I finally got my act together and bought a new lec’y guitar. It’s a corker. “Sime” at Better Music calls it a “Epi Studio Lesa”, but if you’re googling you might want to try “Epiphone Les Paul Studio”. Basically it’s a cheaper Gibson.

It’s got a set-neck, not bolted on, and it’s made from pretty solid timber, feels nice and heavy when you’ve got it on. Pickups are bright and chirpy, almost too bright with new strings on, and it sounds grouse both clean and distorted.

I’m not much of a haggler, I generally dislike shopping around, rather be doing something else. But I did a bit of ringing around to check my prices and get some idea of how badly I was getting ripped off.

I ended up paying $720 for the guitar, a nice Epi hard case, and a reasonably decent Fender lead. Retail for the three is about $1090, so I think I did alright.

Although if you pay retail for a guitar you’re a complete goose, so it’s not really a fair comparison. His first price was $850 without the lead ($30 worth), so I’m not complaining. Regardless, I was happy to pay $720 for it, and buying it from Better Music means I can take it back there in person if there’s any problems (as opposed to getting one shipped from Sydney).

Headed round to Keith’s tonight to do a few guitar overdubs for Martin and Kelly’s OLS paper, and had a bit of a play. Sounded great through Keith’s bass amp, nice and loud, ballsy. I’ll have to start looking for a school boy uniform.