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Messed around with a friend's Stagg bass at the weekend (don't play bass but we were trying each other's instruments out). Impression was the build was good but the electrics were getting fritzy. The pickups popped a bit and the jack socket crackled. Not sure how much of this was hard-use or less than rugged parts.

My advice is very much for the beginner who's allergic to music theory Jerome. Yeah it would be nice to master all those other scales but at present my effort is going into getting the rock'n'roll basics and my Blues scale needs loadsa practice to get up to speed.

Two things you need Mathis,

1) The Blues Scale. Not just for blues but all sorts of music pop, rock, country, soul etc

2) Backing tracks. Soloing works best when you've got a rhythmn guitarist playing behind establishing the key, thataway the solo sounds good not just like random notes. If you don't fancy the Blues Trax type productions, just record yourself playing long sections of 12 bar blues progression.

First thing for country is to make sure your amp has a clean setting (no gain or overdrive) and turn the tone controls full-on on both guitar and amp. This should give a 'fat' tone that is very 50s, very Scotty Moore and Johnny Cash.

Have you got the basic open chords down so far? The ones to bother with are E A D (hey, you can now attempt Johnny B Goode) and G F C ('Singing The Blues' comes to mind). Leave B till you really need it for a song.

Don't bother with barre chords this early on, for that matter leave scales and solos alone too. If you love country then you need the basic Travis pick often known as Clawhammer. Once you've gotten this nearly all modern country songs will open up to you. Don't try the more advanced picks, picking books have to cover these to be complete but there's only one you really need. 'Success' is a good slow song to practise these on (you just don't want to hear me sing it!).

Most of the time JC all you'll need is the Blues scale which is Em pentatonic. Am is a similar shape, Em adds two notes. This scale is very forgiving on finger moves as most the action is back and forth between the 5th fret and 7th/8th frets. Just keep working on it till it gets in your fingers and you become quick at it, at least that's what I need to do.

Two things I love about my Brawley, the sculpted 'archtop' finish, much better than flat and the pull-out coil tap which gives instant telecaster-esque thin-sound.

One thing I don't like is the plug socket being on the side, catches on the leg, looks cool compared to the stratocaster socket but now I wish it had a front mounted socket.

All these are the sort of things you'll be balancing as you pick a guitar.

'When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)' by the Beach Boys.

Actually 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' and 'Caroline No' are also views on the subject, just not so straight-forwardly.

Get yerself down to a guitar shop and try a few. You'll immediately find yourself making choices. Is the neck shape right for your fingers? Does the body sit right when you strum?

Ask to play through a clean channel. This is as near to the guitar's true voice as you'll get. Is it a full fat tone like a Gretsch or a thin thwak like a telecaster? Which do you prefer?

If you can find them Brawley's are a good price but the company's bust so no support. Brawley's have a wide flat neck with wide frets but you may not get on with them.

Don't be afraid to put the guitar down and say you aren't sure, the guitar salesman will hope you are going to come back for something more expensive. Keep looking though there's alot of great sounding guitars out there that don't cost alot.

Hi Phil, back in the sixties a manager got groups gigs. A venue owner would rarely book a group directly, they'd want to speak to a manager. Also in the sixties the mindset was different, many groups accepted weekly wage deals because it was more money than anyone they knew was earning. In the seventies tax avoidance was another incentive, XTC got right royally sewn up this way. Of course we have bad managers to thanks for the longevity of some groups, Pink Floyd would never have done as many albums if they hadn't been swindled.

The best kind of manager was the friend of the group kind like Chas Chandler, Malcolm McLaren or Bernie Rhodes - not that sparks don't still fly.

Artists who manage themselves have to be part hustler. Clearly powerhouses like James Brown have no problem in this regard but I can't imagine the more fey artist like Nick Drake kicking down too many doors.

Your right Phil, there isn't really such a thing as an original song. Everyone comes from a musical background and learnt other people's songs in order to master their instrument and hone their musical skills. Generations of our forefathers sang and played without thought of copyright. Folk songs were passed down from player to player and changes and additions made on the way. It's only in the 20thC that bourgoise ideas of authorship and orginality creep in, particularly at the advent of sheet music and recording.

Black Betty - Is a traditional work chant, all the guitar parts are created by recent artists.

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Betty" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Betty</a>

Streets Of London - resembles Pachelbel but if look up the tabs for Canon you'll see it's really quite different.

Whiter Shade Of Pale - has similarities to Bach but is not a direct lift. Whole academic papers have been written on this.

Plagiarism is so rare as to be not worth worrying about. Usually in cases like Zeppelin's Lemon Song the court case comes after an artist has made a heap of money and a settlement comes because no one wants to waste endless years in court giving money to lawyers.

Most bizarre case is where Chuck Berry sued for some of 'Surfin USA's profits. Years later Brian Wilson found Chuck had been getting royalties for both music and lyrics, when he never wrote 'if everybody had an ocean'.