously high quality guitar. I'd love that thing, but if any more guitars arrive here I will get shot stone dead :(
 
Last edited:
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
BTW Today's TPS is the one from the ATB guitar shop.


Just watched this now, it really is excellent. Some truly amazing guitars! Mick is such a guitar geek (he really does know his stuff) that the program brought out some fascinating details. I very much hope he gets to buy something like the road-worn sunburst Strat he played at the end sometime soon.

I’m hugely impressed with both TPS and Josh’s JHS channel. Just superb quality programming and real highlights of my weekly TV viewing.
 
Marcus Miller interviewed on Anderton’s channel. I found it very interesting, unsurprisingly he rated working with Miles as one of his career highlights...

 
I watched that earlier, he always comes over as a really decent bloke with a lot of great stories to tell. Those Sire basses look very decent too.
 
They were made by Tokai. From the spec, on the ad. that one looks like one of their high-end Love-Rock / Les Paul models branded as a Sigma. That puts them pretty much on a par with the best stuff Gibson were putting out at the time (or at the risk of being a tad controversial..ever since :) )

edit : there's a single solitary one on eBay at present:

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=173969812668

Double cream edge binding front and back (four layers if you look closely), plus the diamond shaped inlay on the headstock means it was a costly thing to make. If you also take a close look at the binding on the neck, you can see little nibs (edges of the binding) up over the edge of the frets - which puts it on a par with the ultra high-end Tokais - but at about half of the price. Lousy photography: black guitars are notoriously difficult to photograph and the seller hasn't even bothered his backside cleaning it properly, but underneath that is a seriously high quality guitar. I'd love that thing, but if any more guitars arrive here I will get shot stone dead :(

That's identical to my 81 Tokai Les Paul Custom aside from a different headstock inlay, for some reason Tokai decided to put the "artisan" inlay on some of their Custom's headstocks. If it's 84 or earlier and it had the Tokai name on it, it would be north of 1k in terms of value.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
So i am very close to buying an acoustic, but what does the panel think of the options?

#1 choice are the discounted Sigma copies of the classic Martin which comes in both a Dreadnought and 000 size. All wood and look great value at £499.

https://www.andertons.co.uk/sigma-s000m-18-all-solid-electro-acoustic-guitar
https://www.andertons.co.uk/sigma-sdm-18-all-solid-electro-acoustic-guitar

This will be purely sofa noodling guitar so I favour the smaller body.

Discounted even more are these from ESP/LTD:

https://www.andertons.co.uk/acousti...nburst-acoustic-electric-guitar-inc-hard-case
https://www.andertons.co.uk/acousti...atural-acoustic-electric-guitar-inc-hard-case

Although this is a new brand to me and not so sure about those bull horns on the bridge.

There are plenty of other options around this price point: https://www.andertons.co.uk/acoustic-dept/acoustic-guitars?#facet:1209511211410599101957166805840123524848325348481253253484841

I don't want to spend any more than this and am open to spending less if people think there is better value elsewhere. I don't really need a pickup although am not against it. I would prefer all solid woods.
 
I don't think you can go far wrong with a Sigma at that price but I'd be tempted to look at used at that price point. Solid top is critical in my opinion, laminated B&S not so detrimental. While all acoustics will rise in the belly, you want a brand that has a strong reputation for build quality, not one cheating on the bracing and bridge plate construction to sound better in the shop.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.


advertisement


Back
Top