Post-purchase

Now that you've acquired your dream guitar, what do you need to own to keep your needs in check? Or are you that type of person who would only purchase stuff on a needs-only basis?

First & foremost, you need an amplifier. However, the philosophy of amplification today had been displaced by amp simulators residing in the computer. Simply put, it pretends to be an amp so that when you plug into a computer, it receives your signals & processes it to make it sound like you are playing through an amp. I'm not compelling you to get an amp & tread the purist path because the simulators today are darn good imitators. The latency issues had been dealt with along the way & this, in my opinion, makes amp simulators more respectable. Let's move on.

The items on this list are neither definitive nor final.

Essential

• Tuner. Everybody needs a tuner unless you have perfect pitch. If you play acoustics without any electronics on board (a tuner is a common feature), a clip-on tuner is compulsory acquisition. The electric players are better off with pedal tuners (just my opinion) unless they are pro players who need to prance around on stage most of the time, away from their pedalboards. I've tried app-based tuners; not too bad but it gets distracted easily by extraneous noise. 
• Cable. Never be content with that complementary cable that came with your guitar. The ones that came with my Ibanez some time ago ended up being radio antennae. I heard a phantom Michael Jackson singing through my amp once, so there. Invest in a good cable which are very affordable today unlike in the 1990s when I started out. Preferably, get one with replaceable plugs & OFC wires. To me, a good cable makes or breaks your interest in playing.
• Picks. Try different picks along the way. Try different pick materials, thickness & shapes. These are the pick factors that would define your picking hand movements & eventually your playing precision. I started out with thin picks because those were given to me, I didn't know there were other picks out there which were life-changing (they still are). Also, what works for others might not work for you. Till today, I'm still trying out picks.

Good to have

• Strap. Even if you are a bedroom guitarist, you should at least try playing standing up. There's a marked difference in playing position & posture when you play standing up with the guitar strapped on, the main factor being the fretting hand curvature. I discovered that the standing position frees the hand from excessive stress (that impedes movements) simply because the guitar, in its strapped position, forces the player to straighten the forearm.
• Guitar stand. Do not lean your guitar against the wall, cupboard, table edge, etc. because the chances of it toppling over & breaking is very high. Also, not all guitars can be placed flat on the floor due to its angled headstock (eg. Epiphone, Gibson). If you have to leave your guitar out till the next playing time, get a good guitar stand, otherwise, keep it away in its case / bag.
• Polish cloth. Please, please... wipe down after play. If you don't believe in polishing, just give it a wipe down. This removes moisture & grime off your instruments. You won't appreciate this routine until your guitar's bridge is corroded beyond cleaning or your guitar's electronics get messed up entailing in repair costs. If you do not believe in buying a dedicated instrument polish cloth, use an old t-shirt which works equally fine but it needs to be cotton, no compromise.
• Polish fluid. The job of this fluid is actually to remove grime / oil off your instrument, a good shine is a bonus. This often goes unnoticed till its accumulated significantly on your instrument making it look really repulsive. At the very least, it will affect your instrument's resale value if you are considering selling it off.

Pics: Swee Lee / Dunlop / GC

Glide

The new (2025) Ibanez Glideline Series of instrument cables are touted to be one of the best in the industry when it comes to signal transfer. It's now available at Swee Lee: 10ft ($49) / 20ft ($69).

Pic: Ibanez

 

PRS cables

Folks, PRS cables are in stock @ Davis GMC. I'm personally interested in them & would be checking them out. These aren't expensive, comparable to the HOSA & Ibanez brands in terms of prices.

PIC: DGMC

Cleaning tips

At the end your instrument cables, ladies & gentlemen, are your plug tips. These are the very parts that come into contact with your instruments' input jacks (don't forget the ones at the amp & pedal ends as well). It's inevitable that we handle our cables by the tip sometimes. So that left some prints, stains & whatever not on the surface. These stains get transferred to the input jacks without us realizing it. 

The question is, do you clean those tips or carry on with the assumption that it doesn't matter? If moisture is transferred to your input jacks this way then it's really unfair that the jacks die of corrosion; it's an induced death. 

