Yellow Saturday

It's a classic case of not having the funds to go out & enjoy some refreshing sights & smell outdoors. I'm that pathetic these days. If it incurs some spending, transportation fare included, I will re-think. So it was an indoor Saturday with my yellow Dinky. These Jackson strings (Previous intro: CLICK) are alright but I won't be re-visiting them; strictly a price consideration. 

These DiMarzio D'Activators are perhaps my favourite pickups for distortion application. Paired with the Snakestortion, things sound as mean as I want them to be without mushing out.

I have to thank my gear for keeping my lucidity in check. The depression domain is a very lonely realm. Distractions are needed to prevent one from doing stupid things that might be harmful. I remain gainfully engaged (no pun intended) with my gear while dealing with monsters. Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Heavy

Nothing fancy, just spending time with my Edwards today. This E-LP-C is something you should not invest in if you are particular with weight; it's heavy. I do not wish to speculate if it's replicating the true weight of a Gibson LP Custom which is what it was modelled after but on more time - it's heavy. I like to play this guitar because it can easily pull off (no pun intended) one of the heaviest metal-type tones out there. A tone reference for this would be Dissection's Reinchaos & Napalm Death's Fear, Emptiness & Despair. 

Also, this is the guitar I enjoy plugging the above-depicted pedals into; the re-issue DOD OD-Preamp 250 & Elektrik Head's Snakestortion. Due to the guitar's deep, bass-inclined tone, the pedals were dialled up to manifest more top end. For the record, the pickups in this guitar are Seymour Duncan JB (b) & Jazz (n). These are replacement pickups, Edwards no longer equip the E-LP models with Duncans & I simply prefer Duncans in mine.

Some things

After the Satch-inspired post a few days ago, I made a personal reflection of why I go with the stuff I prefer:

• Pickups. I'm still a firm Seymour Duncan camper. People would tell me time & again, if you like Ibanez, DiMarzio would sound better for you. Yes, I have an Ibanez inclination but I still stick to what I like to hear, not some commercial guitar-pickups hype endorsed by the respective brand's artists. Duncans give me that brash but clear tone for intense music & this is my tone domain, primarily. I'm also a pedal minimalist & Duncans give me the most effective guitar-to-amp experience thusfar so I stick to what works for me. Yes, I do keep things open & have other pickup brands in other guitars on days when I need to put things in perspective, tone-wise. The pickups you see above are Seymour Duncan's Custom & '59 in a G&L Skyhawk. Regardless of which guitar they are in, Duncans will always give me what I wanna hear & that's important.
• Picks. Over the years, my experiences with picks got a little too personal. I reject certain brand names & thickness, once again, to fulfil my needs. As mentioned above, I tend to remain in the intense music domain so wimpy picks that would flex when in use are totally out of my consideration. Also, I have grown accustomed to a certain pick thickness therefore anything too thin & do not contribute to my picking style / effectiveness (even on days when I don't play aggressive music) are also out of the question. The pick you see above is the Northern Ghost Planchette. It's not available off the shelf & takes time (3 weeks or later via normal, untracked mail) to reach me once I've committed to purchase. Why bother? Because they make picks according to my preferences. Simple.
• Pedal. Yes, as mentioned above - pedal minimalist, that's me. The irony is, I keep buying pedals to keep me entertained on days when I am bored. OK back to the point, on any playing occasion, I only have the tuner pedal & one drive / distortion unit to boost proceedings. All the primary aggression comes from the amplifier, the pedal is there to make me feel angrier 😅 I've cycled through may pedals but have recently stood by the Elektrik Head Snakestortion you see above. No, you can't get this anywhere, it's custom made by good friends over at Malaysia 🇲🇾 Anything extra special about the pedal? Not really, other than the fact that it offers 4 different clipping modes which I find very useful for various applications. More importantly, I need those features for my playing style.

Over the years, I've learnt to let go of this feeling of insecurity; I don't feel out of place by not playing a certain brand name when it becomes the flavour of the moment. I enjoy being me more than joining the next guy in exalting the hype. 

Orange Sunday

After a quick lunch out, it's back to spending time indoors. Today's guitar of choice - Ibanez RG565.

Before that, a quick re-string. GHS 9s, purchased last year from the City Music year-end promo. I also had to clean the bridge as it's a little mouldy. That's right; there's mould there & I wonder how that happened considering I always wipe down after play. Suspect it's something to do with the bag...

Pickups in here: Seymour Duncan Custom Custom / Cool Rails. The CC is one of my Top 5 Seymour Duncan pickup for its sheer clarity & fantastic interaction with intense distortion. Cool Rails - basically a '59 re-interpretation in blade type format. 

And finally, an orange pedal to match an orange guitar. Very little solos played today, mostly focused on riffs. Lately, I feel that my right hand performance is slackening a little, not as fast as it used to be. One word: OLD. Wishing everyone a good week ahead - final week of February.

Snake Vader

This is a spin-off from yesterday's guitar-tivities. OK so it's another Snake-stortion episode. Had been playing the pedal with single coils so it's a humbucking adventure now. As you can see from the dial, it's hard clipping all the way. The guitar sounds good in other clipping modes but not 'metal' enough, whatever that means. I've never been thoroughly happy with a pedal, the EH Snake-stortion is quite a rare feat in this sense. Thusfar, tone had been kept in the treble register with all pickups. It's like the pedal is happy to let your hear added clarity without thinning out the overall tone.

