jwhitcomb3

I've been using modeling amps for many years. I've tried a some with NAM captures, but the latency that technology introduces makes me feel disconnected from my guitar. I've been enjoying the Boss GT-1000 and more recently the Boss VG-800 that introduce less than 1 ms of latency, and the amp models (typically a Fender Deluxe Reverb or Twin) sound great to me. I really like the effects in those units too. I have two fine amps, but they don't get much play these days. And the new Boss GX-1 sounds amazing for $230 new.

That 30th is an amazing guitar.

Besides being a brilliant debut, it is one of the greatest guitar duo albums ever.

Thank you, Ted!

Cool guitars, just not $8500 USD cool. https://www.chicagomusicexchange.com/products/gavilan-miramonte-reverse-silverburst-light-relic-serial-2566061

I assume that Fender went after the name "Danocaster" because they were trying to protect the "XXXcaster" IP associated with a guitar. So that's back to trademark law - protecting Fender's rights to the name in the US, even if they can't protect the shape. As LucSulla pointed out, there are many ways to slice the IP pie, the main IP categories being copyright, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. And then there is geographic scope, as the IP laws differ by country/region. Even if the laws themselves may be similar, the judicial precedents for interpreting and enforcing the laws may be considerably different in different regions. Patents expire after roughly 20 years, so any inventive aspect of the original Strat has been up for grabs since the 1970s. Patent laws were intended to give inventors a limited term monopoly over their inventions, which thereafter become public domain. This provides incentive to the inventors in the short term before the invention becomes part of society's technology base. Trademarks protect a business entity, not an invention. Trademarks enter the public domain if they become generic due to lack of enforcement by the trademark holder: names like escalator, aspirin, thermos, etc. Add the strat body shape to that list in the United States. But it seems Fender can still protect the name "Stratocaster" in the USA, as well as any variants that might reasonably create confusion in the marketplace. So in the USA, you can produce and sell a strat copy, but you can't call it a XXXcaster. Trade secrets can only be protected as long as they are kept secret. A guitar design is readily apparent, so it's never a candidate for being a trade secret, although a specific manufacturing technique might be. That leaves copyright. Different countries/regions have different time limits for copyrights. Fender seems to believe it has an angle on protecting the strat shape as a work of art in Europe, so they are going for it. So yeah, it's a small piece of the IP pie - but Fender has calculated that the European market for strats is big enough to go after. The present internet kerfuffle reflects the layman's general misunderstanding of both IP and the landscape of international law. Fender's European gambit is not a quest for WORLD DOMINATION OF ALL THINGS GUITAR. It is a corporation grasping at the final available IP straws protecting its cash cow.

The legal strategy would be for Fender to go after some of the small fish first and win some cases for relatively small money, which would establish a trail of precedent and make the bigger fish think twice about challenging them.

Okay, I'll bite. I've been a patent lawyer for sixteen years, part of my New Hampshire law firm's intellectual property group of lawyers who practice before the United Stated Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Which means I know exactly nothing about European copyright law and European judicial precedents. What is interesting to me here is that Fender is not asserting ownership of the functionality of the Stratocaster (which would be a utility patent), the ornamental design of the Stratocaster (which would be a design patent), or the marketplace association of the Stratocaster shape with Fender (which would be a trademark). Instead, Fender is asserting copyright protection in Europe for the Stratocaster as a work of art. I know nothing about the scope of this protection in Europe, or how it may be enforced. Fender is basing its authority upon a European lawsuit that it won by default - basically the other party didn't show up in court to contest the suit. I know nothing about whether this implies Fender indeed has a copyright in Europe, or what rights Fender would have assuming the copyright is valid and enforceable. But Fender has started out sending cease and desist letters based on this default judgment. In the US such letters act to put the recipient on notice of Fender's legal claim, and gives the recipient the opportunity to comply with Fender's demands. Or else. Or else what? Two thought come to mind. One is that Fender would negotiate a license with the recipient. Another is that Fender files a court action. Here, Fender may assume it has sufficient grounds to win such a case on its merits. Or Fender may assume that the recipients don't have the financial ability to litigate the matter, in which case Fender again wins by default. I'm a US patent lawyer, and I can't preduct how all this might shake out under European copyright law. But thankfully, YouTube influencers and social media gurus are all experts. You should believe them, and confidently post your predictions far and wide.

