*Sigh*

Gee... really hope you didn't buy any such Ibanez...

Cube Lite

It looks like Yamaha's TR amps will face a stiff competition against Roland's new Cube Lite as seen here. Fundamentally, the Cube Lite is not a total departure from the TR; they are both desk top units more suitable for personal moments rather than pitting volumes against your drummer. However, the Cube Lite accepts input from your iPhone so it acts like you are attaching a 'pedal' to it. Neat.

Screamer trivia

Here's the answer to the TS trivia posted previously (this one: CLICK)- the TS5 is one of the manifestations that read 'Tubescreamer' instead of 'Tube Screamer' like the TS9. It's petty but it's history.

Insole inline

My Ibanez 'goldie' is still undergoing a make-over. When the body was sent for a re-finish, the lining in the bridge cavity had to be removed to accommodate the paint. However, the agony of hunting for a replacement lining, akin to a gasket of sorts, was painful. It's not sold at guitar stores under replacement parts- hopeless. Hardware stores offer a thick, foam-like material, unsuitable for this application as it will hinder the bridge movement more than providing a fundamental cushion for the job. It was a futile hunt, I was on the verge of giving up & resorting to some fabric substitute when I came across a shoe insole, the thinnest on offer. It has a rubber surface on one side with a pseudo leather feel on the other, all for $2 a pair. A suitable outline was traced out on the insole & cut accordingly so the end product  is what you see above (arrowed). It's hardly 2mm thick so it's definitely suitable for the job.

I hope to get my goldie done up this week.

Destroyer re-visited

This is an interesting development- the Ibanez DT520 Destroyer is offered in Europe only following the recent Musikmesse show. We hope this would make it here because this version bears a closer resemblance to the discontinued Rocket Roll models circa 1980s.

The morning tank

I had an old friend out for some tone works this morning. In fact, I just stopped playing. This is a budget pedal from Ibanez's Sound Tank series, so if you think the Tone Lok series were affordable, then you know there's something even more affordable. It's not in mint condition as evident here but it still works. The input/output access should be cleaned soon; the loss of signals were annoying. The LEVEL knob had seen better days as well, could use a replacement or some rectifications- would attend to this soon. The TS5 has a good Tubescreamer voicing but it lacks the cream of the TS808 which is in a different league considering the prices.

TRIVIA: The TS5 is a 'significant' member in Ibanez's TS history; do you know why? Answer in next installment :-)