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new Italia guitars spotted in Soundcontrol, Oxford St

Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 4:02 pm
by timhulio
Definate Rick influence going on here, but they look wickedcool. About 300 beans. Didn't have a chance to try one though as the whole place stank of eggy sewage. It was completely unbearable. *arsecake*

Ricky Butcher

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Re: new Italia guitars spotted in Soundcontrol, Oxford St

Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 4:16 pm
by analogsystem
timhulio wrote:Definate Rick influence going on here, but they look wickedcool. About 300 beans. Didn't have a chance to try one though as the whole place stank of eggy sewage. It was completely unbearable. *arsecake*

Ricky Butcher

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I think the most interesting part (don't know if I dig it or not......) is the half open half closed headstock. Very....interesting. My band's other guitarist plays an Italia Modena. He loves the way it plays and looks. The bigsby copy on it stays in tune way better than my Fender Mustang or Jazzmaster. The only issue is the pickups suck ass for clean tones. I keep telling him to replace them but he's not much for "tinkering" with his guitars.

Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 4:18 pm
by jcyphe
Those have been out for a while. They amke them in a bunch of colors and like 3 different burst finishes, 12 string too.

I wish they'd use some of those knockoff singlecoils in the Dynasonic shell, instead of mini humbuckers. It'd make alot more sense.

Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 8:29 pm
by Richard
I like most of it, but that headstock is pretty %ghey%.

Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 8:35 pm
by BobArsecake
I really don't like that input jack/where it is. There was a really good stand of them in the Sound Control in Manchester last term, not been in since though so not sure if it's still there, wish I'd have tried them.

Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 9:01 pm
by Will
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This is the one I like - only 3 PUPs, though, not 4 like the original.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 8:19 pm
by ekwatts
Hey Tim, what you doing in Manchester? Don't come sniffing round my patch and MY Italia's, bitch!

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 8:23 pm
by ElCapitan
i tried that fiesta Ric copy thing out the other week, sounds pretty nice. the weird headstock cut away actually made tuning easier imho, not having to reach around fully to tune the top 3 strings made it quicker, but yeah, the strat jack placement is naff.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:03 pm
by timhulio
ElCapitan wrote:reach around
Ekwatts wrote:Mankchestor
Sorry to disappoint, but there's one in London too, both Oxford St and Soundcontol.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:12 pm
by BobArsecake
Yeah it's under HMV on Oxford St. in London, peculiar.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:12 pm
by luke
timhulio wrote:
ElCapitan wrote:reach around
Ekwatts wrote:Mankchestor
Sorry to disappoint, but there's one in London too, both Oxford St and Soundcontol.
Fuck, I didn't realise there was a Sound Control on Oxford St. I was too busy in Topman, I suppose.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:19 pm
by timhulio
BobArsecake wrote:Yeah it's under HMV on Oxford St. in London, peculiar.
Actually it's under Zavvi, which used to be Virgin Megastore, right opposite Tottenham Court Rd station. It's not that great. Focuses on well dodgy brands like Schechter and PRS and has bugger-all interesting Fender stuff save for a few massively overpriced CS guitars.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:22 pm
by BobArsecake
Ah, I thought it was HMV, same thing anyway really. Yeah I went in with Mike last year and it was pretty disappointing to be honest. Boo-urns to bad guitar shops.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:26 pm
by Mike
I'm pretty sure that none of the Denmark St./Tin Pan Alley shops have Orange licenses though, so it's the best place to play Orange gear in London.

London is disappointing for guitar shops given how sprawlingly massive the city is. The best shop is Chandlers in Richmond which is way out of town.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:35 pm
by luke
One of my friends is a total dunce. He said that the Virgin in London just happened to have a music section downstairs, he never said it was actually a Sound Control. Well, he is a drummer.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:53 pm
by timhulio
Mike wrote:London is disappointing for guitar shops given how sprawlingly massive the city is. The best shop is Chandlers in Richmond which is way out of town.
I agree for the most part, but Wunjo on Denmark St has some genuinely interesting vintage stuff. Albeit valued 50% more than the very most the same item would go for on ebay. Eg £600 Hagstrom I, £1300 crappy 3-bolt seventies strats.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 11:38 pm
by BobArsecake
Is that the one we were tiptoeing around so as not to knock anything over, Mike? If so that's my favourite one just 'cause of the interesting and old stuff they have.

Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:34 am
by Mike
BobArsecake wrote:Is that the one we were tiptoeing around so as not to knock anything over, Mike? If so that's my favourite one just 'cause of the interesting and old stuff they have.
Nah that was Vintage & Rare. Wunjo is where I tried to take you but completely forgot where the fuck it was, remember when we walked around the corner on the back of the street and I was like "Where the fuck is this place, I'm sure I left it here?". The postcode on Tim's link suggests it's right at the entrance to Denmark St, which makes me a muppet.

Either way it is a good shop, when we went shopping for Gareth's Telecaster they let him play all manner of Telecasters and Jaguars through whatever amp he wanted, plus they offered to order anything he wanted into the shop for him to try. Nice guys.

Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:35 am
by Mike
timhulio wrote:£1300 crappy 3-bolt seventies strats.
While 70s Strats ain't the best, don't diss the 3-bolt. I love that neck joint on my Deluxe with the micro-tilt adjustment.

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:55 am
by benwalker
+1 Wunjo. New favourite - lots of oddball guitars, decent staff.

There's an odd one part way down on the same side as Bass Cellar that has a lot of second-hand things in: 60's Epiphone Casino (like the guy from interpol plays) for £1400 with some crazy checking on the finish. Spent a lunchbreak once jamming with some bassist in there.. as you do, and no-one batted an eyelid. They do still overprice though - couple of 65/66 refin strats for around £6K, which puts them out of reach of players, and not good enough for collectors.

sound control is alright-ish. good for demo-ing oranges (tried an AD30 a while back: sweeeet) but it took the staff 20mins to find the power lead when I went to buy my pog two years ago.. i got chatting up/to one of the girls (...staff...) in there once who was bemoaning the fact that everyone in there always plays nirvana (badly) or gravitates towards the ibanez/schecter stuff to try and shred on it (badly) - which is i suppose the problem of a large store that lets anyone try out anything.

Turnkey/Soho Soundhouse is amusing - went in once to try out a MXR MicroAmp, which the guy insisted on demoing: "oooh, louder - i suppose you'd use this for solos..." - no shit. however if you want keyboards or recording stuff, they'll pricematch if you push them. London Pedal Co, or rather Music Ground have great stock but waaaay overprice everything (£1500 for a used, 2 year old Les Paul anyone?). And they generally won't let you touch it if you look like a student. Did see an original '59 burst in there once though, that they wanted £190000 for...

V&R - nice stock but £1400 for a '66 mustang. Erm. Maybe some other time.

Maccaferris (typo?) is good: they generally have some weird guitars, some decent used bits and of course all the colorsound pedals, but the place is just a bit small.

dare you to go in with a big backpack on and a borat style accent.