Acrylux picks give away: Winners

Congrats to the above-listed recipients, picks are on the way. Please forgive the less than timely postal service due to the peak festive season. 

One more give away before we say goodbye to 2018 so watch this space. 😎

Bleakest winter

I've been re-stringing guitars everyday. This was done on Saturday- my Ibanez S1620FB. It's one of my best S-Series & it's also another one I got for a bargain. Despite being a Prestige model, certain special editions/ regional exclusives don't come with a hard case. 

The current SD pickups in there are the Black Winter humbuckers. There used to be Teslas but I had a feeling the BWs would be awesome & they are above my expectations in terms of high gain/ intense distortion applications. Thus far, I'm of the opinion the Alpha/ Omega are on par with the BWs in this aspect, the former pair being less crunchy & smoother in the bottom end. These are by no means PAF-like in terms of subtleties but the BW in the neck position can rival the Sentient/ Jazz in terms of clarity & single note separation- rather surprising.

This guitar was fitted with a set of Cleartone 9s, seen here in its new packaging (now available at Davis GMC). 

It's the week before 🎄

Agent orange

I got this Jackson DK2T for a bargain & it's proving its worth.

The usual maintenance; wipe down, re-moisturized fretboard, cleaned electronics & re-strung with Darco 9s.

I must say that the Seymour Duncans I have in various guitars are sounding good with the DS-1. I usually avoid using a distortion unit & let the high gain amp pull off all the aggression with an overdrive unit instead. However, I'm backing off the gain over at the amp a wee bit more these days to let a more commanding pedal colour the tone. So far the DS-1 is winning it & living its reputation to be a no-frills unit since day one. The pickups in this guitar: JB (b)/ Jazz (n). The JB is manifesting a deeper thump despite its reputation for being treble-inclined. 

So something happened along the way; that screw there was the culprit. I was removing the mounting ring & the said screw won't budge obviously due to its dead state. Had to use a larger screwdriver to force it out & the tension release stressed the structure hence the crack. I was wondering why this particular screw ended up this corroded when the other three were not, given the fact that I meticulously wax all screw threads to prevent any untoward incidences involving corrosion & permanent grounding. I might have overlooked this one. I have spare pickup mounting rings in the house so no issues pertaining to replacements. 

BM 2019

ESP released their 2019 line up updates 24hrs ago & here are my end with some comments/ opinion. The 'best-selling' Black Metal series (black guitars featuring a single pickup) has a V-type member in the fold. Seen here is the Arrow in satin finish.

There's a 7-string addition as well- the Viper 7.

A  bass is now part of the family as well- the AP-4. 

I don't know how 'well' these black guitars are doing here because the buyer demography suggests that these are niche products with a real chance of devaluation in the after market. Nobody considers buying a single pickup guitar a norm & the black only finish would mean a very metal music inclination with very limited other potential. I'm a big fan of single pickup guitars but not drawn to this series of guitars. The bass addition, being the only bass in the family, is really a market dipstick test because if confidence is running high in this department, they would offer more. 

I'm not discouraging anyone from investing in one of these (the 2018 line up included) as they are well-made instruments & equipped with branded/ quality parts (note the Babicz bass bridge). I see more QC consistencies in this series as opposed to the 400/ 200 series of instruments.

Give away: D'Addario picks

Howdy, folks! It's time for another give away & if you fancy the D'Addario Acrylux picks you see above, I'll be mailing them to three quick-fingered recipients. I got them as a complementary & do not intend to sell, it's just not right. I'm sure there are interested people out there who would put them to good use. Be informed that these are made from hard, non-flex material & note the relative size as well (I've included the standard yellow pick there for comparison). Here goes:

• Please send a blank e-mail me with Acrylux, yes! as the subject matter
• I will reply you to confirm postage details
• No closing date for this one, first come, first served basis
• All winners' names will be published here to prevent any misunderstandings (no other details, just your lovely names)
• Open to Singapore 🇸🇬 & Malaysian readers only 🇲🇾

Green power

Spent a good time with this one some days ago. PRS does not make this S2 Singlecut Semi-Hollow in this green finish as a standard offering (kindly refer to the current production finishes at their homepage). This was specified by Davis GMC as a dealer special. I'm not a fan of whatever outrageous flame maple top any manufacturer has to offer, I prefer solid colours & this was it. 

I had Beez istal these Seymour Duncan pickups recently: JB (b)/ 59 (n). Another big decision here was the removal of the coil split feature for this guitar.

Gave it a fresh set of 0095s before playing. 

Wishing everyone a good weekend ahead. 😎