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Posts Tagged ‘guitar’

NGD: Taylor T5z Classic Mahogany

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , on December 24, 2019| 1 Comment »

Last Friday, I saw Eric Rachmany and Kyle Hearn of Rebelution playing this guitar and after doing some research on it over the next few days, and then playing one at my local Guitar Center yesterday, I just had to have it (F-in’ GAS).

I took some pictures of it this morning. I’ll talk about it after.

Impressions

Looks

First off, the look of this guitar is spectacular. The grain on the mahogany top – even in a natural finish – is so three-dimensional. I’m glad that Taylor didn’t put a gloss clear coat on the guitar. The satin finish lets the grain of the wood speak for itself. It’s a sexy guitar. In fact, at the concert the other night, I was thinking about how awesome the guitars looked and my wife must’ve been reading my mind and commented on how gorgeous the guitar were.

What amazes me about the grain of my guitar are the pronounced striations of dark and lighter wood. Most of the pictures I saw of the guitar and the guitars that Eric and Kyle were playing didn’t have these. I totally lucked out with this! It almost looks like walnut!

Fit and Finish

True to Taylor’s workmanship and quality, there is absolutely nothing out of place; no crooked joints, no blemishes in the finish. The machine heads are perfect and silky smooth to tune.

The jumbo frets – yes, jumbo frets – are clean and smooth. Some people in the past have remarked on the relatively sharp edge of the fret board, but I have to problem with it. I like that pronounced edge.

The body is perfect on this guitar. It’s a little wider than a Les Paul, but it feels like holding an electric. In fact, Taylor calls it an electric guitar (more on that later – it’s important). The body size combined with the weight which couldn’t be more than 5 lbs. make for a very comfortable guitar to play.

Playability

The scale length on the T5z is 24 7/8″. We’re getting into Les Paul territory here and all be damned if this guitar doesn’t play like an electric. It comes strung standard with Elixir Nanoweb 11’s (electric), which are perfect for this guitar. The thicker string gauge provides pop for the acoustic mode, but the Les Paul-like scale length makes bending super easy.

The neck radius, which is 12″ is down three inches from the original T5’s 15″, with a nut width of 1 11/16″. The neck profile is a shallow C; more shallow than a Les Paul, but it makes playing up and down the fret board a dream!

And reaching notes in the upper bout? FUGGETABOUTIT! The neck is attached to the body via what Taylor calls a “T Lock.” You ever assemble IKEA furniture before? You put pieces together and turn what looks like a large screw head to pull the pieces tight. It appears to be a similar principle with the T Lock mechanism. It pulls the neck in tight to the body. What this means is that there’s no heel on the neck, allowing access to the notes in the upper bout super easy. You don’t even have to change your wrist angle to reach the notes! F-in’ A!

Sound

Looks and build quality aside, it’s the sound of the T5z that pushed me over the top to buy it which, interestingly enough, kept me from buying the original T5 when I evaluated it almost 13 years ago. Back then, though I got what Taylor was going after, I felt as if it was an acoustic guitar trying to be an electric and not able to do the job of either very well. It gave me the impression at the time that Taylor couldn’t quite decide on what they wanted the guitar to be.

But with the T5z, it’s unabashedly an electric guitar that has an acoustic setting, and more importantly, it does both acoustic and electric duties incredibly well.

The guitar is meant to be plugged in. Demonstrators say that it has a nice unplugged sound. It doesn’t. It sounds like a mildly deeper acoustic sound of an electric guitar. It’s serviceable for quiet playing, but contrary to what a demonstrator said about it having a good acoustic sound for songwriting, I personally would have to plug it in if I’m writing music. But for practicing or learning songs, it works good enough.

But the plugged in sound? Wow! The acoustic tone is wonderful and a lot of that has to do – at least in my opinion – with the body sensor right behind the bridge. It provides for a very natural-sounding tone. It’s not quite acoustic, but it’s pretty damn close, and for use in a live performance, it works great. When I saw Eric Rachmany, the performance tone was crystal clear with the qualities I’d expect from a plugged-in acoustic guitar.

I will be playing it at Christmas Eve Mass today, so I tested it direct into my JBL Eon One PA. It sounds spectacular through my PA, so I’m now looking forward to playing some solo gigs with it.

As soon as I brought the guitar home yesterday, I immediately played it through my BOSS Katana Artist, going through every single setting. In the acoustic channel, it was awesome, and I only had to do some minor tweaks to dial it in for use today.

On the electric side of things, I just have to smile. I was able to Tele-like tones out of it using the neck pickup and turning up the highs. Then was able to get fatter and more driving tones with the other pickup settings.

To be honest, and I’m actually very glad about this, the T5z has its own tone. It’s not trying to be a Strat or a Les Paul or an ES335. But what it offers is the ability to shape the guitar’s tone to fit whatever genre I’m playing. That’s really the promise of this guitar and at least from my very short time playing it thus far, Taylor has fulfilled that promise, where I feel it fell short in the original version.

Granted, I still need a few more hours with the guitar. Every time I pick it up and plug it in, I find some new tone from tweaking the gain and EQ knobs which, I have to say, function incredibly well. I love that there are independent bass and treble knobs which is significantly better than having a single tone knob which, as you know, when you roll off the tone can get really muddy as the highs become muted.

Overall Initial Impression

I’m going to refrain from raving about the T5z, though I’m very tempted to do so. My gut tells me that this is truly a great guitar, and there’s no denying its versatility. But I want to save the raves for my formal review once I’ve had a few more hours on the guitar.

I am SO looking forward to playing it at Christmas Eve Mass today!

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Cleaning Your Guitar

Posted in Guitars, tagged , on April 5, 2019| 3 Comments »

If you spend much time on forums, you’ll see threads occasionally popping up about cleaning and maintaining your guitar. Based on the threads, it seems that there are some folks who are absolutely obsessive about cleaning and oiling their fretboards, like every couple of weeks. But having spoken to my guitar tech and a couple of luthiers about this very subject, they all seem to be in agreement that people tend to clean and oil their guitars way too much.

