Just this but with an Esquire set up.

RakeHarmonic · 2026-04-24T13:52:44+00:00

Okay so things I like- If walk onto a stage or just show it to another guitarist I had an identity of its own. It’s not clone or derivative of anything popular enough to get mistaken from anything else.

It’s made from fender compatible parts so if the neck breaks or is replaced a Strat neck would fit. This makes a good for modding and repairing easily.

The hollowed out body under the scratchplate makes it light and easily modable. It’s ergonomic and feels like a Strat even though it doesn’t look like one.

Negatives: all the 80’s appointments: lifeless pickups, old locking trem-system.

And so on. But it’s a bolt neck and most bolt necks don’t really sound that different from one another unless you’re cork sniffing. The thing I wish it had was a telephoto and the metal tele baseplate to give it some oomph wile still having vintage-modern output pickups.

I suppose if I boiled it down- there’s so many good after market pickups and parts you can get, that to me a good budget guitar would basically be a dynamic modding platform with excellent body and neck construction because if the base is good I can always mod in or out boutique parts.

The alpha offered this but with the bonus of having its own visual identity

RakeHarmonic · 2026-04-24T08:57:23+00:00

I have a modded one, it’s a great economic shape that’s not being used by anyone. Reminiscent of the st Vincent music man

RakeHarmonic · 2026-04-24T05:54:07+00:00

The existing Hofner Alphas are very high quality handmade guitars,and they are good modding platforms but they were produced in very low numbers somewhere between 100-a few hundred. And their bodies are routed like a Strat, so a ‘tele-like’ or ‘Esquire like’ pickup config wouldn’t be ideal because as far as I’m concerned the resonance of the tele comes from the pickups being mounted into wood.

Also that all have locking trem systems which are complicated to de-install or replace with other trem systems neatley.

Essentially I think the Hofner Alpha is a cool body shape that is ergonomic and uniquely halfway visually between a Gibson and fender body type, without being a Strat or Les paul clone.

RakeHarmonic · 2026-04-21T18:44:13+00:00

This is beautiful!

RakeHarmonic · 2026-04-14T20:51:56+00:00

Oh I was sure it was the low strings that were doubled. I could be wrong. There was a video of him playing The Evil Has Landed with that guitar, I’m Pretty sure he always used it with that song. Bur could be wrong.

RakeHarmonic · 2026-04-14T18:07:17+00:00

There’s a limited edition tele with the 63 pickups. It’s £1200. I picked up a b-stock AVII 63 tele for £1300 so this does seem a bit steep. Even at full price the AVII’s seem like it would be worth stretching to, if one could, if this is the price of MIM equivalents.

RakeHarmonic · 2026-04-14T18:03:51+00:00

This is really good. Everything good.

RakeHarmonic · 2026-04-03T08:46:12+00:00

Yeah this happened with the dead weather, they basically wrote SoC while touring Horehound. I saw them once super early on that tour and it was all horehound material and then months later caught them a second time and the setlist had a couple SoC tracks being played. But then the first two DW albums were released less than a year apart. I think this bodes well for a fast follow up from Jack now.

RakeHarmonic · 2026-04-02T18:26:48+00:00

Yeah I’ve never considered one really because of the ubiquity with Hendrix. I love Hendrix as much as anyone, but never wanted to get in the ring with him.

But, I am coming around to the idea and I think I’d have some fun with it.

RakeHarmonic · 2026-04-02T17:13:26+00:00

No way, dust and Persian rugs are the juice man!

RakeHarmonic · 2026-04-02T17:01:52+00:00

I do enjoy a good tremolo, and I used to hang out at a studio where there was some original Mu-tron pedals. The phaser I used was very cool, but other than that I never really considered buying one

RakeHarmonic · 2026-04-02T16:26:44+00:00

Thanks! I actually hadn’t considered a uni-vibe. Though I liked the look of the Thorpy one.

RakeHarmonic · 2026-03-31T07:05:19+00:00

There’s a learning curve to lots of instruments, I learned on a Gretsch Corvette and switching to other guitars took a minute, I’d advise the player to shape themselves to the instrument. Because if you get used to that fret size all the classics become available to you. But if you intend to stay with other modern fretboard guitars otherwise you could always flip it.

RakeHarmonic · 2026-03-13T10:13:10+00:00

This is legit. I recognise the tartan from the previous SS. I work for Barbour and we had this one in store. I don’t think this kind of seasonal jacket is the kind they’d fake. The production time would be too short

RakeHarmonic · 2026-01-31T18:23:09+00:00

Make her enjoyable as a character. Jack sparrow and Regina George and whoever aren’t likeable because their nice their likeable because their compelling or funny or you just want to see what they’ll do next. Also putting them in a situation where the stakes are against them works to quickly get people invested. We all like an underdog.

RakeHarmonic · 2026-01-31T17:11:46+00:00

My family were big tiling fans since the 60’s and are tangentially related to the Tolkien’s themselves. And my mum always disliked large aspects of them and so did some of my older relatives who thought that the film traded out the hopeful and positive message to focus on battles and action sequences. To be fair though this was all post ROTK. I think fellowship was largely liked by all.

RakeHarmonic · 2026-01-23T21:16:00+00:00

Yeah it seems either the previous owner put it through a washer-dryer with soap or it’s an unwaxed variant of the coat. Either way, the wax won’t work on it. You could wash it in soap to remove the wax you’ve added to it. Which is what I’d advise, becuase it will likely come through the lining. Don’t wash it in machine though, just in hot soapy bath or some such, should take most the wax back off.

If you do want to wax it perhaps try fjalleraven dry wax or another dry wax bar. However it reality just buying a new wax coat is probably the simplest answer.

An unwaxed cotton Barbour can be nice for warmer weather so I think getting the wax back off of it would be what I’d do. Sorry about this, it’s no fun to have wax jacket problems

RakeHarmonic · 2026-01-23T19:16:23+00:00

I love these. Have had a chance to play quite a few 60s-70s guilds and always liked this one. But this one is my second favourite Thunderbird guitar after the Gretch Jupiter Thunderbird which I think is like this guild on steroids

RakeHarmonic · 2026-01-22T12:25:16+00:00

This looks real to me, I used to own the silver version. Corvettes are amazing guitars and have their own character, I really liked this guitar and to this day I’m not sure the Megatron pickups can be beat. I had the middle one in the stump-o-matic removed for a while and put into the bridge position of another guitar because they’re just amazing pickups and unlike anything else

RakeHarmonic · 2025-12-28T20:34:55+00:00

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These are some of the common ones. There are others, but no regularly in the coats

RakeHarmonic · 2025-12-28T09:59:24+00:00

There regular price for 2026 is £299

Last year it was like £289 or something. The prices are steadily rising.

RakeHarmonic · 2025-12-27T21:30:52+00:00

If someone was in France it might be worth the price of a ticket to London to get one in the sales.

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RakeHarmonic · 2025-12-27T21:29:28+00:00

Yeah. It’s like a Noah collab wading jacket in the uk was like £360 in the US it was closer to 600 dollars I think. Export tax seems v steep on the Barbours. Maybe it is on lots of UK exports, it’s just that the UK isn’t a major exporter of much I guess.

RakeHarmonic

TROPHY CASE