Exotic veneer

PRS did a good thing for their SE Series, these are now given an exotic top (limited run). The ones you see here are the burled ash version. The flip side of this move is, of course, to bring prices up. You actually won't mind paying more for a lower series instrument given such a stunning top. How much? $1,349 for this iteration. Compared to a hyped up non-American Fender, I'd go with this one in view of its value-for-money consideration. 

Pic: PRS

Raya deals @ SL

If you are in the mood for more gear this festive season, these are the discounts offered by Swee Lee. 

Pic: SL webstore

Review quickie: Artec Giovanni pickup

The Artec pickups are under the Giovanni Series of electronics, manufactured for electric guitars. These are very affordable pickups available at Amazon. Magnets used are either Alnico II / V. The high powered GHXTN model here features Alnico V magnets.

Likes:

• clarity
• price

Dislike:

• clean tones

Both the bridge & neck pickups manifest clarity we often hear coming from notable brand names which list for much more. The bridge pickup, would appease all the distortion fiends out there, especially the ones who peddle heavy music. The clarity of the neck humbucker is useful for solos. A strong midrange / treble response is heard coming from both models & on this note, the clean tones on offer are acceptable & would require some modulation (e.g. chorus) to mitigate a more appealing response. Certainly not the pickups to get for jazz.

Final rating: 70%

Availability: Amazon

Ptice: $30.05

Tap tool

Started playing very early today. Despite not being my thing, the nylon string is a good discourse for tapping practice. It's mostly psychological; the gauge of the strings felt pretty much the same across the neck so it gave this feeling of familiarity. Also, I prefer the sound of tapped nylon strings as opposed to acoustic strings; each string sounded fat as opposed to unamplified metal strings. For us to become better, it's always good to play out of our comfort zone so the nylon string guitar is here to stay with me. The more I struggle to play, the more efforts I make to improve my playing. Hopefully, the better I become.

Solar FF

So it finally happened - Solar did a fan-fretted model. Looks the works but those slanted humbuckers, should you dislike them along the way, are there ready slanted replacement models out there? Pictured: A1.6AN-FF.

Pic: Solar

Advanced

Absolutely my kind of Strat - hard tail, big headstock & blank fretboard. Folks, this is the Player II Advanced which was released recently. Despite the upscale appointments you see here, it's made in Mexico.

The Telecaster version is also available but not quite the Tele tones with dual humbuckers as seen above. Both guitars a available at Swee Lee now ($1,849) but I find the price disagreeable for a Mexican. Also, do note that Swee Lee refers to this as an FSR Player Plus while the rest of the world acknowledged it to be the Player II Advanced. Same guitars, though.

Pics: GWonline