Charvel: MJs

Latest from Charvel - Made in Japan guitars. I mean, what's the big deal, really? Swee Lee used to clear the Japanese Charvels for good prices. Maybe we were the lucky ones in this part of the world to have Japanese Charvels in store back then. Of course, those were the pre-Fender owned Charvels. 

As the story goes, new Japanese Charvels available in pao ferro & maple fretboard versions. Precisely, these are known as the MJ San Dimas Style 1 HSH FR. Pickups are Seymour Duncans: JB / Jazz combo with an SSL-6 in the middle. Staying true to the Japanese pedigree, the bridge is a GOTOH GE-1996T. These should be predictably in the mid-price range but highly likely to debut here in 2024, subjected to the new GST rate. Darn. 

Pics: Charvel

Black for black

Goodbye - Korg Pitch Black. Not selling it away but laying it to rest. Had been using it since 2009; it's always on the ready, never kept away. Lately, there would be a loss in signal once the battery is about to die. It had served me well.

Hello -  FZone PT-01. A cheap Chinese tuner, it's slightly less than $30 during the online 11.11 sale. It's the first time I come across this brand name. Appraisal soon.

That strap

Black Friday deal, bought this online for less than $25. This is, in my opinion,  a good, generic guitar bag.... 

 ... less this oversight, of course. This is what happens if a non-guitar manufacturer enters the guitar world without first being learned of the industry.

2K Mex

The day we (Fender benders) dread is finally here; the Mexican Strat has crossed the $2K mark. The Vintera Limited Edition Road Worn 50s HSS Strat is currently listing for $2,149 (Tele version - $2,099). So... would you tell yourself to save $2k to buy a... Mexican Fender? 

The irony of it all - when Leo Fender created the Tele & Strat way back in the day, these were meant to be affordable instruments. The pickguard electronics mount & the bolt-on features kept costs down while tone remained delectable. Fast forward today, the Fender name had somehow swung to the elitist corner with prices getting out of hand pretty quickly. By the way, what's wrong with Mexican Fenders? Answer: The price. 

Pic: Fender Inetrnational

Played

This is a screen grab from Swee Lee's Black Friday listings. The guitars in question are Fender's Junior models (Japan). Looks like $1,359 is a good price after some discounts.

Did you realize they increased prices before these instruments were on Black Friday sale? The above screen grab was from their June sale. Note the initial Fender Junior Strat price - $1,449 vs the current $1,599. Despite the Black Friday promo, you are actually paying more for what could have been a better bargain. 

Ditto the Squier 40th Anniversary models ($729 @ August 2023 vs $749 current pre-discount) & other guitars. On that note, how many times did you see the 40th Anniversary models being put on sale? These cost more now; do you think they will be snapped up faster than before?

Of course, I'm not Swee Lee... I have no idea what's going on behind the scenes when it comes to prices but I am here to share this with you so that you know where to channel your hard earned cash this year end. I have good friends at Swee Lee & have no intentions to hurt anyone's feelings. 

Wishing everyone a good week ahead as we leave the final weekend of November...

Sparkle-tron

Heads up, folks... Fender Japan has a new Telecaster with a sparkle finish & a pair of Filter Trons. Retailing at the $1.4K mark, it might prove to be a good deal. Note that this is not a vintage iteration of some historic Tele, it's as contemporary as it is but frets are of the narrow-tall type. Current finish available: Black, silver, blue.

Pic: Fender Japan

Black Friday 2023

Yes, it's that time of the year when buying new gear is on top of everyone's mind. Various deal in town, I'm just highlighting a few here. Sound Alchemy has some combo deals that's worth checking out but these last till Cyber Monday.

Davis GMC's deals are online. 

Swee Lee added guitars & bass to its Black Friday deals. Do visit their web store to view the lists.

Last but certainly not least, City Music goes one-up by kicking off their year-end sale this Black Friday.

Do give due considerations to the stuff you fancy before taxes go up come 2024.

R & M

Early start to the guitar-ing day, just my two Strats. Both Japanese, both based on Fender's late '60s iteration (hence truss rod access at the neck heel, not headstock). Slight differences; the maple fretboard version is a hybrid model featuring a 2-point bridge + medium jumbo frets. 