EH: Snake-stortion (3)

This is my concluding entry pertaining to the EH Snake-stortion. I got this instruction late; I wanted the brand name screened onto the pedal but all labels had been printed. Consolation - sticker which I pasted onto the baseplate. I just want to be proud of the fact that a certain brand name listened & helped me conceive my ideas. So, there.

How the pedal's innards look like; very neat & tidy. Pro-level workmanship indeed. Personal signature of the EH mastermind, Mr. Khian, in gold. As you can see, the pedal was ready in early December of '22.

This was something I inserted myself; a cushion for the battery. I hear the battery rattling in the enclosure when it was moved around so that was an easy fix. Initially, there were no intentions to run it on battery but I decided to include this feature as a final instruction. In the event that no isolated power supply could be employed for the pedal, the battery alternative is the way to go. This actually happened to me not too long ago. During a sharing session, the venue had a limited power outlet so my amp, effects & computer had to share a power source which proved to be too much for the pickup; every time the distortion pedal was activated, feedback happened. The squealing was excessive & ear-piercing. Even when I played clean, there was a background buzz to that was the limit for me. I was caught off guard. 

OK folks, that was pretty much the highlight of my 2022 which was gloom & doom mostly. I would want to remember it for this pedal which was above my expectations. I kept things simple, more importantly, I included features that serve my needs, no fancy graphics, no fancy knobs, no fabled capacitor, stuff like that. Objectivity was key. Please visit Elektrik Head pedals to see what's on offer. More importantly, you might want to contact them to get things going. You can reach EH at Face Book (CLICK) & IG (CLICK)

EH: Snake-stortion (2)

The highlight of the Elektrik Head Snake-stortion pedal is its clipping modes. There are 4 on board; LED, Asymmetrical, Symmetrical & Hard. I specifically asked for these to be included because it alters both the intensity & voicing to make tone fiddling more exciting. Also, I do not wish to switch pedals for this to happen, eg. Tube Screamer for symmetrical clipping tones & BOSS SD-1 for the asymmetrical alternative, etc. 

Here's a list of observations, based on my live experience regardless of what each mode is supposed to do theoretically. It's more objective to share with you what I hear rather than offer an interpretation of what each clipping type is doing to the signal:

• LED. Smooth, quick attack. Edgy tones when your treble is excessive. 
• Asymmetrical. Smooth, edgy, slightly fatter, a tad more sustain. I hear less gain influence here. Harmonics are easier to manifest in the LED mode compared to this one. If single note definition is your thing, stick to this mode.
• Symmetrical. Fatter tone, rather prominent. If clarity is important to you, treble needs to be pumped up, otherwise, you will be rooted in the overdriven woman tone territory.
• Hard. Meanest voicing, capable of being fuzzy but I hear a volume drop, not marked but noticeable. 

NOTE: The summary of the MODEs performance is based on both single coil & humbucking guitars used for the tone test. 

EH: Snake-stortion

Folks, may I present to you, the Elektrik Head Snake-stortion, proudly conceived & manifested in Malaysia. It is an unbelievable moment for me to have someone create a pedal to my specs. 

All this while, I'd been living with countless distortion units available in the open market made to the expectations of the manufacturer so getting one is like living with consolation. In the mean time, I'm not after a high gain unit because throughout the years, I believe, distortion intensity is best handled by the amp. Pedals, to me, are supplementary units to sculpting one's tone. So in my guitar-verse, it's a potent combo of amp & pedal, there's no reliance on a single drive / distortion source. 

Throughout the communication, leading to the creation of this pedal, the following were firmed up:

• The type of pedal. I was very specific with the pedal type; it is a multi-voiced distortion, nothing in the metal territory but with options to be more intense than the DS-1.
• Dimensions. About the size of an average MXR / Electro Harmonix pedal, nothing bulky. Should not be too small as it needs to accommodate a battery.
• Features. Nothing excessive, Vol, Tone & Distortion level are enough with a flick switch to access various voicings. Whatever knob types available are fine with me.
• Colour. Whatever's available.

There were no deadlines given, I believe in giving the individual dealing with this project the flexibility to set his own timeline. This will help deter creativity restrictions. All in all, I took over possession of this pedal after three weeks. It was ready earlier but the hand-over meeting was delayed; I'm totally OK with this. I didn't set any deadline to begin with, it's supposed to be an easy-going project, not a contractual assignment. 

A very big thank you to Mr. Khian, the mastermind behind Elektrik Head & brother Eugene for being the intermediary & helping me bring the pedal over from KL. You guys made my day. It was almost an empty December for me. Cold & empty. But it wasn't. 

EH

I have finally taken over possession of this pedal. It's a custom order fulfilled by the Elektrik Head company, proudly made in Malaysia. I'm not Malaysian, of course but I'm darn proud to have the people from the neighbouring country who listened to what I need in terms of tone & tried their very best to interpret what I want to hear. Will reserve further comments till the actual appraisal episode.