blackprince

If safety and comfort are your most important criteria, I'd be sure to check what kind of suspension and drive systems are under the hood: there's a very big difference between a pickup truck that's been given an SUV shell and a true SUV. Obviously these things change all the time, but the last time I tried some of the models mentioned above, they were basically pickups with different shells.

@KhunLA Funny you should mention that, I was in homepro earlier this week and had a quick look at the e-bikes and scooters - my 10 year old's been pestering me for one (no way!). We're in a pretty rural location most of the time so an e-bike's not really practical, and we've got a small motorbike for local stuff anyway. My main drive is a Volvo S90 hybrid, a good car, just need the domestic solar-powered energy sysem to complete it!

@Bandersnatch Thanks for posting the pic. I've been trying to get something similar installed for the last year, but it seems there was a rule change a few months ago requiring a license for configs above a certain power rating, which delayed the project somewhat. Hopefully we are now in a position to get the project restarted soon. On a general point, this is a really interesting thread, great to read the views of people who actually have experience in this. I lived with a roof-mounted solar water heating system for about 10 years, but that's a much simpler technology. The new project will create and store electricity of course (unlike the water heating system), and it will also switch into the national grid when full. I'm not sure how common that switching function is as I'm not technical on these things. On an even more general point, I've been looking at solar-powered bicycles, like the Elf (on the web only as there's no supplier in Thailand as far as I know). Looks great. And I'm intrigued by BBC reports of young teenage inventors in India making solar-powered tuktuks out of salvaged bits and pieces!

"Ate a meal with Jimmy Page years ago in Pattaya Nice guy" I also met Jimmy Page a couple of times, but not what you'd call socially. One time as a student moonlighting as a minicab driver - I delivered a guitar to him - one of those big old Gibson flat-top jumbos - at Led Zeppelin's Swansong Records office in Chelsea - the security guy invited me upstairs to meet the man, I was a punk at the time so I tried not be unduly impressed. And across the river where he used to do impromptu jams in Battersea Park with his friend Roy Harper, the acoustic folky stoner, around the time of Harper's "Stormcock" or a couple of years later- it was pretty shambolic like most of Harper's live outings. By all accounts Mr Page was / is quite the gentleman in his private life, unlike some of his contemporaries, and while my own tastes have become increasingly jazzier over the decades, I'm even more stunned by some of his earlier studio work than I was at the time; not just him, but the whole band of course.

"Jimmy" Yes Mr Page was most often photographed with a wine red Gibson Les Paul Custom. And being the impressionable callow youth that I was back in the early 70s I saved up my pennies and bought, you guessed it, a wine red Gibson Les Paul Custom (in a sale of course). A few decades later upon arrival in Thailand I bought a very very cheap Chinese Les Paul knock off somewhere along the north wall of the Chiang Mai old town. Believe me the intonation on that guitar was every bit as good as the original, and being hollow it didn't break my neck every time I used it (anyone who says a Tele is as weighty has evidently never used an original Les Paul), Materials of course nowhere near as good, but at 300th of the price who cares! I'm 99% sure the OP will have reason to be cheerful after he's taken his guitar to Tai, let's see.

"Tuners which clip onto the headstock are OK for either type of guitar. " Not quite and here's why: Tuners which clip on to the headstock have 2 different technologies (1) driven by vibration, these were originally developed for acoustic guitars, and will be much less reliable for electric guitars which of course have substantially less vibration (2) driven by pitch via microphone - again less reliable for electric guitars for the same reason. This would be particularly true for a Les Paul, even an Epiphone clone, as they have virtually no "twang", unlike a Tele for example. Tuners which are connected via the input jack or integrated with any other input enabled device, like an amplifier for example, were specifically developed for electric guitars. Also, we know the OP's tuner is working correctly as it registers the correct intonation for open strings and the 12th fret. As I suggested earlier, the OP is using a chromatic tuner (he must be if he's getting a readout for each fret), and it's possible he's getting slight discrepancies on the visual readout which aren't really apparent to the ear, but obviously only he can make a judgement about that. The key point is that if a guitar is intoned correctly at the open strings and the 12th fret then it cannot be intoned incorrectly at frets 1=11 unless there is a major problem with the neck, which I doubt in this case, or unless there is a substantial action problem which would be apparent to the OP anyway. It's just physically impossible.