I own three outstanding 21st century Fujigen guitars (two Ibanez Prestige and a Vox). Just superb.

I'm late to the party - the singer in my band just sent one of their videos. LOVE IT! They balance the trance-y repetition with a good feel for when enough is enough.

Thanks. I only use the GM-800 (synth) for a handful of songs with my band, typically horns, organ, strings/pads, and pianos, with the occasional analog lead. Just enough to add spice here and there. I use the effects and amp models in the VG-800 for my basic guitar tones and effects (think a slightly pared down Boss GT-1000 CORE), and the VG-800 guitar modeling for songs where I need acoustic guitar, sitar, or open tunings for slide.

This is pretty much it.

The moderator of the vguitarsforum.com site posted this video showing guitarist Kenny Vaughn demonstrating some crazy licks and chords with a creatively tuned electric 12 string guitar. Check out starting at around 32 minutes: Apparently the tuning Kenny Vaughn uses is a variant of an earlier tuning by Jimmy Bryant (Google the "The Stratosphere Boogie" and "Stratosphere 12 String Tuning"). There are disagreements about the exact tuning Jimmy Bryant used, but here's one I've been messing with from https://www.tdpri.com/threads/stratosphere-12-string-tuning.154839/ The Jimmy Bryant tuning Low E -> Ab - E C - A F - D B - G D - B High E > G - E and the Kenny Vaughn tuning. Low E> A/F A> C/A D> F/D G> A/F B> C/A High E> E/C Jimmy Bryant's tuning is based off a standard tuning for the fat strings, while the Kenny Vaughn tuning is based on an Fmaj9. The string pair intervals are the same (major or minor 3rd) except for the high E, where JB has a minor 3rd and KV has a major 3rd. If you've got one of the wonderful Hamer 12 strings and some time on your hands, these tunings are really inspiring! I no longer have a 12 string, so instead I've programmed the (rather amazing) Boss VG-800 virtual guitar modeler to emulate these tunings. I've attached a brief damo. If you happen to have a Boss VG-800, you can download my presets here: https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=39279.msg289103;topicseen#quickreply_anchor Les Paul Multitrack Demo 16.mp3

The Quilter Superblock has active tone controls (boost and cut), so setting the treble to noon is akin to diming the treble on an amp with passive tone controls (cut only). Same goes for the MicroPro, Mach 3, and others. Great amps - just gotta get use to the way they work! They can really nail an edge-of-breakup Fender Deluxe tone (my bread-and-butter).

So great to see Tony Levin completely rocking it at age 78!

I took my son to the New Hampshire show last night. MIND BLOWN. Four peerless musicians playing their asses off, having a ball. There was extended technical difficulty with Belew's rig (the 20 minute intermission stretched to nearly an hour as four worried crew members furiously tinkered away - what happens when you tour with rickety 40 year old guitar synths), but otherwise brilliant. My son (who was not familiar with the material) was effusive all the way home - and now wants a Chapman Stick. We were thrilled, and so grateful to be able to see this performance. BRAVO!!! FWIW, Belew's "noise" has always been an integral part of the glorious cacophony that is King Crimson, essential glue that holds the sound canvas together. But I could say that for each of them. King Crimson's sound is so much more than the sum of its parts (and the parts are awesome). Now waiting for the THRAK tour...