My guitar tech put it this way: “Think about it. Your guitar is like a nice piece of furniture. In fact, the wood used for making a guitar – especially the fretboard – is almost always a higher quality than used in furniture. But even if you have a furniture piece that’s made of high-quality wood, how often do you clean and polish it? Generally, you just wipe it down with a soft cloth to remove the lint and fingerprints and what-not. The same applies to a guitar. Wiping it down regularly with a soft cloth will prevent gunk building up. Oh, and please remove pick and skin dust from your playing area.” He directed the last statement specifically at me because I’m notorious for not cleaning that area. 🙂

I got that lecture a decade ago. And since then, I followed his advice on some simple things to do to clean and maintain my guitars.

  1. First off, if you don’t see any gunk buildup, don’t be tempted to do a cleaning. Most likely the guitar’s clean, but it’s always a good idea to wipe it down with a soft cloth.
  2. If you do see some gunk buildup, before you do anything, see if you can scrape it off with some soft plastic, like a credit card. Chances are that it’s just on the surface. Then finish that off with wiping it down with a soft cloth (seeing the pattern here? Have a soft cloth always handy).
  3. There are times where even a scrape won’t do the job. But for cleaning, DON’T USE OIL! For your fretboard, use a 50-50 mixture ratio of water to white distilled vinegar (a little stronger if you have a fairly nasty buildup). Dip a cloth into the mixture – you don’t want to pour it on – and work the cloth into the gunky area. If you have a particularly pesky area, use a super-fine steel wool with the mixture. Once you’re done cleaning, thoroughly dry the wood, then use oil. Personally, I use linseed oil, though many people say to use lemon oil. Martin guitars recommends against using lemon oil because the acids in the oil can break down the fretboard wire. Hmm… In any case, use it sparingly, applying a small bit on a cloth, then wiping and working it into the wood. And by the way, you should only need to do this once or twice a year – at most.
  4. As for the body, regularly wiping it down with a soft cloth should suffice most of the time. But if you have to clean it, use a highly diluted soap and water and use circular motions to clean. There are also various cleaners compatible with nitro or poly finishes. These can be picked up at either a guitar store or even a hardware store (but you’ll have to do your research on the types of finishes they can be used on).

These are really simple things to do. And you shouldn’t have to do more than wiping your guitar down very often.

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Does A Guitar Cable’s Capacitance Make A Difference?

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , on March 29, 2019| 3 Comments »

If you’ve read this blog for any amount of time, you’ve probably seen that I have a fairly sensitive bullshit radar. It’s not that I’m a natural skeptic, but I’ve been around gear for so long that when I see something that has a super high price and claiming all sorts of improvements to my tone, I become quite a bit wary. And especially when it comes to cords and wires, I tend to be quite a bit of a skeptic. But the exception to that is instrument cords.

Now this is not going to be a comparison article where I say one particular cord is the best, blah, blah blah… When I see articles like that, that’s when my BS alarm goes off. But by the same token, I’m also not of the belief that you can just use any old cable and you’ll sound great.

On Low Capacitance

Since the ’90’s, cable manufacturers have been touting their low capacitance cables, and how a low capacitance cable opens up your sound. The argument is that with a lower capacitance, less electricity will be stored in the cable, allowing more signal to pass through. Amazingly enough, I actually agree with this. The effect of capacitance in a cable is that it acts like a low pass filter, essentially rolling off the highs. By lowering the capacitance, more highs pass through the cable, thus allowing much more of the signal to get to your amp.

BUT… Low Cap Doesn’t Mean It’s Better for YOU

Manufacturers of low cap cables will make you think they are simply better because they allow more signal to pass through to the amp. In general, that’s a good thing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for you. You see, more of something doesn’t mean it’s better. Sometimes, it’s just more.

I have a couple of low capacitance cables, but I only use those for certain guitars, like my acoustic, where I want the full range of signal to pass to my acoustic amp or a board. But I actually tend to use a cable that has a higher capacitance for my electric guitars because my entire chain is set up to be pretty bright. I actually like to have some of the highs rolled off.

And since I started using my Godin Artisan ST-V, I’m actually in search of an even higher capacitance cable for that guitar. It’s bright, Bright, BRIGHT! And though I roll off the highs on my amp when I use it, I want a little help prior to my amp. That way, I can effectively set up my amp one way to serve a couple of guitars during a gig. It’s a kind of a convenience thing.

Does Low Cap = Better Quality?

Yes and no. I say this because in general, it seems that higher quality materials need to be used to achieve lower capacitance.

But as we all know, build quality varies from manufacturer. For instance, hands down, Mogami makes about the best cables in the business, at least as far as build quality goes. They use really high-quality materials and have all sorts of features built into them. But you pay for that quality and those features; on the order of at least twice as much as a similar cable.

I use Mogami XLR cables for vocals. Even my cheapo Sennheiser e835 and my Sennheiser e609 instrument mic sound much better with my Mogami XLRs. And with a great mic, it’s like removing a blanket from the mic. Admittedly though, the sound difference is subtle – the “blanket” is thin as it were – but it counts. But I cherish those (read: I don’t want to “f” them up), so I rarely take them to gigs. For gigs, and frankly because the audience won’t be able to tell the difference, I just use some generic brand cables like Monster or whatever the house may have.

Back to instrument cables, I generally get cables whose quality is good enough, so I tend to go with middle-of-the-road Hosa cables. Their build quality is solid, though nowhere near on par with Mogami. But I’m also a real stickler for treating cables well, so my instrument cables tend to last a long time.

And by the way, Hosa makes a line of low cap cables that are very affordable and work just fine; no hiss, no crackle when the tips move. That’s all you need right? You can get a 10-foot cable for around $20.00.

The point to this is that yes, you can get the ultimate build quality with something like a Mogami or some boutique cable maker. But low cap can be had at a decent build quality and you won’t have to spend an arm and a leg to get it.

So… Does It REALLY Make a Difference?

Yes. But you have to look at it from the perspective of how the cable fits in with the rest of your rig. I know I took some time to get this conclusion, but I wanted to take some time illustrate this very important point: Low cap cables will give you more of your signal, but you may just find that you don’t like getting everything.

ROCK ON

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Playing Guitar: The Journey

Posted in Guitars, tagged , on March 2, 2019| Leave a Comment »

As with anything we learn over time, playing guitar is a journey replete with ups and downs, feasts and famines, motivations and let-downs. It’s a never-ending, circuitous path that always guarantees that there’s something else around the next bend to discover and explore.