I'm not suffering from OCD but I do clean those tips with a dry cloth. Sometimes, When I know my hands were dirty before handling my cable, I would clean the tips with some string cleaner after play & re-insert them into the instrument (or amp/pedal), give it a little twist then unplug, wipe with dry cloth before putting them away. You'd say that these things have a good life anyway so when it comes to replacing them, it's inevitable. Yes, that's a case in point but let's not brush aside the possibility that a problem might manifest at crucial times, during a live performance for instance. There's no compulsion to clean them of course, but let's not be sorry for ourselves for not taking preventive measures. 😅

Wishing you a good weekend ahead (the final weekend for the month). 

Flexing

I currently own a Spectraflex cable which is more than 5 years old. Some things just speak of quality & they last. It's no reason to be buying another but I did- a braided Original. I have simple criteria when choosing cables:

1. Low noise/ noiseless- the utmost consideration. I should be enjoying my guitar tones while playing, not put up with humming or hissing cables. If a cable fails this criterion, regardless of the brand name or boutique plugs they sport, it's not worth my money. The cables should also not receive radio signals while you're at it. It's a sheer indicator of poor insulation.
2. Durable- it's pointless to be spending good money just on tone only for the cable to die a few days later. Cables of yesterday tend to be short-lived by their lack of durability. How do I know this? I've stepped on cables countless times & those sub-standard ones would crackle for a simple reason; their innards were squashed & they couldn't carry the signals through. Also, I've stepped on plugs quite often & the flimsy ones would have the connection squashed as well & that's a sure sign of death to come. So two things here- durable plugs as well as final coating (regardless of the material).
3. Frequency response- this is a little sticky but the standard here is of clarity & non-inclination. Meaning- the cable shouldn't influence your signal frequencies, it is a neutral implement which lets your guitar & amp do their job. However, there are cables out there that give you more high end or add to your bass frequencies. This isn't an anomaly, they were actually manufactured as such to suit personal needs.

Spectraflex is my first real experience with a quality cable. I was enduring cheap cables before that & it's not doing me good; they affected enjoyment. Subsequently, I tried many others but I have the following brand names to recommend if you are in the market for a deserving cable to supplement your tone quest (no order of merit):

• Evidence
• Spectraflex
• Free the tone
• Canare
• Lava
• Monster
• Mogami
• Planet Waves (American Stage series)

Tone Evidence

Having a ball of a time with my Evidence cable. They say there's good tone to be had in good cables & it's not a myth. I've been through many cables & they range from cheap complementary ones to some costly affairs but they are all worth trying. Evidence Audio are cable specialists, they make audio cables for audio applications & guitar cables are a fraction of what they do. I personally recommend this to players who plug straight into their amps with nothing in between. You can actually hear good tones coming out from your amps & by that you'll hear much clarity & details. I absolutely love how the amp's drive tones get a kick out of it akin to adding a boost type pedal in the chain but there's nothing extra here to lug around, just the cable per se. I currently own the 3m version which I think is quite overkill for domestic applications so I look forward to acquire something shorter & I'd like to try the L-plug type for some guitars I have here which would benefit from this arrangement (eg: Gibson SG). Here's a recommendation list of other brands you should check out if you are into a pedal-free set up, just the guitar & amp (in no particular order of merit):

• Free The Tone
• Lava
• Mogami
• Monster

PS: Thank you Lisa the cat for being a willing model :-)

FTT

Got my Free The Tone cable. It's not about the brand name, really. It's about quality performance. More updates soon.

Lame cable

This cable is a familiar item for us Ibanez owners; it's complementary with our instrument purchase. Nothing wrong with it, it works... but not for long. It begins to crackle after repeated use & the plug end would give way rather easily- no contact at times. If you have handled one before, you'd know how soft the cable is which is not a good sign- it offers very little protection for the innards. That's why it gives way over repeated trampling; the nature of an instrument cable is such that it's bound to get trampled on when in use so it should offer some protection/ resistance in this aspect. Oh, it's not a low-noise performer as well, if you run many pedals in your signal chain & utilize this cable at the end of it- be warned. The same could be said if your amp isn't equipped with a 3-pin plug, this cable kinda amplifies the ground hum.

I'd rather Ibanez save us some money by not offering this cable in time to come. We'd be happier with a better set of instrument adjustment tools for instance or a complementary strap for that matter.

