Y & Y

This year's NAMM announcement saw the resurgence of the Korn-endorsed Ibanez guitars. Unlike its previous iteration, the models this time round are RGD-based despite featuring a 25.5" scale length. The Yin model comes in an all black finish, a pair of DiMarzio Blaze pickups (a very Universe vibe) & an ebony 'board. The body being nyatoh might be the obvious cost-cutting indicator since these instruments are not Japanese but we wonder how much more a mahogany body would add to cost for it to be excluded. The U-Bar whammy is an obvious nod to its roots.

The Yang model, living up to its contrasting symbiosis, comes in a white finish, featuring a rosewood 'board instead. This model features a fixed Evertune bridge, the pickups are also a pair of DiMarzio Blaze but is devoid of a tone control. 

I see the Korn act as being over & done with. It's making a return riding on a generous dose of nostalgia, the guitar brand being a large part of this resurgence. Do you see nu-metal making a come back, am I missing this? So the obvious implication here is that players won't lose their mind & rush to acquire these guitars come Summer. There is also the danger of these guitars being a pair of overpriced non-Japanese signatures & the fact that these are 7-string models mean they would only appeal to a certain cohort of players in guitardom. If there is a real interest in re-booting the Korn affair, then the guitars should be RG-based, not RGD. Further cost-cutting could be observed by re-instating the DiMarzio PAF 7s instead of the more costly Blaze; the PAFs were indeed the original pickups back in 2001 when the K7s were unleashed to the world.

Lest we forget, Brian Welch left Ibanez prior to this Yin Yang introduction & his LTD 7-string was awesome to say the least. We can see why the RGD was chosen for this come-back owing to the LTD Horizon's curved body top & chamfered cutaways. The forces that be at Ibanez might have seen something coming by facilitating the K7 return which we, the lay people at the buying end, do not. There's nothing to be too excited about these instruments as they are not in the upper tiers of the manufacturer's catalog. 

Goodbye, January...

Pics: Ibanez / L&M

Suitable?

Folks, this is the Gator GBE-EXTREME-1 bag. As the name suggests, it's made to contain guitars sporting the eccentric outline which are a little extensive & protrusive.

A case in point would be the Flying V. As depicted above, the bag has ample room to contain the instrument. FYI, it's also good for the Explorer, Firebird & Dean ML, among others.

Please be informed that the bag's interior does not feature a strap to hold the neck down. Why is this necessary?

When you strap this on, the guitar does not stay put. It will collapse to the front side of the bag. The stitches of the strained strap area might give way after repeated use.

When you handle it by the carrying straps, it will cause the instrument inside to neck dive & create that fold / crease there.

I believe that if the interior neck strap was included & the overall design of this bag was tapered more to prevent neck movements / displacements, it would be worth it. To answer the question will this bag fit a V / Explorer / Firebird / ML design? The immediate answer is yes. However, it might not be suitable for players who are constantly on the move.

Serpentine '25

No point commenting on the outlook for this year. Pretty much everyone is just sick of how things are here; prices going up with disillusioned people at the helm preaching belief in their brand of politics. Trash.

Instead, I would like to wish everyone a good Year of the Snake - best wishes, good health & prosperity always. Enjoy the deserving mid-week break with good company!

Thanks for your support!

Thank you everyone, for your kind support. 3.5mil hits as at 25th January is a huge achievement for me. My blog is unashamedly old school; limited videos & wordy. It was intended to be this way all along as I want my fellow gear enthusiasts to re-visit the lost art of reading. These days, we tend to be at the receiving end of information dissemination without making much effort to acquire knowledge instead. Reading is a form of knowledge acquisition & it should be perpetuated. Hope you understand.

If you appreciate my efforts & would like to make a contribution, it would mean a lot to me. This QR code would be good for this week only, I don't see the point of a perpetual validity as it's something to mark the occasion, nothing more. I sincerely hope to keep this effort going but at the back of my mind, I might succumb to what had hampered me before. Till that happens, I'm here to talk gear (& everything in between) - thanks in advance!

