OK, ignoring Herb's response (see you Sunday mate, Oceans, Staines, 8.00pm), I picked up the Gothic today.
OK the positive stuff first. It's a minty Feb/2006. The guy I bought it from said that at the time he bought this new, he saw one for sale in a guitar shop locally (here in the UK) for £1,899/$3,000, so for my purchase price of well under half this, I suppose you could say I got a bargain. Pickups seem to have a higher output than my other two TBs and marginally phatter in tone too. Good body/neck balance. Finish is very nice...the mahogany hasn't been filled and the black finish shows the grain, which is particularly pleasing where the neck is concerned. Neck profile/radius is bigger than both my other two. It still had the plastic on the rear control cavity cover.
OK, the bad stuff. The three point bridge sucks, but that's par for the course...I can't decide whether to put a Supertone on it or leave it original, but I can't get the action down and further. The neck pickup is set so tight against the body rout, adjustment is nigh impossible, so I took it out and put some foam in the raise it up and have screwed it down to my preference. Amusingly, one of the springs that assists in the raising/lowering of the pickups was missing. Also the screws in both pickups sit well proud of the pickups. The machine heads were crooked too (the E & A tuner leafs actually touched each other when rotated), but I've sorted that now. Sigh.
Anyhow, I've given it a full set up and new boots and I'm pretty pleased...I shall be gigging it next Sunday. Pics to follow if anyone is interested!
Paul
