Golden morning

Waking up on a Sunday morning feeling depressed - guitar was the answer. A quick re-string, fretboard conditioning & tinkering with pickup height did it for me. 

Folks, it's important you have something to fall back on when feeling down. Intoxication & suicide are never the answers to life's challenges. Get help if need be, never do something that would jeopordize others.

Here's the situation - I'm currently on contract employment. My employment days are usually lesser than my unemployment days so every opportunity for me is gold. My current employer did not disclose some terms of the employment, if they did, I would have walked away for sure. Then again, this is my final employment opportunity for the year. It will end at the end of this month, after which, I will be unemployed till 2024 when the next contract opportunity becomes available again. As such, I dread Sunday, as it is my final rest day of the week before the rot begins again. Hope this gives a better understanding as to why buying a new guitar won't happen any time soon for me. When everyone goes away at the end of the year with their bonuses in hand, I have nothing. December is a very miserable month for me. 

Hello October 👋

Price watch (25)

I own a PRS McCarty gold top. When I purchased this guitar years ago, it wasn't a finish that was offered for the dual humbucker McCarty. It was only offered for the P90 version. So this was a special order, kindly administered by the good people of Davis GMC for my wedding. That's right, it was a wedding gift from my wife. Despite costing extra, it was a whisker under $4K.

Moving on to present time, a custom colour gold top (available at Swee Lee) can be yours for that amount depicted above. Disclaimer - there might be other factors that might contribute to this amount, the bird inlays for instance, might be one of it. Same goes for current shipping charges. 

This is an example of price movements these days, the more you delay getting something at the current price, the more you will look back & regret in time to come. Then again, gear expenditure is a luxury consideration. We have other priorities; a family to feed, a house to finance & bills to pay. Instrument prices are in the crazy figures these days. I observe the Edwards range of instruments to be the most stable in terms of prices but recently, the shipping charges have contributed to unreasonable listings so everything got hit, nothing was spared. As we approach the 9% GST mark, many of us would re-think when it comes to spending dear money on gear.

Reconciliation

Once upon a time, I had my mind set on a gold top Les Paul. It was a '57 reissue & available at Swee Lee's Bras Basah branch (the unit is now occupied by Art Friend's rear extension). I tried it in store twice just to confirm it was what I wanted but that fat neck made me re-consider my options. At that point in time, Ibanez & Fender were what I was used to & those neck profiles were nothing close to what the '57 felt like. Then the PRS happened.

At that point in time, Davis GMC was still fresh with the PRS dealership & there was a McCarty in store but it was flame-y & sunburst-y which was not my thing. I like flat colours & embraced a non-distracting top early. My idea of owning a guitar is one that would propel my talent & artistry, not something that distracts others from my incompetence. Playability & tone above all else; it's like this from the start.

The LP consideration was called off because my wife-to-be back then offered to get the McCarty for me if it could be customized to my specs & that was an easy feat for Davis GMC to handle. I have no further custom specs in mind as I already liked how the McCarty plays & sounded so I opted for a gold finish as the only 'custom' option. Back then, the McCarty was indeed offered in a gold finish but limited to its P90 version (above). I finally took ownership of this guitar in 2003, it didn't make it on time for the wedding.

Sixteen years on, the gold top Les Paul made it to the fold. I avoided getting one any earlier because the price was just wrong. One would have thought that a gold top would continue to manifest an inflated price tag but the Gibson CEO change in 2018 led to a deserving price cut. I see this as the coming of age; I couldn't erase the gold top memory totally. Some distractions happened along the way but handling the gold top way back then left a haunting mark on me. It became a bucket list item & rightly re-visited now when I am more financially stable to review what I missed. It took a while to understand that one instrument could not be a perfect replacement for another. 

Flawed gold (2)

Remember the Gibson LP Deluxe I purchased from the recent Swee Lee Katong sale? So here's the flaw - finish checking. That's right folks, it's a brand new, unplayed guitar kept away untouched till the clearance happened. If it's a relic job, this would be ace. However, since it's not, it is considered as a damaged affair. There is actually nothing wrong with the instrument, even the wood is in perfect condition. A finish checking means the paint job under the gloss coating cracked due to temperature changes. If you are bothered by this condition, it's a definite deal breaker.

Even the binding had begun its undoing plus a cracked pickguard - all these when the instrument was unboxed. And I still bought it! The pickguard issue could have been avoided if the factory hands had been a little generous when tightening it during assembly. It should not be over-tightened & given the opportunity to 'breathe' when subjected to temperature changes which would definitely happen as the instrument travelled across continents & kept away in storage thereafter. Given the checking issue, the cracked pickguard was the least of my worries; it's replaceable. 

That's right, a plain truss rod cover for this one as well.

I managed to add felt cushions for the strap buttons to prevent the glossed body surface from reacting with the metal parts. I don't see why this was not considered at the factory.

After a quick fretboard conditioning & re-stringing, goldie here proved to be one of the most appealing LPs in my books. If this guitar was kept longer in storage, it would have died a negligent death, which would be a very sad affair. The fact that the clearance happened, it was fated to be taken out & live out its remaining life with a deserving owner & that would be me, I guess. I agreed to buy this one because: 1) It was clearing for a good price 2) Whatever happened to the guitar was not due to any mishandling. The only human oversight here was that it was inventorized & forgotten. I was told, this is the only one here & the LP Deluxe models that came after it were the awful robot tuner, 3-knob models. 

The neck profile is unique. It's neither a slim taper 60s type nor a fat, 50s version; this is the initial attraction. Those default mini humbuckers are also likeable for folks who shred & engage in high octane rock/ metal. If they were conceived to sound vintage then I don't hear that coming from my set up. Then again, my setup does not facilitate that kind of tone manifestation. Regardless of the flaws, I like this one from the start. 

Flawed gold

The account for my mismanaged gear expenditure last month must include this guitar. This is a Gibson LP Deluxe, the only one in the entire Swee Lee inventory in gold top finish. When the second swing of the Swee Lee Katong sale kicked in, the 40% discount was too good to pass so it went home with me after an unusual bout of second thoughts. Why was this the case? The instrument in question was a flawed piece not due to careless human handling but prolonged storage. No further discounts were offered, it's a take-it-or-leave-it decision for an as-is unit. I simply couldn't let this one go. More details to come.

Happy March, everyone. Once again, stay vigilant & virus-free. 😎

Standard desire

Good morning, folks. Starting the week with this entry which should have happened earlier. This was my final acquisition for 2019. After more than 15 years, what Gibson offers is finally to my liking. I had always wanted a no-frills Les Paul Standard in my arsenal & I already had one but this one really lived up to my expectations. I came close to buying a '57 reissue years ago & prices in those days were unlike the ransom amount today. I'm also not a fan of extravagant flame tops & such so a plain gold top finish like this one is sheer attraction to me.

Looking forward to replace the truss rod cover. Having a 'Standard' label there, to me, means nothing. A good guitar will defy labelled expectations. 

These, to me, are crucial. I used to dislike Burstbuckers. My other Standard has Burstbucker Pros in it & those are hard to beat. I'm not a fan of vintage tones. I can make do with any pickups but they must sound good with crazy amount of distortion pumped into them. Before this happened, the BB Pro was my standard for LP pickups but the strange thing is, the same BB Pro in an LP Special sounded way off, almost repulsive. It all boils down to pickup-instrument chemistry & in the case of this LP Standard, it's awesome chemistry to say the least. These are the BB 1 & 2, the demure sounding duo in the BB range but they exceeded my expectations. 

I should be doing a full appraisal for this one soon. Soon is when I actually have the time to do so & working in the right frame of mind. Have a good week ahead, everyone. 

McCarty

This is a 17-year old guitar. When PRS came into the limelight, the McCarty was making headlines in addition to the Custom 22s & 24s. It was supposedly a stripped down interpretation of PRS' guitar philosophy paying tribute, of all people, to an individual from its rival camp, Gibson. If you are rooted in all things guitar then history matters. We cannot simply ignore what Ted McCarty brought into the industry in terms of both revival & invention prospect. So back in 2002, the McCarty was still in its introductory phase & I was quite obsessed with it.

Obsession was unfortunately coupled with an exhausted bank account. That's right, 2002 was also my wedding year, all funds were channeled to this big day in one's life so getting a McCarty was definitely out of any considerations. The wife then asked what I would like as wedding gifts because early acquisition was necessary so that items could be well prepared & displayed on the big day itself. Traditionally, the Malay custom dictates a set of necessaries to be exchanged between the bride & groom; clothing, footwear & other accessories were the norm. I made it clear that these were strictly traditional & I have no use for an overpriced set of belt, shoes & whatever else were for the taking. I am a non-conformist at large, being shackled by customs & tradition are definitely not my thing. So the McCarty consideration came into the picture & it was a simple decision on my part. Done. The catch was, because the guitar was sort of a custom-finished option, it wouldn't be ready on the wedding day & that's absolutely fine with me. My wedding was a very small affair, far removed from the elaborate take that others observe. 

I seldom feature this guitar in my entries because it's a personal affair. It's a plain PRS, no fancy 10-top to show, I'm not one for elaborate finishes. It does get played but not as frequent as others; it's simply my precious & it gets more looking into & maintained than anything else. The McCarty pickups there simply hold their own in terms of tone & I won't have anything else as replacements. So it got a fresh set of strings a few days ago & it had always been a set of PRS since day one. 😁

Gibson: Les Paul 50s Tribute (humbucker)

Yes, if you are familiar with the Gibson bag featured in the initial post, the new guitar is a Gibson Les Paul 50s Tribute humbucker version. I especially like how Gibson manufactured this guitar, it's basically a bare-bones instrument just made to deliver. As such, the satin finish is a thumbs-up from me. I'm not sentimental about the '50s era fundamentals incorporated into this instrument because they are not significant contributors to tone. The accuracy of the '50s details were also not not in its entirety; bit-part incorporation at best. To be done soon:

• instal Orange Drop caps
• new humbuckers (most probably a pair of fierce Duncans)
• coil-split switch