David

you should check the intonation of the guitar, and ajust if it needs it. how to intonate a guitar (stolen in part from www.jemsite.com, cause i cant be othered typing it out myself) tune the guitar, make sure you've stretched out all the strings properly then check the intonation on the strings, first make sure it is in tune played open, then see if the 12th fret harmonic is in tune and compare it to the note of the string fretted at the 12th fret if the tuning is out you will need to ajust the saddle on the string, you do this by tightening/loosening the screw at the back of the bridge, and therefore moving the saddle forwards or backwards a bit if the fretted note is sharp, move the saddle away from the neck (tighten the screw) if the fretted note is flat, move the saddle towards the neck (loosen the screw) so ajust a little, then check the intonation again to see if tis correct, repeat untill the string is intonated then move on to the next string and repeat everything again, then the next string, then the next and keep going until all 6 strings are intonated correctly as for the bridge position, is the bridge sitting in a different position to what it was before, the heavier guage of strings may have brought it forwards slightly (so it isnt resting against the body) if this has happened, you need to take off the plate on the back of the guitar (which you have done anyway ) then tighten the screw that holds the springs to the body, then retune the guitar and see if its sitting against the body now, if its still floating a bit, then tighten them a bit more, it shouldnt take too much tightening or you could leave it 'floating' slightly, that will mean you can raise the pitch of a note slightly by pulling up on the trem arm or palming the bridge. note this means you wont be able to downtune the guitar easily and quickly i doubt the bridge will have moved though, so you probably wont need to ajust anything for it any more questions, ask and i shall do my best to help David

turning down the gain should help a lot with cutting down on feedback and noise at higher volumes an EQ pedal could also be usefull to you, Danelectro make the PB+J Eq (i think thats the name anyway) in their mini range which is supposed to be decent sounding and very good value for money David

im sure zakk Wylde should be on that list, the speed on the song 'speedball' is insane... David

i wish i had enough cash for that... beautiful David

yes, they can do lots of amusing trickery to singel strings like virtually retuning them and such as for the gibson system, it will depend on what gear is designed to make use of the system and how good it is so far it seems expensive, but its not bad considering its a gibson, you could still get a rolang VG-88 + Gk fitted guitar for cheaper than the price of the gibson guitar on its own.... we shall just have to wait and see how well it catches on David

most of the bits pointed out in the picture are irrelevant to you, just the picture was drawn for explaining how floyds work completely, all that interests you is the spring claw you will first need to take off the plate that covers the trem, its the big rectangular one in the middle of the body, just tae out all the screws (usually 6) and the plate will fall out what you need to do is tighten/loosen the screws holding the spring claw to the body, if the floyd is being pulled out of the body, you tighten the screws a bit, if it is sitting back 'into' the body, loosen them remember you only need to tighten/loosen the screws a little, then retune, as the retuning will move the bridge a bt more, so loosen/tighten a little, then tune up, then repeat untill the bridge is level David

captain toms - 01224 647500 a room is 12 an hour, which has amps, a pa and a drumkit. you need to supply your own guitars (with cables and pedals and whatnot) and cymbals, or you can hire them for 1 an hour couls also try exile studios (www.exilestudio.co.uk) but i prefer toms David

Jackson/Charvel guitars is owned by FMIC, aka fender musical instruments corp. so to be pedantic, yes jackson guitars are owned by fender. this is pretty recent, they were bought over about a year and a bit ago. Charvel basically make 'hot rodded' strats, basically strats with floyds and humbuckers and the like. Jackson make 'superstrats' which are what Soloists/Dinkys/RG's/Jems and all the others like that, basically a strattish shape, but usually with deeper, more pointed cutaways, so better high fret access, and usually a few extra frets too... they also make pointy metal guitars like Rhoads vee's, Warriors, Kellys and others and a few odd guitars like the phil collens PC-1 which is a hot rodded strat like a charvel and PRS, im not sure if i would spend the money on one, i would rather go for a complete custom guitar suited to me, probably from Jackson but i did see Paul Crook playing with Meatloaf last night, and he used a red PRS for half the set and it sounded bloody excellent, so i guess its really down to whether you are willing to pay the money for it or not. David

all drummers are either fat, stupid, or plain insane it is (almost) a fact David

i would love a proper Gibson ES-355 dot basically what tom d's new sig is, but with two pups and a decent amount of controls to twiddle David

