DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

I am/was a bass player but don't play it much. I've had lots of Jazz's, a Jaydee, several music man's + various other basses.
As everyone did I played in lots of bands at school. Played clubs oop narth when there were loads of them. You could do 7 nights a week.

Then somehow ended up in a pop/funk band with a record deal in the early 80's!! Played all over europe, UK and US. 'Musical differences' caused the usual split. Didn't make any money but had a great time.
Played for anyone who need a bass player for a while. I could do all the slap funk stuff so played loads.

Ended up playing in a cabaret band touring all over. We had a contract playing UK and US forces basses and there are hundreds of them all over Europe. I really fancied the singer which always splits bands up. It did on this occasion as well, but I married the singer!! Still together now.

She went on to bigger and better things (music wise!) and went in to the west end and had a long career in musicals. I packed up and got a proper job and sold my gear to get a mortgage.......!

This is getting better by the post!
Never knew we had a Rock Start in our midst.

Thought of getting an 'unknown' axe off ebay, a project guitar and having a go at a full refurb as it won't matter if I screw-up, but use quality pickups, P90's preferably.

I still go into guitar shops, there is a great shop in Shrewsbury who sell everything except Gibson, not a Gibson anywhere.
You don't see old guitars much now in antique centres etc, all on ebay at full retail unless they came back from Spain 3years ago.

The current ‘collection’.
I decided 4 was enough ages ago but may review that decision now!!
97 US tele. Well used and a bit tatty.
Custom bass.
Custom LPJ.
Taylor acoustic.


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Hugh Jorgan wrote:I am/was a bass player but don't play it much. I've had lots of Jazz's, a Jaydee, several music man's + various other basses.
As everyone did I played in lots of bands at school. Played clubs oop narth when there were loads of them. You could do 7 nights a week.

Then somehow ended up in a pop/funk band with a record deal in the early 80's!! Played all over europe, UK and US. 'Musical differences' caused the usual split. Didn't make any money but had a great time.
Played for anyone who need a bass player for a while. I could do all the slap funk stuff so played loads.

Ended up playing in a cabaret band touring all over. We had a contract playing UK and US forces basses and there are hundreds of them all over Europe. I really fancied the singer which always splits bands up. It did on this occasion as well, but I married the singer!! Still together now.

She went on to bigger and better things (music wise!) and went in to the west end and had a long career in musicals. I packed up and got a proper job and sold my gear to get a mortgage.......!

Pray tell who was the competition? Since you are still with the singer What musicals did your partner star in?

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This thread is certainly livening up..... I'll comment later on some of this great stuff, going out now with the better half for our 'Daily Exercise"

No competition, she quickly realised I'm the pinnacle of male evolution so no point looking any further......
No staring rolls but was always in work which is a big achievement in that industry. She did quite a bit of telly, soaps, fools and horses and saturday night Brian Conley. She packed it all up years ago. She's by far the talented one in our house!!

[quote="911hillclimber"]I feel this is going to be an excellent diversion!

I feel so too - there are many things that link us - not just the love of Porsche.

I do like your collection, reminds me of the 70's when the choice was limited to Fender/Gibson then an array of others - I like the style of the 60's and 70's guitars you have and reminds me instantly of Paul Day, whom I knew much better in the good old days, Paul was/is a great collector of such rare instruments, guitars that possibly not worth the same money as the the "big 2" but part of our heritage and have now huge followings. Check out Pauls website if you haven't already - I should really give him a call....https://guitar-auctions.co.uk/the-paul-day-archive/

My guitar collection was built around the need to play, earn money as a working musican - so always practical....

neilbardsley wrote:Tokai Love Rock. I haven't done anything to this. I haven't played it for ages. I love the sound but prefer my lighter squire in London.

I've never played a Gibson Les Paul but have been told these are probably the best copies

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I sold Tokai guitars back in the late 80's and 90's - yes Tokai make a great guitar and being frank the build quality is up there with the best. Like my strat you don't need to spend mega-bucks to have a 1st class guitar. One of biggest improvements, and to bring it right up to Gibson spec would be to simply replace the pickups, and if doing so I'd go the extra and change the pots and other "electronics" to orginal/Gibson/US spec. You've have a sweet guitar to rival any Gibson. Get it set up by a good guitar technician and you'll have a cracker...

