PRS clinic

Anyone checking out PRS tomorrow? 😁

Burst

If you think the silverburst finish is a mainstay with Gibson instruments, these FSR instruments seen here are ready to make a debut this Summer, all three are from the American Pro series.

Lest we forget, we saw a silverburst HSS Strat from the Modern Player series not too long ago. The fact that an instrument at the opposite end of the price range could sport a silverburst has a clear implication; it's non-exclusive & could be done economically. 

Last 3

Welcome, folks, to another instalment of my last 3 CDs purchase. I am extreme by nature & this interest in all things heavy metal is unrelenting as the years go by. As I am also a guitar-inclined individual, I pay special attention to extreme bands with meaningful guitar inclusions. That's right. meaningful & nothing too devotional towards shred guitar. In the case of serious technicalities manifesting in heavy music, to me, these are a real bonus. Song focus is first & foremost.

1. Enslaved- Roadburn Live

I'm not too big a fan when it comes to live recordings because chances are, the songs covered were stuff I've heard before. Also, live recordings are mostly tampered with in terms of production to cover up imperfections before selling them off thus defeating the purpose of capturing live performances. Nevertheless, I do keep a lookout for bands with exceptional live vibes & Enslaved is one of them. This collection of tunes were from, you guessed it, the band's live performance in 2015's Roadburn festival. The thing with Enslaved is, they have this prog twist in their metal since 2004's Isa & it makes listening to them very enjoyable in a live context. The highlight of this release is the concluding number which is a Led Zappelin cover, Immigrant Song, which will surely become a hit come Thor's Ragnarok movie (November 2017). Sadly, this release is also the final performance for Herbrand Larsen (keyboards) who is responsible for the band's clean vocals. As at time of posting, the band has yet to find a deserving replacement. 

2. Firespawn- The Reprobate

A meeting of potent characters- Firespawn in a nutshell. I was thinking, a supergroup like this might call it off after a spectacular debut but 18 months ahead, The Reprobate proved to be another lethal collection of songs. You might be thinking that this band is an opportunity for the members of Entombed AD/ Necrophobic/ Skin Eater/ Unleashed to further their respective band's agenda but it's simply a sum greater than its parts. To note- more lead fills heard here, guitar-wise.

3. Suffocation- ...of The Dark Light

A rather defining moment for the band with two new members Moratti (drums) & Errigo (guitars) who proved second to none in terms of expectations & technicalities. There was no pressure to outperform their respective predecessors, of course. The primary interest here, as presented by long time member, Hobbs (guitars) was whether this duo could keep up with the Suffocation philosophy. In any band context, song priority should precede other intrinsic issues. If the band gets this right, regardless of the line up changes, there will be no drastic turnover. Maybe Gilmour's role in Pink Floyd might ring a bell. After this exploit, it's good to know that Suffocation is still in tact & as coherent as ever.

Tom Quayle @ SG

I was at the Tom Quayle guitar clinic last night, a very cosy venue & great acoustics to boot 👍

This was Mr. Quayle's set up, the fact that we could hear him through both his amp & the monitors meant it was a great surround sound experience. 

The t-shirt inclusion was unexpected.

Tom Quayle is a very technical guitar proponent. There is no letting down when it comes to theory so things could get very technical, very quickly but it didn't. This is where the skilful teacher weaves his magic. Tom Quayle put forth his theoretical grasps conceptually; spatial relationship, visual relationship & repetitions were among some interesting approaches served. The good teacher made sure information overload was dealt with via bite size servings. Complexity made simple. Done. This was my main take away from this session, coming from a non-musical background, there is much respite dealing with music this way. How would you approach the guitar your way because your way would be the best way for you.

Kudos to Davis GMC for  not pulling off (no pun intended) a hard selling stance to push the Laney products through. In fact, there was scant commercial dealings to begin with but we know that, through last night's experience, Laney's Lionheart amp is one of the best value-for-money unit out there in terms of pristine clean tones, the other side of Fender. Awesome! 

Distorting anger

Some stuff.

1. An angry amp will see your anger through. More precisely, if you wish for some extreme distortion, you'd be more successful addressing it over at the amp- get a high gain unit, first & foremost.
2. Push it, push it some more. If you think everything is OK 👌 but have a feeling it can do better with a little push, get a basic drive/distortion pedal. Let's relate to the set up seen above. The EVH 5150 is a raging beast. My distortion unit only works well in the blue (crunch) channel where there's a little restraint of sorts. The red (lead) channel will mush individual notes up given the pedal treatment. I had to switch to an OD unit (my 2 fav reference: Pro Tone Dead Horse/ BOSS OD-3) to ensure some clarity while keeping it very angry. So let's not assume whatever pedal you have in your collection would turn out well with an amp of choice.
3. Your guitar will deliver if you know your gear. My semi-hollow PRS Mira seen here is perhaps the 'wrong' choice for some angry black metal during a festive weekend (tell me about it!). We'd think a solid body instrument would be the wiser choice but as it was yesterday, the Mira was a perfect inclusion despite its hollow element (embrace the feedback if you choose to tread this path).

So the implication here is definitely a sum of the whole. That's right, every bit of your set up matters & there's no one attribute that reduces the final consideration even if it means putting something in there which isn't first choice to begin with. 

Hey, anyone checking out Tom Quayle later? 😁

PIC: Davis GMC

Configure

Still on the ESP front, the USA branch now offers a simple configurator for you to mess with some options prior to purchase. The way I see this, it's bringing the USA market closer to the custom shop experience not that the standard production models are in need of further customization. For a more detailed custom specs, one can always revert to the Japanese website 😊

Hello, July!