S-Sunday

Spending more time with my S-Series this year as this is my preferred Ibanez model, not the RG. In any case, I will utilize whichever model that would manifest my ideas / needs. This particular model is an S1625 which I bought used for quite cheap because:

• the default D-Tuner was missing
• the default Q pickups were in bad shape, one of which had collapsed into the body & the former owner did not bother to rectify
• 5-way selector was not working in some positions
• one pot was missing a knob
• body was chipped in several places, dents & scratches aplenty
• whammy bar was missing

I did my best to revive this guitar, nothing pristine but more presentable than it was before:

• Wiped-down + polished. There is this car polishing cream you can purchase at the petrol kiosks here & it managed to remove minor scratches + restore some shine to the body. 
• Fretboard was cleaned + moisturized. I actually used a penknife blade to scrape away built-up dirt on some of the fretboard areas.
• 5-way selector made way for a 3-way version
• New GOTOH pots & knobs. FYI, GOTOH pots are now extinct, they stopped making electronic components but hardware (tuners, bridges, etc.) are still in production

The biggest decision was to have these Seymour Duncan '59s in there. These are not known for overdriven applications but let that be everyone else's grievance because till you try these yourselves, you just wouldn't know what they are capable of. I still believe the Jazz is preferred in the neck if you are into distortion, the '59 in this position was very much conceived for clean applications.

Dunlop strings for today.

2(HH)

Not one of the best Mondays but I have these guitars to see me through:

• Kiesel DC400
• Ibanez S1625

There's always this concern that a guitar without any single coil pickup options is not a versatile instrument. The guitars depicted above have no single coils but I enjoy playing them. Here's why:

• The Kiesel is equipped with a 5-way pickup selector. In position 4, the humbuckers are split, so I get two single coils working in tandem. In position 2, the neck humbucker is tapped to generate a pickup output very close to a single coil voicing
• The Ibanez is equipped with a 3-way selector that has no coil split options so it's a humbucking experience through & through. However, the Seymour Duncan '59 is able to emulate a single coil tone (a get by tone, nothing fantastic) at lower guitar volume settings

So folks, when there're no single coils in your guitar, it's really not the end of the world. A humbucker's split coil tone hold its own. I hear people dissing the split coil tone a lot, saying it's not a real single coil voicing. When you shut off one of the humbucker's coil you effectively get a single coil at work. The issue here is whether this appeals to you or not. Yes, compared to the actual single coil, an isolated coil of the humbucker is not the same in terms of dimensions; the reason why one would appeal more than the other. Some humbuckers, the vintage voiced ones especially, get very single coil-ish when you lower the guitar's volume. This is the reduced output effect, similar to a tapped output of a single coil. What's the point of tapping a humbucker's output, you may ask. It's making the humbucker emulate a single coil without humming. 

When I play a dual humbucking guitar, not having a single coil tone is the least of my worries - I have Strats to handle just that. I let my humbuckers fulfil their potential. They shoudn't stray from their true task.