Bacchus discounts @ TYMC

We end April on a good note- Bacchus basses are on clearance (selected models) at TYMC, a good 50% off for interested parties (bags not included). The tags you see above are pre-discount prices. Happy midweek break, everyone :-)

TY Music

Excelsior Shopping Centre

5 Coleman Street

#B1-32 / 32A

Singapore 179805

Fender: Acoustasonic 15

Did I wimp out & defect to the acoustic camp? No, definitely not. I've pretty much not explored the amplified acoustic tone. I currently feel that the amplified acoustic is akin to adding distortion to a solid body electric; there's an increase in sensitivity & saturation which bring out the guitar player in me. I'm currently keeping my notes pick-free; all fingers this time.

How's the amp per se? Splendid tones from a little performer, I especially like how the EQ section brings out the instrument's character. The chorus has a very chimey ring to it (typical Fender, some might say), might be too much for some of us. The lower settings are pretty much non-existent as it requires a click-on activation so by the time it's clicked on, it's already in its quarter setting.

Happy Monday, everyone. The final Monday of the month.

PS: Thanks to brother Faizal (Swee Lee BB) for the purchase assistance

Echo Sunday

Got mine.Unplanned purchase but since it's an objective pedal, user-friendly & has something for me considering I'm the last person you'd sell a delay/ echo pedal to, it's darn difficult to pass. Updates soon.

Ibanez ES2 is available at Swee Lee Co. Lis: $170

Glendora

This is something new by GJ2, the Glendora models- bolt-on makes compared to their initial through-body models. While there is an implication to tone in this respect, there is also an implication to prices :-)

Budda tone

Not a pedal fan but hope these would make it here. No idea if the prices would be prohibitive; they bear the BUDDA name there, so...

Burning

I'm giving the Burns strings a go. It's the thrill of trying out the lesser-known names, really.

The Red Zone

Brother Zach shared this pic the other day & I'm sure there's some interest here :-)

Bro- show us your pink pedal soon, ya?

Preferably adaptive

I'm not a pedal fan but I'm not one to let slip the good ones from coming into my possession. There's not gonna be any major gear acquisition soon so the DA-2 is a nice addition to days when I utilize the amp's clean channel.

From toad to ten

FYI- Toad Works pedals are now...

... TEN pedals.

Farewell... not!

Those guitar cases you see previously were sent away to this venue: Big Orange storage warehouse.

Because they are hard cases, they could be stacked with no adversity. Even with the girl standing on top of it all :-)

Selling: LTD EX-401FM

I have a friend here who wish to sell his LTD EX-401FM in very good condition. Please check out the full specs here: CLICK

A complementary Fusion bag is included in the purchase. There's also a strap to go with the guitar which isn't pictured in this entry.

Yes, this is the Korean version made in WMF, the same hands handling the PRS SE production.If you are interested (or know someone who is), here are some details:

• Mr. Faizal H/P: 9-387-3627
• Collection at: Hougang neighbourhood
• Price: $900

Hey, dad! (Part 56)

Hey, dad! There are definitely many Fenders here, he he...

And this isn't heavy, of course...

Farewell

Goodbye...

... to all these.

Fender: Cabronita Telecaster

Here's a little deviant Telecaster that you might just like- the Cabronita. It's been getting lots of favourable appraisal from people who tried it, citing the pickups' tasteful chemistry with the guitar.

When I picked this guitar up from the stand, it felt rather hefty despite the body wood being Fender's regular alder selection. Everything else was a standard Telecaster affair; a simple, no-frills, slab body guitar, ready to rock. No complaints in terms of playability but that pickup toggle selector might be in the 'wrong' place for many Tele players who are accustomed to the 3-way blade-type positioned under the pickups (viewed from a strapped-on position) instead of this one being under the bridge.

Tone-wise, the FideliTron humbuckers were conceived to manifest a nice zing in use with the hollow body guitars of yore but in this guitar, they remain bright & chirpy. This is further compounded by the fact that the average Tele is a bright, twang-tastic player. Some of us might be a little disturbed by the fact that there's no tone control to help us accentuate some bass so if you decide to keep this guitar dynamic in this sense, do get a good EQ unit on the ready. Either that or plug this guitar into an amp with at least a 3-Band EQ on board.

Fender Cabronita Telecaster

Availability: Swee Lee Co (BB branch)

Price: $979

Ibanez: RG950QM

One of the new Ibanez Premium models this year- RG950QM. Nothing really special but that quilted headstock matching the body is a nice touch.

Ibanez RGD7421: DiMarzio-ed

As seen above, my Ibanez RGD7421 has new pickups in there (DiMarzio):

• Neck: LiquiFire 7
• Bridge: X2N 7

This isn't a quest for the perfect tone but the understanding that the default pickups aren't to my personal appeal. The X2N 7has to be one of the best high octane performer for distortion in the manufacturer's catalogue but in this light, do not expect a stellar clean from it.

Thanks, Beez, for the wonderful electronics job once again.

Graphtech: Whites

These are the default string saddles in my Fender Marauder. They aren't defective in any way but those action adjustment screws protrude to jab my picking hand palm during play so...

... they made way for a set of Graph Tech units & this time, I've gotten myself a sextet of whites.

Daylight robbery (aka rubbish shipping calculation)

Suppose you are enticed by the online discount of the above guitar hardcase & proceeded to purchase it online. It's a cool USD89.95, so why not. However, that didn't include the shipping charges & the party shipping this item to you only does express air delivery so you decided to proceed. It's going for a a superb discount anyway till you check your final charges & realized you were billed USD100 more. So how did that heinous addition came about? Answer: Volumetric weight charges.

