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Archive for the ‘Guitars’ Category

New Gear: Sonuus Wahoo Analog Dual-Filter/Wah

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , on September 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Took a break for a few days to take my son to college and a couple of days ago, I received a press release from Peterson Tuners that I tucked away for later review. Now that I’m back and settled in, I had some time this morning to catch up on emails. Normally, I take press releases with a grain of salt, but this one in particular caught my attention; not because it was from Peterson, but because instead of touting a tuner, they were touting a pedal. And not just a wah pedal, but a wah that combines both a low-pass AND a band-pass filter, which you can adjust independently to get all sorts of sounds. Very intriguing to me.

As opposed to getting into a lot of detail here, here are some links that Peterson provided:

Product page: http://www.petersontuners.com/index.cfm?category=195
Sonuus Site: http://www.sonuus.com/products_wahoo.html
Video and sound demos: http://www.sonuus.com/products_wahoo_demo.html

Now this seems like something I could use, and from what I can tell from the sound clips, it produces some very nice tones. I especially like the fact that it doesn’t use a potentiometer that will wear out over time. So that’s a huge bonus. But I’d really like to try it out first. At $349, it’s definitely an investment; mind you, I’m not saying it’s not worth it, but at that price, I’d really have to be sure. I know… bit of a change for me when I see something that’s really exciting to me, which this is, but I’m being a lot more careful now as I’ve kind of reached a saturation point with gear, and have actually been shedding pieces the last few months. But the first chance I get, I will be checking this out!

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Gear Review: Wegen’s Picks – Fatone (Fat-Tone)

Posted in buying gear, GAS, gear, gear reviews, guitar, guitar gear, guitar picks, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, picks, plectrum, Saint Guitar Company, Saint Guitars Benchmark, V-Picks, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 19, 2012| 1 Comment »

5 Tone Bones - Gear has stellar performance, value, and quality. This is definitely top of the class, best of breed, and it's a no-brainer to add this to your gear lineup!

Wegen "The Fatone"

Click to enlarge

 Wegen’s Picks – The Fatone (Fat Tone)

Summary: This is now my new favorite pick! I had misplaced my Wegen GP 250 and wanted to get another GP 250. The store that I bought the last one at was out of GP 250’s so I dug in the Wegen pick box and found this beauty! The grip is awesome!

Pros: Beefy (5mm) pick that is amazingly accurate despite its thickness. Despite its thickness, this is tonally versatile pick!

Cons: Though it doesn’t take anything away from the rating, my only nit about my pick is that it’s black. Black gets lost easily on a dark stage. But Wegen makes them in white, so I’ll probably order a few of the white ones.

Price: $15.00 ea

Specs:

  • 5 millimeters thick
  • Hand-made
  • Perfect bevel that makes your strings really ring!
  • Don’t know the material, but it’s a VERY hard plastic that does not scratch. You will never need to buff or resharpen Wegen picks!

Tone Bone Rating: 5.0 ~ Though I still love my V-Picks Snake (pointed), this pick is now my primary. It’s the perfect pick!

I’ve been searching for the perfect fat pick for a long time; or perhaps I should say that I’ve been looking for a pick that I could use for both acoustic and electric, but I never could. So I used a V-Picks Snake for electric and a Wegen GP 250 and a Red Bear Gypsy Jazz for acoustic. But all that changed when I got the Wegen “The Fatone.”

Admittedly, I discovered this pick not because I was looking to add to my collection of picks, but because I lost my GP 250, which had served me well for the last couple of years. I simply wanted to replace it. Unfortunately – or fortunately – the shop that I bought my GP 250 at was all out of them. So I looked through the case to see if I could find an alternate. That alternate was the Fatone. I knew from the first moment I held it that I was onto something with that pick. Then when I strummed it on a guitar in the shop, I was completely sold! Playing it at my solo acoustic gig an hour after that sealed the deal for me. I’ll be hard-pressed to use another pick.

This is a FAT pick at 5mm. But the inset, thumb-side grip, combined with the beveled tip make this pick feel so much thinner. It’s truly a joy to play.

What is it about fat picks for me? Well, having used them for a few years now, the most significant effect they’ve had on my playing besides tone is how they make my right hand relax. The way that works is that in order to make the pick glide over the strings effectively you have to hold the pick a lot looser in your fingers. That looser grip affects the whole hand. Granted, it took a little while to get used to, but once I was comfortable with a fat pick, going back to my old nylon picks seemed absolutely foreign to me. But relaxation made my playing much more fluid, and I was actually able to play a lot faster because my hand was so relaxed. In any case, I’m hooked on fat picks, and I’ll never go back to conventional picks.

