The Guitar Diaries Part 12: Epiphone J-200 (November 2011 – Present)

For a very long time I’d wanted to get an Epiphone J-200. A genuine Gibson would be too expensive, but my previous experience with Epiphones had been very positive, so I didn’t really have a problem getting the cheaper version. Also, I didn’t have serious designs on being an acoustic guitarist.

Late 2011 I’d decided to do some proper recordings of the songs I demoed back in the 2005-06 period, which needed an acoustic guitar. Having got rid of the awful Manhattan the previous year, I took the plunge on the Epiphone. Although electro versions are available, I find piezo pickups to be a bit plasticky in sound, so I got the regular version and miked it up instead.

I’m pleased with the guitar I guess, it does all I ask. However, it doesn’t feel as good as the Korean J-200s did around 2003. I do get a nice sound of it when I record it and I’ll be keeping it unless I suddenly decide to get something more expensive to replace it. I don’t write songs on acoustic and I don’t really play it much for pleasure, so it just does what I want it to.

2022 Update: This guitar was DESTROYED in 2015!

The Guitar Diaries Part 11: Fender Roadhouse Stratocaster MIM (April 2010 – October 2016)

Apart from briefly (for an hour) considering chopping in the Gibson for a Lone Star Strat in the early Penguin Steak day, I’d never seriously considered going back to Fender. That changed in April 2010.

I’d been listening to The Eagles and a compilation called American Heartbeat, and thought it might be worthwhile getting a third guitar, especially after hearing some of Joe Walsh’s work on Hotel California. I picked this on up for a cool £310 on eBay. I specifically wanted the Roadhouse because of its twangier Texas special pickups.

What I do like about Fenders is that they’re very utilitarian and workmanlike. You can throw them around a bit and mistreat them. They don’t require any special handling and with 5 pickup combinations there’s a lot of sounds in there. Because I attached no real value to this guitar, I had it out all of the time so it was the go-to axe, while the Gibson and The Rickenbacker stayed in their cases.

Then in March 2013 something rather serendipitous happened. For the sake of just playing something, I re-recorded an old song of mine one afternoon with the Strat. It just wasn’t sounding right though, and I wasn’t getting the same feeling. In a moment of pique I got the Les Paul out of the case and used that instead. Everything fell into place. The next day I got into a serious songwriting groove on my old Les Paul. Shortly afterwards I looked back on the last three years of Strat ownership and decided I’d achieved very little, felt inspired to continue using it even less, and that I would sell it when I returned from my 2 month job in India. Out of the blue, I was contacted by the guy who sold the guitar to the guy I bought it off – he wanted to buy it back and offered me the same price I paid for it. At the time of writing, I’m still India, but I’m fairly sure he’ll make good on his promise when I’m back, and I’ll probably use the money to buy a studio compressor.

2022 Update: Sold this in 2016 - not to the original seller! Never liked it, to be honest.

The Guitar Diaries Part 10: Rickenbacker 330/6 (September 2005 – April 2015)

I’d been flirting with the idea of getting a Rickenbacker for many years. I’d even tried out a 330/12 five years before and thought it was the most amazing thing I’d ever heard.  In 2004 I’d made serious enquiries about getting a 360/12 but it was just a little too expensive. Then in 2005 I had a little spare cash, had begun to start writing and recording a lot, and thought the time was right to go ahead. Initially I had thought about getting a 330/12 and having it strung as a 6 string, but having made a few enquiries about this possibility on the Rickenbacker foum, it seemed that the flexibility would compromise the instrument a little too much. Although I love the sound of the 12 string, it seemed like I would be paying a lot of money for a niche instrument, so I decided to go with the 6.

I didn’t know what to expect from the Rickenbacker, I knew from the construction, wood and pickups it would sound a lot different to my Les Paul. I wanted to be open minded about it, and I was happy that it would give me a new range of sounds and influence me to play in a different style.

I was lucky enough to spot one on eBay in my city, with a collection only delivery option. I always pay special attention to collection only auctions on eBay, since they effectively limit the sale to whoever is willing to drive and pick it up. I went and took a look at it a couple of days before the auction ended – it played fine – and was then lucky enough to win it.

Rickenbackers are lauded for their ability to jangle, but I was determined to not be limited by that. The first few recordings I used it on, I found out that it was possible to actually get a really good blues tone from it, and it’s semi-hollow construction reminded me – slightly – of the sound from an ES-335, although brighter.

