Gunslinging Sunday

Nothing much happening today, just a quick re-string & staying indoors mostly. It's also one of those days when I think I could get by with just a single pickup.

I also wanted to hear a menacing hubucker in action & Lace's Deathbucker here is certainly one of those. Sometimes, those high output pickup will turn mushy at higher volumes / distortion settings. The Deathbucker, despite its intimidating label, does very well when it comes to single notes clarity. I simply can't get this from the Invader (Seymour Duncan) for instance. Sometimes we just don't know a pickup's true performance until we actually hear them in action. Also, I swapped out the default Floyd Rose Special bridge to the Graph Tech you see above. 

Wishing everyone a good week ahead 👍

Green slinger

After one Greenie left the premises, spent time with this Greenie this morning. I would wanna play this guitar more but it's been my precious ever since no more BC Riches were offered here. 

Had to hammer in three upper frets before any playing took place. That's right folks, frets do pop out as a result of temperature changes. In most cases, as temperature fluctuations are not severe in this part of the world, they can just be hammered back in. In fact, the first thing to do if you hear / experience fret buzz, is to check if the frets are coming out of their slots. This is especially true if you don't bend much so fret wear should not be the are of concern. 

Today's strings of choice - Ernie Ball 9s.

Greens

The green grass guitars of home. These were the most played guitars last week, coincidentally, they are green.

BC Rich needs to bring back their tried & trusted models. The current lineup seems to feature only selected, sell-able models. Missing in the offerings are the Iron Bird & the Gunslinger.  The Gunslinger is the manufacturer's best bet in addressing the shred market. Even the affordable manifestation as seen here is worthy. This one in particular has a very likeable weight making it formidable in the lower frequencies. Of course, a menacing pickup helps. The neck profile however isn't a shred cup of tea; it's a rounded C as opposed to the more preferable, flatter D but if you are a true to the bone shredder, this won't get in the way.

The Kiesel Vader isn't a shred unit per se. The fatter neck there might be a put off for many shred purists. However, this is how a headless guitar weight is compensated; more beef in the neck. I find it a challenge playing sitting down. I need to stretch a little farther to be 'normal'. But played strapped on, I love how the thicker neck complements those who don their instruments a little higher up the chest than the average Joe. I keep forgetting how a blank fretboard liberates the mind when it comes to chromatics. The Vader simply rocks. 👊

Happy working mid-week, everyone. 😁

Gunslinging revival

This may sound far-fetched & ridiculous but I dreamt of my BC Rich Gunslinger two nights ago. In that dream, I was laughed at because no sound came out of it. I couldn't recall if it was the amp's fault but it prompted me to bring this guitar out the following morning.

True enough, the pot was dead & I had Beez fixed in a new one yesterday. This time, it's a plain pot with no coil-splitting feature since I didn't use it much in this guitar.

I actually had this pack of strings in the guitar bag, no idea how long it's been hibernating in there but it's good to go. I'm not averse to the lesser known guitar string brands, I'm always game to try. Sometimes the obscure ones are full of pleasant surprises. 😁

Here's why I have no use for a coil split feature; I have a very high output pickup in there- the Lace   Alumitone Deathbucker. I would deem it as an angrier DiMarzio X2N with no practical clan applications, let alone hearing it in single coil mode. I also swapped the default bridge out to the Graph Tech Floyd Rose-esque model. The original bridge was a Floyd Rose Special which I find detestable. The FRS features very brittle zinc parts which gave way more than once. So dreams are premonitions after all. 

Gunslinging

DOD has a new distortion unit, the Gunslinger & it features a MOSFET type circuit. Personally, DOD's vintage type pedals such as the one featured here (no, it's not churning out vintage tones) are winners with me as they are good sounding pedals which are affordable. The manufacturer promises a wide range of distortion on board & hearing is believing:

Gun salute

There are actually many shred-worthy guitars around; it's not far-fetched to conclude that every manufacturer has something in store for the fleet-fingered. Availability is another issue altogether, yes? The above BC Rich Gunslinger model is new for 2011 & it's an absolute stunner; BC Rich don't just churn out pointy units for the slaughtering heavy metal dweebs, yes? Just wish it's available here for our considerations.

EDIT: The manufacturer's website specified the humbuckers here to be DiMarzio's X2N but I'm not aware this humbucker comes in the pole-pieces version as depicted above.