As guitarists, we’re seekers. We’re explorers. We’re trailblazers into a wilderness that is simultaneously both familiar and new; familiar in the sense that we can see the paths that others have taken, and new in that while we may tread the same ground as others, the tracks we make are ours and ours alone.

There is no wrong journey. Some journeys have several stops along the way. Some go at a snail’s pace. Others, like my own, meander all over the landscape. Others take a straight path and reach higher and higher pinnacles of skill and technique quickly. But no way is better than the other.

Along the way, we may pick up things from other sojourners. But we make the choices in how to apply and use those things in our own journey.

The gear we use is also a reflection of the nature of our journey. Some travel light with only a single guitar. Others need a wagon or large transport to get them along. Others use the latest in high-tech gadgetry while others go unplugged. And still, it’s all good, no way is better.

And the nature of our journey will change over time. Sometimes, we may just need a guitar and an amp and perhaps one or two pedals if any. There will be times when we’ll be lugging a stack and two full-size pedalboards and three backup guitars. At other times, we may go digital or may go completely analog. And still, it’s all good, no way is better.

Along with our journey, we may experience doubt about our equipment. We can see what others have and wonder if our own equipment is good enough. Furthermore, we will encounter people on our journey who are passionate about the right way to travel. They’ll tell us to follow their path and to provision ourselves with the same things they’ve provisioned for themselves.

Sometimes it’ll make sense. Other times it won’t. Just remember that those who give out the free advice are speaking from what they see through the lens of their own experience. We have to live with our own choices and the choices others have made well, they have to own.

As a humorous aside, here’s a video clip from “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.”

As the dude said: Remember, no matter where you go, there you are… In other words, if we translate that to our own journey, wherever we’re at, we have what we have, we know what we know, we play what we play. And the cool thing with that is that what we have, know or play can be in flux depending on wherever we’re at. Chew on that for a bit!

You see, the journey of playing and learning guitar is intensely personal. Even if your primary motivation is to emulate a guitar hero or someone whom you idolize, you still have to make your own choices and YOU have to be the one who learns. It’s fine to seek advice and mentorship from others; in fact, I’d say that one of the beauties of being on a guitar journey is that there is a large, global community with which to interact and from which to learn.

So Sojourner, JOURNEY ON!

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Gear Review: Aroma AGS8 Instrument Stand

Posted in buying gear, effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear reviews, guitar, guitar gear, overdrive, pedals, tagged , , , , , , , on March 20, 2018| 5 Comments »

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!

Maker:0x4c,Date:2017-12-19,Ver:4,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar01,E-Y

 Aroma AGS8 Instrument Stand

Summary: For me, this is a gigging musician’s wet dream as far as guitar stands go. Not only is it sturdy, well-designed and well-built, it is light AF!

Pros: Did I mention that this stand is light? It doesn’t seem to weigh much more than a pound if that. But don’t be fooled by the lightweight. The aircraft-grade aluminum is tough!

Cons: None.

Price: $16.99 – $17.99 (Amazon, depending on color)

Features (from Amazon, and I assume Aroma):

  • THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FOLDING STAND LASTS LONG. Top aircraft grade aluminum tubes used, with high strength ABS joints, ensure a long lifetime usage. A frame structure, when unfolded, is the most stable design to support your instruments.
  • THE MOST PRACTICAL STAND FOR FRET AND STRING INSTRUMENTS. The ladder designed base arms, length adjustable, let the stand suitable for different thickness instruments. The vertical arms opening degrees adjustable for different sizes of instruments. The rotatable contact surface on the stand top for different instruments leaning angles. (NOT for V-shape or other special shapes instruments)
  • ALL THE WAY ROUND PROTECTING YOUR INSTRUMENT. All contact points where touching your instruments are covered with soft silicone material, which is dull to any chemical reaction with your instrument surface. The 4 landing points are also covered with slip-resistance silicone material.
  • USE YOUR STAND ANYTIME ANYWHERE. The smart adjustable and collapsible design is to fold your stand into one piece. Lightweight. Easy to carry along with your instrument anywhere anytime.
  • SHARE YOUR CREATIVITY. Join Aroma Facebook account, post your using tips, your fun with this stand. Jam your thoughts with others.

Tone Bone Rating: 5.00 ~ Sometimes, even the mundane can get me excited, especially when that mundane thing makes my life so much easier.

It’s a guitar stand for goodness sake! Who the hell cares?

I do, for one. With the number of gigs I do per year, gear weight is a factor, so is compactness when you don’t have the luxury of a road crew. And when I can get those two things plus a great design that’ll protect my investment, well, I flip out!

One of my bandmates purchased one a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was cool with its compact design and adjustable base arms. But I was most impressed with how light it was. I resolved then that I’d get one. I am not disappointed in the slightest!

Maker:0x4c,Date:2017-12-19,Ver:4,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar01,E-Y
Maker:0x4c,Date:2017-12-19,Ver:4,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar01,E-Y
Maker:0x4c,Date:2017-12-19,Ver:4,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar01,E-Y
Maker:0x4c,Date:2017-12-19,Ver:4,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar01,E-Y
Maker:0x4c,Date:2017-12-19,Ver:4,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar01,E-Y

Fit and Finish

The days of “Made in China” being associated with poor quality are long gone. This stand is absolutely well-built. The aircraft-grade aluminum tubing is super-strong, and the plastic ABS joints should withstand a lot of wear and tear. I got mine in blue, but you can get the stand in black, rose gold, gold, and silver. The latter three will cost you a buck more for some reason. I guess black and blue sell the best. 🙂

The design of this stand is great. It folds up nice and compact. You can see in the pictures above where I placed a quarter next to the folded stand. Nice and small.

As for its sturdiness, I have no issues with it. But if you notice how I’ve set up my acoustic guitar, I have it so it stands fairly upright. This is to make sure that the bottom edge of the guitar abuts against the end stoppers of the base arms. Plus, it will put minimal pressure on the apex pad. With a stand this short, you don’t want a lot of weight at the top of the stand. You’re just asking for trouble.

