Deepavali greetings, dear friends & blog readers. A Thursday holiday would usually entail a strong inertia to return to work the following day. Anyway, it's a good rest day for me, hope it's likewise to you if you are not doing your festive visits. I stayed indoors, managed to re-string a couple of guitars. Happy.
The other 'new' Ibanez model this October is this blue RG8870 - they call this finish sodalite. FYI, the existing / older RG8870 is a black guitar.
For variety's sake, there's also this natural-esque finish which the manufacturer refers to as brownish sphalerite. Reminder - the special feature of this guitar is its chambered body.
A new one by Cort: KX700TT. That TT there stands for True Temparament frets, those wavy (steel) frets you see here. This kinked design offers a true tuning manifestation. The guitar, according to learned, bionic-eared musicians, are slightly out of tune at various positions across the fretboard so those kinks serve to correct that anomaly. If you actually hear this out-of-tune phenomenon happening every time you play, this might be for you but it's gonna set you back a good $2.5k (available at Swee Lee now). In addition to that, you will also get a state of the art Schaller fixed bridge & Fluence pickups. Personally, my idea of a Cort is affordability + no-frills. That asking price is a little too much, really.
The new other guitarist in Cradle of Filth is Donny Burbage. He has good chops, definitely. Looked him up & he's on Ibanez's endorser roster which stated he's using the RGT1221 (above) & an RGDR4327. Ever since Richard Shaw departed, my interest in COF waned a little owing to the combo of disinterest (COF is really black metal) & the fact that COF is Danny Filth. That inclined highlight is sometimes taking away deserving attention from really good players in the band as exemplified by Shaw. FYI, the RGT1221 is available @ Swee Lee for $1,899 (Premium, MII)
There's a 7-string revival of sorts in the Fender camp. It seems that they're beta testing a proto model 7-string & they are hyping things up by saying it's been perfected in time for regular production soon. Soon here might be Winter NAMM '25 considering it's already the tail end of the year & Fender don't usually release new stuff in November / December.
Fender had dabbled with the 7-string idea before, this revival might be hoodwinking us into re-accepting a 7-string with the Fender name at the headstock. As it was, players rather go with a non-Fender 7-string. The attempt to make a Fender more accessible by subverting it into the Squier offerings didn't bode well for the manufacturer. There had been no 7-string models in both the Fender & Squier camps for a while & they should keep it that way.
Since Fender owns Jackson / Charvel / EVH - these names possess a stronger pulling power when it comes to 7-strings. Ideally, these names should handle the 7-string domain. Then again, we do not have details to see the bigger picture. The grand scheme of things might be to conceive a semi-unaffordable 7-string Fender & pushing players to buy the watered down Mexican versions of even Squiers. Ibanez, ESP, Solar are staple names when it comes to the 7-string appeal. Trying to dislodge them from the 7-string market would require a tremendous amount of inside knowledge / effort that would most likely lead to a misallocation of resources / funds.
I'm neither a signature model fan nor a fan of protrusive body shapes like this new EVH Star TOM but the single pickup is definitely my thing. The fact that there's no FR bridge in there means it'll bring the price down a wee bit more. This is so GAS-inducing but that kill switch... deal breaker (for me).
This is a perfect example of how personal philosophy caved in following strong commercial demand. PRS himself made a public statement as to how musicians should accept an instrument for what it is & not demand a left-handed version to suit their personal needs. He gave an example of the piano - there's no lefty piano. Then again, the guitar is not a piano & there are some design aspects that could be tailored to fit specialized needs.
The lefty PRS SE Silver Sky is now available at Swee Lee ($1,149) if you are that type of player.
Late to this, only found out when some friends asked if I am going (unfortunately, I would be across the Causeway on this day). More details here (registration required): CLICK
LINE 6 - you've heard this name before. It's still in the multi-FX scene, just not as upfront as before. Understandably so as the Neural, Akai, Fractal & gang stole the limelight every now & then leaving LINE 6 in the shadows. Anyway, the POD Express Series (yes, there are others) has a metal-type offering with a distortion focus more than anything else - hence the BLACK monicker. Even the promo clip has the distortion emphasis:
The PE Black is still not listed at Yamaha SG's web store as it's still new, launched just days ago. Both the PE bass & guitar are listing for $285 each. Expect a similar price listing for this one. The PE Black lists for USD179.99 (SGD237) over at many US online stores so if Yamaha decided to list this for $285 together with the rest of the PE units, it's definitely an excessive mark up.
PS: New follower alert - BEHOLDER. Welcome aboard!
You won't know Tak Matsumoto unless you're a big J-Pop fan. Regardless, Epiphone has a signature model (top) for him based on his Gibson version (bottom), Why is this important? That Epiphone headstock duplicating the Gibson counterpart. First time? Gibson did it for Hammett & Bonamassa, among others. Strings here wrap over the hardtail, so no tune-o-matic bridge in sight. Please manage expectations with regards to intonation issues.
