Lestelepaulcaster

Having thought about the design of the guitar me and FiL are going to build I'm leaning heavily in the direction of a Les Paul/Telecaster hybrid... something similar to the Fano Alt de Facto SP6.

I've been mulling the idea around in my brain for a little while and after going to look for it online to see if anyone else had done something similar it not only turned out that they had, but that it actually works.

The major difference between the Fano and my idea is that I'm intending to have a 25.5" scale and a Tele-style headstock (mostly because I get on better with 6-in-a-line tuners). Materials are still a bit of an unknown, apart from knowing that FiL can source maple for the neck. Not sure exactly how I plan on doing the controls yet, but I suspect I'll go down the route of each pickup having its own volume and tone pots for maximum versatility.

I'm feeling rather excited by this.

Harley Benton GA5 head - Diagnosis

Took the GA5 to see Oli today, as he knows a bunch more about amps than I do and I was sorting and IDing a load of old (and I mean old) Warhammer stuff for him.

Turns out the problem is the power amp valve (EL84)... which it had occured to me it might be but without any other valves to test it with I couldn't be sure. Just glad it wasn't the power transformer really, as apparently those can be expensive.

So next thing is to get a new valve, I might replace the 12AX7 at the same time just so then it's full of all new valves. Oli tested it with Mullards, but I suspect those'll be a bit out of my price range.

Let the planning commence...

Spoke to my father-in-law this morning... not only is he happy to help me out with building a guitar, but he reckons he can source the wood for it as well.

WIN.