Either the weight of the guitar will make the stand tip back (not too likely – I put my Les Paul on this stand and set it up to lean back and it stayed in place), or as someone reported on Amazon, the top pad put a slight depression into the back of his ES-335. To me, it’s just common sense to let physics work for you. When you place the guitar in a more upright position, more of the body surface will contact the pads. So stand the freakin’ guitar up! 🙂 Sheesh!

Finally, I dig the bottom footpads. They elevate the entire structure of the frame, so the chance of spilled liquid contacting my guitar is pretty much nullified.

Overall Impression

I love this stand! I’m probably going to get a couple more of these. Well-made, well-designed and lightweight. A perfect combination, even it’s just a lowly stand.

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Gear Review: Seymour Duncan SA-6 MagMic

Posted in buying gear, effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear reviews, guitar, guitar gear, overdrive, pedals, tagged , , , , , , , on February 6, 2018| 2 Comments »

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!

 Seymour Duncan SA-6 MagMic

Summary: The SA-6 MagMic combines a magnetic pickup with a condenser mic to capture full tone of your acoustic guitar, but does it at a lower price point than similar pickups. But don’t let the more than $100 price difference fool you. This acoustic pickup captures the full spectrum of your sound, down to the little harmonics. And being able to dial in the amount of condenser mic signal is a boon to adjusting the pickup for whatever sound system and venue you may play. There’s no midrange, lifeless tone with this pickup. But most importantly, once you dial in the amount of condenser mic that you like, what you’re left with is a very natural sound. It’s truly amazing!

Pros: Super, super, easy to install and use right away. Very easy to dial in a great balance between magnetic pickup and condenser mic to get the sonic presentation you want. The pickup is also super-quiet, no buzz or hum at all, which is what you’d expect out of a good acoustic pickup.

Cons: None. To be fair though, dialing in the condenser mic picks up a lot of high frequency, but rolling it off a tad fixes that nicely.

Price: $179.00 – $189.00 Street

Features:

  • Magnetic Pickup:
    • DC Resistance: 3.8K Ohms
    • Resonant Frequency: 16KHz
    • Gauss Strength: 780 max (adjustable)
  • Microphone Capsule:
    • Pattern: Omni-directional
    • Sensitivity: -35dB (it’s sensitive)
    • Frequency Range: -20 to 20 KHz
    • Signal to Noise Ratio:  >62dB
    • Current Consumption: -0.5mA (you’ll get 450 hours out of a single 9V battery)
  • Onboard Electronics
    • 2 Channels, summed at ouput
    • Supply Voltage: 9V
    • Current Consumption: 1.1mA (preamp + capsule)
    • Battery Life: 450+ hours
  • Noise:
    • Pickup channel: -102dBV with 5K ohm source resistance
    • Mic channel: -96dBV with mic capsule attached

Tone Bone Rating: 5.00 ~ Once I got it installed, which took about 5 minutes, I was off to the races! I have to admit that I had my doubts about this pickup. But I’m glad I got it. It’s a keeper!

I’ve been searching for a pickup for my Simon and Patrick PRO guitar for months. I’ve evaluated and played several guitars equipped with different pickups and pickup configurations. But every review I read and every video I viewed of the Seymour Duncan SA-6 MagMic further convinced me that this was the pickup I should go with. Funny thing was that I broke my own rule with gear and purchased it without doing an in-person test. I had to trust my instincts on this purchase and I can confidently say that my instincts were spot on with this acoustic pickup.

Fit and Finish

The MagMic is well-made. Built with what appears to be high-velocity plastic, I have no doubt at all that it will survive the test of time; especially after I have it mounted permanently in my guitar. But I’d expect no less from Seymour Duncan. I’ve got Duncan pups installed in half of my guitars, and they’re built to last. Once installed, the controls are easily accessible and reside on either side of the pickup. The volume knob is closest, sitting on the 6th string side of the pickup, while the condenser mic level sits on the 1st string side.

Luckily the battery lasts 450+ hours because the housing sits on the neck block, and the only way to change out the battery is to loosen all the strings and remove the pickup. Mind you, this is an expected inconvenience, not a complaint, per se. It’s the price you have to pay to be minimally invasive.

How It Sounds

As they say, the proof is in the pudding, and this “pudding” is freakin’ incredible! As soon as I plugged my guitar into my DAW, I knew I had something special. Playing a dreadnought, I wanted whatever electronics I installed on it to pick up the deep lows and shimmery highs of my guitar, and this pickup does hands-down. To prove it, I recorded some sound samples. The first three were recorded completely dry. No EQ, no compression. I play the same riff three times in each clip, varying the amount of condenser mic in each. The first part isolates the magnetic pickup with no condenser, the second part has the condenser opened up wide. The third part has the condenser mic set to about 50%. Here they are:

Strum

Percussive Strum

Fingerstyle

Note that with the MagMic, the magnetic pickup is always on. From what I can hear, this picks up the low- and mid-range frequencies and provides a fairly warm, almost mechanical sound. The condenser mic picks up the higher midrange and high frequencies and harmonics. It’s sensitive and provides a bit too much high-frequency content for my tasts, which is why I dial back the amount of condenser mic to about 90%. In this final clip, I again recorded the guitar with no EQ, but I added compression, some stereo spread, and reverb like I would if I was recording the guitar for a song. The sound is natural and haunting.

To me, not having to EQ my guitar is important as I want my guitars recorded with as much of their natural sound as possible.

Overall Impression

I’m really at a loss for words with this pickup. I don’t think I can utter any further superlatives that could sufficiently describe the feeling I get from it.

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Gear Review: Fender FA 135 CE Concert Acoustic-Electric Guitar

Posted in accessories, buying gear, GAS, gear, gear reviews, guitar, guitar gear, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 6, 2017| 3 Comments »

fender_fa135ce

 Fender FA 135 CE Concert Acoustic-Electric Guitar

Summary: Part of the Fender Classic Design series, this lower-end model is a real surprise; especially in the sound department. Nice, low action, and a great feel. If you’re looking for a starter guitar or getting your child his or her very first guitar, you can’t go wrong with the FA 135 CE.

Pros: Some reviews have questioned the build quality of this guitar, but I’m very impressed with how solid this guitar is built. The guitar stays in tune and playing it is so, so easy. And for a smaller concert size guitar, this has a very rich sound; it’s quite unexpected.

