I’ve been looking back at my blog records and I haven’t talked ‘gear’ in ages. I suppose in the run up to Christmas, some kind of review of useful gear would probably be the most, well, useful. Quite frankly though, there is so much gear nowadays it’s difficult to know where to start. I’ve written blogs in the past about choosing electric guitars and finding gear, but very quickly, if you are thinking about making a purchase in the coming weeks, there are some golden rules and things to remember.
Try before you buy.
It’s tempting to make cheaper, internet purchases these days, and it’s obviously fine to do that, I’m as guilty as the next person BUT go to your local guitar shop first. Guitar shops are becoming rarer beasts these days, but don’t underestimate the value in putting the miles in to hold your guitar, ukulele, amplifier, whatever, in your hands first. You do still, to a certain degree, get what you pay for, and that cheap instrument might not be as playable as you think. Try stuff. Even if it helps you work out what you definitely don’t want, try stuff.
New stuff doesn’t make you better.
New gear might sound better, enable you to play different things, but it doesn’t make you a better player. I know it’s boring, but practice makes you better. Sorry. A new instrument might encourage you to practice more, but that’s not quite the same thing. You could try accompanying your purchase with a target, like, I’m going to upgrade to a decent electro-acoustic, so I can learn three songs properly and play at an open mic night.
There’s nothing wrong with having something simply because you want it, but paintings are created to be hung on a wall and admired, cars are made to be driven, not sit in dark garages and be polished. Guitars are made to be played. Otherwise you might as well buy a cheap tennis racket from Argos and air-guitar your way round the lounge with the stereo on.
Ok. Onwards…
Ages ago, I promised that the specific gear I spoke about would only be gear I actually owned, or at least used. I’m not really a you-tuber, there are proper reviews on pretty much anything if you go looking, so I’m going to share something unusual with you, that I get a lot of questions about.
This is me, Petersfield Festival, 2023, playing my Lindert Locomotive-T.
From Wikipedia :
Lindert Guitars was an American guitar manufacturing company founded in 1986 in Chelan Falls, near Wenatchee, Washington. Guitars were handmade, with their production being moved to Korea and the company shut down shortly afterwards, with the last guitars created around 2002. Most of their guitars were named following a railway theme, with names including Conductor, Diesel and Locomotive.
These unusual guitars were handmade and featured semi-hollow, machined pine or poplar bodies with cloth or tweed insets that resembled those found on vintage radios. They are also known for the "escape velocity" neck profile - ergonomically designed to be half rounded and half vee for faster playing action and less hand fatigue, which is regarded as one of their strongest features.
All Lindert guitars also featured a headstock which resembles a hand giving a "thumbs up", a design patented by Charles Lindert himself. The maker was supposedly so pleased with the design of his guitar body that he gave himself a mental thumbs-up, and then decided to fashion the headstock to resemble one. Some models included the "Missing Link" switch, which allowed several pickup combinations not available on other guitars, including neck/bridge and using all three pickups at once.
The guitars made in Korea can be distinguished from the US-made versions in several ways:
a smooth finish
smaller headstock with a decal that runs parallel to the strings
no screws beneath the bridge on the front of the body
a truss rod adjustment at the headstock
a neckplate with a serial number stamped on it, usually starting with a "9"
My guitar…
My guitar is a heavily modified Locomotive - T, originally called the ‘Victor - T’ because of the radio resemblance and the telecaster style body shape. It's American, not Korean, easily spotted by all of the above, circa 1991. (The Locomotive or Victor - S had a stratocaster style body). My ‘T’ had two single coil pickups originally but has been modified (badly) to take three Seymour Duncan mini humbuckers, each with their own coil tap switch. This makes the range of sounds that I can get out of it quite varied, as there’s lots of combinations, but realistically I like a particular neck and middle pickup combo that has been hardwired into a push switch on one of the pots by Richard Setford at Tonefinder.
I may have just lost you there, doesn’t matter. Bottom line is it’s a great guitar to play but the rough modding (which existed before I bought it) pretty much nullifies the value these guitars can achieve in their original format.
I was turned onto the manufacturer by John Squire of The Seahorses (ex Stone Roses) who played the HH version (fitted with factory humbucking pickups) in the video for their debut single, ‘Love Is The Law’.
It’s become the electric guitar I use in the Alabama Stills. I play it directly through a Vox Valvenergy Copperhead Drive pedal into the PA system. The pedal simulates a Marshall style amplifier - as I only use it for half a dozen songs this suits me fine, it’s not worth lugging an amplifier about for that. You can see more about that pedal here:
So there you go. A guitar you are very unlikely to see anywhere else. Come to a Stills gig in 2025 for a closer look! Cheers.
p.s. My next blog will be #100 ;-)
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