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Post by dodger on May 4, 2018 8:05:21 GMT
One option could be the DC-Custom, excellent guitar!! I have both the CST-24 and the DC-Custom, both great instruments, but the "SG" has become my go to guitar! For the record i own a single cut PRS SE as well.. I had a Vintage (brand) SG a long time ago. Pre-Wilkinson Vintage. I regret selling that guitar to this day. It was the darkest guitar I'v ever heard. 1pc body aswell. It was amazing for the 100€ i payed for it. Anyway, u had me GAS'sing hard for an SG now. That DC-Custom doesn't look like a normal SG tho, does it? The neck joint seems just wrong. I had the same guitar for a couple of hours - £15 from a charity shop - gave it to a friend's son. It waa LOUD too! Much better than Epiphone's SGs too.
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3,968 posts
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Post by salteedog on May 4, 2018 9:30:24 GMT
I don't watch a lot of movies these days so when I do I search out quality (which usually means not Hollywood). Those two sound like they are right up my street! Thanks for the recommendation!
By the way...at risk of revealing the method behind the magic ...the first lines in our song that we are working on - 'Damascus - come directly from a (very powerful) scene in the film '45 Years' which I watched a few weeks ago.
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3,968 posts
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Post by salteedog on May 4, 2018 10:20:03 GMT
I saw that film a month or so ago. It struck me that it was the sort of thing that France makes well and often. We are very lucky here in Cardiff to have a brilliant arts centre called Chapter, built in a converted Victorian school. It's my lifeline and oasis from all things Marvel. I have seen so many thought-provoking and just plain enjoyable films there. When I was 18 I went off to study in Derby where I made a friend for 3 months who knew his cinema and who opened my eyes to the world of European film. We bought student passes for cheap tickets at a place called The Metro and spent many evenings and weekends watching stuff like Battleship Potemkin, Eraserhead, DOA or The Tin Drum (ooh, and Betty Blue!). He changed my life by doing so. Sadly he realised he was on the wrong course and swapped to Nottingham University after the first Christmas and I never saw him again. He also introduced me to Elvis Costello when all around me were forcing Echo and the Bunnymen or Blancmange down my throat. Changed my life there too. I sometimes wonder what else he knew that I have missed forever. The coolest guy I ever met and didn't even seem to know it. They are the coolest aren't they? Ah... perhaps that's why the Go-Between's story resonated with you even in a small way?
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Post by spacelord77 on May 5, 2018 6:16:51 GMT
One option could be the DC-Custom, excellent guitar!! I have both the CST-24 and the DC-Custom, both great instruments, but the "SG" has become my go to guitar! For the record i own a single cut PRS SE as well.. I had a Vintage (brand) SG a long time ago. Pre-Wilkinson Vintage. I regret selling that guitar to this day. It was the darkest guitar I'v ever heard. 1pc body aswell. It was amazing for the 100€ i payed for it. Anyway, u had me GAS'sing hard for an SG now. That DC-Custom doesn't look like a normal SG tho, does it? The neck joint seems just wrong. Yes the HB SG´s have the same body shape as the LTD vipers, i bet they are made in the same factory! Plus with the HB SG you get Grover tuners for a very low price. i paid 150€ for mine as a B-stock, it had a slightly rattly pickup cover and some slight imperfections in the paint, but other than that its a killer guitar for the money! They have some B-stocks on sale atm. I would go for one more, but they do not make the Black one anymore I have the cherry red.Such a beautiful looking guitar
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kptz
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by kptz on May 5, 2018 12:35:39 GMT
I had a Vintage (brand) SG a long time ago. Pre-Wilkinson Vintage. I regret selling that guitar to this day. It was the darkest guitar I'v ever heard. 1pc body aswell. It was amazing for the 100€ i payed for it. Anyway, u had me GAS'sing hard for an SG now. That DC-Custom doesn't look like a normal SG tho, does it? The neck joint seems just wrong. Yes the HB SG´s have the same body shape as the LTD vipers, i bet they are made in the same factory! Plus with the HB SG you get Grover tuners for a very low price. i paid 150€ for mine as a B-stock, it had a slightly rattly pickup cover and some slight imperfections in the paint, but other than that its a killer guitar for the money! They have some B-stocks on sale atm. I would go for one more, but they do not make the Black one anymore I have the cherry red.Such a beautiful looking guitar Yeah, all the custom line seems exactly the same as the LTDs and i was also wondering if they are not from the same factory, just less QC or something like that. I like the white one, I think it looks great. A black satin one though, that would be killer Would you mind posting a few pictures of yours? Also, how does that neck joint feel? Have you ever played one of the more traditional SG style guitars and if so, how does it compare? dodger15£ it's a steal. They now go for around 200-250€ used in here, its crazy. Didn't care much for the pickups, I'm not even sure they were the original ones since it was bought used. But I had some Gibson's laying around, the ceramic ones (they only make 1 set with ceramic magnets, to my knowledge) and I tell you, I have never, ever, heard any guitar doing that kind of sound. So dark. I still got the pickups and I have used them in several different guitars and nothing even comes close to that sound. Very loud aswell, very resonant with sustain for days... Why the hell did I sell that guitar? oh well... As for the Epi SG's, I also had one for a short while. A korean made SG custom with 3 pickups in vintage white. Worse guitar I ever picked up. Felt like a toy. Sounded like a toy.
