Tuned trouble

The Gibson camp is currently dealing with another messy upheaval. Their robot tuner developer is suing them for $50mil mainly on commercial (profits) & contractual (R&D) grounds. Not a good thing to happen, definitely, when the tuners were meant to be a revolutionary tuning icon for the company. 

The most fundamental observation here is that the device itself had failed to address tuning concerns. Do beginning guitarists simply give up due to fundamental tuning issues? It's also a rotten consideration on grounds of appeal- the Gibson brand name is arguably the wrong label to be associated with a technical evolution of this nature. We could agree that the brand name itself represent formidable heritage more than anything else.

On a legal perspective, if a company owes you money & there's a good chance it would fold, suing them would get you in line as a priority creditor should your case carry weight. Last heard, Gibson is counter-suing them & believe the developer's legal proceedings are nothing but a publicity stunt. 

Selling: American Standard Tele pickups (SOLD)

These are from a Fender American Standard Telecaster, in 8.5/10 condition. No screws, just the pickups.

• Selling as a pair only
• Self-collect: CCK mrt stn
• No reservations/ trades
• Queries/ confirmation through e-mail: subversion.sg@gmail.com
• Final price: $120

Fresher

The recent entry featuring death & decay of internal parts were from this guitar; my Ibanez RG3XXV. You can refer to those episodes here: CLICK 1, CLICK 2

Here's how the innards look like after an entire make-over. No Orange Drop cap in there but a Panasonic Gum Drop (arrow) this time. 

A quick bobbin facelift to match the body finish 😁

Last & certainly not least, thanks to Master Beez for overseeing this revival.

Super Duper

Still in the DiMarzio camp, the Super 3 was clearing for a good price so it was an easy decision. I used to have this in one of my Ibanez S-Series which I sold away. I like it due to its midrange poke, like a Seymour Duncan JB would offer in that bandwidth. 

Steve is ready

It took me a while to decide but it's gonna be the Steve Special this time. 👍

Evoready

The Evo is ready. 😊

In the mail

That's right, I still buy mail-order strings, namely the ones not found here. Martin's Darco strings are now offered in that packaging. Sfarzos are something I had been wanting to try but the name always slipped off my mind. Of course, complementary sticker. 

The new (2)

What can I say? I will return to Ibanez all the time. It's the brand name that works for me. Whatever boutique or custom options out there that's worth every cent, it might not work for me unlike a typical Japanese Ibanez This was supposed to be my birthday present but it came a little early. Of course, today isn't my birthday.

I love this simplicity- an RG headstock without the 'RG' label.

Old school block neck joint which allegedly impedes upper fret access but if you're worth your salt, this shouldn't hinder your abilities. So this is the third RG550 I own. I don't have a soft spot for re-intro Ibanez models, just grabbing what's worth it while it's still available. Mod plans are in the works- stay tuned. Thank you, Mr. Faizal @ Swee Lee Katong I12 branch for your valued assistance. 

Feline

Heavy rain this evening saw the cat taking refuge on anything but the cold floor. Seen here, our majesty resting on one of my guitar bags. I have no issues with this whatsoever. We are fortunate to have a cat that does not sharpen her claws on our furniture, my amps or guitar cases. It's just not her thing. Good kitty! 😸

SL at SL

If you wish for a decent second fiddle & had been following the LP SL fanfare, then be informed that it's now available at Swee Lee for $149 (List). No, it's not gonna give you a thick LP tone with that signature sustain obviously due to the neck-body construction as well as the pickups in use. I'm actually looking forward to try one. 

Goodbye: Squier Duo-Sonic

Bid farewell to my Squier Duo-Sonic (Class Vibe) earlier today. It wasn't offered in the open market since I had someone who is genuinely interested in collecting offset models across brands. The instrument was in very good condition save for that anodized pick guard that refused to be revitalized after repeated polishing. It's very much like nickel pickup covers that immortalized stains regardless of how many times you polish them. On that note, I have two other guitars to say goodbye to. 

Back from the dead

I could have sworn that there was no battery in my Montreux Knebworth pedal when I put it away just before the new year. As you can see above, that's not the case. The entire tip of this 9V battery was badly corroded, it got ripped off when I tried to remove it from the clip.

Compounding the damage was the totally deteriorated battery clip you see above. It's beyond saving & it needs a replacement...

... & Beez to the rescue! I sent him a pic of the situation & he agreed to help since the circuit layout wasn't cluttered & hiding the clip attachment to the power input jack. Beez keeps battery clips as  standby spares not for pedals but for active guitar electronics which came to him dead & required replacement at times. 

Trixter-ed

Just happy to re-own these in CD version. These are the only two releases by Trixter that I really enjoyed listening to. Beyond, Hear! I feel the band tried too hard to stay in the league. Steve Brown isn't exactly my go-to guitarist when it comes to inspiration but band's songs are really happy tunes to listen to on that long ride home feeling drained. These were the music of my time anyway.

