MoMM (63)

Holiday eve. Me time, music time.

• Panic: Epidemic. A friend introduced me to this band back in school (1991). I was already quite sick of the usual metal bands hogging the magazine's front pages - Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Testament et al. Nothing special, just a thrash band, a good one. Just couldn't quite come to terms with the '80s distortion sound; brash & semi-unlikable.
• Imperial Triumphant: Goldstar. Not everyone's idea of black metal especially when it includes some very jazzy & prog elements forcing you to shift into intellectual mode instead of getting lost in the drone. This album made it to the top 10 list of black metal releases in 2025. Was a little late to check them out. 

Holiday eve... what's everyone doing?

AZ ash

These are currently Japan-only releases; the AZ2402 sporting ash bodies. The fact that the ash grains were made visible & manifested a sand blasted look, they look darn cool. In any case, sand blasted looks were done by Schecter & Charvel among others, way before Ibanez did. By the way, the AZ2402 is just a whisker off $3K these days. By the time these are made available here, these would probably be in excess of $3K.

Pics: Ibanez Japan

Duncanized

Was at Beez's today to get pickups wired up for this one - RG565.

Nothing wrong with the default Ibanez pickups actually. In fact I've kept it in tact since Day 1 & tried my very best to like it. Unfortunately, after countless bitter episodes (tone-related), having my preferred pickups in there would certainly end this misery: Seymour Duncan Cool Rails (N) / PATB-2 (B). There is a dichotomized embrace out there with regards to the default pickups. Some say they sound more than decent, while others lobby for an immediate replacement. I agree with both opinions. The deafult Ibanez pickups sound perfectly acceptable if you run your guitar into a Quad Cortex / Tone Master or any of the contemporary digital processors. However, if you are the plug-&-play type (like yours truly), the pickups sound very underwhelming. 

Do note that the PATB models have this TREMBUCKER etching on the underside of the pickup's baseplate & does not sport the three holes in the mounting flap unlike its other TB siblings.

G290 Modern

If you are not too particular with brand names (I know many people today are still insecure playing stuff with an unknown pedigree) & choose to embrace quality instead, do check out the G290 Modern (Swee Lee: $699). It's a well-spec'd guitar; locking tuners, SD humbucker, roasted maple neck, SS frets, stuff like that. The overall design is also very simple & presentable. These aside, have you noticed that Cort prices are moving up to unfriendly / unattractive figures?

Pic: Cort

SC Monday

Yet another episode of staying indoors. The guitar if choice today was this PRS S2 Singlecut Standard in gold finish. Nothing fancy / special, just a singlecut with a limited run finish.

While playing, the knobs were rather stiff. A quick check revealed no deterioration / anomalies. A quick contact spray treatment did the trick. Those huge orange drop caps were replacement units for the default ones. The two volume pots are Gotohs while the tone pots (with default push-pull coil split options) are default units.

The humbuckers here are also replacement units, the 57/08 models which, as the name suggests, micmic the Gibson 57 models. I hear more treble coming from these pickups so they are my kinda pickups. Costly pair but worth every cent.

A pack of fresh SIT .0095s for the playing experience today.

S-Sunday

Another day of staying indoors & playing guitar. This is the SML721 featuring tilted frets. Tilted, not fanned because the first few frets are not tilted so there's no fanning out.

I happened to come across a pair of DiMarzio Fusion Edge pickups which were purchased (for a good price) & installed here. The FE has a hit / miss reputation & these are definitely a miss in this guitar. The last time I hear good stuff coming from the FEs were from an extended scale RGD. These have to go soon.

My final pack of DR 9s went into this guitar. For the kind of music I embrace, DR strings are the best but they cost a little more than the other strings brands out there. I will only purchase them during seasonal discounts.