Now I know that I normally do a “How It Sounds” section, but I’m actually on the road right now, writing while my son is driving the car (I’m taking him to college). But also, I don’t know how useful that section would be in this case. All I can say is that the fat pick produces a big sound, but in the case of the Fatone, because of the nice pointy bevel, it produces a nice, bright ring in addition to the deeper tone. It’s a bit hard to describe. It “feels” so much more full than other picks. For instance, though I love the sound my V-Picks Snake makes, it’s definitely a lot more mid-rangy than the Fatone.

One thing that is significant about the Wegen pick material is that it has a texture that feels softer than tortoise, but it’s actually a VERY hard material. The cool thing is that it’s a lot more damp on the strings than either acrylic or tortoise (or natural material). But it doesn’t produce a damper sound. It’s a feel thing. 🙂 In any case, I’m hooked on this pick. Also, tonally, this is a VERY versatile pick. By simply changing the angle and depth of attack, I can get thick, warm tones to nice bright tones. That’s extremely cool!

Overall Impression

As I mentioned above, I now have a new favorite pick. Not sure what else I can say about it. I won’t be getting rid of this one any time soon!

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New Gear: Les Paul Traditional 12-String!!!

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , on September 15, 2012| 5 Comments »

Oooo…. nice…. I’ve always loved 12-string guitars. There’s nothing like the strum sound of a great 12-string, be it acoustic or electric. But a Les Paul 12-string. OMG! I need to play one! Here are some quick features:

  • Solid mahogany body (weight relieved)
  • Grade-A Maple neck with 60’s profile
  • Grade-A Rosewood fretboard (wonder why they didn’t use Richlite on this)
  • Classic 57’s for pickups (I dig these pups)
  • Mini Grover tuners
  • Comes in Heritage Cherry Burst, Goldtop, or Ebony
  • PLEK’d neck.

From what I can tell, street prices for these are around $2199. That’s actually not a bad price at all. In all honesty, though I’d love to play one, I’m not sure if I’d ever get one. But that all depends on what ideas I could come up with once I play it. That’s really the deciding factor for gear for me. Does it inspire me to play? That said, I don’t think this guitar is gimmicky at all. But I do believe any 12-string is a sort of niche guitar.

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With Stage Acoustic Guitars, Electronics Matter…

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , on September 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Yamaha APX900 Thinline Acoustic/Electric GuitarIt’s no secret that my stage acoustic of choice is my beloved Yamaha APX900. I’ve been playing that guitar for the last couple of years, and its sound never lets me down. The A.R.T. pre-amp system, which consists of four transducer mics on the top along with a piezo saddle pickup, create a rich and deep tone that contains nothing of that tinny, mid-rangy tone you normally get with other pre-amps. But you’d never know it if you just played it unplugged because its natural tone is rather weak.

I’ve played this guitar side-by-side with guitars that cost 5 times as much, and the APX900 just blows them away! Such was the case last week at my weekly restaurant gig. For that gig, I also brought along an Ovation Collector’s 2006-FKOA guitar that I’ve been borrowing for my latest recording sessions. That guitar, which I recently reviewed and gave high marks, has an incredible natural tone; so much deeper and richer than its brethren that I’ve played. And plugged into a board for studio use… Wow! What a great tone! But I have to say that it just didn’t work very well with my live rig. Through my Fishman SA220 SoloAmp, the bottom end was just not there, whereas my APX900 performed absolutely beautifully.

Now this is a classic case of a rig mismatch. If I were to use the Ovation at a gig, I’d probably run it through my SWR California Blonde, which will give me the low end that I need. But that sucker weighs 75 lbs, so it’s not likely that I’d be lugging that around but to special gigs.

On the other hand, there hasn’t been an amp that my Yamaha APX900 has worked with flawlessly. Again, this is a testament to Yamaha electronics. They’re just superior to everything else out there in my opinion.

Enter the S.R.T.

Beginning with the 1000-series guitars, Yamaha started installing the S.R.T. – Studio Response Technology – pre-amp system. This is a mic modeler as well, and at first blush might seem as if it would behave like the Ovation’s system. But unlike the Ovation system, S.R.T. doesn’t have a mix function. It’s always on. You set it to the mic-type and “distance” and EQ that works for your rig, then go. One feature of the S.R.T system that really turns me on is the Body Resonance knob that lets you dial in resonance from the body.

What’s very exciting about this is that S.R.T. was originally only available on the high-end, handmade guitars. I am so glad that Yamaha has brought it to the APX series. I called Gelb Music yesterday, and they have an APX1000 in stock. I will be going there this weekend to try it out. If it’s as good as I think it will be, I may be walking out the store with it.