When I got the Rickenbacker I played it like a mad thing, and for several years it was the main guitar. As my tastes swung back a little to cleaner sounds and picking, the Les Paul was only bought out when I needed that specific sound. Because it doesn’t sustain as well as the Les Paul I found I needed to work the notes harder and this improved my technique. I think I reached an all-time high for technique in about 2006 from playing this guitar so much.

I found everything about this guitar perfect, a wonderful Fireglo finish; it always stays in tune and always feels so positive and bright in my hands. The neck feels just the right size and there’s good access all over the fretboard. The quality finish, the custom shop build quality… all Rickenbackers are quality instruments, and I have a lot of respect for the company itself, still family owned and operating in a sustainable and ethical way. You don’t need to worry about what year your Rickenbacker is from, they’ve always been build consistently well and they take their quality very seriously as the expense of greater profits and wider margins.

As I got into electronic music and using synthesizers from about late 2008 – 2012 it got used less, and when I the second Strat arrived I tended to have that out on the stands, and kept the Rickenbacker in its case for safe keeping. However, I do love this guitar and along with the Les Paul I will never part with it. I do lust after a couple more Rickenbackers, a 12 string (would need to try out several versions), and also a 4003 bass.

2022 Update: Sold this back in 2015 when I got the Johnny Marr Jaguar and reacquired my Epiphone Riviera. I had too many guitars!

The Guitar Diares Part 9: Manhattan Acoustic (June 2004 – May 2010)

I can’t even remember why I bought it, I guess I must have decided I needed an acoustic guitar. However, this was a baleful instrument that didn’t even stay in tune properly, had nasty intonation and was not inspiring to play at all. I think I paid £80 so I should have known what to expect. I don’t think I ever used it on a finished recording, although I did possibly write a few songs on it (certainly Operation Nightfall and The First Day). I gave it to my friend’s daughter a few years back.

The Guitar Diaries Part 8: Peavey Milestone III Bass (February 2002 – May 2015)

Bass Player James left Penguin Steak in early 2002, and in this transitional period for the band, Gav and I decided to share bass duties. We went to the Rhythm House in Stoke and bought this Jazz-bass type instrument for a very cheap price - £100 I think and it was jointly owned until I left the band in 2004, then I bought out Gav’s half. We also lent it to Libby when she was our bass player.

This bass is a bit of an unsung hero, because I’ve used it on every recording (with a bass in it) since, and I’ve owned it now for 11 years. When I started to get very serious about recording in about 2005-06, I bought some Seymour Duncan Jazz Bass pickups for it and it improved the sound dramatically. It has a thin neck, so is easy to play, and the electronics work well enough so I’ve been able to get pretty much any sound I want from it. With the exception of the one Penguin Steak gig we played, it’s never been gigged so it’s in quite good condition, and I still use it today, with full confidence and with a little reverence at how long it’s been with me for. Doubt I’d ever get rid of it. Who would buy it now ?!

2022 Update: Ceased to exist in 2015 as it donated all it's hardware to my self-built Jazz bass.

The Guitar Diaries Part 7: Epiphone SG Bass (September – October 2000)

Very few memories of this instrument, especially as I owned it for a very short time. It was cherry red and had one pickup. Didn’t sound as good as my P-Bass had, and it didn’t sound as good as my Les Paul with an octaver on it! Bought from the Academy of Sound, and sold one month later at a £20 loss to a nu-metal girl who wanted to give it to her boyfriend I think. Part of the ‘I’m quitting music’ rage I went into. I’d forgotten I had it until I really sat down to think about it.

The Guitar Diaries Part 6: Gibson Les Paul Deluxe (December 1998 – Present)

“Congratulations, you’ve passed your driving test” the examiner told me. ‘Will you be buying a car?”

“No, I’m going to buy a guitar”

I wonder how many guitars have been funded by student loans and grants? I went to university  - on a music technology course – thinking it would only be a matter of time before I met some illuminating people and started a band. Without realizing the implications I got my student grant (yep, you could still get them when I started uni) and a student loan and looked for what I could spend the money on. I actually wanted a Gibson Les Paul Custom Florentine, but when I found out I would only get the money in installments, (therefore I would not have the £2000 in one sitting) I picked up on a advert at university that another student had posted. I kept up the correspondence for two months and eventually went to collect the guitar in December.

I hadn’t realized the guitar was a Deluxe model, meaning that it had mini-humbuckers instead of full size ones, but I wasn’t particularly worried about that when I got it home. It looked cool, sounded great and that’s all that mattered. The guitar was slightly beat-up being 18 years old at that point, and although a Gold top, had a sunburst back and neck. The neck was very well worn and felt great.