Prestige & bullet proof

The Ibanez Prestige SA1260 I bought came with a complementary Prestige cable which I didn't know existed.

Also in the package- an Ibanez Bullet Proof Strap which shouldn't be used to rob the bank.

Guitar set up: Simple instructions (maybe) PART 1

I do my own guitar set up because I want to; I believe it's nothing the owner cannot execute. It also helps me understand my guitar better, making it manifest how I want it to be. A guitar set up is necessary when the instrument's playability is affected by temperature changes due to shipping storage & in-store display (reaction to air-conditioning). The guitar being set up here is my Ibanez GRGR010LTD, the tools used, as documented above are:

1. Cross tip screw driver
2. Allen wrench
3. Metal ruler
4. Capo
5. Guitar cable
6. Tuner

... to be cont'd.

Smash the RGR08

Gotcha! Nothing was smashed last night, I played my Smash & RGR08 with the inclusion of VOX's curly cable...

SMASH S2 Lite

• the more I play this guitar, the more I feel duped by the ones I own which cost more than 2x its price. Darn.
• planning to re-string it with a different string brand to confirm if this accounts for the current feel factor
• also, this guitar's heavy... the 'Lite' in its moniker is rather deceiving
• I simply love the default pickups
  

Ibanez RGR08

• this guitar served to test the VOX cable; I heard a curbed treble response plugging it into the SMASH. Knowing how treble-inclined active pickups are in general, it proved the VOX cable to be as I suspected; bass rich.
• I also gave this guitar a fretboard re-conditioning today
  

Going curly

Got this curly VOX cable from City Music recently. You've heard people tell you to be mindful of how you curl the cable up, not to crimp it so that it won't give way? Well, with a cable this curly, it's difficult to crimp in the first place, so there you have it, an unintentional safety measure. Neat.

The storage pouch is part of the package, if someone tries to sell you the cable without one, ask why.

Cable talk: Ibanez Series DS

This is one of my recommended cables for those of you who require a low-noise set up & do not wish to spend excessively on such contraptions. The Ibanez DS series cable (DS=Double Shield) was conceived to be durable & its double shielding property means you get quality signal transfers without external interferences. It does what the manufacturer claims- low noise (noiseless to me...) performance without being costly. Oh, is that the Cabletek plug Ibanez is using?

Cable talk: Horizon

I bought this cable more than 5 years ago & it's still very functional today. It's a Horizon Neon Brites series, very much the preference of a certain Mr. Vai back then (wonder if he's still using them) but I bought it out of a genuine willingness to try. The cable is of a sturdy built to withstand tramplings hence its longevity. The plugs were shrink wrapped with a rugged layer of polymer so there's no real access to the innards unless the owner is willing to dissect the overcoat.

I'm very happy with this cable in terms of durability but it manifests a certain brightness in the upper frequencies which is to my liking because it makes my Les Pauls sound less muffled. You'd say the cable, being a secondary tone implement, wouldn't be of much significance but if you take time to compare what the market has to offer, you'd know the ones that kill your tone & the rest which would make you smile.

Canare cable/ Amphenol plug

I just got my custom length Canare cables (2m each, nothing too long for domestic use) from LOOK FOR BEEZ today. As you can see, I've chosen brown with black/ chrome plugs, which are of the Amphenol brand. As the spouse puts it, brown represents ageing & retirement befitting of a selfless character who puts negligible value to cosmetics due to excessive exposure to quantity, opting for quality intrinsics instead- a perfect description of yours truly...


However, if you are interested in this cable brand, be assured that Beez has colour assortments in stock with varied thickness. You can also specify a patch cable type length with relevant discounts for liberal quantity acquisitions.

As you can see from this heap, Beez also has other brand name/ shape plugs for your selection, the cost of which hinges on the material used as oppossed to the county of origin.
How much? You pay for your personal selection, which is the sum of the cable/ plugs/ service charge. An estimate of a 10ft long cable equipped with a pair of Amphenol plugs: $22.00, 1/2ft patch cable starts at $6.00+ with the relevant plug charges included. If it's your maiden purchase, drop by LOOK FOR BEEZ & ask for selection quotes. If you decide to purchase on the spot, Beez would effect your order immediately unless he has his hands full.
After telling Beez what I wanted, he took 10min to complete the cable termination- the Jedi Master at work...