Dime - 59

Thought long & hard about it & finally decided to do some mods to this guitar. I believe this guitar is the one most attended to by Beez. The 3-way selector & pots get corroded very fast. I have no idea what's going on with the internals of this guitar, it's like there's a mini seaside atmosphere with salty winds blowing in there & corroding metal parts in no time.

The major make over was the neck pickup; the P-Rails made way for a '59. The late Dimebag's pickups in his guitar were a Dimebucker - 59 pair just that his 59 was a bridge version deployed in the neck position. Since I'm not Dimebag, I have no obligations to replicate that set up so I went with an average Joe's '59. The reason for doing this - I have a current affinity with lower output pickups & an appreciation for their interaction with high levels of distortion. It's also one of the best when it comes to a no frills clean tone. 

The other mod not seen above - removed the coil split tone pot, making do with a regular version. There's a lot of flak out there when it comes to the Dimebucker. Many people find it too excessive in the midrange & not an ideal pickup to be had in the bridge position which makes any pickup a little bright in there. So there's excessive brightness that renders the humbucker 'useless' but this is a niche pickup with a peculiar spec by the late Dimebag himself; it's supposed to sound like that to begin with. Players who bought the pickup in the hope that it sounds like something else were clearly misrepresented along the way. I bought this one in the absolute knowledge that it would be a make/break pickup due to this manifestation. Hindsight told me that it would be a good one with a detuned application since it's a bright one to begin with. The reason you see it in this RGD321 (detuned to C#) for a long time now (since 2011) is because it works.

This set of Everly B52s was recently discovered in one of my bags & it's more than a year old. I no longer play 11 - 48 for detuned stuff, I prefer 11 - 49 so this set will be my final experience with a 48 in the low E. The strings are surprisingly still very usable. Bought this one from Davis GMC but they don't bring this brand in any more.

Mega

Spent time with the LP CM yesterday. Gave it a re-string, Ernie Ball's Mega Slinky (10.5 - 48). This is my only Gibson equipped with a thicker than standard string gauge set & tuned down half step (hence the thicker gauge). Despite alluding to some heavy music applications, this one handles Abba & Erasure songs well. 

I'm not an Ernie Ball fan when it comes to strings, in fact, I rank this brand name the lowest in terms or reliability out of the package. EB strings are meant to be used immediately upon purchase, delay this & rust spots will start to appear. I was at Swee Lee last Saturday & purchased this set to try. I may not be a fan but it's not excluded entirely from my considerations. I think I'm being fair here. Thanks to Swee Lee for bringing in oddball / niche gauge sets. You won't find 10.5s easily in other stores. 

Low rider

Got this sudden urge yesterday to play something detuned. I've dedicated my RGD321 for this task since it sports a slightly longer scale length (26.5"). This one is tuned to C#. This beast has a set of DR flat wounds & looks like it's gonna last forever. That's right folks, flat wounds are easier to clean since they have little to no indentations along the entire strings length so once a wipe down is effected, you are most probably going to dislodge all the dirt on your strings. 

Is there a disadvantage to having flat wounds in one's guitar? If you are tone-specific, the flat wounds are anything but bright sounding. This is the reason why jazz cats love them in their semis; the guitar is already rather bright by default so the string set helps even out the overall tone with added warmth. This will definitely be a plus point for finger pickers. 

Inspired

Flu, bad weather & very little indoor engagements so I watched some live Dissection clips online. This pic here is from their Live Legacy album, one of the few live albums I really enjoyed listening to. Both guitarists in the band played Gibsons; Nodveidt here with his Flying V & Norman (not seen but at left) with an Explorer. Their guitars were downright no frills & they managed to drive things through with maximum aggression. Find this very inspiring. I noticed there were many moments when Nodtveidt just focused on pressing heavy riffs to underscore the composition, his left fingers hardly moved.

So out came the RGD321 to help me live some heavy moments, not necessarily fast, just heavy crushing moments. I'm glad that I have a guitar dedicated for detuned ideas & one that sports a slightly longer scale length to minimize string tension issues. Note- longer scale length, not a longer guitar. I started out thinking that the longer scale length impedes speed but being me, I had to try one & be open to the fact that I might be wrong. I was definitely wrong. A guitar of this nature requires  adaptation & once your fingers are good after some playing moments, it's like playing another guitar. 

I ended up owning 5 longer scale guitars but currently, only 3 are residents here. 2 went to more deserving owners. I might just get one more once the right Solar model ships in & that won't be any time soon. 