Just finished lunch, which was interrupted by ruminations on your intonation problems (how sad is that!). As I've already indicated, a guitar that's intoned correctly with open strings and at the 12th fret (which yours now is) cannot have intonation problems on frets 1-11, specifically sharp problems on frets 1-7 unless there is a problem with (1) frets being in the wrong position (impossible with modern factory produced electric guitars) or (2) a very high nut (which you'd notice if the first fret was painful in fingering). It seems that the shop sold you a chromatic tuner (ie one that can identify any note, completely unnecessary for the guitar), rather than the more traditional guitar tuner EADGBE. It's also possible that the shop sold you a tuner for an acoustic guitar, which works on vibrations, rather than input. It's possible that (1) your chromatic tuner is showing small discrepancies that human ears wouldn't notice (you could confirm this or not by letting us know how far sharp your tuner thinks your guitar is for any given fret/string) or it's possible that (2) you're using a tuner designed for an acoustic guitar on an electric guitar. In both cases I'm assuming that your eyes (on the tuner) may be deceiving your ears. Intonation problems are end-user problems unless you've got a seriously screwed up neck, which I doubt. Anyway let us know what Tai says.

@northerner thanks for the tip about Music Factory Tai, I've been looking for some time for someone who can work on archtop electronics, and he's just confirmed he can @CALSinCM I'd be interested in hearing what Tai (I guess that's his name) says about your intonation problem. cheers

"And yet according to both my ears and my headstock tuner - here I am defying the Laws of Physics. Which is why I'm at a loss. So I'll keep looking for someone with the tools and experience to check it out. At this point I'd say it's beyond my ability to fix. Thanks for the input though. Appreciated." Well I've got 50 years experience of this ???? I'm fairly sure you won't find anyone with more locally or anywhere else for that matter. Anyway I'm glad you took my advice on sorting the saddles out. I'll just reiterate: if the intonation is correct at the 12th fret (which it is now because you took my first advice), and if the frets are in the correct position (which they will be in a factory machined Epiphone), and if the neck doesn't have a very significant bow (which you can check by looking at eye-level along the neck from the bridge to the nut, and if the nut isn't excessively high, then the laws of physics dictate that the problem is in your fingers.

A very high nut could create intonation problems, especially on the lower frets, but again not usually perceptible to most ears. It's easy to check whether the nut is too high or not: if you can finger the strings at the first fret (ie without pain!) then the nut's not too high (at least not so high that you'd get intonation problems).

"I've adjusted the saddles so intonation is correct on the 12th fret.However here's where it gets flaky.Fretted notes on frets 1 though 7 are distinctly sharp according to both my headstock tuner and my ears." If the intonation is correct at the 12th fret, then assuming you have a playable action (action = string height off the fretboard) it's beyond the laws of physics that the intonation should be incorrect on frets 1-11 unless the frets have been put in the wrong place, which is extremely-unlikely (actually impossible) on a machine-tooled Epiphone clone. If there is a pronounced bow in the neck (a concave neck) it could result in sharps especially around the halfway mark - eg 5th 6th 7th frets. But this would only result in very small intonation issues, not perceptible to most ears. But again a pronounced bow is unlikely in a factory Epiphone. If there is a bow, it can be easily remedied by tightening the truss-rod, which you can access under the small plate on the headstock above the nut. If you chose to do this, take it easy = 1/8th turns. I can't remember whether clockwise or anticlockwise tightens it. Anyone can do this - you don't need any training, and I assume the guitar was sold with the relevant allen key. Regarding action, an electric guitar is usually set up with an action of 2mm or less at the 12th fret (measured as the distance from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string). The only other explanation is that the strings are ultra light and you are unintentionally bending the strings through heavy inexperienced fingering, thus resulting in sharps. This is not as far-fetched as it might sound believe me! I'd try heavier strings before you start playing around with the truss-rod. Guitars are often supplied from the factory with ridiculously light strings which could result in intonation problems under inexperienced fingers.

The problem is with the saddle adjustments (ie the things on the bridge that the strings pass over between the bridge pickup and the string holder). You need to increase the string length (ie the distance between the nut and the bridge) by adjusting the saddle screws. Usually this would be clockwise, though I don't know the specific configuration of the Epiphone Les Paul, so it could be anti-clockwise on that guitar, though I doubt it. A few further points: Open strings can always be tuned to the correct pitch. If you as a beginner can hear the difference with your ears (rather than relying on an electronic tuner) then I'd say you have pretty good ears. Epiphone make very good clones, enjoy.