Price watch (87)

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.

Pic: Musix

Slots

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.

Personality highlight (2): Brother Andy Soh

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

Pics: NAC / Claren Guitars / Andy Soh

Purple Sunday

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.

Yonlapa

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).

Silver Slinky

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? 

 

Pics: Ernie Ball

Ibanez aroma

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 Bo '50s Tele set

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. 

Pic: Seymour Duncan

Ibanez: October '24

A rather bland October over at the Ibanez camp. The TMB400 bass got a new finish - iced Americano burst.

And then there's the TMB405 in this cosmic blue starburst. That's about it.

Pics: Ibanez

Personality Highlight: Brother Halim

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.

Pics: Halim VH / NLB

Red Dinky

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. 

To be continued...

SOLAR: Relik

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.

 

Pic: Solar

October deals @ Sound Alchemy

FYI...

 Pic: SAFB

Iridescent

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.

 

Pic: Epiphone

Price watch (86)

I believe this is one of the most delusional listings I've come across. Why that price tag?

Look at the 'upgrades' but pay particular attention to that last line. 🤦

Rowe

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:

Pic: Jackson