Selling: Beez amps

This is a message from Beez- he's clearing 2 of his Marshall MG15MSII amps, the standard model (left) and the Zakk Wylde version (right). Do note that these amps were modded so they have a different gain structure compared to the original versions. Please drop by his store if you wanna hear them in action: Excelsior Shopping Center, B1-34. I used to have one: CLICK

The great demon

This is my first Seymour Duncan pickup- a Screamin' Demon. It's more than a decade old, still going strong. I always give my guitars a wipe-down every time I stopped playing, the pickups get the same attention because they are the ones that get sweaty so they need a bit of cleaning before being put away.

I bought this pickup when Beez was still working at Yamaha, there were only 3 humbuckers left, one was white, the other wasn't a Trembucker model so it was my default choice- like there was much to begin with. Anyway, that 'Screamin' Demon' label was rather intriguing, my initial take was that it's one of the meanest, highest output pickup Duncan has to offer by virtue of its label. This was the age before the internet became ubiquitous so I couldn't check the specs to confirm what it had to offer. 

I love this pickup, honest. George Lynch associations aside, I consider it a well thought of model, good warmth, great definition & more importantly, it reacts well with distortion, quite differentiated from the standard high output units in this aspect, simply because it's not a high output model.

Fab?

Do you know these girls boys? Fabulous Boys- Taiwanese romantic comedy drama. Wonder if they can really play those guitars. Product placement? Hmph.

Ibanez: FR420 (3)

Made in Indonesia = lousy? Bought. happy

Ibanez: FR420 (2)

The Ibanez FR420 is equipped with a pair of CCR humbuckers, ceramic-based but not as hot. They serve their purpose in giving the player a slightly more acute response in terms of output which could be heard more markedly in driven settings. In clean mode, these pickups possess a fat voicing making chords at the neck very pleasant.

However, these are not my kind of pickups despite being above average in many aspects. I need a thicker, more bass-inclined response from the bridge unit. I would also like a more reserved character from the neck (rather ironic as I depend on this pickup for solos, mainly) in terms of output & frequency response because from experience, I find these kind of pickups more distortion friendly- the more drive/ distortion I pump in, I can be assured that the adversity consideration won't be too disproportionate. Meaning- it won't sound awful at higher gain settings.

Poll: Online shopping experience

Thanks everyone, for taking part in this poll :-)

It's the age of the internet, many of us get what we want online especially when we can't get them from the stores here. Online shopping means, we can do it from the comfort of home & whatever was bought would be delivered to the doorstep- bliss. However, there are some people who would rather NOT make any online transactions for the fear of a fraudulent engagements. Since we have the power to check things out, we could always look up the list of reputable online stores. Either that or make time to ask fellow enthusiasts online. Chances are, they are more than happy to share the encounters.

With reference to this poll, we see that many of us had a satisfactory experience when buying stuff online. In fact, only 5% expressed foul episodes which implies that sellers/ online stores are counting on reputation to get the business going so they have to keep up the positive goodwill or suffer a cyber death. More interestingly, there is a camp of players who prefer checking things out personally for a 'real' shopping experience. It's worth the trouble, they say, since we can avoid paying for a lemon & the painful entailment of a refund or subsequent compensation. We note that this shopping philosophy isn't about cyber trust but I would say it's an old school way of getting things for ourselves. It's not a bad preference, certainly not, just a personal take on how things should be acquired.