So glad you like it! Reminds me of my Fender Japan tele in many ways. It’s a two-piece ash and I added the Gotoh locking tuners. It has great sustain as well. I’ve been playing my Yamaha SG mostly these days, but I think I’ll break out the tele for a while for a change of pace. I don’t have the room for multiple guitars out at once so I swap them out periodically and it makes me feel like I got a new guitar. Lol.
1 Like
That’s a great idea! will do the same! I can see it save me valuable space in the studio (I currently have a larger rack with all of my and my wife’s guitars in it taking up good parts of the room) and also reduce distractions (which guitar to pick?!) next to that new-guitar-side-effect you mentioned 
2 Likes
Can anybody recommend a stereo looper pedal? I don’t needs any bells and whistles, just straightforward operation and stereo. Cheers
1 Like
I’ve the boss rc-10r for my looper and I really like it
1 Like
Ditto looper is simple and comes in various sizes and price ranges. I use the smallest Ditto looper pedal to do quick backing tracks while I solo over it.
TC Electronic Ditto Looper Pedal
99 bucks a good deal.
1 Like
8 Likes
Recorded at Wilbraham Rd Station, Manchester, May 1964.
2 Likes
I saw that there’s a new course at pickupmusic.com called Neo-Soul Pathway, taught by Melanie Faye, so I signed up for an annual membership.
The course is advertised as for intermediate players. There’s a short screening quiz to make sure the student is ready. If you know the minor pentatonic box pattern, and two barre chord shapes - minor 7th and major 7th, you’re ready for the course.
2 Likes
Been working my way through that course. It‘s alright, I wish they‘d dive a little deeper into the sounds of neo-soul and the dos & don‘ts of its dynamics, phrasing etc…maybe it‘s still coming, let‘s see. In general, Pickup Music is a great deal, 69€ for the year and lots of good content to learn with.
So far I’ve done Day 1 and Day 2.
My impression is the first 2 days are designed to help players get their feet wet without overwhelming them. No bogging down the brain with too much detail yet.
Just some easy to digest appetizers to whet the musical appetite and build confidence, in the “hey this stuff isn’t as hard as I was afraid of… I think I can do this!!!”
2 Likes
Reached the end of Grade 1 of Neo-Soul Pathway.
I apparently have to complete 2 performance pieces and pass the final quiz to move on to Grade 2.
But just clicking the Next button on any piece gives me credit for “completing” the piece. I guess they don’t want to be too strict.
One “piece” is Kerry 2 Smooth’s R&B Licks Vol. 1 - a grab bag of like 7 or 9 licks or something.
I’m not in a hurry, so I’ll take the time to play the 2 pieces in time, not too much slop etc. One of them will def. be Melanie Faye’s “Strut Ur Stuff”. There’s no advantage to cheating the system and jumping into Grade 2 right away.
3 Likes
Thanks for the updates – I’m following.
1 Like
I ordered a Lindy Fralin bridge baseplate for one of my Strats. I love the sound of the Strat, but wanted just a little more “oomph” out of the bridge pickup. It’s a no brainer for $12.
4 Likes
Let us know how this works out for you once you receive/ install it. I’ve messed around with pickup plates, mostly homemade and a few commercial, with varying results. I’ve never tried it with strat pickups though.
1 Like
My freshly rehoused Behringer VP1. The VP1 a clone of a vintage Small Stone, and much much better than EHX’s modern versions which IMO sound nothing like the original (I still own a 1981 Small Stone, but it’s getting fragile). A/B-ing my old Small Stone against the VP1 and there’s literally no difference in sound, except the VP-1 can’t sweep as slowly, hence this project…
Basically I took the circuit and jack boards from the VP1 and rehoused them in a 1590BB case while added a few extra switches and dials. The right stomp is bypass, the middle stomp flicks between the two pots so I can quickly switch between sweep values and the left stomp replaces the Color (feedback) switch. I also added an LPB1 circuit to remove volume drop that sometime creeps in depending on where the pedal is in the signal chain (the small knob controls the pedal’s output volume).
The stomps are close together, but the middle one is raised higher than the left and right switches so I can step on it without triggering the others if I don’t want to.
10 Likes
My #1 Fender Strat has a set of Fralin Vintage Hots as well as the bridge baseplate. I adore the sound of that guitar. That’s the primary reason I’m adding the baseplate to another Strat.
1 Like
Justus West is one of the guest instructors on Neo-Soul Learning Pathway. I picked his piece “Morning Sunshine” as one of the two pieces to work on for graduating from Grade 1. I dig the chill, groovin vibe.
While searching for vids on him, I found his review of the new Kaizen guitar. Holy smokes this dude can play…
5 Likes
Man, I find all these long Earthquaker videos so inspiring. I always come away wanting to make music rather than buy a certain piece of gear.
10 Likes
It turns out I only had to record one video to submit for feedback. I chose “Morning Sunshine” by Justus West, because it called to me. Practicing “Morning Sunshine” has been pretty good practice for my rhythm guitar playing.
I was directed to click a button to record using my computer camera. Before I finished “Morning Sunshine”, the camera stopped recording and I got a dialog asking if I was ready to send the recording. 
I followed the instructions to enter the song title and grade, and added a comment about the recording cutting off the song.
The Grade 1 quiz focused a lot on neo-soul history, I somehow passed and was allowed to unlock Grade 1.
2 Likes
