Re-string: E-II HRF

OK, so this was last weekend's engagement. There was this strong urge to hear some menacing active pickups in action & I don't have too many around as I prefer passive pickups. The E-II HRF here is equipped with a pair of Seymour Duncan Blackout humbuckers & they just sound brutal in an appealing way. 

Here they are up close. I actually bought this guitar because the active pickups are not EMGs. I've nothing against the EMG, the 57/66 are my firm favourites from this brand name. 

A set of Acoustic Science strings which I still have lying around here. That name there is a little misleading; it's supposed to be a brand name, not the type of strings contained in the pack. 

Just to share - the ESPs were equipped with Cleartone strings at the factory & this is proof. I liked them since I bought my first ESP & I still like them now. These days, the Cleartone name faces stiff competition from Elixir & D'Addario in terms of string life technology & a little under-rated in terms of exposure. 

To end this entry, I just wanna say that this was my final ESP purchase, I stopped buying out of sheer disappointment. It had absolutely nothing to do with the quality on offer; these are still handled by the people who did their bit for the ESP Standard range & remain to be the pride of Japanese production. I'm just super let down by the fact that market segregation necessitated a label change & they chose to drop ESP from the headstock while still flagging this as an ESP product. I have more respect for the Edwards range as they are getting by in a stand-alone environment but still remain ESP to the core. If you have saved enough money to acquire an ESP, would you tell people, darn I'm finally gonna buy an E-II! Or would you rather go with, darn, I'm finally gonna buy an ESP! I have a spot spot for ESP as we have something personal in common but that had come to pass. We move on. 

OK folks, it's the holiday eve - party responsibly, promise?

Deactivated (yet another)

My Ibanez RGR08LTD. I see this as one of the better made ones from the Indonesian factory.

This was the original pickup in it; a factory default Seymour Duncan active Blackout humbucker.

It was removed & the Nazgul took over. I would describe the Nazgul as a mystic Distortion, lots of vent-up anger shrouded by the black arts, ready to be unleashed. Is it a direct substitute for the Blackout? A passive unit will never do an active's job but it can deliver aggression on its own merit. I think I've lost interest in active pickups, they were not my thing to begin with & I see this swap as a sensible move. 

Selling: Seymour Duncan Blackout (bridge)

Letting this go. I can do with lesser ACTIVE-ity 😎

• Seymour Duncan Blackout bridge humbucker
• 8/10 condition
• Included: Pickup mounting screws + springs/ Pickup mounting bracket/ 25K tone + volume pot + capacitor/ Stereo output jack
• Self-collect: CCK mrt station
• No reservations/ trades
• Queries/ confirmation: subversion.sg@gmail.com
• Price: $90 (final)

Blackouts = passive?

I chanced upon this FB post earlier today citing the Seymour Duncan Blackout as a passive unit. I've been a Seymour Duncan fan for a while (since 1994, in fact) & don't recall the Blackout range being passive pickups. I posted a query asking Xtreme Guitars to help me highlight the fact that I might have missed a recent update of sorts; Seymour Duncan might have revised this product range & I might have overlooked crucial details.

PIC: https://www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/blackouts-neck

I was linked to the relevant SD Blackout page (which I've visited before), a portion of which is reproduced here to highlight the fact that one of the accompanying Blackout accessory is a battery clip. Ladies & gentlemen, am I right to say that only active pickups require a power source (in this case a battery supply) to function?

On that note, Xtreme guitars is a local commercial entity here in Singapore, please drop by their FB page & do your part to support local business. 👌

Black magic

Was a re-string Sunday. A set of Martin Darco strings into my Ibanez RGR08. What does a name like 'Martin' mean to players in the solid body turf? Not much, really. But the Darco set is one of the most affordable & above-average out there. If you think you don't have much $$ to spare but in need of a reliable set of strings- there you go. Just be informed that the B string is a little thicker, going at 11.5 instead of the standard 11.

Sometimes we just have to go the other way to be inspired. I'm not much of an active pickup fan but I do own guitars with such pickups. The Ibanez RGR08 is one of them. Last weekend was my bout with crushing guitar tones which didn't really make the cut in terms of clarity. I kept blaming the amp for the short-comings but a quick switch to active pickups did the job. Active pickups were meant for simply that- cold, calculated, crushing distortion so they should be the rightful reference. We often try too hard with what we think would get the job done instead of embracing what were meant for it all along.

Gibson: Blackout Explorer

The newbie by Gibson- Blackout Explorer. Definitely meant for high gain applications with those Dirty Fingers humbuckers in there. Looks the works but again, the manufacturer's choice for fingerboard material remains questionable- it's a composite material.

Saturday activity

This was yesterday's indulgence- active pickup. It's not my initial foray into active territory, no. Just that yesterday, my goal was to take something I seldom use or not quite in favour of & try to tweak it to be 'nice'. Don't get me wrong, I love active pickups- for all things distortion & harsh-sounding, that is. For the rest of my needs, the passive pickup just kicks the active in the rear in terms of dynamics. But hey, there's no 'better' when there are numerous options out there, it's just a matter of preference for the intentions- what do you need to deliver? So choose the tools accordingly. So this was yesterday's set up:

Guitar - Compressor - Amplifier

The Seymmour Duncan Blackout provides definition to it all, it wasn't the reason why I sounded like the way I did yesterday.

Blackout!

The above guitar is my Ibanez RGR08, a great mid-priced player. The real reason I bought it is due to......Seymour Duncan's Blackout pickup which was equipped as the default unit. I'm not a fan of active electronics but after plugging in this guitar, the Blackout really appealed in terms of distortion. Seymour Duncan's forte here is keeping the definition in tact while manifesting lots of distortion. For those of us playing heavy music & solo-inclined, this is rather crucial.

Ibanez: RGR08LTD

I was @ Swee Lee last week, came across the RGR08LTD (finally here!) which is a splendid player. The active Duncan you see there is the Blackout model; very drive-inclined but not much pleasurable, clean. The fact that it's the solitary pickup there means your tone is limited to its default voicing. The O8LTD also has no tone control, in lieu of this, the guitar features a kill switch which is a love/ hate (hate for me) affair. If your amp isn't grounded, the kill switch activates hum when the pickup is not engaged...

That aside, how useful can a 1-pickup guitar be for you? Well, Alan Holdsworth shuts everyone up when he plays his single humbucking guitar which implies, if it works for you, then it works regardless of whatever everyone else has to say. The 08LTD would serve the distortion mongers out there with no qualms; the Duncan Blackout has great clarity to boot, much more appealing than the average EMG (my take, of course. If you prefer EMG then good for you...); maybe that's the reason Mick Thompson has a pair in his signature model, replacing the EMGs in the prevoious incarnation of the Ibanez MTM1.

However, I've only one dislike here; the fretboard markers are very unappealing, to say the least...

Product availability: Swee Lee Co
List: $909