First Fender: American Standard Telecaster

My first Fender is a 1997 American Standard Telecaster. I bought it (in 1998) as a challenge to myself; would I be able to play a guitar which is devoid of my fancied features? The tele was the perfect opposite of my Ibanez:

• single cutaway body design
• single coil pickups
• lesser number of frets
• non-locking nut/ bridge
• no bevel/ chamfer to promote comfort fit
• maple fretboard
• non-slim neck

The Tele was indeed a challenge in the beginning, I had a hard time getting comfy with the thicker & rounder neck profile. The guitar's body edges kept digging into my ribs, the tuning was off rather quickly during play & the hum at high drive settings was annoying. Ironically, this guitar made me adapt & learn more about maintenance. It's also one to constantly remind me I'm cradling a no-frills guitar so all I have to offer while playing are good chops, otherwise it's the perfect implement to showcase one's incapacity.

When I subsequently bought a Strat, this Tele was resigned to accept my eccentric playing; the love for aggressive music. As evident from the current pickups on board, it's tinkered to accept more drive without being sonically repulsive. In fact, I subliminally challenged it to ferry my black metal inclinations because if it's as good as it's touted to be, it would rise to the occassion. Verdict: It's one of my favourite guitar for the genre. I have utmost respect for the brand name & what the 'Telecaster' name upholds; simplicity that withstood the test of time.

Current pickups on board:

• Bridge: Hot Rails (for Tele)
• Neck: Hot Rhythm

The little menace

This little ditty is simply the most amazing thing I've come across, it's actually a pocket-sized speaker, smaller than the average billiard ball. It's slightly less than $40 & made in Singapore.

I bought it as a companion to my pocketPOD, it's an alternative to head/ earphones. It also connects to your MP3 player via the 3.5mm / USB jack.

The X-mini Capsule Speaker (as the manufacturer calls it), dare I say, produces a more inviting tone for pocket guitar processors or any Mult-FX units with a headphone outlet, than the audio headphones. In addition to the above-average clarity on offer, the X-mini is also loud. Say, do you own the mini Marshall MS2 or other novelty miniature amplifiers which you thought would serve as a good tone projector for bedroom noodling? Well, the X-mini's tonal performance exceeds what those novelties could offer.

Tone purists would be critical to the limited performance of small driver equipped devices because of the inability to manifest good lower frequencies. As depicted above, the X-mini pops up to deliver more bass in the mix. Well, for the beginners among us who are in a dilemma of choosing between a good guitar signal processing unit & a practice grade amplifier (with a restrictive budget at hand), the X-mini could be the economical answer to this complication- highly recommended.

More details on this product here: X-mini Capsule speaker

Kramer Vanguard Part2

The Kramer Vanguard comes oddly with only a solitary strap button located at the body's bass-side tail bout. If you'd wish to strap this guitar, the other end of your strap slit would go into...?
This other strap button is my own installation, the reason its screw isn't black. If you wish to acquire this guitar, you are hereby forewarned of the lack of a complementary strap button, please do not blame the seller/ dealer for its unavailability.

Silent performers

There are players out there who give very little merit to headphone-ready devices namely due to the fact that the tone generated by the headphone drivers are next to repulsive. Nevertheless, there are people who invest/ believe in these products as a result of their needs. Throughout the years, I have acquired the (Korg) Pandora PX4D as well as (LINE6) the PocketPOD, both being my night time saviours when there is this overwhelming surge to play guitar while the baby's sleeping.

The PX4D came by first because it was the most attractive pocket guitar processor (to me) which bothers to include a midrange control. This nifty little box also accepts bass readily. In addition to the guitar related offerings, the PX4D has metronome & backing track modules for a one-man jam. As if these aren't worthy enough, the manufacturer includes a recording facility which accepts your MP3 (or other similar devices) to be played back at slower tempos for educational purposes. It also loops your recorded phrases for that insatiable solo jam.

On days when I don't require back-up shenanigans & wish for a plug & play moments, the PocketPOD would be employed. I've never been a fan of the LINE6 products before, which is attributable to its very fabricated guitar tones but this little red bean has its appeal. It isn't trying too hard to be its more elaborate elder brothers but the fundamental details here are more pleasureable than being digital muck.

The Ibanez TS7 on show here is simply there for comparison's sake but it's the most utilized pedal I own, getting more assignment time than its more celebrated siblings, the TS9/ TS808 (which I also own).

Picks & strings...

These are my used picks, I keep them because some of them are personal gifts. My wife bought me a few while she was away in Vietnam. There were times when master Beez (domestic pickup installation Jedi master) would give away the ones he had stuck on his forehead to me when I walk into his work place at Yamaha (former work place actually). Those were the days...

I'm easily bothered by stringless guitars especially when strings snapped during play (this seldom happens nowadays) or during installation. I have some here on standby, bass ones included.

My first guitar

This is my first electric guitar bought way back in 1991; yes it's still alive & very functional to date. It's an Ibanez RG560. Back then, I knew nuts about guitars so I tagged along when my cousin wanted to get one for himself. At the dealer's, my cousin knew what he wanted so his RG550 pick was quick & painless, I had to do my shopping to know what's avaialble for me bearing in mind that there were limited guitars with a thin neck profile which I was comfortable with. After much handling, Fender & Gibson were struck off my list, leaving Washburn & Ibanez to be the likely candidates. I couldn't quite recall which specific Washburn guitar it was but the floating bridge's functionality was a put-off, leaving me with the Ibanez RG550 like my cousin's but the juvenile mentality back then prevented me from copying my cousin's decision so i went with the RG560 instead. In the late '80s/ early '90s, it was hype to have neon coloured accessories in one's guitar (further instigated by Richie Kotzen & company) so I did that to mine. The pickups you see here are:

• Neck: Seymour Duncan Lil' '59
• Mid: DiMarzio Fast Track 2
• Bridge: DiMarzio PAF

These are actually subsequent residents, I used to have (DiMarzio) Tone Zone in the bridge & another Fast Track in the neck but after trying the current residents in other guitars (notably friends') the preference was clear. Oh, the volume/ tone knobs & pickup switch had to echo the radical colour switch. The blue strings by the way, are recent installations.

This guitar has aged enough to display a maple hue contrast. The RG Wizard neck, despite its wafer-like depth, is durable, I never had any issues with it. The only wear here are the frets which was looked into by a local luthier, Malcolm. Instead of a refretting procedure, he did a redress which cost less & was completed under 30min.

The RG560's bolt-plate was a common implement in its time. To promote better access to the upper frets, Ibanez bevelled the body area which formed a contour blending with the lower cutaway's bout. As evident in the picture, there are prominent scratches which weren't my doing- recall the cousin of mine mentioned in the preceding notes? He borrowed my guitar for a wedding performance & was reckless enough to not remove his belt while playing hence the defacement by the buckle. I was stark raving mad when the guitar was returned to me back then but didn't surface my annoyance on grounds of family comraderie (actually it was my Mum's dictatoresque instructions), after all, he was the chap who helped me bargain for it in the first place. But this incident triggered my excessive expenditure on all things guitar...

The peculiar black duck is there for show.