Circling back to the stage, it is so important to have good electronics. Even a cheapo guitar like my APX900 can sound fantastic when the electronics are right. For me, searching for a great stage acoustic was literally a months-long exercise in frustration. I just never got comfortable with any guitar’s plugged in sound until I plugged in the APX900. The funny thing is that it took me all of ten minutes to know that it was the right guitar. 🙂 I’ll be sticking with Yamaha for all my stage work.

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Just How Valuable is a Cord?

Posted in Guitars on September 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Cords and cables are those kinds of things that we take for granted; that is, until we’re missing them… Last night, I went to the recording studio to do a session and much to my surprise – and utter shock – I realize that I had left my bag of cords at my church on Sunday!

Talk about putting a black cloud over my mood. I figured that our tech guys would find my bag and lock it up in our equipment closet – which they did – but it still didn’t help my mood as there was the uncertainty that I had left it in a place that they wouldn’t find it, and it would be left out for anyone to take. 

Mind you, it wasn’t just my speaker and instrument cables in that bag. My power cords for my amp and pedal board were in there, and since I also use that bag as my cord bag for my solo acoustic gigs, I had all my XLR cables in there as well. 

Needless to say, the studio had extra cords, and I just recorded my guitar raw with no effects. It turned out to be a good thing because what I laid down was exactly what I was after, but I have to say that it wasn’t my most inspired performance. I was pissed off!

I recovered my cords this morning, so it’s all good, but it did serve to make me realize just how precious a commodity my cords are. I, for one, will not ever take them for granted again… 🙂

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Quit Wishing (and Bitching)! Do Something About It!

Posted in Guitars, tagged , on September 9, 2012| 1 Comment »

Having worked with lots of people throughout my lifetime, I’ve invariably run into folks – and even I’ve done it at times – who get in a funk and say things like, “I wish I could do _________” or “I wish this would be like ________.” Without saying it directly and being as diplomatic as possible, I usually reply to them to stop wishing someone would do something sometime to make things happen. The time is now and you’re that someone.

But it’s even more than just realizing that you’re the one who has to make things happen for yourself, you have to be willing. Several years ago, I attended a few self-help seminars and something that a seminar leader said always stuck with me – and I’ve mentioned it here a couple of times – was “There’s a fine line between dreams and reality, and that line is called ‘willingness.'” That had a profound effect on how I approached life afterwards, but in the years since, I’ve realized that realizing your dreams takes even more than just willingness. It takes discipline; lots of discipline.

Not meaning to be religious, but there’s a very famous quote from the Bible from the Gospel of Matthew: “So you had not the strength to stay awake with me for one hour? Stay awake, and pray not to be put to the test. The spirit is willing enough, but human nature is weak.” The shorter, more commonly known version is: The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. In any case, Jesus said that to the disciples who were supposed to keep vigil with him while he prayed but instead fell asleep. He was reprimanding them for not having the discipline to stay awake – even for just an hour – while he prayed. Put simply, with discipline, you make the hard choices. Clearly the disciples didn’t have enough of it at the time…

Or take for example the Navy SEALs and their training program known as Basic Underwater Demolition SEALs, or BUDS for short. Hundreds have tried out, and over 80% ring the bell to quit. The SEALs’ motto, “The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday” is a testament to the fact that it never gets easier, it only gets harder. People who quit weren’t losers. Some were top athletes, used to sustained physical and mental stress, but even they broke in the end. The training program is really that hard! The only way to get through that program is to have the mental fortitude to maintain discipline in the face of growing difficulty.

Even though I’ve never gone through something quite as physically and mentally extreme and rigorous as the Navy SEAL BUDS program, I’ve also learned over the years that discipline is what needs to take over when you don’t have the motivation to do something. It truly is the difference between success and failure. This concept applies to everything in life, be it your job, learning to play an instrument, or even a making a relationship work (and no, I don’t mean the chips, dips, chains and whips variety of discipline, either).

Circling back to the title of this article, what I’m suggesting here is that in order to achieve anything in life you have to:

  • Realize that you are the only person who can achieve your goals.
  • Be willing to achieve your goals.
  • Have the discipline to do whatever it takes to achieve them.

And please don’t confuse this with “the ends justifies the means” mentality that seems to be so prevalent in American culture these days. Can you say, “Financial collapse of 2008?” There are no shortcuts to success, even though the short-term might indicate otherwise.