I'm tempted to 'tune' the 355 kit guitar to some special pick-ups etc and gut the parts from the kit out. The pots are ok I think but there is little change through the 3 position selector switch, my Epi LP has a dramatic tone change from the 3 ways by comparison.
I found this site a treat for the weird stuff:

http://www.drowninginguitars.com

There are some great guitars on that auction site!!!!!

I've spent lots of google-time finding these guitar facts and that is a good side of the interest for me. I found tracking the owners down of my Lola as pleasing as having the build and drive of the car.
The Tuxedo 3 is interesting as it seems to have several sources of origin, a Jap Sekora Mentor, Dallas Arbiter (designed by Douglas Sadlier).

Most disappointing guitar is the Taylor Big Baby which was expensive back then and needs constant neck straightening correction to get the action at the 12th fret down below 1/8th " Today it was 1/4".
It needs light strings and careful tuning to prevent the guitar changing shape. I expected more.

The Ibanez is fabulous. They make a 355 design too, I would expect it to be superb. Shrewsbury guitar shop has several to temp me with.
However...I really am poor at guitar playing, no training, no lessons just the Bert Weeden Chord book in the late 60's to guide me.

A dream guitar would be a Gibson Super400, but cheaper guitars can be so good esp at my level of skill.

Oh to be young and nimble!

https://youtu.be/C4TuxI6KDF4

redrobin911 wrote:

neilbardsley wrote:Tokai Love Rock. I haven't done anything to this. I haven't played it for ages. I love the sound but prefer my lighter squire in London.

I've never played a Gibson Les Paul but have been told these are probably the best copies

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I sold Tokai guitars back in the late 80's and 90's - yes Tokai make a great guitar and being frank the build quality is up there with the best. Like my strat you don't need to spend mega-bucks to have a 1st class guitar. One of biggest improvements, and to bring it right up to Gibson spec would be to simply replace the pickups, and if doing so I'd go the extra and change the pots and other "electronics" to orginal/Gibson/US spec. You've have a sweet guitar to rival any Gibson. Get it set up by a good guitar technician and you'll have a cracker...

Changing the pots would be a nice lock down project but the last time I played it properly was Sunshine of Your Love at my wife's 40th. Eric wouldn't of been impressed!

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Seen this band a few times

https://youtu.be/fnYzCvAILbM

Apart from the writer/lead singer looks like a different line up

More formal 12 bar here

https://youtu.be/afXVHBjcqzw

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Not sure now what day of the week it is, but who cares.

I feel this video is 'cool' to say the least.

https://youtu.be/9x_nguZBpk8

Couldn't resist this video:

https://youtu.be/B9f9uQ0OMw0

This is my ESP Edwards 335 - a Japanese built 335 that came in "kit" form back in the 80's when I bought it. When I say kit really it was a finished, but bare body with glued in neck and came fitted with frets. I owed a music shop at the time so bought with the view of having it made to my spec - again I knew the ESP was very well made, equal to Gibson and with the same spec laminate arch top and body/neck construction. The first decision was the colour, While I love tobacco and 3-tone sunbursts I wanted something different so I had it painted blue-burst. One of the great benefits of buying the "bare" guitar gave me the option to have the rear of the neck reprofiled to suit me. From memory very little was done at the time as felt pretty good out of the box. The amount of burst isn't as much as I would have liked but happy with it nonetheless. The original paint, setup and fit was done by Denis Currie in Portadown. Originaly I had it fitted with EMG active pickups but a few years ago I had the pickup replaced with vintage Seymour Duncan PAF's and fitted new machine heads as the others were past their best this time done by Pete Griffin. My ESP 335 is now 35 years old and "vintage" one owner from new!! Its not a bedroom queen and has been well gigged over the years as can be seen. Hope you enjoy...