The grand passing- a year on.

April is a sad month for me. Some of the worst things took place in April & I wish for it to pass quickly. April also saw the passing of Allan Holdsworth, the grand master of guitar who had never strummed a chord to please pop culture- my kind of attitude.

My go-to Holdsworth reference is actually a collaborative effort seen above. TIS features Holdsworth & Gambale at their best. Everything you hear in this album is not about one guitar genius trying to outdo the other, it's a complementary effort considering the obvious technical difference between both masters. I can listen to this release on repeat mode for the entire day with no issues.

The new (Part 1)

It's been more than a week. 👍

Internal decay

I cannot recall the day when I have issues raising the guitar's string height. Last weekend, when that happened due to a stiff trem post, it's not a good sign. Some contact spray was used to get things moving & that was a rather easy feat. A little probing using cotton buds revealed a serious case of internal rusting as seen above.

Two cotton buds & four very rusty tips later, surprisingly, things got cleaned up. The culprit post was throughly cleaned & oiled before reliving its days in that cavity. I couldn't imagine introducing so much moisture in there for this to happen. In fact, I didn't remove the post at all so there's no handling on my part which left two possibilities: 1) A rusty part was used to begin with 2) Someone at the factory handled the part with sweaty hands. Hmm...

Dead trio

I was late for an appointment with Beez yesterday to replace a dead volume knob (number 2 in this pic). As it turned out, the push-pull tone knob (1) was dead as well. On top of that, the 3-way selector failed to work (3). A look under the cover revealed the dead trio seen here. The 3-way selector was so corroded, it's beyond saving. 

The volume knob & the 3-way unit were easily removed. Item 1 won't budge, so it received an initial dose of contact spray. No response. A small wrench was used to probe the nut but still no response. Second dose of contact spray plus some gentle taps with the said wrench; finally some movements. Upon a closer look, the nut & washer didn't move, the pot shaft was the one moving. A few turns & snap! The shaft gave way & that's the broken piece you see there in the pic. All this scuffling with dead parts cost me a precious hour & then it poured. So yesterday was an indoor day.

Difficult deal

It's another after-market pricing episode. So what do we understand by the term mint? Dictionaries will allude to an understanding of perfection, flawlessness & maybe the preservation of perfection. So if your instrument parts manifest deterioration to a certain degree, is it right to say it's still mint? 

The Ibanez 2020EX (Korean) was discontinued in 2013. Granted it's one of those rare moments Ibanez plonked a pair of EMGs into a guitar, at this asking price, it's a difficult situation as the entire SZ series were taken off the catalog. 

Let down

Some things are just unreliable. The input jack of the amp you see above gave way after I unplugged the cable. The entire unit just caved in. A closer look revealed a worn thread, the washer & nut simply couldn't stay put to keep things in place. Granted the amp was still functional, using it was bothersome.

Nux's Drive Force- it's supposed to be one of my most reliable pedal for a no nonsense performance but yesterday, it decided to quit. The pedal kept re-booting itself after a few minutes or so, despite a fresh replacement battery in use. When I brought it home, it manifested the same issue while running on PSU. Like the saying goes- all good things must come to an end. 

Putting things in perspective, the Epi amp you see here is my cheap office gear. It was in 5/10 condition when I bought it for $30 😁 We shouldn't put too much trust into stuff that are on the verge of expiry, yes? The Drive Force is also an office standby. The thing with digital products- there is a tendency to implode & it's all about the software. 

Hot cats

Yet another pickup swap weekend? Hmm... 😎

Despite liking the default tone of both my Jaguars, I need them to be ferocious when it comes to overdrive. So here goes. 

Smashed fortune

This used to be a healthy 1964 Fender Strat. It was reduced to pieces in 1967 by Pete Townshend. Unbelievably, it's up for auction at an estimated opening price of USD20K. Geez... I bet if you can locate the pickguard screws on that fateful night in '67, it'd be USD5k each. Maybe the broken neck- USD10K, dilapidated input jack- USD8K, etc. The collectors' realm is beyond routine understanding. 

The sound of pandemonium

This is my kind of pickup- Nita Strauss' DiMarzio Pandemonium. I'm currently hunting for a DiMarzio which doesn't usually happen because I'm in the Seymour Duncan camp- will update that in another episode. The humbucker you see here has a spiked midrange. I like midrange excess because I get better results trimming it at the amp end rather than not having much to begin with. Since I came across the Duncan JB, it's rather difficult to like something else. This is on my consideration list but that meshed cover is love/hate, definitely.

521's innards.

Come, let me show you what's under the Ibanez RG521 control cavity.

