No F

Was.

Is. When you see it.

Angry Tuesday

This arrived yesterday, unboxed just hours ago. I just stopped playing. Managed to squeeze out some of the angriest tones, pedal-free. Every guitar plugged into this little beast just brings out the anger in them, I had 3 going: 1) Ibanez RGD321 2) Yamaha Pacifica 510V 3) John Page Ashburn. That's right, even single coils sounded plain angry here. Will be the weekend before I further appraise its capacity. Awesome.

Swee Lee had updated their EVH listing at their web page. I used to get a 'There are no products in this category' message every time I clicked the link. Despite the void, the EVH section was not removed so I was hoping something good might appear in time to come & the wait paid off, so to speak.

Referential, not preferential

My holiday adventure. Nothing new, really, just revisiting stuff that I'm not inclined to but do own for the sake of reference. I'm referring to EMG pickups as well as signature products.

I'm not an EMG fan (or fan of active pickups per se) but I make it a point to own EMGs. Despite the non-preference, I believe there is an application for EMG somewhere along the way. It's the reason why I crave to hear EMG at times & when that happens, whatever EMG tone I hear would be more of an acceptance than rejection. However, it's not something I would return to subsequently, it seems that the EMG tone is only a reference (for me).

This is the same mindset when I deal with signature products. I'm quite averse to signature guitars but not quite amps & pickups. The reason you see the EVH 5150III in this post. Despite being a signature amp, I am able to concoct my own voicing from it & it delivers what I want to hear & I don't accede to what it has in store for me to begin with- this is the wrong reason for buying stuff; you actually want to sound like the flavour of the moment. That's a big NO for me.

Yesterday's struggle

A very good Monday morning. Wishing you a good start to the week. For those of us who dread this week, it has already begun & it'd be over before you know it. 

I had been sticking to the above gear combo for a week: 1) EVH 5150III amp 2) Guyatone OD2+ 3) Ibanez RG460 (Seymour Duncans on board). Despite having variety, I choose what I'm comfortable with, namely an Ibanez guitar, a mild overdrive & a very high gain amp. The purpose of which is to eliminate poor gear selection during practice so when something goes astray, I know it's me, not my gear.

For the last few weeks or so, I've been working on legato phrasing; nothing new just a regurgitation of what I am very at home with. However, the stuff I was listening to (Quayle/ Howe/ Garsed) had an imprint on me; I was thrown into the depths of the unknown aka, working with 4 notes per string arrangements. There is a way to 'cheat' of course- just tap every 4th note but that would take away the legato feel. So it was a struggle compounded by the fact that I have short fingers. I couldn't get a good 4-notes-per string arrangement & it dawned on me that going back to basics was it. For a good hour yesterday, I developed some exercises to address the situation- yes, address it first, get creative later, much later after proficiency is attained. Speed is not a consideration here, just getting things properly done. Repeating mistakes is not learning.

Headstrong 2

The EVH 5150III does not need any pedal reinforcements as long as distortion goes but I'd like to mess with conventions, if that's what happened earlier today. I plugged in EHX's East River Drive into the amp in series so the pedal sends its driven signals to the amp before everything gets processed & heard through the driver. 

In the crunch channel, the pedal's effect is such that it brought the intensity up, if I may, to the levels offered by the lead channel. However, the voicing has the pedal additives to it, meaning, I could hear the East River Drive ringing in there so it's not just the amp roaring. Letting the pedal influence the lead channel is a case of downright distortion overdose, there's way too much on offer but that's how it is with some of us, we want to go past that limit just for discovery's sake. Due to the nature of the lead channel's distortion, the pedal is reduced to a boost function at best, very little could be heard in terms of the pedal's isolated performance but we don't invest in the 5150III to hear pedals, do we?

Headstrong

I've been holding back on this amp, waiting for further developments in terms of variety. The EVH 5150III had gone from a strict 100W offering to a 50W spinoff we see in the stores. I think I waited a little too long because the cream version that I wish to acquire had been sold out hence the black consolation here.

The thing with Van Halen when it comes to his amps, regardless of the brand name that he endorses, he would firmly bring over his signature tone to the holding brand. In fact, I hear a little refinement in this Fender version (despite the EVH brand taking a forefront when it comes to marketing), it's less treble excessive, that's my only despondence with the Peavey version, the reason why I rejected this amp then- in its previous life. Ditto the cleans; the Peavey incarnation had limited headroom in the clean channel, it would break up rather early in the volume stages & further compounded by your high output pickups.

Everything's thumbs up so far with the 5150III. I'm not after Van Halen's brown sound; this was never on the agenda. I'm impressed with the amp's drive saturation. I'd save this elaboration for another entry :-)