Shopping again

Have been telling myself to get a set of fresh strings for my acoustic. But in the end, I was too busy with other stuffs that I only managed to buy it yesterday. Only buy 3 items though.

1. Planet Waves Pro-Winder

Actually, I've always wanted to buy this but either it is overpriced or can't be found. But to my surprise, almost many guitar shops has this. You name it; Swee Lee, Ranking, Music Theme etc... So I finally managed to get one at Swee Lee since I was there to help my cousin look for his practice pad, which he in the end bought at ranking instead. This winder has got a cutter along as well and thus got it's name "Pro-Winder". 

2. GHS Vintage Bronze

Actually, I wasn't exactly wanting to buy this. What I wanted to buy is Phosphor bronze. However, since I also wanted to try differences between them, I ended up buying both. Vintage bronze, according to the list below is supposed to sound more mellow. I don't know another word to explain this but I would describe it as the tone is more 'rich'.

3. GHS Phosphor Bronze

Phosphor bronze, according to what I'd learnt, is one of the most balanced string. I would recommend to buy phosphor if you are not sure of what tone you would want. =)

I decided to use the vintage bronze first. =) finally, i can play my acoustics alr.. say goodbye to my 8 months old strings~ its rather absurd.. but it's the fact.. Myanmar does not have quality strings.

Stress reliever

Recently, there are too many things to accept in this very short time. I am not sure when I will lose the grip of myself. 


So I searched through my songs and choose the song for the day. In the end, I ended up listening to Depapepe.

This duo is the reason why I started liking guitar so much. They are the ones that give me the passion for my guitar. 


Also, I think I need acoustics in order to relax my mind. I really don't want to care about all the troubles. And so I ended up listening to Depapepe's Depacla 2 which is released in December last year. 

Unprofessional

Yes, i'm indeed part of the Musicians' Club in my school and basically I'm fine with everyone except for the other guitarist in the school band. I don't like to work with unprepared and last-minute people, let it be studies or anything else. As for music, it also matters and in fact, a lot more important.

He asked me to play with him in an acoustic performance in the Foreign Students J2 Farewell meeting. And guess what, he told me 15 minutes before the performance. Well, I'm fine with playing an acoustic song with chords given to me. But he gave me a guitar with only 5 strings and it is not tuned. WTF! At least give me a guitar with 6 strings! 

I don't wish to work with someone like him strictly and this, in my opinion, cannot be tolerated. It shows his unprofessional-ism. This also shows that he doesn't take performances seriously. I will never go and perform in such unpreparedness. 

Plan

Well, accidents always happens. I dropped my guitar. A piece of wood about 4 cm long is chipped of the back of the guitar. Super glued it back but i still don't feel good. Now I am planning for a makeover, change pickups, change the look and all.

Also deciding to get a decal to cover up the whole guitar and i managed to find someone who actually print custom decals and paste them on guitars. Whoa.. so i designed the above for the guitar. The logo is my own logo. This is not taken from anywhere. It's totally original. 

Now, I've to research on the pick ups I would like to use. Hmm.....

6:41:49

I managed to get the whole discography of the GazettE from my classmate, who's also a GazettE fan. She owning the whole discography show what a fan she is to the GazettE. Now I've got enough songs to enjoy while my trip back to Myanmar: a total of 6:41:49 of songs.

Block the Noises~!

I went down to City Hall AGAIN on Friday again. Well, it really seems like I've got nothing better to do than shop around City Hall. Bought myself a new cable. The old one I'm using is beyond salvation. I tried to maximise it anyway. Here's the picture. 

 Bought this at SV guitars for $10 dollars. At first I thought it was some cheapo cable but I was wrong. It is a good cable. =) Now with new cables, all those buzzing noises which my old cable produces are gone!

 The jack gives me a feeling that it is rather solid. I hope it is.


Next, we headed to Drums Resources at Bugis, Haji road to be exact. The place, like always, is very hard to find and is located in some alleyways. Around the shop is all shisha stalls and shops. But we have to go there because it is giving a 50% off for all drums stuffs and 10% for some accessories. We finally managed to buy ETY Plugs! Now our ear is saved from noises!! 

This really is an awesome stuff and really does what the rumors said about it: cut down bad frequency. It indeed does. I put it on and talk to people around me normally, and I still can hear them as if I am not wearing them. But when I tried to on a song very loud near my ears, it really did reduces all the noise. As if I'm listening through the speaker across the living-room. It is really going to save my ears whenever I'm jamming. =)

The Misleading Angel

Actually, my band leader brought this topic up on facebook first so I was thinking that it would be good to share it here.

