Rally buzz

This would be my last post before I leave for airport in an hour time. But like I said, I'll be back on 6th of January.

Recently, there'd been a lot of buzz about Rally guitars, many speak of how good it is while there is one of the member who said Rally is crap. So rather than judging on their arguments, I decided to go down to SVguitars just to come to a conclusion myself.. since I'm going down there to grab some guitar strings as well.

Managed to try Rally GL-300.

Never try the GL-400 though.

GL-300 and GL-400 basically has the same specs, except that GL-400 has gold-plated hardwares. Gold-plated hardwares are more tedious to make than usual chrome hardwares and thus, there is a difference in the price of GL-300 (S$360) and GL-400 (S$400).

Unknown to most of us, according to the staff there, the production plant where Rally are made, also produce Epiphone guitars for Gibson. In other words, he's trying to imply that the standard of Rally guitars can match up that of Epiphone and getting a Rally would be getting an Epiphone at a cheaper price.

And indeed, the GL-300 doesn't fail to give the feeling of an Epiphone Standard. It is also set-neck just like an Epiphone Std too. The neck is of the same thickness, the rosewood fret board feels the same. It is also about the same weight as an Epiphone. Body is made of mahogany, not alder as some said. Tone-wise, the pickups gives your a very bright and sweet sound but not very vintage in my opinion though. It is somehow very difficult to describe the 'vintage' tone in words.

As a conclusion, Rally is really worth getting with the price listed. Normally, an Epiphone Standard Top Plus would cost around S$800. Again, it is up to individual decision in which is really worth getting. Some may prefer having the 'Epiphone' name on the headstock rather than a 'Rally'. Well, if that's the case, go ahead. :)

To Be Continued

To all dear readers..

Sorry but I have to go back to Myanmar for at least a month. Will only be coming back by 6th of January. During that time, I cannot blog from Myanmar as blogger is blocked back there. But I will keep writing blogs entry for as much I can so that it can be posted once I return!

See you all by 6th of January.

--Loki . Regnarok--

Antique Fernandes

Hope this will be helpful to those who owns a Fernandes of a model as old as 2003.

I myself own one. A Fernandes FGZ-400. It is already discontinued in 2003, its last year of production. Many of the model are discontinued in 2003, too.

All old model guitars DO NOT have a serial number on the back of the headstock like many guitars do. This leads many into thinking that these are fake Fernandes and indeed it would be rather difficult to differentiate as well. However, it is normal for these Fernandes guitars, which are mostly discontinued, to not have a serial number. Fernandes had never keep track of all their guitar during that time. It was only in 2007 (or 2008 <I can't remember>) that the company had finally decided to keep track of their production and thus giving their guitars a serial number each.

So, if anyone is buying old Fernandes guitars, please do not think that it is fake. Instead, check all the hardwares, the pickups, its built and the tone to judge instead.

Shopping again & again!

Shopping is what girls always do.

I'm not a girl but I also love to shop - on guitar stuffs~

As I walked pass TY music, I saw that Davis renovation sale is still on. Many stuffs, especially basses are sold out but it doesn't really matter. I still got my S$19 worth FAB Overdrive. Not an very bad overdrive but its tone is very limited. Well, you can't expect Fulltone OCD standard for $19 right. My main purpose of buying this is: it is cheap and I can at least play around with it for relaxation. 

I also got myself a new padded bag for my Fernandes to bring back Myanmar, too. 

This is Rockbag by Warwick, a well-known bag to many guitarists. These bags are going for $35 at SV guitar in Peninsula.
It is very well padded and has more padding at the headstock and neck area of the guitar, to protect the neck of the guitar. As you all may know, this area is the most fragile part of the neck and there are incidents of broken headstocks from falls.

There is also a strap to hold the neck of the guitar at the neck padding as well. The purpose of this strap is to keep the guitar headstock in place and prevent knocking onto the sides and thus keeping the guitar more in tune.

Well, that's all I'd bought. 

Ivan had ordered this Digitech Grunge from themusicden at eBay for S$78.40. It is new, comes with everything it should come with. The effect is installed with a 9V battery as well.

The manual provides quite a lot of useful information, too. Such as how to join the pedals in correct order and so on. It also introduces its other products as well.

Smash B1's goodness

Ivan had finally bought his guitar, a Smash B1 (as shown below).