Being someone rooted to the guitar + amp combo, I've never been enticed by any digital effects offering. Episodes with BOSS, ZOOM, Digitech & Korg, among others, left a negative impression in terms of tone & ease of use. Decades later, I've seen technology facilitating this displeasure. Tones get more refined to adequately mask the digital interpretation of signals & of late, there is an increase in ease of use for many digital units. Fractal's VP4 reflected the manufacturer's adaptation in appealing to those of us who would like a no-frills experience with digital units with all the appealing tones on board. I've not tried it personally but the initial impression, after watching some demo clips, is that the VP4 is Fractal coming full circle in trying to appeal to the larger segment of players who are simply plug-&-play people. Looking forward to test this out once it's available here. (EDIT: Davis GMC is taking pre-orders - $999)
Trying to understand why Fender released The American Ultra II, especially at this time of the year. FYI, the Ultra II is at the upper tier of the range, listing for more than USD2K...
The selection includes this Meteora model. Don't see how this shape is an easy appeal to buyers out there...
The red Dinky (JS12) that was left for dead had a paint chip at the machine head area. I'm trying to imagine what would have caused this to happen considering this was mostly unplayed.
Touched it up with paint. Not gonna spend money on this rather obscure detail considering the playability of the instrument is of more importance.
By the time you read this, be informed that Jake E Lee is in a stable condition after being shot. He's so stable that he could call Friedman Amps to approve the launch of his signature pedal despite the sensitive situation he was in. Preliminary investigations showed that the shooting was intentional despite him being a random target. Shells found at the scene showed that the shooter emptied the clip on him. Damn. Here's wishing Jake E Lee a speedy recovery so that he could once again dwell into all things guitar & get us all excited once again.
The new Gretsch Center Block model is actually a collaboration with Depeche Mode's Martin Gore. We know Mr. Gore isn't that flashy type of a player but he stayed true to the Gretsch cause since his early years with DM. So what what we see here is actually an acknowledgement by a guitar manufacturer on one of the greatest musician to tread the electronic pop genre - no frills feature, not even the Bigsby whammy bridge in there.
I grew up with DM music, these were all in the radio back then before guitar music took over my interest. I still listen to pop music to learn a thing or two about good melodies & song structure which are easily obscured by guitar driven songs. More importantly, I respect Gretsch for recognizing who Martin Gore really is, first & foremost - a Gtretsch guitar geek from the start.
After watching this clip, I'm in absolute concurrence with Mr. Gore when he said, "... I don't know where songs come from." There shouldn't be a definite source, that's for sure. Songs tend to happen more than being intentionally written. In the creative domain (which I am from, professionally), it's this this concept of flow; an immersive episode leading to creativity, among others (M. Csikszentmihalyi, 2010).
On a personal note, the Gretsch line of guitars, majority of them, are beyond my comfort handling. They are conceived to manifest an acoustic timbre & the body dimensions matter in this case. Unfortunately, I'm not naturally framed to enjoy these kind of guitars despite them being very appealing for specific applications.
The Fender American Performer Timber series were released in Summer this year (CLICK) & it's now available here for the above listed price. Folks, the Performer sits at the lowest tier in Fender's American offerings & we can say that it's unaffordable with reference to its latest asking price. The Performer was $1.7k +/- when it debuted, moving on to $2,150 in mid 2023. Bottom line: Fender is screwing everyone with their prices & we all still want one because it's Fender.
By now, it's rather obvious that they are pricing the Americans out so the average Joe out there would look at the Mexican models to begin with. We saw how, in recent times, they revved up the specs of the Player models (now referred to as the Player II) to compensate the fact that it's not American but worth the consideration in view of the specs. To put things in perspective, the Player II Strat lists for $1,299 in the mean time. This is more than the most affordable American Fender, the Highway 1, which was $1,099 in 2008. Not a good time to be buying Fenders.
Oversight - the slots here were not deep enough to contain the strings so a good part of these strings were virtually sitting on the nut material instead of being inside the slots.
Deeper slots. Did I use a file? I don't own one. I use the excess wound G string to floss out the slot cavity. Verdict - no buzzing at the nut & strings sit in the slots. Crude approach but it worked.
Next up is brother Andy Soh. He is a certified busker under the NAC scheme for outdoor entertainers.
Andy's guitar of choice is the Claren Guitars MINI 1. This is a scaled down, single cutaway, electro acoustic which is a very comfortable & super playable instrument especially if you are always on the go. By the way, Andy is part owner of Claren Guitars which offer full solid acoustics mostly, at super prices. OK, I own one. If you have been following me for a while, you'd know that I have this constant struggle with acoustics. I have given up on many brand names out there that offer scaled down versions of their popular models because those are simply not to my liking due to set up & playability issues. I was pretty much done chasing this ideal until Andy himself reached out to me to check out his range of guitars & that was it.