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Post by spacelord77 on May 6, 2018 22:18:43 GMT
Yes the HB SG´s have the same body shape as the LTD vipers, i bet they are made in the same factory! Plus with the HB SG you get Grover tuners for a very low price. i paid 150€ for mine as a B-stock, it had a slightly rattly pickup cover and some slight imperfections in the paint, but other than that its a killer guitar for the money! They have some B-stocks on sale atm. I would go for one more, but they do not make the Black one anymore I have the cherry red.Such a beautiful looking guitar Yeah, all the custom line seems exactly the same as the LTDs and i was also wondering if they are not from the same factory, just less QC or something like that. I like the white one, I think it looks great. A black satin one though, that would be killer Would you mind posting a few pictures of yours? Also, how does that neck joint feel? Have you ever played one of the more traditional SG style guitars and if so, how does it compare? dodger 15£ it's a steal. They now go for around 200-250€ used in here, its crazy. Didn't care much for the pickups, I'm not even sure they were the original ones since it was bought used. But I had some Gibson's laying around, the ceramic ones (they only make 1 set with ceramic magnets, to my knowledge) and I tell you, I have never, ever, heard any guitar doing that kind of sound. So dark. I still got the pickups and I have used them in several different guitars and nothing even comes close to that sound. Very loud aswell, very resonant with sustain for days... Why the hell did I sell that guitar? oh well... As for the Epi SG's, I also had one for a short while. A korean made SG custom with 3 pickups in vintage white. Worse guitar I ever picked up. Felt like a toy. Sounded like a toy. I tried to upload some pictures, but i do not have any online and apparently i cant upload pictures fro my computer. Regarding the playability, i tried few Gibson SG´s and i had an Epiphone SG special, the DC-Custom feels nicer to play, and in general has a more quality feel to it compared to Gibson faded and Epiphone models. I am 90% sure that they are made in the same factory and to the same standards as the LTD vipers, just different hardware (pickups) mine has the Wilkinson Alnico pups. Here are few tracks i recorded using it. (the distortions suck, i´m usin POD farm free version+ RiffWorks T4 to record) Rock sounds DC-Custom metal sounds
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kptz
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by kptz on May 8, 2018 18:36:03 GMT
spacelord77Nice clips, thank you! To upload photos you would probably have to upload them to some external webpage like photobucket or something... It's ok if you don't want to do that Regarding playability I can totally understand how it would be miles better than an Epi Special (bolt on necks?), but a Gibson? Now that's weird. I'll be honest, that SG is starting to grow on me ^^.
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Post by spacelord77 on May 9, 2018 6:03:03 GMT
spacelord77 Nice clips, thank you! I'll be honest, that SG is starting to grow on me ^^. Go ahead and get a DC-Custom, its a cheap and beautiful guitar for little money! You can always send it back to thomann if you dont like it, i ordered the CST-24 and the DC-Custom(B-stock) having no idea about the guitars, the DC-Custom was great out of the box, tuned it to Drop-D and its been rocking ever since! The CST-24 was set horribly, played badly, almost returned it, but after a truss rod adjustment and messing up with the action etc, it turned out to be a great guitar too, very easy to play!
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kptz
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by kptz on May 13, 2018 19:04:13 GMT
So, here is how it turned out:
As most models on Thomann wont be coming for around 1 month and I kind of had it on the back of my mind for most of the time, I ended up going with the epiphone in hopes of superior quality as a modding platform. What was I hoping for in terms of quality? For a street price of 479€ (bought used for less than half) I was expecting a solid 1 or 2 piece neck, a flawless finish and an overall feel of quality of a medium quality guitar. By medium quality I'm thinking around an RG 450, not quite the 550's range. Let's say around the quality of my HB Fanfret-7 for better measure.