Price: S$270

Many had heard of Fender, Gibson and Ibanez's budget series namely Squier, Epiphone and Ibanez Gio. But Smash doesn't lose to them, too. Smash is a budget series of Swing guitar from Korea. Many may look away from these not-so-famous brands, especially those who are ONLY aware of the more famous ones. 

Body
B1 has an Indonesian mahogany body. The shape of the body is somewhat like the shape of RG but it doesn't have sharp cutaway like RGs. I thought it was a basswood body but I had my doubts since it was TOO heavy for a basswood guitar.

Pickups

The guitar is loaded with Swing Heartbreaker pickups, featuring Alnico 5 magnet and plain Enamel coil. It is also the highest output pickups produced by Swing. Smash B1 is also the only guitar that comes with Swing pickups among all the Smash. These pickups has very distinctive high and mid tone. They are rather good pickups and it is rather hard get a guitar with relatively good pickups with this price range. A good beginner guitar. 


Controls
The guitar comes with a 5-way pickup switch so it is possible to get the single coil in its 2nd position (neck) and 4th position (bridge). Comes with one tone and one volume control.

Headstock and tuners

This is Swing/Smash style headstock. At the back of it includes its serial number. It has stringtree for its low E and B strings, like many other swing and smash guitars.

The tuners are Smash diecast tuners.

Neck and Fretboard
The neck construction is bolt-on. It is rather hard to find a guitar with set-neck within this price range as well.

This hard maple neck isn't that thin even though Smash B1 looks very alike to Ibanez RGs and GRGs. They are relatively thicker but not as thick as that of strats. The staff at SV had set up this guitar well and the strings are as low as possible, giving it its maximum low action.
B1 has a rosewood fret board with jumbo frets. What I like about SV is that they always care to set up their guitars. This is evident by looking at the polishing done on the fretboard

Bridge

The bridge of this guitar is 2-point synchronised roller saddle tremolo. Well, it is not a fixed bridge. To be frank, fixed bridges are more appealing to me than tremolo. The irony is.. both of my current guitars are tremolo bridges. But i had 5 springs to pull back both of my bridges.


Others

Many of Swing and Smash guitars include a soft bag as show above. The bag is not of a very lousy quality. It is still properly padded. To buy this 'A la Carte' would costs $25 dollars. 


Rating: 4.5 / 5
I rate this 4 stars because it is indeed a good guitar for its price. Would rate is 0.5 if the bridge is a fixed one. Of course you couldn't expect it to be at a Ibanez Prestige standard. But, if I am to buy a guitar with a budget of $300 and is looking for something of an RG shape, I would get Smash B1 rather than choose one from Ibanez Gio series.


Hope this help

White >> Black

Imagine having white colour knobs on a black body guitar. In my opinion, they don't go along together.

So, I went to SV Guitars in Peninsula to get some ToneDrive volume and tone knobs for my strat. With these new parts, it seems much better now~

Heavy consumer

I was playing my strat with my Modtone Extreme Metal when the sound starts to fade away slowly. At first, I thought it was the cables so I changed to other cables. The problem still persists. Next, I switch my Extreme Metal to bypass. Shockingly, the sound came back when I do so. The blue LED light of the Extreme Metal was still there so I thought my Modtone cocked up. So as my last test, I plugged in my Zoom 9V adapter into it. It was really a relieve to know that my Modtone is still functioning properly. 

So what is the problem then?

The problem all lies on the stock 9V battery (as shown above) inside the pedal. Apparently, it had not run out completely but had enough power to light up the blue LED on the pedal, which tricked me into thinking that the pedal actually went hay-wired.

From this event, I would conclude that Modtone pedals are indeed heavy battery eaters as many reviews had highlighted. This new battery didn't even last for more than 8 hours of playing. But again, the stock battery life would have be shortened significantly as it was installed inside the pedal ever since the pedal was manufactured and was never removed since then. So, there is a probability of the battery installed for over 5 months++.

Well, I'd now changed the battery to Vinnic Extra Heavy Duty battery bought from Standard Value which I bought it on the same day as Extreme Metal. 

Padded Bags

I was looking for some padded bags for my Fernandes as the stock gig bag is not padded well. It is too thin that it fails to give any protection to the guitar. Then, I came across Crossrock bags. Here is the product catalogue for Crossrock products. Some of its bags aren't really that expensive. They are affordable. So far, I only see them in Ranking as Bras Basah and Music Theme at Peninsula.