So what does all this have to do with guitar? Simply put, apply the three points above to any learning situation with your guitar. Want to play like SRV? Santana? EVH? You’re the one that has to make it happen, you have to be willing to make it happen, and you have to have the discipline to make it happen.

It’s also not just about lessons. I know a guy who has been taking lessons every week for over 10 years, and he’s still a bad musician. He knows lots of licks and tricks, but put him in a band, and he flails away simply because he doesn’t have the discipline to practice and therefore truly understand his instrument. It simply boggles the mind and frustrates the hell out of me that he doesn’t see this – or perhaps more to the truth, I’m frustrated that his lack of discipline affects the band.

So the next time you say, “I wish I could do ______________,” think about what was discussed here because the answer to is quite simple: You can – and will – but it’s all on you. No one can do it for you.

ROCK ON!

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First Impressions: TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , on August 30, 2012| 2 Comments »

If you’re like me and you’ve played a lot of reverb pedals (I’ve got 4 – though I only use two actively), then your reaction to the Hall of Fame might be similar to my own: “Ho-hum, another reverb pedal…” That’s how it was for me when I received the eval unit from TC Electronics. And despite having a choice of TC pedals to review, and my general attitude towards reverb pedals, I still chose to review this one because I was curious about how different it could be. Also, I wanted to compare it to my mainstay DigiTech Hardwire RV-7 Reverb.

I’ve used this pedal in four gigs since I got it, and I have to say that I’m impressed. A VERY cool feature that the Hall of Fame has that other reverb pedals I’ve used don’t have is the pre-delay switch. You have two settings: short and long. The pre-delay is the time between the dry sound and when the reverb kicks in. With a short delay time, the reverb kicks in pretty quickly, but that can sometimes create a really muddy sound. With a longer pre-delay, the reverb takes longer to kick in, so your tone is much more “in-your-face.”

This is one feature that is absolutely fantastic, and the one that I think sets this pedal apart from other mainstream reverb pedals. The gigs I played using this pedal were all acoustic. Most of the time I play fingerstyle, so note separation is very important to me. With a long pre-delay, every note I play comes through, and the reverb doesn’t become apparent until I have a pause in my playing. Very powerful function indeed!

As far as the reverb sounds themselves are concerned, they’re quite nice, and the pedal itself is dead-quiet. I placed the pedal in front of my amp and in the loop and it worked flawlessly in both positions, though admittedly, and especially with acoustic guitar, I prefer it in front of the amp.

In any case, I’ll be gigging with it a couple of more times this weekend, and I may even bring it to the recording studio for the sessions I’ll be recording. Stay tuned!

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The Fender NEW American Vintage Series

Posted in Guitars, tagged , on August 29, 2012| 2 Comments »

I love it when a company re-invents a line. The Fender American Vintage Series has been a mainstay product line for Fender for many years – probably their oldest product line – and they’ve completely recently re-vamped the series with all hand-made in the US of A. Now normally when I get news of Fender doing anything “new,” my reaction is typically, “meh.”

But this news intrigued me because of the detail that Fender took in re-creating these guitars from actual vintage models; making direct measurements to the instruments themselves as opposed to going off blueprints, and more importantly creating period-correct pickups. Then when I reviewed the Fender American Vintage Series site itself, I smiled to see that what Fender was creating was NEW guitars, not banged up relicked ones like the Roadworn Series.

So what you get with these guitars is brand-new, showroom-quality guitars built as if you were buying them when they were released. That’s a deal-maker for me! And these aren’t cheap offshore repros. They brought production back to the US for these and that pleases me – a lot. So American-made, period-correct, fresh-off-the-showroom-floor guitars? SOLD!

My personal favorite is the ’58 Telecaster – I love blondes. 🙂  John 5 compared that to his own ’58 and said he’d put his own safely under the bed and take the new on the road with him. What an endorsement!

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Gibson Les Paul… Elegant???

Posted in Guitars, tagged on August 28, 2012| 10 Comments »

My friend, Jeff Aragaki, of Aracom Amps, and a fellow lover and collector of Les Pauls – way more so that myself – sent me an email about a kind of Les Paul that he had never heard of, the Les Paul Elegant.

This is a Custom Shop guitar that didn’t have a very long production run, and was apparently the first of Gibson’s chambered LP’s. Most all have some sort of flame top, and from what I could find out weigh in the 8-9 pound range.

Owners have said it has a bit deeper of a tone than a pure solid-body LP, and the chambering pattern is completely different than the ones used in the Standards. Comes stock with 57 Classic pickups which help balance out the deeper tone of the guitar.