Cons: The only nit that I have – and it’s really just a nit – is that the tuners are bit fast for my tastes. Fine tuning is a little challenging at first, but it’s easy to get used to.

Price: $179 street

Features:

  • Laminated bass wood sides and back
  • Laminated spruce top with X-bracing reinforcement
  • Nato wood neck
  • Rosewood fretboard
  • Compensated rosewood saddle
  • Single cutaway
  • Fishman Ion-T Preamp with built-in tuner

Tone Bone Rating: 4.75 ~ For what it is, I can’t help but give this guitar a great rating. Fender really surprised me with this guitar!

My 12-year-old son has been taking Ukelele lessons for a couple of years, and after he finished his last lesson, he came out and told me that he wanted to start playing guitar. His teacher, Michael, had accompanied him out of the lesson room and told me that he was ready. And since his birthday was coming up, I thought I’d get him a new one, as opposed to fixing up one of my old ones. My thought is that just like my dad did for me, I’d give my son a brand new guitar for his first one.

So today I went to Guitar Center and spent a couple of hours in their acoustic room evaluating all sorts of acoustic guitars. I didn’t want to spend over $200 for this guitar, but luckily, as a big-box retailer, Guitar Center has a pretty wide selection of “value” guitars. I tried guitars from Mitchell, a used “Little Martin,” several Yamaha guitars, and even a Gretsch.

The Little Martin was impressive and solidly built and was at a great price of $189, but it wouldn’t be available until Wednesday due to some city ordinance about a waiting period for used guitars. I needed a guitar today. So I sat in the acoustic room, and my gaze fell upon the Fender. I immediately thought to myself that it looked really nice. But, the thought also occurred that it was a Fender acoustic, and my previous experiences with those haven’t been all that good.

But in spite of my preconceptions, I decided to give it a try and was immediately surprised by the tone of the guitar. For a smaller-body guitar, I wasn’t expecting much sound-wise. But this had a sweet, gorgeous, rich tone. It completely took me by surprise. Then I started playing it, and thought, This couldn’t be a Fender acoustic! It sounds and plays way too nice – especially at $179!

Folks, this guitar is a sleeper, and it reminds me of the experience I had with my Squier Classic Vibe Tele. Great sound, great playability at a SUPER-affordable price!

Fit and Finish

The build quality of this guitar is awesome, just like my CV Tele. There are no uneven paint lines, and all the seams are clean and straight. The neck is straight, and the action is set up low, though it does raise just a little bit in the higher registers; but it’s not so bad that it’s not playable. This is a great guitar for fingerstyle playing, but even strummed, there’s no buzz. But more importantly, the setup is perfect for a beginning guitarist like my little boy.

Playability

Quite frankly, the main criterium for choosing a guitar for my son was playability. I could live with a guitar that had only okay sound just as long as it was easy to play. The frets are medium wire. Not great for bending and vibrato, but hey! This is a beginner’s guitar, so that’s not a big issue. The spacing is great between the frets as this is a shorter-scale guitar. For a seasoned player, this guitar plays with ease. For a beginner and a young player at that, the short scale will help them build up confidence.

How It Sounds

For a low-priced guitar, the FA 135 CE is amazingly articulate. As expected, it has a bit brighter voice as compared to a larger body guitar. But it has some nice sustain, and the spruce soundboard resonates with a surprisingly rich tone. Projection is great with this guitar due to the X-bracing under the top to provide stability and to help with projection. What also surprised me about this guitar is that it’s louder than I expected.

Tone-wise, as for me, I prefer a brighter-sounding guitar. While I liked the Little Martin, doing an A/B with that vs. the FA 135, it was as if a blanket was put over the Martin. The sound was much warmer and a bit too subdued for my tastes. That guitar projected very loud, but it would get lost in the mix when played with other guitars. This shouldn’t happen with the FA 135 CE.

Quick Demo

Here’s a quick demo I recorded just before posting this review. Sorry for the sound quality – and background noises – as this was recorded using my MacBook’s built in microphone, my new puppy was being a little playful across the room… 🙂

Preamp Test

As mentioned above, the guitar comes equipped with a Fishman Ion-T preamp. It’s a pretty simple preamp, so I thought I would give it a whirl. It’s not a bad preamp as preamps go, but it’s nothing special. In fact, its output is only okay. In order to record, I had to peg the guitar’s volume and add a lot of gain on my audio interface. Not a big deal. What was important to me was if I could get a good enough guitar signal to use the guitar in a song.

I have to say that I was pretty impressed with the result. I didn’t have to tweak the EQ at all. Of course, I did some production processing, but that was the point of the exercise, which was to see if I could get a good, mixable acoustic guitar sound from a plugged in guitar.

Overall Impression

I love this guitar! Who cares if it was manufactured in China. I have to commend Fender for finding an overseas manufacturer that does a great job at building guitars. The build, play and sound quality of this guitar have far exceeded my expectations. I think this is a guitar that my son will enjoy for years to come!

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Gear Review: Peterson StroboClip HD Strobe Tuner

Posted in accessories, buying gear, GAS, gear, gear reviews, guitar, guitar gear, tagged , , , , , , on July 17, 2017| 4 Comments »

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!

 Peterson StroboClip HDTM High Definition Clip-On Strobe Tuner

Summary: Peterson is the pioneer in strobe tuning and this new version of the highly-acclaimed StroboClip is a huge improvement over the original StroboClip which, in my opinion, just couldn’t be beaten. But add to that a larger, high-definition, and a high-contrast screen, then throw in a high degree of accuracy, then add Peterson’s unrivaled “Sweeteners,” what’s not to like?

Pros: I said pretty much everything in the summary. This thing just works and it’s accurate – very accurate. But it’s really the Sweeteners that have always sealed the deal for me.

Cons: None for me as I used the original for a long time (until some a-hole stole it at a gig), but using a strobe tuner will take a newbie a bit of time to get used to. But that shouldn’t discourage anyone.

Price: $59.99 street

Features:

  • 0.1 cent accuracy
  • 50+ Sweeteners for different kinds of instruments – thank goodness the guitar ones are first. 🙂
  • Comparatively larger, HD, backlit LCD readout.
  • Tuning Range: C0 to B6 (very wide)
  • Concert Pitch Range 390-490Hz

Tone Bone Rating: 5.00 ~ After my original StroboClip got stolen last year, I went with a cheap Snark tuner. It did the job okay, but there was always something special about the sound of a guitar tuned with my StroboClip. It just sounded better. And with this updated, upgraded version, I’m a very happy camper!

