Buying Advice

Where hardest Lessons are learnt

With your pocket jangling with spare change, its always better to strategise before anything else. For all you know you might be whistling to your own doom.

Strategise

Think hard of what you want - yes - hard.

Put tone before aesthetics/brand. The meanest looking axe always bullies your wallet and ears. After that you might want to take the sharpest edge of the Gibson Explorer and stab yourself.

Get something readily available locally. Shipping is costly and very Jack in the Box-ish, unless you are very very sure of what you want.

Consider everything

Consider the P & P - pickups and playability.

Pickups and amplifier defines about 60% of your sound. The rest is up to your guitar.

Don't go for what your fav artist plays - go for his/her sound. His amp/guitar/effects may have been heavily tweaked from the stock product.

Comfort

Something that doesn't break your back or fingernails.

Always test before buying - TEST ADEQUATELY! Don't do a five minute run and decide already - its like checking a girl out and bringing her back home only to realise she has an Adam's Apple and a deep voice (pun intended)

Check for string buzzing/ tension/ feel.



A worn guitar like above doesnt necessarily equate to bad - it may have been lovingly played over and over and developed its own special sound - so don't dismiss so quickly!

Enjoy your purchase like David Cook!

World's most expensive guitars

Sweet dreams are made of these...

This really feels like some dream where :

1.) I step out of the hotel, dust my shoes on the red carpet, gallop briskly down the stairs amid the burst of shutter, grab one of these babies while patting the bloke on the shoulder/slipping him 50 quid while slipping myself into the waiting limousine.

2.) Elton John/George Michael/Boy George's wet dream

3.) Prince Harry replaces Chris Martin as frontman of Coldplay (he'll prolly choose the brit jewelled strat)

4.) One of these guitars committed homicide!

Enough of the dry jokes, this one below features Rory Gallagher's well worn Fender Strat.

Well worn enough to warrant an entourage of muscled men in tuxedo + one x bullet proof van.

RIP Rory Gallagher - the man who redefined blues - the Irish Way!

GAS hits again..

Unable to suppress my urges, I have found myself wandering (or wondering) again...

Edwards SA 138 LTC

This instrument is actually good for what I play - blues and jazz.

Considering the neck pickup, its a Seymour Duncan Jazz model - the SH2-n,

and the bridge pickup suits the AC/DC rockin' mood should the need arise - with the higher output Seymour Duncan Custom humbucker.

It also features an ebony fretboard and gold full body binding and hardware - very B.B King Lucille-ish.. very blues-ey, very sexy.....

-looks at wallet and frowns

Discoveries..

We discover new things every day..

Recent Discovery - The tone that I really like are found in the vintage ones, that of the 60's.

How to achieve it? Weak pickups (low output pickups) or vintage pickups should do the trick.

Gibson PAF humbucker


PAF stands for Patented Applied For. Copyrights I think? Anyways, low output pickups produce this sweeter, clean sound. Very bluesy and jazzy, but not particularly helpful for metal. For metalheads, look for high output pickups like the Seymour Duncan Dimebucker for that melting shredder tone.

My favourite tone. The P90 pickups. Nicknamed the soapbar, I'm sure you see the similarities now. This thing can bite and bark and whimper all at the same time!

Looking for Jimi tone? These single coils should do the trick!

Tone Mongers

Pursuit of tone.. Is it a reasonable justification for making better music?

Tone is subjective - perhaps reasonable tone + feel is more explosive than a $3000 pedal rig.

Here are some of my favourites.

Eric Clapton of Cream

I absolutely love Eric Clapton's woman tone. A vintage Gibson vibe perhaps? He explains it in an old video that the tone can be achieved simply by pulling the tone knob all the way to zero, and volume full up on the guitar controls.

Him with his ES-335 in his younger days. I do not really prefer his current Fender Strat tone though - perhaps the creaminess of his Gibsons are submerging me..

Jimi Hendrix ala The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Now this is the strat tone I absolutely love. Nothing but his strat, a fuzz and wah pedal, amp controls blasted on full, and him working his mojo till the Wind Cries Mary.

His strat is a right-handed one - but he flips it over and plays with his left - effectively reversing the polarity of the pickups to produce a unique, signature Jimi tone.

David Gilmore of Pink Floyd

David Gilmore, most noted for his works with Pink Floyd is the one those "feel" guitarists that I really respect and admire. There was nothing fantastic about his playing - no virtuoso fretboard burning stuff -

Just his emotion burning his guitar.

Till it becomes hot and heated and groans in the intensity of Gilmour's playing.

the Gilmour we know today - philantrophist, musician, poet, and great contributor of simplicity.

Hiatus...

Widened Horizons

Due to a series of unfortunate events, I was away for a good amount of time..

Now I'm Back in Black! well, not really. Much has happened, I shall now share..

Angbao status has confirmed me with the go ahead of a new guitar. Choice? Fender Japan. However after much scouring, I settled to a Mexican one! Beautiful tones, playability.

Also, as many of you know I was never a fan of Gibsons for their chunky necks. However the Les Paul Studio I tried at Zen Guitarworks (is it? the bras basah one) was a dream to play - and great tones too.

Also, I tried a Gretsch - Again, sparkling clean tones and wonderfully slim neck, albeit the bulky yet light body.

What really impressed me was a custom-made tele in the shop. It had P90 pickups (the guitar is not that of below, this is just an example), and they sounded snappy with a tinge of vintage tones; really great.

thanks for tuning in! more really soon!