Maple vs rosewood fretboard - do I hear a difference in tone? More apparent in clean mode. Once intense drive / distortion kicks in, difference is barely audible. The rosewood version has this warmer tone, like it's keeping the excessive treble in check, most apparent in the neck pickup position. The maple version, I prefer to play solos with this one. 

There's something about the Japanese pickups that convinced me to keep them in tact. They are simply wonderful clean & distorted.

Price watch (68): Rotten edition

Folks, I've never done this before, it's a first. This guitar is currently an active listing in the aftermarket. The Jackson Minion Series is a short scale instrument & it doesn't come with a bag. The price you see there is the latest revision by the seller.

Seller gave me the lowest rating based on the reason stated above.

I was not agreeable with the initial price as it did not come with a bag. If I have to purchase one from Swee Lee, it would set me back another $75. Seller shared he wanted a Floyd-type bridge instead & asked me stuff about whether some Jackson guitars can be modded to fit one. My due advise was that the default cavity in any guitar should be big enough to accommodate the FR bridge dimension. Cavities for traditional whammy bridge (eg. that of a Strat / non-Floyd Jackson) would not fit the FR model. I also advised him to buy a guitar with an FR bridge already fitted in as the cost of re-routing a cavity is not cheap. He finally asked me if $200 is an agreeable price & I agreed hence the screen grab you see here.

And then this happened - he raised the price which effectively voided the previous agreement. I politely backed out. Note the time & date of this comm.

Two days later, another comm was made & again I politely reminded him it was a no go. Coming back to the rating screen grab - note that seller got back to me two days later... how was this a 'back out last minute'? Mind you, I backed out immediately & from the conversations you see above, it seems that the seller did not understand the crux of the matter. Also, would you communicate with someone at 2am in the morning?

I hereby re-iterate the fact that sometimes, I am being too nice to people. If you are fuzzy with buy-sell terms, note that once an offer is accepted, the agreement is binding. If any terms of the agreement change without the other party agreeing to it, the agreement is void. If you fail to understand the mechanics of contract law, it might be the reason why you are bent on blaming the other party for something you failed to begin with.

I already own an RR Minion, I am negotiating this deal for a young learner. At this time of the year, I am happy to facilitate meaningful indulgences to keep kids out of trouble during the year end school holidays. Picking up music / learning to play an instrument is certainly one of them. I also make it a point not to expend too much energy dealing with such individuals - simply not worth it. 

PS: If you know this individual personally, maybe you can share with me stuff to make me understand why he behaved this way. This is not a doxxing exercise, I have made efforts to conceal his i/d. See... I'm still being too nice to people who treated me like trash.

SDG

Your death metal allegiance will come to nought if you don't know Steve DiGiorgio. Many of us would know him though the band, Death (defunct). I know him through Sadus. In fact, I find Sadus interesting because of Steve's bass works in there; he's one of the more technical players in this genre who cleverly mixed his parts without getting in the way of the guitars. If you listen to Death's Human, you'd hear his fretless bass in action.

That's right - fretless. That's how his signature Ibanez is; a fretless 5-string (SDGB1), modelled after the BTB Series. This is downright deserving; Steve DiGiorgio should have been given one much earlier but we know how it is with endorsements & bass players; they are second fiddle to the guitar guys. Do note the fingerboard material in use - Ebonol. This is a synthetic material, very much in the likes of Richlite. Ebonol is a composite of resin & fibre (paper), a surprisingly popular material of choice in the bass circle. 

After watching this promo video (yes, he's playing stuff from Death's Human), you'd agree this guy's precision is scary. Anyway, this bass was initially left out of the November release list only to appear like a week into the month. Better late than never.

Pics: Ibanez / FSantiago

SBS

This happened last week but many pictures were not up yet so it's featured today instead. I am of the opinion that Solar guitars are affordable. Well, at least they are fairly priced. But things just got more affordable lately. S by Solar (SBS) is a sister brand that offers a more affordable take on things.