 

What could be so special about a tuner?

Believe me, not all tuners are made the same. An accurately tuned guitar can make the difference between sounding just okay and sounding incredible. So it stands to reason that the more accurate your tuning, the better you’ll sound. So tuner manufacturers have strived to get as accurate as possible, getting into the tenths of a cent (or even the hundredths of a cent). The StroboClip is super-accurate at 0.1 cent, which is pretty incredible. And that’s great – you might be thinking that at this point, there might be a “but” in there… Yes, there is…

As James Taylor puts it, because of how guitars are constructed, and how the strings vibrate, the actual sound that they produce when plucked is not actually in tune if you tune the strings to their exact tuning. According to JT, strings will ring a little sharp, so he actually tunes each string down a few cents per string – not evenly – as each different string requires a different adjustment.

And this is where Peterson tuners have always stood out. They’ve gone to great lengths studying the actual sounds that come off a stringed instrument and have come up with special tuning algorithms for different types of instruments that they call “Sweeteners.” A Peterson rep shared with me that for their acoustic Sweetener, JT’s tuning influenced their algorithm. Hey! If it’s good enough for JT…

In any case, the Sweeteners are extremely subtle, but the first time I used a sweetener for a recording, I noticed that my guitar just sounded better. The difference is like wearing a nicely shined pair of shoes. People don’t necessarily know that you’ve shined your shoes, but they notice that you look a bit sharper. That’s the best analogy I can come up with for Peterson’s Sweeteners.

I noticed it especially with recording my acoustic guitar. With standard, equivalent tuning, it sounded okay but tuned with the ACU (acoustic) Sweetener, it just seemed to ring so much better. That said, you have to get used to the sound because up close, it might sound a little off. But when I listened to the recording, wow! It was truly a revelation.

Fit and Finish

All Peterson products are built rock-solid. And even though they’ve gone with a plastic body, it doesn’t feel at all cheap.

The kicker for me is the comparatively large screen to other tuners. Damn! That thing is readable! And with the higher number of pixels, the readout is super smooth. And for my aging eyes, I love it!

The clip’s springs are pretty tight, but not so much that you can’t squeeze the clip open, and combined with the silicon pads will ensure that the clip stays put on your headstock.

Ease of Use Tuning with a Strobe Tuner

It has three buttons. The middle turns on the unit and acts as the menu selector. The + and – buttons scroll through choices. Doesn’t get much easier than this.

Tuning with a Strobe Tuner

I have to admit that the first time I used a strobe tuner, it was a little weird. I was so used to seeing a needle sweep over a gauge. With a strobe tuner, what you get is a checkerboard pattern that sweeps left and right to indicate the sharpness or flatness of your string. If it moves clockwise, the string is sharp and vice-versa if the string is flat. When the string is in tune, the checkerboard stops moving. The bigger screen really helps.

But there is a bit of a trick to tuning. You have to get used to moving in much smaller increments than what you might be used to. Also, the tuner is so sensitive that once you make an adjustment, you have to remove your hand from the tuning knob because the slightest pressure will affect the tuning. But believe me, once you get used to tuning this way, it’ll become second-nature.

One feature that I didn’t mention is the Drop/Capo setting. If you drop your tuning or use a capo, you can get into the Drop/Capo mode, set the number of semitones you’re going up or down, and then tune accordingly. That’s a really powerful feature, and as I often use a capo, knowing that my strings are all in tune with the right compensations for each string is comforting.

Overall Impression

You can probably tell based on the rating I gave and the review, I love this tuner! I know that Peterson’s marketing push is for the HD screen, but to me, this tuner has always been about the underlying technology. It’s second to none. But I do have to say that the larger screen is simply awesome!

At $59.99, it’s not a cheap tuner, especially compared to something like a Snark 2 that you can get for under $25 (I got mine for $21 on sale). And you know me, I’m not one to say that just because you pay more for something, it’s better. But in this case, it’s totally worth the extra money.

You might be wondering why I might be so excited about this. After all, it’s only a tuner. But once you tune with a Peterson tuner and hear the difference in your sound, you’ll become a believer.

What About Other Strobe Tuners?

The only one I can think of is the Turbo Tuner with an amazing .02 cent accuracy; yes, you read that right. But as I said before, while extreme accuracy is great, what makes the Peterson technology stand out to me are the Sweeteners. They really make a difference. And at some point, I’m wondering if our ears can actually hear the difference between 0.1 and .02 cent. I’m not so sure. It’s almost like a tube amp. The more gain you throw at a tube, the less effect it’ll have on volume. But to each their own. If extreme accuracy is your thing, that’s awesome. And that’s the beauty of having so many choices out in gear land. There’s bound to be something to please any taste.

For me, that taste is the Peterson Sweeteners!

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Gear Review: Bohemian Guitars BOHO Motor Oil

Posted in buying gear, effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear reviews, guitar, guitar gear, overdrive, pedals, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 19, 2015| 5 Comments »

4.75 Tone Bones - Almost perfect but not quite

bohemian-guitars-21787167

 Bohemian Guitars BOHO Series Motor Oil

Summary: Inexpensive but incredibly playable and most importantly, very nice sounding, the BOHO Motor Oil really took me by surprise. Yeah, it seems a bit gimmicky, but these guitars are inspired by the founder’s South African roots where people put instruments together from whatever they could find.

Pros: Super-easy and comfortable to play. Pickups are voiced such that there’s a clear distinction between the positions. Very response to volume knob variation.

Cons: These are nits at most: The tuners need to be tightened a bit, as the strings can go out of tune fairly easy. Tone knob almost acts like a volume knob, but it’s serviceable.

