Eternally in tune

It's an emotional 2012 for me as an ESP fan. Come 2013, there will be some major changes in the offerings that might dichotomize followers. I'll leave the manufacturer to unveil their grand presentation come Winter NAMM but you can read crumbs here as we go along.

Moving on, I was invited by Davis GMC to check out the new bridge that will debut in ESP's catalogues come the new year & it's causing quite a buzz in planet guitar. It's unclear as to which range of instruments will be equipped with this hardware but judging by its price implications (it's more expensive than the Original Floys Rose model), it won't be standard fittings in the lower tier instruments. I'm talking about the Evertune bridge seen here.

Some stuff that you should know:

• It's heavy. It was fitted in an ESP Horizon NT model (which I own) & the overall weight of the instrument was on the negative register, it won't win fans who would want to play the instrument extensively, strapped on.
• It renders your tuners useless. You need to know that the Evertune bridge was conceived to overcome tuning anomalies once it's set. The bridge accommodates your preferred tuning thereafter, virtually making it tamper proof no matter the type of tuning/tension-related abuses that come its way. This is the reason why the tuners over at the machine head have no effect once the bridge is set, ditto all your bends & wide vibrato techniques; the Evertune is immune to all that. If you wish to employ a different tuning subsequently, then the Evertune needs to be set up, it's not about turning the tuners over at the headstock.
• It's space consuming. I have no idea why I didn't capture the cavity at the flip-side of the body- there was a huge hole there accommodating the mechanics of the bridge, extending all the way to the neck-body heel area. I could see springs & tension flaps overwhelming the cavity. If you wish to retro-fit this in your current instrument, it would necessitate a re-think on your part because should you change your mind & would want to revert to your guitar's original bridge, it would be a massive renovation work at the very least.

To be continued...

PS: Thanks Janet & all at Davis GMC for making this happen!

Twilight: Breaking Dawn (P2) [Spoiler alert- sort of]

Ah... the advent of December 2012 means the conclusion of the Twilight saga. Braving the rain last evening, I finally watched the movie & the timing of it was intentional; I had waited for the fever to die down & chose a time slot where there would be the least number of juvenile annoyances in the cinema. I have no obligations to watch this concluding installment but due to my previous commitment of watching the preceding episodes, this one was a lingering bother, watching it (at the Mrs' expense) was a fitting closure.

OK, I wasn't too thrilled to see the plot unravel as I have read the story's synopsis a few days ago; it's a matter to ensuring the synopsis didn't short-change me. However, this concluding episode was the most engaging & the least melancholic & sentimental- lots of head snapping, my kinda vampire story. But I was raised on a different vampire philosophy, the nefarious, blood-sucking entity scorched by sunlight & the ability to transform into a bat to facilitate travel. Instead, I witnessed running blood suckers- so fast they out-run snowflake crystallization- glitter-skinned, pale-faced, vampire variants. From the very start, I find the vampire manifestation here very wrong but it's an artistic twist we could all accept in the name of entertainment. So we now know why the human was excessively attracted to the stinking dog wolf despite already having a leech blood-sucker attached to her; it's the baby's doing. The ultimate annoyance here would be the CGI vampire baby which was done rather distastefully. This was only second to the fact that vampires drove Volvos devoid of license plates. Alright, maybe seeing apples on the dining table of vampire residences would count as well. The confrontation scene was easily the best but at the end of it all, it's a foreclosure of a failed future. What a waste.

At the end of it all, I'm pressed to believe that The Volturi's Marcus (A) has some relations to Cradle of Filth's Paul Allender (B), the excessive face make-up removal might tell us a little more.

Yummy Tesla

My new Tesla pickups went into my Yamaha RGX-A2. First impressions:

• Much brighter responses from both units. The default Yamaha pickups were acceptable but they lack that extra edge at the top end & the neck definition suffered the most. This neck model manifested a more appealing clarity which complements my playing.
• Distortion! My main gripe with the default Yammy pickups was the fact that they sounded fantastic clean but were under-performing with drive/distortion dialed up & I do lots of distortion. There was indeed a need to replace those default pickups & this Tesla pair did the job real well in this application. I've yet to try them with pedal distortion, this will happen soon. Hopefully.

Thanks, Beez for the fantastic job once again!

Got TESLA?

Got my TESLA P-90 humbuckers. Happy.

Accidentally deleted some comments in one of the posts. Not happy.

Re-string: Ibanez RGA32

Yesterday's re-string adventure: Ibanez RGA32, this one's mine, of course. I've been playing this guitar for the last few days just to hear those pickups in action & it could use a fresh set of strings. D'Addario .009s in there. I also re-conditioned the body just a little bit...

MESA stomp

We begin December with the news that MESA has released the above pedals for our considerations. The last time MESA released a pedal, it was tube-driven & was adapter-only when it comes to power. It's good to know the ones above are our preferred standard-sized, pedalboard friendly makes. Are they gonna get here soon?