Many of the Solar models are offered in the SBS lineup but colours are limited in the mean time. Prices are in the USD219 - USD299 range so these are indeed affordable instruments. Of course, we don't have a proper Solar dealer here. I won't lead you to Cristoffori to check things out because their Solar inventory is poor; no new models came in since Solar had made direct purchases (from their web store) possible.

Pics: SBS

Yellow Sunday

Out & about. Actually, I was at Beez's to get the 3-way selector for this Jackson replaced. Usually, I would drop by Gloria Jean's (Esplanade) for a cuppa before heading home. These two kids are located near Gloria Jean's, of course.

I'm taking this opportunity to try these Jackson strings as well. I will not commit to this brand because the price is riding on the Jackson name for sure. We all know Jackson does not have a string manufacturing facility. They might get the parent company, Fender, to do it for them. However, the packaging, especially the grey plastic that contained the strings, are all hinting at a D'Addario affair. 

Straturday

Had been playing Ibanez all week so it's time for change... Strat time. Nothing fancy just my white Strat with that big CBS-era headstock. Specifically, it's the Fender Hybrid '68 model. The Hybrid monicker is an obvious hint of a fusion of details, some are from the late 60s era (eg. big headstock, truss rod access at the neck heel), others a modern inclusion (eg. 2-post bridge).

I am particular with strap buttons missing the felt underlay. Over time, the metal & body finish will fuse. If you remove the button, off comes the lacquer / paint & this will devalue the instrument.

There we go. It's  not a costly affair. You can get these at Davis GMC for less than a dollar each. 

Of course, this one was due for a re-string & it's SIT this time. I kinda like pure nickel strings with single coils for that warm twang, nothing excessively bright. But these cost more & I used to purchase the D'Addario version but if you've been following my entries of late, I'm doing away with D'Addario because of the price hikes. There are other string brands out there which are equally outstanding & cost less. 

SCA_SEW

 ... and the weekend is here. Had been Ibanez-ing the entire week with these two:

SCA220. After missing out on the S-Classic (SC), this SCA220 was the consolation. Inadvertently, this prepped me up to embrace the SZs which were introduced subsequently. The difference? Unlike the SC, the SCA features a flat back with a curved body top. The SC replicated the S-Series body strictly & had the input jack access on the body top. Pickups here are Seymour Duncan 59 & Custom 5 combo.

SEW761. One of my fav S-Series but it's breaking down right under my nose. The fretboard is coming off the neck & I didn't see this happening because it's on the treble side which I don't look at while playing. I only realized something was wrong when fret buzz began to be heard. It will be an expensive endeavour to get this fixed; removing the entire fretboard & re-glueing everything once more. It might mean the removal of the frets to get the job done. Re-fretting + re-glueing would cost me nearly the price of this guitar to begin with so it's a no go. I've re-dressed the frets of the affected area in the mean time. So far, so good.

Hail, King Y

Pretty much everyone got ticked off by Malmsteen, his demeanour especially, along the way despite him being the reigning king of neo-classical rock. I am of the opinion that some of the things he said / did were scrutinized out of context. The fact that I still listen to him & not Vai / Satch in the mean time, speaks a lot about appeal & relevance.

I've actually watched this a few times, once in its entirety & the rest, jumping to selective time frames to re-listen & respect his music / gear philosophy. It's a little under an hour but darn worthy it.

Pic: Loudmouth

S-A-S-B

Must admit I've not been keeping up with what Satch is up to lately. He's been roped into Sammy Hagar's touring lineup together with Mike Anthony & Bonham. Aw, darn!

Totally agree with what Sammy had to say having Satch in the lineup. Just wish these guys would swing this way. That's right - wish.

Pic: EddieT

Dead mods

I just brushed this aside when I first saw it a couple of days ago; just another Silver Sky iteration with a top mount input jack.

