Ibanez 2009: Touchdown! (Part 1)

The above 2009 Ibanez (Indonesian) guitars are now available @ Swee Lee (thanks Adam @ BB showroom for the heads-up!):

• RGA32: List- $856
• DTT700: List- $1,920
• XP300: List- $735 (bag included- wise move, Ibanez...)
  

The weekend crowd prevented me from trying them all, I just managed to try the RGA32 & it sounds very commanding in the midrange partly attributable to its light nature, unlike its Destroyer sibling which makes the average Les Paul easy handling. One of the above guitars would be following me home tomorrow (Monday 12th Jan)...

Of busking & waiting

We were at Lot1 last evening for dinner & a meet-up with a certain individual to collect payment for (guitar-related) items. The individual concerned gave a simple instruction, '...just be there at 7 (pm)' which I did.

After dinner we waited at the MRT's station control vicinity & after 20min of waiting my spouse headed home because waiting was never her forte. Also, the daughter was running around the crowded station, often bumping into commuters & we had to apologize to these people repeatedly, which was not the favoured thing to do on an evening day off (we have other better emgagements). But I still waited.

A good evening shower later, my spouse sent a text message asking if that person had showed up. I answered the negative. Time check: 7.40pm & the wait continued.

Finally, the meeting took place at 7.50pm & the payment collection was finalized. Having sent a reply to the spouse saying I was on the way home, her reply was, 'Friends who make you wait are not important. You are being too nice'. So the matter arises again this 2009- am I being too nice?

Would you tell someone to be some place at a stipulated time & show up at the terminal moment? Could you send a simple message to the waiting party to update occurrences (considering the existing technology facilitating this practice)? These are simple considerations which help put our ethics in good stead but we overlook them thinking other people don't mind our rotten ways. As for me, I'm not one to pester others for compliance.

While waiting, I managed to talk to the busker pictured above- he plays an Ibanez RG170 at the entrance of LOT1 just before the MRT station itself, operating with another visually impaired companion who is the vocalist. I told him I was gonna take his pic for this blog & he obliged. The song selections were great, I particularly enjoyed some of the Bangles tunes they covered. If you see them there on weekends, do give generously. God bless.

Ibanez: 2009 anticipations (Part 5)

New additions to the Xiphos family this 2009:

• XP300- a simple Xiphos model featuring a non-whammy bridge; something I'd like to own this year
• XPT700- the 700 model has a regular (non-reversed) headstock on offer & a new neck pickup; a DiMarzio Norton (single coil size)
  

Wah for distortion (talk box segue...)

People are asking me what's the best wah pedal to match a distortion unit. My advice for them is usually to consider the brand names which include a distortion option in their wah (eg: MORLEY PDW-2) as the manufacturer had considered a dual application in their products which imply optimal combination. If you still don't like what you hear or the tones aren't what you'd hoped for, then it's a personal liking.

In its fundamentals, a wah unit is a tone manipulator; it fluctuates bass/treble extremes at the user's authority. If you have quick hands, turning your guitar's tone control up/down would give this basic effect (but why indulge in such sado-masochism when a wah pedal is readily available out there?). If you have lots of distortion going in your set-up, try turning up/down the tone control; chances are, the outcome would be minimal/insignificant- same goes for a wah application. Friends are telling me, despite sending their wah for various mods & having gem capacitors/ pots in there, things are still sour when wah & distortion are in synchronized application. Well, it's proven then that wah & distortion don't mix too well, maybe this is the reason why we enjoy Hendrix's clean wah tone instead...

Moving on, if you still insist on pairing distortion with wah, then my best offer to you stubborn tone mongers out there would be to consider the talk box (pictured above: Rocktron's Banshee talk box) instead. It's not a direct replacement but it achieves a parallel outcome. Rather than a pedal-type rocker manipulation, the talk box has a hose which leads up to the user's mouth- that's how it's used. The human voice is processed in the unit in tandem with the instrument's signal (usually guitar/ synth) to give a very wah-like output. Do listen to Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer to hear how Sambora used the talk box to maximum effect (the unit used was a Heil, not a Rocktron). Jennifer Batten also had some talk box going in her As Above, So Below release.

Simply bass

There are some very addictive bass contents in this album... The trouble with playing bass next to guitar luminaries is always the discretion not to over-shadow them on their own turf but with song-oriented tunes, the bass is set free...

Tube coffee

This was my play set-up last night; decided to plug my Black Coffee into the Tube7. The BC has no distortion control so what was heard was ful- on distortion coupled with a drive kick from my Coolcat Transparent Overdrive. Also, the overall tone was scoop-inclined as the BC only has treble/bass controls on board.