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Having asked the seller of this Duotone to dig deep about when he bought it, he now says it was January 1961, which fits in with everything nicely, it's still over a year before dad bought mine.

I restrung this guitar with Pyramid flatwounds, using the 5th string as the bottom 'E' in the way we did back in the sixties, then stringing down and adding a 9 gauge for the 1st. I carefully saved the original strings that had been on there for 56 years, though I doubt I'll ever use them. The neck is now retaining it's straightness and the guitar is easier to play which is what I bought it for. I just need a Watkins Dominator amplifier in light blue from the same period and I'll be a happy bunny.

dave robinson wrote:I restrung this guitar with Pyramid flatwounds, using the 5th string as the bottom 'E' in the way we did back in the sixties, then stringing down and adding a 9 gauge for the 1st. I carefully saved the original strings that had been on there for 56 years, though I doubt I'll ever use them. The neck is now retaining it's straightness and the guitar is easier to play which is what I bought it for. I just need a Watkins Dominator amplifier in light blue from the same period and I'll be a happy bunny.

There ya go Dave http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1950s-WATKINS ... Sw32lYwo90
Take Care

petercreasey wrote:

dave robinson wrote:I restrung this guitar with Pyramid flatwounds, using the 5th string as the bottom 'E' in the way we did back in the sixties, then stringing down and adding a 9 gauge for the 1st. I carefully saved the original strings that had been on there for 56 years, though I doubt I'll ever use them. The neck is now retaining it's straightness and the guitar is easier to play which is what I bought it for. I just need a Watkins Dominator amplifier in light blue from the same period and I'll be a happy bunny.

There ya go Dave http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1950s-WATKINS ... Sw32lYwo90
Take Care

Thanks Pete, I had seen that one but it's actually a Westminster in a Dominator case, there are one or two others around too so I need to choose wisely on price. They vary from £650 to £1995.

I managed to find the exact model of Watkins Dominator that Dad bought me in 1962 and will be driving over to Manchester early next week to collect. I also picked up a WEM IC-400 Copicat this week, the one with varispeed, it's amazing what you can get out of one of these if you re-jig the heads into certain positions. I'm going to do some recording with all the old stuff and probaby make myself quite fed up that I spent fortunes on Fenders', Voxes and Echomatics. When I convinced myself and my parents that I needed all these things back in the day, I really believed it, but it appears that the humble and much less expensive old gear does the job equally well, along with the fifty years experience I have acquired.

!!with the fifty years experience I have acquired!! that would account for most of the sound. and wasn't it a great journey acquiring that experience dave no replacement for that. peter

kipper wrote:!!with the fifty years experience I have acquired!! that would account for most of the sound. and wasn't it a great journey acquiring that experience dave no replacement for that. peter

I won't argue with that Peter, nor would swap it for anything.