Andy is actively busking at the following venues: Holland Village, Tanglin Mall, City Square Mall, padestrian area outside Wisma Atria / Takashimaya SC. Please say HI or do one better by contributing generously. He also does private events (birthday parties, wedding receptions) if you are interested. Xmas is coming, so that office Xmas party can be a little special with a live performance, yes? Do reach out to him via his Instagram account: iamsohandy
Just got the wiring for this sorted out. On the way home, finally met the guitar GOAT 😅
It's like this - The replacement pickups for this guitar are DiMarzios. This guitar features Ibanez's dyna-MIX10 switching system. DiMarzio pickups have to be wired in another way, not conforming to Ibanez's colour code. In this case, DiMarzio's Fusion Edge humbuckers actually follow the Ibanez color code. So there. We were made to figure out an unnecessary permutation of wirings only to realize that the original combo is the correct one to begin with.
I can't remember when was the last time I was at Baybeats. Today, I made time to watch Yonlapa because: 1) There are seats for sick people like me 2) The performance time did not clash with my medication time. Yonlapa is a Thai indie band. I personally believe if they are from the West, they would be a bigger, more well known act because the standard on show is up there with the best, just the 'wrong' ethnicity to be playing this type of music, so it seems.
I discovered the band during one of my chemo sessions & got hooked ever since. Regardless of who you are, I respect you for your music first & foremost. The rest are just further details to me. Please take time to check out the song I'm Just Like That (above).
Ernie Ball now has a John Mayer Slinky set aptly called the Silver Slinky. EB already has a 10.5 set similar to the SS set but differs slightly when it comes to the wound strings as shown above. The reason why people would wanna get the SS set is because it has John Mayer there, agree?
Colleague bought an Ibanez acoustic starter pack for her son. I was tasked to do a set up suitable for beginners. There was an Ibanez tuner in the starter kit (together with picks & a strap). It looks exactly like... Now you know.
Joe Bonamassa has a new set of Seymour Duncan Tele pickups - The Joe Bonamassa 1950 Broadcaster pickups. These are the type of pickups which might not appeal to high gain dweebs in view of the philosophy behind its conception as the name implies. However, I'm impressed with the neck pickup's clarity & would be interested in giving it a high octane distortion application.
The fact that a Squier was used in the demo clip above gave the pickups the deserving flex - the sheer tonal focus & it's never about the guitar.
Greetings, folks. For the month of October, I will be showcasing some individuals very much affiliated to the guitar at large but making marks in the music scene as well. They come from all walks of life with a strong passion for music & everything related. The objective here is to accord highlight to deserving individuals who are beyond the popular media attention. More importantly, I value their friendship / acquaintance. We begin the instalment with Brother Halim.
Brother Halim (also known as Halim VH among friends) is a Singaporean guitarist who is now residing in Johor Bahru. He is currently one of the founding members of Etcetera. He is also on guitar duties with The Guzzbuzz Project where he got to wield his scalloped 'board Epiphone (Kasih MV) & a Fender Strat (Palsu MV).
His main squeeze & personal favourite is definitely the Ibanez 540R which I had the privilege of re-stringing once (CLICK to read). Wishing Brother Halim all the best in all his musical endeavours. He is definitely one of the respected senior members (or otai as they say) in the local & neighbouring guitar circle. In the mean time, do check out the following MVs for the songs Kasih & Palsu.
This Jackson Dinky (JS12) was left for dead. The person whom it was bought for left for further studies & clearly uninterested in the instrument. The nut came off when it was handed over to me, it had paint stains on parts of the body, nothing severe but some splatters. The connection was intermittent despite the frets being super shiny, indicating scant or no play time. For some unknown reason, it had a paint chip at one of the tuners, exposing the wood underneath. The person who did the handing over told me it was lying on the floor all along hence the paint crack at the neck heel.
That's right, folks. Solar guitars now offer the AB1.6 in a relic finish. The infatuation over the worn out, semi-desecrated look will not go away any time soon. Nothing really new here, hardware & electronics were done in other Solar models prior to this Relik series. Yes, it's officially called the Relik model.
This is an Epiphone Joe Bonamassa Les Paul. Wait. Let me re-phrase that. This is another one of many Joe Bonamassa Les Pauls. I believe he has more than 10 such models with Epiphone, some are non-Les Pauls. It's a very ordinary Epiphone less the iridescent finish which is a flip flop formula in today's guitar-speak. The exact citation for this model is Joe Bonamassa 1955 Les Paul Standard Copper Iridescent & it lists for USD849. Maybe - just maybe - it will be available here in time to come.
This is a new one by Jackson; Diamond Rowe Monarkh DR12MG. Diamond Rowe is the guitarist for Tetrarch. All these are new to me. This is what she has to say about her guitar:
