Pink Saturday

Another indoor Saturday but I'm not complaining. Spent time with my AZ2402. I remember being asked if I would want a non-pink finish, it's available on Swee Lee's inventory back then but I prefer this pink one. It was a conscious choice, of course. I went with something off beat, focusing on tone & playability more than visual appeal. You'd read in countless Ibanez / guitar forums everywhere of how 'true' Ibanez fans express displeasure by virtue of a non-DiMarzio pickup in the early stages of the AZ Series production. The default Seymour Duncan Hyperion are fantastic pickups. Just because one is a DiMarzio fan, one need not castigate these pickups for their inability to fulfil one's tonal requirements. It's like dissing the electric car just because you drive a petrol driven vehicle. Choices are aplenty out there, if something doesn't float your boat, exercise your choices.

Strings were oxidized when I took it out of the case. The .009 snapped & I'm still trying to figure out why this happened since the nut & bridge saddles were devoid of sharp contacts. I'm not going back to Ernie Ball, of course. I still have bonus point with Swee Lee, just using them up before they expire. I still prefer D'Addario but I'm not buying them due to price issues. 

Copper pink Friday

I am in no mood to usher in the new year. It's when you have nothing to begin with, the enthusiasm to celebrate any occasion gets suppressed. In any case, I'm not the type to get all hyped up at the turn of the year any way. 

Spent the final weekday of the year at home playing the above guitars - the pink one because it's one of the smoothest bridge humbucking tone I own & the copper one because those are some of the best-sounding distortion-friendly single coils I've come across. Not being an ardent single coil fan, this means a lot to me. What do I have planned for the NYE tomorrow? Nothing much, might be more of the same that happened today.

RP

In line with its video showcase, PRS' Silver Sky is now available in everybody's favourite colour - pink. Roxy Pink to be precise. 

Pic: PRS

In the pink - not

Before the sun sets, for the past few days or so, I've been playing guitar. Today's choice: Jackson Minion RR.  At such times, in this frame of mind with a whole load of semi-rubbish home assignments, no happy tunes are to be heard. Just grateful that I have my guitars around to keep me lucid. No, I've not tried making dalgona coffee because it's a fad that will die off. 

Take, care everyone, stay home, stay safe.

Stay at home & read

I'm re-reading this book. Remember gist of it but definitely not the conclusion. Comparing a plague to the current pandemic is a little excessive but the occurrences were similar; panic, fear, police state, deprivation, ignorance... death.

Yesterday's lockdown guitar: Kiesel Holdsworth. My hand is now showing adverse reactions to rounded neck profiles. Yesterday was one of the very few occasions when it cramped up. Will make it a point to warm up before dealing with such necks.

Active, pink

Some interesting releases by Solar guitars at the close of 2019. A singlecut design with active pickups - might give the LTDs in this price range some stiff competition. (GC1.6TAW)

Solar joins the Kiesel, Charvel & Ibanez camps, among others, in giving us our all time favourite finish - pink. (A2.6PN)

These are currently unavailable here & we sincerely hope it's a matter of time before they appear at the dealer's. Since June 2019, no other models were available except for the initial few that were offered. At the rate that things are going, the distributor is implying disinterest in bringing in the newer models & it's hinting at the possible need to clear current inventory before stocking the fresh stuff.

PICS: Solar guitars

Been a while (2)

No surprises here as my new Ibanez is the AZ model. This one's an AZ2402. I prefer the AZ2204 for the single coils but currently, none is offered in a pickguard-less version except the Tom Quayle model & if you know me by now, signature models aren't my thing. 

I see the AZ model as a winner from the start. It's not replacing the RG in terms of popularity & appeal but it treaded into a non-traditional Ibanez path without losing credibility altogether. I'm just hoping that this model would be perpetuated along the way & not suffer the SZ fate where popularity guaranteed nothing. The SZ was put to death despite a strong sales figure but some conspiracy theorists suggested that 1) The SZ made way for the AZ & nobody saw that coming because nobody was in the know 2) The SZ was eating into the RG's market share & that's a worrying thing for Ibanez. The manufacturer is still holding on to patented authority for the RG's neck profile while the SZ has nothing to fall back on to in terms of intellectual property. The legal proponents here know that if you own the idea, you can take it with you & apply it elsewhere out of RG land should things go south with the RG design one day. The Gibson camp is learning it the hard way when it comes to intellectual property & it's made plain for all to see (& learn). 

I have absolutely no intentions to mod this guitar as it appeals to me in every way & that's a rare feat. Even the pink finish here is a winner. Amongst the current available finish, this pink is the least popular & that means the probability of getting an unmolested piece is higher. In fact, that happened. This isn't my first pink, there were two others before it & I'm absolutely ok with pink. Definitely no more black or sunburst for me. Not a fan of flames & quilts either. Thank you, Ibanez for not having the Prestige label on the headstock. 

A fitting end to October 👍

Pretty in pink

Don't you deny it- you love pink! Come on! (Above: Ibanez AZ2402 in pink flat)