Owning and playing this guitar really felt like coming home. When I began to play it I remember telling myself that there could be no more excuses for not playing well now I had a ‘Real Deal’ guitar. It was the little things that mattered, like how the volume and tone knobs actually seemed to do something when I played, and the tone… I could really tell this had great tone.

At the time I bought this guitar I’d been getting more and more into actual lead guitar as opposed to what I’d been copying from Britpop and U2, especially going from picking to bluesy type riffs and licks. The Les Paul Deluxe really pushed me further in that direction.

As I said in Part 3, it wasn’t long until I was playing this guitar all the time and the Riviera stayed in it’s case. I sold the Riviera, and until I bought my Rickenbacker 330 six years later, the Les Paul was my only six-string electric.

At long last, I was beginning to play with some other musicians. After the false start with the hair rock band in late ’99, in mid 2000 I answered an advert in Total Guitar for a band looking for a lead guitarist in Stoke. I met up with Wayne (Guitar) and Andy (bass) and played with them for about six months. Along with Jarv (Drummer) and Jackie (Singer) we played various classic rock tracks and some Alanis Morrisette. Although I’d joined as lead guitarist, it was pretty clear that Wayne was the better out of the two of us, so I stuck mainly to Rhythm, although we would occasionally just jam out, Especially a variation on Led Zeppelins ‘Girl With The Long Black Wavy Hair’. I still had my Marshall Stack at this point and it’s true what they say about pairing up a Les Paul and a Marshall – it’s a heavenly sound!

I think because of the impetuousness of youth (I was 20 at the time) I was getting bored of the band and wanted to do something on my own, especially doing original material instead of covers. Paul was a friend of mine from a part time job I used to have and we’d been talking a lot a bout wiring together, him as the singer and me as the guitarist. I left the band for that reason, and then Paul and I did nothing at all! That summer I bought a BOSS BR-8 Zip Disc recorder thinking that it would be the beginning of a creative phase. After maybe 2 months of fruitless noodling I got extremely frustrated and decided to quit music altogether! I sold the 8 Track, The Epi Bass I’d bought at that point, The Marshall stack through the classifieds at university. I even put the Les Paul for sale too, but fortunately no-one was interested at the price I put it at (I guess it was a little too expensive for most students).

My musical hiatus didn’t last too long, and in early 2001 I began the three-and-a-half year odyssey that was Penguin Steak. Initially we were just a jam band having fun, with my friend James on Bass and Andy on drums. We’d play 12 bar blues improvisations, just learning our instruments, before trying covers later. I used the Gibson all through this period and I think then more than ever it really began to feel like it was part of me. Great how that happens when you’re rehearsing twice a week. Eventually we gained Gav and then lost James and Andy, before finally picking up Mart in late 2002 and starting a year of recording and writing at his house. All this time I used the Les Paul, and right through 2004 when we became a rehearsing band again before we finally split up in November of that year.

When I got my Rickenbacker 330, the Les Paul took a back seat although very recently I have been using it again, as I have a revival in my attitude to the guitar in general. Although it’s seen less use in the last 7 years or so I do love it very much. I’d have a hard time deciding which one I like more though, the Rickenbacker is possibly my slight favourite but I’d keep this if I had to sell one because it’s a very unique guitar and has been with me so long.

By early 2005 it was clear the Les Paul needed a re-fret. They were quite worn when I bought it, but by now some of them were just flat and it was getting difficult to play. I took it to the guitar doctor who had the guitar for 2 months while it was re-fretted. I was so glad to get it back! When I got it back, the guitar doctor told me that the guitar had originally been a sunburst (which explained the neck), but it had at some point been professionally refinished as a gold-top.

A few years later in 2009 I sanded off the Goldtop (it was quite chipped) and it currently is a natural blonde with a polished top (but not lacquered). For a few years I’ve been thinking about properly refinishing it, either with a clear lacquer or doing a faithful sunburst finish. I’m pretty handy with an airbrush, so I wouldn’t feel too worried about it. Only thing that prevents me is that I don’t think I want to be without the instrument for several weeks or even months while I do the work! While I do the work it would be a good opportunity to do some other things, like replace the bridge and the tuners which aren’t really keeping it in tune any more.

2022 Update

After an abortive attempt to refinish this guitar myself, I made the decision to get a professional to do it and at the same time to change the pickups to P90s. I wasn't especially a fan of the mini-humbuckers and the P90s were left from a different project. I went back to the original Goldtop finish, because even though it had been a Sunburst when it left the factory it had always been a Goldtop to me.