Furthermore, the fretboard has a compound radius cut: round to flatter from nut to heel. My 59 replica has that kind of tapering and it makes it VERY easy to play. OMG! I’d love to play one of these. Anyway, after a little digging, I found a thread on the “My Les Paul” forum that sums up the guitar very well:

The Les Paul Elegant is features great looks and tone. The body is made from mahogany with a triple-A grade maple top. There are open cavities in the body to reduce its weight while at the same time increasing its resonance. They are called dynamic chambers and help to increase the guitar’s interaction with the amp. This is similar to a certain degree with what happens with semi-hollow or hollow body guitars but at a much subtler level. The maple top with its transparent finishes gives a deep glow as well as the highly figured wood grain. You’ll find white-black multi-ply binding on the top and bottom of the body. The bridge is a classic Tune-O-Matic O-matic with a stopbar tailpiece.

The 24.7 5 inch scale length neck is made from a single piece of mahogany. It has an ebony fretboard with 22 frets with white binding around the neck. The binding also matches the pickup covers and 3-way pickup selector label. One interesting thing about this guitar is its compound radius fretboard. The fretboard at the first fret is flatter and gradually becomes rounder as you get towards the 12th fret. This allows for easier access to the upper registers while lead playing at the same time leaving the lower registers more adapted to chordal playing. The neck also has a long tenon to increase its connection to the body. The trapezoidal inlays are made of abalone and add a bit of ‘elegance’ to the already great looking guitar.

The pickups and electronics are all Gibson. It has the traditional two volume and two tone controls (one for each pickup) with a 3-way pickup selector wired: neck, neck+bridge, bridge. The pickups themselves have that great vintage sound. They are the ’57 Classic humbuckers which are replicas of the PAF (Patent Applied For) pickups found on the late 50’s Gibsons. The ’57 classic has a full rich and has enough to give it plenty of crunch. These pickups have Alnico II magnets and use vintage style enamel coated wire. The covers like the rest of the guitar’s hardware is nickel plated (chrome) for years of wear.

Features

* single piece mahogany back
* Carved figured maple top
* single-piece mahogany neck
* Cream binding on body and neck
* Nickel hardware
* Tune-O-Matic o-matic bridge
* ’57 Classic humbuckers
* Two volume knobs
* Two tone knobs
* Three-way selector switch
* abalone trapezoid inlays
* Dynamic chambers in body

The only wrong information is that they got the direction of the radius on the fretboard wrong. This sounds like a nice guitar!

Other people have called this guitar the pre-Supreme. Older version of this guitar sported the Custom Shop logo, whereas later versions just had the “Les Paul” scroll. Wow! Talk about GAS attack!!!

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Richlite Fretboards on New Les Pauls? I’ll Bite…

Posted in Guitars, tagged on August 25, 2012| 4 Comments »

A friend of mine has been considering buying a Les Paul Supreme or Custom (hoping to get it as a Christmas guitar). So as a favor, I did a bit of research on new Les Pauls and saw that all the new models, save the Standards use either Richlite or baked maple fretboards. Admittedly, I was a bit shocked by the use of Richlite, which is generally used as counter-top material, and thought what in the world possessed Gibson to make fretboards out of a fabricated material? But doing my best to keep an open mind, I perused my favorite forums to find discussions on the material.

What I found is that there are two camps out there: Purists and players. Purists want everything completely natural, and won’t even settle for laminated boards – they want a solid piece of wood. I was in this camp at first. However, I got brought back down to earth by the “players” whose only concern was that the guitar felt, played and sounded good. That has kind of been my ethos with gear, and I kind of forget it when I started getting into historic reissue Les Pauls. What I forgot is that my guitars are all players (with the exception of “Ox,” my ’59 replica which was specifically purchased for investment). What’s important to me is that a guitar feels, plays, and sounds appealing to me, and more importantly, that I can make music with it.  So I’m going to get off my high horse, and take a good look at Richlite, and see if I can play some new Les Pauls.

As far as Richlite is concerned though, it’s actually highly appealing to me because it’s made in a very “green” way. Part of it is made from wood pulp from managed and sustainable forests plus pulp from recycled paper. On top of that, the heat used to incinerate the volatile materials from the production process is used to dry the material, so there is little thermal  pollution, and finally, NO hazardous waste production.

Perhaps with Gibson getting busted for purchasing exotic woods from illegal sources was a good thing. Also, that Gibson, the manufacturer of what is one of the most iconic electric guitars in history, would choose to use a fabricated, “green” material for a tonewood is actually pretty cool to me, and could lead the way for other manufacturers to consider using green materials as well.

Can’t wait to try one out!

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