Flaneur

I haven't tried them yet but speaking local my mate swears by a company called newtone strings.

http://www.newtonestrings.com/

My mate builds guitars and has around 30 repairs a week to do and recommends these strings to every customer if it's an encore guitar or a custom shop. He's started raving about them after going to them from elixirs

They make great custom sets for slide and lap players.  Highly recommended.

 

What switching does the Baja have?

A four-way, so you can have have both pickups in series or parallel- plus a phase switch.  Plenty of options, from two single coils.  Fender developed the Twisted Tele neck pickup for the Baja but now put it in American models; the Broadcaster  bridge pickup is, again, a great choice for a mid priced instrument.

Patience rewarded!  Snagged a Baja Tele yesterday...... great pickups, frets, V-Neck and more switching options than two normal Teles     

Of all the excellent Mexican Fenders now available, Bajas remain in the conversation for 'best ever'.  Just needs a clean, a Switchcraft jack and a set of 11s and it'll be good to go!

Oh yeah.... the single ply 'vintage' pickguard is warping.  There's a reason 3 ply guards became popular 

Best acoustics?  The Lampie- arched brick roof and stone flagged floor.......

Sound?  Drummonds, usually......

Most Intimate venue?  Cellar 35

Most reliable atmosphere?  Moorings.  A local treasure.  The Globe always attracts music loving, if transient crowds.

Underachiever?  The Tunnels!

Newcomer?  Downstairs (comeback?)

Stage?  The Forum, or Drummonds.

Neglected resources?  Upstairs at the Lampie is a great wee room.

P.M'd......

In your price range, the EG Takamines have the best electrics, IMO...........

Personally- i'd buy the best solid wood D18 clone available- and worry about the electrics later.  You may need something with a certain shape or neck width, so that might limit your options (if you must have a fat neck or a cutaway, for instance).

The Canadian brands aren't all solid wood- but in other respects are well built and usually sound great.  Used Seagulls, A&Ls and Simon & Patricks come up for sale locally all the time and are a good place to start looking.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/dundee/dundee-blues-bonanza-cancelled-for-2014-1.289174

Shit.

Please post a link to the cancellation of the festival, if you have one.  If this is news about to break, please explain how you know this is going to be announced.

There might be some value in the OP's thread if it included a credible link.

What we have so far, is an unsubstantiated rumour, leading to the airing of a personal greivance.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Your-Electric-Guitar-Great/dp/0879309989/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395007766&sr=1-2&keywords=erlewine

For those of you who prefer a book to a video...............

http://www.gak.co.uk/en/vintage-v100bb-gloss-black/17933

sorry to be the bearer of bad news.......... 

When you buy a Vintage, you have to factor in the appalling depreciation Liam mentioned and branding is a part of that. My Vintage D18 clone is a wonderful instrument but that would not be reflected in the price I could ask for it, were I to sell.

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/gibson-sj-200/1040417248

 bit pricey.............

http://www.aberdeen-music.com/topic/55183-65-fender-twin-reverb-reissue/

Something like this- or an AC15 or 30- if you can't get comfortable with the thought of an amp from the 70s.

Humbuckers just look wrong on a tele.

in the bridge, certainly..........

Thoughts on the neck single vary

Great find, Graham........

I can't imagine how hard you'd have to play, to wear out fretboard and frets on a nylon strung guitar.

http://www.strungoutguitars.com/guitars/acoustic?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=420&category_id=1

Couple of recommendations that haven't figured in the obits...........

Rock and Roll Animal is a rifftastic live album, featuring the wonderful and unsung Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, on guitars.  I saw the band in '74 and they played a strange, wonderful mixture of proto-metal and jazzy versions of Lou's songs.

New York is my favourite of Lou's later works.  Essential listening for the lyricists and social commentators among us.

As someone who quite enjoys the grungy ambiance of MV and Toms- whilst embracing thrift as a tenet of faith- it occurs to me that I may not be the target market of this new business........

Good luck to this new venture- Aberdeen certainly has room for it.

 I don't understand why anyone would stay in Aberdeen unless they were directly benefitting from the Oil industry up here because everything from property to practise spaces are a fuckload more expensive than most other cities in the UK!

 

Full Employment Economy- for the last 30 years.  High tide raises all ships, etc........... so we all benefit.

The release of The Clash's Sound System box set yesterday got me to thinking about TITP 99 where I seen Joe and the Mescalero's on the main stage, although not quite as good as seeing The Clash (I was born in 1981 so was unlikely to see them before they split in  82), he battered out a good few Clash hits during his set. He looked terrible and couldn't remember the words to most of the songs but I still feel really lucky to have seen him live in the flesh - a proper legend who helped pull British music out of the terrible Prog rock laden mid 70's of flares and ghastly side burns (IMHO).

 

There we go. I'm getting sentimental in my old age...

Don't be too hard on the Pub Rock scene.  It gave Ian Dury, Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe a showcase...... along with the Clash and all the other punk bands.  Prog Rock was, by contrast, a travesty...........

http://www.juniorbrown.com/photos/default/picture/15

Junior is the King of these things. 

The Korean 335 clones from the 90s can be very good value, when they come up on Gumtree.  Cheaper than a Dot- and more consistent quality.