Marty Friedman: EXHIBIT B Live in Japan

This is a blazing performance by Marty Friedman. I simply love the guitar tones here; clear, full-on tube rage without the muffled output. The company which keeps Marty going is a true & tested trio of Jeremy Colson (Drums), Chris Catero (bass) & Ron Jarzombek (guitars).

Watching pros like Friedman play make me re-assess my guitar playing philosophy, often asking the question why I embrace the guitar in the first place. Knowing there are people out there who are more accomplished in this art form, then what am I playing for?

Thompson's guitar...

This is Richard Thompson, not the typical guitar player you'd look up to for those shredding moments but Mr. Thompson's accomplishments made him one of the Top 50 guitar wielders as assessed by LA Times recently. Anyway, this blue guitar here is his Ferrington custom unit, he refers to it as his Ferringtoncaster. I'm intrigued by the pickups on board:

• Neck: P-90
• Middle: Alnico for Strat
• Bridge: Single coil for Braodcaster

We are often too picky when we have replacement units in our guitars but here's proof that what we have in there shouldn't conform to conventions & should serve our needs, above all else (regardless of the peculiarity). The switching/ controls are rather fascinating as well; all 3 knobs are volume only manipulators & it sports a 5-way pickup selector, 2 of which do a blending job. The tonal achievements via volume play for each pickup would yield an extensive combination.

If Mr. Thompson is reading this blog entry; Salam A'laikum to you, sir.

Electro Harmonix: Pedal amp

Electro Harmonix has a new amp come June's end. It doesn't look like an amp, you say? It's a power amp more like it, instead of a rack format, what you see here is a pedal format. This isn't new, EHX had the .22 version out not too long ago. For those of us who don't quite understand what this means- the pedal amp allows you to power up a speaker (cab). Simple?

Fender: American Special

Fender's American Special sits above the Highway 1 series, before the American Standard offerings. These guitars are what the Highway 1 series should be, given some touch-ups which do not sum up to exceed the American Standard units in terms of pricing. I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to handle these guitars as a... em... pre-purchase scrutiny.

QC
The American Special has top notch production assurances written all over it; no contest here in light of the standard set. In fact, the Fender team already got it right with the Highway 1 series, the American Special shouldn't depart from that successful formula. Unlike the Highway 1s, the Special's body has a gloss overcoat. While many of us would think this is a 'better' manifestation in terms of finish, it is actually a different finish & not necessarily a grade above the Highway 1 version.

Tone
Some of us were left disgruntled after trying the Highway 1 offerings due to its flavourless, non-American pickups (despite sounding above average) & this is where the American Special make its mark heard. The Texas Special single coils may not be everybody's aural preference but it's the deserving pickups in this guitar; lots of sparkly cleans (pepper some chorus there & hear the chimes) & then some with drive/ distortion.

PS: Thanks Mike @ SV for the invitation & enduring my nonsensical noodling for more than an hour...

JOYOusly crunchy!

Was at Standard Value & Mike presented some Joyo pedals to try. I was most impressed with the above Crunch Distortion for its gain sweep; you can dial in a mild, DS-1 type voicing, pump it up for some crunchy (but not muffled) settings & then full-on to metal, despite the manufacturer not peddling this unit for such intensive applications. If you know MI Audio's Crunch Box capacity, I'd say the Joyo take here has a little more whack at upper distortion settings. All for a good $75.00.

PS: Thanks Mike for letting me try this with different guitars.

OD-10

Biyang continues to do well with its OD units. The latest OD-10 version is the most affordable ($69) but still features the 3-mode voicings like its other OD siblings & the JRC 4558 chip is in there.