Beyond 10

This happened last weekend. The 10.5 set went into my Gibson LP CM to accommodate a slight detune- everything a half step down. This gauge set is not available at the stores here, I bought it online. I have a particular assignment for this guitar & only this gauge set could move my mind away from dealing with floppy strings while playing. 

Low & behold

Last Sunday, just before I called it a day, I decided to give the Ibanez RGD321 some playing time. The RGD is Ibanez's extended scale guitar measuring 26.5" from nut to bridge. The objective of owning such an instrument is to enjoy lower tuning without dealing with string tension issues. I initially settled with a set of 10s sporting only a half-step detune, enough to play along Depeche Mode tunes 😄 Anyway, there was a re-think along the way- why go through an under-experience so to speak, with a guitar of such a potential? The nut was filed a wee bit to accommodate a thicker set of strings (11s) to sport a C# tuning.

Same set of tuning was done here with the RGDIX6 as well. Played on the same day, the IX6 offers a different voicing namely due to its DiMarzio pickups on board while the RGD321 above has Seymour Duncans in there.

Sometimes we only have ourselves to blame for not accepting things that were meant to be in the first place. You want to play standard tuning with the RGDs- no issues but they were not meant to excel in this application. It's like driving an off-road vehicle on tarmac on a daily basis & whining about the vehicle's under-performance. My RGDs will continue to manifest low tunings in the mean time. The extended scale length proves to be a challenge when when playing fast but I have other guitars to realize speed potential.

Happy mid-December, everyone. 👍

11s

No, I'm not going back to Ernie Ball. I need this set to get things going because it features a .048 for the low E string. Other brand names out there offer a .049 & this get choked at the nut slot every time & I do not wish to file any slots in the mean time simply because there is a suitable gauge out there to address the situation.

The guitar that received this string set was my Ibanez RGD321. I can't play a set of .010s let alone this set of .011 but the plan was to detune the instrument to C# to reduce the tension. I have to say that things turned out well, the C# tuning got me that .009 feel but it's rather obvious that the strings there are much thicker; it's an illusion of feel. I decided to be adventurous with the RGD321 in terms of tuning because I know the extended scale length (26.5") can accommodate the thicker string gauges especially at detuned settings. I have plans for this guitar, I'm setting it up (permanently, I think) for heavy tunes. At the end of this test-pisode, the Duncans in there did well to capture the lower, deeper tones without mushing out. 

A little different

I've been trying this last weekend- picked a guitar, did a re-string with a slightly thicker gauge (.010s in this case- yucks!) & tuned down (a half step). A sheer case of boredom? Not really. I'm assigning some guitars to fulfill specific intentions. In this case, this Gibson SGJ here will be permanently sporting a set of .010s & detuned. On days when I wish to get ideas across effectively, I ended up choosing the preferred instrument for the job instead of focusing on the manifestations of those ideas. That's not a smart outcome considering I have some tools at my disposal.

My fingers (& my mind for that matter) are averse to .010s- the tension is just 'wrong' for me in standard tuning. I make mistakes, I get frustrated, I stop playing. So this was an attempt to adapt to some discomfort & I must say it worked. So I have successfully pinpointed the cause of the 'problem'; I react specifically to string tension as opposed to the string gauge per se. Done.

Digitech is dropping it

Come Summer NAMM (2014), Digitech will have this for your consideration; a no-frills pitch-shifting pedal aptly named the 'Drop'. It's capable of dropping your standard tuning to your preferred semitones as well as a full octave. This would mean you can instantly drop-tune your instrument without ever touching your guitar's tuners. That's technology for you.

Life started with this one- the original Digitech whammy pedal much embraced by the late Dimebag Darrell. Due to its pre-histortic nature, it's rather obscure & a used unit is quite prohibitive in price.

Things took a turn for the better in terms of affordability. Digitech released the XP series, one of which specializes in whammy/ wah/ polyphonic displacements, the XP100 seen above. I bought this one but had limited use for it because I don't dwell in note squealing episodes too much. It was sold for a good price.

Then came the re-issue, keeping close to much of what the original had to offer.

Along the way, an OTT variation was offered which wasn't too popular so things went full circle as you can see. It's back to basics with the Drop pedal, one which every dweeb can probably fit into their pedal boards & one which is devoid of an expressions pedal. If you take a closer look, the Drop is actually half of what this monster had to offer.

Set-up: Peavey Predator EXP 1 (Part 2)

It's kinda obvious that the over-projected bridge was due to a tension imbalance between the strings & springs. The guitar required reinforcement in this aspect so it was given an additional spring. 

A quick re-tune, some turns of the screwdriver to ensure the bridge stays put where it should be & the EXP 1 is good to play. Hope Mr. Wong is a having a shredding good time with it :-)