Eclipse Monday

Had been a boring & restless Monday. Spent time with the Eclipse. 

•  Dodgy 3-way selector switch, barely connected to either pickups once it's in use. Crackling controls & input jack. Contact cleaner to the rescue. Done.
• I used to like the EMG 81 a lot but it sounded fuzzy today, no matter how much EQ I tweaked. Then it hit me - battery needs a replacement. Done.
• Strings were replace right at the start - DR 0095 set. I like that in-between feel for this guitar, these just feel 'better'

Those inlays are creaming off nicely, slower than the binding, though.

Selling

Posting some stuff for sale on behalf of a friend. First up, we have a One Control Crocodile Tail Loop / switcher (OC10). Pedal board & cigarette box / lighter, not included, there for size comparison. Item details: CLICK

Martin Roland 4-track mixer (MRM-40). 

Drop strap.

Summary of listing

• Once Control OC-10 ($350 neg)
• Martin Roland mixer MRM-40 ($120 neg)
• Drop Strap ($70 neg)
• Contact: Mr. Raziff 8-684-2763 (h/p) or FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheRiff36

Chicken picks giveaway - update

A belated update - I've sent out the picks on Monday. Delayed by two things: 1) Was getting a complementary 'top up' from Davis GMC (Thank you!). I accidentally accepted the 5th recipient but everything was made good by the DGMC team. Awesome! 2) For Malaysian recipients, I was facing this difficulty:

I emailed the postal service to get further instructions but it turned out that my stuff were not considered as a 'package' due to weight-related & manifestation exclusions. 

Thank you everyone, for your continued support, really appreciate it! 👍

Review quickie: Ibanez Q52

The Q52 is a member of the Ibanez Quest family, a series of bolt-on, headless guitars. The instrument is very light & suitable for extended strap on use & does not tax the thigh in sitting position. Pickups are in-house Ibanez Q-models with an additional Dynamix-10 switch. Gold frets, if you missed those.

Construction / fit / finish

Likes

• well-assembled, no shoddy workmanship, solid all-round feel
• roasted maple / bubinga neck is a joy to handle, fretboard has mild birds-eye feature with interesting spalting
• responsive Mono-Tune tuners

Dislikes

• 5-way selector rather stiff
• 5-way selector switch tip is ugly

Playability / tone

Likes 

• well-finished neck promotes playability
• rounded neck profile similar to AZ model but a little thinner in feel
• body ergonomics (single side taper) contributes to playing comfort
• Q-pickups are above expectations, clarity & warmth all round

Dislikes

• Tone control has next to no effect once the Dynamix-10 switch is activated
• Light weight takes away bottom end from an otherwise impressive tone

Conclusion

If there's any significant feature here then it has to be the neck. This seems to be the forte of the instrument because the headless highlight had already been established by names like Strandberg & Kiesel. Harley Benton & Agile have also proven to the world that a good headless guitar can be done for not much money so Ibanez had to prove its case with the Quest models. The Q humbuckers are, in my opinion, very good, just lacking that much needed beef in the lower frequencies. The Quest Series ambassador is Ichika Nito & his playing style necessitates clarity & single note definition more than lower frequency girth. In fact, he has single coils in all positions so that aspect of the Q models were cascaded unto the rest in general. I'm still wondering what's going on in the electronics of the guitar because that tone pot is virtually useless once the Dynamix switch is in use. Ibanez needs another design for the selector switch or just stick to what they've been using for the rest of their guitars (RG /S). An overall impressive guitar, a strong performance in the playability aspect.

Overall rating: 85%

Ibanez Q52

• List: $1399 (bag included)
• Availability: Swee Lee Co.

MOMM (9)

The collective entity known as Cynic, continues its artistic exploits with Ascension Codes. Paul Masvidal is the only original Cynic member in the band after the departure of Jason Gobel past the debut release & the demise of Sean Reinart & Sean Malone prior to this album's conception. Cynic had been my number one reference when it comes to technical death metal with a generous peppering of prog. That android vocals in Focus caught everyone off guard but it was the defining element of that release, a landmark one, mind you. Trace in Air followed after a lengthy wait & it was worth the patience. Kindly Bent to Free Us lost me for good. I feel that it's an undeserving third release with the obvious retraction of metal & the embrace of sampling & synth. Not that it's a bad thing but the music reflected non-tangentiality which left many wondering what happened along the way. To be fair, the metal fans were left in the lurch, prog & music fans in general continued to hold KBTFU in high regard. I, in my utmost state of disappointment & denial, felt a complete waste of spending money buying the darn CD. I was re-living the Metallica Black album's pangs of regret. As for Ascension Codes, Masvidal continues where KBTFU left off with a deeper dive into electronic artistry & very little embrace of metal. Whatever the case, my decision to not buy this album was worth the consideration. I just listened to the album once, it was background music while I did my maintenance routine for my guitars. Yes, it was that unimportant. Enough already. 

Pic: Blabbermouth

Heavy re-stock

Psst... Still waiting for this pedal to be available here? Well, it's recently been re-stocked. No idea how many are available but it's there. You can actually buy a pair of small practice amps for the price of this one. Wait a minute, it's three small practice amps! And some spare change for a packet of strings or two. Darn!

Pic: Swee Lee