ESP 2025: 50th Anniversary

We begin the week with ESP's 50th Anniversary commemorative guitar announcement. The chosen model for this historical event is the Horizon CTM. This iteration features resin injected parchments in the body finish.

If resin & reverse headstock are not your thing, then this version features a flame top with a burst effect & of course, a standard, non-reverse headstock.

I'm actually looking forward to this announcement & had saved quite a bit to acquire a historical commemorative instrument but these guitars would be listed for more than $10K each so that's the obvious deal breaker for me. 

Dear ESP, there are people out there who wish to mark this event with you but they do not possess the purchasing power to acquire one of the above guitars. Moving forward, please be inclusive & acknowledge the fact that the lower income among us are equally responsible for your success as well. Happy 50th birthday.

Pics: ESP Japan

Jackson 2025

Jackson took this year to re-introduce the Surfcaster model (X-Series). That's right, the surfcaster design is not new. This simple, non-whammy bridge design should appeal to the offset camp.

Thank you, Jackson, for remembering us, the marginalised shallow pocket citizens who wouldn't want to miss out on the fun - a JS22 model is also available.

 Pics: Jackson

$399 vs $399

Same price, interesting considerations. If you are in the market for a trustworthy entry-level guitar, these two might just be the value-for-money instruments you would want to shortlist.

The LTD MH-10 is the epitome of comfort & playability. The only possible dispirited outcome here might be the pickups which serve overdrive & distortion better than clean settings. 

The Kramer Focus VT-211S has lots of tonal versatility on board due to its HSS pickup combo. I like everything about it less the tuners. You might wanna look into replacing those for some peace of mind during performances. 

DISCLAIMER: I tried this guitar when it was still available at Swee Lee. Back in the day, these were easily some of the most affordable starter models out there & they used to list for $200 +/- no kidding. Now that Cristofori Music is listing them for $399 with no upgrades in instrument components, we might be compelled to consider a Bacchus / Aria just to weigh in on the value-for-money consideration.

 

Pics: ESP / Kramer

Standard 2025

Fender's latest Standard Series are touted to be their most affordable yet; USD599. These are made in Indonesia. What does this tell us about the Fender brand? Despite having a sub-brand, Squier, the manufacturer is some how wary of the fact that the brand name might become frivolous in a certain price bracket. To be more precise / blunt, the so called affordable Fenders have ceased to become anything but affordable. We all know how the Mexican models are listed for $2K +/- after being 'spruced' up in some ways & pushed as revised editions justifying the price hike each & every time.

I am now oblivious to where guitars are made, the country of manufacture is now not an important consideration for me. I look up to the quality on offer, more than anything else. I have never been enticed by the Mexican Fenders since the former Standard Series (yes, the Standard name is not new) left the catalog like 20 years ago. This might be a good time to renew my considerations for a non-American / Japanese Fender. Depicted above is the Mexican Standard in satin finish. I was attracted to one of these, the purple version, & always played it when I dropped by Swee Lee's Bras Basah outlet. 

The Standard Series being in this price bracket mean players are going to forgo the upper end Squiers along the way unless Fender has some revisions to ensure they are not competing against themselves. It would also mean Fender has a new room for a more affordable American range. The current Performer models are definitely not the epitome of affordability. Remember the Highway 1 models? Those were good, bona fide, American Fenders.

Pics: Fender / Fuzzzfaced

Ibanez 2025 (4)

When everyone thought Ibanez was through with its 2025 releases, 6 more were announced today, all being signature models. One worth mentioning here would be this Joe Satriani golden affair, the JS1GD. It's not exactly the Chrome Boy counterpart as the number of frets & pickup combo are the current iteration of the JS Series. The manufacturer had issues with the chrome finish on many occasions, hope they made this one right. 