This simply means that the people doing the shipment treated your guitar case to bear the true weight of an object with the same dimensions. Let's imagine that the guitar case is now a fish tank- sporting the exact dimensions- filled to the brim with water. So there you have it, a very heavy fish tank because it's darn full of water but your guitar case in question is primarily full of air. It doesn't weigh as much as the hypothetical filled-up fish tank & will never be. But airlines carrying such goods have no such considerations, they assume your guitar case bears the volumetric weight so the charges are according to this rather than understanding that your guitar case won't be as heavy as they considered them to be. You were charged much more than the true worth of your item- that's bloody dishonest.

So my friends, before you commit to any shipment charges, please note the terms of the trade. This is why shipment charges are prohibitive, in fact, these charges exceed the price of your items in question in most cases- you think it's worth it?

Hey, Dad! (Part 55)

Hey, Dad! I was at Swee Lee @ Katong I12. Em... with you, of course.

BTB7

This is a new one from Musikmesse 2013: Ibanez's BTB 7-string bass. So who said bassists couldn't out-low the guitars?

LTD: ST213 simple make-over

Gave my ST213 a simple make-over; a new string retainer- the rounded type. This one is devoid of sharp edges for a smoother, snag-free tuning. Available at TYMC: $3...

TYMC Sunday

If you are in town, remember, TYMC is open :-)

TY Music

Excelsior Shopping Centre 

5 Coleman street #B1-32/32A

Tension

Got my Balanced Tension D'Addario... :-)

Screw it

Screw A is Ibanez's default pickup mounting screw. Screw B was included in the DiMarzio package. If it's a situation involving a mounting bracket, the difference in length wouldn't be an issue because the pickup is 'floating' in the cavity, there is more than enough clearance to accommodate that extra length. But the situation here is that of a direct mount pickup, meaning, B's extra length would mean it'll go through the body & puncture its rear. If only the manufacturers would observe some standardization.

Carcass- back to life

Carcass is definitely one of my top 'growing up' bands- relentless speed & brutality, nothing else matters. Glad to hear the band had reformed & Surgical Steel would be released this year but it hit a snag recently when legendary producer Colin Richardson quit the production project. The band brought Andy Sneap to the fold so rest assured, it won't turn out wimpy. Anticipations, anticipations.

Got 7s

Got my DiMarzio 7s. Am I switching camps? Of course not. Ran out of Duncans to try, remember? Heading to Beez's soon...

Black(star) metal

New @ Musikmesse 2013- Blackstar's Metal Amps range. As the name implies, aimed at high gain mongers ranging from a 1W unit to a 100W head. More breaking news to come :-)

Washburn: Parallaxe

Washburn guitars are currently showcasing their new Parallaxe series at Musikmesse. As you can see, the manufacturer is covering the broad range of likable outlines; from the conservative singlecuts, to the shredtastic deep cutaway models & the contemporary 8-string. If you take a closer look, selected models feature the Stephens extended cutaway. The manufacturer promises a mid-price consideration so it's more likely to be affordable to us working class dweebs.

I've been wanting to get hold of a Washburn but there's nothing in the current range that appeal to me since they revised the headstock design of the XM models. Will check these out (if they ever make it here at all).

DiMarzio- differentiated

Yesterday was just a bad day Monday, the day of the week which I am not agreeable with. So I engaged some guitar therapy by lowering the action of my Ibanez SIR27F which entailed into the lowering of the pickup height. The guitar in question was equipped with a pair of DiMarzio PAF7 as default pickups. The picture above is how a PAF7 looks like as depicted at www.dimarzio.com...

But I noticed the PAF7 in the SIR27F looks like this; it has the DiMarzio logo there which was absent in the picture over at the manufacturer's website. I rubbed some talcum powder over it so it would be more visible in this pic.

So I was thinking, what else could be different & decided to unscrew it out of the guitar cavity. The arrowed portion refers to the pickup's chassis & it's not metal; it's made from a synthetic material, plastic if you will.

I am not trying to expose piracy at work but it proves that there might be some cost cutting involved & the fact that some product features are differentiated from the manufacturer's standard issues.

Ibanez: S571

All the good stuff... available everywhere but here. Ibanez S571QM- USA only :-(

LTD: TE Series

Along with the ST Series, the TE Series by LTD are also available at Davis GMC. After trying this one, I kinda like the humbucking neck pickup, not that it's the first time I'm dealing with such guitars but I appreciate how the smooth tones react with the maple fretboard. The TE lists as much as the ST models so it's worth every cent.

Blue wave

Epiphone's Pelham Blue collection... A reminder of what came before this: CLICK

Edwards: E-HR-175III-7S (Part 2)

That's how much my Edwards 7 cost...

The usual touch of an orange in the tone circuit- done at Beez's, of course.

Coil splitting iron

Since I am not gonna have the pickups in my Ibanez Iron Label SIR27F swapped out, I had Beez do a coil split push-pull switch. The Ibanez S-series sports one of the thinnest body edges out there so there was limited room for such a switch in the tone position. As seen above, the switch is in the volume position instead.

LTD: ST-213 ash/ maple (Part 2)

Rear view of the ST-213. Nothing special... OK, maybe the block heel there is a little beveled to allow a slightly more friendly reach to the upper frets. This is normal for LTD, really.

Made in Vietnam- no hiding that.