Crashed and burned this year. Sold three, bought five. Sold: 30th Anni, Eclipse 12, Huss & Dalton 00SP Bought: Vox SSC-55, 3 Bedell acoustics (dread, grand auditorium, parlor), 1 Alvarez Masterworks acoustic 000 Overall quite pleased with the gits, and netted mucho clams

My family bought me an engraved BlueChip pick. Love it. Best of all, my 13 year old daughter took it upon herself to learn ukulele (she's already a capable violinist), and led us through several carols. We spent Christmas afternoon calling relatives and singing at them, even my 16 year old son, who normally avoids singing. My wife bought me a cocktail shaker that leaks terribly, but has a cap with a wonderful ringing tone when struck, which was lovely for "silver bells." So for Christmas, we became a family band with my daughter on uke and my wife on lead cocktail shaker. Awesome.

Ah, the poor, deformed Eclipse, with its anemic little stump for a lower horn, and only partially developed humbuckers. This is what happens when Specials have abortions. And my last Hamer standing. Love it to pieces.

BlueChip picks came to my attention for non-musical professional reasons (I'm a patent lawyer, and the patent application process for these picks caught my eye). They are made of a VERY expensive material used in electronics and medical devices that has some very interesting properties. It is self lubricating, so extremely low wear characteristics, and is super smooth yet is very grippy on the fingers. Musically, it produces very little click on the strings (important for acoustic players), and very nice flexibility characteristics so the picks flex enough to very your attack, but they snap back to position quickly, so they never feel "floppy." These are marketed to bluegrass players as a tortoise shell replacement, and are pretty thick picks. Reading the patent prosecution and the discussions on the Acoustic Guitar Forum got me interested enough to spring for one. I now have two, and am considering a third. It turns out they have another benefit I'd never read about before: very clean attack which results in very accurate tracking on Roland guitar synths. Some folks seem offended that a pick has the audacity to be so expensive.Yeah, they are stupid expensive. Are they worth it? It depends on what you need in a pick. I like mine and have no regrets.

Serious zombie thread! I only have one electric guitar from when I started this thread, so clearly I swap guitars more often than I swap pickups. I dropped Bill Lawrence pickups in my Dean Tonic because the plastic stock ones imploded when I was adjusting them. Major improvement. My USA Eclipse has the DiMarzio minis it had when I bought it, and they sound great, although I also love the Duncan Antiquities in an Eclipse. My other three electrics have stock pickups. I thought about changing out my MIM Strat pickups several times for no real reason, but I like 'em fine. The S22 pickups in my Carvin Fatboy 2 work really well with it - very versatile (I rarely like full sized humbuckers). And the stock Coaxe pickups were a major reason I bought my Vox SSC-55. As an aside, more often than not, I am fine with stock pickups on an electric guitar. On acoustic, I have never found a pickup I like, except when I run it through a Fishman Aura system, but even then only when an well matched image is available.

My Carvin Fatboy 2 with synth access is getting a bunch of play. I put flat wound strings on it which lets me pull cool jazzbox tones from it, but it can also twang and jangle just fine. The flatwound strings also improve synth tracking. Overall, just a joy to play, and very versatile.

"Lost the first round"? Rubbish. What shoddy journalism. The judge denied a motion to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction. There has not been a hearing on the merits.

Kasim Sultan (Utopia).

Dunno where it fits on the curve spectrum above, but my Carvin Fatboy 2 has a very hefty neck, and it is super comfy. Not much V to it at all, so I'm guessing it is in the "Fat" ballpark. Never been married to a particular neck profile, and I've enjoyed everything from the Fatboy to the super skinny Parker Fly Deluxe. Similarly, I like flat Hamer boards and 7.25" radius Fender boards. My Gurian S3M has a 1-5/8″ nut, and my Lowden O32 has a 1 25/32" nut.They all take my playing in different directions, which for me is a good thing. The only thing I can't do is a super thin (fretboard to back of neck) acoustic guitar neck. I had to sell my Composite Acoustics OX guitar, because it killed my hand.