Pic: Ibanez

Thanks & goodbye: John Sykes

Another guitar great had left us - John Sykes (20 Jan '25). Many of us would have known him for his Whitesnake stint but do take time to check out his Blue Murder stuff where he had a bit more guitar authority going. It is unclear what kind of cancer he was battling with before passing on but from one cancer patient to another - our time will come & we bid goodbye with thanks.

Sykes was a Les Paul guy through & through & his LP Custom with metallic appointments was an unmistakable i/d. It's an open secret that the Edwards brand kept the JS version of their LP Custom-esque range in a John Sykes iteration (hence the JS monicker in the model citation). If you own one (depicted above), please hold on to it as Edwards had stopped / will cease production of this guitar.

Pics: ESP / JS official

Kramer @ SG

We now know where Kramer guitars are sold here - Cristofori Music. I sincerely hope these four models are not the only ones made available, hopefully more to come. Also hoping this Kramer episode would give a more positive picture of what Cristofori has to offer in terms of distributorship & customer relations. I would really want to forget about the SOLAR episode but it takes time (for me at least).

Pic: Cristofori Music SG

 

Ibanez 2025 (3): Noir acoustics

We sometimes wonder the intention behind the release of some products out there. These three Ibanez acoustic guitars are not new, they have been in the catalogs but offered in a different finish. This 2025, there is perhaps a fresh demand for totally blacked out instruments that we are not aware of. In my opinion, Ibanez should spend the time & cost to at least offer them in a solid top version as opposed to a mere colour focus.

PS: The middle guitar, AEG721 is a 7-string model. Is this entirely new for Ibanez? No. There were others before & these were semi-anonymous in the catalogs. They died off rather quickly.

Pic: Ibanez

JBJ

Very happy to have acquired this for a good price. As a Seymour Duncan fan, this is me owning a piece of history & it means a lot. The JBJ label was prevalent in the '90s model before things switched to the current model alpha-numerics reference along with some i/d numbers. This happened because pickups back then were dealt with by humans compared to the machine-wound units today. The final letter of this JB pickup refers to the individual who handled it. This is of course not an effort to glorify the former production means as superior in any way. It's just different. Still considering whether to have this fixed into one of my guitars or just box it up for display. 

Stained

This is the default Ibanez bag for the headless Q / QX models.

Please be informed that the internal material stains satin finishes. This is my Q54 & the stains there are rather obvious. Hope Ibanez can re-look into the material used for this bag. For many of us, we invest time & effort to look after our guitars. For something unsuspecting like this to happen, it is really unfair & uncalled for to say the least.

LTD 2025

New models from the the ESP camp were announced today. I will cite the posts as LTD updates, not ESP, because that's clearly stated on the headstock - LTD. I also do not wish to represent these instruments as ESPs despite the LTD name being a sub-brand; Squier is not Fender & Epiphone is not Gibson. Enough said.

First up, the Mick Thomson signature was definitely on everyone's watch list & we finally get to see it. A minimalist manifestation with an absolute focus on tone hence the fixed bridge & single pickup affair. That bridge there is a Hipshot (HM) & the single humbucker is a signature Fishman Fluence. The toggle switch & push/pull knob will give you 3 voicing options.

Initial impressions:

• sleek design
• very ergonomic
• simple layout may be a make / break consideration for some of us
• ditto blank fretboard

The other anticipated release but not as celebrated as the Mick Thomson's is this Andy LaRocque signature. This one had been prototyped & brought on tour. I had been following this development more than the MT model. The pickups here are passive Seymour Duncans (JB / Custom Stack Plus) & the bridge, an FR1000 but the tuners here are locking as well. Interestingly, this guitar sports a 24.75" scale length. 