it looks like a decent guitar, just not too keen on the choice of colours... i wouldnt mind getting hold of one of those pups to stick into my strat too David

any chance of some pictures of it? a bit unsure on this 'accident with a blunt hacksaw' either posted here or to the_enema@hotmail.com if you could. or if you couldnt get a picture, a ms paint edited photo of a fender p bass or something to get an idea of what it looks like... i pm'ed you anyway. much thanks David

as ian said, we have just got hold of a new drummer, so wont be able to practise or say when we will be back to some sort of gigging ability... again, thanks for the offer though. David

this one to be exact - this guitar should win for pure oddness... its a kinda synth/guitarey device, i have no idea on what it does or how it works, but it looks rather odd actually, some more info on the synthaxe here David

nope just a normal wah. it has an extrended range (compared to a standard crybaby) selectable 'Q' (the frequencys it wahs in) and a boost oh, and it has two inpur jacks, one on either side, so you dont have to loop a cable over the top if you dont want to David

biasing isnt necessary when you revalve an amp. but if the valves are different (which is very likely) they will run slightly colder, and not sounds as good, or run hotter, which will sound good but will wear out the valves much quicker so for best sound/valve life, its best to make sure the amp is biased properly i would check out some of the guides on the net about rebiasing, if you feel you could do it yourself, and have the equipment, then give it a go, worstcase you could always get it rebiased again by a pro if you really screw things up if you arent too sure, then get it done by a pro, marshall seem like a good bet from what others have said about their after sales help David

some japanese stuff is excellent on a few guitar forums i visit tokais are getting really great reviews, basically better than gibson but without the pricetag... wouldnt mind a les paul copy... David

i think they are supposed to be decent i have heard more about the mxr smart gate, so that would be my choice David

it shouldnt be too hard to do yourself the only problem could be biasing the valves (basically making sure they run at the best voltages for every individual valve - they are all slightly different) i have no idea how to do it personally, but there should be guides on the net to explain how, i think i saw one from marshall somewhere but i cant remember where that was. or you could always ask over at www.harmony-central.com forums, the guys in the amp forum should be able to help you out David

yeah, its just a plain old wah, just with a few editable parameters taken from the bit about it on www.harmony-central.com - David

for the date of it i would have expectied it to be worth more than it is going for, even with the few 'upgraded' parts, an all origonal one would go for much much more David

yeah, rnb have a few long ones try and look for ones for bass, i think they tend to be longer than guitar ones (even though they are technically the same) David

the morley bad horsie and tremonti power wah are both switchless as is the Dunlop 95q crybaby personally i use a Dulop GCB-95 crybaby (the cheapest one) which does me fine, but then again i mainly use it for pissing about with and not serious use wouldnt mind getting it modded by www.wah-wah.co.uk though, though i cant really justify the expense David

take the mimumum of stuff, less to carry, less to set up, less to go wrong in a slight contradiction to that, carry spares of everythign breakable, stuff like spare strings and leads (both long, and patch cables if you use fx) are essential, preferably a spare guitar too (useful to have on stage in case of any problems with your main guitar too) and if you have a valve amp a spare set of valves. then stuff like food and water, you dont want to be stuck having to drive 4 hours starving and thirsty, so a few bottles of water and some food to tide you over, there are probably lots of other small things that i just cant remember right at this second try not to take much valuable stuff, stuff like guitars and amps are pretty essential, but when you are having to leave most of your stuff in a van, either try and keep the most valuable stuff with you if you really need it, or at home where its safe from theft or damage pack the van starting with the heaviest stuff furthest from the doors (right behing the seats in front) and pack everything securely, so nothing wil move about in the event of a crash, so pack everything in tightly, and tie everything down. David

i asked this question ages ago on harmony-central (big guitar forums) and the general idea was to let it warm up for 5 or so minutes before use, and afterwards there is no real need to leave it on standy or anything, just switch it off properly, but try and let the valves cool before moving it on stage, i try and get one quickly as the band before finish to switch it on and let it warm up (just jump on stage, flick the switch, then hop off again to let them clear away their stuff), then afterwards, switch it off as soon as you are done, then let it cool for as long as possible, ie, leave it till everything else is cleared away before taking it off enjoy your new amp David