After the makeover by Beez, this is how things look like. Some observations:

• Despite being made in Japan, the default pots from the factory are the Alpha brand. I was expecting Gotohs.
• The volume pot features a treble bleed cap which was retained.
• Ibanez's 5-way selector is now the PCB type (as indicated). I have no idea if this was the standard change for Japanese models but I'm about to find out soon.

I had Beez swap out the default tone cap with an Orange Drop as clearly seen there. Also, there was no leftover saw dust/ buffing compound in the cavity so it speaks a lot about the production ethics over at the Japanese end of things. 

Ownership poll: Electric - acoustic

Thank you, once again, for taking part in this poll. It's no surprise that electric guitar owners are also acoustic guitar owners. For those of us who started on the acoustic & subsequently embrace the solid body electric, we do return to our roots time & again. Having an acoustic at home reminds us of who we were at the start of our guitar journey. If it's not for that cheap acoustic that triggered our interest a lifetime ago, we wouldn't be this accomplished today. 

Also, there is a sizeable camp out there who are song writers & reply on the acoustic guitar's simplicity rather heavily. We need to get ideas going without having to deal with the hassle of plugging in; just grab & go. You'd say playing clean with an electric is the acoustic experience- no. The acoustic guitar's onboard 'amplification' by virtue of its hollow body is an entirely different experience. Once you get going, you can feel your song reverberating with you so to speak, an irreplaceable experience unlike hearing your song coming out of an amp. 

Business-wise, it's simply foolish not to have acoustic guitars in store if you are selling solid body electrics. Keep in mind that your returning customers are likely the ones who bought that initial guitar from you. They come back for more because they like what they bought or you had given them an unforgettable service. 

Coloured

This got done today. That errant. non-green single coil turned to something more related to its siblings. It was done economically- stickers. That's right, the green there is a piece of coloured strip, something you can easily purchase at e-bay.  If you take a closer look, the default holes actually did not match the ones in the Ibanez bobbin. On that note, I'd advise you against wasting money this way.

However, it might be a case against Ibanez familiarity when it comes to measurements. The ones I purchased (from the same seller) for my Seymour Duncans were awesome.

The blues

Was at Beez's earlier today to get this done. My Ibanez RG521 now sports a pair of Seymour Duncan humbuckers: Alpha (n)/ Omega (b). These are available at Davis GMC/ 35 GA. 

Just to be clear, I'm not a Periphery fan, not into Mark Holcomb either so the Alpha/ Omega purchase wasn't about trying to sound like anyone in particular. Unlike signature guitars, I'm OK with putting good money into signature pickups. Through my set up, I sound nothing like the endorser's tone. Since my tonal expedition with George Lynch's Screaming Demon humbucker, I know better than dismissing pickups by virtue of their endorser association. Still in testing mode, will update the sonic performance soon. 😁

Multi-attract

FYI, the 2018 PRS SE Standard multi-foil model is now available at Davis GMC... for less than $1K 👍

Stripe

Another weekend of pickup swap adventure awaits. 😁

Hidden filth

This is the bridge pickup cavity of my Ibanez S1XXV. The white gunk there- dust. The fact that it didn't get mixed into the finish means that it was there after the paint was applied. Highly likely, it's the bits from holes drilled into the cavity. The inspection label, all initialed, implied that the situation was acknowledge before the cavity was covered (by the pickup). To give the benefit of the doubt to the people whose initials are clearly seen here, they might be inspecting the instrument for something else & dust busting isn't part of the job scope.

It's a shame that Ibanez (Indonesia) didn't put in that little extra bit of consideration in ensuring the cavity was cleared. I simply had to brush the dust off, nothing to it, really. I can imagine the factory, being equipped with tools, machines & implements to attend to this simple feat but it wasn't done.  Job attitude contributes to the goodwill of the company, remember that, my friends. 

EQed

Saturday's amp EQ. The EVH 5150III, despite its lunch box dimensions, churns out quite a handful of bass. It's true at the other hand as well- excessive treble- especially at higher gain settings. 

Sunday's amp EQ. Tried to emulate some Gambale tone with an Ibanez & my Blackstar, the treble was subtracted entirely. The resulting tone was quite fat & smooth but nowhere near Gambale's sonic frequencies. I missed out the JB pickup in the equation, quite obviously. 

Greens in green

The green Seymour Duncan pickups seen in yesterday's update went into my Ibanez S1XXV. They are the Custom (b) & Jazz (n) pair. I'm happy to hear a very commanding bass response coming from the Custom & it was conceived to be as such right at the factory, giving a much needed lower frequency boost to a dual action whammy bridge equipped guitar. The guitar was re-strung with a set of D'Addario NYXL 9s. Something will happen to that black single coil pickup 😁

Thanks to Beez, of course, in seeing this swap through. The factory default single coil wiring had to be revised to accommodate the Seymour Duncans. Beez handled that in a jiffy. 👍

April is here!