This guitar is known at ESP Flying Angel -Fantasia- (Fantasia is the colour of the guitar). This is an artist series guitar by the way, by T.Takamizawa. The following is the spec:

BODY :Alder
NECK :Hard Maple 3P
FINGERBOARD :Rosewood, 24frets
INLAY :T's Arrow
SCALE :648mm(Long)
NUT :Locknut (42mm/R2)
JOINT :Set-neck
TUNER :GOTOH SG360-07
BRIDGE :Floyd Rose
PICKUPS :(Neck) EMG 81
(Bridge) EMG 81
CONTROL :Toggle PU Selector
COLOR :Fantasia
PRICE :2,415,000yen (Include Tax)
 with HARD CASE

The nett price of 2.4 million yen is around about SGD 38k. This is one of the most expensive guitar i had seen in my life so far for signature guitars. I would rather buy a limited Fender or Gibson, a Taylor guitar, a Marshall or Mesa amp and my whole list of effects I've wanted instead.  

Seriously, it is not worth the money. Cosmetic-wise, it maybe superb to some but some may prefer a much simpler design and body. Moreover, there is no tone and volume controls on the guitar, which I think is a very important factor but the people maybe misled by its look that they neglected the tone. 

Daylight robbery

A few weeks ago, I emailed Swee Lee on the inquiry on these two guitars namely:

Fender Blacktop™ Stratocaster® HH

&

Classic Series '72 Telecaster® Deluxe 

This is what Swee Lee replied:

Black Top by Fender @ SGD$1,199 nett.

We have the following: 2009 FDR 72 TELE DLX NAT SGD$2,080.

And guess what, I thought they made a mistake. So I emailed them again and ask for confirmation on the spec (to see if it is the same as the one i have in mind). The answer came in that it is exactly the same, MIM classic deluxe. 

Brendon at www.BGWguitars.com sells the classic 72 for $1120 and the blacktop for $850. 

See the price difference? Swee Lee really is a big big scammer here. Well... at least for this case.

My Favourites

I've got nothing to post so I just made up a list of guitarists who I like the most. =D All guitarists are good but these are my favourites.


The following are not organised in order of who is better.

John William Lowery (aka) John 5

 Yngwie Johann Malmsteen

Brian Elwin Haner, Jr. (aka) Synyster Gates <Avenged Sevenfold>

 Hideto Matsumoto (aka) hide <X Japan>

Syu <Galneryus>

Michael Paget <Bullet For My Valentine>

These are all awesome guitarists and each of them has there only unique way of playing. =)

Disrespectful!!!!

This classmate of mine just picked up on piano round about 3 weeks ago. I am not sure of what is his reason and I don't care. ;D Playing guitar is more important than think about such things.


Well, today this same friend of mine spoke to me. 


The Friend: You know what is symphonic band?
Me: What?
The Friend: It is a bunch of low-class players combined together to form a HIGH-class band.


That speech blew me up. Who the hell is he to say this? Mozart? Even Mozart won't say this man.... 
Apparently, he thinks that piano is a high-class instrument, well, classical piano is indeed part of high culture. But that doesn't mean that other instruments such as violin, cello and clarinet are low level. What he is saying is, Eric Clapton (the 1st guitarist that ever comes in to my mind) plays guitar and not piano so he is low-class. In music, non of the instrument are better than another. They should all be treated with equal respect. Whether he means it or not, even if it is a joke, it is not funny. I'm not gonna mention how I chided and how badly =). 

The 'guitar' day-out

I am supposed to update this post since yesterday. But, never managed to do so. Hahaha.


Yesterday, me and my bunch of friends went out to City Hall to try out some effects. What I had in my mind was to try a tele, regardless of if it is a fender or what-so-ever. That was my initial thought.
We were supposed to meet up by 3 45 but 2 of them ended up coming 20+ mins late. Well... nvm about that. =.=
Most importantly, KJ (my band leader) was looking for a Wah pedal to buy. These are the list of pedals which he tried for at least an hour.

Mod Tone Vintage Wah

This Wah is just an okay-okay wah, like many other wahs. and I'm not that particular about different types of wah pedals yet. 

