Tokai bag

 This is what you get when you purchase a Japanese Tokai guitar. This bag looks well-designed. 

Ample padding all round (strap included) to make it a very comfortable bag to handle. If you have handled a Kohlman bag before, this is an iteration of that bag with additional trimmings to make it feel / look exquisite.

Neck cradle & ample side cushioning. Notice the black layered areas - these are the spots where the instrument's hardware comes into contact with the fabric. This layer prevents lining adhesive from bleeding onto the hardware over time & causing some nasty reactions, namely that sticky feel.

I'm giving this bag plus points for this design - can you see the zipper material here? Of course not. It's been covered by fabric.

If you undo the zipper & flip it over like this, then you could see the actual zipper material. Why is this important? It means that on rainy days, that fabric 'blanket' protects the zipper from water & prevents rust.

Victory FR

Gibson wants you to know that its Victory model is now available with a Floyd Rose bridge (& locking nut). Will this iteration be able to compete against the super-shredder type guitars by Jackson, ESP, Ibanez et al? The way I see it, it's still rooting for the Gibson heritage - glossed neck, heavy, absence of single coils... Other brands won't be intimidated, to say the least.

Pic: GMusic

Neo-Classic

Something new by Charvel - the Neo-Classic San Dimas Style 1 SD1 HH. That's definitely a mouthful & we have people dissing the lengthy Ibanez model number citations. What's the big deal with these guitars? They are made in the USA.

If you are interested, please be informed that it features the block heel neck joint which they don't mind doing due to the Fender association plus the fact that Ibanez is doing it for the Genensis models & this doesn't impede sales.

The other mouthful - Neo-Classic San Dimas SD1HH HT, which is of course, the fixed bridge version. Pickups for both versions are Seymour Duncan JB / '59. Do also note the absence of a tone knob.

Pics: Charvel

Broken F

This is a major concern in the mean time; Fender putting other manufacturers to legal task for infringing its Stratocaster body design copyright. I'm reading this with interest as an individual who used to be in the legal fraternity here once upon a time. It was a brief stint but an eye-opening experience. I refrained from commenting because my legal knowledge is strictly based on domestic understanding & more importantly, I'm not a lawyer. 

Fender claimed there are enterprises out there infringing the Stratocaster body design copyright. In my opinion, this is the glaring fundamental legal failure that should put Fender's efforts to nought. With reference to intellectual property rights, a design cannot be copyrighted. Copyright protects authorship (Osborn, 1993). Leo Fender invented the Stratocaster body shape & by virtue of this understanding (its capability of industrial application, Osborn 1993), it would move into the patent domain. Until Fender is able to show a definitive legal ownership / registration of the Stratocaster body, it has no case to begin with.

Another important point to note here is the default judgment obtained by Fender (Regional Court of Dusseldorf, March 2026). This judgment type merely acknowledges the complainant's points of contention in view of the respondent's failure to appear in court. There were no damages awarded or entailment rights conferred to the complainant so Fender has absolutely no authority to tell others what to do with potentially offensive inventory (stop production, destroy inventory, pay compensation, etc.). Also, I am not aware of cross jurisdiction in this case; can a judgment in a German court be used as a basis to initiate legal action in the USA? 

Shag's guitar

Dimmu's Shagrath has a signature ESP guitar. He's not known for his guitar playing in Dimmu but he plays guitar with this other outfit, Chrome Division. I sometimes wonder why individuals who are not known for their guitar playing actually gets a signature model. To be fair, Shagrath plays quite a bit in CD but people like Bruno Mars (Fender) & Taylor Swift (Taylor)? Gee...

Pic: ESP

Indoor Saturday

Someone recently said that I like wood-looking guitars. He's actually referring to those unfinished guitars of mine, exposing the bare wood grain. This was of course, a default finish from the factory. I happened to play one such guitar today, the RGA32 you see above.

This was the original batch of non-Japanese RGA models; notice the absence of cutaway chamfering unlike the models of today. This guitar also had a default set of active pickups which I didn't fancy so they made way for a pair of Seymour Duncans: Distortion (b) / P-Rails (N).

Someone actually handled this guitar while I was at Beez's some time back. He said Ibanez necks are supposed to be thin which this one is not. Well, if you are not familiar with the Ibanez line-ups, there are various neck profiles for the various models offered. Ibanez got associated with think necks when the JEMs debuted, followed by the RG550, which retained the neck profile. Along the way, Ibanez did not limit thin necks to all the guitars on offer but they stuck to the Wizard name which became synonymous with thin necks. The really thin necks are the Super Wizard of the 1980s. The Wizard III profile which are equipped in many mid-priced models are definitely not thin. My RGA32 has a Wizard II version which is 21mm at the 12th fret as opposed to the Super Wizard's 19mm at the same fret.

Whatever the case, I'm not obsessed with thin-necked Ibanez guitars. I'm OK with any neck profiles as long as they facilitate my playing style. Re-string day today, a fresh set of Olympia 9s for my RGA32.