It had been in pieces for a few years when it went off to get the work done, and I got it back in April 2019. I didn't really use it a great deal until lockdown in 2020. With little else to do with my time, I spent three months recording an EP (with the Jag and Riviera), and using the Les Paul for two hours a day to work through Hal Leonards Jazzin' The Blues book - an excellent tome. It went out of rotation during most of 2022 but is currently back in service as I'm doing some Truefire lessons in blues-rock, and this seems the best of my three guitars to do it with, it's also the nicest to play, and is a match made in heaven with the Tiny Terror (can't get it to sound good with the Fender Deluxe Reverb though).

A fantastic guitar and an old friend - sound-wise I may slightly prefer the Riviera, but sentimentality means this is probably the guitar I'd save from the proverbial burning studio.

The Guitar Diaries Part 5: Fender Precision Bass MIM (August 1998 – September 1999)

Not being in a band, and unable to find any other musicians to play with, I’d directed my musical energies to 4-track recording. For bass, I’d used an octave function on my Zoom 510 pedal, and used either the Epi LP or Riviera for bass. Now although I’m a guitarist, I do have a lot of appreciation for the bass, so I decided it would be a good move to get a bass guitar, and with the Strat not getting any use I traded it in for a P-Bass at Route 66.

As I remember, I did make quite a lot of effort with the bass, buying an instructional book and developing a reasonably good technique. I slowed down making demos at this time, but I did use it on a few recordings. Thanks to owning this bass, I got into my first band, an 80s hair rock cover band. Because of a lineup change I was promoted to Lead Guitarist, and chopped in the bass and a load of pedals for a Marshall Stack – then quit the band about a month later!

The Guitar Diaries Part 4: Fender Stratocaster MIJ 1960s reissue (March 1998 – August 1998)

Although I’d decided that I was on the Gibson side of the fence when it came to guitars, I began to wonder if maybe the grass was greener and decided it might be fun to get a Strat – a real one this time – instead. The newly opened Academy of Sound had one in, a nice looking three-tone sunburst model. The Epi Les Paul was part exchanged and I rode home on the bus that evening with another new guitar.

It was a worthwhile experiment I guess, but I never really took to the Strat. Didn’t like the looks, don’t think the 25” scale suited me either. Couldn’t get on with the sound. However, despite being a Japanese budget version, it was as far as I can tell equally good for quality as a proper MIA version.

 I used it on a few 4 track recordings of that era, but I think there’s one called ‘Jerry’s Garden’ where I did the first half with the Strat and the Second half with the Riviera. Second half sounded much better, so the writing was on the wall.

The Guitar Diaries Part 3: Epiphone Riviera (Jan 1998 – April 1999, March 2015-Present)

I considered the Riviera to be the Holy Grail of guitars at this point, because I’d seen Noel Gallagher playing a cherry red one on the Live By The Sea and There And Then videos. So of course, I had to have one. I ordered it from the Flying Pig Instrument Supply Company and was ecstatic when it arrived. One of the best things about this guitar was that it was loud enough to play acoustically in the bedroom. I used this guitar a lot on my four-track recordings from that period, and really began to develop my picking technique with it. It had a wonderful cherry finish that had a deep lustrous lacquer. Considering it was a budget instrument, and essentially a copy of an ES-335, I never considered it to be inferior.

Although it had nice thick humbucker pickups, it sounded best when it was being played gently, and with effects added. At this time I began to experiment using delay and chorusing and maybe not piling on the distortion quite so much. At this time I was listening to the Stone Roses a lot, and listening to some of the demos from the time I can hear that coming through.

I honestly thought I would never sell this guitar, and of all the ones I’ve owned, this is the one I wished I’d hung on to. However, in late ’98 I bought a genuine Gibson Les Paul and a few months later I found I just wasn’t using the Riviera as much, so I sold it to a guy at university. Also, the Les Paul was pushing me into harder rock territory, with the Riviera didn’t seem right for. I still remember the serial number – R97E 0304 – I put this into Google a few weeks ago out of curiosity and saw that at some point in 2012 (last year) it had been for sale on EBay. I wished I’d known, I would have snapped it up without hesitation! When I was in Penguin Steak a few years later, my friend Gav got an Epiphone Sheraton – essentially the deluxe version of the same guitar – and I really got to see what I was missing out on. Just swap the electronics on one of these later 90s Epi Semis for Gibson parts and you’ve got something as good as a contemporary ES-335.

