cheap guitars

stompie · 2013-06-03T17:02:14+00:00

Nowadays there are many brands of really cheap guitars, I'm talking about the ones they don't even sell at music shops. That made me wonder, when did this st...

cheap guitars

Sneaky-Pete

Just a footnote on the footnote...

The Shadows took the Melodia amps back to England with them...

Malkav

Sneaky Pete wrote: So if you're ever in a small junk shop somewhere on the Witwatersrand and right at the back you find a guitar amp with a Melodia badge on it...don't even waste time asking the price...just throw your car keys at the shop owner and run down the road with youir Melodia...

Condsidering that if you search The Shadows, or any of the guitar playing band members names you get absolutely no mention of Melodia amps at all I'd say this is probably not very good advice - I mean there are websites where you can find the sizes of the whammy bars hank marvin used in terms of diameter and serious articles about his preference in tone for certain sizes - I mean people worship the dude's mojo to the point where they create superluous myths about every tiny facet of his gear choices, yet conveniently an endorsement scandal during the high point of their careers has gone completely unnoticed...I'm calling BS on that one.

ThomasN

My dad made bass's, which at 3 I couldn't actually even lift up... So he made me a Ukelele... It was an epic burst ? Played that bugger till I was about 5, then came a "hand me down"... a Bellini acoustic. A real el cheapo... I think it was actually made of S.A Pine... but I can say, 2 months later with a neck shaped like a Banana, my fingertips were calloused enough, to move on. Eventually after he died I played one of his last unfinished jobs for Eko (Itallian company) for the first time. Proper Intonation on single coils... light gauge, Black Diamond strings. All in all... thank hell for crappy guitars and bent necks, otherwise I would have been a spoosh complaining about sore fingers playing on an expensive guitar ? Cheap guitars have always been around. Some just worse than others.

kevjones

Thomas can you remember in those days the two string sets you had to have were Black Diamond and Nashville Straights. The straights came in a long box and were never coiled. I only ever used Nashville Straights on my Ibanez 12 string. They were so expensive I kept them on until they would not resonate any more. I oiled them after each session and they still rusted within a few weeks.

Sneaky-Pete

Chad etc...(I'm calling BS on that one...) refers:

I was at the Cliff & the Shadows gig at the Colosseum in 1960....were you?
I played through a Melodia amp several times ....have you?
(I knew two brothers - Pete and Mike Smith who lived in Houghton just off Louis Botha Avenue. They had money, so immmediately after the Shadows show, they both bought new Strats and Melodia amps - it was a combo amp, bigger than a Vox AC30, very nice looking , silver grille cloth, about 30 watts...

As for never hearing about it...think about it...this is one story that Vox would not have wanted to get out...the biggest instrumental group in the world (bigger than the Ventures at that time) turns its back on FREE Vox amps after signing an endorsement contract? Vox would have snuffed that story out like a ton of bricks.

Next time you want to call BS...you might want to look in the mirror first...

Just saying....

Malkav

Sneaky Pete wrote: Chad etc...(I'm calling BS on that one...) refers:

I was at the Cliff & the Shadows gig at the Colosseum in 1960....were you?
I played through a Melodia amp several times ....have you?
(I knew two brothers - Pete and Mike Smith who lived in Houghton just off Louis Botha Avenue. They had money, so immmediately after the Shadows show, they both bought new Strats and Melodia amps - it was a combo amp, bigger than a Vox AC30, very nice looking , silver grille cloth, about 30 watts...

As for never hearing about it...think about it...this is one story that Vox would not have wanted to get out...the biggest instrumental group in the world (bigger than the Ventures at that time) turns its back on FREE Vox amps after signing an endorsement contract? Vox would have snuffed that story out like a ton of bricks.

Next time you want to call BS...you might want to look in the mirror first...

Just saying....

When are people going to learn that when making a ridiculous claim the burden of truth lies with them?

Here you are getting all super defensive when all you'd have to do is post a picture of them with these amps, or a link to a legitimate article mentioning it.

I mean really lesson 1 of the internet should be don't believe anything you read on the internet without proof...

EDIT: Also that's gotta be one of the worst attempts at a smack talk ending I've ever seen.

AlanRatcliffe

Play nice please gents. ?

flatfourfan

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Play nice please gents. ?

screw that.........FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT.

lmfao!