Mod Tone Vintage Analog Delay

This delay isn't that bad. Tweak the time down will increase the tempo of the delay. Tweak the repeat will of cos tweak the number to delayed notes. I still prefer Boss DD-2 

Mod Tone Aqua Chorus II

A pretty colourful chorus pedal for a very reasonable price. I will consider getting one for my own.

Mod Tone Lemon Squeeze (compressor /sustainer)

I'm still trying to figure out what is the big differences between Boss CS-3 and this. As for the compression, they are almost the same. But for the sustain part, CS-3 can sustain much better.

In the end, he only managed to buy the vintage wah and 10ft long cable. =.= 

Next, we went to guitar77. Never had I expected to find Schecter Hellraiser C1 there!! Wow! I asked Rui to let me try and he gave me Hellraiser Avenger instead, knowing that I like Synyster Gates.

The pickup comes with EMG-81. There is a Vol control and a Tone control, which both are push/pull coil tap. With the knob pulled up, it produces a very strat like tone when played in clean. Its mahogany body produces the exact dark tone of my likings. The best part about this guitar is its neck, which is very important as well. When playing down to 19th fret, the neck-thru construction allows you to play without much restriction like some bolt-on necks will do. Bolt-on necks will prevent your thumb from sliding down to the 19th fret. In my opinion, that is the best part.

Today I also gave my Strat a total polish as well. The fretboard no longer has that old and dusty look. It is now totally dark and shiny. 

 Before polishing: The Ugly.... You can see the white patches of dirt on the fretboard.

After polishing: Once an ugly but Now a beauty =P

Cost of primeVibe in Singapore

Managed to find the cost of primeVibe in S$. It costs S$180. Missed them at the Singapore Guitar Show 2010. Haix.... too bad. 

Currently, the pV are out of stock. Will require to pre-order in order to grab one. Gonna get one after I move house.

For S$180, there will be a complimentary "hand made music", a 17-track compilation of high end luthier guitars.

Rather tempting

Let's "play-in"

Well... as you know, for an instrument's tone to be matured, it requires years of playing. However, those hollow instruments like guitars and ukulele got ToneRite for them to mature the tone through vibrations which mimics the physics of playing the instrument itself. This is called play-in. However, ToneRite is not very effective for solid body electric guitars. So...... I'd been waiting for something which will works for the electrics.

AND

 Finally, there is a "play-in" for solid body electric guitars. Thx to the primeVibe.

It is expected to arrive at late Oct or early Nov. Costs $99, i think it's US$ (they never mention). Check primeVibe for more infos.

Physics I

Well, this may be a very lame post. =x but since i got nothing to say and I've got a physics paper coming up tomorrow, I could share some of the physics of guitar. A friend of mine also asked me the same question. Good that I hadn't forgotten my O lvl physics. Sry if i m talking about Physics, but it is just amazing =P

A pickup is made up of a permanent magnet and a coil of copper strings or a solenoid in Physics term. Alnico (alloy of aluminium, nickel and iron) or Ceramic (ferrite) is used for the perrmanent magnet.
                            
The use of the permanent magnet is to magnetise the guitar strings, which is also made of magnetic material, into temporary magnet. As we strum the guitar strings, the now-magnetised guitar strings will vibrate and this vibration will form an induced current in the solenoid. (refer to Physics textbook for answer of why =P). This induced current will go to the amplifier which will then amplify the current and transform it from electrical energy into sound energy. Thus, your guitar produces sound. After all, everything you do in your life is all Physics. Name it, walking, eating, and even playing guitar xD. 

Read before you buy!

I bought a Dunlops 65 ULTIMATE LEMON OIL fretboard cleaner.

I forgot to do something before buying the oil; check the instruction. It said it is not suitable for use on maple fretboards.

Luckily, my guitar's fretboard is a rosewood. So it's very important to check whatever accessories thoroughly. Don't buy anything in a haste.

The Omen~

Managed to go to By Left at Parklane with Ivan today to sell his classical guitar Takamine Dragon D-30N there on a consignment. Made in China. These are the photos of it.

Basically, this guitar is totally fine except for the minor scratch. As shown below.

Ivan wants it for $150, inclusive of both hard and soft case. But most probably, the shop will mark up the price in order to make profit. As for playability of this guitar, it is good enough to allow him to perform in school concerts for quite a number of times.

If he manage to sell it, Schecter Omen6 will be within his reach. xD