Nope. Not by a long shot.
The neck is made of 300 thousand pieces, it has the WORSE finnish job I've EVER seen on a guitar and the binding is a lot more sloppy than on my JB-75 (and I thought that was sloppy). As for overall feel of guitar, I rate way below the HB fanfret. Now, it's not a bad guitar, but for double the street price of the Harley Bentons, I was expecting a LOT better.
Bottom line, I'll probably end up selling it and buying myself a nice Benton. Or two.
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Post by spacelord77 on May 13, 2018 21:15:55 GMT
So, here is how it turned out: As most models on Thomann wont be coming for around 1 month and I kind of had it on the back of my mind for most of the time, I ended up going with the epiphone in hopes of superior quality as a modding platform. What was I hoping for in terms of quality? For a street price of 479€ (bought used for less than half) I was expecting a solid 1 or 2 piece neck, a flawless finish and an overall feel of quality of a medium quality guitar. By medium quality I'm thinking around an RG 450, not quite the 550's range. Let's say around the quality of my HB Fanfret-7 for better measure. Nope. Not by a long shot. The neck is made of 300 thousand pieces, it has the WORSE finnish job I've EVER seen on a guitar and the binding is a lot more sloppy than on my JB-75 (and I thought that was sloppy). As for overall feel of guitar, I rate way below the HB fanfret. Now, it's not a bad guitar, but for double the street price of the Harley Bentons, I was expecting a LOT better. Bottom line, I'll probably end up selling it and buying myself a nice Benton. Or two. Which Epi did you get? I had an epi SG -400 & a special, did not like neither of them, tuning issues, not really good pickups etc.. + the Epi headstock looks ugly as hell.. Get a HB or perhaps one of the Vintage models, they seems to be good guitars(?) from what i´v heard but slightly more expensive than the HB´s.
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kptz
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by kptz on May 14, 2018 0:54:56 GMT
I got an epi LP standard, blue flame top, 2010 china.
It isn't a bad guitar. Looks pretty and all that. But on closer inspection you will see all I mentioned above. It's like, imagine the little imperfections Cory Moura mentions sometimes in his videos that he finds here and there on the Bentons. But all over the place!
Finish apart, it isn't great guitar either. The neck has a similar construction to what the Bentons seem to be made like, and that's exactly what I was trying to avoid by going the epi route. By that I mean the neck itself is also made of several pieces of wood, with another glued piece of wood near where the neck meets the body. Then the headstock is also glued in, but in a different manner (no scarf joint on this one). Also, the neck is very thick D shape, I don't find it that comfortable.
Another thing that bothered me, the guitar seems to have a huge amount of chamber. It's light (in LP standards) and you can kind of hear the "chambering" when you strum a chord. Kind of like strumming on a box with a neck glued in.. It ain't that resonant either. The HB Fanfret-7 is probably more resonant and it has a bolt on neck. By that I mean when you strum a big chord and feel the whole guitar ringing (which will probably translate to sustain, with the right pickups and stuff).
The only LP I played other than this one was a 94 Gibson studio that I bought used a few years back. Great guitar, sold it to buy my baby, an RG 560 in carotene orange *drool* Back to the point, that LP and this LP are NOTHING alike. Again, when I went the epi route I was thinking that I was basically getting something similar in construction to a Gibby, but made in the far east with cheaper wood and hardware. Nope. Not by a long shot. The construction is nothing alike what I seen on the Gibson. From the "box with a neck and strings" feeling of the guitar, to the uncomfortable 300 piece neck, this thing sounds and feels nothing alike what it is trying to copy. It feels like a cheap 150€ knockoff with some better hardware and plastics. Yeah the plastics on the guitar seem very high grade, Gibson grade I'd say. That's the only high grade thing on the guitar though...
It ain't a terrible guitar, don't get me wrong. I got it for a little less than the retail price of a new SC-550. But for a 479€ guitar off the streets, I would say it is an EXTREMELY overpriced guitar for what you actually get.
So, for anyone that comes to this forum looking for a mahogany guitar for a modding platform, don't expect an Epiphone standard to be any better than a Harley Benton. In fact, for what I have seen so far, I would even say the Benton should be about the same in quality, if not better, for half the price.
Now as for Vintage, that is another story. I have heard many praises to that brand, but never seen one in person (the v100 LP copy). Is it also afflicted by the 300 piece neck syndrome? I would love to know that. I had a Vintage SG as I mentioned before, but it was an older model and I'm not sure they are still built that way, or even if the v100 is similar in construction.
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