Price: $299.00 Direct

Features:

  • Model: Motor Oil!
  • Body: Recycled metal hollow body w/ removable back panel. Basswood frame for increased amplification and structural integrity
  • Neck Wood: Maple
  • Neck type: Bohemian Through-Body
  • Fretboard: Rosewood
  • Headstock: Red
  • Finish: Golden Glaze
  • Frets: 21
  • Nut Width: 1 3/4″
  • Width at 12th Fret: 2 1/8″
  • Width at 21st Fret: 2 3/8″
  • Neck Thickness: 7/8″
  • Scale Length: 25 1/2″
  • Hardware: Chrome
  • Tuners: 3R 3L screw in w/ removable keys
  • Bridge/Tailpiece: Tune-o-Matic
  • Pickups: Humbucker, Humbucker
  • Electronics: Volume, Tone
  • Switch: 3-way toggle
  • Self-standing: This model has a built in stand made from recycled rubber.
  • Inspired by South Africa. Designed in Atlanta. Produced in China.

Tone Bone Rating: 4.75 ~ The best word to describe this guitar is FUN. It plays as fun as it looks!

I’ll admit it right out of the gate: I really tried NOT to like this guitar. The moment I took it out of the box, my first reaction was literally, “Oh shit! HAHAHAHAHA!” and I chuckled about it for several minutes. In fact, I let the guitar stand in my living room for a few days before I even decided to play it because I didn’t think this was a very “serious” guitar. I imagined myself in a clown suit playing it. But since I asked for the review unit, my sense of obligation overcame my initial amused disdain for it. So I took it to my man-cave, plugged it into my amp, tuned up the guitar, then started to play. And play. And play.

A couple of hours passed by with me just tooling with the guitar, and I finally had to stop when my wife opened the kitchen door glaring at me because I hadn’t gotten to my honey-do projects for the day.

Did I really lose track of time? I asked myself, That ONLY happens when I’m getting lost in the sound and what I’m playing is pleasing to me. When something gets me in the “zone,” it’s special, and all my initial thoughts and bias about its appearance completely disappeared.

When I put the BOHO down, I resolved to do a sound test with it as soon as I could. I had a gig that night, so I couldn’t get to it until the next day, but I looked forward to playing that guitar throughout my gig.

Even still, this guitar reeks of “gimmick” when you look at it. But how it plays and sounds completely overshadows any gimmickry that its appearance may imply. It totally took me by surprise, and I have to say that hands-down I love it! And the fact that it’s made in China is actually a good thing. Chinese guitar construction has come a long, long way over the years, and labor is still cheap, which means these guitars are affordable, so you shouldn’t let price-bias get in your way.

Fit and Finish

I could see nothing wrong with the guitar’s appearance. Other people have reported dents in the past, but my review unit had none. Note that those reports were from earlier models, and I don’t think they had the bracing that the new models have that make them tougher. The only nit I really had was that bending the first string at around the 12th or 13th fret while really digging in would fret out the string. But I attributed that more to a setup problem, and it’s quite possible that the bridge settled a bit during shipping. Raising the bridge a millimeter or two would solve that issue. It certainly wasn’t a neck angle issue. Everything appeared to line up just fine.

As far as overall construction is concerned, amazingly enough, the guitar’s pretty solid-feeling. I was thinking that it might be a bit flimsy; after all, its body is a freakin’ gas can! But the internal bracing provides plenty of structural integrity, so fragility isn’t an issue at all.

But other than my little nit, the guitar actually looks pretty cool, and over time, as I played it, it grew on me. That had more to do with how it plays and sounds than its appearance.

Playability

Amazingly enough, moving around the neck is smooth as silk. I love that it has a rosewood fret board because it provides a tactile feel that makes it feel familiar (most of my many guitars have rosewood fret boards). I personally prefer fatter fret wire, but that’s just personal preference, and doesn’t take away from how well the guitar feels and plays. And surprisingly enough, even with my belly, the guitar’s very comfortable to play despite the obviously fatter body from the can.

How It Sounds

Okay, so this is where the rubber hits the road, and where, most importantly, the guitar impacted me the most. Once I got past the guitar’s appearance, it was its voice that really struck me. While the folks at Bohemian Guitars tout this as the “rock” model, and it certainly has a great voicing for rock, I actually loved its voicing clean or just slightly dirty. For comparison, the voicing has elements of a later model Les Paul with sort of deep voice, but also has the “woody” elements of a semi-hollow body like a 335. It’s a cool voice. I would’ve liked to have a better EQ response with the tone knob because changes in the tone knob affected volume, but I found a good spot that worked for all three pickups and kept it there.

The first three clips you’ll hear are the same phrase played through each of the pickup positions, starting with neck pickup and moving to the bridge. With the first two, I just made up stuff off the top of my head, but with the third clip, I used the main riff from Oasis’ Wonderwall. No matter what I’m playing, the one thing I always look for is note separation, especially when played dirty. I didn’t play any lead lines because frankly, 97% of the time I’m playing rhythm. So it’s important to get a sense of how well the guitar articulates. The amp I used for this was my trusty Aracom VRX18 with EL84’s, played in the drive channel. The amp was set to the very edge of breakup so I could get it to overdrive with volume knob changes and attack.

All clips were recorded raw with the exception of the last clip where I added some hall reverb.

Clean, all three pickups

Dirty, all three pickups

Edge of breakup, all three pickups

Jazzy Blues w/reverb, middle pickup

Admittedly, the clean and edgy tones were the ones that got me to lose myself for those couple of hours when I first played the guitar. And to be completely honest, I love the sound this guitar produces clean and at the edge of breakup best. This probably has to do with my Les Paul bias with respect to a “rock” sound. It’s not that I don’t like the overdriven sound of the guitar, it’s just that I have a preference for the sound I want to produce when playing with overdrive.

Overall Impression

Once I got over my initial doubts about the guitar, I discovered a very nice-playing and nice-sounding guitar under the covers. And at $299, this an incredibly approachable guitar that won’t break the bank in the process. Would I gig with it? To be honest, I’m not sure. But I have no doubts with its solid construction that it would be able to stand the rigors of gigs. But for its gorgeous clean tones, I’d certainly use it in the studio, especially for the new reggae-style tunes I’m working on.

And truth be told, its appearance has actually grown on me. I still don’t know if I’d gig with it regularly, but that has nothing to do with how it looks. With a gigging guitar, I typically look for versatility. I’d have to bring it to band rehearsal to see how it would perform. But other than that, I love this guitar. For what it is, it’s the ultimate in “cool.”