2022 Update

Unbelievably, a couple of years later I did actually track down this very guitar to Barry Island in Wales (the seller had helpfully listed the serial number). I paid £350 to get it back, which is probably what I paid for it in 1998. As my last sentence in 2013 said, put top end hardware in one of these and it's as good as a Gibson, so that's what I did - I changed the bridge, put two new pickups in by Mojo pickups, and changed the tuners for grovers. It made it into an absolutely brilliant guitar. Despite the 16 year gap between ownership, it still felt familiar although somewhat worn in - thanks to it's many previous owners. I put a Bigsby on it at one point which I loved, but it would never stay in tune so I took it off and sold it - now there's a couple of small holes to show for it.

With value and sentimentality taken out of the equation, I'd say this is probably my favourite of my three remaining electrics. I used it live for a couple of jam nights about seven years ago, and in the unlikely event I'd ever play guitar in a band again it's the one I'd use - best sounding, lightest and lowest nickability. I was jamming a lot in 2016-2019 with a mate and this was the one that usually got used. However, it's been laid up for a little while, partly because I wanted to restrict myself to using my Jaguar, but it's in need of some professional attention. It requires a refret and a proper set up. I could tackle this myself, but after seeing what my Les Paul was like after someone with competence did some work on it, I'll be sending it off to get the work done. Fantastic guitar.

The Guitar Diaries Part 2: Epiphone Les Paul Custom (Sept 1997 – March 1998)

The now long gone Route 66 guitars in Hanley had an Epiphone Les Paul Custom in black, and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it. The deal was quickly worked out and I part exchanged the Encore. I took my friend Nick with me (Later of Stoke rockers LiViD) who was more knowledgeable about guitars. I’d really taken very quickly to guitar playing, I knew I was going to be doing a lot of it, and I wanted an axe that I would feel good about playing. After we made the exchange we went back to Nick’s and had a little jam before I got home. That evening I went to Exeter to see Oasis play the Westpoint Arena, so I didn’t have a lot of time to play on it until I got home a couple of days later.

This was a truly great guitar and I often regret parting with it. It felt and looked good, as for the sound I was not very experienced at all in those days. My main beef with it was that it sustained too much, and I just didn’t have the knowledge to control what I was doing – I just used to think piling on the distortion meant I was getting a great sound. At this time I wasn’t playing through an amp and was instead using a Zoom 510 driver pedal, which looking back wouldn’t have given the best of sounds. Nevertheless, I did use it on some very early 4 track recordings.

I liked the LP enough to not part exchange when I was looking to get my next guitar, an Epiphone Riviera. However, after a few months of owning both at the same time, and coming to the conclusion that they sounded exactly the same (because I knew no better), the time came to chop in the Les Paul. Somewhat stupidly, I was aware that this was not a Gibson, and therefore not the ‘real deal’ – again a youthful folly.

The Guitar Diaries Part 1: Encore Hunter 644 (August – September 1997)

After a small amount of internet research, it turns out that my first guitar was an Encore Hunter 644, a cheap Superstrat copy.  If my knowledge of this guitar seems limited, it’s because I only owned it for six weeks. I bought it from Marie who was a friend I worked with at a part time job. I’d been thinking about getting a guitar for a few months, having lived through the Britpop era. Initially I only wanted to get an acoustic, but Marie persuaded me to go electric, probably because she wanted to shift this axe. Along with the guitar I also got a cheap solid state amplifier to go with it.

My friend Andrew from college helped me out stringing and tuning the guitar and getting a few extra accessories. On this guitar I learned my first basic chords and songs. The first time I ever played a song all the way through was when I managed Oasis’ ‘It’s Good To Be Free’ after maybe two or three weeks of practicing.

Marie loved 80s hair metal and also things like Metallica, and being about five years older than me had got the guitar in her early teens. Looking at a few pictures on the internet, it seems it had the usual Superstrat layout of three pickups (Humbucker in the bridge), and it also had a Floyd Rose type tremolo. I knew none of this at the time, but looking at the pictures now I can remember it.

This guitar’s day were numbered on 28^th August 1997. I had gone to town to buy tickets for a U2 concert that evening in Leeds. I was there too early for the tickets, so bought a guitar magazine and sat on a bench in the town centre. In these pre Internet days (or at least before it was widely adopted), magazines, especially ‘The Guitar Magazine’ were the main sources of information about pricing and availability. I knew that the Encore didn’t suit my aesthetic and was incredibly uncool in the Oasis era, so I then began to think about getting a Les Paul. A Gibson would be too expensive, but the reviews were saying how good quality the Epiphones were… I also had a little walk around the music shops (they would be seeing a lot of me over the next year) and looked at what they had in the window, and amongst other things it was the first time I ever saw a Rickenbacker 330 – a 12 string, red with black binding. More of Rickenbacker later.