Folks, the guitar in question is the PRS Silver Sky given the Dead Spec mod. The main highlight here is of course that top mounted input jack with that flick switch I initially thought was a pickup selector. A careful re-look showed the SS already had a 5-way so this one is a pre-amp switch (Blaster they call it). Adding to this are the top-mounted fixed bridge which still has a whammy bar hole. Obviously, they avoided re-tooling for this one. Over at the headstock, there's a string retainer bar which is unnecessary if string pressure is the consideration - it was absent in the original iteration. According to PRS, this adds to resonance... like it would make a drastic difference in tone. Not. If you can hear it, then good for you. 

This is how the rear of the body looks like. You won't realize it's a fixed bridge till you go flip-side & note there are no springs here for some whammy-able moments. I'm just interested in the ash body & fixed bridge feature, of course, it has to be a real fixed bridge sans whammy bar hole.

Pics: PRS

Pro Loomis

A new one from Jackson - Jeff Loomis' Pro-Series Kelly got a hard tail treatment. That's about it. Should it be more interesting than merely featuring a non-whammy version? If it should, then Jackson would be wise to hold it off till 2024. Nice body grain there & it's not ash.

Pic: Jackson USA

Deepavali '23

Ah... Deepavali long weekend. As I reside quite proximate to the Woodlands Checkpoint, I could hear some fireworks being let off over at Johor Bahru last night (Saturday). It's good to soak in the festive atmosphere as it reminds us of how traditional & religious festivals still play a part in shaping the identity of this country. Have a good, deserving rest, everyone.

Slashed

Slash leaving the Marshall camp is news. Really. We are also starting to read bits about how Marshall had not been living up to its name & how players are beginning to embrace something else. In this day of technological development, brand loyalty shouldn't be a big deal. In fact, it should have been quality focus all along. Also, it's Slash. He moves money even when he played a fake guitar. Magnatone - let's see who will bring this in here.

Pic: Arsenbach / Scanpix

Bruno-caster

Bruno Mars' contributions to pop music is downright significant. But we see him more of a singer-songwriter, not as a guitarist. Does he deserve a signature Strat? 

Pic: Fender

DS 50th

A totally unnecessary purchase - another DS-1. But this is a special one, released in a darker shade of orange.

Because it's an anniversary edition. By the way, it's 50th Anniversary not 50 Year Anniversary. Available at Swee Lee now (List: $129).

Twin Peaks

New wah pedal by Ibanez - TWP10 aka Twin Peaks. How is this any different from the others? This one offers a blending option; you can dial in both the low & high frequencies into your wah tone. Whatever it is, it moves you away from Kirk Hammett territory which is always a good thing. Good news - it's now available at Swee Lee (List: $199). Here's a good demo of how it's like in use:

Pic: Ibanez

Plush screamer

In a bona fide attempt to cushion (no pun intended) the impact of having less instruments released this month, Ibanez has the softest alternative for you - the TSMAXI001, otherwise known as the Tube Screamer plushie. Great gift idea for the festive season, yes?

Pic: Ibanez

Offset P

 Fender has offset picks. You know, that asymmetrical offset design.

And then there's Honey Jar guitar picks. These people had been there for a while, way before Fender could offset their picks. OK so there's bevelling & pointed tips for the HJ version. It's called design iteration.

Pics: Fender / HJ

Strat-esque

This is a good one - Schecter's BH-1-STD-24 ($1,490 @ Davis GMC). Reminds me too much of the Fender HM Strat without the Floyd Rose shenanigans. Ash body gives it a tight bottom end; at least that's how I heard it. Pickups - might be more for the drive geeks. Good price for a Japanese instrument.

Pic: Schecter Japan

F-less

There are no new guitars from Ibanez this November. The only new stringed instrument this month is this AEGB24FE. It's a fretless electro-acoustic bass but not featuring a solid top. Not surprising as the AEGBs are not higher tier instruments. Also not surprising - no new guitars this month & we can expect likewise for December. All new stuff will be released in January 2024. 

Pic: Ibanez

Ball end goodness (2)

Colleague asked if I could re-string guitars as well but it's a nylon string model which the daughter had issues dealing with. Specifically, she's done with trying to get the bridge end of the strings to stay put. I asked if she would consider a ball end version & she was willing to try.

So here it is, all done & good to go. Fret board conditioning & nut slot filing / lubricating included.