Initial impressions

• no special / unique features, a 'safe' set of specs that would be universally appealing
• 24.75" scale length might not be a thing with this type of shred-esque model

I was expecting ESP to actually release two versions of these instruments; the USA/Japanese version & an LTD take but as it is, only the LTD versions are offered in the mean time. Andy LaRocque played the E-II version for a while & seeing 'LTD' on this version is an under-whelming affair. However, we could all agree with how the upper end LTDs are (Deluxe & signature models) when it comes to quality. I am not into signature models so whatever floats the ESP boat, they should know what's good for them.

Pics: ESP

BOSS cables

OK... so the BOSS camp is wary of our need for coloured cables, especially the ones that match our BOSS pedals. As such, pertinent time & resources went into the production of the BIC-10A cables offered in the various colour iterations you see above. In the mean time, some of us are still holding on to our vintage neon Spectraflex cables.

Pic: BOSS 

Steel strings - yay / nay?

I was stringing someone's guitar recently & he wanted to try a set of steels. When asked what motivated this choice, he said it's more suitable for heavy music.

Are there particular string types more suitable for a certain genre than others? Maybe there are for some reasons or the other. Taking the flatwound as an example, these are favoured by the jazz camp for the warmer tones. More often than not, some strings are addressing our quirks without us realizing it & not a case of defined specialization. For intense music, harder string materials tend to be the go to, steel ones included. 

I had a brief steel episode some time back & would agree that steel strings don't wimp out when it comes to aggressive playing. They also sound brighter & crispier especially when played fresh out of the pack. However, I gave them up because they are harder than many of my guitar fret materials so fret wear was happening faster with steel strings compared to other materials. These days, manufacturers have beefed their guitars up with steel frets & that would be a good thing for those who fancy steel strings. If you are into harder string material but would not want to venture into the steel camp, do give the DR brand a go. The Ernie Ball set you see above can be purchased at Swee Lee: $17

PS: Steel strings here refer to the entire set, not just the plain top end strings (E/B/G).

Pic: Amazon

Ibanez 2025 (2)

The disrespect for the S-Series continues this 2025 with no new model offered. This SML721 was listed as new but we know 'new' here refers to the colour. The SML721 had been around since 2023.

Pic: Ibanez

Epiphone Tribute... how much?

As predicted, the Epiphone Les Paul Tribute is now listing at City Music for $459 (Initial mention: CLICK). If you are interested, please be informed of its bolt-on construction hence the very pocket-friendly price. The 2-knob SG version is also available for $429.

Pics: Epiphone

MOMM (56)

This is one of 2024's sleeper releases. I seldom tread the death metal path these days but it's good to know Blood Incantation is out there keeping the flame alive. Given the band's definite illegible logo, it's all about the music, a make / break episode, really. With Absolute Elsewhere, it's a definite make. Unlike other attention-craving death metal bands, the content here are rather introverted. There were episodes where bits of King Crimson & Yes come to mind. I'm hinting at some psychedelic / prog content that were tastefully done, nothing overwhelming, just hinting at the fact that the minds behind this release did a fair amount of thinking instead of playing fast for the genre's commitment sake. Oh, these guys are big BC Rich fans.

Salvation: S521

When I saw this listed for sale, I know I had to get it. This particular model dated back to its first issue (S521, ocean fade metallic, 2017) so it's not a fresh piece. In fact, it had quite a substantial layer of gunk on the fretboard, saddle intonation springs were corroded, oxidized saddles & virtually all hardware looked dead & the 5-way selector was ultra dodgy; I initially thought it was the input jack. Plot twist - when I was ready to purchase it, it was marked as SOLD. Darn.

The initial owner played the heck out of this guitar & it became unwanted when the instrument suffered a hit & this much paint job came off. It was quite severe as the wood was visible. The subsequent owner bought it with the intention to re-finish the entire body & getting this part fixed in the process. He was taken aback by the cost of it (much more than the instrument itself) so letting it go was a more sensible discourse. It was re-listed & I managed to convince him to sell it away for as much as he bought it for. So the guitar ended up in my possession. If something was meant for you, regardless of the occurrences, it would eventually make its way to you. 