On a more cheerful note, I played my sisters old guitar the other night that my parents bought her back in the early 80's. A Kay......I know that they bought it at the OK bazaars in Church street in Pretoria. In all honesty it's not a bad guitar, I think that until a month or so ago it still had the original strings on it.

Bob-Dubery

Sneaky Pete wrote: Chad etc...(I'm calling BS on that one...) refers:

I was at the Cliff & the Shadows gig at the Colosseum in 1960....were you?

Good for you. Some googling suggests that Cliff and the Shadows were in SA in '61 and '63 but not in '60.

Also it seems that in '61, which would have been their first tour here, they did not tour with Vox gear but hired locally and used Gibson amps. So it seems unlikely that Vox would have intervened to have them return to using AC30s when they didn't have any Vox gear with them in the first place.

warrenpridgeon

My guitar was cheap... bought it for R2000... lol...
Doesn't bounce so well... but it's playing again ?

Squonk

X-rated Bob wrote: Good for you. Some googling suggests that Cliff and the Shadows were in SA in '61 and '63 but not in '60.

Also it seems that in '61, which would have been their first tour here, they did not tour with Vox gear but hired locally and used Gibson amps. So it seems unlikely that Vox would have intervened to have them return to using AC30s when they didn't have any Vox gear with them in the first place.

The Shadows also came out on their own, towards the end of the 60's, My Dad is convinced that they had no baby sitter and that I was there( I would have been 4 or 5). I can't remember it at all, so I can't vouch for the Amps ?

Bob-Dubery

Squonk wrote:
X-rated Bob wrote: Good for you. Some googling suggests that Cliff and the Shadows were in SA in '61 and '63 but not in '60.

Also it seems that in '61, which would have been their first tour here, they did not tour with Vox gear but hired locally and used Gibson amps. So it seems unlikely that Vox would have intervened to have them return to using AC30s when they didn't have any Vox gear with them in the first place.
The Shadows also came out on their own, towards the end of the 60's, My Dad is convinced that they had no baby sitter and that I was there( I would have been 4 or 5). I can't remember it at all, so I can't vouch for the Amps ?

They were here in '68 too.

ThomasN

kevjones wrote: Thomas can you remember in those days the two string sets you had to have were Black Diamond and Nashville Straights. The straights came in a long box and were never coiled. I only ever used Nashville Straights on my Ibanez 12 string. They were so expensive I kept them on until they would not resonate any more. I oiled them after each session and they still rusted within a few weeks.

I remember hearing stories about the straights, but I never actually ever got to see or play them firsthand... They were a bit of a legend for me ?
I do however recall being able to buy flat wounds for the first time. Strung them up, expecting to sound like Edward Van Halen, and instead sounded like an out of tune, Earl Klugh :-[
I must say they outlasted the round wounds though.

moving along...

kevjones

ThomasN wrote:
kevjones wrote: Thomas can you remember in those days the two string sets you had to have were Black Diamond and Nashville Straights. The straights came in a long box and were never coiled. I only ever used Nashville Straights on my Ibanez 12 string. They were so expensive I kept them on until they would not resonate any more. I oiled them after each session and they still rusted within a few weeks.
I remember hearing stories about the straights, but I never actually ever got to see or play them firsthand... They were a bit of a legend for me ?
I do however recall being able to buy flat wounds for the first time. Strung them up, expecting to sound like Edward Van Halen, and instead sounded like an out of tune, Earl Klugh :-[
I must say they outlasted the round wounds though.

moving along...

This is what they looked like. Remember the rand was about 89c to the dollar then (slightly stronger than a dollar)

vic

X-rated Bob wrote:
Sneaky Pete wrote: Chad etc...(I'm calling BS on that one...) refers:

I was at the Cliff & the Shadows gig at the Colosseum in 1960....were you?
Good for you. Some googling suggests that Cliff and the Shadows were in SA in '61 and '63 but not in '60.

Also it seems that in '61, which would have been their first tour here, they did not tour with Vox gear but hired locally and used Gibson amps. So it seems unlikely that Vox would have intervened to have them return to using AC30s when they didn't have any Vox gear with them in the first place.

Looks like it was 1961

=

Squonk

I can remember this album....man when I saw the cover, about a million locked away memories started coming back. Amazing how tight they were as a band!

Chabenda

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Play nice please gents. ?