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Gear Review: Hughes & Kettner TubeMeister 18 Head

Posted in buying gear, effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear reviews, guitar, guitar gear, overdrive, pedals, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 16, 2015| Leave a 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!

 Hughes & Kettner TubeMeister 18 Head

Summary: This amp is truly a tone chameleon, capable of delivering vintage to modern tones in one 18 Watt package. I daresay that it is pretty much the most versatile amp I’ve ever owned; not only from a tone standpoint, but also from a power standpoint. 18 Watts too loud in your space? Bring it down to 5W or 1W or even 0W! The on-board RedBox DI is absolutely killer, and provides for truly silent recording, which is a huge for late-night recording when the kids are asleep (or roommates, etc.).  Super-responsive EQ makes for tons of tone shaping possibilities.

Pros:Where do I begin? This amp has it all for me; especially in the recording department.

Cons: This is a very minor nit, but even with a Strat, the lead channel can really compress at high gain settings.

Price: $599 Street ($50 for the optional footswitch)

Features:

  • Channels: Clean, Lead + Lead Boost
  • Power Soak: 5W, 1W, Silent
  • Preamp: 2 X 12AX7
  • Power Amp: 2 X EL84
  • Effects Loop (Serial)
  • Speaker Output: 8 & 16 Ohm (will automatically detect – no switch)
  • Tube Safety Control (TSC) – keeps power tubes biased properly for optimal performance.
  • Padded, protective cover included
  • Optional channel switching footswitch.

Tone Bone Rating: 5.00 ~ I have to admit, I really lucked out with this amp. I bought it used from a good buddy who had only gigged with it once, and to be honest, didn’t know too much about it. But after I researched it, what originally attracted me to the amp was the on-board RedBox DI. But after playing with it for several hours since I picked it up, I simply love all the tones I can get from this amp – and I’ve only played one guitar through it! It’s a winner!

I’m such a gear slut. When I got this amp, my buddy, who’s also a fellow gear slut chuckled and said, “As if you need another amp…” I also laughed, and almost got buyer’s remorse. BUT what I didn’t have was an amp that had an on-board DI. But the RedBox is a special DI in that it has speaker simulation, which means you’re going to get the reactance of an amp connected to a speaker. It’s one thing to DI into a DAW, but it sounds like an amp plugged directly into a speaker. Add speaker simulation and there’s something special that happens when you add reactance into the mix. You get the dynamics you expect when plugged into a cabinet.

Fit and Finish

This amp is built like a tank. I’m sure H&K had the gigging musician in mind when they built the amp because it’s very solid. The only nit I’d have with respect to it’s physical appearance is that the level dots on the knobs can be a bit difficult to see from certain angles because of the chrome finish. It’s a small nit, and when I gig with the amp, I’ll probably either paint dark lines or stick some thin pieces of colored tape to the top of the knobs so I know where I’m setting things.

Also, when switched on, that blue LED glow is pretty cool. To be honest, I don’t really care about how the thing looks and focus much more on the sounds it can produce. But hey! If it sounds good and looks great in the process, I’m not going to complain.

How It Sounds

To start off, whether plugged into a cab or outputting directly from the DI into an audio interface, this amp is dead quiet when idle, except at high gain settings where the power amp will hum just a tiny bit. But that humming also has a lot to do with my Strat’s single coils. Haven’t tried it with any of my Les Pauls just yet, and I’m anticipating that they’d be quieter. But any amp fully cranked is going to make some noise.

Now to be completely honest, none of the clips I’m supplying here are with the amp hooked up to a cabinet and me miking the cab. My focus was on using the DI to capture my guitar sounds to see if I could get a usable recording that I could then tweak in production. Circling back a little with the DI, one thing that having a speaker simulation is that you get the subtle overtones and dynamics in the signal that you wouldn’t get with a direct signal. It’s typically a little dead when using a regular DI with no speaker simulation, thus no reactance. Truth be told, it’s not perfect, and it doesn’t sound nearly as good as the amp plugged into a cabinet. But it’s close. Real close, and though it doesn’t sound as good as a speaker moving air, it doesn’t suck tone. Dynamics are all retained. My thought behind getting this amp was to get a usable signal that I could then process in Logic and add the texturing there. So without further ado, let’s take a look (BTW, for these clips, I used my Strat plugged directly into the amp, with an XLR going direct to my MBox 2):

Raw signal, clean

My first test was to record a simple clean clip raw to see how it sounded. This clip has absolutely no plug-ins employed in neither the guitar tracks nor the output track.

When I finished the “rhythm” track for this, I immediately smiled. Not only did I have a usable signal, it sounded like my amp was plugged into a cabinet because the dynamics that I was expecting were all there, but with the added plus of no ambient room noise.

Clean, slightly processed

Since I had a usable signal, I wanted to fatten it up a bit and add some reverb to give the sound more space. Here’s the same clip as above, but slight processed (Note: I didn’t do any EQ on the either track).

After doing just those simple tweaks, I knew I had a winner with respect to a recording amp.

Dirty

I wasn’t going to originally include this clip because if there’s one nit I had with the amp while recording this last night, was that at real cranked up settings, the signal compresses – a lot. I guess I’m used to using vintage-style amps that never get that far. But with this amp, I have to be careful about cranking the amp too high. It’s a little hard to hear in the clip itself, but while playing, I noticed a reduction in note separation. But granted, I had the Master wide open, and the gain knob at 3pm. I’ve learned to set the Gain to around 10am, and I still get plenty of sustain, but much less compression.

Sustain test

Finally, I wanted to experience that noted H & K tube sag, and see how well the amp would sustain my guitar signal. In a nutshell, it sustains incredibly well.

The most impressive thing about this clip was at the end where the amp is picking up the overtones of the guitar. OMG! I couldn’t believe that when I was playing last night!

Final Impression

I don’t know what it is, but I’m running across a lot of game-changers for me. While I love my vintage-style amps, and will continue to gig with them, I have a feeling that I’ll be getting a of mileage from the TubeMeister 18. As a bonus, check out this video review from Guitar World. Paul’s a killer player, and he really brings out the gorgeous tones the TubeMeister 18 can produce. There are actually two videos, and the second video where he starts playing the lead channel, had me swooning over the gorgeous overdrive this amp can produce.

 

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