As you can see above, I used wood putty (have it for craft work, not for guitar maintenance) to fill up the substantial gap, oblivious to the colour clash but this was not meant to be an immaculate restoration adventure. Just a get by fix to revisit its former glory. I'm gonna keep it anyway (third owner) because I have a soft spot for the S-Series. 

Someone told me to use real wood to fix this up but as you can see there. it's a curved surface so getting a definite surface conformity is gonna be extra work for me & I don't have the tools for that to happen. The putty took three days to fully dry up. I sanded the surface off & applied super glue to keep things in tact then manually buffed it up for that glossy look. I got a little overboard during sanding & you can see the blue finish coming off the unaffected part there. More importantly, it's fixed. 

These Schaller pickups were first mentioned here: CLICK That same friend helped purchase another set for this guitar & I couldn't be happier with the tone (not meant for clean activists). By the way, this guitar was cheaper than a BOSS Super Chorus.

Ibanez 2025

Today is the big reveal day by Ibanez. The initial models to be released to distributors world-wide are finally announced. I've seen what's on offer but Ibanez is confusing the masses by actually including some of 2024's late models in this 2025 platter. Whatever the case, I will begin by noting the debut of the AZ Standard range. With this, the entry level AZES are removed from the catalog & the Standard models are currently the most affordable AZ guitars.

There are currently two models in this range, the AZ22S1F (HSS pickup combo) & the AZ24S1F (HH pickup combo, sans pickguard). In view of the price bracket these are in, pickups are in-house models (Ibanez Modern Custom) & I sincerely hope these would be on par with what the AZES were equipped with which were definitely above expectations. Steel frets & alder body to match the Premium & Prestige specs but fretboards are jatoba for both models. Scale length is 25.5" unlike the AZES' 25.1" with the T106 bridge being the only AZES feature to be retained.

With the specs for these instruments in mind, we can expect prices to be hovering around the $1K mark. It's a pity the AZES models were entirely removed because those were absolute value for money. Looks like Ibanez is still trying to cash in on the AZ line by raising standards up a notch & pricing these guitars expectedly more. We note that virtually all the guitar brands are doing likewise, Fender especially.

Welcome new follower: JINZ

Pics: Ibanez

Review quickie: Burny RLC-60 SW

Pic: Amazon

With the demise of Fernandes, coming across the copy models under the Burny monicker would be next to impossible especially in this country as there were no official Fernandes distributors here. The RLC models popped up at Davis not too long ago & I gave the RLC-60 SW depicted above, a try.

Likes

• Playability
• Overall construction, fit & finish
• Tone

Dislikes

• Weight

I have a personal interest in Gibson copies, especially the Japanese-made ones. The RLC-60 above, is not new. It debuted way back in 2018 / 2019 & these were the revived version. The initial impression was absolutely positive as this NOS was somehow kept away well & suffered virtually no deterioration. Everything, from one end to the other, was in very good condition. Since it was made to mimic the LP Custom, only the weight proved to be rather spot on (heavy!). The neck was rather trimmed down & did not manifest that proverbial bulk. In fact, it was very shred-worthy despite not being too slim either. The pickups here could be considered a hit / miss affair. I deem them as a hit because these captured the vintage vibes rather well without wimping out when distortion kicked in. 

If you are interested, do act promptly as this might be a chance acquisition by the store in view of the clear-out owing to Fernandes' closure. This is a good guitar but many of us would rather have 'Epiphone' on the headstock for a peace of mind in this price bracket but that's brand snobbery. I'd rather you embrace the wholesome goodness this one has to offer & live with the lesser known label. 

Rating: 80%

Burny: RLC-60 SW

• Availability: Davis GMC
• Price: $1,300

Ibanez Tube Screamer HW Ver 2... how much?

For those of us who lean towards the audiophile territory & could hear much difference (tone-wise) in hand-wired technology, the TS808HWV2 is now available at Swee Lee for $429. For me, that would mean giving up 80+ sets of strings just to savour the moments with a hand wired Tube Screamer & that's only if I could hear the difference. Being a Tube Screamer geek, something might just happen.

