Not mine

If you are guitar hunting & come across this ad in the after-market, yes that's my guitar in the last pic.

 But it's only my pic used with permission. Please note. 😎

A Talman weekend

I spent the last 2 days playing my Ibanez Talmans.

Saturday, 5th Feb

I spent about 2 hours (at night) playing my acoustic Talman. Sometimes it's good to focus on finger dexterity, leaving the pick aside. For the first half hour or so, it's an unplugged session but frustration set in because I plucked my strings too hard, the right hand became lethargic & mistakes set in. Subsequently, I got the bass amp out & plugged the guitar into it with some chorus & it was a joy to hear that tingling cleans. No chords in play though, just some triads & arpeggios.

Sunday, 6th Feb

I tried to emulate yesterday's clean + chorus episode without much success because the TM-71 in use here isn't a pure acoustic instrument.There's no full-sounding hollow cleans to be had. So it was distortion thereafter, this induced some speed in me but when it's all about speed, the musical aspects of playing gets compromised. Sometimes, when one gets too comfortable with one's gear, drifting into utter rubbish is inevitable.

Talman

It's been a while since a last played my Ibanez Talman- was distracted by active pickups, protruding guitar body outlines, 8-strings & bass, among others. This affordable guitar is definitely my firm favourite namely attributable to the neck profile. I do not favour a finished neck, I sweat too much & the sticky sensation would kick in quickly during play but the overall profile of this neck makes me wanna play for hours (which I did last night). It has that wide/flat feel which helps me play fast with minimal mistakes. The bonus here is that I managed to lower the action to rival some of my RG models so playing it is as inviting as the rest. The default humbuckers are also a surprise; these aren't the darling Super 58s but they are fine through my amps, lots of warmth & clarity.

I'd do well this year to check more Artcore models out.

Ibanez: TM71

The Ibanez TM71 you see here is the only semi-hollow guitar I own. Those familiar with the guitar outline would know it was a member of the discontinued Talman series. The only surviving member is the signature Noodle's NDM2 (NDM1 has also been pulled out of the catalogues WEF2007 but still available in the stores).

The reason I bought this guitar wasn't actually an infatuation with the semi-hollow acoustics but really the regret of not buying the solidbody version when it was still available. Anyway, what intended to be a consolation proved to be rather lethal in terms of driven tone & playability. This is one of the very few guitars sporting a wide neck which I find very manageable. The cleans from this baby isn't stellar (blame in on the shallow body depth) but it's enough to generate a warm midrange response when one utilizes its neck humbucker for some distortion-free moments. This guitar is indeed one of the overlooked tone generator in my line-up, there were times when I plugged it in just to hear how good it sounds rather than embarking on a practice regime. It's also a showcase of the superb Artcore series craftsmanship- I've actually not come across any Artcore model which is a dud.