Pic: Ibanez

S Tuesday

Of course, I couldn't keep myself away from the guitar for too long. This is my Ibanez S2170. It's something that Ibanez purists wouldn't buy; a Prestige model not made in Japan. I am totally OK with this as the country of manufacture doesn't mean much to me. The overall quality & playability mean more to me. This guitar has Seymour Duncan pickups in it: '78 (B/N) & Scooped Strat (M). The '78 sound much more appealing in heavy guitars. More on this in later episodes.

A quick re-string before playing.

Synth PU

If guitar synth is your thing, then this Edwards E-Snapper-GK-AL/R is something you should check out. I know what you're thinking, you can buy that GK-5 pickup separately & mount it onto your guitar but that would mean dealing with some contraptions dangling over the instrument. Look at the arrangement in the pic; everything is tucked away under the pickguard / in the body less that pickup there. Available at Davis GMC ($2,150). 

Pic: Ishibashi

OP-XY... how much?

I'm aware there are maybe next to no beat making fans here. For people like me who don't jam with others but myself, creating a background rhythm or backing for that matter is rather crucial. I have no idea if Teenage Engineering would be putting the OP-1 to rest following the debut of this OP-XY (above). I wish I can love this thing but it's darn $400 more than its predecessor. Absolute deal-breaker for me. By the way, it's available at Swee Lee now for $3,399.

Pic: Amazon

Chorus-ing

Will be away form guitars for a while.

I don't like my bass tones distorted / driven. I feel that the chorus gives bass notes more definition while maintaining the lower frequency boom. In any case, bass is not my main instrument, it's there to trigger ideas.

Flat

Someone asked me about flatwound strings (available at Swee Lee now), as a first time encounter, what are the expectations?

• Cost. Flatwound strings (FW), across brands, cost more than their regular roundwound (RW) counterparts. Snob appeal? No, it's the production method contributing to this. However, I'm not swallowing this whole; how much more can this be? If it's about the machinery (as opposed to man-hours spent on production), there should be economies of scale along the way, yes?
• Durability. FWs last longer than RWs. FWs do not feature any gaps in between the windings to trap dirt & moisture, that's the reason. In fact, if you wipe down the FWs, they will even last longer.
• Tone. This is the make / break part, in my opinion. FWs do not sound as bright as the RWs. Now you understand why the jazz-ers among us prefer this string type. If you are coming from the warm tones camp, this is definitely your gem. Folks, if you think your tones are a tad too bright in the mean time & you are not keen in swapping out your guitar's electronics to address this, do give FWs a try. 

The 9s you see above cost $26. I'm currently using the Olympia brand of 9s & it's about a fifth of the price. 

Pics: Amazon

Metal @ SG: January

Looks like a good January for us here as heavy metal stalwarts, Enforcer, will be performing on 12 January.

Things will get more intense with Sinister doing their thing on 25 January. Both bands will be performing at Phil Studio. 

I'm glad to see such acts dropping by instead of counting on the bigger names to pull the crowd in. We need both types of bands to be here & make their mark. More importantly, it's is a reward for the domestic intense music fans to experience such live encounters because we all know too well how the authorities here are like when evaluating the background of these musicians - they will always fall for convoluted second hand information without proper first hand follow up. 

Pics: Last FM / The Outcast

2025

2025 is here. I'm definitely not looking forward to this year as I turn into that number that makes me very unemployable. I'm also not someone who looks back at things & reflect; I treat life as a linear adventure, there's no repeat, everything is about moving ahead regardless of the occurrences. I reflect on the spot & do not require a year's turn to re-evaluate things. I'm still in need of medication & my movements are restricted to whatever is not limited by the chemo's permanent side effects. There's really nothing to look forward to.

Nevertheless, I wish you all the good things that could happen to you which did not happen previously.